Fallout: Equestria - Castle of Glass

Chapters

Those Who Watch
Chapter I - The Return
Chapter II - Lights
Chapter III - Grays
Introduction

Those Who Watch

From high above, on a ridge overlooking the small merchant settlement stood a pony. He was a normal pony. A pegasus. He stood on a ledge inside of his black carapace armor holding a long energy rifle in his wing pointed upright as to not have it accidentally discharge while he was scouting the area. The settlement he was ordered to assess was one of the very few places in the ruins of this city that can hold other ponies and keep them safe from the shear cold that was this city's weather. It was this way for nearly eighty years and only now, it seems, that the weather is changing for the better. Even with the Day of Sunshine and Rainbows coupled with Horizons taking place only a few months of each other, this place was nearly impossible to breach without proper skill and expertise.

"Luna damnit," the pony mumbled, his voice augmented by the black metal helmet making its tone slightly deeper and more menacing than normal.

Figuring that the only thing that goes in and out of the town to be merchants, scavengers, and the occasional Applejack's Ranger, the pony held his hoof to his ear and activated his communicator.

"Sir," the pony said, "I am in position. What are your orders."
"What have you found?" the pony on the other end of the communicator asked.
"The merchant settlement of Foxes. I'm processing the coordinates now and I will transmit them to you when they are ready. What do you want me to do about it?"
"That settlement is the only thing in the way of the glorious return of the Enclave, soldier. I want that place wiped off the map. Decimate it. I want it gone."
"Yes sir," the soldier answered pulling his rifle out in order to make one last quick scan of the area from his position on his overwatch.
"Any sign of the Unmarked?" the pony asked, a note of anxiety lining his words.

The soldier rolled his eyes.

"The Unmarked is dead sir. He has been for nearly seventy years. With all do respect sir, I doubt that he will..."
"With all do respect means that you shut your Celestia-damn mouth and follow orders Lieutenant!' the pony barked cutting off the soldier, "Did you or did you not see any sign of the Unmarked?"
"No Sargent," the Lieutenant answered, "I did not see hide nor feather of the Unmarked."
"Keep me informed. You know your orders. High command out," the Sargent murmured as the link that he and the Lieutenant had.

The Lieutenant cut the feed. Though he respected command and his own Sargent, he hated the fact that there is still a death warrant for the Unmarked. He didn't mind the fact that there is one, he did mind it when the death warrant bled into his own orders and that he sent three search parties out every year to search for him. At this point, the Lieutenant was half expecting high command to make a separate division that would specialize in searching for the Unmarked. It annoyed the shit out of the Lieutenant, but he could say nothing that would change his situation. He had to do what he was told and that was that.

The Lieutenant still believed in orders, even if the orders were strange.

And so, with his new orders in mind, the Lieutenant swung out his rifle around and loaded a fresh spark cell into the weapon. The gun hummed to life with magical energy. Spinning it one final time the Lieutenant pointed the rifle down at the settlement and began to survey once more. Sure, if he had actually fired the weapon, somepony would notice and all hell would break loose. That did not bother the Lieutenant. He was a pegasus after all. He could pick off one or two ponies of importance before he needed to pull back but those one or two ponies could mean the difference between success or failure for the enemy. He knew what was at stake and he knew that he would not fail. He couldn't.

Then something had began to blink on his EFS. Faster than physically possible the Lieutenant spun around his rifle and his barbed tail ready to strike.

And there was nothing.

The EFS was empty. It was if there was something there and then there wasn't. Slowly and quietly, the Lieutenant put his hoof up to his ear and reactivated the communicator.

"Sarge? Are you there?" the Lieutenant whispered.
"Yes Lieutenant. What is it?" the Sargent answered his voice a bit more tinny than the conversation before.
"I fear that my position has been compromised though I am not sure. Can you give me a thirty foot scan around my location?" The Lieutenant asked.

The Sarge didn't answer. The Lieutenant knew that he was scanning the area for him. The Sarge was weird like that. After what felt like forever for the Lieutenant, the Sarge responded,

"Your still clear. There are one or two Pruinae wandering around your area but they are on the very edge of the scanned area. Nothing to worry about at the moment."

Though the Lieutenant believed him, it did not make him feel any better. He still felt as if something still watched him, judging his every move. He cut the connection but didn't didn't turn the communicator off. A soft crackle could be heard from his earpiece. It's one of the best ways to listen for Pruinae. They made a distinct whine that can be picked up as a radio signal before hearing it as a noise. Once one gets within about twenty feet, a shrill whine can be heard on the communicator and then they attack. Pruinae are the most perceptive and most dangerous ghouls in the Equestrian Wasteland making them a real threat when they get annoyed.

Shrugging it off, the Lieutenant turned to resume his survey. When he did, a form stood in front of him where normal snowy air should normally be. Instead, right in front of the fear stricken Lieutenant, was another pony. A pony of myth. A pony of legend.

A pony of his nightmares.

The Lieutenant was assured by his father that this pony did not exist. He was dead, he was told. Dead and burred like the relic that he was. The only one other pony who could possibly be alive and be this old was a tiny unicorn mare that was stuck inside the S.P.P. tower somewhere near the old ruins of Neighvarro after the Day of Sunshine and Rainbows. But this pony was not restricted to a building. No. This pony was a menace, a terror to behold.

He was a marble white pegasus, much like the Lieutenant's father. He had a bi-color mane and tail that was flat black and dark sapphire blue that was done in a way that most ponies wouldn't even imagine. The mane style was a longer than most stallion mane cuts and was curved up and to a point as if it itself was some sort of large horn blade. On his head rested a crown of polished gold with two eldritch yellow-green gemstones set in the metal, the largest on the bottom the smaller one just above it. The ends of the crown that did not rest on his ears, but rather curled and locked around them. The ears themselves were far larger and more pointed than any bat ponies' minus the extra bits of fur that covered them.

