Entry 5: I twiddled my hoofs as I sat by the gate, it had been almost an hour since Khan left before Bourbon come back.

He had a big smile on his face.

“Great news kid! My debt has been paid! and I’m even getting a little extra too!”

I stood up, “That's great! Now you promised you would answer my questions”

“And I will, but first let's head inside”, he said gesturing to the inner gate, “hey I gotta ask, where is your stable anyways?”

I groaned, “please don't ask me that, I had an awful life there and I don't want to even think of going back right now”

“Come on man, I’m not planning on taking us on a trip there, I’m just curious”, he said with a smile.

“How about this, you answer all my questions, and I’ll tell you, deal?”, I said raising an eyebrow.

He looked really dissapointed, but still agreed, “fine, but lets get inside and get some sleep first, after all I’m pretty sure you could use a real bed right about now, am I right?”

He had a good point, I really could use some rest, and being able to do so on a real bed would be a huge plus, “alright fine, I suppose we could wait a few more minutes. But once I get on that bed I’m hitting you with every question I got, so you better be ready”.

I started trotting through the gate, as I did so a pony rounded the corner holding a boxy energy pistol with a glowing blue light emanating from the front. Before I could react he shot me in the chest. A magical jolt surged through my body, making me go completely limp and collapse. My whole body was numb, my vision got fuzzy, and I couldn’t even talk.

“Oh I’m ready alright”, bourbon said with a smug grin as he stepped in front of me, “ready for my biggest payday in weeks”

He lifted his forehoof and kicked me hard in the face, causing me to black out instantly.

Partners) One thing I’ve learned out here is that it's important to have someone you can completely trust. Someone who you know will have your back when you need it, and trusts you to have their back when they need it. There’s no better way to travel the wastes than with a real partner at your side. Bourbon was not that partner, but thanks to him I met a pony who was...

I woke up with a terrible headache. I sat up and rubbed my head, “ow”

“Morning sleepyhead, have a nice nap?”, Bourbon said with a sneer on the other side of some steel bars.

I shook myself awake and looked around, I was in a cell! I grabbed the bars, “Bourbon what hell is going on!”

He rolled his eyes, “what do you think dipshit, I sold you! Now my debt is paid and you get to ‘get in on the action’”

My blood started to boil, “so this whole time you were just tricking me into coming here so you could sell me into slavery!”

He started to laugh, “are you kidding me? Of course I did! I would’ve brought you to the authority if they had any bases in this armpit of a city, but after I saw you could fight I realized I could pay off my debt here instead! And to be honest, I really didn’t have to work all that hard to get you to follow me here either, you were just so desperate for somepony to talkto that you just trusted the first pony you came across!”

I clenched my teeth, “What the fuck man! I saved your life! Doesn’t that mean anything to you!”

He leaned in close, “honestly? No”

I yelled and lunged at him, reaching my forelegs through the bars but he just backed up.

“Hey I would calm down if I were you, otherwise the guards might activate your new fashion accessory”, he said gesturing to his neck.

I looked down and touched a hoof to my neck Sure enough, I was wearing some metal collar, it had a small metal box with a little red light attached to it, what the hell?

“That is an explosive slave collar, if you make too much trouble, attack somepony you’re not supposed to, or try to take it off, BOOM!”

I felt a chill at Bourbon’s words, “You Bastard, I trusted you!”

“And I'm amazed you did!”, he leaned against the bars, “I expected so little out of you that I ended up slipping up again and again and again but you never once thought, ‘wait, he’s fucking me!’, even at the front gate when you almost figured it out and I thought I would finally have to stick a gun to your head, you just believed the bluff and walked right in. Seriously, I’ve heard stable ponies have no common sense but you have No. Common. Sense”, he said punctuating the last three words by roughly tapping my forehead. “Good luck in the arena kid, I’m betting on ya”, he started trotting away.

Halfway down the hall he stopped, “I’m guessing there no way you would still be willing to tell me where that stable is would you?”

“Fuck you!”, I yelled.

“thought so”, he sighed and trotted away, leaving me enslaved and thoroughly fucked.

I just sat there dumbstruck for a minute, I was a fucking idiot. All of my stuff was gone except for my stable barding and my PipBuck. The bomb collar chafed with almost every movement, constantly reminding me of what I had gotten myself into.

Dammit, why did I trust him? There were so many moments where I should have realized he was a snake, hell I shouldn't have even sat down and eaten with him. Even his friendly demeanor mostly disappeared the next morning, probably when he realized how little effort he actually needed to get me here.

I ran my shaking hoofs through my main before screaming at the ceiling, “FUCK!”

“Damn, he really suckered you good, didn’t he?”, a female voice said condescendingly from the darkness from the back of the cell.

“What do you care!”, I snapped, looking back into the darkness.

A mare slowly stepped out of the shadows towards me, she had a sage green coat, small crimson pupils, and a long mane consisting of alternating small stripes of rust orange, bright yellow, dark green, and the occasional dark red. She was wearing a pair of old canvas trousers that had been cut off at the knees, turning them into shorts, and had suspenders going over her shoulders. She also had a collar just like mine around her neck as well.

But those weren’t the two things I noticed first though, the first thing I saw was that she was a pegasus, it was hard to miss those feathered wings. The second thing was her weapon, three long claws attached to a crude leather gauntlet and extending outward from the right foreleg she wore it on.

She slowly walked up to me in a three hoof trot, with her claw slowly dragging across the ground, leaving a deep scratch in the concrete.

“What was that?”, she said tilting her head and giving a dangerous looking smile. The look in her eye reminded me of Brick when he was looking for an excuse to beat me, and she looked a little… feral, too.

My head was telling me I should back down like I used to do with Brick, make her lose interest. My body wanted to attack first, and not let myself be a victim to some bully again. I was also still a bit in shock from my new circumstances and seeing a pegasus for the first time.

“Um… uh… are you a… pegasus?”, I guess curiosity won out, huh.

She shoulder tackled me into the bars and put her claw up to my throat. Ok, Kahn can eat shit, curiosity does get cats killed!

“What do you care?”, she said half jokingly as she mirrored my own words.

“Just curious!”, I said quickly, “I mean.. I’ve never met a pegasus before so I thought I’d make sure”

She just kept glaring at me, eventually looking me up and down, Her eyes stopped on my collar and her face contorted in disgust.

She pushed away from me, “Fucking damnit!”

“what's wrong? Was I boring you!?”, I yelled in disgust. What the hell was this mare’s deal!? No matter what it was I decided I wasn’t backing down to this bitch, I was done swallowing my pride, even if it got me killed.

“You’re collar dumbass! See that colored stripe of paint they threw on it? Tell me what color it is”, she said

I took a quick glance, trying not to take my eyes off of her longer than I had to in case she jumped me again. It was blue, “It’s blue, so what?”

“See the blue stripe on mine?”, she said gesturing to her own, “It means we’re partners!”. She was fuming, “they paired me up with some fresh idiot like you so I would have an even harder time living!”, she screamed into the air with a frustration that had to have been pent up for a long time. She turned to a camera in the hall, “WELL FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU ALL! I'LL KILL EVERY FUCKER YOU GOT UNTIL YOU GOT NO ONE LEFT! YOU HEAR ME YOU FUCKERS!”

“Keep it down you twiggerd bitch!”, a buck called from down the hall, “some of us are trying to get some rest”

“Fuck you!”, she yelled, before huffing and storming off back into the back corner of the cell.

I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on but it sounded like she was at the end of her own rope. Of course it didn’t stop me from feeling a bit insulted.

I trotted into the corner where she was sitting on the only filthy mattress we had, “Hey, I'm not an idiot”

She blew a raspberry, “are you kidding? No offense but you’re some stupid stable dweller who fell for a snake even a blind pony would’ve seen coming. You’ve probably never even fought a day in your life, my bet is your ‘friend’ is going to lose that bet of his”

“I’ll have you know I killed two ponies before I even left my stable”, ok, one of those was on accident, but she didn’t need to know that yet, “then once I got out I’ve had to fight tooth and nail to survive for the past three days”

“Bullshit, let me guess, ‘fighting tooth and nail’ means killing radroaches to you right?”, she tapped her free forehoof against her chin, “Though two ponies isn’t a bad start, for a useless idiot”

“Radroaches!?”, my blood came back to a boil, “you think I’ve been killing radroaches!?!? I fought and killed a raider sniper that was armed with a rifle that shot lightning, I killed an authority behemoth, and only celestia knows how many Nosalises I killed when me and Bourbon meandered through their nest!”, I leaned in close to her face, “I am not an idiot, and I sure as shit am not useless”

She roughly shoved me back, “back the fuck up!”, she stood up with fire in her eyes, but I didn’t back down. Not again, even if it killed me I wasn’t backing down again.

We both just stared daggers at each other for a minute before she spoke, “I don't know who the fuck you are, but now I know you’re lying. No idiot stable dweller like you would be able to kill an Authority Behemoth”

I smirked, “well my name is Shepherd, and I’m going to show you just what this ‘idiot stable dweller’ can do when we enter the arena you twiggered cunt”

He eyes turned to magma and she lunged at me in a screaming fury. I tried to punch her but she dodged it and rammed me into the wall in one fluid motion. I tried to lunge at her, but she grabbed me and spun me right back into the wall. She hit me in the mouth with a left hook, I brought up my forehooves to block my head, but she just spun around and bucked me right in the nuts!

I dropped to the ground, curling up into a ball as I held my forehooves to my tender places as they blossomed in pain. She grabbed me by the neck and hoisted me up against the wall, pressing the claw against my neck, “Do you got a fucking deathwish you idiot!”

I spit in her eye, she barley flinched as she held it shut, “I’m done being some asshole’s plaything, I’m done being pushed around by somepony just because they’re bigger, tougher, or faster than me. So if you want to kill me, go right ahead, but I’m gonna die fighting, biting, and clawing with every bit of strength I got left until you, or somepony else, kills me”

She was seething with anger, “ you don't think I won't? I’m already going to be fighting alone with or without you. So what difference does it make if I just save some other pony the trouble”

“Let him go”, a male voice droned through the speaker sounding really bored and mildly irritated, “you’re not killing your partner before his first fight even starts, I forgave a large debt for him, and I expect him to give some fresh energy to the next fight”

She didn’t respond, she just kept me pinned against the wall.

The voice sighed and the mare’s collar started beeping

Beep…

Beep… beep…

The beeping was getting quicker and I had a disturbing feeling I knew what was happening.

Beep… beep… beep…

She let out an angry snarl and threw me to the floor as she stomped back to the corner mattress. Her collar stopped beeping.

I rubbed my neck and caught my breath, looking out into the hall I saw the camera focused on us. They were watching us, it was just like stable fifty-four, but if you stepped out of line here they blew your head off remotely. I had traded one prison for another, only now I had a psychotic roommate and a bomb collar, great.

Said roommate sat back against the corner, she closed her eyes and leaned her head against a wall.

“At least this nightmare will be over soon”, she said faintly to herself.

We were ushered out of the cell by two slavers an hour later. We moved through various passages underneath the old baseball stadium to what I assumed was the arena itself. I saw so many cages, all loaded with varying amounts of ponies wearing explosive collars. The ponies were in varying states of armorment, with some in full armor and armed with all kinds of weapons, and others with nothing but tattered rags and their hooves.

“Why do they let us have weapons and armor? Aren't they worried about a revolt?”, I asked my new ‘partner’.

“Wouldn’t be much of a revolt, they would just blow our heads off and redistribute the equipment in the arena. You get to hold onto the stuff you take”.

We entered what used to be the locker room and a slaver mare trotted up to us, she turned to my ‘partner’ first, “you know the drill Claw, into the box”, she said gesturing to a metal box with an open metal door.

