Fallout Equestria: The War for the Wasteland

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1: The Return of the Mute Empire
Chapter 2: The Wasteland
Introduction

Prologue

I felt a cool breeze brush over my face. A pleseant smell flodded my nostrils. I felt the sunlight warming up my face.

I opened my eyes to a beautiful bright blue sky. There were a few clouds here and there, but it was mostly blue.

I found myself lying in a patch of flowers. I stood up on all fours to observe them. Their colors were vibrant, and the scent they were releasing eased my mind.

I looked up to a seemlessly endless blue ocean. To the right of the ocean was a beach. There were ponies there playing in the water, or simply sun bathing on towels.

I turned the opposite direction to look down a hill. At the bottom there was a playground. On this playground there was little colts and fillies with one young griffion playing around. Some played tag, some swung on the swings, others just simply ran around laughing and enjoying their time.

Off to the side of the playground were some benches. On these benches were more ponies. I presumed these were the parents or guardians to the foals on the playground. One mare was looking at her smart phone, a stallion was watching his foal play, and what appeared to be a couple was tending to a baby foal in a baby carriage. On the last bench sat a male griffion taking a nap.

I turned once again to shield my eyes with a hoof from the suns rays. I walked forth underneath a tree. Looking past the tree I saw a city. There seemed to be a lot of construction happening. I could only imagine what was going there. Busy streets full of cars, tucks, buses, and semis. Ponies walking about going to work or simply just going for an outting.

I returned to the flower patch and stood on my hind legs. I closed my eyes and relaxed myself. I took in a deep breath and exhaled. I felt happy and warm inside. I continued to inhale and exhale. After about a minute or so I notice something strange. There was a weird smell in the air, almost the smell of ash. I reopened my eyes only to feel the happiness wash away.

I gazed apon the ocean now filled with warships fighting it out in naval warfare. Acompaning the warships were smaller attack boats.

I turned to the playground only to have my soul crushed. On the playground lay the dead bodies of the foals and older ponies. I could tell even from up here that they were shot dead. One of the stallions was beheaded and his head was lying near his corpse.

I turned to the tree to see a mare hanging from a noose. Nearby on the floor was a note indcating to me that she killed herself.

I looked to the city only for it to be full of fires and explosions. Above the city were starships fire their lazers down onto it. I could see flak guns shooting up into the sky at them.

The sky was heavily darkend by clouds and smoke. I heard a loud rumble and looked back down at the city. One of the skyscrapers was collapsing leaving a large dust cloud at the base.

I felt tears start to stream down my cheeks as I fell to my knees. When my knees made contact there was a squish sound. I looked down to see I was no longer on a flower patch, but a mound of dead bodies. I then saw my hooves, they were covered in blood. I was no longer naked, but wearing full combat gear.

I couldn't take what was happening. The tears began to stream out even faster. I didn't need to see the end of this. I looked to my right hindleg. There was a pistol hostler with a pistol. I unhostlered it. It was a colt m1911 with beautiful engravings. The gun it self was black while the engravings were red with a few white details.

I undid the safety and pulled back the slide, cocking the gun. Knowing a round was chambered I slowly lifted it towards my head. I placed it underneath my chin and closed my eyes one last time... and then... I pulled the trigger. The last thing I felt was the round piercing skin and my brains being blown out before everything went black.

I screamed sitting up in my bed. I felt sweat stream down my face as my rapid breaths began to slow down. I wiped the sweat from my face and began to talk to myself.

"Everything is fine, everything is fine Reap," I said to myself as I turned my head to the right. I move the curtain of the window out of the way to the miles and miles of stars and empty space.

I remove the bed sheets and dangle my hind legs off the side of the bed. I looked at the metal night stand next to my bed. On it were several bottles of alcohol, a knife with a blood stain, and three epi pen like syringes, two which had been used.

At this point I started to note how awful I really felt. My head was aching, I felt weak, tired, and... well... depressed.

A sudden pain in my left foreleg cause me to flinch. I lifted it in hopes of finding what has caused the pain. Apon my foreleg were two cuts... that I presumed I did to myself last night. Speaking of last night, what did I do last night?

Suddenly I felt a liquid quickly make its way up my throat. I stood and rushed to my room's bathroom. I dumped my stomach's contents in to the toilet and then some. After finishing I walked over to the mirror. I looked myself in it, not only did I feel awful, I looked awful too.

My mane was messy, my coat was ruffled, my eyes were bloodshot, and they were tear stains on my cheeks. I looked at my horn. My horn was basicly a knife sticking out of my head. On its side were red and white engravings. It was jet black matching the color of my coat. My mane and tail were red with black stripe outlined with white stripes. I really didn't consided myself an alicorn because first, my horn was a knife, second, I wasn't imortal, and third, I have pegasus wings. I unfurled them noticed a few feathers out of place. I looked at my eyes again, but this time a little closer. My irises were blood red with a slight red glow. I turned a little bit to look at my cutie mark, it was the Mutebear, the national animal of my empire. Next to it was the number sixty-six in cursive. My nicknames were Sixty-Six or Reap.

"I need a shower, but first I need to clean up my roo-" I was interupted by a metallic knock at my door. I rushed over to night stand, "Hold on a minute."

I quickly put the bottles and the two used syringes into the trash. I then put the unused syringe and knife into the drawer. I somewhat tried to fix my mane, but to no avail.

I walked over to the door and hit the panel next to it to unlock it. I heard a metallic hiss as the door opened.

There stood Karen, my marefriend. Karen was a unicorn with a burgundy coat and black mane. In her mane was a dark blue stripe with matching blue eyes. Apon her flank was a microphone with a few musical notes around it. She got her cutie mark when we started our own little band back in middle school.

"Hey," She said to me with a smile on her face.

"Hey," I responded as I tried to muster up a fake smile.

"Did you sleep well?"

"No, not really... I kind of had a nightmare."

"Oh, what was it about?"

"Umm, it was about my dad," I lied trying to make it sound like noting special. I saw her smile fade, she saw straight through my lie.

"Are you sure that's what your nightmare was about, Reaper?" She asked me with a hint of concern in her voice.

"Yeah, I'm sure Karen," I said. She gave a sigh and hugged me. I returned the hug and gave her a soft kiss on the forehead. Her smile returned.

"And one more Karen, was I drunk last night?"

"No."

"Thats good to hear-"

"You were wasted," she said her smile vanishing once again.

"Oh, alright then thats all I needed to hear."

"Okay then, I'll be in my room, and by the way are you-"

"Yeah, I'm gonna take a shower," I said as I let her go.

"Alright, come see me if you need anything, and I mean anything," she said as she put a hoof on my chest.

I blushed a little bit impiling what she said. I watched as she slowly walked down the corridoor and making a left. I went back in my room and locked the door.

I walked to the bathroom again and started the shower. I hopped in and stood on my hind legs feeling the warm shower water make its way down my body. My mane fell flat on the side of my face and neck.

"Ahh, this is what I needed."

After my shower, I decided to head to the ship's mess hall for breakfeat. I stepped out of my room and into the darkend halls of the Silencer.

The Silencer was my flag ship in the galactic navy of the Mute Empire. The Silencer was also concidered as a dreadnought as it was the largest galactic ship to ever be used in warfare.

I continued walking down the hall and past a few engineer ponies. I got a bunch of 'Hey sirs' and some bowed down even though I tell them not to. I opened a door into a large hanger. The hanger had ponies, griffions, and diamond dogs going about their daily jobs.

I saw all the vehicles we had in the ship. We had jets, vtols, Mraps, heavy assault robots, and some techicals. What did you call them again, autonomous something something?

By no means was I a smart pony. I considered myself quite stupid actually. Everytime I walk to the bridge I always run into the same low hanging pipe. I could bearly remember the names of the equipment and vehicles we used.

I continued down the over head catwalk into the second crew quarters.

"I should probably tell Karen to go to breakfast with our other friends."

I walked towards Karen's room down the hall. I stopped at the door and sighed. I gave two good knocks.

"Come in," I heard Karen's voice from the other side of the door. I then pressed the button next to the door. The door gave a hiss and opened.

I saw Karen sitting in a chair and looking out the window onto the planets surface. She turned to look at me.

"Oh, hey Reaper," she said turning her head to continue looking out the window.

"Hey, wanna go to the mess hall to find the others?"

"Umm, yeah you go on ahead I join you in a second," she said with a hint of saddness.

"Hey, whats wrong Karen," I said pulling a chair up next to hers.

"Do you think there's anyone alive down there?"

I looked out the window, "I hope so Karen, I hope so."

"I read the rad readings... there is a lot down there."

"Yeah, but the rad levels should be safe enough now."

"Alright, lets go to the mess hall."

We stood up and headed to the mess hall.

We reached the mess hall. Upon entering we saw our friends sitting in the back of the room. First we got our food then sat with them.

"Hey Reap, Karen," they said in unison except the earth pony mare in the back.

"Hey Stiles," I said with a smile.

Stiles was a earth pony stallion with a light brown coat and grey mane, also he had green eyes. Apon his flank was a game controller. Before he joined the millitary he was a serious gamer. After he joined the army he became a field medic.

Next was Catrine. Catrine was a earth pony mare with a dark red coat and dark orange mane, also she had matching orange eyes. We'd met her in high school during a religous festival called 'Dia De Los huesos.' She was the scout sinper of our squad. She was deadly accurate with a sniper rifle. Because of her percision and kill count with snipers, she earned the nickname La Catrina. Her cutie mark was a black mask with a pony skull design on it. She had got it when she made mask for ponies during festivals.

Next was Cyclone. Cyclone or Cyclone Dash as his full name, but we just called him Cy. Cy was a pegasus stallion with light blue coat and gray mane with multiple shades. It was like rainbow mane only grey. He also had a pair of purple eyes. His cutie mark was a cyclone with a lighting bolt coming out the bottom with colors similar to his mane. He was just a standard infantry in our squad just like Karen.

Finally came Helena. Helena was Stiles's marefriend. She is an earth pony with a cream yellow coat and a chocolate brown mane. She also had brown eyes. Her cutie mark was a circuit board; she can almost repair any combat robot on the field, so therefore she became an engineer.

"Where were you two at, what testing the bed springs," Stiles said with a playfull voice.

"Uh, no I was just freshening up for the day," I said as blush rapidly formed on my face.

"O ho, yeah sure you were."

"I'm being serious," I said with my blush turning an even deeper shade of red.

"O let's just finish eating and why don't we head up to bridge to plan tomorrow's mission, we are after all seeing whats on the surface."

"Yeah, let's hope there's still something alive down there."

We continued to walk through the halls of the Silencer. Our goal was to get to the service elevator. Getting closer and getting a few greets from some engineers, we turned a sharp corner. The second I turned the corner I hit that pipe. The same pipe I've been hitting since I started walking these halls.

A loud bang and clang was heard as my face and horn hit the low hanging pipe.

"UGHH, that stupid pipe," I said rubbing my head.

"Here let me see," Karen said moving my leg out of the way,"Your fine Reaper."

"My head doesn't tell me I'm fine." Yeah probably from all that alcohol yesterday.

"It will never get old no matter how many times you hit that pipe," Stiles said with a laugh.

Just pass it of Reap, just pass it off, I thought as we kept walking. We got in the elevator and ascended. We walked into the large bridge with a throne like chair in the middle.

"Captains on deck," a stallion said as he knocked twice.

"Good morning sir," another stallion said walking up to me.

"I assume everything is in order?"

"Yes sir, we are just finishing up our early morning routines."

"Any progress on the Mars ship yard?"

"Yes sir, repairs have already begun."

"Good, what about the base on Europa, Jupiter's moon?"

"It's already up and running."

"Excellent, and the base on Titan, Saturn's moon?"

"Fully operational sir."

"Okay, are there any signs of Imperial Coalition ships?

"Yeah, there are some on the northern part of the planet."

"Okay, so what is the game plan for tomorrows touch down."

"It's just your squad sir, everbody else is staying out of atmosphere."

"Alright so where are we goin-"

"Why don't we send the whole army down there," Cy asked.

"This isn't a planetary invasion Cy," I responded.

"Oh, alright then... continue on."

"So... as I was saying where are we landing and where are we being picked up of we don't find anything?"

"Okay sir your squad is being dropped of here and you are to move towards the small town of Ponyville.. and also sir there apears to be a large energy source undergroung by the town."

"So anything else we need to know?"

"Nothing else sir, everything is in order, radiation levels are safe and you'll have all the gear needed for the mission."

"Speaking of gear, why don't we head to the armory and see what Chop has for us?"

"Yeah I agree," Stiles said with a smile.

"Well then, lets get going."

With that said we made our way back to the elevator. Something inside of me was telling me tomorrow was going be a bad day... and my headache is back... dammit...

Author's Note

Please know that Fallout Equestria does not belong to me, it belongs to Khat.

Chapter 1: The Return of the Mute Empire

Fallout Equestria: The War for the Wasteland
By Mutebear
Chapter 1: The Return of the Mute Empire

We finally made it to the armory. Within the armory was Chop.

Chop was a Diamond Dog and the quartermaster of the armory. He was the one that supplies weapons to everyone on this ship.

"Good day sir," Chop said with a enthusiastic tone.

"As to you too Chop."

"What are you guys looking for today, guns, grenades, blades, I got them all."

"Actually Chop were just here to inform you we need our weapons for tomorrow."

"Oh, well that's a shame, I thought you were gonna go kill some bad guys, like those I.C. bastards."

"No, were just gonna see if there's anything on the surface of Equus."

"Oh, okay then what do you need."

It had only been a few minutes since we ordered our gear. We had all gotten our usual loadouts.

Stiles got his Sacr-H, Karen her M4, Catrine her custom R700 sniper rifle with engravings, Cy with his M240, Helena with her Ump-45, and finally me with my custom M416 and my Colt M1911, the same one from my nightmare.

I sighed and placed it in the locker for tomorrow. I felt the dream slowly seep its way back into my mine. I tried to push it away but already feeling the very real possiblity that that scene could happen.

If the I.C. attack New Romeo, then all the ponies there will be enslaved and killed. My thoughts were interupted by a hoof on my shoulder.

"Hey, you still with us," Stiles said with concern in his voice.

"Yeah I'm good."

"Alright, come on, let's go enjoy our free time while we still have it."

The rest of day went on as normal, sleep hour came and we all rested well. When the time came the time came. We ate and headed to the armory.

When we got there Chop already had our gear ready. Some of our gear was quite intresting. Stiles wore standard armor from the neck below. On his face he wore a gas mask and his helmet had a red cross to indicate he was a medic, but most interesting of all was the spike on top of his helmet. He had the spike there because his great great grandfather had fought in 'The Great War'. The standard color of our armor was black with a little bit of white accents here and there.

There's a reason they called us Shadow Company.

Catrine wore standard scout gear with a black trenchcoat but she had personalized it by painting the outside to make it look like a pony's skeleton. She had always wore a hood with her trademark mask. The mask was the was very similar to the one depicted by her cutie mark.

I wore standard assault gear with some red accents and I wore a hood with a dual fliter gas mask. There was something with me wearing hoods; when ever I get to wear a hood I always do, don't ask me why.

Karen wore standared assault gear, Cy wore standard support gear, and Helena wore standard engineer gear. Of course we all on our right legs had armbands of the Mute Empire's flag.

The flag was quite simple really. It consisted of three colors in a horizontal format. Red on top, black in the middle, and white on the bottom. In the center was a black circle with a red X outlined in white; the same one on the MuteBear's mouth.

We were gonna leave, but I saw Karen grab something from her locker. It was her revolver with an outrageous 8-inch barrel. It was a steel black with blue engravings, and also engraved on both sides of the barrel were the words Bad Blow, which was what she named it.

All of us were suited up and ready to go, but before we could leave Chop stopped me and handed me something bulky wrapped in a cloth. It felt like multiple items

"What's this?"

"Just a small gift from your old quatermaster."

I unwrapped it to find three firearms. The first one was a second Colt M1911 with simillar engravings and color scheme to my first one. The next two were identical sawed off double barrel shotguns with no stocks. They had black plastic grips and they had red engravings with white accents like my 1911's.

"These are beautiful Chop, why did you make me these?"

"Ya know I though our emperor is going to a new planet thay we don't even know that there's life on so, what's the harm in giving him some new toys to play with?"

"Heh, thanks Cho-"

"Hey, why don't we get any new toys," Cy butted in.

"Maybe I can cook something up for you when you get back, how's that sound?"

"It better be a nova gun or a tri-barreled minigun or I ain't taking it," Cy said in a playful tone.

"I do not care, a sinper and blade is all I need to kill," Catrine said with a somewhat scary smile.

"Oh, speaking of blades, don't forget these again," Chop said reaching into a crate behind him and producing seven handles.

He gave me two and the rest of us one. These were nova swords. Nova swords are only used by high ranking Shadow Company troops. The standard color was white but, mine were blood red in color. They could be folded out into a double bladed configuration if the soldier has the skills to wield it like that. Nova bayonets are also used, but only if the soldier chooses to.

Nova was basically mixing magic with electricty and plasma. It was known to be formed into a very sharp blade that could cut through very thick substances. No armor could stop it and in order to stop it you'd have to have armor as thick as a main battle tank's frontal armor between you and the blade.

Now don't ask exactly how it works because I am not a smart pony... I'm just Reaper, Reaper 66.

Nova wasn't just used to make blades. With magic we could bend it to our will. We could use it to power things, but the way we used to the most was for firearms. We could use it to give a soldier unlimited ammo, sure it was a big backpack you'd have to wear but it was worth it; these were mainly used by elite soldiers or heavy machine gunners with hoof held tri-barreled miniguns.

We also used them for flamethrowers. With a nova generator fuel tank we essentially had unlimited fuel to light our opponents a blaze. This same, but enlarge generator was used in flame tanks.

Our vehicles used nova too. Tanks had them, robots, helicopters, vtols, and etc. They all used nova generators to give them ammo and movement.

Nova in its raw state was unbelievably deadly. It's toxicity was unmatched by anything. A mere gram is enough to kill three full grown stallions. Unicorns manged to turn it into a crytal. Then an anccident created a gas from the raw state of nova. The gas would makes your skin burn, blood pours out of your eyes, and final you vomit blood. This also lead to the creation of nova airburst which had the the same effects of the gas, but it wouldn't end your suffering.

When nova was discovered over 230 years ago after the second world war. It changed the world forever. No other powersource was as effective as nova energy. We used nova for pretty much everything. We were carefull who got their hoofs on it. The only other empire that had nova was the Imperial Coalition.

We used that to our advantage and begain to sell nova generators to other states to fun the millitary for the third world war. Then, something bigger came through. The war between Equestria and the Zebra Empire. This was the Mute Empire's chance to make big bucks. They needed better armor and weapons to fight against a techologicly more advanced enemy. Under Luna's consent my grandfather created armor for them with Applejack's and pegasus help. Of course the armor was patented under Applejack's and the pegsai name, due to the fact the Mute Empire had to be kept hidden, yeah a whole empire had to be kept a secret.

The armor itself was cheap and easy to mass produce. All the equestrians had to do was power it up with magic and there you go. We didn't use the same armor because it was meant for four legged combat. We faught on our hind legs, so our armor was less bulky and actually offered more protection because rather than using steel, we used a heavy composite self sealing ceramic metal to make them, and we didn't use magic to power them, we used nova.