The pony wore a long, purple coat that covered everything from his neck down to his haunches and extended out past that. It had silver and white etchings that seemed to glow in the supernatural darkness and cold as the coat itself fluttered in the wind that pounded at the Lieutenant and the pony. The snow that surrounded him did not cut across him like the snow that surrounded the Lieutenant. Rather it stilled, only falling at a gentle and calm pace. The way that snow should fall when it's not in this city. Some of the snow that fell around him was a glowing blue color. That was because the snow that was that color was floating in front of the glowing blue eyepiece in the pony's left eye. That eye was not an actual eye in the conventional sense. It was a cybernetic augment.

But, the most terrifying thing about this pony were the... other augments. His back legs were made of polished stainless steel with internal hydraulics that could crush a pony like a Radroach. They did not consist of his entire legs, only up to his knees. And, most disturbing of them all, were the wings mounted to the pony's back. Like his legs and his left eye, these wings were made of steel. They were only slightly longer than normal pegasus wings, but instead of four there were six pinions mounted on articulating joints that allowed them to act as fingers of their own. Each wing pinion ended in a section of blue-grey painted and tempered steel. The reason for that is simple. It's to mark where the sharpened bits of the metal are as they themselves are used as weapons on close range enemies. After all, its easy to clean blood off of stainless steel, but it's even easier when the blood simply drips off the paint.

"No...," the Lieutenant mumbled as he slowly backed away from his nightmare, "No you can't be real! You can't be!"

Shoving some of his fear beneath months of intensive training, the Lieutenant aimed his rifle at the pegasus intruder and fired a tightly controlled and disciplined stream of emerald energy fire. Though it has been said that this particular brand of energy can burn through power armor, both Steel Ranger based and Enclave based, the energy fire seemed to stop mid-flight as it approached his target. There the beam of emerald fire stayed, suspended in a gravity of its own making, jerking back and forth sporadically every half second. This was the case with every beam of magical fire. And then, when the magical energy cell that was loaded into the energy rifle was expended, the pegasus clicked both of his wings together on the ends of each pinions. With a shower of sparks accompanied with a sound more resembling a musical note, each one of the twelve rounds of magical fire vanished in puffs of green smoke.

The Lieutenant stood there in stunned silence as each round, in total enough to kill at least three Steel Rangers, became null and void to the situation at hoof. The pegasus with the metal wings then spoke, with an accent slightly different than the common Trottingham accent,

"None of that now lad."

The pegasus, from his back, drew a long rifle. The rifle, according to what the Lieutenant could see in the dark at the time, was bolt action based with a small magazine that was mounted to the gun with no real way of detaching. On the end of the long barrel was a bayonet.

"He's fucking crazy enough to USE that?" the Lieutenant thought as the pegasus pointed the rifle at him in a field of black and white magic.

"You and I are going to have a little chat," the pegasus said in a near lover's whisper.

Then with bright flash of blue gunfire and a sharp pain that surged through his coat, the power armor the Lieutenant wore became inoperable. Every system had failed under the simple power of a glowing blue bullet. Other than the armor malfunctioning, no real damage was done to the armor or the Lieutenant. But the pain that pulsed through the Lieutenant peaked and he lost consciousness all together. However, before he was claimed by sweet and quiet oblivion, he heard the pegasus say one thing.

"Its time I truly explain what you should be fighting for. Lieutenant Cross. Good Night."

ooooOOOOoooo

80 Years Ago...

Chapter I - The Return

Chapter I - The Return

Welcome home.

beep

beep beep

A noise, far but close filled my ears. It was high pitched though... something that I didn't very much like. High pitched noises were always something I struggled with. It doesn't help that my ears were moderately larger than the average ponies. I opened my eyes to try and get a feel of the situation. The... thing I was in had a foggy atmosphere. Foggy and cold and sticky. Humidity did my lugs a little bit of good, it helped me wake up to try and find a way to get better air.

beep

beerrrrrwop

A thin line of light shone in the capsule I had found myself in. It flashed across my face trying to get my eyes to adjust. Hearing and sight were the only things that I had at the moment. The light faded away bit by bit and finally my pupils dilated and refocused in their correct positions. My vision uncrossed itself and now instead of a double vision view of the foggy air, it merged into a single vision view of the fog.

beep

bleep bleep bleep

Then I felt something in my throat. Looking down, I tried to get a better idea of what it was. Then I choked. Oh crap there was a tube in there! Get it out! Get it the fuck out!

beep

Vwork

The tube in my throat was yanked out of my mouth and neck. My mouth was coated in a soury, disgusting film that did not mix very well with the air. I took in a few breaths without a damn tube in my mouth. Then, bit by bit, feeling returned to every numb part of my body.

Legs... four. Ears... two. Eyes... two. Nose... one. Chest... one. Body... one. Wings... two. Pinions... eight. Okay... good. Everything else... okay... I still feel a bit numb down there but at least I still have it.

beep

Blok

With a hiss of air, the panel on the front of the thing I was in opened up. Still feeling weak, I feel out of pod and onto the cold aluminum floor and sprawled out on the ground. The sudden change in air threw my lungs through a loop and I exploded into a hacking, coughing fit that lasted for a minute. That minute was much needed as it allowed me to remember who I was, what I was, and why I was here.