Claw gave her a dirty look as she passed her, before she entered the box she took a syringe off of a table next to it.

“Alright newbie, here's how things work. Your collar tracks your vitals and are displayed on the scoreboard outside, if you don't hear the board sound off after you killed somepony you’ll want to beat on them some more, cuz they ain’t dead. When the round is over you’ll have one minute to leave the field through the gate, if you aren’t out when the timer goes off your collar will be set off automatically. If you leave the arena bounds and go into the stands your collar will be set off automatically. If you take shots into the crowd your collar will be set off manually, if you…”

“Alright I get it, if I try anything funny my collar goes off, anything else?”

“Yeah, if your partner dies you don't get a new one until the current competition is over, and let me warn you, fighters without partners don't last long”, she took a look behind her shoulder at the box before continuing in a hushed tone, “though I’m supposed to tell you that the Caesar will make an exception if you let Claw die today”.

“You want me to kill my partner? Why not just set her collar off and save yourselves the trouble?”.

She rolled her eyes, “because that wouldn’t be satisfying to the crowd, and I didn’t say you kill her, I’m just saying not to stop some other fighters from killing her. The crowd and Caesar are bored of Claw, they want to see her die screaming in pain, and the Caesar is willing to reward you if you don't delay it any longer”, she smirked, “but honestly, I don't you’d be able to do much even if you tried”.

She shoved me towards the box, “you want any chems before you go in?”, she said gesturing to a table heaping with all kinds of needles, tablets, and inhalers of all kinds.

“No thanks”, I said cautiously, I know it might give me an edge, but I wasn’t ready to get hooked on chems quite yet.

“Your loss”, she said with a roll of her eyes as I entered the box. “Oh and here’s a weapon”, she pulled a screwdriver out of her barding and tossed it at my hooves. I picked it up and recognized it as my sharpened flathead, same blue handle, stable tec stamp, and everything. “Be careful, its sharp, you might poke your eye out”, she sneered as she shut the door.

I felt the cage lifted and carried up a ramp, I heard cheering and yelling all around outside.

“They told you to let me die didn’t they”, Claw said as if she knew the answer.

“Yeah”, I told her, she knew anyways.

“Hmph, at least you’re honest, my last couple ‘partners’ tried to keep that little titbit secret”

“So are we actually going to work together or am I on my own”

“You still think you’re actually going to be some help”, she started laughing, “oh you really are funny”

“Alright, well, I guess I’m on my own then”

“Yeah, you’re on your own, that's what it is”, we both just sat in silence in the dark for a minute, “Hey Shepherd?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for making me laugh one last time, because I really dont think Im going to make it past this fight”, she said quietly, and I swear I could pick up a small note of despair in her voice.

Damnit I felt bad for her, she may be a bitch, but I hated the bastards holding us and making us fight for their fucking amusement more. “Can you do me a favor Claw?”

“What kind of favor”

“I noticed some of the fighters in cages had guns, could you try to kill a pony with one and give it to me at the start of the fight?”

“What, do you have to hide behind a big bad gun in order to fight?”, she said jokingly.

“I don't have to hide behind anything, but I’m better with a gun than I am with this fucking flathead”

She sighed, “fine… but they don't give us a lot of ammo, and when they do, it's in the center. I’ll get you some asshole’s gun but fuck going for the center, that’s your suicide if you want more ammo”.

“Thanks, and Claw?”

“Yeah?”

“Good luck”

She started laughing again, “yeah, like you have better odds of making it through this alive”

I heard a male voice come on over loud speakers outside, and loud electric guitar music began to play.

“Mares and Stallions! Are you ready for carnage!”

The cheering rose to a roar. I heard Claw inject herself with whatever chem she had picked up earlier, she let out a moan before throwing the needle against a wall. She started beating against the metal door.

“COME ON! LET'S DO THIS ALREADY!”, she sounded completely feral, whatever was in that needle was some strong shit.

“Today I, Caesar, start our new competition bracket with the first round of bloody qualifiers! Fifteen pairs of partners all thrown into a free for all frenzy, and as always, the last pair standing wins!”, the Caesar said with glee, “Get ready contestants! Three… Two… One… GO!”

There was a click as the electronic lock on the door was released, without missing a beat Claw blasted out of the door into the field. I ran out behind her and took in the scene.

I was on the edge of the baseball field. All around me were haphazardly placed wagons, boxes, dumpsters, toilets, and other piles of assorted crap meant for cover. In the center on top of the pitchers mound were some ammo boxes and a couple of guns and melee weapons. All around me in the stands were slavers cheering for blood, there were also a multitude of shacks built on the rear stands that I assumed some of them lived in. Above all of this was the announcer box where a pony was sitting making announcements over the speakers, that must be Caesar.

I quit taking in the sights when a shot pinged off of the metal box behind me, looking to the source I saw a pony with a pistol running right at me and taking haphazard shots. I dove behind a nearby pile of toilets. The toilets on the other side shattered as the idiot mare kept shooting my cover.

Then I heard a scream from her direction and a loud buzzer went off from the scoreboard. Before I could react, Claw swooped overhead and dropped a 10mm pistol next to me. She was being chased by two other pegasi and didn’t stop after dropping the gun.

I swept it up in my telekinesis and popped up to shoot but the mare was already dead, with her neck bloodily slashed open. I had a feeling I knew which pony Claw got the gun from.

Dropping back into cover I looked up at the scoreboard, there were thirty names up on the screen, each with a pulsing heartbeat display next to it. It also seemed that some ponies names were replaced with nicknames, (it didn’t take a genius to know who the “Stable Dweller” was). Some of the heartbeats were already flatlined and I saw another flatline right before the buzzer went off.

“And that's another pony felled by longtime contestant Claw!”, Caesar called out, only to be met with booing from the crowd. She really wasn’t a crowd favorite, “Don't worry folks, it seems Claw still hasn’t shaken her pursuers, is this finally the day we see the fall of the Hellhound Slayer herself!?”

Interesting name, but I had more pressing issues.

I ran to a new point of cover behind a dumpster as I looked at my EFS, I only had four shots left. A mare ran past and I watched as a pony giving chase shot her in the back with a double barrel shotgun.

I triggered SATS and emptied all four rounds into shotgun pony. I sprinted for the shotgun, at the same time I saw another unicorn jump out of a closer piece of cover for the shotgun as well. He picked up the shotgun with his telekinesis and started reloading as he turned to face me.

Thinking fast I threw my empty pistol right at his horn, it broke his concentration mid reload and he dropped the shotgun and shells into the dirt. I had closed the distance at this point and instead of wrestling with him for the gun I tackled him to the ground and sunk my flathead into his neck repeatedly. He struggled to get away, choking on his own blood as I kept stabbing him, but I wouldn’t let him go as I held him down.

Finally he went limp and I heard the buzzer, “two kills by our stable dweller newcomer!”, a cheer went out over the crowd. I probably would’ve enjoyed it a little if I didn’t have a damn bomb around my neck.

I swept up the double barrel and finished reloading it before firing both barrels into a pegasus mare that tried to charge me from the air with a rusty kitchen knife. I grabbed the bandoleer of shotgun shells off of the original shotgun pony's body before rolling under an apple cart. After loading in two more shells I looked back at the board, already nine of us were dead and there were still lots of shots, screams, and other sounds of fighting going on.

Claw slammed into the ground near to the cart, she looked beaten to shit and covered in bruises and scorch marks. The two pegasi chasing her (one a mare and one a stallion) landed, both of them were wearing power hooves on the ends of their forelegs. Claw amazingly stood up and charged the stallion as if she wasn’t hurt at all. But before she could connect the mare blindsided her and hit her clean in the jaw, sending her rolling onto the ground.

She tried to stand up but her legs gave out and she fell back down. The stallion ripped off Claw’s claw (fuck that’s annoying to write), then stood behind her and lifted Claw up in a hold that immobilized her forelegs pinned her hind legs kneeling dirt.

With Claw pinned facing the other mare (and me), power hoof mare activated her weapons. They really were something, they covered the lower half of a ponies foreleg from the knee down and when activated they crackled with electricity at the ends to deliver a nasty shock.

“Sorry, but we only get our freedom if we make this slow”, the mare said to Claw with sincerity. Claw spit in the mare’s eye and she recoiled in disgust, “and suddenly I don't feel as bad about this”.

The mare pressed one of her power hooves to Claw’s gut and the other to the side of her neck. In a large flash of bright light and sparks she started electrocuting Claw. She screamed blue murder as the electricity coursed through her body, and the crowd broke out it loud cheering. After half a minute of this she backed off and the stallion dropped Claw to the ground. Claw kept convulsing and whimpering in pain as she clutched her forehooves to her chest. She started hyperventilating as she seemed to fight a losing battle for air. I looked up at the scoreboard and saw Claw’s heartbeat going crazy, she was having a heart attack!

I looked back at Claw as she was dying. What should I do? Should I let her die? She may have been a bitch, but at the end of the day we were stuck in this hell together. All the other shooting had stopped though, and I was fairly certain that everypony was watching this play out like the Caesar wanted, so interrupting would probably get me killed. But I wouldn't've even made it this far without Claw keeping her word and giving me that gun earlier.

The Buzzer snapped me back into reality, “AND CLAW IS DEAD! THE HELLHOUND SLAYER IS NO MORE!”, Caesar announced with absolute glee, being met by a monstrous roar of the crowd. My eyes snapped to Claw’s limp body, to the two power hooved pegasi who were both looking at each other in absolute glee. I felt something in me snap as I finally decided what to do.

I scrambled out from under the cart and unloaded a shell of 12 gauge buckshot point blank into the back of the mare’s head. She dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes, and I switched on SATS. In slow motion, the stallion’s eyes flashed from glee to horror and then to pure rage as he locked eyes with me. The mare was probably his friend, maybe even his lover, but before he could even take a step towards me to avenge her I released the spell. I watched in slow motion as SATS blasted his head into chunks.

These fuckers, Bourbon, Caesar, and all the rest of these slavers, knocked me out, took my shit, and forced me, and every other pony in this damn arena, to start killing each other for their amusement while they sat in perfect safety. Even if we won one fight there would just be the next, then the next, then the next, and if we somehow managed to survive all of that, survive being thrown into a meat grinder time and time again, they would still just stack the game against you the moment they got bored of us! Like a colt gets tired of a toy!

I ran over to Claw and started pressing down on her chest over and over. There were only a couple of things I remembered from first aid, how healing bandages and potions worked, how to stop bleeding, how to perform the heimlich, and how to perform cpr.

I reloaded as I kept performing compressions, some gunfire was starting to break out again across the field. Caesar commented something about me avenging my partner but otherwise the rest of the arena wasn’t paying too much attention to us, good. I blew air into Claw’s mouth, then went back to compressions.

I knew one thing for certain though, I wasn’t going to let these bastards win if I could help it. They wanted Claw dead, and they wanted her death to be a show in the arena. I was going to give them a show alright, I was going to make a show out of taking away their victory by saving Claw.

“Dammit Claw, come back, the fight isn't over yet”, I said desperately as I kept performing compressions.

I heard a battle cry from behind me and turned around to see an earth pony charging me with a pool cue. I shot him with my shotgun and he dropped. A second pony rounded the cart with a pipe pistol and wearing some metal armor, and I tried to shoot him, but my shotgun was empty.

He shot me three times, once in the shoulder, and twice in my chest. I cried out in pain and fell back into the dirt. The pony walked towards me with the intent to finish me off.

I swept up the pool cue in my telekinesis and smacked him in the head over and over. The first hit jerked his head to the right and made him waste a shot. The second hit jerked his head to the left and made him drop the gun. The third hit broke the pool cue in half and made him take a few steps back.

