Chapter 3

New Colton.

I still hadn’t quite gotten over the death of Griffin, even if it did mean I got his remaining gear, including a rifle and some extra armor that had been in his transport pack. His leather chest plate and shoulder guards had needed to be re-sized, but Sparks proved proficient at that. That was all I’d gotten though. I couldn’t use the rifle. “Not enough training in fire-arms.” At least that’s what Sparks said. I was inclined to agree. They had given me a long knife though, which was easy to use. Levitate it by the not metal part and make sure to hit the target with the shiny bit.

I’d proven proficient enough in that, at least when one of the mares, whose name I learned was Bone Crusher, had thrown a log at me. The knife had cleaved through the log cleanly, splitting it perfectly in two. I learned rather quickly to put the knife into its sheath, sharp edge down. The sheath had clasps on the edge that held the edge that, if I undid the clasps, I could remove the knife down and up, rather quickly. Of course, after I’d nearly cut off Sparks’ leg, Frost had decided I should learn how to use a gun. Maybe not Griffin’s rifle, but being that I was a Unicorn, I could levitate a gun and pull the trigger that way.

So besides the knife, I was given a small pistol with a few different packs of bullets for it. One of them I kept well away from my knife while I practiced. It would not do to accidentally smack the ammo box and blow the knife into my head when every explosive round exploded. A couple of others were tucked into the saddle bags I’d been given, as well as some Stim-packs and Rad-away. A few other things had gone into the Saddle Bags, including a small statuette of a pink pony with a cotton candy mane darker than her coat. Just touching it with my magic made me want to laugh. Flipping it over, I looked at the inscription. “Awareness. It was under ‘E’.” Blinking, I smiled and put it in my saddle bag.

As soon as it was in the saddle bag, I felt a little better. I could almost see behind me without moving my head. I felt a little more aware of my surroundings. Smiling, to myself, I stood up and walked over to help them get their gear packed up.

(Hollow Shades)

We walked around the tower that, according to the map, was called Hollow Shades. It looked to be untouched by time, but from the distance we were at, I couldn’t tell. The trees around it were over grown, and we kept to the ground, Frost telling me to keep my knife ready in case we were attacked. She wouldn’t risk losing her paycheck. Walking passed a particularly spooky looking tree, I heard a twig snap behind me and nearly face planted into Frost’s ass. She spun around, her battle saddle leveling on… nothing. There was nothing there. No hoof prints, no broken twigs.

No Bone Crusher. Looking around, I lowered myself to my belly and skittered under Frost, hiding as best I could, my knife still held in the grip of my magic as my eyes scanned the area. I couldn’t see anything. Or at least I thought I couldn’t. Turning back to the left, I saw what I thought were eyes. Sliding backwards as quickly as I could, I bumped into something and froze. It felt fuzzy, big, and definitely not skinny and squishy like me. Tilting my head up, my ears fell against the back of my head and my eyes shrank to pin pricks.

Standing over me was a massive Ursa, mutated by the radiation from the bombs, fur covering every inch of its body. Its eyes glowed a sickly green, not the vibrant green you’d expect from a Timber Wolf. It stared down at me, its teeth dripping with what I could only assume was venom from the sickly green tint. Skittering away, I dashed behind Frost, putting her, her battle saddle, and Sparks and her grenades between me and very likely death. They were only there for a moment as the giant bear lashed out with one of its massive forepaws, knocking Sparks to the side as easily as if I’d kicked a rock the size of an ant. She smacked into a tree, crumbling to her knees and coughing blood. In my panic, I levitated out the pistol they’d given to me and leveled it at the bear. As its head came into focus, time seemed to stop around me.

I’d unconsciously activated the Spell Assisted Targeting System, or SATS, on my Pip-Buck. But when I glanced beside me, I didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. Standing there, a pistol, leveled at the bears head, right between its glowing green eyes, was a stranger in a long black coat, wings flared out behind him, red eyes glowing, and fangs as sharp as the bears revealed in a grin. I didn’t even shoot, but the stranger fired one bullet, the Ursa’s head exploding faster than even the time slowing effect around us could handle.

When time sped back up, he’d disappeared, but not before saluting me with two fingers. The Ursa dropped dead at my hooves, Frost staring over at me like I’d done it. “What the hell did you do?” She asked as she went over to check Sparks’ pulse. Nodding, she looked over at me. “Forget it, just come over here and help me. You might be small, but you’re a unicorn. You can levitate her.” She said and I trotted over, putting the gun away and wrapping Sparks in my magic to levitate her a little. It was about that time that my horn seemed to remember I couldn’t do levitation well. The magic sputtered out and Frost barely got under Sparks to keep her from thudding roughly into the ground.

“By Luna, we sure did luck out with you… worthless unicorn. I swear, we’d better still get paid for this shit.” She said as she pushed herself back up to a standing position. “Come on.” I didn’t say anything, just nodded, falling into step behind her. We walked in silence until I spotted signs on the side of the path we’d apparently been walking on for an hour.

“Hollow Point? What’s that?” I asked and she sighed.