My name is Quantum. I am the first son of my father Quasar Mechanic and the mother of Nebule Redux. My parents were immigrants from Trootingham who had move to Equestria for better work and to move out of the zebra's crosshairs. I am the second born in the Mechanic family line. My sister, Ion, was born twelve years earlier. Or... was it thirteen? No. It was twelve. I came from a family of scientists, engineers, and designers that were widely respected in the Ministry of Technology and the Ministry of Arcane Sciences respectively. My father was responsible for the design of several aspects of the t45 and t51b Steel Ranger Power Armor and the final build of the machines. My mother worked on a super top secret thing called IMP. I never got an answer of what it actually was but I knew that it was really important to the MAS.

My sister got into technical work in Manehattan to work on some huge tower thingy. I never visited it personally, I was too caught up in my studies and learning how to repair and maintain electronic components. I was an Electrical Engineer and was certified by the MWT to work on terminals, mainframes, different kinds of talismans, air systems, and magical generations.

I was a pegasus stallion. My mane and tail was a bicolor dark blue and black split evenly down the middle. My coat color was a plaster white, but is usually described as a marble color. My eyes were a dark sapphire blue described a midnight blue. I was slightly taller than the average unicorn. My ears were longer than a normal ponies. It was determined to be a random genetic mutation that resulted in heightened hearing with the drawback of high pitched noises causing my ears to bleed for a few minutes until I took a Healing Potion to alleviate the pain and injury. I spoke with a Trootingham accent that was very similar to my parents, though a bit heavier than normal as I personally like the way it sounds. My cutie mark was quasar, a celestial thing that is made of a black hole at its center, a ring surrounding it with two jets of fire funneling out of it in opposite directions. The mark was described as looking like a compass needle.

Now... why was I here? I was here because something happened. Something big, but I don't remember. Something bad, but I cannot recall. Something horrifying, but I can't recollect. But... what?

My eyes finished twitching around and began to sync up with each other. I wish my legs and wings would do the same as well though but it's better to take it as it comes. When my eyes focused on the pile of white things in front of me I realized very quickly what it was.

A skeleton of a unicorn.

Suddenly I could feel my legs and wings work right again do to the wondrous brain chemical known only as adrenaline. I stumbled to my hooves in shock, my ears swiveling around trying to pick up any trace noise that could help tell me what was going on. For the next minute I stood there, paralyzed, staring at the skeleton. I would've been still sitting there to this day if not for the slight skittering noise that snapped me out of my trance. A large bug... a cockroach I think scampered around its enteni twitching around on its carapace head. The bug stopped and turned towards me, its left enteni swiveling around to point at me. With a high pitched screech, the bug charged towards me with near suicidal glee.

I hobbled away on my still unsteady legs as I did not dare try to fly. I needed something to kill the thing! But what? In a panic, I grabbed a large bone from the unicorn's skeleton and swung it with all my might at the skittering bug. With a loud crunch the bug exploded apart its body and head crushed by the blow.

There I sat, staring at the bone, the bug, and the skeleton. I did the only think that I could think of at a time like this. I curled up into a little ball and began to sob. What had happened? What the fuck had happened?

My vision, swimming in hot tears, picked up a yellow number on the aluminum floor. In bright yellow, slightly faded paint, was the number "37". With that, a little more memory returned. My father, my sister, and I were in a house. It was... two stories and had a basement where my father kept himself on the days where he wasn't working. It was a normal day. We were all looking forward to Nightmare Night, a time where we all gathered together and had a dinner together. A family tradition. My mother wasn't there yet, she went to the marketplace to pick up some food. Then, a bright greenish-yellow flash lit up the cloudless blue sky. We all stared at the sight, stunned. Then a few moments later that felt more like an eternity, a second explosion farther up in the sky erupted, green fire surging in all directions in a near perfect sphere.

We ran to the nearest shelter. My father had a pass to a nearby stable. So did the rest of the family. We ran and ran until we made it to the entrance and the door closed behind us just before the shock wave of dust, air, and other debris slammed into the survivors. We trotted in. The ponies who were already there told us that we needed to go under radiological decontamination due to the close proximity explosion of a Balefire Bomb. We obliged and trotted into some strange pod looking things. A pod that I had feel out of not even fifteen minutes ago.

I sat back up on my haunches, looking at the bones. The bones of... oh fuck. OH FUCK!!

I started to shake. My sister took the pod in front of mine. We had always been very close to each other as friends. We took care of each other when we needed help. She knew how to teleport, something I was always fascinated by as teleportation was a skill only a few unicorns could do well if at all. She wore a silver necklace with a small sapphire crescent moon pendant hanging off of it. She had always believed and loved Princess Luna, much more than our previous Princess Celestia even if she quit during the middle of the war.

The necklace was tangled around one of the vertebrae of the skeleton.

I sat there, dying on the inside. I was cold, tired, hungry, thirsty, and now heartbroken. One by one I looked at all the other pods in the small room I found myself in. My father wasn't there. His pod, the one to the left of Ion's, was empty. There was no trace of him left in it, not even a speck of dust. All except for a box of Sugar Apple Bombs with a note attached to it. I picked it up and read it.

To any who woke up,

My name is Quasar Mechanic. I don't know if my position of what I was even matters anymore. I don't know who if anything we had known still stands. All I know is that I pray that I am not the only one who will walk out of this Stable in some form of alive. You will find that you will be hungry after you wake up so here is something for you to get at least something in you. And, if my estimate is correct, you will need something to protect yourself. I have left a 10mm pistol on one of the tables in the Stable's Atrium along with some ammunition for it. I wish all who wake up, good luck."

The paper did not look that old, maybe one or two weeks old. The ink on the paper had barely faded with only a little bit of fraying on the edges. I opened the box of cereal and began to eat it down. Slowly at first as my stomach took a little bit of time to adjust to the taste, somehow giving the impression of the food being rather old. Once I had ate enough for the moment, I cleaned the bone I had used to crush the roach, placed it back where it belonged, took the necklace with the moon pendant from the bones, and gently kissed the skull of the skeleton. Like before when she was alive, she had helped me once again.