He yelled out in pain, “Argh! you mother fu-”. I cut him off by spearing the broken pool cue into his eye. The buzzer went off before he even hit the ground.

I jumped back to my shaky hooves and went back to giving Claw compressions. “Dammit this isnt working!”, I said looking around for another option. Cpr rarely actually saves anypony, it just keeps keeps blood flowing to a ponies brain until first responders can jump start their heart. But how could I do that? I would need something that could give an electric shock, Thunder might have been able to do that, but I didn’t have Thunder, what else could I use?

My eyes locked on power mare’s dead body and the power hooves she wore on her forelegs.

I ripped one off as I gave Claw more air and put it on my right foreleg. I flicked a switch and the hoof lit up in a blue crackle of energy. I gave the ground a soft kick and the hoof discharged a small shock, then I gave the ground a harder kick and got an even bigger discharge.

“Ok so its based on kinetic impact, good to know”, I said. I looked at Claw and sent a small prayer to whatever higher power may have been listening, “Please let this work”

I kicked Claw lightly in the chest where her heart was, nothing.

“Shit!”, I yelled, switching off the hoof and giving her more compressions.

I heard the buzzer go off again and looked at the board, there were only eleven of us left now.

After giving her more air, I switched the power hoof back on and punched her harder in the chest. Her body spasmed but again, nothing.

I yelled in frustration and went back to compressions, “Please Claw!”, I cried, “don't let them win! Please!”. I couldn’t live in a place like this again, with the threat of death always looming if I ever stepped out of line, and being powerless to do anything because the ponies watching were untouchable. If I could bring her back then it meant I still had even a small amount of control, and just that would be enough to keep things bearable.

I saw a pony charging me with a baseball bat but I barely paid him any mind. I switched the hoof back on and looked down at Claw. “You don't get to die yet you hear me! GET BACK IN THE FIGHT!”, I screamed as I brought the hoof down with all my strength, causing a bright flash that disoriented me for a second.

Claw’s whole body spasmed and her eyes went wide as she forced in air with a large gasp. The pony charging me skidded to a halt, staring in shock. Claw looked around frantically as she hyperventilated. Her heartbeat popped back up on the scoreboard and I heard a mix of shack and confusion come over the crowd.

“Uhh, wait. What going on?”, Caesar said confused himself. It felt so good just hear that bastard caught off guard.

“What? W-what the fuck!? What's goingon?”, Claw said still dazed and confused.

I shook Claw by the shoulders, “Calm down!”, I said, “you're fine now, just calm down”

Claw started taking deep breaths as she clutched her forehooves to her chest.

The pony who had been charging me just stood staring, “I thought she was dead!”

Before I could answer Caesar boomed over the speakers, “CLAW IS BACK! She’s been revived by the Stable Dweller!”, he yelled as if this was his plan all along.

The field went silent, the shots and screams stopped, the crowd had gone silent for a minute, Caesar even turned the volume down on the music. Just about everypony was staring at me, Claw, and whatshisface next to me.

I stood up and reloaded my shotgun, “welp… back to it”, I said. I reared up onto my hind legs and brought by powerhoof down hard onto whatshisface’s head. He dropped to the ground and the buzzer went off. “Hide under the cart”, I said to Claw, then I yelled as hard as I could into the air, “YOU WANT CLAW, YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH ME! YOU HEAR ME YOU DEGENERATE, DIRT EATING, SURFACE MULES! COME FUCKING GET ME!”

The crowd roared in excitement, Caesar put the volume on high, he was getting his show. I swept up the pipe pistol and charged the closest pony I saw. She tried to bring her hunting rifle to bear but died with a scream as buckshot tore into her chest. The buzzer went off, and I counted how many I had left to go. Eight, not including me and Claw.

I picked up the hunting rifle as a pony with what I thought was a large pistol jumped out of cover, I hit SATS and blew her foreleg off. She dropped the gun when she hit the ground screaming. I jumped on top of her and wrapped one of my forelegs around the front of her neck, and the other behind it. She realized what I was doing, “n-no no PLEA-!”, I snapped her neck with a loud crack.

The buzzer sounded and the crowd roared in cheers, “and a brutal execution by the monster from stable fifty-four!”, Caesar called.

Seven left.

A mare jumped onto my back and drove a knife deep into my already wounded shoulder. I yelled in pain and slammed by head back into hers before she could remove the knife. She tumbled to the dirt gripping her head in her forehooves.

My head hurt like hell, but only made me even more angry. I grabbed the knife with my mouth and ripped it out of my shoulder. I looked at the mare while red tinted my vision, at this point I was really embracing the adrenaline coursing through my body, letting the cheers for blood and the loud rebellious chords of that electric guitar music into my soul.

I jammed the knife into her gut and started gutting her. She let out blood curdling screams as I jerked the knife around, causing and eruption of blood and guts onto my face.

“By Luna’s grace! He’s an animal!”, Caesar said excitedly.

As I was doing this I noticed a red bar on my EFS, I glanced up and saw a pony running at me with a machete. Great, more weapons! I queued up SATS and tried to shoot him in the head with the rifle, but the shot missed. Groaning, I stood up, dropped the knife, and shot him with every round I had left in the pipe pistol.

Buzzer, six left.

Three more ponies were coming from my left, one was armed with a single shot pipe shotgun. I dropped the pistol, picked up the machete, and jumped behind my old pile of toilets. I reloaded my shotgun, popped back up and fired both barrels into a stallion, tearing right through his piecemeal armor made of thin scraps of metal and rags of cloth.

I telekinetically slid a toilet into the second pony's legs and she fell to the ground. In an instant I jerked her head up with my forehoofes and slid the machete across her throat. She tried desperately to staunch the flow of blood with her forehoofes before going still.

Two down, two more buzzers, four left.

Wait, wasn't there a pony with a-

Fire erupted down my right hind leg as it was peppered with buckshot. I turned to face the third fucker with the single shot shotgun. He was shaking like a leaf, fumbling with the shotgun and failing miserably to reload it.

I looked around but I didn’t see the other three ponies, and Claw was ok, her heartbeat was still strong on the monitor, and nopony was near the cart she was under. I turned back to the terrified slave in front of me. We were both stuck in the same shitty situation, I knew that, I knew it was true of every other pony I’d killed so far in this field. But I only had the option to save one pony, the pony they didn’t want me to save. Anypony else had to die, I had reached the extent of my control in this situation, now I had to put on a show like the Caesar wanted.

I interrupted his pathetic excuse for a reload by beating him to death with my hooves. I beat his head into a bloody pulp, with every other punch actuated by an electric discharge.

The buzzer sounded off. Three left.

Now where were the last three? I heard multiple cracks from a rifle and multiple bullets whizzed past me. I dove back behind that damn pile of toilets. When they stopped firing I peeked my head ever so slightly around the edge. Two of the remaining fighters were up on the pitcher's mound. One, an earth pony mare, was wearing a battle saddle with a semi-automatic battle rifle attached to one side.

She continued to chip away at my shrinking pile of porcelain crappers with her rifle while slowly trotting towards me, he partner following behind her with a Zebra Officer sword sheathed on her back.

“Thanks for the distraction asshole!”, the mare in back yelled, “we never would’ve got to the center without you drawing everypony your way!”

The pile of supplies in the center, shit! Everypony was coming for me anyways, why didn’t I make a break for that earlier?

I took a look at my EFS and noticed one of the bars was slowly moving to the left, my guess was that the mare with the sword was trying to sneak around while I was distracted. I pointed my rifle to the left side of by shrinking pile and waited. Sure enough, the mare poked her head around a pile of tires nearby. I triggered SATS and fired my only remaining rifle round into her head.

The buzzer went off. Two left.

A pony jumped on top of the toilets, “don't. fucking. move.”, a mare said dangerously.

Dammit, rifle mare must’ve ran up when I shot her partner.

“Now I’m going to take that machete and gut you real slow for killing my sist-AAHHHH!”, something slammed into riflemare and I heard a sickening cleaving of metal and flesh. I quickly rolled onto my back in time to see rifle mare fall to the ground next to the pile. Her rifle was cut in half and three deep slashes of meat were cut out of her side. She was still screaming with tears in her eyes as she writhed on the ground.

I looked up and saw Claw standing on top of the toilet pile, she was out of breath and looked to be having trouble standing, but she was still there. Her Claw was covered in fresh blood and she had fire in her eyes as she stared at the rifle mare.

Claw let out a battle cry and pounced on the mare, tearing her limb from limb as the mare screamed in fear and pain.

The buzzer went off. One left.

Claw stood up and trotted over to me, “Hey, are you ok?”

I stood up on shaky legs, I was lightheaded and my whole body was in searing pain. I looked at my EFS, the bar measuring my overall health was a small sliver. “Honestly?”, I said looking at her, “I think I’m one gust of wind away from dying”

She looked at me with concern, “yeah you look that way, that's for sure”

I looked up at the board, it was just me, Claw, and some other mare. “Where's the last one?”

I heard a bright BEEP-BEEP from nearby, “FINISH HER!”,Caesar yelled, erupting a chant of “finish her!” over and over from the crowd.

“They make ponies collars beep if they are unconcious or are hiding for too long”, Claw said.

BEEP-BEEP

I swept up a large pistol off the ground and turned towards the sound. The moment I took a step forward though I stumbled and nearly fell flat on my face, the adrenaline was starting to wear off, and I started to get really lightheaded.

“Woah!”, Claw said as she rushed to my side and steadied me, “here just lean on me, alright? Don't worry, if you make it to the gate they’ll patch you up. Don't want their fighters dying outside the arena”, she said, with the last statement being through clenched teeth.

“Wait”, I said as I pulled off the armored vest from a nearby body I had speared with a pool cue earlier. I looked at the vest, it had been reinforced all over with pieces of metal, but I could see familiar claw marks roughly sewn back together on the inside of the back, and a tag read ‘Property of the Apple Hills Police Dept’. It was my police vest, they must’ve thrown all of my equipment into circulation with the rest of the arena’s equipment. I strapped it on, glad to finally have some armor again.

We trotted over to the last pony, her stomach was torn apart and gutted like an wild animal tore into it. She was laying a large puddle of her own blood and guts breathing small, weak breaths. Wait, I think I did that… holy shit!

“Umm, hey”, I said a bit awkwardly.

Her eyes locked on me in terror.

“Uhh… sorry about… um… gutting you, I think I got a bit carried away”, damnit, why the fuck am I trying to apologize? Just hurry up and kill her, she’ll quit suffering and I’ll get medical attention.

Tears were coming out of her eyes. I checked to make sure the pistol was loaded, it had a large magazine with 21 rounds of 10mm loaded. I pointed it at her head and pulled the trigger.

The damn thing roared and started firing round after round like a damn bullet hose! I held my concentration but didn’t think to let go of the trigger until it ran out of ammo after two seconds. I took a peek at my pipBuck, ‘10mm SMG’.

The crowd had broken out in cheers and applause. I looked at the mare’s body and saw I had completely obliterated her head, whoops. I dropped the SMG, and leaned a little more on Claw.

“And that's game folks!”, Caesar announced, “will our competitors please exit the field immediately!”

The scoreboard displayed a one minute timer that began counting down.

“Come on Shepherd, let's get out of here”, Claw said helpling me to the gate

“So let me get this straight, you restarted my heart with that power hoof?”, she said pointing to the weapon adorning my right foreleg.

I had just finished telling her my side of how things went in the arena back in our cell. I was still winded, but otherwise I was doing really well! The slaver doctors really knew their stuff, I felt a little bad for the unicorn slave they had use her mending spell on me, they pushed the mare to near burnout healing me before making her get to work again on Claw. But at least she didn’t have to fight to the death against her will.

“Why?”, she asked.