We made a ton of money of the equestrians, so we used those funds to make new weapons and boost the research of nova energy. This money was also used to start the cyber pony program. This program was started due to the use of combat robtics on the field. Limbs are replace with cyber limbs with foldable fingers. Organs replaced with synthetic ones, and your eyes were replace with hyper sensitive optics; they were bacsically robot eyes. Finally a cybernetic implant was inserted in your brain.

Later versions of the cyber pony had a complete suit which was connected to the implant via your nerves. It was the most painfull feeling to have it connected to your nerves.

How do I know this? Well because I'm a cyber pony, I just don't look like one. I had decided to have my suit removed and limbs and eyes magicaly hidden. They act just like real pony limbs in every way, yes even the pain factor. I'm ashamed of being more machine than pony, that's why I had them hidden away. I thought I was monster, something that didn't deserve to experience the joys of life. A alcoholic, drug addicted monster. Ya know... there's a reason I tried to commit suicide... seven times.

"HEYYY, earth to Reaper," I heard Stiles say.

"Huh," I said with dumbfounded expression.

"Reap, you froze on us again."

"I did?"

"Yeah, we were trying to snap you out of it but you kinda just stared off into space."

"Damm, sorry guys, I was just thinking about my dad again," I lied trying to sound convincing.

"Well then, let's get going, we got work to do today."

We got to the hanger, where oir vtol was being readed up. As we walked towards it a large robot known as a P.A.W.W.S stomped by us into the second hanger. Don't ask me what it stands for, I'm not a smart pony about remembering names.

We entered the vtol and made our way to the cockpit. I saw that a bat pony mare was sitting in the pilot seat.

"Oh hooo, it's a mare," Stiles said with a mischievous grin and the rubbing of his hoofs before Helena gave him a playful hoof punch in the shoulder. "Hey, what was that for?"

"I heard what you said, and remember you told me not to check any guys out."

"I was just playing around."

I giggled a little bit and turned back to the mare at the pilot seat. She finally turned and greeted me.

"Good day sir, I suppose your mission ready?"

"Yes, we are."

"Okay then let's get you on the ground."

I turned around to see the vtol's hatch close and hiss. Next I felt the rumble of the vtol's engines start up. I heard the hanger doors open up as we begain to hover. We shot out quickly and took for the planet down below. I walked back and sat down on the chair, because I knew it was gonna be a minute before we touched ground.

We finally brown the atmosphere and I was able to look out the window. The first thing I saw were clouds, just clouds, it seemed like a thick cloud cover was covering the surface. I instantly begain to wonder why?

We broke the cloud cover and I gasped at the sight before me. The land was completeling destroyed and poisoned. There was no life in sight and in the distance I could see a city built on the side of mountain, with what appeared to be a pink mist surrounding it.

I saw that we were aproaching the ground, so I stood up and told everyone a very important rule.

"Alright, were about to reach ground and there may be life. Of course we're not here to kill everyone, so do not fire unless fired apon."

"Copy that," Catrine said with a serious tone.

"Finally, some action," Cy said with a enthusiastic tone.

Alright, let's do this.

The vtol's door opened as we stepped out. The land before us was devastated.

"Damm maybe there isn't anyone alive down here," Stiles said with a saddened voice.

"Let's hope Stiles, let's hope," I said with a similar tone.

And so we begain our trek. It had only been five minutes or so before we saw a structure. It appeared to be a two story house. It was run down and decrepited. I didn't know what to expect as we walked up to the house. Right at the doorstep was a blood trail that lead into the home.

I lifted a hoof for the doorknob. It opened.
The room was semi well lit. A foul smell entered my nostrils. The room reeked of decomposing dead bodies. I had to put my gas mask back on.

I had to rechecked my rader and confirmed there was no live signature. We continued up the stairs. It was a corridor with three doors. The first two rooms were empty, a bathroom and guest room, nothing more.

I quietly walked over to the last door and opened it. Behind the door was a sight I would probably never forget. What I saw was mare hanging by her forelegs.

I ran over to her and cut her down with my blade. I called to Stiles to help. I checked her body. She was beaten, raped, and other things I couldn't comprehend. She was cover in blood. She bearly had a pulse, that's why she didn't show up on my radar, it considered her lifeless already.

Stiles was quick with his work. He quickly wrapped bandages around her head, and injected her with a syringe. We worked together to move her out of the house.

Once outside she began to stir. She slowly opened her eyes.

"Were am I?"

"Your okay, now tell what happened to you," I said with a soft tone.

"No, I don't want to remember."

"Why?"

"It hurt so much... are they dead,wha... where... where are they?"

"Who are you talking about?"

"The raiders, were are they?"

"Raiders?"

"Yeah, they hurt me."

I saw that she opened her eyes a little more. She seem to be delusional as she took in her surroundings.

"Who are you ponies?"

"I'm Reaper and this is my squad."

"YOU'RE A REAPER," she said as she drew her hoof back.

"What? No, my name is Reaper."

"Oh," she said easing down a bit.

"Look were gonna call a medical ship for okay, were gonna help you."

"Okay, okay."

I lifted up my hoof. On it was a small display. It was used for all sorts of things like inventory management and location.

I opened up a connection and ordered them to immediately send a medical vtol. The vtol arrived quickly. The back hatch opened up. Two ponies with a stretcher came out.

They immediately strapped her up and taken her to the vtol. The vtol took off as quickly as it came. Something told me we had just saved a life.

We continued to walk to Ponyville according to the map. As we approached the town my radar gave a beep, and other, and other. It started to show life signatures within the town.

I could see ponies walking around. They were semi covered in blood and wearing crude armor. We got closer and closer. One of them noticed us.

Instantly he drew a firearm and shot. I heard screaming and more gunshots. We all got the call and returned fire.

"I WANT THAT ONES ARMOR," A stallion screamed out.

"ONLY IF YOU'RE THE ONE TO KILL HIM," a mare responded.

"THEIR GUNS ARE SO SHINY," another stallion screamed.

I ran for cover. Stiles took cover next to me.

"It seems we pissed off the locals by doing absoulutely nothing," Stiles said with a disappointed tone.

"Oh... today's gonna be fun."

I peeked over and saw a pony toss a grenade. The grenade landed next to me. I immediately picked it up and threw it back. The stallion freaked out and ran. The grenade blew, but it didn't kill him. He fell in pain as the grenade's shrapnel pierced his skin.

I unloaded three rounds into him to end his suffering. I saw four ponies storm down the center of the town. I decided to flank them and go around. I peeked around the corner of the alleyway. Two ponies dropped dead, presumably by Catrine picking them off. I gunned down the other while more hostile ponies showed up.

Cy ran and dived into a prone position. He deployed his bipod and began to lay down suppresive fire.

I retreated back into the alley and continued my flank. Another pony came around the corner gun at the ready. I waited for the right moment. He shot two rounds as I side stepped them.

He wore a suprised face as I unloaded a few rounds on him. He dropped as I ran over to inspect the body. I took notice of his firearm and the awful condition it was in, also it appeared to be fired with his mouth instead of a hoof.

I threw the gun off to the side and took a look at his corpse. His armor consisted of steel plates and some type of fabric. These guys were obviously ill equipped to deal with us. Maybe these were the raiders that mare was talking about.

I ran down the alley he came out of back into a view of the street. I was about to shoot one of ponies when the back of his head was blown out. Catrine always had a tendency of stealing my kills.

I switched to a new target and opened fire. I killed three of them before I heard my gun make a click sound. I backed into cover and reloaded. I peeked out and saw a mare running at the alley with a spiked bat. I put M416 on my back as I drew one of my new sawed off shotguns.

She turned the corner and swung at me. I was quick to react as I grabbed the vat right below the spikes and lifted my shotgun. I saw her eyes widen and her pupils dialate. I fired one shell as her head exploded into a red mist. A little bit of blood splattered onto one of my mask's lenses, I simply wiped it of.

I reloaded my shotgun and put it on my back before taking out my M416 again. I turned the corner to see the last two ponies had been killed.

We all pushed to the final life signature. It was in a house. The house itself was made into a tree. I took point as we prepared to breach the front door. I kicked the door open and we stormed inside.

The life signature was in the next room; he was around the corner were the door would open. I opened the next door and a stallion with a shotgun sprung out around the door. He fired a shot into me making me flinch a little but the shots didn't pierce.

"What kind of alicorn steel ranger shit ARE YOU?"

I drew my shotgun and shot him. Both he and his levitating shotgun dropped. I took a look around the room. Dead bodies and endtrails hung from the ceiling.

"Looks like someone else already cleaned house before these guys," Stiles said.

"Yeah, it does so appear that way," I replied.

I checked out the second story to find the decomposing dead body of a mare. A sniper rifle lay on the ground nearby her corpse. I headed back down stairs to find my squad checking some of the books in the room.

"Hey Reap, what's with all the books, I highly doubt that these guy came here to steal books," Cy said.

"I'm not sure Cy," I responded.

I took notice of the books strewn about on the floor. One particular book caught my attention. I bent over and picked it up. I flipped it around to read the cover. The cover read 'The Waste Land Survival Guide'. Hmm... interesting.

I decided to keep the book because it might hold some useful future information.

I headed outside with the others. We had decided to head to the power source we were told of. It wasn't long before a large red... or what use to be red barn was in sight.

According to my map the power source was underneath the barn. It also designated this place as Sweet Apple Acres. We walked up to the barn to notice someone already left, since the door was open.

We entered and saw a hole in the ground with stairs. It was dark so we turned on our night vision. All our masks and gear had both night vision and enhanced vision.

The decent was erie and atmosphere felt off. We continues through the tunnel until we came across the skeletal remains of ponies. Futher down was a large door with the appearance of a large cog or gear. Right in the center was a large number two.

My map updated once again; designating this as Stable 2. I walked closer to the door trying to see if there was anyway in; there didn't appear to be any. I tried to open it with my mini computer. I was asked to enter in a verification code. I entered my code which granted me instant access. It greeted me with a 'Welcome to Stable Tec.' I thought about it for a few seconds whether or not we should go in.

I put my hoof up against the door and then my rader beep, and it didn't stop. After a minute of seemlessly neverending beeps my rader stopped. I saw that there were life signatures all inside the stable.

"Are we going in," Stiles asked.

"No, I think it's better if we leave these ponies alone," I answered.

We returned to the surface and I took notice that the skys were getting darker, indicating to me that the sun was setting.

I decided we were gonna spend the night in the barn. I ordered Catrine to set up a tripwire to alert us to anypony who entered the barn. We grabbed some hay to sleep on. I took off my gas mask and hoodie and lied down on the hay. I saw Karen walk up and plomp herself down next to me. I felt her hoofs wrap over my stomach. I turned on my side and wrapped my hoofs around her taking her into a loving grasp.

"Good night," I heard her whisper.

"Good night," I whispered back.

Soon I felt into unconsciousness.

I stirred as I felt my body awaken slowly. I carefully left Karen's sleeping form on the hay. I looked to my left to see that Stiles, Cy, and Helena were still passed out, however Catrine was nowhere to be found.

"Ugh, Catrine was always an early morning pony," I whispered to myself; careful not to wake my friends.

I stretched a little bit before walking upstairs, but then my body began to shake. I need one, I needed it bad. I looked at Stiles's backpack full of medical supplies. It is there when I realized I'd forgotten my last sryinge. I couldn't help myself, I walked over to the backpack and unzipped it. I grabbed one and jabbed it into my foreleg. I instantly felt my body cease its shaking. I felt guilt enter my body, I knew I was hurting Karen my injecting myself, but... I can't help it. I simply walked upstairs and out the barn.

I saw Catrine sitting on a knocked over tree eating and cleaning her Rifle. Umm... I'm pretty sure that that's not sanitary.

I walked over to her as she greeted me with a good morning, and a did you sleep well?

"I always sleep well when I sleep with Karen."

"Oh, I see."

I reached behind me to grab my food ration. We all had three, and they lasted a full day, so we gad plenty of food for three days.

After getting my food prepared I saw Stiles and Helena walk out of the barn holding hoofs. We exchanged good mornings as they got out their rations.

"Hey, Reaper," Stiles said.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Karen said that you're the hottest stallion she's ever met."

I nearly choked on my food hearing that. I heard Stiles's laughter as my face begain to redden. I was still coughing as Stiles continued to laugh.

"Not... funny."

"Oh yes it is," Stiles said with a grin. "You've been with her since highschool and yet you still get embarrassed about somepony making a joke about you two being together."

I sighed and continued eating. Eventually Karen and Cy emerged from the barn and joined us eating. After we all finished eating and checking our equipment we headed off. After some time I recived a call from the Silencer.

"Sir, your pick up vtol is fully fueled and loaded, are you ready to return to the Silencer?"

"Negative, were staying for two more days and then we'll order supplies for more days."

"Okay sir, I make sure it gets done."

We decided to head to a place on the map that was marked as we flew over here, it was called 'New Appleloosa'.

"Alright were moving towards the town of New Appleloosa," I said in a commanding tone.

"Sounds like a nice place," Cy said while walking past me.

"No, it sounds like the a slum to me," Stiles said.

"Ya never know until you've been there," Cy responded with a happy tone.

"Yeah, have you been there before?"

"No, but we're going there."

"Ugh, speaking of going there, why didn't get us a ride of sorts," Stiles asked in an annoyed tone.

"What? You're too lazy to walk," I answered.

"No... its just that... that..."

"That what?"

"Okay maybe I'm feeling a little bit lazy today."

"When are you never Stiles, when are you never," I said with a smile as we continued walking.

Not much happened since we left the barn but a few calls here and there. Not until we heard a buzzing sound.

"Hey, do you guys hear that," Stiles asked.

"Yeah I do," Cy said.

"Affrimative," Catrine said.

Then we saw these flying creatures. They seemed mutated and out of proportion.

"They seem friendly," Stiles said sarcastically.

We lifted our weapons and prepared for combat.

"Weapons free," I said in a commanding tone.

The insect like creatures were shot out of the air one by one. One got a little bit too close to Karen. I drew my nova blade and sliced it in half.

"You okay," I asked in a concerned tone.

"Yeah, thanks to you," she said giving me a wink.

I felt my cheeks heat up slightly. I pushed it off to the side and we joined the others.

"What are these things," Cy said while poking the corpse with his knife.

"I'm not sure, but it's definitely not natural," I said.

"Yeah, no shit," Stiles said.

"Alright, no time to stall let's move," I said turning around and walking.

By now I could see the town, and by the looks alone I could see it was well guarded. There was a wall of train cars surrounding it. I could see a crane also doing some work on the wall. I noticed two snipers on the train cars.

"Catrine, two snipers, top train cars, right and left."

She only nodded in response.

"Watch if any of these ponies open fire, or maybe they're friendly," I said.

"Hopefully, I want to rest a little bit," Stiles said with a sigh.

"Yeah, we all do Stiles."

We started to close the distance. The sniper on the right noticed us and alerted his partner. They were scoping us in, but they didn't shoot. Hoping to show we weren't here to cause trouble, I took my M416 and put it on my back. I signaled the others to do the same. I also removed my gas mask.

We reached the town's entrance. A few ponies began to trot up to us. They gave us stares that said 'what are these ponies and why do they walk like that?' Finally one spoke up.

"Uh... who exactly are you ponies," a stallion asked with a hint of fear.

"I'm Reaper and this is my squad of the 115th regiment of Shadow Company," I stated flatly.

"You're a reaper," he said backing up a little.

"No, my name is Reaper."

"Okay and umm, what is that on your head," he asked obviously still confused about what was previously said.

"It's my horn."

"What happened to you, what balefire radiation mutated you?"

"Umm no, I was born with it."

"So your mother was mutated with it."

"No, it is natural for me."

"So, if it's natural, then are you an alicorn?"

"No, I don't consider myself one."

"Also why are standing on your hind legs?"

"It's just the way we prefer combat. It's easier for us to aim and use firearms like this."

"Okay then, what are you doing here?"

"We're just looking for a place to rest, we're not here to cause trouble."

"Well then you should look at the train car hotel."

"Thank you for the recommendation," I said as he trotted away.

The walk through the town was awkward, to say the least. Everyone stared at us. It got so uncomfortable that I put my mask and hood back on. The town wasn't very big so we tried to find the hotel. When we did find it, we weren't surprized much.

I walked up to stallion at the makeshift desk.

"Excuse me, how much will it cost to stay for the night?"

"13 bottlecaps per night."

"Bottlecaps?"

"Yes bottlecaps."

"Oh pardon us, we're new here in the Wasteland."

"New? Everywhere in the Wasteland they use caps."

"You wouldn't understand. Well we best be on our way."

I walked out to the others. They all seemed eager for an answer.

"So where are we staying," Stiles said anxiously.

"Umm... about that, we can't afford it."

"What do you mean?"

"These ponies use bottlecaps as a currency here."

"What," Stiles said already starting to giggle,"what? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard, you can't be serious,"

"I'm being serious, and can you keep it down," I whisper yelled.

By now even Stiles noticed the attention he was attracting.

"Yeah, it's time for us to go now," I said starting to walk back to the entrance.

We left the small town and continued our journey. We had decided on walking past New Appleloosa and towards seemlessly nowhere.

"O god, that place was weird man," Cy said shivering.

"Yeah I think everywhere here is weird Cy, telling that the fact that they decided to use bottlecaps as a currency," Stiles said.

"Speaking of caps, I was gonna ask why those ponies in Ponyville had so many of them. Well now I have my answer."

"Yeah... well fuck, I kinda wanna leave now. I thought I was gonna have fun here."

"We didn't come here to have fun Stiles. We came here to see if anyone was still alive, and if so, if they need help, like that mare," I said.

"Ya know sometimes you really make me hate my job, maybe I shoulda stayed a gamer."

"Hey, cheer up, hopefully we'll find a shack or something with some beds and we'll rest up."

But before we could find something I recieved a call from the Silencer.

"Sir, we just got info that IC vtols have entered the atmosphere."

"Really?"

"Yes sir, they're on the artic part of Equis."

"Umm... I highly doubt that there's ponies up there. With what I've been seeing I don't think they can survive up there. But still keep them under surveillance, Over and out," I said ending the call.

About twenty minutes later a slight drizzle began to hit us. I also heard a light hum and buzzing sound. Thinking it was more of those mutated insects I lifted my gun, only to find a small insect like robot flying towards us.

It stopped to hover in front of me. Then it spoke.

"Why hello there."

"Umm... hello," I responded. Just then my cybernetics told me the voice behind the bot was being hidden. Also it knew who exactly was the voice hidden behind the bot. Spike, was what it read. My eyes widdened a little bit at the reveal of the voice. I opened up his file and found that he had some connection with my grandfather and that he was also a dragon, but I had to wait my turn.

"I saw what you did back in Ponyville, you helped that mare."

"Of course we did, it's our job to do so."

"No, you didn't do it because of your job, you did it out of kindness and generosity."

"Well yeah, you could say that too."

"I am Watcher."

"Watcher huh, sounds like you watch things."

"I don't just watch over things I watch and watched over everything for the past 200 years, but I've been looking for something."

"If that's the case then can I ask you a question."

"Ask ahead."