***

I soon discovered that the stable I was in was rather chilly. The jumpsuits I had found on most of the skeletons were faded and decayed, nothing I could use for my own needs. Not that I wanted to go and desecrate any more of the dead anyways. Even still, I needed something to keep myself warm. I checked every drawer in the living quarters. There was nothing in any of them. All there was were several suitcases with still decaying clothing lying open on the ground. I was lost in the stable. The only direction I could think of with anything I could use that would be familiar with was the generator rooms in the lower levels. And with that in mind, I worked my way down making sure that I remembered the direction that I came when I would eventually leave the stable.

I made it to the engineer's quarters. It was fully stocked with tools and parts along with several different kinds of batteries and power converters. Knowing that I had nothing in terms of protection as I decided that I would grab the gun on the way out, a cast iron wrench would suffice for the time being. The suppy lockers were mostly empty. A few scrap pieces of wires, scrap metal, and a few screws. But in one, the locker for a pony named "Piston" held a uniform. It was made up of two pieces of clothing, one being a bright yellow undershirt with orange trim on the edges, and a dark purple button up overcoat with a blue-grey collar and a bright yellow "37" embroidered into the fabric. The barding was substantially heavier than other uniforms. I put it on and closed the locker, leaving the room and up to the atrium.

***

The Atrium was the largest section of the stable as far as I could tell. A few of the large roaches skittered about, but after the one I had to kill with a bone, I felt no shame nor remorse as I eradicate them one by one with the pipe wrench. There wasn't much in terms of food as most of it was decaying and rotted. I guess that my father went through quite a few things of food before he had decided to leave on his own accord. No wonder why there was quite a few open boxes of Sugar Apple Bombs, BigMac and Cheese, and Snack Cakes. It would be just like him to wait for somepony else to awaken and leave with him. He hated being alone.

With all of the tenacious bugs killed, I made it to the front table just like the note had instructed. And, just as it said, there was a 10mm pistol lying on the table next to four extra twelve round magazines and a full box of ammunition totaling in at seventy-eight rounds of 10mm ammunition. I loaded one of the mazanines into the gun, loaded a round into the chamber, and holstered it into one of the large pockets inside of the dark purple coat that I now wore. The extra bullets and magazines went into the other pocket for now. I would have to find a saddlebag sooner or later. If I had only my wings and these two pockets to carry things, things would get rather difficult to carry. I took the one unopened Snack Cake that sat next to the pistol and walked off looking for the exit.

***

The great cog toothed door of Stable 37 stared back at me. The final barrier between the stable and the large cargo elevator that would lead back to the surface. The yellow paint that covered the door seemed slightly more faded here than in the rest of the shelter, it being scratched across it in a diagonal pattern. I knew how these doors worked. My father explained it to me. Several tons of reinforced steel set in a layer of thick concrete strong enough to withstand a direct strike from a Balefire Bomb. He knew this because he toured the stable three weeks before the end and, being the engineer he was, he was able to determine how the mechanics worked. And, as he had said, there should be a terminal system that operated the door.

Like he said, there was. A simple terminal with several dials and buttons with a universal connection port set in the center. I looked at it and scowled. I had nothing to interact with it. All of the tools I had once used during my time as an Electrical Engineer were left in a metal tool locker I installed in my room back home. Now, it was probably nothing but so much scrap metal and slag but I had to check anyways. It, at the very least, was a goal I could accomplish for the time being. At this point I was planning on taking a pair of wire cutters and a screwdriver to take the terminal apart and try to hard wire the door to open with a push of a button.

But I didn't need to.

When I went to check the access box below the terminal, I had found another skeleton. He was in a shredded and torn lab coat that had once been white and was now a dull grey. On his left hoof, just above his ankle, was a brown cuff attached to his foreleg. It was clasped to his leg by a simple metal latch that was easy to undo, even for a nonunicorn like myself. So I undid the clasp, wrapped the cuff around my left foreleg much like the skeleton and locked it shut.

The device was like a small terminal but it was worn on your hoof rather than being mounted. As mentioned before, it was a drab brown. It had an old style tv style screen with rounded edges and a metal plate that extended out to shade the screen from the glaring light from the lightbulbs above. There were several knobs and dials all over the device. One, I guess, adjusted the focus on the screen. One large one on the top right corner had a pointer that could change from STAT, INV, DATA, MAP, and RADIO. Just behind that dial was another scroll wheel that I guess helped changed the pages and functions on the device itself. A counter on the front was labeled RADS and had a small needle that would point to different numbers on the counter ranging from 0 to 10. And finally a large cog shaped dial operated a small pointer that would I assume change radio frequencies. There was a button on the front.

I pressed it.

With a soft crackle of static and a several second long pause, the screen came to life. Green letters and numbers filled up the screen and scrolled up faster than I could register and examine. As quickly as the numbers appeared they disappeared, replaced by a screen prompt.

******************************* Pip-OS (R) V7.1.0.8 ***************************************

Copyright 2075 ROBRONCO(R)
LOADER V1.1
EXEC VERSION 41.10
64K RAM SYSTEM
38911 BYTES FREE
NO HOLOTAPE FOUND
LOAD ROM(1): DEITRIX 303

**************************************************************************************

With a flicker, a green stable pony pegasus appeared on the screen trotting in place with little green bars pointing to several different parts of the body. One to each leg, one to each wing, one to each flank, one to the head, and one to the chest. The pony was happy, wearing a grin that I could only hope that I could eventually match one day. In my vision, a compass, a health bar, and a small dot appeared in the center gleefully telling me that I had full health and was pointing north east. Turning the "Pip-Buck 3000 Mrk.4" as the device called itself around, I unplugged the universal connection wire from it and plugged it into the terminal. With a beep, the terminal accepted the input and a bright orange button began to glow right next to the port.