“Well I needed something electrical to jumpstart your heart, and this was all I had”

She shook her head, “no not that!”, she looked at the floor and sighed, “I mean, why did you save me at all. The Caesar would have rewarded you for letting me die and I’ve just been a jerk to you from the moment we met”.

I was a bit taken aback by the question, “well... I wanted to try and show them that they didn’t completely control me, that I still had a small amount of choice. And the only power I had over the situation was whether you died, they wanted you dead, so I wouldn’t let you die”

“So… it was out of spite, nothing else?”, she said sadly, “you didn’t care about me beyond spitting in the Caesar’s eye?”

I sighed. No that wasn’t the only reason, “look, if i'm being totally honest here, I do care a little bit about you too. We’re both trapped here, with proverbial guns to our heads, being forced against our will to kill other ponies in the same shitty boat as us for other ponies enjoyment. Even though you were an absolute bitch to me I could tell you were at the end of your rope, the ponies in charge were stacking everything against you for having the gall to bore them, and I felt bad for you because it wasn’t fair… even if you were a bitch”, I added quickly.

“Th-thank you”, Claw said, “nopony has ever stuck their neck out for me, you know? I’ve always had to fend for myself, every pony I’ve ever trusted has either screwed me or left me high and dry when I needed them. So when I met you, I thought you were just another asshole or a stable idiot who was going to die the second the box opened”, she fidgeted on the mattress for a second, “I guess what I’m trying to say is… I’m sorry, for beating you up and calling you a useless idiot stable dweller”

We both were looking each other in the eyes, “thank you Claw, that means a lot”, I said.

Some tears started to form in her eyes and she started to wipe them away, “wha- aw dammit, why am I crying? I never cry, what the fuck?”, she said laughing a little.

“Well you did just die, I think you’re justified in being a little emotional right now”, I said.

She laughed, “yeah I guess you’re right. Shit, I still can't believe I’m still here”

We both sat in silence for a minute, “hey I’ve got to ask, what's with the whole ‘Hellhound Slayer’ thing?”, I asked.

“Oh that?”, she said, “well at the end of each big monthly tournament the Caesar has the top three pairs all fight some big ‘ending challenge’. In my first tournament I got to the end and we had to fight a fucking hellhound!”

“Uhh, what's a ‘hellhound’?”, I asked a little confused.

“You haven’t heard of a hellhound!?”, Claw said in surprise, “how the fuck have you not heard of a hellhound!”

“Hey cut me some slack, I’ve only been up on the surface for…”, I checked my pipBuck’s clock, “going on four days now, and the first pony that I met willing to speak to me beyond ‘I’m gonna kill the shit out of you’ was Bourbon, and you saw how that went”

“You’re kidding! I thought you stable dwellers were supposed to be soft! You were killing ponies back there like you were one of the raiders from my old gang!”

“Wait, you were a raider!?”, I looked her over again, the constant murderous look in her eye, her almost feral demeanor, it made sense! I thought she was just like that from being locked up in here.

“Hey don't look at me like that, I was just a kid when I joined, I didn’t have anywhere else to go, it was either join up or die in the wasteland. They taught me how to fight, how to survive-”

“By killing, raping, and taking from other ponies”, I deadpanned.

“I was never a part of the raping!”, she yelled in anger, baring her teeth with fire in her eyes.

Woah, minefield, I gently pushed her back, “ok. Lets calm down, I just didn’t realize you were a raider. How long were you with them?”

She took a deep breath and calmed down, “sorry. Uhh, I was twelve when I got kicked out on my own, I’ve been here for two years now, and the doctors said I was about eighteen when I first got here, so I guess about… six years?”

“What was it like?”, she looked at me with a questioning look, “I mean how was it going raider? You spent six years growing up with them so you must have some stories”

“Umm…”, she looked a little uncomfortable, “you know, I’d really rather not talk about it”

She gave me a begging look not to press further and I took the hint, “ok, that's fine, uhh… you were going to tell me what a hellhound was earlier?”

She brightened up a little, “oh yeah! Hellhounds, umm…”, she rubbed her chin for a minute, “how to describe it, take a dog, scale it up to about three times the size of a pony, give it retractable claws capable of tearing through steel like paper, and make it ten times angrier and bloodthirsty than you were back in the arena, and you’d have a hellhound”

“Ohh”, that didn’t sound pleasant to fight.

“Yeah, ‘oh’”, she said, “anyways, it tore through one pair right away, another pair tried to shoot it, but it got them too. That only left me and my partner, we were both pegasi, she had a piece of rebar and I had a knife, not great odds. We charged it knowing damn well we were probably going to die. It swiped at her first and she went down, as it started tearing into her I went and cut it across the eyes. It freaked the fuck out after that, It smacked me out of the air and I went flying back a few yards before rolling to a stop in the dirt. I was bruised but other than that I was fucking fine, none of its claws had touched me somehow”

“What happened after that?”, I asked.

“Shut up I’m going too”, she said, “anyways I charged it again, this time I had a bit of an edge. With it blind and stupid, I could avoid getting hit while I cut the shit out of its head. It felt like an eternity but eventually it dropped dead. I was nicknamed the ‘Hellhound Slayer’ and the Caesar had three of its claws turned into a gauntlet for me to use. I always prefered to just fight with my hooves anyways so it was perfect”

“I bet the crowd liked you back then”, I said remembering the whole ordeal in the arena that spawned from her being ‘boring’.

“Yeah, I was hot shit back then”, she said, “I was fresh blood that spiced things up, and I was popular for a while. But eventually they got bored with the raider that killed a hellhound, and Caesar started promising rewards to any pony that killed me”

“That's what pisses me off the most about this place”, I said looking at a camera, “they already force us to fight against our will, but they also consider it a capital crime to bore them, bastards”

“Yeah, but that's how things work here, you fight until they get bored of you. After that they start pushing the other fighters to target you specifically, and throw you in more consecutive fights more quickly so you don't have time to recover. Hell, I got a nice steak dinner and an exemption from an entire tournament when I killed a boring seasoned fighter myself”, she rubbed her belly, “fuck I wish I could eat like that again. Anyways when my time came up they found I was a lot harder to kill, I’m pretty fucking fast and good with my hooves so I kept living. My partners stopped helping me so I stopped helping them. I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep it up though, eventually Caesar would really stack things against me and he would get his dead body”.

“Yeah I remember, ‘we don't get our freedom unless we make this slow’”, I said with a scowl.

“Yeah, Caesar doesn’t just give ponies stuff as good as four working power hooves directly unless he really wanted somepony dead. He must’ve realized those two pegasi were good hoof fighters and gave them that offer”

“Well maybe ‘The Stable Monster’ and ‘The Hellhound Slayer’ are an entertaining enough pair to get the Caesar to cut you a little slack?”, I said half jokingly.

“Maybe”, Caesar’s said through the speaker.

I looked at the camera, “oh hey Caesar, I didn’t realize you were there, did you enjoy the show?”

“Indeed I did, it was a pleasant surprise. You see, I thought Bourbon was lying to me yet again when he said you were one hell of a fighter. But after a while I decided to humor him and accept you as payment for his debt. After all, even if you did turn out to be useless, I figured just the appearance of a stable dweller would raise a few eyebrows, and you wouldn’t be able to give Claw any help even if you wanted to”, he started chuckling, “but what I got wasn’t what I ever would’ve expected in my wildest dreams! Not only did the crowd witness you bring a pony back from the dead, but then you crushed another fighters skull with that beautiful power hoof and started going on a rampage! Oh and that line you yelled beforehoof, ‘degenerate, dirt eating, surface mules!’ ohh!”, I heard the sound of an air kiss being made with his hoof, “Priceless!”

“You better hope I never find a way to get this collar off, because if I do, I promise I’ll show you and your slaver buddies what a real show looks like”, I said

“Oh I doubt that”, he said nonchalauntly.

Suddenly I felt electricity coursing through me and I screamed. Oh Luna I screamed as my whole body erupted in pain. I collapsed to the ground writhing. Mercifully it only lasted a second before it abruptly stopped.

“Shepherd!”, Claw yelled as she pulled me into her forehooves.

“If you keep that fighting spirit in the arena I won't do that again, are we understood?”, he said as if he were talking to a child.

I swallowed, then replied, “I understand”.

“Good”, he purred, fuck me I wanted to kill him so badly, and from the angry breathing coming from Claw I could tell I wasn’t alone, “Now I must say, when I was given your bag containing your personal effects, I found the entries in your journal funny”

My blood turned to fire, “quit fucking reading that!”

Without any delay my whole body erupted in pain as he electrocuted me again. I tried to hold in my scream but it was no use, I screamed my throat out as he electrocuted me for a solid three or four seconds.

When the shock released I started crying a little, I now had a small Idea what Claw experienced not an hour earlier. Claw held me a little harder, it was a small comfort, one I was thankful for.

Caesar cleared his throat, “as I was saying. When I first read this I thought you had been grossly exaggerating and embellishing everything you had been doing. But now I realize you were being brutally honest, you accidentally killed your boss, murdered a security guard to escape your stable, proceeded to kill the pony that has had Kvass throw a tantrum all week, killed Swan with an authority rocket launcher, fought through a mutant nest, and walked right through a dreamer anomaly saving Bourbon along the way. By all means Shepherd, you were a great catch”

I sat up, “so what now?”, I asked, being careful to watch my tone.

“you really can't just step aside and let me end Claw?”, he asked.

“Sorry but its your rules, the only power you gave me is the choice to help my partner or not, so I’m going to help my partner”

He sighed, “fine Shepherd, I’ll back off for now, but if you two don't give me good shows I will make a show out of your deaths”, the speaker crackled as he cut the connection.

“Alright, now how the fuck did he shock me”, I said looking at Claw.

“Your collar, the ones they got here are more advanced than your regular ones, it tracks your heartbeat, has an electro shock, a position tracker, and has a speaker that picks up on everything you say. Caesar controls everything from a terminal in his throne booth, collars, doors, cameras, speakers, everything. Are you OK?”

I rubbed my chafing collar, “yeah I’m fine, I just keeping finding more and more reasons to hate this place”

“Yeah, you and me both, what I wouldn’t give to skin Caesar alive”, she said with a glint in her eye.

“Hey, when I find a way out of this collar and we pay him a little visit, I'll let you take first crack at him”

“Is that a promise?”, she asked.

“Promise”, I said with a smile.

A hooded slaver dropped a pan of potatoes next to the cell and trotted off without a word.

“Feeding time”, Claw said.

We trotted over to the edge and started eating.

I grabbed a potato and noticed a note on the bottom of the pan. Making sure there weren't any slavers in the hall, I picked up a potato and the note at the same time and sat with my back to the bars and the camera.

Claw noticed the note, “whats that?”.

“A potato”, I deadpanned, I then held up my forehoof and made a silent ‘shh’ing gesture.

She got the message and kept eating while staring at the note.

I unfolded it so we could both read it.

Do not read aloud,
Im working on getting you out
Eat this note before it is found
-Khan

So Khan wasn’t one of them, that was a relief. It also meant I had somepony on the outside trying to help, if we could just stay alive long enough we had a chance.

I saw a small glint of hope in Claw’s eye that probably matched my own, I popped the note into my mouth and took a bite of my potato to help it go down.

Our next fight wasn't until later in the afternoon, which gave us plenty of time to rest up. The mare at the box didn’t give me any condescending lip this time either.

“Alright Stable Terror, you did good last match, but this time you aren't fighting the small fries and newbies, you’re going up against one pair of hardened fighters, so good luck”, she said before letting me go to the box

As I was trotting up to the box Claw stopped me.