"You wouldn't by any chance know a pony by the name of Romeo 115? He had a horn like mine and always carried around a black serpent with black mane, claws, and wings?"

"Why yes I do. Why do you need to know?"

"No reason in particular. Now me and my squad are on mission we must continue helping in kindness and generosity my scaled friend," I said smiling while backing up.

"What did you say?"

"Don't worry about it," I said removing my gas mask. "Oh and you can call me 66 if we meet again S-p-i-k-e," I said saying each letter slowly.

As we walked away I heard the bot start to play music as we continued on.

"Hey Reap, what was that about," Stiles asked with a concerned tone.

"It was about my granddad, he was the one helping these ponies out before the bombs fell."

"Heh, the only part I got was when you said he had a serpent," Cy said with a chuckle.

"Oh... yeah he got that when his dad died. It was only a baby, so it was small snake basically."

"Yeah, a snake with claws and wings."

"Don't forget the mane," Stiles said pointing at his helmet.

"Ya know I heard those get really big and old," Cy said.

I sort of had a moment to myself. I started to remember some of the books and files I read about Equestria. One city I read about was Hoofington. I took notice how similar it was to one of our industrial cities. Motor City was very close to New Romeo back in our world. It had the same style with large skyscrapers. It had the canals, docks, and factories. The underground tunnels and pipelines.

They're some differences of course. For example Motor City was bigger than Hoofington, and it wasn't hit by a megaspell. Also Hoofington didn't have a ship dock. Ship docks are giant skyscrapers that let orbital ships dock and unload cargo and passengers.

I went to Motor City once, it was pretty fun. Apparently Stiles grew up there. I still wondered whether or not to go back after all this has blown over.

The slight drizzle suddenly became a thunderstorm as our trek became more energy wasting. Lighting strike after lighting strike was heard. The ground we walked apon was no longer a hard ground, but a mushy mud, that with each step, produced a squish sound.

A bolt of lighting suddenly struck the mud in front of me, sending me tumbling to my rump. I rubbed my head a bit before looking up to see a pony standing there. Wait... wait a second. This wasn't a normal pony. This pony was adnormally tall and purple, also it had wings and a horn.

"Uh... it that an alicorn," Stiles asked somewhat concerned.

"Yeah, that just about looks like one," I answered standing up on my hind hoofs again.

"YOU ARE NOT LIKE THE OTHERS," the alicorn say with a very loud and almost commanding voice.

"Uh... yeah, isn't that a good thing," Stiles said with a playful tone.

"YOU DO NOT PLAY GAMES WITH US."

"Shesh, don't cry about it."

"And who's US," Cy butted in.

"Both of you shut it," I said in my commanding voice.

"WE ARE THE GODDESS. IN UNITY, WE WILL REBUILD THE GREAT EQUESTRIA."

Yeah, the GREAT EQUESTRIA my ass.

"Look, what do you want? Food? Money? Come on, don't just stare at us."

"WE WANT YOU TO JOIN US."

"What? Umm... no. I already got other plans we're working on."

"IF THOU SHALL NOT JOIN US. THEN THEY MUST PERISH."

"Hey, don't ya think that's a little harsh for us not joining your little filly scouts," Stiles said with that same playful tone.

"Stiles," I hissed back at him. "I don't think we wanna piss this thing off."

"Yeahhh, sure we do."

Suddenly I heard two more cracks of thunder and then they were two more alicorns, another purple and a green one. They then casted shield spells around themselves. I nearly let out a laugh.

Magical energy shield? Heh, foal's play.

I drew my blades and simultaneously threw a flashbang. The loud bang seemed to stun the alicorns more than I thought. They stepped back a few times trying to stop the ringing in their ears. It wasn't long before I closed the distance.

I trudged threw the thick mud. I used a rock to propel myself the remaining few meters. I landed in front of the first alicorn just as it started to regain its barings. I sliced once. The nova blade less than easily cut threw the alicorn's shield. The shield shattered and the alicorns head rolled on the ground a few times.

By the time the other two had recovered, it was already too late, their heads were already disconnected from the rest of their being. The three headless corpses stood here before they simply toppling over to one side.

"They never saw it coming," I said in a cocky tone. I turned to see my friends smiling.

"Nice work," Catrine said walking past me.

"Yeah, nice work o Mr. Depressed," Stiles said in that playful tone again.

I rolled my eyes smiling joining the others in the endless trek, maybe I shouda called for a ride. It wasn't long before more of them appeared.

We all got the memo and opened fire. One of the alicorns was gunned down before it could get its shield up. The other ones were already preparing for a counter-attack.

"RAHH," Catrine roared as she charged the alicorn with her nova bayonet. The green alicorn simply stood still presumably believing Catrine couldn't pierce her shield, well... she was wrong.

Catrine forced the bayonet through. The shield shattered and the bayonet meet flesh. Catrine lifted the alicorn and pushed her over pinning her to the ground. She sliced to the left killing the alicorn.

Cy attempted to gun down the other alicorns, but their shields held. They too distracted with Cy to notice Stiles had gone around behind one of them. Stiles used his club. The shield shattered, and then Stiles brought the club to her leg, right at the knee joint... ouch. The alicorn shrieked as the club meet her leg, causing her leg to bend the wrong way. The alicorn turned and looked down. While the alicorn did this, Stiles brought it back and swung at the alicorn again, striking her in the face, sending her on her back.

The other alicorns simply watched as their sister was killed. They seemed pissed off to me, telling only by the fact they tried to strike Stiles with lightning, but he dodged.

We were about to do something but their shields shattered, and their heads rolled. Seemlessly out of nowhere Karen appears in front of me holding her nova blade.

"Did you use your active camo," I asked.

"Yeah," she responded.

"I didn't even see you go into... it," I say somewhat studdering.

"Umm, that's the whole point of active camo Reap."

"Oh yeah, of course that's the point of it... he he," I said, a now reddening blush appearing on my face.

Karen only giggled (Making my face even redder) as she turned to keep walking. We continued to walk along a straight path to... well... were ever we were going. I checked the time on my hoof. It wouldn't be getting darker for a good forty minutes.

The rain continued to pound us. I mean our suits had built in heaters, but still, it was cold. The mud didn't help either. The wet nature of it made it hard to walk. I looked up to the sky covered in clouds, their dark color making it seem like wasteland had factories going for two-hundred years straight.

We just kept on moving. We didn't stop, but we needed to. We needed rest, we hadn't stopped since the barn. Finally we could see a town, we could get some rest. The rain didn't let up. We were hoping the ponies here weren't hostile. My hoofs ached from trudging through the mud. The sun by now had long gone down, well... if we could see it. The clouds prevented any sorts of moon light through. The pitch blackness helped us see the lights of the town.

We got closer. I heard my radar give a few beeps. There were definitely ponies here, were they bad? We didn't know.

I heard gunshots... dammit.

I checked my M416 and prepared for a firefight. We turned the corner out into the center of the town. There was a single green alicorn in the center. She seemed to be talking to herself. We started walking towards her, only for some more alicorns to appear behind us.

I took my blades out and charged at them. I dodged a few lightning strikes from them. I jumped over them and sliced. Two of them lost their hind legs. I heard them shriek. Their shields were useless against my blades. I used my hind legs to pin them down before I brought my blades down on their heads. My friends had already dealt with the other alicorns with their blades.

I turned back to the center of the town, there was a mare now. Her coat was a grey and she had a brown mane. Her horn was glowing and releasing sparks profusely. Above her was a train car with a green glow.

The alicorn didn't seem to notice the train car though. She slowly but surely hovered it over the alicorn's head. I was waiting for it to drop when I heard another voice. There was a brown pegasus on the roof of a building with orange mane.

The car dropped. A loud clang was heard as the train car crushed it's victim without mercy. The attack wasn't over just yet. More alicorns ported in surounding the mare. The pegasus on the building took flight as he began to circle the skys.

I took action as I jumped out of the shadows into the light, my friends followed closely behind. I sliced two alicorns and tossed a grenade over the mare, killing three alicorns. By now the alicorns realized the mare wasn't the only threat. I killed two more and my friends killed the other three via their blades.

I ordered them to defend her while I hunt the other ones. I ran after them. I produced another flashbang and threw it. I couldn't imagine the pain of the blinding and ringing effect it gave. The alicorns staggered as they atempted to cover their eyes and ears. I quickly ended their suffering as I beheaded them both. I could have sworn there was three not two.

The final alicorn took me by surprise as I was hit by a magical energy beam. I watched as the alicorn came put of seemlessly nowhere.

"What? You have active camo too huh," I said panting.

The alicorn didn't have the chance to say anything before it was blown to pieces by a rocket.

"Hey, we didn't bring ant Smaw's," I said looking over to where the rocket was fired from.

I saw an approaching stallion. But wait, no he was different. He wore a full suit of armor. He just kinda stood there and looked at me.

I stood up and dusted myself off. I walked over to him.

"Uh, thanks for the assist back there," I said still panting.

"There is no need to thank me. I saw you were in trouble, so I did what I had to do," he said to me in a deep voice behind his armor.

"I need to regroup with my squad," I said backing up and turning back to return to the town center.

When I got back I noticed my squad and the mare was missing. The pegasus was also missing. I checked my radar and saw they were in the two story building in front of me. I ran over to it and went inside.

When I went in I saw all my friends with the exception of Stiles sitting down. Stiles was tending to a charcoal black mare with a white mane. Her mane also had a streak each of red and gold. The brown pegasus was tentatively watching Stiles work.

Exhaustion finally caught up with me and I collapsed against the wall. I removed my mask and hood. I took a drink of water from my canteen and gave a heavy sigh. I saw Karen walk over to me.

"Reap, we need to move now. These mares are in need of rest and it's not safe here. Those alicorns know we're here."

"Ugh, where can we go? We won't make it back to New Appleloosa."

"I don't kno-"

Karen didn't get to finish before the armored stallion reappeared.

"I know were we can go. I have a shack not far from here. You can rest there."

I thought about it for a second. I looked around at my squad. They all gave me nods of approval.

"Alright then, lead the way."

The trek there wasn't long thankfully. Me and Stiles had carried the unconscious mares there. I had carried the grey one bridal style into the shack. I layed her unconscious form on a nearby bed. Stiles had done the same with the charcoal mare.

I took off my hood and mask again. I took another drink of water from my canteen. Stiles was continuing to work on the charcoal mare. I could hear the rain pound the shack's roof, it calmed me. Exhaustion came again as I found myself a nearby bed too. It wasn't long before I myself slipped into unconsciousness.

When I woke up, I could hear my friends talking outside. I sat up and dangled my legs off the side of the bed. I saw the other two mares were still sound asleep. I saw that the door leading out was open. I was about to head put when my body began to shake.

Oh no... not now please.

I looked around and saw Stiles's backpack leaning against the legs of one of the beds. I tipped hoofed over to it and unzipped it. I grabbed the shot and plunged it into my arm. I felt the shaking stop. I put the sryinge into my pocket to dispose of later. I stood up and turned to the open door. I stepped outside.

I saw my friends and the unnamed pegasus and armored pony talking. Karen was the first to notice me. She turned and smiled at me.

"Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, for once I didn't have any nightmares."

"That's good to hear. So... are you gonna join us eating?"

"Yeah," I said grabbing a ration from my back.

We sat down with the others and ate our meals. I'd realized I've yet to find the names of the pegasus and armored pony.

"Umm, I'm sorry about yesterday. I didn't mean to doze off so soon. My name is Reaper. I asume my squad has informed you about who were are," I said holding out a hoof to the pegasus.

"Ahm Calamity," he responded shaking my hoof.

"Nice to meet you Calamity."

I turned to the armored stallion. "I thank you again for the save yesterday. What's your name?"

"Steelhooves," was all he said.

"Nice to meet you Steelhooves, I appreciate the hospitality," I said sticking out my hoof. But when grabbed it my HUD gave me a warning.

I looked up at my radar and realized something... the armored stallion wasn't giving a heartbeat, he was giving off radiation.

I took my hoof back in and stared at him. He gave me a cold stare in return... or what felt like one. The helmet visor only seem to make it worst. He, in appearence, was just a machine. It almost reminded me of myself... almost.

I felt a little uncomfortable and looked away. This stallion wasn't even a stallion according to my HUD. I decited to scan him while we were eating.

Helena offered Calamity a bit of her ration and he accepted. He said that he's never actually tasted food like this. I was quite surprised as we considered this as... well... quite shitty food.

I noticed my scan was almost complete as I took a glance at the armored stallion. I didn't know if he saw me looking or not through the visor. I decided to break his silence as I offered him some wheat bread.

"Hey, Steelhooves, you hungry? You could have my last wheat bread," I said in the calmest tone possible for me.

"No, I already ate earlier."

"Okay, just asking cause you're the only one not eating here."

"Thank you, but I'm fine."

My HUD gave a beep signaling to me that the scan was complete. I realized I couldn't just open it up here so I made up a lie and excused myself. I went inside and saw the two mares were still asleep.

I trotted over to the corner and stood up on my hind legs. I opened up the scan, revealing a hologram. I told it to give me a diagnostic. I skimmed through the information it gave me.

Species and Sex: Earth Pony Male

Full Name: Applesnack

Age: Approximately 220 years old.

Designation: Steel Rangers

Armor: Model 18A1 from the Romeo Model Arms Factory.

Serial Number: 127450335

Software is out of date and damaged.

No life signature found within.

Large amounts of radiation and biohazardous material detected.

Chemical detected as nova in a gas from reduced to pure atoms. This chemical is treatable through nova clensing.

I recoiled a little bit on the info, but still... 220 YEARS OLD! Maybe gramps over here shouldn't be in that armor, but then again... if hes been in that armor for two hundred years, then probably knows how to use it effectively.

I learned to not underestimate old technology. Some old tech is even better than the new. I heard and moan behind me. I turned to see the gray mare was just turning over in her sleep.

"I should ask Calamity who they are," I said to no one in particular.

I saved and closed the file. I took a look around the small shack. I don't know why but it reminded me of the cabin me and parents use to go for Christmas. I felt a pleasnt sensation make its way up my body. I unfurled my wings and shook them a bit.

"That kind of gave me the chills," I once again said to no pony in particular.

I dropped to all fours and trotted outside. I took a seat next to Karen and chowed down on the last of my ration. I didn't know what to do untip I remember to ask Calamity who the mares were.

"Hey, Calamity?"

"Why yes," He responded.

"Who are the two mares still passed out?"

"Velvet Remedy and-"

"Littlepip," Steelhooves finished for him. "Why do you need to know?"

"I'm just asking. I'm not trying to start something."

"Okay, but I need to ask you something too."

"Ask away then," I said as my heart started to beat faster.

"Why are you here?"

"Umm," I paused trying to think of reason other than me just wanting to come here to help out ponies. Then it hit me, the Imperal Coalition. "We're here because of the possibility of the Imperal Coalition executing a planetary invasion," was the best thing I could muster up in those few seconds.

"Who are they?"

"They are-"

"They are the most evil ponies you will ever come across," Karen interupted me.

"How so?"

"Let's see, they enslave, torture, slaughter, kidnap, experiment on, and plenty more things on the ponies who live on their soil.

"What do you mean, and where? I've never heard of this Imperal Coalition."

I looked around and notice that Calamity was very intrigued in their discussion.

"They forced ponies to work and fight for them. All ages from foal to elder. They don't care about your will, they'll squeeze every last bit of work out of you. The military only gets worse. They use slave ponies as soldiers with barely anything to send them off to there deaths. The best route is to be a willful volunteer, but... you have to prove it. If you were to so much as fail one test, it would mean your end."

"They don't fear death. They embrace it. The joy of killing runs the IC," I added.

"The Beauty of Annihilation," Karen said with a saddened tone.

Steelhooves looked down, and simply stare at the floor. I couldn't help but remember what they did.

Those... those... those animals murdered my family. He killed him... he was the one... the bastard who ended my father and mother's life and set the bomb off.

I felt a tear form in the corner of my eye. I wipped it away and looked up. Calamity looked at me if he knew something was wrong. I wouldn't dare to look at Karen now.

"What is troubling you Reaper," Steelhooves asked in the same deep voice.

"It's... it's hard to explain." I sighed and clamed myself so I could talk. Before I could muster up anything I heard a voice come from the shack.

"Oh... umm why hello," the mare with a carcoal coat said in a friendly tone. "Uh you don't mind if I join you do I?"

"Not at all," I said in an equally friendly tone.

The mare calmly trotted over and took a seat next to Calamity. I realized I still haven't ate my wheat bread, so I decided to give it to the mare... or uhh... was it Velvet Remedy.

"Hey, um Velvet Remedy? Would you like my wheat bread?"

"Oh, why thank you," she said taking it in with her magic.

"I see you... I see you," Stiles said with a smile and pointing a hoof at his eye and then at me.

Helena, Cy, and Karen giggled a little bit. I realized and started to blush at what he was implying. I gave him a stern look, but this only made them laugh more, telling the face that my face was as probably as red as the brightest of tomatoes. I rolled my eyes and turned back to Velvet and Calamity.

"I'm sorry but I don't belive I got your names," Velevet asked with a simle.

"Oh, they are Reaper, Karen, Cyclone, Stiles, Helena, and Catrine," Calamity said pointing at us with his wing after saying our names.

"Thank you Calamity," Velvet responded.

There was a somewhat awkward silence before I got a call from the Silencer.

"Sir, do you copy, does anypony copy?"

"Yeah I hear you loud and clear Silencer," I responded.

"You went dark last night, what happened sir?"

"There was a bit if a storm yesterday. It might have messed with our comms."

"Okay sir, do you need any supplies at the moment?"

I looked over at my squad and they all nodded.

"Could you get more medical supplies, Reap," Stiles asked me.

"Sure, uhh Silencer we could use the supplies and some more medical supplies."

"Right away sir."

"Oh and uhh could I get a trench coat. I'm kinda frosty after yesterday."

"Of course sir, a vtol will be on the way with you shortly."

"Copy that," I said before disconnecting.

I returned my focus to the others, however I did take notice how Velvet's ears perked up when I said medical supplies. Steelhooves seemed very interested in what I had done.

"Uh, who in the heck did you just talk to," Calamity asked with what seemed like a genuinely confused face.

"It was just a check up from the Silencer," I responded.

"What in the heck is the Silencer?"

"The Silencer is my flag ship. It's a dreadnought class starship. Largest one to ever fly amongst the stars."

"What? Like one of those Enclave airships?"

I kind of snickered at the word 'airship.'

"No, I mean like a star frigate or a crusier, or in this case, a destroyer." My statement only seemed to confuse Calamity even more.

"Okay, but I highly doubt it's bigger than an Enclave airship."

"By any chance are these airships 5,000 meters long?"

"5,000 meters? What are you talking about?"

"That's how long the Silencer is."

"Uh, well no but..."

"But what?"

"How did you make something that big?"

"We make it at a ship yard."

"A ship yard?"

"Yeah, the Motor City one mostly?"

"Motor City?"

"Yeah, the one in space."

"In space?"

"Yeahhh."

By now I was starting to realized these ponies didn't the same technology as us.

"How are your ships constructed, because the Enclave ones are made in the clouds."