I pressed it.

The door then made a loud scream of protest. The door was pulled inward with some hydraulic mechanisms that I couldn't see and then rolled to the left revealing the large cargo elevator that I had took down to this very stable so many years ago. My ears were ringing, but it was an acceptable amount of pain. It did not hurt as much as using a bone from a familiar pony's skeleton to kill a giant bug. I trotted to the elevator and pressed the button that would take me up to the surface. Bit by bit I ascended up to the familiar yet the unknown.

The hatch above opened, dumping a thin layer of snow down upon me. I brushed it off as best as I could. It must be winter. Who was I to judge the day I was awake to the new world?

I had reached to top and blinked. The snow was sharp, cold, and terrible. It was as if thousands upon thousands of razor sharp knives were cutting at every bit of exposed flesh and only my feathery wings had a bit of respite from the assault from mother nature's wrath. From horizon to horizon the ground was covered with a thin layer of snow several ruined buildings were visible in the distance. The only thing I could say was a simple few words,

"Sweet Luna have mercy..."

Footnote: LEVEL UP

New Perk: Hacker

Knowledge of cutting-edge computer encryption allows you to hack Advanced terminals.

Chapter II - Lights

Chapter II -Lights

It is here, my good friend, that legends and heroes go to die.

The cold bit at me like millions of tiny parasprites. It was impossible to imagine. Suffice to say that every bit of land that I was able to see was blanketed in at least a few inches of snow. The snow itself was trivial in comparison to the wind as it made it somehow worse. Many of the buildings I would've expected to see one again after my long nap were long since gone. Replaced by mounds of snow covered rubble they acted as tombstones to the pony's now long dead. It was a perfect description of the city as it is now. Once, nearly thirty towering buildings pointed to the sky's protesting the mere idea of gravity. Now, as far as I could tell, only five remained their windows long gone. I was able to see this in full detail, walking by the disheveled ruins of the skyscrapers now with more equipment than before.

I did in fact stop by the old house where me and my family had once lived before the end. It was mostly intact, being a ways away from the explosions that had leveled most of the other structures in the city. The windows were cracked and stained brown with age, the siding was falling apart before my eyes, and the roof was in the process of caving in on itself. The once homely structure did well despite the passing of time otherwise.

Entering through the front door was a rather unnerving feeling. This is the place where I had watched the world die in a cataclysm of Balefire and magic and now I was returning however long later seeing the aftermath of it all. I was shocked to find that the newspaper that my father had read before rushing off to Stable 37 was still sitting on the table where he had awaited his wife's return. I wanted to read the article as I was rather interested in how the government was handling the resource wars. Mostly because of my job. As an Electrical Engineer I was tasked with finding new ways to stretch Equestria's power draw as thin as possible to try and reduce need for zebra coal. Companies like Hippocampus on the other hoof were determined to make my life at the time a living hell as they were convinced that coal was still a good idea for a viable energy source.

I chuckled at this. Reminiscing on the past like this would bring me problems. Still it felt good to let off a little bit of anger on things of the past. I picked up the news paper, unfolded it...

And it disintegrated in my hooves.

"Well... shit."

So, instead of sitting down and reading the article, I decided to make my way up to my room on the second floor. I opened the door, seeing it in the same condition as I have left it. Normally I kept my room tidy, keeping things organized for quick access at any time. The only reason why everything from papers to tools to parts were scattered on the floor was the fact the world had ended so abruptly and with such force that everything was knocked loose. I was astonished to see that the windows hadn't been shattered after all of these years.

I went to the tool cabinet and relieved it of its contents. A set of welding goggles, a stiff metal scrapper, pipe cutters, tin snips, wire cutters, a blow torch, several different wrenches, a hammer, another screwdriver, and my collection of heavy duty magical magnets that would only stick to certain materials. That and the old "Big Book of Arcane Sciences" that I had stored in here for something to read when I was off duty. Now that I had nothing but time to myself, I guess it wouldn't hurt to read later. I never did get past the section "Heaters and How they Work", which was a section on how to repair and maintain magical heating talismans. Somehow that particular thing always threw me through a loop.

While walking out of the house, I started to become more familiar with the brown PipBuck around my foreleg. Much to my surprise, the device was not as heavy as it would visually state. It felt like I was wearing a slightly heavier wrist watch rather than a computer. Fiddling with it gave me a bit more appreciation for the ponies of Stable-Tec who had built them in the first place. The power source that it needed to remain operational after all of these years must've been a nightmare in and of itself to design and implement. That and the processing power. I couldn't imagine being on one to the armies of engineers who were on duty, trying to make this dream a reality. It had an automatic inventory sorter and organizer, an auto-map function, a directional compass, and several other things that I was mesmerized by.

I was too focused on the PipBuck to realize that I had already made it to the city limits. This was the city my family had moved to. The city where I had lived. The engineer's dream city that produced products by the thousands.

Welcome to Detrot! Hope you enjoy your stay!

That is what the billboard said as I stared at it for the longest time. What once was a sprawling metropolis of creation was now a ruin of crumbled skyscrapers, small father-and-son shops, and crumbling road that peaked through the snow. The Detrot River out to the south-east of where I was still flowed by somehow not covered in a sheet of ice. Same could not be said about Lake St. Mare that was farther out to the east as it was covered in a layer of thick ice that must've gone down at least two feet. The ships and barges were surrounded by the ice shelf, further preventing them from reaching their now probably long gone destination. With how much stuff the boats did not have on them, I assumed that it was all at the bottom where no one would ever get to if the ice doesn't melt.