“are you sure you don't want to grab something off the table?”, she asked gesturing to the pile of drugs, “it could give you a real edge”

“No thanks!”, I said quickly, she raised an eyebrow wondering why I was so hesitant, “look, I’m just not ready to start shooting stuff into me yet, ok?”

She rolled her eyes and we got into the box, the door closed and we were picked up.

“What are you taking?”, I asked.

“Stampede, it gives you an adrenaline rush and sets your blood on fire like Rage, but also dulls pain like Medx, its fuckin great in a fight”, she said.

“Ohh, so that explains your little freak out before the box opened last match”

She was about to respond when Caesar came on over the speakers, “Everypony! I hope you’re ready for our next event!”, cheering and hoof somps answered a resounding yes.

Claw injected her stampede and she let out an angry growl as it hit her bloodstream.

I had the double barrel, machete, sharpened flathead, and power hoof from last round, I had been in too bad of a condition to grab any other weapons afterwards.

“On the east side! We have the Hellhound Slayer and the Stable Terror! One a long time survivor of the wasteland and the field, and the other a recently released animal whose path of destruction has only just begun!”,Caesar boomed to a standing ovation, I guess we really were popular, for now at least.

“And on the west side! The deadly and beautiful combination of flame and light, Matchstick and Dust!”, Caesar said over the already cheering crowd.

Fuck they never stop cheering do they? Must be having the time of their lives.

“Fight!”, Caesar yelled as the doors unlocked.

We burst out, and I immediately noticed a difference in layout. Most of the piles of cover were removed, and those that remained were shoved close to the center. I knew exactly what they were doing, there were only the four of us, so they wanted to draw us closer together.

BOOM

The sound of thunder echoed across the field as a shot flew past my head at the speed of sound, leaving a brief faint blue trail behind it. I knew the gun that made the shot before I even saw it. An aqua unicorn mare with a surprisingly well kept mane and also carrying a bunch of other boxy weapons was floating my baby, Thunder.

I had made it to a pile of cover and she dove behind a bit of cover of her own not that far away from me. I jumped on top of mine and failed to shoot her peeking head before she took cover again, “that's mine you bitch!”

“Look out!”, Claw yelled a second before plowing into me, driving me back behind cover right before the whole barricade was set ablaze with a loud FWOOSH.

“Whoa, that was a close call!”, Caesar announced.

I peeked my head around and saw the culprit, her partner was an earth pony dressed head to hoof in battered yet heavily reinforced and armored turnout gear. He was wearing a battle saddle equipped with a homemade flamethrower. His partner could pin us at range and he could cook us up close, shit. I tried to shoot him with my shotgun but all it did was piss him off, he responded by sending another burst of fire my way, double shit.

“Claw, see if you can't get Matchstick’s attention, I’m gonna kill his partner then shoot him with Thunder, alright?”, I said as quietly as I could to Claw.

She gave me a nod before shooting off into the air. Columns of flame started flowing all over. I peeked out to see Claw flying circles around him and making fake attempts to get close, causing him to fire.

Dust popped up out of cover with Thunder charged and ready to shoot Claw.

That wasn't fucking happening.

“Oh no you dont!”, I yelled, firing my other shotgun shell at her. It missed and hit the barricade, but I wasn't really aiming anyway, she jumped back behind her cover startled. I jumped out and charged her cover, reloading as I went. I rounded the side with the intent of murder…

And nopony was there!

Wait no, something was there, right in front of me. I couldn’t see it, and neither could my EFS, but I could just… tell. Something was right in front of me. I waved my hoof in the space in front of me thinking I was losing my mind when I felt myself slap a pony!

Dust dropped her invisibility spell and I jumped back startled (also, invisibility spell! Seriously!? She got my gun and could do more than one spell too, great). She took advantage of my surprise and tackled me to the ground. Jamming my favorite gun right into my neck, with my collar between the rails.

“I don't know how you saw through my little trick handsome, but it won't matter now”, she pulled the trigger and an electric jolt surged through me, momentarily paralyzing me.

The buzzer went off, “and the Stable Terror is dead!”, Caesar yelled mournfully.

“YOU BITCH!!”, Claw yelled before plowing into the mare, sending them both rolling away a couple yards. Dust started screaming as Claw ripped her apart.

Two things registered in my head.

1) Dust apparently didn’t know she had to reload Thunder, (in fact she probably just thought it was a lightning musket and not a railgun)

2) I wasn’t dead, I could still feel my steady and hammering heartbeat just fine!

“Dust!”, Matchstick yelled as he ran by me thinking I was dead.

I jumped up and tackled him from behind, I pulled out my machete and sunk it into the back of his neck. The buzzer went off as I severed his spine, and almost simultaneously the buzzer went off for Dust.

I looked up at the screen and sure enough there was a flatline next to my name, what was going on?

The blade was stuck in his neck and I gave up trying to pull it out, instead I recovered my shotgun and Thunder.

“Umm, it seems the Stable Terror is back form the dead! Once again he cheats the grim reaper!”, Caesar said causing a great cheer from the crowd, but he sounded nervous too, real nervous…

Claw’s head shot up and turned to me. She flew over and gave me a bloody hug, “Shepherd! Holy crap, I thought you were dead!”. The hug lasted for a couple more seconds before, she pushed me away, looking embarrassed. “uhh, that didn’t happen” she said quickly while looking away.

I gave her a small hug with one of my forehooves, “it's good to see you ok too”

She gave me a small smile back.

“Alright, well we seem to be having some trouble with the Stable Terror’s collar, umm”, the Caesar still sounded nervous, “but will the competitors please vacate the field immediately”

The one minute time turned on with a beep right as I processed what he just said, I looked slowly down at my collar and saw the light was off. I didn't let Claw walk toward the gate when she tried to leave.

“Shepherd, what are you doing? We have to go or they’ll blow the collars”, she said confused.

I answered by cranking up Thunder, pressing the rails against her collar and pulling the trigger. She let out a small scream as she dropped to the ground in a small spasm. At the same time I heard the buzzer and looked up to see her flatlined on the monitor.

The whole crowd went silent.

“Gah! Shepherd what the fuck!”, she yelled standing up.

I answered by ripping my collar off.

Her eyes went wide, I ripped hers off and she gave a small yelp as I did so. She rubbed her neck and took a deep breath. I had only been wearing mine for a day and I felt amazing. I could only imagine the feeling she was having after wearing it for two years.

We both looked slowly up to the Caesar’s box.

“fly us up there, now!”, I yelled to Claw.

“Shoot them!”, Caesar yelled in pure panic.

I jumped onto Claw’s back and we shot off the ground right before it was riddled with bullet holes. We soared right to the window like a bolt of lighting. We smashed right through the glass, rolling onto the floor.

We both stood up (rather painfully covered in cuts and scratches from broken glass) and faced the Caesar himself.

He was sitting on a large, overly padded electric wheelchair next to the announcer's microphone, he had a terminal flanked on all sides by a large monitor setup behind him. The Caesar himself though, ooh boy, he was the fattest earth pony I had ever seen, he was like a round ball of fat. I don't even think earth pony would be suitable here, he was more like a landwhale!

“Hey Caesar”, I said, noting how I was being broadcast over the whole field, “how's it going?”

“Uhh”, he said absolutely terrified, “n-not great”

“Oh that's too bad”, I said looking at Claw, who was staring at the Caesar with two years worth of raider fury stored up just for him, her claw clad hoof slowly scratching the floor over and over. There was banging on the other side of the thick metal door at the back of the room and shouts to unlock the door, “I see you value a good lock Caesar”

“I-It’s just a bar”, he said as he started wetting himself and his chair.

It was just a thick metal bar held in place by two racks on either side of the door, holding it shut. “Yeah, but no pony is going to break or pick that anytime soon. We have a nice little bit of alone time. Just you, me, and Claw”

I trotted up real close to him, “do you remember my promise Caesar?”, he nodded slowly. “how about you share that promise with the crowd for me”, I said low into the microphone.

“Y-you’re going to give us a r-real show”, he said.

“That is right!”, I said with glee, backing off and to the side. “But first, I have a second promise to keep, Claw”, I turned to my partner, “have at em”

She smiled in sadistic glee and pounced on the Caesar, knocking his wheelchair over as she drove him into the ground. They both started screaming as she began slashing him to pieces. He was screaming in pain while Claw was screaming in intangible tongues, just letting out all the anger and pain she had built up all this time.

I saw a bunch of pegasus slavers flying towards the windows and quickly shut the metal shutters above them. With me and Claw now safely sealed in the room I set to work on the terminal.

It really did control everything, the monitors on the wall around the terminal were linked to the cameras, a lot of slavers were milling about nervously, and there were even more slave fighters in the cages below. They were all already more than armed enough for an uprising, the only thing in their way were the collars.

I input a few commands and watched as all the collars lights died. The slaves slowly began to take notice, and one or two had already pulled theirs off. I turned on every microphone in the field and amongst the cages. I blew into the microphone, getting a nice ring to echo through the whole damn place.

“Hello everypony, this is the Stable Terror, yet another one of the countless ponies the Caesar and the rest of his buddies enslaved and forced to ‘perform’ for them”, I said, “well, I promised Caesar I would give him and his crowd a real show if I ever got free. But I can't exactly do that alone. As some of my fellow enslaved fighters have already noticed, I’ve deactivated every one of your slave collars. Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel like getting me some good old fashioned revenge with my freedom, don't you think?”.

The enslaved fighters began cheering and pulling off their collars, all calling for slaver blood, “that's what I thought”, I said as I hit a button and unlocked every cage and door in the stadium, “break a leg”.

The slaves flooded out of the holding cages below and within minutes the sounds of screaming and fighting broke out all over the stadium. I watched in satisfaction as pure carnage broke out across the screens, now this was a show!

I noticed the screaming behind me had stopped and turned to see Claw bathed in blood and sweat, Caesar was nothing but a big pile of gore.

“Fuck, the fat bastard wouldn’t die, half the time I was just cutting through fat!”, she said out of breath, “now what?”

I noticed my old mailbag sitting on the floor and floated it over. Sure enough, everything I had once had in it was there, my journal, the lighter, the gas mask, some food, some ammo, a roll of healing bandages, my empty canteen, even the book of arcane sciences and my frying pan were there. “Well I don't know about you, but I’m getting out of here”, I said looking to the door as I threw the bag strap over my neck and back to rest on my shoulder.

“Oh come on, we just got free and you don't want to kill some more slavers!? At least let me kill a couple more first!”, she said in dismay.

“You can stay if you want, but I’m putting as much distance between me and this place as I can, besides”, I looked back at the monitors, “I already got my revenge”

“What? Shepherd I want to stay with you”, she said, “Caesar’s slavers killed my whole gang, and even if he didn’t I wouldn’t want to go back anyways. You stuck your neck out for me, you saved my life, fuck you even just gave me my freedom! You’re the first pony that I’ve genuinely trusted in a long time. If you’re going somewhere, I’m coming with”, she said with determination.

I looked at Claw for a minute, sizing her up and figuring out if I really wanted her with me. She was a fighter, that much was for sure, she was good with her hooves, and that claw made her particularly lethal. She was fast too, with a lean body built for pure agility, and wings that let her fly, which was a huge plus. She probably knew far more about the wasteland than I did, and it would be nice to have a guide I could trust. She was… aggressive, but I kinda liked it, she didn’t take shit from nopony and was always ready for a fight.

But most of all, I trusted her, and unlike Bourbon I had genuine reasons to. She saved my life a couple of times in the arena too. When I removed her collar she could have shot off into the sky and left me, but she didn’t. She seemed to genuinely care for me, and deep down, I think I care about her too.

I knew I might regret it later if she really did plan to screw me, but I didn’t care, I wanted this mare at my side going forward. I held out my forehoof for her to shake, “partners?”, I asked with a small smile.