"Uhhh, it's complicated and it would take a long time to explain." This was my excuse of me just saying, I'm an idiot and I don't even know how my own ship works. I saw Helena sigh and give a chuckle as she probably knew it wasn't complicated and would take just a few seconds to explain. Calamity just seemed lost in thought.

"Reaper, if you don't mind me asking, what is umm... your horn," Velvet asked.

"My horn, uhh I was born with it. Every one of my grand parents had one. When my dad married my mom, she got wings and a knife horn, as I like to call it."

"Oh, how interesting. I couldn't help but notice the stunning engravings on the side.

"Oh, uh thank you," I said a blush forming on my face again.

"Cough, cough," Stiles said smiling and rocking back and forth.

My blush grew, and I sighed turning around to try to isolate myself as much as possible. My friends laughed at my reaction as I brought up my hoof to do something.

The others started a conversation while I checked my gear. I noticed my radar was showning me the mare still inside was at the door. I took a glance at the door and saw the mare was just poking out around the corner to expose her eyes. We made eye contact. My bright red eyes meeting her green ones. She retreated into the shack and I turned back to the group. I noticed that she finally decided to show herself and come outside.

The mare walked around us silently and sat down next to Steelhooves. I decided to break the silence and introduce myself.

"Hello, I presume you're Littlepip?"

"Yeah, I'm Littlepip. Thank you for last night."

"For what?"

"You carried me here right?"

"Oh yeah, don't mention it."

"Yeah, don't mention it Littlepip," Stiles said smiling and looking at me. "I see you."

I felt my cheeks begin to burn once again. I turned to see Littlepip seemed to be blushing too... goddammit. The burning fuel contained within my cheeks rose to a whole new level of heat. Of course I'm trying to make friends with locals who won't shoot us on site, but noooo, Stiles over here has to embarrass the emperor of the empire.

I've only just met Littlepip, and she probably aready hates me. I was about to say 'sorry' to Littlepip, but she turned her head down. At this point even Velvet started giggling. I sighed and stood up.

"Excuse me everypony," I said with a fake smile. I turned and walked around the shack trying to find a place to be alone for at least a second. "I hate getting teased. I need something to do. I just ate, I already called for supplies, what can I do?"

I brought up my hoof. I saw that the vtol wasn't that far away from getting to the drop zone. I felt a pain seep through my left foreleg. I took of the glove covering my hoof and pulled up the sleeve of my suit. I looked at my hoof and the cuts sat apon it.

Why? Why do I cut myself? I know... to keep myself busy. To prevent me from killing myself. After all those attempts. Hanging myself, drowning myself, jumping off a bridge, shooting myself (Almost), slicing my throat open, and I think you get it. Ya know... after cutting my hoof so many times... I think... I think I like the pain. Something in me told me the pain was good, it made me feel good. It gave something other to do to keep me from killing, well me. One more thing other than alcohol and drugs. I deserve the pain and suffering for all my sins, all the ponies I've killed. I don't deserve Karen, she doesn't know she's with a monster.

I felt tears start to well up in my eyes. I needed to stop. I brought my hoof up to my horn. I felt the sharp steel feeling of it against my hide. I brought my hoof to the base of my horn and gave a quick slash up. I smiled feeling the hide get cut and blood begin to trickle out of the wound. A lone drop of blood slid down the side of my horn to my head. I wipped away the blood with a napkin from my ration that I had.

I put my sleeve and glove on again. But again I needed something to do. I grabbed my 1911 and my combat knife. I took a .45 acp round out of the clip and put the gun away. Using the knife I began to engrave a number on to the copper casing. That number was the number 66.

"Heh, just in case if I lose it and need a way to end the pain."

I once more found myself just sitting there. And then I remebered about the book. I grabbed it and cracked it open. I took a look at the table of contents. I liked how the 'creatures of the wastelands' chapter sounded. I turned to the page and began reading. Hellhounds? Ghouls? Sounds like a video game that Stiles would play.

After reading more I heard the faint buzz of engines. The vtol is just arriving. I stood up and walk back around to my friends. I saw that they were already standing.

"Yeah you heard that too,? Stiles asked me.

"Yeah," I simply responded.

Steelhoves, Calamity, Velvet, and Littlepip remained seated. I grabbed my M416 form my back and check the ammo. I had a decent amount left, but a refill would be nice... oh yeah and that trench coat too.

"Sir, this is Big Bird arriving at the drop zone."

"Understood, we're already waiting," I said into my hoof.

We looked around for the vtol. It wasn't until Cy notice the vtol made a hole in the cloud cover allowing sunlight through. The indent the vtol made in the clouds was a perfect match to its fuselage and wings.

Our equestrian friends seem a bit surprised by the vtol. The vtol approach its destination. The sound of the vtol's engines grew louder and louder the closer it got. Finally I saw the engines change position into an upwards way. It began to decend. The vtol finally touched ground.

We waited for the vtol's rear door to open up. The doors opened and the engines shut off. Two ponies stood in the rear bay.

"Sir, your gear and supplies are waiting."

"Affrimative," I responded as we walked over.

I walked into the bay and started picking up some ammo and equipment. I grabbed a grenade and some more flashbangs. I looked around for my trench coat but I didn't see it. I asked one of the ponies delivering the supplies. They told me it was on the hook in the cockpit. I didn't questioned it even though it was kind of strange. I saw the trench coat and grabbed it. I walked back outside. I took off my armor. I then removed my suit and gloves. I took off my hoof computer and undid my belt with my blades, grenades, and flashbangs attached to it.

I was about to put on my trench coat when I heard Karen behind me.

"Oooo, my Reaper is topless for all the mares in equestria to see."

I felt my cheeks reignite themselves with the red color of my mane. I turned to see Karen staring at me with her eyes half closed. Littlepip and Velvet stood right next to her. Littlepip was blushing and blushing a lot, Velvet had one hoof on her mouth as she giggled.

Now to think of it, why was I blushing? I'm acting like I've never been in public naked, ponies didn't have to wear clothes. It was just Karen... surely, whenever it was her I would always get embarrassed. Why? Well... I don't know why. Karen always got to me, in more ways than one. I always got to her and her happy hole. Goddammit I shouldn't have gone there.

Certain images flooded my mind. I tried to break the dam holding them in, but to no avail. I quickly put my trench coat on and armor. I use my belt to tighten the coat at my waist. It looked like I was wearing robes, just like Catrine.

The images in my mind were still not gone. I felt a bulge begin to form in my pants... fuck me... not in that way either.

I turned to my friends to see them ignoring me, thankfully. I waited until my... problem went away. Once it was gone I walked back to see the vtol and that Calamity and Steelhooves were walking and inspecting the aircraft. I walked over to Calamity to see what he was looking at.

"How in the heck does this thing fly," he asked himself. "It has no propellers."

"Uhh, Calamity we don't use propellers on our vtols, we use jet engines."

Calamity looked at me with a confused look. "By what do you mean jet engines, I thought those didn't work. The Enclave tried to make jet engines, but they failed."

"What, the Enclave didn't get past the prototype stage? I've read a book about the Enclave testing jet engines."

"No, I don't think so. We don't use jet engines."

I stopped to think for a second. The Enclave were definitely not ready to fight a modern war if the I.C. were to invade. I saw Steelhooves walked around to the side we were standing on.

"This aircraft is... impressive. The technology is unmatched to anything I've seen in the wasteland. The Enclave wouldn't even be able to manufacture this," Steelhooves said admiring the craft.

I decided to leave them since they continued to inspect the craft instead of talk. I started to mess with the hood of my trench coat (Because I apparently have a thing for hoods) as I walked in a straight line away from everypony else. I test fitted my gas mask and everything fit just right.

I needed to plan our where we were heading next. I brought up my hoof and opened up my world map. I zoomed into equestria and found a hoof full of places we could go. I decided it was best to asked my 'equestrian' friends were they were headed and see if we could join in. The map I had was rough and unmarked. I was about to walk back when my tail snagged on something. I turned to see it was just a sheet of metal bent just perfectly so my tail would fit through.

I pulled my tail free, but then I heard a squawk. I looked around but didn't see anything. I backed up until I saw a green bird in the sky... no no... not a bird... a phoenix. The phoenix swooped down and struck the sheet metal. The phoenix repeated its action but stopped before pulling up out of its dive again. The phoenix was unlike one I've ever seen before. The color was green, I seen blue, red, yellow, and even a purple, but never a green one.

I stood there admiring its beautiful bright green color. It hovered in front of me for a few seconds before giving me a squawk. I moved my right foreleg out and gestured for the phoenix to land on it. The phoenix landed on my arm and squawked again.

I was about to say something when my suit gave me a radiation warning. It was a very minor one, but one nonetheless.

"What is it? What are you looking for," I asked the phoenix.

The phoenix responded by lifting its wing and pointing at the sheet metal. I walked over and carefully lifted it up. I saw out of the corner of my eye a rat scurried out from underneath and had made a run for it.

The phoenix left my arm with an incredible burst of speed. The phoenix blew a short burst of fire from its beak. The rat was incinerated from the outside in. The phoenix picked up its meal, and procceded to fly off into the equestrian wasteland.

"Heh, that was kind of cool. I wonder if I'll ever see one of those again," I said to myself still looking at the creature fly away.

I walked back when the engines of the vtol started up. My friends stood back watching the aircraft slowly lift off the ground and accend. We all watch as it took off into the clouds; leaving another indent in them for the sunlight to pierce through.

I took a glance over to our equestrian friends. They all had an amazed look on their faces, especially Littlepip and Velvet. Calamity just looked at the sky probably still wondering about the vtol. Steelhooves just sorta, stared, through his helmet he just stared. I followed his gaze.

I walked over next to him.

"Is something troubling you Steelhooves?"

"No, I'm fine."

"You sure? You seem like you're in a trance."

"Yes, I'm sure."

I reframed from using his real name and designation. I took note of how Steelhooves not once looked at me to speak.

"I suppose you're the leader of the group."

"No, I'm not."

"Oh, then who is? You seem like the most equiped pony here."

"Littlepip."

I wondered why Steelhooves was giving me such barebone answers. Mind you I only just him met yesterday, but still I was just a curious little stallion. I was about to say something when he muttered something.

"Why are you here?"

His tone changed, even through his helmet I could tell. His tone was almost angry, yet calm, somehow. I felt a small pang of worry as my suit alerted me that his safety systems disengaged. I backed up a little looking at him.

My other friends all got the alert too as I saw them grab their weapons out of my peripherals.

"We're just here to help."

"Help?"

"Yes, we aren't here to cause trouble. I saw what happened here. You ponies need our help. I know my friends told you who I am."

"You bear weapons and armor. You only seem to come if you are expecting trouble."

"Of course, safety measures. You can't send your emperor into a new land without a form of protection."

My suit let me know his safety systems were rengaged. I calmed down a bit, but my friends didn't seem to get the message as they still had their weapons ready.

"This is only proven by the fact we were attacked by some ponies in uhh..." I took a quick glance at were we've been on the map. "At Ponyville, we headed in a straight line here. You can tell by the mud on our boots."

"Not the best route but still, who are you exactly here to help, the Enclave?"

"No, we're here to help anypony possible."

"You're technologically advanced and heavily armed, yet you only send a squad down."

"Yeah, if we seen everybody down here, then it would be a planetary invasion. And some other reasons too."

"What other reasons?"

"The IC, that's all I have to say. We need to get a move on."

Steelhooves just turned and walked over to Calamity and wispered something in his ear. I needed more info on these ponies before we headed out. I looked for Littlepip and Velvet, but nothing came up. Calamity however was a different story. All that came up in his Enclave file was that he was a dashite.

I had no idea what a dashite was or if it was a good or bad thing. I shrugged it off for a question later. I walked over to Littlepip and Velvet.

"Littlepip, Steelhooves informed me that you're the leader of this group. I would like for us to join as we are kind of new to the wasteland. We need a place to go and you're the one who knows your way around, so put two and two together."

"Yeah sure you can come with us. We're welcoming all the help we can get. We going to Fetlock, then to Tenpony Tower."

"Lead the way, we got your back."

Littlepip blushed a little bit as she gave mildly confused face.

"It means we're with you," I said with a blush begining to form as Velvet giggled.

The walk had begun. We started off in the direction Littlepip said. No much seemed to happen in the first 30 minutes or so until my radar gave some beeps. I held up my hoof signaling my squad to stop and hold. Our equestrian friends seemed to have gotten the message too as they stopped.

I walked up the hill and poked my head over. I counted four ponies and two griffins. They all had firearms and crude armor. I didn't know if they were friendly or hostile. I put a strict rule of 'do not fire, unless fired apon'.

I turned back to the others, "what's the call Littlepip?"

"Umm..." She walked over and stuck her head out just enough. "I don't know."

"Okay then," I sighed and walked the rest of the way exposing myself completely.

Instantly one of the ponies calling out to the others about my presence. They all pointed their weapons at me, but they didn't shoot, which meant I couldn't open fire either.

"What do you say Ragger? Do we kill him," one pony said to another.

"Hold on a second. Why is he doing that zebra stand," a stallion asked.

"Forget about how he's standing, LOOK AT THE STUFF HE'S WEARING," a mare whisper yelled.

"Yeah, like it would fit you," one of the griffins said sarcastically.

"Yeah, lets get him, but his stuff is mine," the one who was called Ragger said smiling.

*Sigh* I knew it.

I heard the first shots. I acted quickly and rolled back down the small hill. My trench coat and tail went in all directions during the move. As I landed on my hoofs I saw Stiles chuck a grenade. Calamity took flight as he soared over head.

I ran up and dove into a prone position on the hill top. My squad follow me as we picked targets. I saw two rounds strike a pony dropping him, Calamity must have responsible. The grenade Stiles threw went off killing one of the two griffins. I put the iron sites over a pony's head while they were to distracted with Calamity.

"Weapons free," I said as we opened fire.

One after the other they began to drop. There was no cover in site for them. They were sitting ducks. I saw Littlepip come up with a revolver enveloped in her magic. Velvet Remedy and Steelhooves stay back a little until the gunfire ceased.

Calamity regrouped with us as we stood up. Littlepip seemed kind of taken back to our percision.

"Nice shot Calamity," Stiles commented.

"Not bad... for a stallion wastelander that is," Catrine said taking off her mask with a smirk.

"Why thank you," Calamity said adjusting his Stetson.

"I forgot to ask, why do you have your firearms strapped to the side of your body than holding it in your hoofs? It just seems... impractical," Stiles asked holding up his gun.

"Ah don't really know how to use my hoofs to fire a gun. The battle sattle I have is the way I learned to shoot. I still have to use my mouth to make it fire like an earth pony, but I can use my wings as an advantage."

"You know, even if we have wings we don't fly."

"Why'd not, it would be smart wouldn't it?"

"Calamity, if you think about it, it's easy to shoot a pony or griffin out of the air."

"How so?"

"First of all, there's no cover in the sky unless you're in a urban environment. Second, even if your a badass aerobatic flyer, all you have to do is lead your target. Finally there's dedicated AA and MAA to shoot flying things out of the sky, mainly jets."

"Ah understand the first point, but the second and third you lost me."

"You don't know what leading is?"

"Uh no, I've never heard of that."

"Leading is when you aim in front of your target so your rounds met the target as its moving. How far in front you have to shoot depends on the muzzle velocity of your firearm."

"What's a muzzle velocity?"

"It's how fast your bullet leaves the barrel of your gun."

"Okay, and about the third part. What's a AA and MAA?"

"AA stands for anti-aircraft and MAA stands for mobile anti-aircraft. And before you ask it's basically a 30mm cannon on a turret with lock-on missles. The only difference between a AA and a MAA is that the MAA is on a tracked vehicle and the AA is stationary."

"What do you mean by 30mm cannon and lock-on missles?"

"30mm is the size of the round and lock-on means it follows its target until it hits it, unless its diverted by countermeasures."

"How big is 30mm?"

Stiles lifted his left hoof and brought up a hologram of the monstrous round. Velvet gasped as she saw the round. Littlepip's and Calamity's eyes widened at the site of it. Steelhooves didn't react much, as I expected.

"Yeah Calamity, I bet you're wondering just how painful it would be to get shoot by one," Cy commented.

"How could you use such a weapon against a pony," Velvet blurted out.

"Don't worry Velvet, their only mainly used on aircraft. Like the vtol from eariler, or a jet fighter," Cy informed her.

Velvet calmed down a bit, only to be returned to the same state by Stiles.

"I mean, they can very well be used against ponies if they have to."

"Okay, okay, we get it, anti aircraft tank can shoot down pegasi and jets," Helena said pointing in the direction of were we were heading.

"Alright then, lets get a move on," Stiles said holding out his hoofs. "Mares first."

We all walked past him with the exception of me.

"Oh, such a gentlecolt huh," I said rolling my eyes.

"Don't roll your fake ass eyes at me," Stiles said in a joking manner.

"They may be fake, but they do one hell of a job spotting the hostiles."

"Yeah... hostiles and staring at flanks too."

I felt that all too familiar burn returned to my cheeks. I sighed, at least I was wearing my gas mask.

"You probably take advantage of the zoom feature, huh Reap," Stiles said as he starting to laugh.

The burning in my cheeks intensified. I heard Karen walking in front of us begin to giggle. I saw her nudge Velvet and continue to whisper something in her ear.

I saw her turn her head to me and giggle before turning back to Karen. I saw them continue to whisper to each other back and forth.

I decided to ignore them for now. I looked on to my right. In the distance I could see one of those insect like drones watching us.

Why hello there.

I lifted my hoof pointing at it. I let my cybernetics do their job and open up a comms channel. I connected to the transmitting software he was using. I saw he was broadcasting to a place in Manehattan. I looked at what else I could do. It gave me some options.

I wasn't gonna be a creep, so I skipped on the 'Open Camera option.' I already looked at the file if the pony... err... dragon on the other side. I pretty sure he didn't know somepony was listening, so I broke the silence.

"Hey, can you hear me," I asked mentally with my cybernetics, so my friends wouldn't wonder why I'm talking to myself.

I heard a gasp come from the other side. "How did you? What? Impossible?"

"Sorry," I said holding in a chuckle, "I didn't mean to scare you."

"How are you talking to me clearly, the Spritebot is nowhere near you."

"I'm using my cybernetics."

"You're a cyber pony?"

"Yeah, on the inside, I don't look like one now."

"I saw what you did back there. All from Ponyville."

"Yeah, ponies here don't like making friends huh."

"Making friends. That's a term I haven't heard for a while."

"Yeah, I tried, but I got rejected."

"I see you've already met Littlepip."

"Yeah, you said you already saw but, they look like they needed help, so we did. They're the only ponies who've actually been cool with us."

"That's a hard thing to find in the wasteland nowadays."

"No shit. It's so hard trying to do the right thing. I try over and over again, but it never works out for me Spike."

"Watcher."

"Rrrright, sorry about looking at your file. I just was wondering who was talking to me on the other side. I saw how bad it is here, and I... I just wanted to help. My dad couldn't because of War World 3. My grandpa couldn't stop the Zebras from launching bombs."

"Romeo 115. Was he your grandfather?"

"Yeah, he was."

"A very mysterious stallion he was. Always kept secrets."

"I suppose because you knew Celestia and Luna, you know about the Mute Empire. Am I right?"

"Yes. After your grandfather left, I'd never though I'd see your kind here again."