Even from where I stood, I could see some of the great pre-war buildings that stood pointed to the heavens above. Time did not make them fair well, but most of the recognizable landmarks were still able to be distinguished from the others. The First National Building. The Colemare A. Young Municipal Center. The Detrot Riverside Conservatory. The Guardian Building. And, most interesting of all, was the large One Detrot Building that had fallen and was now leaning on the Guardian Building itself. I always knew that the Guardian Building would stand up to anything that was thrown at it, but I didn't think the universe would go and test my theory and then prove it right.

I stood beneath a traffic light, staring at it for a long second. The sight of the traffic light wasn't abnormal as several of those still dangled around the city. This particular one struck me as odd. Of all the the traffic lights that were scattered around, why was this one still working? The sign had two still functioning yellow lights that blinked in a steady and eerie rhythm that did not fit anything that I have seen in this place thus far. This particular traffic light was one I knew very well as I was the one responsible for its design and placement within the city limits. It was made to act not only as a way to regulate traffic, but to act as a sort of compass. If one was to look at Dash Tower (the building right next to the First National Building) they would be looking South. Looking at the First National Building would make one look North. From there you can gauge what direction one would be looking by the two smaller traffic lights as one looks East and the other looks West. Now, looking at this traffic light, I was beginning to wonder why the light that pointed North and the light that pointed East were blinking in a synchronized pattern?

On both a hunch and not having anywhere else pressing to be, I turned towards that direction. I would not learn until later that, when I did leave in that direction, the lights changed. All of the lights worked, but none of them were all on at once.

***

North East was a direction I rarely ever traveled. For more reasons than one. Back in the day, ponies tended to avoid that way because of the fact that a lot of shady and illegal things tended to occur near that way. Drug trafficking, equicide, prostitution, things like that. I avoided going to this area of the city because I tended to end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. I have, once, witnessed a murder happen right in front of an Ironshod Ammo Emporium Vendor. It was a simple murder. No threats, no prior warning. Pony walks up to the vendor, orders a few rounds of ammunition, another pony pulls out a gun, BANG! Dead before they realized the sudden change of events. There wasn't even enough time for the ponies brain to register what had happened.

Walking through the old place brought back that memory and I didn't very much like to have it there on the forefront of my mind now of all times. The gun I held in my wing didn't help get rid of the memory either as it was the same model gun that killed that poor mare on that day. It was a chilling thought, but one I have dealt with in the past and one that I shall deal with all the same.

Now that was made incredibly difficult incredibly quickly as something passed through my leg at nearly the same time as a muffled BANG entered my ears. That was soon accompanied by me falling to the snowy asphalt while clutching my rear leg, trying to hiss the pain away with a muttered,

"Bloody hell."

Not soon after, a few ponies trotted through the snow closer to where I lay in a small pool of the crimson fluid known only as blood. There were three of them and all but one were unicorns. The third was an earth pony. The two unicorns, both of whom were mares and had a colorization that made them possible twins, were brandishing firearms I knew only too well. One was a long barreled rifle, presumably the one that shot through my leg, and the other was a pristine AEP-3; A rechargeable plasma pistol very similar to the one my mother had stored in her purse for self protection. Though not the same color, it was the same model and everything. It was an EMG-Class Whinnychester Arms Plasma Gun. The earth pony stallion had a Battle Saddle on that had a IF-80 "Timberwolf" 12 gauge pump-action shotgun.

Now before you ask how I knew what a Battle Saddle was and was able to recognize it in such a time was the fact that my father who had worked on the production of those pieces of machinery alongside of the various models of Power Armor as a sort-of side project. He always preferred working on the Power Armor as it had more freedom to do bigger and better things but the Battle Saddle was necessary all the same. Several years before the end, he called me into his work to demonstrate the use of a Battle Saddle and prove that it was useful for all races, including pegasii. It was an interesting project to say the least and I helped him sell the idea of augmentation of it in order to make larger weapons able to work on it.

I was snapped out of my nostalgia by the unicorn with the rifle.

"Well oil me up and rut my ass! Look! Its a pegasus! Haven' seen one of them yet!"
"Hot damn I might take ya' up on that offer," the identical unicorn drawled with a seductive look at her... twin.
"Oh shut the fuck up you too. Save that shit for when we get him to the boss. She'll want to try him out first and you know that," the earth pony snorted, leveling the gun at my right wing.

I very nearly wet myself, but at the same time I found the three unbelievably horrid. The two mares were obviously incestuous while the stallion... smelled fucking terrible. I mean really bad. The smell wasn't the first thing I noticed but it was most defiantly the second. Still, thinking really hard about how putrid the stallion smelled was most certainly not going to solve my current dilemma.

Now... my mom knew a security pony back a year before day zero. Her name was Primer, I think. Anyway she told me about how to fight off a unicorn and an earth pony. She said that to get a unicorn to back off or recoil, go for her horn. As for the earth pony they don't like things hitting the side of their head. More specifically their temple. Hit them there and run for your life cuz they'll be pissed after that.

So with that in mind and the three distracted by their bickering, I slowly moved my left wing to grab any one of the tools that were clipped to my belt. It was the pointed metal scrapper. Just what I needed.

With an explosion of speed, I swung the pointed tool up in an arch towards the earth pony's head. The earth pony did catch my sudden attack however. Knowing exactly what I was going for, he twisted his body around and presented his armored hoof stopping the scrapper and getting it jammed into the flimsy made aluminum plate. I didn't stop there. Doing that would give him a chance to swing his shotgun around and turn my head into red soup. Snapping my wings backwards, I launched myself off the ground and wrapping my hooves around the small metal bit leading into his mouth and twisting it around. Doing so broke half the stallions brown teeth. But now I had the gun. Sure he still had it on his side, but I had the firing mechanism all to myself now rendering his gun useless.