She gave me a small hoofbump, misreading my gesture but still conveying sincerity in her answer, “partners”, she said with a grin.

There were still lots of slavers pounding at the shutters and door trying to get in.

“Now what?”, she asked.

There was a bang as a vent cover on the roof was kicked from the inside. I brought my shotgun to the ready as Claw dropped into a fighting stance. The cover fell down and two striped hoofs shot out in a gesture of surrender, “don't shoot, it's me!”

I recognized that voice! “Claw wait!”, I said quickly, “that’s Khan!”

The middle aged Zebra dropped out of the vent and brushed some dust off. “thank you”, he said, “though I’m surprised to see you two here. I didn’t expect you to escape on your own, nor make cause so much chaos as you did so”

“Yeah well I’m full of surprises today”, I said. I turned to Claw, “Claw, meet Khan, Khan, Claw”

“Hello”, Khan said to Claw.

“Uhh, hey”, Claw said to Khan. She leaned over to me and whispered, “how do you know this porch donkey exactly?”

Porch donkey? I’ve heard stripe before but not that. “Dont worry hes alright”, I said to Claw.

“What are you doing here Khan? Not that I’m not happy to see you or anything”, I asked.

“I was actually coming to rescue you. I knew the Caesar had his door heavily secured, but very few ponies think about the vents, especially these industrial sized ones”, he said gesturing up to the ceiling, “I had been shimmying along when I heard your announcement as you lit the fires of revolution”

“I assume you had an escape plan then?”, I asked as I heard the slavers outside the door yell about getting explosives.

“Yes, we can crawl through the vents all the way to the outside”, he said pulling a table under the opening so me and him could climb up.

“Ugh, I hate tight spaces”, Claw said cringing a little. I couldn’t really blame her, she was a pegasus after all.

The sun was setting over Apple Hills, me and Khan were trotting along the road between stacks of blasted and decayed apartments. Claw was swooping back and forth above us, sometimes doing a small midair loop as she passed.

“You seem to be having a good time”, I yelled up to her.

She swooped down to hover next to us, “are you kidding!? I’m fucking out!”, she said with glee, “thanks again Shepherd, I owe you everything”

“Don't worry about it, I’m just glad to finally have a partner I can trust”, I said.

“So where are we going anyway?”, she asked.

“I figured I’d check out this town called Baleville, its supposed to be built out of a big office building in the center of town. That is, assuming Bourbon was being honest about it”, I said turning to Khan.

“He was being honest”, Khan replied, “I have visited it a great number of times, a town of merchants in a time when trade is almost nonexistent. But the town manages to stay somewhat successful regardless, if it is civilization you seek, it is a good destination”.

“Good to hear”, I turned to Claw, “unless you know a better place to go in this city, that's where we’re headed”

“Sorry, but I don't know shit about this city”, she replied, “I’m from the northeast, out near Fetlock. We’re somewhere in the southwest, somewhere between Las Pegasus, Hoofington valley, and the west fucking coast”

“How did you get all the way out here?”, I asked.

“Caesar”, she said grimly, “he had sent some slavers way out looking for more exotic mutants for his challenges, my gang tried to jump ‘em and we got our shit kicked in. A grenade went off next to me and I blacked out, when I woke up I had a slave collar on. After that they took me back here, fuckers didn’t even lock me in a cage, they tied a rope around my wings and forced me to pull a cart”

“Sounds rough, well hopefully we can wash ourselves off at the river. We might get shot on sight at the gate if we’re still covered in all this blood when we get to town”, I said. We were a mess, my four hooves and head were caked in dried on blood. Claw was completely covered in it after drenching herself in gore, though she actually hadn’t noticed, and had to look herself over when I mentioned it.

“Yeah… I guess I am a little dirty”, she said looking at her blood stained body. She looked back at me, “but after we get to town what do we do then?”

“Find work?”, I replied, “I know a thing or two about fixing and building stuff, so I could probably find a job doing that. Or we can get jobs as guards or mercenaries, we both know how to fight, and I’ve taken a real shinning to shooting things lately. Worse case, we could always find the Authority, Bourbon said they take in stable dwellers”.

But after I finished talking I noticed Khan and Claw weren’t following me. I turned around and saw them both just giving me horrified stares. They both turned to each other.

“I knew I was forgetting something important”, Khan said in worry.

Claw swooped over and landed next to me, she started yanking at my vest. “come on! we have to get you out of that crap now!”, she said panicked.

“Woah woah woah, stop!”, I said pushing Claw away from me, “what crap do I have to get out of? My vest?”

“No your barding dumbass!”, she said terrified, “fuck me I’ve been so stupid, if somepony sees you in that it’d be a dead giveaway!”

“What that I’m a stable dweller?”, I said incredulously, but both her and Khan still looked incredibly worried.

“Yes”, Khan said solemnly, “when we first met, and you told me that this Bourbon had led you to believe the Authority wanted to help stable dwellers, I realized how deeply he had lied to you. Shepherd, the Authority hunts down stable dwellers, and pay a king's ransom to any pony that help them do so”

“Wait, what”, I said as I was hit with what he said, “why would the Authority want to kill stable dwellers? What would they get out of that!”

Again, my companions looked at each other in worry, “that is… a long story, one that coincides with the story of the wasteland itself”, Khan said.

“Could I tell it!”, Claw said brightly, we both looked at her a little surprised from her enthusiasm. Most ponies I met so far besides Khan seemed to hate explaining things, and I could imagine Khan has had a similar experience. “What?”, she said, “I like stories, shoot me”

“Sure, you can tell the story. I’m always interested in hearing other people’s versions of the wasteland’s history”, Khan said, “Though we may want to take shelter inside where where we are not as exposed.

I sat inside the apartment staring at my old barding. It was in bad shape, it had multiple lines torn out of the back from Nosalises, the right sleeve was missing, there were holes in the front from getting shot in the chest, a large piece was torn out of the shoulder from when I got stabbed, and it was covered in dried on blood and dirt. I couldn’t bring myself to burn it like Claw suggested, it's not that I missed stable 54 or my life back there, but it still separated me from the rest of the wastelanders. Wearing it labeled me as somepony who was educated, healthy, and still somewhat civilized, but it wasn’t worth having a target on my back.

Oh well, at least I still had my pipBuck, and there wasn’t anything that would make me give that up.

I stuffed the barding into the bottom of a reclining chair before returning to Claw and Khan, who were sitting next to a small campfire in the courtyard in the center of the apartment complex. I sat down and felt a raindrop hit my muzzle, I looked up to the darkening sky. “We probably shouldn’t stay outside”, I said remembering that storm from my first night out.

“Don't worry, this isn't going to get worse than a light sprinkle for the next hour”, Claw said dismissively.

“How do you know that?”, I asked.

“Um, Im a pegasus, remember?”, she said like I was an idiot. When I just kept staring she realized I still didn’t understand, “oh shit, stable dweller, right. What do you know about pegasus magic?”

“I know you can fly, and you can walk on clouds, because you all used to live in sky cities”, I said.

“Yeah that's most of it, but we can also sense weather, so I can tell the pathetic clouds above us won't be dropping much water”, she said gesturing up, “the clouds behind them are a lot worse, but they’re still pretty far away”.

“Huh, interesting”, I said, “now you were going to tell me why this Authority group wants to kill me?”

“In order to explain that, we have to tell you the story of how the wasteland as it is today came to be”, he looked to Claw, “you said you wanted to tell it?”

“Hell yeah I do!”, Claw said excitedly...

When the war between the Zebras and Equestria ended with, you know, the bombs blowing everything up, the whole world just sort of went dark. For the first 150 years all that was left were bombed out ruins, radiation, and mutants everywhere. There were lots of ghouls too, ponies and other sentient creatures who got irradiated and didn’t have the good fortune to die. Many went feral and turned into mindless zombies, and the ones that managed to hold onto their sanity just sorta hid in whatever dark crevice they could find.

One of the first places hit when the bombs began to fly was Cloudsdayle, the Pegasus capital. The pegasi immediately put the cloud generators into overdrive and completely closed the sky with grey clouds. With the surface sealed away, the pegasi formed a new government, the Grand Pegasus Enclave. They declared the surface “contaminated” and said we could never return there. Ministry mare Rainbow Dash said “fuck that”, told the Enclave to go fuck themselves, then took off down to the surface. The Enclave declared her, and any other “Dashties” like her, traitors. They sent an assassin to kill her, but nopony knows if she actually pulled it off, all anypony knows is Rainbow dash was never seen again.

But the Enclave fucked themselves, you see before the bombs started raining ministry mare Rainbow Dash had built this giant network of weather control towers all over Equestria called the “Single Pegasus Project”, or “Single Pony Project”, who cares. Point is, the Enclave repurposed the towers to allow them to grow food on the clouds. The only problem? It was all remote controlled from a single, heavily fortified sky fortress only accessible by Rainbow Dash and the Princesses themselves, it even had this impenetrable shield that only let those three specific ponies through, and with the princesses dead in Canterlot, and Rainbow Dash missing, they couldn’t get in. Now this was a problem because if somepony else found a way inside, they could destroy the entire Enclave, and there wouldn’t be a damn thing they could do about it. So they built their capital around it called Neighvarro, and threw as many guns, troops, and airships as they could around it to protect it.

Meanwhile, the ponies “lucky” enough to be accepted into the stables were surviving underground. Only they weren't very lucky at all, because the sadistic bastards at stable tec decided that it was a great idea to experiment on the ponies they were supposed to be saving. A lot of stables, at least half, ended up killing everypony inside them. But the other half still managed to survive, and after 150 years most of the stables that were left opened up and their dwellers entered the wasteland, while a hooffull stayed closed. Some dwellers started settlements, some started bandit gangs, some dug through old ruins, all kinds of shit started happening.

It was chaos for the first 40 years, but slowly things became more organized, the roving warlords were reduced to small raider gangs. Trade routes were formed after a group of ponies living inside Tenpony tower finally opened their doors. The snooty basterds were what remained of the scientists and doctors from before the war, and they passed down their knowhow to their kids. They dominated the market with one thing every pony needed, clean water, they took control of all other organized trade and were soon the big “hub of civilization” in the wasteland, and pretty soon they had experts from all sides of the wasteland looking to get in, only making them more powerful. They used bottle caps as currency and pretty soon every other pony was using them too, since you could exchange ten bottle caps for a flat gallon of water, always.

But other groups were also getting organized, with three becoming particularly big and bad. The first was Red Eye and his army of slavers, who were trying to rebuild Equestria on the backs of slave labor. There was the goddess, a Ministry of Magic experiment gone horribly wrong, who was dragging every unicorn she could find to her in Maripony to join her in “unity” and be transformed into an alicorn. That may sound pretty great until you hear about how the process would strip you of your identity, turn your body into one of three types, then dunk your mind into a hive mind where it was dissolved and torn apart. If she had her way, she would have turned every unicorn into an alicorn under her control, and killed every other living thing in existence. Red Eye was helping her for a time, until he decided he wanted to become a goddess himself, but I’ll get back to that. Finnally, you had the Steel Rangers, these mother fuckers. They were what was left of the Equestrian Army, they felt they had a divine right and ownership over anything more advanced than a toaster. They would raid entire towns and stables, and sometimes kill everypony inside, just for their tech.

Things were looking bad, but then a hero emerged from Stable Two, The Hellmare, The Stable Dweller, the one and only “Lightbringer”. She set out looking for her friend, a mare singer named Velvet Remedy who ran off into the wasteland, you can even hear some of her music every now and then on the radio. Anyways, by the time the Lightbringer found Velvet, she had seen how fucked up the wasteland was, and set out to do something about it. She went on a rampage, killing raiders, slavers, mutants, and all kinds of other shit, she even killed a dragon at one point! she was unstoppable.