"Well guess what. We're back, and we got one hell of a welcoming party back in Ponyville."

"You tried to befriend them, but they opened fire before you got your chance."

"Yeah again, trying to do the right thing, it never works for me."

"One day it will, one day it will."

"I doubt that."

It told me he was disconnecting.

"See ya Spike."

"Watcher."

"Yeah, Watcher, nice talk, nice talk," I said disconnecting myself.

"Littlepip, how far from this Fetlock are we," Catrine asked.

"We still have a ways to go," Littlepip responded looking at her Pip-buck.

I always found the retro Pip-bucks to look funny. They were bulky, but to be honest, they did their job. The newer models like mine are flat screen and touchscreen, but we didn't call them Pip-bucks anymore. They were a lot more slim, it was hard to tell I had one unless I showed you. They could do more, and had access to the world wide web, aka the internet.

I was starting to become Stiles. I was getting tired of walking, no action, nothing, just boring walking. I should have called us a ride.

The skies began to darken. The clouds only made it darker. Somehow it was darker here than in Ponyville. I decided to take point with Littlepip as the green illumination from her Pip-buck just wasn't cutting it. Me and my squad activated our flashlights on our breastplates. Steelhooves activated the flashlight on his helmet, but it was showing signs of age. Every now and then it would flicker on and off.

"Is it usually this damm dark in the wasteland," Stiles asked in a concerned tone.

"No, ah never seen it this dark here before. The only reason ahm still trotting is because of you, ah can't see anything not in your lights," Calamity said constantly looking off into the near pitch blackness where we didn't aim our flashlights.

I held up my hoof. When we all stopped walking, I felt a chill go down my spine. The dead silence of the wasteland tonight was unnerving. No sound what so ever. The faintest thing I could hear was our breathing and that was it.

I turned to the wastelanders. They looked worried. Calamity clenched his teeth, Velvet looked around, and Littlepip was shaking even. I looked back.

"This is fucking creepy," Stiles said.

"Yeah, I don't like this," Cy added.

"This darkness, it isn't natural," Catrine commented.

"Yeah, I was getting the same idea Catrine," I said about to put my hoof down. Then, we all heard it, something made a sound to our right.

We all turned in that direction. We all looked for the orgin of the sound.

"What is this, a horror movie," Stiles said moving his flashlight around.

I heard a squawk. I recognized that squawk. I lifted my hoof and pointed at the ground signaling them to hold position. I began to slowly walk forward.

"Speaking of horror movies, have you seen one Reap? You know the pegasus always dies first."

"Stiles, I'm not a pegasu-"

"Yes you are, the DNA tests prove it."

I sighed and continued ignoring Stiles. I walked until a small run down wagon was in sight. I walked around to the back. I peeked in, and sure enough, there it was. Before I could do or say anything it shot out of the wagon and into the sky.

I saw my friends stare at the phoenix fly off. It was the only other thing than our flashlights emanating light. The most interrested was Velvet. She looked like she's seen the green phoenix before. I walked back over to the group.

"So much for the pegasus dies first," I said with a smirk on my face.

"Come on, let's get a move on," I said using my hoof to signal them.

The eeriness of the darkness didn't go away. We continued walking until I got a call from the Silencer.

"Sir, we have a situation."

"What is it Silencer," I said to the hoof computer.

"We have IC ships within atmosphere. Their over your position. They're releasing something into the atmosphere. We suspect it's Black Clouds."

"I knew it," I said looking at Catrine. "Silencer how thick is the layer?"

"It's getting thicker, soon we'll lose comms once its several meters thick."

"Okay Silencer, don't worry, we haven't seen any IC soliders down here. Remain out of atmosphere unless told so."

"Affirmative sir."

I remained on the call until I started getting static.

"Sir, we're losing you. We're losing comms," the voice said before cutting out.

"Well, that explains that," Helena said taking off her helmet.

"Uh, Reaper if you're finished, what are black clouds," Velvet asked.

"You're seeing the effects, but it's a gas like subtance. It's causes electromagnetic interference. It also blocks out sunlight, or in this case, moonlight. It doesn't make it this dark, but I guess the cloud cover just makes it even darker. The IC uses it for covert operations in their cities. It blocks ponies from making calls and contacting each other. The reason is to find defectors giving info to outsiders like us or other countries," I explained.

"What kind of things have you ponies created?"

"Things that shouldn't exist Velvet, things that shouldn't exist."

After about 40 minutes of walking in the dark I turned to Littlepip. "Hey Littlepip, what's the distance to Fetlock?"

"I have no idea. My Pip-buck isn't working normally."

"Here, let me have a look."

She looked a bit skeptical, but she eventually held her hoof out to me. I looked at her map. It was a bit awkward because I wasn't used to the old knobs used to utilize the interface. I could instantly see the interface was glitching. This was definitely a case of black cloud electromagnetic interference. I tried my best, but the Pip-buck was too old, it couldn't bypass the interference.

I decided we were traveling in the dark, both literally and technically, so we should hunker down for the night.

"I think we should stay here for the night. We don't know where we're going."

"Here, let me," Calamity said before taking flight. He flew up. We flashed our lights on him but eventually he disappeared into the darkness.

"Calamity! Where the hell did you go," Stiles shouted out into the darkness.

"Ah can't see anything. I'm coming back."

Calamity landed in front of us and returned to the group. We gathered some old wood. We placed in a pile and I used a magical beam to light the fire.

We all sat around the fire with the exception of Steelhooves. The fire somewhat kept the darkness at bay. We still had to keep our flashlights on to see five feet in front of us.

Every little sound I heard caused me to turn and look into the darkness behind. I was paranoid beyond grief now.

I don't know why, but I though I heard the sound of a vtol. It was quiet, but I could faintly hear the low hum of the vtol engines. I looked up to my friends to see if they heard it too. They were engaged in small talk with the Equestrians.

I tried again with my computer only for it to crash on me. Well... that's one thing the retro Pip-bucks don't have to worry about, crashing.

After my failed attempt I decided to do some more reading about the wasteland. I was on a chapter about Hellhounds again. Apparently their claws were the sharpest thing in the Equestrian wasteland. I held a chuckle to myself (Not anymore it's not). They were also considered more dangerous than Alicorns. Hell now I wanted to fight one, but I rather try to make friends first, then attack in self defense.

After reading that, I checked out the chapter titled 'Weapons of the Wasteland'. The chapter explained the many varieties of firearms to be found in the wasteland. I took interest in the Enclave weapons. Magical energy weapons were their number one. They used magical energy weapons because they were the most technologically advance firearm. Apon a target getting killed, the corpse would disintegrate. Heh, just like getting killed by a nova weapon.

After that I head to the chapter simply titled 'Protection'. In the chapter was a basic guide to armor yourself from getting shot. It was basically entailing to cover yourself in heavy steel plates. It got better when I got to the 'Power Armor' section. I read about the armor that Steel Rangers wore. It was known here as very good armor. I looked at the specs of the armor. It was... just... just bad. The thickest point of the armor was the breastplate. It was only 7 or 6 millimeters thick.

That... that's nothing. Hell, if I were to guess, a 5.56 round would go straight though. It only got worse. The helmet was even less. Only 4 milliameters thick. Now to think of it, you could kill a Steel Ranger with a .45 acp round.

Man, my grandpa must have really cheaped out on the Equestrians to sell them armor that can't even stop a pistol round. Steelhooves may look scary, but he was in sure need of an upgrade.

I continued on to the Enclave armor section. I saw that they were exclusively made for pegasi. The armor thickness was somehow worse than the Power Armor. However it was cool to see they were using the scorpion tails. We still used the scorpion tails, but they're optional. Oh yeah, and we used a nova blade for the stinger.

I needed a moment to think. My granddad basically scammed the Equestrians. He gave the worse and shittiest armor available. No composite, no nova, no modern materials. They were underpowered... well for us, for the Zebras, they got one hell of an enemy.

I kept reading, but I didn't immediately find anything interesting. I read little bit more about alicorns and raiders. Apparently raiders were just crazy ponies with an insane blood lust and give no fucks to whoever they come across. Also they're slavers too. Ponies who sell ponies to ponies for bottlecaps.

If I ever come across any slavers, I'll send them to the IC for them to experience what real slavery is.

I put the book away and gave my attention to my friends. Before I heard them talking about nova, our armor, and more of our tech.

"So Stiles, how long will these Black Clouds last," Velvet asked.

"It should only last a few days at most," Stiles responded.

I felt my body begin to tired. I was thirsty too. I grabbed a beverage powder from my ration and water. Mixing the two I got orange flavored tang. After drinking all of it, I tossed the empty bag aside.

I yawed. I felt a body lean up against me. Karen had taken her liberty to rest her head on my shoulder. I unfurled my wing and wrapped it around her. I also rested my head on hers.

"You're getting along with Velvet fine, aren't you," I whispered into her ear.

"Yeah, she's pretty nice. We talked about dresses and jewellery. But of course we also talked about... stallions," she whispered back into my ear. After she finished talking she began to nibble my ear.

I began to blush profusely. Thankfully nopony else seemed to notice. She ended her attack on my ear as I pulled back.

"I'm tired aren't you Karen?"

"Yeah I am, but there's nowhere to lay down. Lets move back a little."

She pulled me back further away from the fire. She made me lie down on the ground. It wasn't soft, but it wasn't to hard either.

"You don't mind if I use you as a mattress?"

"Uh, sure Karen." I felt my cheeks burn as she laid on top of me. I was okay with this when we were alone, but when my friends were awake, I was such a shy stallion.

I started stroking her mane, her beautiful black mane. That blue stripe only drew me into a trance. I looked down at her face. Our eyes locked. My cheeks at this point were at about at the same heat level as the deepest pits if hell.

She giggled. "Why are you so shy? When we're alone you always so much more outgoing. But to be honest, that's why I love you."

"Yeah, I love you too," I said in a shaky voice.

She giggled more. "Lets go to sleep. We got a ways to go tomorrow."

I simply sighed as she rested her head on my chest. I layed my head back down and stared out up into the darkness. It wasn't long before I fell asleep.

When I regained consciousness Karen was still sound asleep on my chest. I took a good look around. Everypony was asleep, well apart from Steelhooves walking around with his flashlight on. It was still dark to a certain extent. The sky was a dark grey with a few clouds showing any amounts of daylight seeping through.

I carefully moved Karen off of me so I could stand. I walked over to the 220 year old stallion and gave a yawn to draw his attention.

"Reaper. What are you doing up so early?"

"I don't know. I'm probably a little hungry you know? By the way, did you get any sleep last night?"

"Of course I did, but I'm known for waking early in the morning."

"How the hell do you sleep in that armor comfortably anyway?"

"It isn't too uncomfortable either."

"Okay then, if you don't mind, I gonna eat something." By something, I meant a crappy millitary ration.

I opened it up and prepared my meal. The food wasn't great by any means, but it was just enough to get me through the day. I was sitting there, just drinking my lemon beverage this time when it happened again.

I began to shiver. Not because of me being cold, but because of my 'need'. I turned to look at Steelhooves. He was walking around looking in every direction, but towards the burning fire.

I took this as my chance. I walked over to Stiles's backpack and unzipped it. I got a bit nervous when I realized Stiles had moved them to a different location within the pack. They were deep in, almost hidden away, but I found one.

I took a quick glance at Steelhooves to see him not facing my direction. A sense of relief came to me as I zipped up the pack with one shot. I stood up and turned around. I think my heart nearly stopped when I saw Karen giving me a dead cold stare.

"Karen... it's not... it's not what you think," I said in a shaky voice. It didn't help the rest of my body was also shaking madly.

Karen only sighed and turned around. "It's okay Reaper," she said with an incredibly sad tone.

Just by her voice alone I could tell it wasn't okay... it wasn't okay to her. "I'm sorry Karen... please I can't help it, please forgive me, I never wanted you to see me do this."

"Now I know you've been lying to us for the past two months. You haven't gotten over your 'addiction'."

"I... I... how is this okay to you?"

"I know how you feel Reaper. You think I haven't noticed the amount of times you tried to commit suicide? You cut yourself, you get wasted to keep yourself from ending it all. That's why it's okay with me."

"How did you find out abou- Why do you think-" I didn't know what to say. What to do. It was true though, this is one of the reasons I didn't kill myself.

My body couldn't take it anymore. I took the cap off and plunged it into my foreleg. Finally my body stopped shaking. I could think clearer now, it made me feel good, feel better.

However it made me feel. There was still that feeling of guilt still trapped inside. I wasn't just hurtting myself... I was hurtting Karen.

It wasn't until just now I noticed Velvet was awake too. She had just listened to what had just gone down. I looked at her. I hung my head in shame as I walked away. Steelhooves was watching us too even.

I walked a small distance away. I sat down and tried to think. To think of something. The only thing that came up was how stupid I am. I'm worthless, nothing, a waste. Why? Why was I granted life? I don't deserve life, I deserve death.

I could feel myself reach for the pistol in my holster. I pull out my M1911. I grabbed the round I engraved earlier. I was about to load it when I stopped myself. Somehow I did this all in the dark. I used my horn to create a red glow as I cried. I cried into my hoofs... and I didn't stop crying.

Eventually I looked back to see Velvet talking to Karen. Calamity and Cy had woken up too during our dilemma.

I didn't want to show my face, or the fresh tear stains on my cheeks. I put my hood and gas mask on. I walked back. Their eye contact alone made me feel like I was being incinerated by a flametrooper's flamethrower. I could feel their anger, if it even was anger.

We all waited in silence until Littlepip, Helena, and Stiles woke up. Everypony finished eating their rations and we decided to keep moving. Before however, Calamity decided to have another go at trying to see Fetlock as it wasn't as dark as last night, but still pretty dark. I accompanied him on the way up. I had my flashlight on, so the rest would lose us.

"Ah think I see Fetlock," Calamity shouted down to the others.

"Where," I asked him

"There it is. Ah think."

"Hold on Calamity. Hey Cy! Toss me a pair of night vision binoculars."

"Here you go," Cy said as he threw me some binoculars.

I caught them and look through them at were he was pointing. I could definitetly see the faint outlines of buildings.

"Can ah have a see," Calamity asked me.

"Yeah, sure," I say handing him the binoculars.

It was a bit comical as he nearly dropped the binoculars trying to hold them in his hoofs like me. He finally got a grips as he looked through them.

"Yep, that looks like Fetlock to me," he said giving me back the binoculars. "By the way, what in the heck is night vision?"

"What you just saw. It just amplifies all avaliable light, so you can easily see in the dark. They are also goggles but those don't have the same range as the binoculars do."

"Hey! Are you two done making out so we can get a move on," Stiles shouted up at us.

I felt my cheeks burn... burrnnn. I heard my squad and even Velvet burst out into a laughing fit.

We flew back down and I forced Cy's binoculars hard enough into his chest to make him grunt in slight pain. I walked past Stiles before I felt him grab my left foreleg.

"Don't act like you haven't check out some of those sweet stallion flanks Reap," Stiles said in a joking voice.

My cheeks burned even more... goddammit. Well at least it kept me from thinking about killing myself. Wait... I just thought about killing myself... goddammit.

The trek to the supposed Fetlock had begun. I looked up at the dark sky hoping to see a glimmer of hope, but all that was seen was dark. Depressing. Clouds.

After about an hour or so the buildings became a lot more easier to see. As we neared Fetlock my radar gave some beeps. It was good to see my radar hasn't given up yet.

"Hey Littlepip," I asked staring at my radar.

"Yeah Reaper," she responded.

"Are there any sort of things we need to worry about in Fetlock?"

"They are some like Manticores and small radroaches."

"No raiders," I said still looking at my radar.

"No, they're probably traders."

"Okay, cause I got 6 plus hoof mobiles in there."

Finally in the town we started walking through the streets. We turned a cornor and lo and behold there were raiders. I could tell because of the crap they wore, and the way they did their manes... ugh.

Thankfully they didn't notice us. The torches they held didn't light up much of the area.

"I thought you said they're no raiders here?"

"Yeah, they're normally not."

"Where are we headed anyway?"

"Stable 29."

"What? The pre-war fallout shelters?"

"Um, yeah."

"And let me guess. We have to pass these raiders to get to it."

"Yep."

"Alright then. First before we do anything, we try to talk it out first."

Before I let anypony respond I walked around the corner to the raiders. I turn my flashlight back on and walk. But of fucking course, they begin shooter the second they noticed me.

"Learn the raider memo Reaper, kill first, ask questions later," I said to myself. I was quick to think as I rolled behind a pile of rubble to use as cover.

I grabbed a flashbang and chucked it over the pile.

"LOOK OUT, GRENADE," I heard one of the raiders scream.

I heard the flashbang go off. I looked over to see the two unicorns levitating the torches had dropped them to try to cover their ears from the painful ringing.

This gave a queue to my squad to begin returning fire. I got out of cover and unloaded a mag into three raiders; dropping them dead. I perfectly aim sniper shoot blew a raiders head to pieces.

I saw a shoot come from above as Calamity pulled out of a dive. Littlepip hit a raider perfectly in the head with her revolver. Steelhooves fire a few grenades down range too.

Maybe working with these guys might not be so bad after all.

At this point only three raiders remained. I got up and took aim. I had the raider in my sights. Before I could pull the trigger I felt a round strike my chest. Thankfully it didn't pierce my armor.

I heard Velvet gasp behind me as I stumbled back a bit. I was about to start taking aim again when I felt my foreleg become encased in a magical glow. I was dragged back by Velvet.

"Whoah, whoah, Velvet I'm good, I'm good," I said trying to pull forward.

She let me go as I duck behind cover again. I turn around to show her the round didn't pierce. After she stared at it a bit I turned around to see the last of the raiders were already dispatched.

I poked my head out of cover. We stood up and walked over to the bodies. Calamity was already checking the bodies. Calamity picked up one of the raider's firearms.

"Uh Calamity, I don't think you should be using those. They look like they could blow up in your face," Stiles said looking at him pick up the firearms.

"Ah ain't gonna shoot them. I'm scavenging them for later. To trade for caps," Calamity said still inspecting the guns.

"What? Oh yeah, that's right. You use bottlecaps as a currency here," Stiles said chuckling.

"Scavenger? You sound like me when I come across an abandoned vehicle," I said continuing to follow the others.

"Yeah, you have an obsesion with taking helicopters and tanks from the IC," Stiles said.

"Hey, if you steal from them, then you don't have to pay millions of Kredits to make your own. All you have to do is pay for a respray job and there you go. One Mute Empire tank ready for combat," I said.

"Yeah, the Kredits you rather send on yourself, than your own military."

"Not true. How did the Cyber-Pony Program get to how it is now?"

"Umm..."

"Exactly. I didn't put over 100 million Kredits into that for nothing."

"Uh, what are Kredits," Calamity asked while he trotted with us.

"Kredits are the currency we use in the Mute Empire," I answered. "Great, now I have the sudden urge to fly or drive something."

"And exactly what are you gonna drive here," Stiles said with a sarcastic tone.

"I don't know. A T-72, T-62a, T-55, ZTZ-99a, and or a T-34. I can fly a Mi-24 Hind, Ah-64, Ah-z1, and-"

"OKAY, WE GET IT," Stiles shout causing the others to turn towards us.

"Is something wrong," Steelhooves asked.