“It’s where we’re going. Hopefully to sell you.” She said and I stared up at her. When my Pip-buck buzzed, I lifted it to look.

“Hollow Shades? I thought this place was called Hollow Point.”

“It is.” A gruff voice said from beside me and I jumped, nearly bumping into a pony wearing old hoof ball pads. “It’s what’s left of Hollow Shades after the bombs fell and made the land outside of it more useless than it was before. At least the tower still stood, so we took up residence.” The buck said and Frost glared at him.

“Help me get her to a hospital before I feed you your own dick.” She snarled and he huffed and gestured over two mares, who raced over to help. Pushing Sparks onto their backs, she watched until they’d carried her to a small building near the gate. Setting her on a small, rotting mat in a cart, they wheeled her off towards, hopefully, the hospital, to treat her wounds. “Come on, we’ll get a room at the inn. One room. I’m not letting you out of my sight.” Frost said, glaring at me. I nodded and followed her, sticking close. I didn’t know any of the ponies here, obviously because I was from a Stable, but none of them looked like the kind to just start making friends.

As we walked through town, I spotted more than just Ponies amongst the residents. There were some griffins, a few Zebras wearing iron collars with chains hooked into them, and some Hippogriffs. I knew what they were from a book in the Stable. Though these Hippogriffs didn’t look kind at all. When we reached the inn, I was forced to duck under a flying chair as it sailed out of the door over my head.

“Rotten fink! You best start playin’ fair or I’ll blow what little brains you have left all over that wall!” A gruff voice said from inside the inn. Frost sighed and kicked the door back open, striding in, forcing me to trot to keep up.

“Allcot. Tone it down. You wreck this bar, it comes out of my payment for a job well done. You don’t want me on your tail.” She snapped and the griffin apparently named Allcot glared over at her.

“Yeah, what you gonna do about it, Pony?”

“How about shoot you? I’m in a foul mood Griffin. Two of mine are dead, one is in critical condition, and I’ve got a useless filly I have to deliver to the mine, so I probably won’t get paid either way. How about I do this town a favor and rid it of a foul mouthed Griffin who doesn’t know his place?” She snapped, leveling her battle saddle rifles at him. He stood up on his hind legs, raising his claws in the air in surrender.

“Fine, fine.” He grumbled before walking off and depositing his tail on a bench on the opposite side of the room. I followed Frost, trying to ignore the stares from around the room. I was wearing my Stable barding and my Pip-buck. Probably an oddity around here. When one set of eyes caught my attention, I looked over and froze. There, sitting in the corner of the room, a large cup of, something, in clutched in the grip of his paw, was the pony, or whatever, that had saved me from the Ursa. Blinking, I began to turn to tell Frost about him and stopped again. He was gone.

“Hey, shrimp. Keep up. If one of these dinks get ahold of you, you’re theirs for the night.” She shouted and I raced to catch up with her. I didn’t want to find out what they might do with me.

“Who was that?” I asked and she looked at me and glanced over her shoulder.

“Gonna have to be more specific than that.”

“He was sitting in a bench in the corner over there. Drinking something.” I said, gesturing to the seat that he’d been in. She followed my pointing hoof and shrugged.

“I don’t know everyone around here kid.” She said and I huffed.

“I’m not a kid.”

“Oh? Then how old are you?”

“I’m eighteen…” I said and she stared at me.

“Still a kid out here until you’ve put a bullet in someone’s head.” She said and I sighed. Following her to the counter, she jumped up on a bench and smacked a hoof against the counter top. I climbed up on the bench next to her as another griffin walked over.

“What do you want Frost?” she asked and I glanced at her. She had a scar blinding her left eye and one of her wings was missing, but that didn’t seem to matter since the wing was replaced with a metal one with wicked looking blades for feathers.

“A drink for me and the kid. Whatever you have.” She said and the waitress glared at her then looked over at me, quirking an eyebrow.

“She even old enough to drink?” the griffin asked.

“Don’t know, don’t care. If she’s not, give her the least radiated water you have.” Frost said and I sighed as the Griffin shrugged, sliding me a relatively empty glass before dumping in the contents of a tin container of water. As I watched, the water went from a relatively nasty looking green color to perfectly clear. Levitating it over, I looked at it. The clicking from my Pip-buck alerted me that it was mildly irradiated, but it wasn’t enough to be dangerous. Sipping it, I was disappointed. It didn’t taste like the water from the Stable, not that I’d expected it too, but it didn’t exactly taste drinkable. Not wanting to be rude, I choked it down as best I could.

“I know it’s bad. It’s the best we’ve got. Don’t like it, don’t drink it.” She said and I shook my head quickly, drinking more of it. The griffin shrugged and started to walk off.

“Um… excuse me…?” I asked, stopping her mid step. “Who was that… person in the corner?” Gesturing over to the seat that was still empty, she followed my hoof before her eyes went serious.