The unicorn with the plasma pistol didn't waste any time. She aimed her gun and fired a barrage of condensed glowing blue plasma at the two us. The other with the rifle found herself unable to use it effectively with the lack of range. Instead she holstered it and pulled a similar pistol to her sister's but in a bit worse condition. Using my weight and momentum to spin the shotgunner around place him in the way of their shots. Within the span of twelve seconds, he was reduced to a giggling pile of semi-translucent goop. But his shotgun was just fine. With two yanks of my neck and two cones of buckshot, the two unicorns were reduced to twitching bloody heaps.

However, the one unicorn with the better plasma gun was somehow still alive. Blood was pooling around her head and heck, the shotgun round tearing half her face open.

"P-p-lease...," she croaked, "Help me..."

I stood over her body and just stared at her for a moment, by blue eyes boring into her soul. She was dead pure and simple. Nothing I had could save her.

Now I've heard of ponies sparing someone who tried to kill them. It was the subject of many radio stories and broadcasts that I enjoyed. The good guy sparing the bad guy and then maybe reforming them to the side of good.

BANG

The smoking 10mm pistol announced my answer as a hole opened up between her eyebrows just under her horn. I had no mercy to ones who kill. Who knows how many they have touched and scarred. They displayed a blatant disregard to a pony's life and I should not show anything but a bullet back. They chose the path of the wicked and it will always lead to death. Either from blood spilling from the left side of their face, or a bullet through the skull.

With the three dead, I holstered the pistol and crouched down to look at their stuff. The unicorn's pistol was the first thing I picked up. It was well maintained and cared for something that is as old as it is. An elegant weapon with a wood brown mouth grip, mat black steel slide, and pristine power generator mounted underneath gun. As standard to the AEP-3, with a press of a button, two small extension barrels opened up glowing with the blue light standard for the gun. With a small smile I disassembled the 10mm, took the trigger frame and firing mechanism, and tossed the rest to the side. Why have a pistol with limited ammo when you can have one with near unlimited ammo.

Other than that, the two unicorns had few things on them. Their armor was worthless. The only things they had of worth were a few bottles of water, some boxed food, and several shotgun rounds. Speaking of shotguns...

"Aw dammit."

I forget that transparent pony goop was quite acidic. Everything he had on him resembled melted wax including the shotgun. That included the spiked scrapper I attacked him with. Honestly I should've worried about him than the unicorns. Oh well.

The sun was setting now. I had to find somewhere to stay for the night because I would bet my life on the fact that it was going to get colder soon. Leaving the two bodies behind, I stepped into a small post office. The inside was quite empty, not a sign of life anywhere except for a few old ashtrays and empty Sparkle Cola bottles.

It was not anywhere near a 5 star hotel. It was more akin to a 1 star hotel. I should know, I've been in quite a few of those to fix the electrical workings in them before. The smell was even the same. Cigarette smoke, stale air, and spilled alcohol. The floors were all wet and moldy with age and the wall paper was peeling off. A chandelier once hung on the ceiling. Now it lay on the floor in a tangled mess of wires, brass, and incandescent light bulbs. I managed to salvage three working bulbs and about twelve feet of wire. Who knows what I could do with it. In the electrical business, "waste not want not" is the proper motto.

After gathering some semi dry wood and using the blowtorch, I had a small fire going in the room. It was nice and warm, a stark contrast to the hell that was outside.

And I mean that quite literally.

I once had a zebra friend before the war. Now I couldn't remember her name to save my damn life but she told me something that would stick to me to this day.

"Ponies believe is a place known as Tartarus," she once said, "The polar opposite to the Everafter where souls are locked in cages to waste away for all time. For us zebras, we believe in a place called Hell. Same premise but with multiple layers to it."

She then went on to explain the many circles of Hell. There were nine in total according to her. The first was a place called "Limbo". It was an in between of the Everafter and the other more horrible circles. It is where the souls of both pony and zebra alike wandered and waited for their final judgement. It was an illusion though. They were there to wander forever and become consumed with loneliness and despair.

The second was where the Lustful went. Forever to be battered and torn apart by the gale force winds of a violent, unending storm.

The third was Gluttony. Forever to feel the unrelenting icy rain that would tear open their skin and expose their wounds to the cold.

The fourth was Greed. Forever to be consumed by the very things they were greedy for in an infinite vat of molten gold along with the things they desired most.

The fifth was Anger. A battlefield whose stage is set in a dark swamp. There, an army of wailing souls rush themselves at the damned. Never resting and never yielding.

The sixth was Heresy. Now even today I have a hard time understanding the actions of a heretic. I imagine it was something to do with the crazy spouting out crazy things. I could be wrong though. Either way it was a sea of fire protected by Hell's Guards. Their purpose was to keep the heretics from escaping their torment.

The seventh Violence. Those who killed for the heck of it were to drown in a sea of blood. Soldiers were exempt from here apparently. She never explained how or why.

The eighth was Fraud. Those cast down to this circle were cast in a shadowy darkness to be eternally attacked and beaten by demons.

And finally there is Treachery. A creature whose name is lost to time is buried in a vast ocean of ice up to his waist. She said that anything can happen to you there up to and including being erased from the universe entirely.

I didn't give much thought about those circles for a time as war caught up and swept everyone in its fury-ridden grasp. But now that I think back to what she said, Treachery seams to fit Detrot quite well.

Shaking my head and banishing the thought from my mind, I rested my head on the ground next to the small fire and drifted off to sleep.