"No, Steelhooves. Nothing is wrong," Stiles said squinting at me.

I took notice how everypony was staring at me. "Yes? Do you guys need something?"

"Reap, no offense, but I think you're losing it," Cy commented.

I sighed. "Please, Jesus Christ help me. Please just end my life. Its not worth it anymore."

"Who's Jesus Christ," Velvet asked.

"Who's Jesus Chri- ugh. Nevermind. Let's just get a move on."

We kept walking through the empty streets. The creepy silence had returned. No sound except for our hoofs hitting the ground every time we took a step.

The silence was broken by a loud roar, and then another, and then another.

"I presume those are the manticores of the wasteland," Stiles said looking up at the buildings surrounding us.

"Yeah, they are," Steelhooves said looking up as well.

"I rather not attract any unwanted attention," Helena commented.

"I argee," Catrine simply said.

"Too late, they're already here," Cy said pointing at the sky.

I looked at where he was pointing to see the faint silhouette of three Manticores. They were diving toward us. I raised my M416 to aim, and waited.

The Manticores landed in front of us. The Manticores roared and charged. I unloaded a clip into one. My friend focused on the other two Manticores. They all dropped, but more roars were heard.

More Manticores appeared. More and more landed and attacked. I drew my blade and charged forward. One of the Manticores raised its claw to attack me. It brought down its claw, I held up my blade. Once the claw made contact with my blade the foreleg of the Manticore sliced in a perfect vertical line. I roared in pain as it backed away while its leg split down the middle.

I jumped on its back and plunged my blade into the back of it skull, killing it instantly. I finished off two more Manticores by slitting their throats. Two more Manticores flew down.

I grabbed my second blade and turned it on. The red glow my blades gave off seemed to make the Manticores step back. I then threw both of them simultaneously; embedding themselves in the Manticores heads. The two animals dropped to the ground with an audible thump.

I walked over and picked my blades from their skulls. I turned back to my squad and friends. I saw the Equestrians all had a look of absolute shock on their faces (Except Steelhooves, of course, because of that helmet).

"Why use guns and waste ammo, when you can just use nova blades to cut them all down," I said turning them off and putting them on my belt.

"How did yo- How? Just how," Littlepip stuttered out.

"Littlepip. I've been doing this since I left highschool. And not just on Manticores."

"Yeah, okay show off, we need to keep moving," Stiles said begining to walk.

I took a glance at Karen. She still looked sad. It was my fault she was like that. If she didn't see me inject myself, then she wouldn't have known. But wait... she told me she knew. I walked over to her side and matched her pace.

She looked up at me. I gave her the best smile I could muster up. She smiled, but it quickly faded. I reached down and took her hoof with my own. She looked a bit shocked when she felt my hoof make contact. She looked back at me.

"You're a hopeless romantic," She whispered.

"Hey, I tried at least," I whispered feeling my cheeks heat up slightly.

"I know, but you could do better."

"Yeah, but we're not in New Romeo, in our bedroom, now are we?"

"Wow. That's a new one."

"What? What's a new one?"

"You're openly hinting at sex without cowering in embarrassment."

"Hey! I'm trying to make you somewhat happy at the very least."

She giggled a little bit as she turned her head away. "Well you succeeded, a little bit, but not by a large margin."

"That's so good to hear," I whispered sarcasticly.

She giggled again. "Do you think they have any hotels at Ten Pony Tower?"

"Maybe."

"Imagine. Just us two all night. No pony to bug us or interfere."

I felt my cheeks heat up even more, as she pulled my closer to her. "Uh huh, sure."

She sighed. "You're such a killjoy."

I chuckled quietly. "Well, ain't I always."

"Yeah, remember when we were trying to beat our record, but you had to go 'Do Something'."

"Our record?"

"Don't fake it. You know what I'm talking about. You know... 66 orgasms in one session."

I could swear my face burst into flames at that point. Thankfully Karen had made us slow down a bit to put some distance between us and the others. I turned my head to look away.

I heard her giggle. "Come on, they can't hear us."

"You're starting to turn into Stiles. And I see why we stopped at that number. It's my number."

"Hey, at least I don't tease you about liking stallions. Well, there's nothing wrong if you do like other stallions Reaper."

I felt my face still burn with a fiery passion. "No, I don't like other stallions Karen. Only mares," I said in a shaky voice.

She gave me a doubtful stare. "Are you sure? You can tell me. I don't mind it Reaper."

I started to think out of the gloom. Do I like stallions? Now to think of it. Whenever my eyes would wander, I'd sometimes find myself staring at stallion flanks. I mean... most of the time I would stare at a mare's flank.

"Uhh... I don't know."

She sighed again. "Reap, I don't care if you're gay or a coltcuddler, I'll still love you."

"Karen I've been with you since highschool. You're not a stallion."

"That doesn't mean anything. You can like mares and stallions, then that makes you bisexual."

"Uhh."

"If this doesn't get an answer out of you nothing will. Here, listen to me. What if I were to tell you I'm a fillyfooler, or lesbian."

My eyes widened at what she said. I turned back to face her. "You are?"

"Yeah, I'd admit. I've stared at a few mare flanks during my time."

"Okay, I might me slightly attracted to other stallions."

She rolled her eyes before pausing. "You know I just got an idea."

"What is it Karen?"

"When we get back to New Romeo. I wanna start a herd."

"A what," I said while face continued burning.

"A herd. You know. A relationship with more than two ponies. I mean... two ponies in a herd can still marry. But I've always wanted to start a herd. Especially with you."

"Umm... I don't know what to say."

"You don't?"

"No, I'm not sure if I'm ready to take care of other mares."

"What about taking care of other stallions?"

"Yeahhh... that too."

The rest of the walk was silent. Every now and then our eyes would meet. I started to wonder about our conversation. And more importantly, about my sexuality. I had to think back. I had to think about all the times I let my eyes wander.

I remember one time I was in a bar in downtown New Romeo. I remembered a dark purple stallion with a bright purple mane. I though he was cut- I stopped my thought. Was I about to say he was... cute? Do I like stallions? I repeated the question in my head. Have I liked stallions all this time and I haven't noticed. But what about Karen? I like her, no I love her, and yet she's a mare. Maybe she's right, I'm bisexual. And she said there's nothing wrong with that. My friends told me there was nothing wrong with it before.

I've never been with a stallion before. I've only been with Karen. But Karen is Karen, she's a good pony, and she looks good too.

I blushed at my thought. I turned to look at Karen. She was staring off to the left not noticing me. I sighed and looked forward.

After a few more blocks we finally arrived at our destination.

"This is were Stable 29 is," Stiles asked shining his light inside.

"Yeah, it is," Littlepip said turning on her Pip-buck light.

"Alright let's move."

After getting passed the entrance, I was happy to see the lights were on... some of them at least. Looked around the atrium. This place seemed long abondoned. After some minutes we all unknowingly spilt off in our own separate paths.

I followed the hall leading into several rooms. Each of the what appeared to be bedrooms were run down. I went down the stairs leading me into another hallway. I wasn't until now I noticed my wrist computer started working again.

We must have been deep enough under ground for it not to be messed with the Black Clouds I presumed. I took note of where my squad and friends were in the stable. I looked at my map, and decided to the place titled by my wrist computer as 'Head Office'.

On my way there I held my hoof against the wall sliding it down the hallway. Once I reached the supposed head office, I found myself a bit confused. It didn't really look like a office. I checked a nearby terminal to see where I really was.

The terminal was locked via a password, so I just used my cybernetics to hack it. Once I was through, the screen changed from its black and green to a black and red display. The flag of the Mute Empire appeared as it said 'Welcome Reaper'. I was a bit confused as to why it did this, especially how this 200 year old terminal knew my name. It probably got it through my access code.

I read through some of the files. None of them had anything interesting though. I saw what was accessable through this specific terminal. The one that caught my attention was open robot security room. I activated the command only to be startled by a door opening in the wall rather than it being one of the two visible doors.

A secret security room? But why hide it? This lead to an unlit hallway. I turned my flashlight back on and moved forwards. This eventually lead to a staitcase. I decended lifting my M416 to every turn.

At the bottom were working lights. I turned off my flashlight and walked. I finally came to a door with a button on the side. I pressed it and the door opened.

Inside was a sight I didn't like. Robot charging stations filled the room, and of course, they all had a robot inside. There had to be 20 plus in here alone. Why did a pre- war shelter need this many robots? And why keep them hidden?

I walked up to one of the stations. I placed a hoof on the glass case. I took a look at the robot inside. A G.I.U. or General Infantry Unit. G.I.U.'s are bipedal pony like robots designed for combat in large numbers. It was in good condition for being 200 years old. I also noticed these were the C-6 model, the standard model we used.

I probably shouldn't trip any security systems because this many Grunts will probably kill me. I walked pass the first row of charging station to turn a corner to an even larger charging station.

Contained with in was a C-8. A larger combat robot with four arms. On the two left arms it carried two retractable nova shields. Not even the biggest of rounds could penetrate those. On the right arms it carried two weapons in each. On the top arm it had a tri-barreled minigun connected to a nova generator on its back, giving it unlimited ammo. On the bottom arm it had a small nova cannon. It was connected to the same nova generator as the minigun. It could be charged up for a powerful blast, or it could be fired quickly and repeatedly.

Why the hell did a stable need one of these?

I definitely didn't want to piss this thing off, or it'll kill me in one shot from that damm cannon. I walked passed it to a large monitor. It asked for an access code, so I put my in. It welcomed me again and I checked the files. They had all been erased. Nothing, absolueltly everything was gone. I tried to recover them but to no avail.

I did however manage to open a door with no name on it, it was just called 'Door'. I walked in. In the center was a portal. I inspected it, it was damaged beyond repair. It was definitely a portal leading to Earth though. I could tell this by a paper in a folder on a nearby table. Inside it read 'Test failed, returning to Romeo City immediately.

I took note of how it said Romeo City instead of New Romeo. This let me know this was Pre-War as Romeo City still wasn't destroyed and turned into New Romeo. I started to wonder what test they were running here.

It seemed as they left this place in a hurry, whoever the occupants were. There was nothing left, so I returned to the robot room. I started to walk back towards the door.

About half way there I was startled by a loud alarm. The obnoxious sound echoed through my ears. I quickly look at the monitor to see it displaying the text 'SECURITY BREACH'. I quickly looked down to see if I tripped anything, but I found nothing.

It must have been up stairs with the others. I then heard a sound I didn't want to hear. I saw the Grunts start to emerge from their charging stations.

I made a quick sprint to the door, and then up the stair. As I ran I heard shots come from behind me. Well at least now I knew they were set to kill on sight.

I ran down the hall and stopped at the terminal. I tried to see if I could closed the secret wall door behind me. However the security breach prevented me from doing so. I looked back and saw the robots already making their way up the stairs. They began to run down the long hallway.

I ran back the way I came as quickly as possible. When I returned to the hallway with rooms I was atracked by a wall mounted turret. I ran into the first room. I waited for it to stop shooting. I looked around the corner and opened fire. I felt two rounds strike my chestplate, but they didn't pierce. The turret was destroyed and I continued my run back.

I brought up to see where my friends were located. They had all appeared to be in one room. I made a sprint for them. On the way there several wall turrets shot towards me. My trench coat somewhat hindered me on my way there.

I turned another corner and checked my wrist computer to see if I was headed the right way. The adrenaline rush could make me make a wrong turn and cause my end. I finally came across a door with a sign that said infirmary. My wrist computer said they were in there, so I went in to.

I turned a final corner to see my friends holding a defensive position. Stiles and Velvet were in the back with Littlepip and Calamity. They seemed to be hurt. My friends looked like they were abput to shoot me, so I raised my hoofs into the air.

"Woah, woah, it's me Reaper. You know, Old 66," I said with my hoofs still raised in the air.

"Reap, get over here," Stiles shouted.

I ran and got behind cover. "What happened? I went exploring and I heard the security systens go off."

"Littlepip tried to use a faucet."

"Oh she just tried t- Wait what? How the hell did that trigger the security systems?"

Stiles simply shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh and by the way, we got a lot of G.I.U.'s to deal with... and one C-8."

"Why the fuck does Stable 29 have grunts," Cy asked.

"I wish I could tell you."

I saw that Calamity and Littlepip got into a defensive position, even though Velvet tried to rush them back. We waited and waited. Each passing second feeling longer than the last.

Finally a grunt turned the corner and instantly opened fire. Calamity was the first to return fire, however the robot sidestepped his shot causing him to miss.

I unloaded seven rounds into the grunt sending pieces of the robot flying and in the end, short circuiting it. After the first grunt, more and more started pouring into tge infirmary.

Cy and Steelhooves were keeping them at bay with a combination of grenades and light machine gun fire. It seemed as the C-8 was sick of our shit because it charged. Holding its shields up it charged at us, sending desks and medical equipment flying.

I fell back hitting my head on the wall. "Ugh, it's too early in the morning for this shit!"

I looked up at the others. Steelhooves was standing too close to the C-8. Steelhooves lunched some grenades. The C-8 blocked the grenades and charged Steelhooves. It struck Steelhooves sending him flying into the wall.

"STEELHOOVES," Velvet screamed.

I took this moment as an opportunity to destroy it before it caused any more harm. I stood up and jumped on its back. I drew my blade. I kept plunging my blade into the C-8, but it wouldn't go down. Finally after the eighth time, the C-8 short circuiting it, or so I thought. It brought up its arm and threw me off. My back struck the wall. I stood up to the C-8 facing me with the minigun spining.

Well, maybe this won't be too painful. I heard the gun fire, and the shots definitely pierced my armor. I felt multiple shots pierce my chest before I saw the C-8 short circuit.

It dropped, and so did I.

Footnote: Promotion! Level 2 reached, Private First Class

New Perks: Extreme Conditioning: sprint for longer distances
Stalker: move faster while aming down sights
New Cyber-Core abilities: No new unlocks

Author's Note

Well, this was bad. Sorry if you read this and you thought it was bad. I'm a bad author. I think I did too much in this chapter. Sorry Khat for butchering your characters.

Chapter 2: The Wasteland

Fallout Equestria: The War for the Wasteland
By MuteBear
Chapter 2: The Wasteland

I felt consciousness return to my state of being. I opened my eyes and looked around. I found myself still in the Stable 29 infirmary. I tried to sit up, only to feel pain shoot through my chest. I laid back down groaning in pain.

"No no no, lay back down," I heard Karen's soft voice whisper.I looked up at her. She was levitating a canteen. "Here, drink up."

She helped me lift my head slightly to drink. As I drank I saw my trench coat and Chestplate were gone. My chest was covered in bloody bandages. I lifted my hoof to scratch my muzzle. I saw Velvet trot over to us. She came around to the other side. She had a bottle with a red liquid inside.

"What's... that," I asked.

"It's a healing potion."

"Oh." I took it into my magic and removed the cap. I chugged it down and instantly felt a pleasent sensation travel through my body. Where I felt it the most however, was my chest.

The effects started to make me drowsy. It's almost felt like I was tipsy. I closed my eyes. I relaxed my body, feeling as if I was on a nice fluffy white cloud. I stayed like this for a while before I was startled by a loud crash. I reopened my eyes to darkness. The infirmary had gone completely dark. I sat up in the bed. I noticed my chest was no longer covered up by bandages, but by my trench coat and armor again.

I got off the bed and turned my flashlight on. I looked around. Where did everypony go? I also checked for my weapons. My M416, 1911's, and double barrels were gone. I didn't even have any ammo on me.

A sense of dead entered me. Did my friends think I had died and left me here? No, that wouldn't make sense. Why would they leave me here? And bother to put my trench coat and armor back on. Where did the robots go? I know my friends wouldn't clean up all those grunts, and I know they wouldn't be able to lift the C-8. I trotted over to the infirmary entrance. I stood up on my hind legs and opened the door.

By now I knew something was very wrong. The hallway had changed the way to the left was blocked off. I walked down the hall to the right.

"Karen! Stiles! Helena! Anypony!" I got no responses whatsoever. I kept walking but I got confused when I came across a new door. This door wasn't here before. I opened the door to a brick wall, but on that wall were bloody hoofprints. Up the wall were at least 6 pairs of hoofprints. I stepped back.

I closed the door and kept walking down the hall.

"Hey!"

I heard a very clear whisper come from behind me. I turned around and put my hoofs up ready for a fight. There was nopony there. I looked for something on my pony I could use as a weapon. I found my combat knife and drew it. Yeah, they weren't my nova blades, but they can still kill.

I turned back around and kept on walking. I came to a dead end. I was very confused, there was no dead end here. I walked back in the opposite driection only to come to a door. I started contemplating whether I was losing it or not. I opened the door which lead me into a large room.

There was a single light shining down in the middle of the room. I walked under the light. No, this isn't real, what is going on?

"Yes it is!"

I heard another whisper. I turned around frantically trying to identify the source of the whisper.

"Who's there? Show yourself," I shouted holding my knife at the ready.

I heard a whisper, and another, and another. Those whispers eventually became voices, and those voices eventually became screams. The screams of agony echoed through my ears. Even when I covered my ears, I could still hear them. The screams got louder and louder. They were saying my name. What I've done. My sins.

It got too much for me, I could take it. I had to get out. I brought up my knife. I started to cut off my ears in order to make the screams stop, but they didn't. I brought the knife to my neck, and slice it open. I felt blood pour out of the wound.

I fell over feeling the last bit of life in me fade. I slowly closed my eyes feeling the blood make its way down the side of my head from where my ears used to be. I saw my ears lying on the floor. I looked pass them into the darkness. Ponies came out into the light. They were covered in blood and smiling with a painfully wide smile. They were little foals too. I closed my eyes hoping to finally end up in hell.

I shot up. I felt sweat pour down my face and muzzle. I was panting frantically. I looked around realizing I wasn't in that false stable anymore. I felt hooves wrap around my neck. I felt Karen's embrace as I still thought about what I had just experienced.

"What happened Reap," Karen asked gazing into my eyes.

"Nothing, just a bad dream, that's all."

"If you reacted like that, then it was something. Tell me."

"It was just about my dad again. I can't stop thinking about him."

She sighed. "Okay then. How do your wounds feel?"

I didn't feel any major pain, only slight. "They definitely feel a lot better now."

"That's good to hear." She smiled and placed her hooves on my cheeks.

I returned the smile and gave her a quick peck on her lips. I looked over her shoulder to only find Velvet and Helena in the infirmary. "Where are the others?"

"They went to see what else there is in this stable."

"What are they doing?"

"Helena's checking out the grunts while Velvet is helping me nurse you back to health."

"Isn't that Stiles's job?"

"Yeah, I thought so too."

I shrugged it off and atempted to get off the bed. Small amounts of pain surged through my chest, but nothing major. After getting up I heard my stomach growl. "Hey, could you give me a food bar Karen, please."

"Of course," she said reaching into one of her pouches and pulling out a small white package.

I took it in my magic and unwrapped it. I plopped one of the white bars into my mouth. The flavor was bland. It was soft and chewy. To be honest, it wasn't supposed to taste good. It was meant to satisfy my hunger. It gave me just enough calories to get through a few hours.

After finishing the bar I walked over to Helena ripping off one of the grunt's head. "Give me a sitrep Helena."