“Why? Hoping to take him on?” she asked and my eyes widened as I shook my head rapidly. “Hmph. Fine. No one really knows what his name is, but he’s not to be messed with. He’s beyond any of our means, even if we used that SATS program you Stable Dwellers have. Not to mention he’s apparently basically immortal. I heard he got blasted by a rocket launcher once. And Security herself dropped a mountain on him and he walked away.”

“Ah heard different. Ah heard he and Security fucked but she got bored o’ him and made ‘im leave.” One of the other patrons said. Hearing a chuckle from the corner, I looked over. Sitting in a corner booth, sipping a mug of hard apple cider, was the stranger who’d saved me before, a black hood up. He’d come back without anyone noticing. Around his left foreleg was a black pip-buck.

“Nah, I heard that Security and the Stable Dweller killed him. The guy that’s been wandering around usin’ the super-secret method the Mysterious Stranger uses to always be there is just some Unicorn who can teleport and freeze time.” The stranger grinned. Nudging Frost, I gestured over to him and she stiffened up before grabbing my tail and pulling me to the room we’d bought. As soon as we were up the stairs, she released my tail and spun around.

“Did he see you?” she asked, peering over my shoulder. I shook my head and she sighed. “Good. I don’t care if he’s got half of the town with him, if this door opens and it’s not me, you go out that window and run.” Before I could answer, she was out the door, slamming it shut behind her.

“Is she gone? Good. I thought she’d never leave?” A voice said from under the bed a moment later. Jumping nearly out of my skin, I spun around, levitating up a chair to use as a club. I still wasn’t comfortable using the gun. Staring at the bed, I was amazed to see a metal ball the size of my head hover out on wings that were all but silent. “Sorry about scarin’ ya. Anyway, I don’t have long, so don’t interrupt. Call me Watcher. I’m lookin’ out for ponies like you. Ponies who have come out of the Stables. All of you that I’ve found so far had some sort of effect on the ponies around them and changed them all for the better. So far, I’ve found two others.

“Now, this is where you’ll probably want to say no. Again, don’t interrupt. I don’t have very much longer. There’s something I want you to get. Problem is, it’s in Cloudsdale.”

“I’m not a Pegasus, Watcher. I can’t fly.”

“You can levitate though, right?”

“Not for long. I came out of a Stable. What use would I have for levitation spells in there?” I asked and a sigh echoed out of the bot.

“Right. That’s true. Well…” he never got to finish as a shot rang out, shattering the bot. Spinning around, I froze. Right in the doorway, Frost pinned under his paw, his claws digging into her neck, was the wolf from before.

“He sure does like to talk. And you don’t need to fly. Didn’t this one tell you? Cloudsdale is on the ground now. And here’s why he didn’t want to send someone fresh out of a Stable. It’s the central operation center of the New Royalty, led by Priest.” I sensed a “but”. Looking at him, I glanced down at Frost and he pressed his claws harder against her neck, causing her to stop squirming. “You’ll need a guide. Unless the missy here wants to keep her throat.” She just glared up at him and that’s when I noticed the triggers on her battle saddle had broken without them ever moving away from her bed.

“I want her alive…” I said and he glanced at her before stepping off of her. Towards me. I watched him approach, swallowing a little as I realized he was taller than me. I cowered down a little and stared up at him.

“Fine.” He said before tapping my Pip-Buck. It beeped and I looked at it then up at him, opening my mouth to say something but he pressed a claw against my lips, making a shushing motion with his lips. Before I could even nod, he was gone. As if he’d never been there in the first place. Frost stood up and looked around, glaring at her battle saddle.

“Least the fucker could have done was repaired my guns. We’ll need them if we’re going to Cloudsdale…”

“Why?”

“Cloudsdale was one of the first places hit with a Megaspell during the war. The ruins are so highly irradiated, it’d be hard to survive even with the guns. Without them, it’ll be basically impossible. Nopony goes to Cloudsdale and survives without an armed escort.” When I tilted my head, she sighed and pointed at my Pip-Buck. Lifting it up, I saw why. Cloudsdale didn’t really exist on the map. It was in the middle of a radio-wave dead zone. We’d have no map because there were no Pip-Buck towers out there.

“Like I said. First place hit. There’s a thing in those ruins that ponies call a Death Claw. Not even Hell Hounds go to the Cloudsdale ruins. And Hell Hounds aren’t afraid of anything.” She said and I swallowed.

“What are Hell Hounds?”

“Twisted Diamond Dogs. I’ve heard tell they can tear through the armor of a Steel Ranger, and those guys are nearly impossible to kill.” She said and I swallowed again. If the things that could kill a Steel Ranger, an armored pony who was basically a walking tank (at least from what I could guess from the posters we had of them in my old Stable) didn’t go to Cloudsdale because of this Death Claw, I was afraid to find out what it was.

Level up) Perk Received: Mysterious Stranger’s Friend. (Huh?) You could now get the help of the Mysterious Stranger even when out of Combat. Nopony knows who he is, but his guns have killed Hell Hounds in one shot. Good pony to have in the pocket, huh. +2 to Perception. +3 to Luck.

Author's Note

And there we go. Up to the readers to decide if they want the Deathclaw to become a friend or foe.