After rutting Dj Pon3’s assistant, the Lightbringer grabbed a bunch of guns, got some ponies to back her up, and set out to stop the Goddess first, and by stop, I mean she blew her into oblivion with a fucking balefire bomb! She even knew the Enclave were trying to make an alliance with the Goddess and timed it so the bomb killed the Goddess and an entire Enclave fleet! After that the alicorns lost their hive mind and scattered, a bunch were killed, and others went into hiding.

After this, the Stable Dweller found out that the steel rangers were attacking her home stable, so she swooped in planning to slaughter all the Steel Rangers she found. Only when she got there, she found that most of the Steel Rangers were actually against the whole thing and their bosses locked them up, planning to execute them. After freeing them, the traitor Steel Rangers formed the “Applejack Rangers”, with the goal to start trying to help ponies with all their firepower. This started a civil war between the old traditional rangers and the new traitor rangers, and eventually the traitors won out.

The Enclave didn’t take kindly to their fleet getting fucked over by a dirty surface dweller, so they sent down a full invasion force to put the wasteland in its place. They took over Tenpony and started wiping every organized group they found, which put them at war with Red Eye. The Stable Dweller snuck into Red Eye’s compound and found out he planning on turning himself into something like the Goddess, so she bombed him the same way she did the actual Goddess, leaving only crater where his cathedral once stood in the center of the Everfree forest.

Finally, she gathered every ally she had to this dragon’s cave, and came up with a plan to stop the Enclave. The next day went down as the day Fire Rained From The Sky, the Enclave came down on the wasteland with the full force of their military, they blew up the old Steel Ranger HQ in Stable Tec headquarters, demolished the ruins of Canterlot, and started just killing left and right, destroying what was left of Red Eye’s army in Fillydelphia. Meanwhile, the Stable Dweller attacked Neighvarro with all of her allies and a giant, fire breathing dragon!...

“What happened after that!”, I said in excitement, this was great!

“Uhh… well… the Lightbringer... died”, she said sadly.

“What!? Bullshit, she was unstoppable!”

“Well it turned out she was stoppable. She goated the dragon helping her into burning her to ash. I don't know why, a lot of ponies think she was just killing herself after her plan to get inside failed”, she said.

“Soo… what happened after that?”, I asked.

“That-”, Khan began with a short pause, “brings us to the story of how the Authority came to be, and why you are hunted today”. He turned to Claw, “do you mind if I tell this part, I’ve been watching this unfold ever since I was a colt”

Claw nodded and Khan took over…

Immediately following the death of the Lightbringer, the Enclave were far from victorious. They had made great gains, but they failed to achieve the total victory they needed. The wasteland was still a huge and viable threat, and the Grand Pegasus Enclave’s foundation of power was falling apart. You see, the Enclave kept control over the Pegasi population by weaving a careful web of lies, at the center of which was an infallible “truth”, the surface was uninhabitable. But the size and destruction of the conflict shattered this lie, the surface was inhabitable, and the military had been lying to them all in order to stay in power.

A peace was brokered by a group of ponies from both the wasteland and the Enclave, whose words calling for unity, security, and the reconstruction of Equestria to what it once was managed to end the conflict. From the wasteland were Professor Zodiac, a brilliant pre war scientist whose body had been reduced to a brain in a robotic jar, but whose mind was as sharp as ever, Life Bloom, a doctor and skilled unicorn spellcaster from Tenpony Tower who was tired of seeing the resources of Tenpony wasted on elegance and plenty for the few when it could be used to help the many, and Prince Splendid, a member of the remnants of Equestrian nobility, a visionary who had great plans to truly bring order and prosperity back to Equestria. From the Enclave were Ardent Vortex, a pegasus revolutionary who had been nearly executed by the Grand Pegasus Enclave for speaking out against them, and Lighthooves, a high ranking pony in the Enclave’s intelligence division, who had seen their lies first hoof and had grown to despise the military leadership that brutally clung to power.

These ponies gained sweeping support from the pegasi of the enclave and the inhabitants of the wasteland, they stoked the fires of anger and pointed it all at the ponies in power. They lynched the Twilight society, a group of ponies that had been secretly running Tenpony in the background, after painting them as architects to the invasion. Then they publicly executed the remaining Enclave council members in a grand spectacle that was broadcast all across the Enclave, and to any receivers that could pick it up in the wasteland.

Things were uneasy in that time, the cloud ceiling was removed and sunlight was returned to the wasteland, pegasi began trading and gathering resources from the wasteland, and what little excess food the Pegasi had were brought down to the wasteland. But there was unease and tension in the air, and for the most part the new governing body created by this group, “The New Equestrian Authority” was only playing peacekeeper, using the remnants of the Enclave military to keep the peace, killing raiders and the like.

Then, the Remnant attacked. You see while all of this was going on there were still plenty of Zebras surviving in their own destroyed homeland. One group, known as the Remnant, had begun to rise to power around the same time as Red Eye and his slavers. They forcefully conscripted every zebra they could find into their ranks with one goal, “Carry out the Caesar’s final order, and destroy Equestria”. Under the command of the ruthless Legate, they invaded Equestria a second time with the intent to finish a war that had been over for two hundred years. They began wiping out entire settlements and regions, killing every pony they found. A series of missiles struck the remaining pegasi cities, infecting their populations with a deadly virus that turned those infected into bloodthirsty cannibals, forcing the pegasi out of the clouds to live on the surface.

The Authority mobilized immediately, they repurposed Red Eye’s factories in Fillydelphia and had even managed to breach and shut down Hoofington’s automated defenses, somehow eliminated the deadly enervation fields that permeated the place that were capable of melting a pony in seconds upon extreme exposure, and reactivated it’s numerous factories. They amassed a large, well equipped army that put the one from before the war to shame, they were armed with new weapons and armor based on pre war prototypes, they were given cybernetic augmentations that made them, faster, stronger, and better than the average pony, and were given brain implants that immediately granted them the training they needed.

They crushed the Remnant and killed the Legate. But as the zebra army fell back broken and defeated, a shadow fell upon Equestria. You see those brain implants the Authority gave its soldiers weren’t removable, none of the cybernetics were. And those brain implants had a second, hidden function, mind control. With the flick of a switch the Authority had a heavily equipment and completely loyal army under its command.

They destroyed any group that could oppose them and turned many of the cities in Equestria into fortified industrial fortresses, purposely leaving the wasteland as lawless and deadly as they could. Any time a large group would organize in the wasteland with the intention of protecting each other they were crushed, only large raider clans, bandits, slavers, and ruthless warlords were allowed to rise to power in the wasteland so long as they left the Authority’s forces alone.

They gave the ponies of Equestria a choice, give up your freedom and work in our factories under our protection, or live in the wasteland and fend for yourselves in the hell we have created.

The wasteland was made even more dangerous with the creation of the dead zone. You see, a short year after the Authority took a stranglehold over the wasteland, and two years after the attack on Neighvarro, a great explosion of taint and radiation erupted from the ruins of Maripony. This “taint wave”, led to new breeds of all kinds of existing wasteland creatures, as well as the creation of the Dead Zone, a large area where the air is permeated with high levels of taint and radiation, capable of killing anything that isn’t mutated in a matter of seconds within it. It surrounds its epicenter at the Maripony crater in a large area, covering a quarter of Equestria, and reaching far above the clouds. The radioactive taint field is constantly fueled by radio-magical emissions that erupt from Maripony seemingly at random.

These emissions also affect the rest of Equestria at large too, they create powerful Taintstorms that quickly irradiate any pony exposed without shelter, and slowly mutates them after enough exposure, assuming the storm itself does not kill them first. The emissions are also responsible for the creation of anomalies, new supernatural hazards, that can be quite deadly should a pony find themselves caught in one.

The Zone is the one place the Authority cannot enter, as Taint will ignore any form of worn or generated protection field, unlike radiation. The only bright side that may be found from the Zone’s creation is that it provides a safe haven for the post-unity Alicorns, who have been mercilessly hunted by the Authority after finally regaining their sense of selves.

Just after this, a final event occured, the shattering of the moon. One night, a bright light lit up the wasteland, and everypony looked up to see a massive explosion destroying a quarter of the moon. After that, a broken eclipse formed when the broken moon crossed the sun’s path a few days later. The Authority claimed the explosion was an unfired pre-war megaspell misfiring after so many years of decay, and the eclipse was perfectly natural, and I have heard stories that give some credit to that. But everybody took it as a sign, many ponies still looked to the sun and moon and thought of Celestia and Luna, thinking that maybe they were still watching over us in the afterlife. Many felt the eclipse and explosion was the princesses finally turning their backs on us, that we were now alone in the hell we had created...

“What happened after that?”, I asked again.

“After that we entered a new dark age, with the Authority continuing to march forward in the name of progress, forcing everypony to choose whether to live in servitude or try to survive on their own in the harsh wasteland full of whole new threats and dangers”, he said, “there is a resistance that tries to fight back, but very few ponies believe in them. They rarely do anything more than win pyrrhic victories at best, and most ponies have become accustomed to the new world order”.

“The ending was a little dramatic but yeah, that pretty much sums it up”, Claw said.

I really mulled over what they had said for a minute. A lot has happened over the last 240 years, and now the authoritarian government with an army of cyber ponies wanted me dead. But that still left one question…

“Why do they want me dead?”, I asked, “or any other stable dweller for that matter, what could we do?”

“Put simply, they dont want another Lightbringer to arise”, he said, “the Authority actually hunts down any pony who wears a pipBuck, calling them Stalkers, because a pony with a pipBuck is already much more of a threat. With a pipBuck, a pony is suddenly an expert markspony, they know how to diagnose wounds and illnesses as well as the best doctor, they have pinpoint navigation skills, they can pick up and decrypt secure transmissions, and so much more”.

“But stable dwellers are special”, he continued, “stable dwellers grew up in large time capsules of sorts, inheriting all the best and worst traits of the old world to varying degrees. Many inherit some part of the old world that makes them capable of bringing great change to the wasteland, like the Lightbringer, who would be willing to sacrifice everything she had, including her life, to see the world become a better place, or Security, a mare who had the perseverance to endure countless hardships in her attempts to make up for her wrongs and protect others. Even Red Eye, the slaver tyrant, was once a stable dweller, he had a powerful personality that could make even the most despicable dregs of the wasteland follow his orders as he tried to build a better future through pain and suffering. These Stable Dwellers were able to demolish factions who had entire armies under their control and changed the course of history”

“Hell yeah they did!”, Claw said brightly. “if you thought the Lightbringer was cool, wait until I tell you about Security”, she said gushing, “she was the toughest, most badass mare to ever live!”

“It sounds like somepony’s a fanfilly”, I said mockingly.

“She died and was brought back from the dead as a cybermare of death, of course I’m a fanfilly!”, she said.

Wait she what?-

“That’s what scares the Authority”, Khan said getting back on topic, “not Claw being a ‘fanfilly’, but the idea that the Lightbringer and Security represented. The idea that an individual, with the aid of a small group of friends, a pipBuck on their foreleg, and a deep seeded desire in their hearts, can tear down entire empires and bring sweeping change to the world. That, is what the Authority is afraid of, change, and Stable Dwellers are the natural bringers of change, as outsiders and remnants of the old world”

“If that’s true, then why doesn’t the Authority just destroy all the stables? I mean there can't be that many that are still active if what you two said is true”, I said.