"Well, the others went off to see where you were while I stayed behind to see if anything is wrong with these bots."

"Is there anything wrong with them?"

"No, they haven't gone rogue, they were just following stable security orders. Just shoot anypony that isn't fron the stable."

"Well, that explains why they didn't care much to shoot their emperor." I started to think of my affilliation with the word 'rogue'.

Don't think about that now Reap. Don't think about them. Don't think of the innocent ponies and foals you slaughtered that day.

"Reaper! Wake up!"

I shook my head snapping myself out of the trance I was in. "Sorry, what was that?"

"Reaper, are you okay? You zoned out there. Are you crying?"

"No, I'm fine, I was thinking about the grunts."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm fine Helena."

She simply turned around and continued working on the grunts.

I walked back to Karen where my gear was. She was staring at her wrist computer. I picked up my gear and placed it on the table nearby. I decided to keep the bandages on until we reached Ten Pony. I put my trench coat and armor on. I took note of the fact that my armor already sealed itself back up. I put my belt on and grabbed my weapons.

I pulled out the mag on my M416 to see if there was any rounds left. The clip wasn't that spent, so I put it back in and cocked the gun. I flipped the safety on and put it on my back.

I leaned on the table and brought up my wrist computer. I checked to see if I had everything. I was good to go, so I turned it off.

I stared at the infirmary ceiling. I started thinking about myself. I wondered why my parents decided to name me Reaper of all names. I knew why my 'last name' was 66 because of the number on my horn I was born with, but what about Reaper? My dad's name was Matteo 144. Again the reason of the last name was because of the number he was born with on his horn. I guessed my parents just thought Reaper was a good name for a foal, but still, a weird-ass name.

I laughed at my own thought, and Karen seemed to notice. I she walked over and leaned on me. "What's so funny my Reaper?"

"Karen."

"Yes?"

"Do you think my name is stupid?"

She looked a bit confused. It brought another laugh out of me. "I knew you think it was stupid too."

"I never said it was stupid."

"Yeah right."

"It's not stupid. It's just... umm... unique."

"Unique?"

"Yeah unique."

"I wish I didn't have a number as a last name."

"Why? What's so bad about that?"

"It's weird. I know it's tradition and all to have a number as a last name, but still it's weird."

"If you'd paid attention in history class, then you would probably appreciate your last name more."

"Why again?"

"Your great great great great etc. Grandfather."

"Yeah, what about him?"

She sighed hoof-palming. "He was born with the very first knife horn and he couldn't talk."

"What? He couldn't talk? I don't remember that."

"Yeah, he was born with mutism."

"Yeah, isn't that why we're called the Mute Empire?"

"Again, if you'd pain attention in history class, you'd know this. Yes, he lead to the downfall of the Hottoman Empire. From there he started the Mute Empire, which you lead today."

"Yeah."

"Sometimes I wish you actually listen to me."

"What? I am listening to you."

"By staring at Velvet with that look?"

"What? No... I'm... I'm not staring at her," I said a blushed starting to appear on my cheeks. "I was just... uh..." Somehow I didn't even notice I was staring dead at Velvet's flank.

"What? Your cybernetic eyes lost connection to your brain and they started to wander?"

"No, it was..." I just covered my face with my hooves and turned away.

Karen laughed loudly enough to were Velvet and Helena turned to face us.

"Don't worry, it's nothing girls," Karen said patting my back.

They turned back around and continued doing whatever they were doing.

"I hate you. Did you know that?"

She chuckled. "Yeah, I love you too. You're so cute when you're caught staring."

"Ugh, I hate myself. What is it with me and staring. Am I just a pervert?"

She laughed at what I had to say. "No, you're not. You're just a grown... horny stallion, that's all."

My cheeks burn at a higher intensity. "Karen!"

She started laughing again. "Ohhh, you're so cuuute when you do that!"

I couldn't anymore with Karen. She's too much for my cheeks. I looked away from her. I looked up to see Velvet and Helena giggling at us... I guess they heard us.

It had been an hour since my reawakening. The others got back and greeted me with friendly manners, except Stiles of course, he teased me again.

They didn't find anything of interest, even when they went back you where I was looking. Apperently some of grunts were still down there.

I noticed that Calamity had a bandage around his right foreleg, it wasn't bloody, it was just their. Velvet was inspecting his leg.

"What happened to your leg," I asked pointing at the limb.

"One of those bots grabbed me," Calamity responded.

"What? Did it pick you up?"

"Yeah it did, it lifted me and pointed its gun at me."

"Yeah, the grunts, they tend to do that."

"It gripped mah leg really hard."

"Makes sense. They were designed for one purpose. To kill. They don't care about the will of pony. They just care if they're dead."

"Thankfully Stiles shut it down and helped out mah leg."

"At least he was doing his job elsewhere."

"What do ya mean?"

"Stiles is a field medic. He takes care of us when we're hurt. He's saved lives during his time. Some of our friends in New Romeo wouldn't be alive without him. I... probably wouldn't be alive without him."

Velvet just seemed to wander off to talk to Karen and Helena.

"How long have ya known each other for?"

"Ooooo... we go way back. We go back all the way to high school. I never left them since."

"Consider yourself lucky."

"Why would that be?"

"You're the first ponies we've been able to make friends with."

"Just by the day we've been here, I can tell friendly ponies are few and far between. By the way how long have you known the others?"

"Ah've known Littlepip for the longest, and that's only been a few weeks. Velvet and Steelhooves I met during the first time we went to Old Appleloosa."

"So, for not that long basically?"

"Pretty much yeah. Even though I haven't known her for long... I consider her my closest friend already."

"Wow. She must be really nice."

"She is, in fact ah would say she's the kindest pony I've ever met."

"That's good to hear."

"Ah've been wondering."

"Wondering about what?"

"Your weapons. Do you mind if I see your rifle?"

"Of course not." I reached on my back and grabbed my M416 and gave it to him.

He sat on his rump and took the gun into his hooves. I dropped to all fours, just in case if he wanted to ask me something.

"Who made this here rifle?"

"It's made by Hoofler and Koch. Located in Germaney. Now to think of it, you can also call it the HK416 too."

"Ah've never heard of them."

"It wouldn't surprise me. They've been making firearms for a long time, but I don't remember them importing their guns to Equestria."

"What's this thing on the side?"

"It's a laser sight."

"Oh, it doesn't look like one."

"Well maybe cause it's a new not before seen it the wasteland before model."

"Perhaps."

He handed me back my gun and I stuck it on my back. The magnet kept the gun there without it falling off.

"You know, we've been upgrading out tech for the past 200 years. Nothing we had back then looks the same today. Of course Equestria didn't get that chance."

"No, we didn't."

"It's... sad the way the old Equestria met its end."

"Ah just wished the Enclave actually did something to help the sufacer ponies of the wasteland, but they don't."

"Greedy S.O.B.'s."

"Ya can say that again."

I sat down and leaned back. "You know, I've always wondered why us ponies just make weapons. We make weapons to kill each other, and for really no reason."

"Ah've asked myself the same question before too Reaper."

"It's all pointless. We make them for no real reason but to end the lives of our fellow brethren. It doesn't matter the species or gender, in the end, we're all one."

"Ah know but..."

"We're all dead. Greed has caused the downfall of all of us."

Calamity had nothing to say. He just sat there and stared at me. "Ah would have to agree."

I realized what I said. "I'm sorry Calamity, I didn't mean to bring that out. It just kinda slipped out of me." I said it all without thinking about it.

"Ah understand. The train of thought can be carried away by the wasteland."

I chuckled a bit. "I'm starting to lose it already."

"No, ah've seen worse. A lot of ponies ah've met have done worse, like turn to a raider or slaver."

"What? The I.C. have recruited ponies here for slave work?"

"Uh, no, they've become slavers themselves. One of the bigger ones is a stallion named Redeye."

"Redeye?"

"Eyup. He has a whole empire of slavery. His base of operations is up in Fillydelphia."

"Of course. That will have to be dealt with."

"What do ya mean?"

"We're gonna end the slavery here."

"I don't see that happening any time soon."

"I highly doubt this Redeye has an equal millitary force to ours. Also they better hope we get to them before the I.C. do."

"Why would that be again?"

"Remember before at Steelhooves's shack. The fact they really don't care who they enslave and put to work."

"So, yer saying they're gonna turn slavers, into slaves?"

"Pretty much. They'll probably be sent to a gulag for work."

"What's a gulag?"

"It's like a labor camp, but worse. They send ponies there to make weapons of war for the I.C., like MBTs and other vehicles. The I.C. figured that they didn't need to waste food on the slaves. Can you guess what they did?"

"Ah wouldn't have the slightest clue."

"They take the dead slaves and turn them into food for the live slaves. They're cut up and turned into meals. It's sadistic."

"No, you're lying again, no pony has the capability to do that to other ponies."

"I'm sorry Calamity, but that's how the I.C. operate."

"Ah can't even imagine." Calamity had a semi shocked expression on his face. I hated telling ponies the cold-hearted truth of the I.C.

"I don't think anypony can."

"Ah didn't think I would hear about something worse outside of the wasteland."

"To be honest Calamity, I think our world is more dead than yours. Don't judge a book by its cover."

Calamity didn't respond.

I felt I needed to lighten up the situation a bit. I tried to think of something, but nothing came up.

"Hey Calamity, you know the saying 'If it looks stupid, but it works, then it's not stupid."

"No, ah can't say ah have."

"Well one time I was with Stiles and we were going down to the Silencer hanger. When we got there Cy was working on his ZTZ-99b. Which is a main battle tank. On his tank were multiple bullet holes in the two rear external fuel tanks. Instead of replacing them, he just covered up the holes with tape. To be honest it did work but it was stupid."

"If it looks stupid, but it works, then it ain't stupid," Calamity said chuckling a bit. "What kind of tanks do ya use, if you don't mind me asking."

"Oh, we use tons of tanks, both literally and figuratively. It all comes down to what the tanker wants to use but we use tanks like, and get ready. Tanks like: ZTZ-99b, ZTZ-98, T-90, T-72, T-55b, T-62, and the list goes on, but you get the idea."

"That there is a lot of tanks. How do ya make them all?"

"We use robots and machines. The reason we still use old tanks like the T-55 is beacuse they're cheap and easy to mass produce. The modern upgrates are cheap too. The original T-72 was known for poor side and rear armor. The modern upgrade adds interior armor."

"Must be a big tank."

"Actually it's not. The modern upgrades remove the need of extra crew. It's fully operation with a single pony. The gun is operated by an autoloader. A nova generator constantly produces fuel and ammunition for the MBT. The tank can run forever if kept under good maintenance. Without any crew inside (apart from the driver of course), we could pack it full of armor. The tank, on the outside, looks the same as the first model."

"And ah thought the zebras had the best tanks ever designed."

"Zebra tanks? Could you tell me more about them? If you know anything about them of course."

"Ah don't know a lot, but they're a few things ah know. Ah know they have two guns instead of one. Also durin' the wa-"

"During the war they were unstoppable," Steelhooves suddenly butted in. "Zebra tanks are known for their heavy armor and big guns."

"How big are the guns? What caliber are they?"

"I'm not sure but they were said to have dual 76 mm guns."

"76 mm, that's it?"

"That's one of the biggest tank guns there is," Steelhooves asked with a hint of confusion in his voice.

"The largest caliber of gun we use is a 130 mm gun." Calamity looked at Steelhooves, and then he looked at me. I don't know why, but I found Calamity's expression funny. I laughed a bit standing up.

"You ain't joking either huh," Calamity asked.

"Nope."

"Are you guys done yet," Stiles said poking his head in between me and Steelhooves.

"Yes Stiles, we're done."

We started getting everything together in order to leave the Stable. The walk towards the exit began. As we walked I took note of the fact that there were grunt bodies littering the floor. To me it seemed as if there were more grunts down there than I had thought.

I bumped into Littlepip trying to squeeze through a door. "Oh, sorry Littlepip. Mares first."

"Oh, thanks," she said quickly trotting through the doorway.

I walked up next to her only for her to turn her head away. "Hey Littlepip?"

"Umm... yes?"

"I would to say sorry."

"Sorry about what? I'm the one who should be saying sorry."

"I'm apologizing about the way Stiles was acting. He has a tendency of teasing me... and anypony like me. Ponies who are socially awkward, when it comes to certain topics, no offense."

"None taken. I felt like I have somepony now to relate to now."

I chuckled a bit. "Oh and by the way, what were you gonna say sorry for?"

"How I screwed up. I nearly got you killed."

I was taken aback a bit. "What? How did you nearly get me killed?"

"I turned the faucet on, and turned on those robots, and especially that big one."

I felt a pang of guilt enter me. I didn't want another pony to hurt themselves because of my actions, not again, not ever. "Littlepip, that wasn't your fault. Please don't beat yourself up for something you didn't do. It was my choice to jump on the C-8, not yours. It was a simple mistake on my part. At least you didn't get hurt. I've been fighting those things for years now. I know what they're capable of."

"But still, that thing nearly killed you."

"But it didn't. Look at the bright side of things Littlepip. That always helps me when something bad happens to me."

"How can you look at the bright sides of things?"

"You know, us ponies in the millitary tend to go through a lot. We see ponies we've known for a long time pass on. But of course we got a job to do, and we can't let the pass dwell on us. We try to do things to entertain ourselves in times like those." I told Littlepip this hoping to cheer her up, but she looked the same. She acted like me. Even though I tell her this, I myself can't forget about the past.

"I wish I could."

"You remind me of myself. I tried to do the right thing, but it didn't work. Has something happened to you in the past? Have you done something to other pony?"

"I have."

"I have too Littlepip, but I hope you haven't done the same as me." I started to think back. To that faithful day.

I killed them all. I killed them all in cold blood. I couldn't control myself. I didn't mean to. I... I... all those poor ponies. I took their friends and family away from them. I'm sorry.

I felt a tear run down my cheek.

"Reaper, are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, yeah, I'm fine," I lied wiping the tear away.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up any bad memories."

"It's okay Littlepip." I sighed. "Sometimes you gotta be cruel to be kind." I saw Littlepip's eyes widen, and then close again. I could swear see a tear start to form. I sighed. What did I trigger in her this time?

We made it outside. I took note that the sky had begun to brighten. The Black Clouds must have started to wear off.

My wrist computer picked up a Mute Empire beacon within Manehattan. Another one was picked up, but it was far more weaker than the first.

We started walking to where Littlepip said Tenpony was.

"Hey Littlpip," I said staring up at a building with light emanating from within.

"Yeah," She responded.

"Is that Tenpony right there," I said pointing up at the building.

"Yeah, it is."

The kept my eyes the the surrounding buildings. Their decrepit features gave off an eerie atmosphere. I felt like we were at risk of being ambushed at any second. I felt like we were being watched. I could swear I felt a pair of eyes burning the back of my neck.

"You feel that too Reaper," Catrine said looking up as well.

"Yeah," I responded.

"We are not alone. The eyes watching us are not pony."

"What are you getting at Catrine?"

"Sixty-six, we're being watched by your old friend."

"Old friend?"

"Yes."

"Catrine who are you talking about."

"Look. There," Catrine said point a hoof up into the sky.

I followed her hoof. I turned completely around. Atop of one of the buildings was the green phoenix I encountered before.

"Such a beatiful creature. Such glorious color. I've made a mask design out of one," Catrine said.

"Hey didn't you give me one for my birthday," Cy asked.

"Indeed I did. It took me a while to finish. I tried my best to match the color of your eyes, a nice purple to match."

"Thanks. By the way Catrine, how do you make those masks?"

"I carve them. I only use the finest woods available. My work is fine and precise. I use my knife mosty to carve, but on occasion I do use a hot knife to create my designs."

"Speaking of knife what knife do you use to carve?"

"My karambit of course."

"You use your karambit to carve?"

"Why not," Catrine said retrieving her karambit and spinning it around.

"Now I know the mask you gave me has pony blood on it... gross."

"Maybe I should have added a bone with that as well."

I chuckled still looking at the Phoenix. Finally it left its perch and flew off behind a building. I turned back to my friends to see us closing the distance to Tenpony.

I heard my radar give a beep. There was a single white dot on it. I was hoping this wasn't the Black Clouds messing with my radar. It was just around the corner.

"You got that too," Helena asked noticing me stop for a second.

"Yeah, I got one on mine too," Stiles said.

"Negative, I got nothing," Cy stated.

"I got nothing either. Could be an error." Karen said.

"What radar type are you using," Helena asked.

"Heartbeat," I responded.

"Switch to motion. See if you get anything."

I did as I was told and switched to motion tracker... nothing. Nothing appeared on my radar. I switched back and noticed the dot on my radar disappeared.

"Hey, I just lost the bogey on my radar," Stiles stated.

"Yeah, I don't have it on mine anymore either," I added. "Alright. Proceed woth caution."

We started down the street. I still had that everlasting feeling of being ambushed. I took point. Right as we were about to reach the corner I lifted my hoof. I heard my squad as well as our friends stop behind me and hold position.

I slowly peeked around the corner. My eyes went wide as I saw dead bodies littering the street ahead. I dropped my hoof and pointed it forward signaling to the ponies behind to move forward.

I started down the corpse filled street. I stopped at the first body I reached. I flipped the unmoving form of a unicorn stallion. I removed the crude armor covering his chest. I pressed my ear to his chest... nothing.

When the others turned the corner they immediately checked the other bodies. I felt guilt enter me knowing just a few seconds ago one of these ponies was still alive, but no longer. "Catrine, you have any idea who did this?"

"I think I have your answer." She held up a spent round. "This is a 7.62 x39 mm. The round of the AK-47."

"Wait... you're not saying... you're not saying this was done by I.C. troops are you?"

"Yes, it would appear so. I don't believe ponies from the equestria wasteland would have such a round, and an appropriate gun."

I took a look around. The signs did add up. Most of these ponies still had all their stuff. If I were to think, another raider or scavanger would have at least taken something. The armor did little to stop these rounds too. One of the ponies even had part of their head gone from a shot.

I had to consider the possibility of I.C. troops already on the surface. They could be just scouts looking for a place to set up, or to take for their own. Manehattan could be their first target for an I.C. occupation. My train of thought was interrupted by Cy calling out to us.

"Hey! I got something over here that proves Catrine's point!"

We head over to have a look for ourselves. What he was talking about was a mare sliced diagonally down her torso. The armor and everything was perfectly cut. Something that could only be done by a nova blade.

"You think they're still around," Stiles asked.

"No, I think they moved on. They rather stay undetected right now. The I.C. strike mostly when they already have a plan and an idea of what they're getting into," Helena answered.

"Bet the locals haven't left a good first impression. Looks like they got slaughtered."

"No shit. Hopefully the I.C. don't realize they're aren't any sorts of millitarized groups down here."

"Yeah if they did, they'll see that you ponies are here for the enslaving."

I was seriously starting to worry now. Like Helena said, hopefully the I.C. haven't yet realized these ponies stand no chance against them in an invasion.

"Hey! Uh... what in the heck is this thing," Calamity shouted.

I walked over to Calamity with the others following closely behind. I was wondering what Calamity tried to scavenge, but found out he had no idea what it was.

I walked around some building debris and what Calamity was poking came into view. My eyes went wide as I saw what he was messing with.

"NO NO! CALAMITY DON'T," I shouted as I sprinted towards him and tackling him. We fell to the ground as we heard the mine launch itself about 3ft into the air and detonate sending lethal shrapnel flying in all directions.

I groaned in pain feeling sharpnel bury itself into my back, wings, and most painfully... my flank. I roled off Calamity to look at the others. I was hoping my gas mask muted the sound enough so the others wouldn't notice I was hit.

"What was that," Velvet asked trotting over to check on Calamity.

"That was a S-mine, also known as a Bouncing Betty," Helena answered.

"Don't worry Velvet. Reaper got me out of trouble," Calamity stated.

"Don't mention it," I said still feeling the offending material in my wing shift. There's nothing like metal shrapnel to the ass in the morning.

"Uh... are you okay Reaper?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I lied trying to stand up only to feel the sharpnel move again. I groaned once more as I put my hoof on my back.

Everypony was staring at me with a "are you sure" face. I similed trying to show I was fine. Their expressions didn't change as I realized how stupid I was, I still had my gas mask on.

I took it off and showed them my simile. Nopony seemed to buy it. I sighed. "I'm fine. Seriously I've been through worse before. I can surely survive a simple bouncing betty."

"Speak of which, how did that thing shoot up into the air," Littlepip asked with mild confusion in her voice.

"S-mines or bouncing bettys have a small propellant that launches them into the air to detonate," Helena answered. "And it seems the IC left us some as a present." Helena walked over to another one.

Velvet somewhat panicked a little bit, but Helena reassured her everything was fine. She picked it up and examined it. The small disk shape mine with three small antannae sticking out the top gave two beeps. Helena tossed it a few feet away from herself and backed up. "Hmmm... they weren't on. Calamity must haved activated it himself."

Helena raised her Ump-45 and fired a round at the mine. The mine exploded on the ground causing little damage to the concrete.

"Alright, let's get a move on," I said putting my gas mask back on.

***

The trek to Tenpony continued, and man it wasn't pleasant. First of all, the shrapnel in my ass was still there. Secondly, my drug injection had worn off, so I start going through the symptoms of withdrawal. My head hurt, my legs felt weak and shaky, my vision got blurry, and I felt the urge vomit on more than one occasion.

I kept walking trying my best not to show I was in desprerate need of my drug. I hated this. I wished one injection would last more than a day. With modern medical advances we were able to make it so one injection lasts a lot longer than it use to, but apparently that just wasn't enough to satisfy my addiction.

One of my suicide attempts was when I injected myself seven times in order to overdose. All I did was plunge myself into a coma for two weeks.

I took a look at Tenpony again. It seemed as if we were still miles away from the building. My body wouldn't stop shaking, I couldn't take it anymore. I felt a liquid make its way up my throat. I quickly removed my gas mask and then unleashed a violent torrent of vomit on to the sidewalk.

Everypony stopped and turned in my direction. I held my stomach as I released another wave onto the sidewalk. I finally stopped vomiting feeling my throat burn from the acidic liquid.

I felt a pair of hoofs pat my back as I wiped my mouth. I turned to see how it was. As I expected, it was Karen, but she was holding something. In her hoof was a syringe.

I was a bit shocked, but I knew it took her little to no time to realize what was wrong with me. "Karen, I don't need on-"

"Just take it."

The tone of her voice... it hurt me. I didn't want to take it, but my body craved the drug. I reached for it. My hoof was shaking so bad. I picked it up, I proceeded to to stick it in my foreleg.

The shaking stopped, but everything remained. My legs felt better, I could see clearer now. I looked up at my friends. They all had a sad look. Velvet however was different. She kept switching between me and Littlepip.

I bent down and picked up my M416. I checked it for damage real quick as I'd previously dropped it. There wasn't anything wrong with it, so I stuck it on my back.

We resumed walking. I felt anxious despite having just injected myself. I felt like I needed another one.

I brought up my wrist computer and scrolled through the items I had. I found a few pills of Xanax on me. I was gonna just take one, but I changed my mind and deccided to take two.

I mustered up a good amount of saliva and stuck the two pills in my mouth and swallowed them. It was gonna take a while before they had an affect on me though.

***

The sound of gunfire startled me. I heard rounds fly from behind us. We turned to see more of the raider ponies.

We returned fire and dove for cover. My eyes grew wide as I saw a few of them catch fire seemingly out of nowhere. I turned to the right to see Littlepip levitating the carbine she hadn't used until now. I saw her fire another burst and reload. (She probably had incendiary rounds loaded).

I poked my M416 over and unloaded into some of the attacking raiders. The few burning corpses gave us a little bit more visibility to their locations (telling it was still pretty dark).

Karen fired a grenade from the underbarreled grenade launcher on her M4a1. She sent two raiders flying and another one blown to pieces.

The last raider burst into flames rolling onto the street yelling in pain.

"Well that sucks," Stiles looking at the burning raider.

"At least it wasn't a flametrooper that killed him. I rather die to incendiaries than a flamethrower anytime of the day," Cy commented.

"Incendiaries," Calamity said with a confused voice.

"Yeah, you know. Rounds that light you on fire," Stiles said reloading his Scar-H.

We checked that there where no more raiders. After confirming, we kept to the tower.

I saw that we were approaching a wall surrounding the tower.

"Littlepip is there anything we need to know before going in," I asked staring up at the wall.

"Yeah, first they're gonna take your ammo. Second they hate ghouls," She responded.

"Yeah, thanks for saying it in simplest way possible."

"There is no way in hell they're taking my ammo," Cy blurted out.

"Okay tough stallion. Then you are staying outside," Catrine said in a playful tone.

"I will then-"

"Well look who's back." I heard a mare's voice say. "The toaster repair pony is back. You know the drill, ammo in the slot and you're in. Wait... wait a minute. Who are they? They weren't with you before."

"No, they weren't. They're just more body guards I picked along the way back to Old Appleloosa," Velvet stated.

"Uhhh... is your body guard... okay? There seems to be a knife sticking out of his head."

Stiles suddenly bursted out into a fit of laughter. Karen and even Catrine joined in on the giggles. I hoof-palmed.

My cheeks flushed slightly as I removed my hood and gas mask.

"Yes, he is okay. It's just some of the radiation taking a toll on his horn."

"Horn? But he has wings?"

"Yes, he does, but... the wings aren't natural."

I hoof-palmed again.

We placed all our ammo into the slot. Every last grenade, flashbang, and bullet went into the slot. The mare promised it would be returned when we were to leave. Apparently rubber bullets were on sell within this establishment.

We saw the gate open to reveal the lobby right in the middle. The lobby had a chandelier hanging from the center.

The second we stepped hoof inside everypony stopped and stared at us. I felt like we were at New Appleloosa again. I thought I was getting the most looks. Their eyes aimed high. My horn was the center of attention.

"Classy joint," Stiles said with an impressed tone.

"Yeah, reminds me of the one time I spent a night in an Encore luxury hotel," Cy commented.

"I don't like the looks we're getting. Looks like we're about to get jumped," I whispered into Stiles's ear.

"No shit. I don't think you've noticed Reap, but we look a wee bit out of place, don't ya think," he asked.

"Yeah."

"I mean come on, look at us. We're wearing futuristic black gear to these ponies. I think it's best we try to fit in as best as we possibly can."

"Makes sense." I sighed

Only if I wasn't a dumbass.

***

Velvet had shown us to our rooms. She told us that they were already paid for and that she was gonna go talk to a pony she named 'Homage'. Just before she left we thanked her. She told us first thing tomorrow morning she would come and see us.

She had only gotten three rooms. One for Stiles and Helena. One for Cy and Catrine. And finally one for Karen and myself.

As we took our first steps into our room I was quite surprised to see how well done the room actually was.

"So this is Goldentail's Luxury Suites," Karen said.

"Hmm?"

"Velvet said that's what the suites were."

"Looks nice. Definitetly better than our rooms back on the Silencer."

"I agree, but it isn't better than our room back in New Romeo."

"Oh of course. This is a wasteland remember."

"Yeah. By the way Velvet invited us to diner tomorrow. She also invited me shopping."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"She told me they have decent food and dresses to buy."

I sighed. "Karen."

"Yes my love?'

"You know we're on a millitary op right?"

"You know they'll find out about this right?"

"Maybe but-"

"Just relax. You been going too hard on yourself."

"How can I relax when I keep taking dru-"

She sighed. "Here. Take off your gear."

I took off my chest plate and back plate. I took my gloves off, as well as my trench coat. The bandages from before were still there.

I think she didn't notice the new blood stains from my recent encounter with a S-mine. I felt her removed the bandages with her magic letting my chest breath.

"Turn around," She said softly.

I did so and felt her hooves begain to massage my back and wings. I moaned a bit feeling the pleasurable hooves move up and down and side to side.

I felt Karen unfurl my left wing with her magic. I felt minor pain shoot through my wing as the leftover small pieces of shrapnel still embeded in my wing shifted.

I blushed a bit feeling Karen use her mouth to go through my feathers. I cringed feeling more significant pain go through my wing. I turned around, giving Karen a stern look.

In her mouth were two of my black feathers. "What," She said with the feathers still in her mouth.

"That hurt, that's what. Do you even know how to preen wings?"

"No, but I thought I was doing it fine."

"Thank you, but I can preen myself just fine. Also preening isn't just pulling out random feathers."

"Doesn't matter. I was just trying to make you feeling better."

"By pulling out my feathers?"

"Whatever, just open your wing again."

I was hesitant, but in the end I unfurled my wing again. I blushed feeling her nibble on my wing.

I shook a bit as she made her way up my wing and onto my back. She left kisses up my back and neck. I was about to turn around to have our lips meet shen she started nibbling on my ear.

My cheeks grew hotter. I felt her grab my hoof and drag me more onto the bed. She pushed me onto my back. She straddled me; my cheeks now burning.

She leaned down, but stopped half way down. "Reap, are you tired?"

"Yeah Karen. I'm sorry if you wanted too, but can we save this for another day? I wanna take a nap... please?"

"Okay. To be honest... I'm tired too." She yawned. Karen proceeded to get off of me and lay next to me.

I felt my back start to rest itself from the lack of weight on my stomach. It took me little to no time to start dozing off. I felt the bed sheet cover up my body, but still leaving my head exposed. Karen must have just used her magic.

It wasn't too cold, but god this bed was so comfortable. I haven't slept on a bed like this for almost three months now. It felt gooooood.

***

When I reawoke I was greeted to my wrist computer going off due to a call. I reached over to the bedside stand to pick it up and shush its infernal beeping.

I tried to reach for it, but I just couldn't. I hoof-palmed realizing how stupid I was again. Using my magic I levitated the the device over to me. As I was bringing it over I thought about why the bedside stand was so far away from the actual bed.

I saw that the caller was none other than the Silencer, I answered.

"Hello," I said in a groggy voice.

"Sir. Good to hear your still alive. We tried calling several times before without a response. We were considering sending down a recue team to your signal."

"My apologies. I was resting at that moment."

"Understood. Sir would you like any supplies to be dispatched to your location?"

I thought about it for a moment. "Yes please. Would you send me a new load out. Oh and make sure you send it in a whisper drone."

I explained my new load out to the pony on the other side. I decided to switch to a SMG and do away with the trench coat I had. I was forced to choose between the Ppsh-41 and the M1927. I choose the M1927.

I told the pony on the other side to contact the other to see if they wanted to change their loadouts too. I told the pony also to put the ammo in a different crate with a seperate drone because it had to be left outside the tower. I told them to leave it outside in idle mode. Finally I told them not to send it until tomorrow in the morning.

After ending the the call I realized Karen was literally lying right next to me. I heard her wrist computer start to beep.

Why am I so stupid?

Karen started to stir. I saw her open her eyes to see what woke her. She sat up in the bed and levitated her wrist computer over. She answered the call.

***

After she finished she simply lied back down and didn't even acknowledge the fact that I was awake. Even after the caller told Karen I was the one who told them to call her.

I turned over to look out the window. The sun had gone down and the moon showed itself. I sighed and lied down as went back to sleep.

***

When I woke up I was greeted to the sound of the shower running. I sat up and stretched. I heard my back pop a few times.

"No nightmares for once," I said to myself. "Only when I sleep with Karen."

I got out of the bed and dropped to all fours. I trotted over to the bathroom door. I gave two knocks and waited for a response.

"Come in," I heard Karen from the other side.

I opened the door slowly. The mixture of steam and smell of shampoo filled my nostrils. The smell was pleasent, almost as if the it smelled of fresh flowers.

I was lost within my own universe as I heard Karen call out my name. I saw that she was poking her head around the shower curtain.

"Good morning my Reaper," She said with a grin.

"Good morning Karen," I said trotting over to the sink and mirror.

"Would you like to join me? I just got in."

I felt my cheeks heat up as I stared at myself in the mirror. I turned to look at her.

Still giving me that same grin I sighed and nodded (I smelled pretty bad anyway).

***

After we finished showering we got some of our stuff together. I was just gonna wear my undersuit as I didn't think I was going to use my armor right now.

"Are you gonna get anything today," Karen asked.

"What do you mean," I responded.

"I mean are you gonna buy anything from here? Like a tux or hat?"

I was flat out confused by Karen's statement. "Uh... Karen. I don't think I need a tux or a hat right now. Plus, I'm fine with my suit and hood."

She sighed. "Come on, Velvet offered to pay for our expenses and you're just not gonna get anything?"

"Karen, are you saying I should take advantage of her?"

She hoof palmed (hey I'm sorry I'm a dumbass). "No no no, I mean we should thank her first of all, and also because you never wear anything different."

"What? Yes I do!"

"No, you don't. You always wear nothing or a hoodie. You wore your ceremonial suit sometimes, but bearly ever your tux."

A part of me was starting to question why we were arguing about what I wore in a place like the Equestrian Wasteland.

***

Karen had done her hair. It took her like an hour, but she was finally finished. I had to admit it looked nice.

In the meantime I found myself staring out the window. The Equestria Wasteland looked so... I didn't know how to put it. Depressing? Awful? Poisioned? The world I thought the wasteland was just didn't come to me.

I felt genuine sympathy for all the ponies forced to survive in such a harsh environment. Raiders and radiation created creatures. It was all that we've seen, but I could tell that there are more horrors still waiting out there.

I started to now think of the future of this place. What could I do to turn Equus into a better place. First, I had to know what I was dealing with. I needed to head to visit every major city on Equus.

I couldn't just send in Shadow Company without any sort of knowledge of what they were getting into. I wasn't going to risk my troops for something stupid. I wouldn't make that mistake again.

Our next stop? I didn't know yet. Maybe Hoofington? Las Pegasus? The Zebra Homelands? Who knew? I sure as hell didn't.

I then realized another problem. A problem I shouldn't have forgotten. The I.C., what about them? They could fuck everypony in the ass if they wanted to. These ponies are ready for them. Hopefully they don't come. Hopefully they just stay in their ships and fuck off.

I turned to the bathroom door. She was looking herself in the mirror. She noticed me and smiled. I smiled back before turning back to stare out onto the poision soil below.

I wondered what new friends we'd meet here. We've already meet Littlepip and the others, who else remotely friendly lived here?

I felt two hooves on my shoulders. Karen stood on her hind legs above me. "Are you ready to go," She asked me in a soft tone.

"Been ready," I said standing up on all fours.

She dropped to all fours and grabbed my hoof. "Let's go then. We don't wanna keep Velvet waiting."

***

Once we were out of our room, I instantly felt uncomfortable. Everypony we passed by in the halls would give my horn a glare. I not sure if they were amazed, confused, or just flat out terrified if I was even a real pony.

We had gotten out into a large lobby type area. The walls were a pearl white, the read and yellow carpet had been freshly cleaned, the ceiling was a nice white gold color.

"So, this is were we're supposed to meet them," I asked.

"Yeah, she told me to meet in here, but I don- wait. There they are," Karen said pointing at them.

I spotted them and began trotting over. However something was off though. Joining them was another pony. It was a mare with a dark blue mane and steel grey coat similar to Littlepip's. She had hazel eyes and a body frame built similar to Littlepip's as well.

Karen waved to them. As we meet Karen happily greeted the new mare. I heard her introduce herself as Homage, the mare Velvet mentioned yesterday.

It was my turn to talk. I stood tall as she turned to me, but the second she did... her eyes went straight to my horn... goddammit.

"Oh my," I heard her ever so slightly whisper. Her eyes traced the rest of my body.

I was hoping she was staring at my strange cutie mark rather than my flank.

She flushed.

I'm gonna guess that option number two was correct. My flank was her target. I blushed a little bit and introduced myself.

She introduced herself to me. "I am not only known as Homage though."

"What do you mean?"

"I am also DJ Pon3."

I was confused now. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to know who DJ Pon3 was, but I was clearly showing that I didn't know.

"I'm the voice who always greets you on the Equestrian radio."

I simply nodded trying to act along.

"You haven't heard me yet? I already talked about you on the radio."

My eyes went wide. Had she given away our position on the radio to any I.C. troop listening. "Wait... what are you talking about?"

"I was talking about what you did in Ponyville. You helped that mare and killed all the raiders. I was just told that you were Sixty-Six."

"How did you hear about that?" I didn't even need to hear her answer when it hit me... Watcher. Did he tell her this? He was transmitting to this location to be honest. "Nevermind, don't answer that."

***

After a bit more talk we went to eat. The place we were eating at had only a few ponies inside.

After getting the menu I decided on a salad. I haven't had a good salad in a long time. After recieving the food I was a bit more than disappointed. It tasted awful, not to mention the stale tasting ranch that came with it too.

I wasn't about to complain though. I should have known it would taste bad. These ponies probably don't got the materials and ingredients to make great food. Hell, for all I know this salad came in a can.

After eating our food we followed Homage up to the next floor, and the next, and the next. It seemed as if we were headed up to the roof.

I just wished I had eaten something better though. For once I think I would have rather eaten a MRE.

Footnote: Promotion! Level 3 reached, Private Second Class.

New Perks: Double-tap, increased fire rate for every weaponed use.

New Cyber-Core Abilities: No new unlocks

Author's Note

Once again Fallout doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Khat. Oh and sorry for butchering your characters again. Thank you for bearing with me and the story. Once again school got in the way and I had to rush the chapter.

Introduction

Why does war happen? It's the question we've probably asked ourselves at least once.

Well it's because of us ponies. That's the main reason it happens. We want everything. Power, wealth, land, love, and just pure satisfaction.

Many wars have happened in our little universe. The first world war, the second world war, and last but definitely not least the third world war. Well the third world war wasn't so much as just a world war it was more.

We found a way to leave our little planet and travel far beyond the reaches of our atmosphere. With our ships and technological advancements we where even able to travel to different universes.

Beyond the portal we found another planet known as Equus. It was full of ponies and techology there was also advancing. We made new alies and friends.

Ponies from our universe emigrated to this wonderfull friendship filled land. They went there in hopes of a fresh new life. We shared homes and techology in order to improve our lifes.

Suddenly a mere two hundred years we left. For no explainable reason we left them. Why did we leave them? We need to go back and find the answers of why we got up and left.

On this day we return to our alternate pony friends. We have arrived, but we aren't the only ones who have returned.

We are here but... what have we found? We have found a war,
A War for the Wasteland