“They would, but they don't know where they are”, Khan said, “Stable Tec worked in extreme secrecy to make sure any Zebra invaders wouldn’t be able to locate any stables should they invade after launching their balefire missiles. When the Enclave destroyed Stable Tec HQ, they also destroyed the only official records detailing the stables’ whereabouts. Now they have to search for them, and Stable Tec were very good at hiding their stable’s. If a pony gives the Authority the location of an honest to goodness active stable, they are set up for life, a comfortable home in one of the cities, good food, they would never have to work again in their lives”

“Now I’m starting to see why you two wanted me off the street so bad, and I know why Bourbon wanted to know where my stable was, prick”, I said looking between them. “Why are you two telling me all of this? Couldn’t you two sell me out and live it large for the rest of your lives?”

Claw scooted up next to me and put a hoof on my shoulder, “what kind of partner stabs her partner in the back and sells him out?”, she said, “it's you and me to the end man”.

She turned to Khan, “though I have no idea why you’re not selling him out”.

“I have no interest in luxury or comfort”, Khan says, “What I desire is knowledge, to gain a greater understanding of the world. I am also on a… mission of sorts, and no reward the Authority could give me could aid me”, Khan said looking up at the dark sky.

“What kind of mission?”, I asked, genuinely curious.

“I am sorry but… I do not feel comfortable sharing that just yet”, he said, “you just have to trust me when I say I’m looking for something, something that is extremely powerful and dangerous. If I took the reward I would never be able to continue my search. I would be trapped in a cell of comfort”.

“Plus”, he said looking at my forehead, “I felt it prevalent to make sure your journey didn’t come to an end so soon”.

“What does that mean?”, I said feeling a little uneasy.

“Lets just say you have the potential to do great things, or terrible things, in your future”, he said.

“Oookaay”, I said, not really sure how to take that.

Claw stood up suddenly, and she looked to the sky with a worried expression, “oh no. guys, I think the storm is about to get a lot worse”

“I should be leaving anyways, you have your own path to follow, and I mine”. He held out his hoof for me to shake.

I gladly shook it, “take care of yourself Khan, it's been nice meeting you”.

“And you as well Shepherd, and before I go, please take one last piece of advice: never be afraid to act or make a choice. They are what make us who we are, and those that do not act, fade into nothing”, khan said. He then trotted off through one of the ground floor apartments.

“He’s one wierd stripe, that's for sure”, Claw said, “now what?”

“Now? We head to Baleville”, I said with finality.

“We’re going to Baleville NOW!?”, Claw exclaimed as the rain continued to pour harder, with lightning flashing far away.

“Yes, now!”, I replied, “Caesar had me fight in my stable barding and called me the stable dweller! Even if the slaves won the uprising, everypony will still know there’s a stable dweller nearby! I want to have my pipBuck hidden and be as far away from that damn stadium as I can before ponies come looking for me!”. I gestured upwards, “I’m hoping this storm is buying us some time, and that most ponies aren’t crazy enough to go out in a bad storm like this”

“News flash genius! There are A LOT of crazy ponies willing to do that, and WE are two of those ponies!”, she said.

“Oh come on, where’s your sense of adventure!”, I replied, “or are you scared?”.

“Fuck you! I can handle a storm, but this isn’t a normal storm! This is bad!”, Claw said terrified, “some really bad system is about to hit us!”

We made it to a bridge crossing the rushing river that separated the suburban and residential west side of Apple Hills from the rest of the city. It looked clear enough, just a couple of wrecked skywagons littering the bridge.

Further beyond the bridge, and towering above the center of downtown was a 20 story tall stone building. It looked dilapidated and decayed, but there was light pouring out of many of its windows. The light put it in stark contrast with the rest of the dark dead buildings that were almost all half its size. That was Baleville, Khan said it was the place to go if I was looking for civilization, and right now I could really use some civilization, even if it just meant a shower, a clean bed, and a warm fucking meal.

Claw jumped in front of me, “Shepherd, listen please! every part of my body is screaming that we shouldn't be outside right now. Can we please find some shelter!”

I looked into her terrified eyes for a moment, then really took in what was happening around me. The wind was continuing to pick up, the rain was getting worse, and the booms of thunder and flashes of lightning were becoming more and more frequent.

I was being a stupid pony, Claw was right, we shouldn’t’ve been out in the open in a storm as bad as that. We were partners, that meant we had to trust and listen to each other, and I trusted her.

“You’re right, sorry”, I said guiltily, “we do need to find cover, lets turn around, find a nice place to hole up in while this storm blows over, and get some much needed sleep. We can head to Baleville tomorrow”

Civilization could wait another day, why not?

We turned around and started to trot back when a gunshot ripped a hole in the concrete next to my hooves.

“Don't fucking move!”, at least ten raiders came out of the buildings across the street and held us at gunpoint, shit.

“What do you want?”, I said tensely.

A dirty, rust orange pegasus stallion with a black mohawk trotted out in front of the other raiders, “what do I want?”, the raider said while tilting his head, “I’ll tell you what I want, I want my fucking gun back! The one that Lemons motherfucker took from me!”

Oh fuck, “I dont know what you’re talking about”, I lied.

“Bullshit, you’re lying, and you want to know how I can tell? The feathers of my granddad, my dad, and me are still attached to it”, he said pointing at the feathers tied around Thunder’s stock.

“Umm, Kvass! We might want to get some cover!”, one of the raiders said.

“Shut the fuck up! Are you in charge! No! I'm not afraid of some fucking rain!”, he snapped at the raider.

“Look, I didn’t know it was your gun when I got it, and I’m not giving it up now”, I said, I meant what I said before, I wasn’t backing down to others anymore.

He started chuckling, then laughing, “you think- ha ha ha- you think, I want your gun?”, he said with a smile like I just said a joke. “No, you motherfucking little prick, I WANT MY GUN! THE GUN MY GRANDDAD MADE WHEN HE WAS DRIVEN OUT OF THE CLOUDS DOWN TO THE FUCKING GROUND! THE GUN THAT WAS PASSED DOWN TO MY FATHER, THEN TO ME!”, he screamed.

“Holy shit! Shepherd, we need to wrap this up now!”, Claw yelled over the howling wind, now near blinding rain, and the thunders following the flashes of lightning all around the city.

“Claw I don't think we’re going anywhere right now”, I said quietly (relatively speaking, it was loud enough she could hear me, but Kvass couldn’t over the storm).

“You destroyed it, made it your gun, you cut it up and made it your own. I’m gonna make you pay for that by cutting you up the same way you fucking stable prick!”, he yelled.

I was trying to figure out what we were going to do when lightning struck the middle of the street.

But this wasn’t normal lightning! This lightning was green, and instead of just striking and disappearing, this lightning kept continuously arcing between the sky and ground, slowly moving down the street as it did so! The moment it hit, my geiger counter also started ticking like crazy, I was absorbing ten rads a second.

I immediately jumped back startled and landed on my side when it hit. “RUN!”, I screamed as I scrambled to my hooves. We ran for the bridge away from the arcing radioactive lightning and the raiders.

I briefly heard Kvass yelling behind us, “I’ll get you you prick! I’ll fucking tear you-!”, and just like that he was drowned out by the storm.

The arcing radioactive lightning was striking all over, and we had to sidestep one when it began arcing diagonally over the bridge. The wind was making it hard to stay standing, and the rain was like a flood falling from the sky. But that wasn’t the worst part, all the clouds above us had turned green as well. Even when we weren’t next to the lightning arc I was still absorbing three rads a second and climbing.

Me and Claw braced against each other as we struggled to cross the bridge. “What the hell is this!”, I yelled.

“Radstorm!”, Claw yelled back, barely audible over the noise.“and that's a Taintstorm!”, she said pointing a forehoof towards the north side of the bridge.

I looked north, and I swear to the dead goddesses, I felt my heart stop. To the north of the city, and racing towards us at an alarming rate, was a wall of thick purple clouds completely covered in purple lightning. It stretched from high in the sky all the way to the ground like a flashing purple wall of death that was racing right to us.

“If we’re outside when it hits we’re dead, or worse!”, Claw yelled.

We scrambled across the bridge as fast as we could. By the time we were across, and had some buildings to act as buffer against the wind, the Taintstorm had already reached the edge of the city.

Claw kept a wing touching my back as we ran, so we wouldn’t lose each other. I ran straight for the most solid building I could see with an open door, an old brick fire station.

We jumped in and slammed the door behind us, I threw the deadbolt just to be safe. My geiger counter stopped ticking immediately. We both just sat with our backs to the metal door as we caught our breaths in the darkness.

“I can't… see… shit”, Claw said between breaths.

I switched on my pipBuck’s lamp, the hallway seemed clear. There were no windows on the door or the walls next to it, so we didn’t have to worry about the storm getting in.

“Lets see if this place has anything we can dry ourselves off with”, I said shivering, we were soaked to the bone. At least it finally washed all the blood off of us.

“Wait”, she said.

BOOM

The whole building shook like an earthquake just hit.

“What was that!?”, I yelled.

“That storm wall just hit”, Claw said standing up, “we aren’t going anywhere now”.

I stood up and led the way through the building, “how do we know that taint stuff isn’t getting in here?”

“The taint in a Taintstorm is mostly held in the lightning”, she said, “it hits hard and quick, but goes away quickly, as long as the building blocks the lightning, it’ll block the taint from the storm”

We found a kitchen with a little wood burning stove. After breaking up some wood chairs, and making use of my newly returned lighter, we had a nice little fire going. We found the bunkroom and dragged two mattresses down to the kitchen where we could be warmed by the fire. I fried up two of my three cans of Cram and we both had a nice warm meal.

My stomach did an odd toss, “you know, this stuff is really good, but it makes my stomach feel weird. I know the tin says its full of preservatives, but it might have gone bad”

“Pre-war food never goes bad”, Claw said, “you’re just not used to eating meat. Don't worry, you’ll adjust”

My bag kept most of the water out again, but my journal was still a little too damp for comfort. I found a resealable freezer bag inside a drawer that I could use to keep it dry from now on.

As I was writing, I noticed Claw was staring at my pipBuck. “What?”, I asked.

“Nothing, its just… weird knowing a stable dweller”, she said.

“Well it feels weird knowing a pegasus”, I replied.

This whole time I could still hear the raging storm outside. The wind picked up even more for a brief moment, shaking the entire station.

I looked up at the roof, thinking about the nightmare storm outside. “How do you ponies survive up here?”, I asked, wondering how I was going to do the same.

“We just do”, she said.

Fair enough.

Footnote:
Level Up!
Level 3
Perk added: Telekinetic Focus (Level 1): You’ve gotten pretty good at splitting your focus, enough to help you out in a fight! You can now wield two weapons simultaneously without reduced accuracy, and can wield a third weapon with 60% accuracy. This perk also allows multiple objects to be levitated without any additional focus or AP cost.

Author's Note

Author’s Note: I’m excited to be posting this chapter for a number of reasons.

The first reason is because this chapter marks the end of the “Introduction/wanderer” arc, and the beginning of not only the “Baleville” arc, but also the beginning of the “Apple Hills” major story arc. The story started picking up in chapter 3, and now we should be going full throttle going forward.

The second reason I’m excited is because this is the first chapter I’ve written since going back and improving my outline for the story. I should be able to release chapters much more quickly now, and the overall quality of each each chapter should be improved.

The final reason is because Shepherd has obtained his first companion, Claw. He has also finally received answers about the surface through Claw and Khan’s stories, which finishes “setting the stage” for Epilogue. There are still a lot of unanswered questions about the Authority and what happened to the original heroes of the wasteland, but now we can really move forward with the story.

I’d also like to thank KKat once again for writing Fallout Equestria, and thank Somber and Tofu for their contributions in expanding the Fallout Equestria universe. Finally, I’d like to thank all of you, the readers! Knowing that other people are actually reading this and enjoying it gives me so much motivation to keep going. As always, any constructive feedback is always encouraged and appreciated.