Footnote: LEVEL UP

New Perk: Moving Target

They can't hurt what they can't hit! Get 25+ Damage Resistance and 25+ Energy Resistance while sprinting, flying, or in mid-teleport.

Author's Note

Holy crap the last chapter I did was in April of last year?! I'm really bad at this.

Chapter III - Grays

Chapter III - Grays

That is far enough! You are no longer worthy of your title!
I'll tell you when I've gone far enough!

The unexpected side effect of sleeping in the cold is quite simple. Everything freezes. After a rather uncomfortable nap, I woke up to the smoldering fire covered in cold sweat. Correction, cold sweat is the wrong description. It would be more accurate if I said "Icy Sweat". In a literal sense, ice had formed a thin layer on my face around my cheeks and on my forehead. To say it was painful was an understatement as it felt like thin daggers were surgically inserted in every pore of my face. Quickly I brushed as much of the ice off of my face as possible.

Now normally a pegasus is built to withstand outrageous temperatures. Having feathers really keeps heat trapped against our skin and we can fluff ourselves out to get cold air in. Most would think that cold weather like this wouldn't be a problem. Of course they would be right in the normal sense. Right now the term "Normal" can't really be applied effectively to Detrot. In fact I would personally assign "Supernatural" to it. Regardless, the thing that made this kind of weather worse was the fact that I woke up feeling quite sick.

Oh wait. Apparently I threw up while I was asleep. Good thing I didn't choke on that, or else I would've surely been dead by now.

Then I looked at the screen of my PipBuck to see if I had anything internally wrong. Turns out that I had absorbed four Grays. That... is nowhere near good for my heath. A Grey is another term for 100 rads by the way. Having 400 rads pretty much guarantees acute radiation poisoning. Other than the possibility of skin degradation, things like loss of appetite nausea all the way to seizures and comas can happen. Looking back at the pile of frozen vomit, I guess that acute radiation poisoning fits the bill.

Now my current objective is to find some RadAway or a bunch of irradiated to piss all the Greys out of my body. Considering the fact that I most likely got the radiation from the snow outside, finding clean water is going to be almost impossible. Finding RadAway at this point was probably my best option. There was a hospital about an hour's walk away called the "Hoofington State Hospital". Considering the fact that Hoofington was the leading state in research of pretty much ANYTHING that would be the first place I would check.

Problem number two. My leg still hurts like ass. Though the bullet that punched through it was very low caliber and it didn't hit any major tendons, nerves, or arteries, the fact that I have an open wound like it probably isn't going to be doing me any favors in terms of keeping the Grays out. Taking the energy pistol out and getting my sense of direction, I moved as quickly as I could to Hoofington State.

***

The trip to Hoofington State was quite tricky. Not due to numerous ponies shooting at me like before. In fact the only thing that would count as pony was the many frozen bodies of ponies left outside for too long. Thank Luna I didn't recognize any of them. That would be several different kinds of horrifying. At the time of reaching the reinforced doors of Hoofington State, my Gray levels have reached 4.55 Greys (455 Rads).

Now I have reached my newest adversary.

Wartime Equestrian Engineering. More specifically two inch thick reinforced glass.

Glass is normally the weakest part of a building. But this kind of glass was magically hardened and enchanted to protect and repair itself. Nothing less than a bomb will break through it. Even after firing twelve rounds from the energy pistol at essentially point blank range, the glass didn't even crack.

Dammit.

I was going to die due to my inability to break glass.

So... a bomb is essentially an application of a rapid release of pressure in a small area. If I were to apply similar amount of pressure in some other way, I could punch through the glass.

Then I had an idea. Opening my saddlebags, I pulled out my hammer and a pair of heavy duty magnets. Walking over to a lamppost, I stuck one of the magnets on the metal pole and made it stick. Then I placed the other magnet on the face of the hammer and set it to repel itself from any other magnet. With as strong of a swing I can manage with my hooves and mouth, the two magnets made contact for only a split second before the hammer flew out of my mouth...

CRACK

... right into the door.

Oh Luna please let my hammer not be broken. Those damn things were expensive before everything exploded. It seriously was 170 bits for an electrician's hammer.

Walking back up to the window, I found that there was an indentation right where the door lock is designed to be. The hammer itself was fine due to it being even more reinforced than a pane of glass, but the metal door shattered as much as if it was made of wood instead of steel. With a small push, the door fell in on itself.

"...okay."

With a shake of my head, I hobbled my way into the hospital.

***

PLINK!...PLINK!...PLINK!

After three well placed shots, the outrageously large cockroach exploded into a stain of dead bug on the floor. It was the fifth one I had run into after reaching the third floor of the building. The first bug took only one shot but the plasma gun I had needs a repair to it. The cooling system, I had discovered, was broken. It could, in theory, function properly in the cold weather outside. However the temperature inside of the building was at least 35 degrees higher than outside (in Celsius. Its -30 degrees Celsius outside). It being five degrees in here makes a substantial difference in my mood and the Gray count. As of this point, I have not exceeded 4.60 Grays.

Still it was important to find a batch of RadAway before I climb the Gray ladder any higher.

There was a map on the wall. It wasn't the first one I have seen since starting my assent into the building. It wasn't even my thirtieth. Every floor had one. Every entrance to an elevator had one. Every corridor had one. They could've made a billboard with all the metal, plastic, and mounting systems that they wasted on these things. Sure the billboard would look pretty awful but it still would've been enough to do the job.

There was a room at the end of the hall with a broken sign. From what I remembered by reading all the maps, this room was Radiology. Back before everything exploded, Radiology was meant to diagnose and heal ponies that came into contact with biomagical and radioactive materials. From what I heard from Ion, that had these all over the place in the Manehattan tower she worked. Design choice by the MAS's ministry mare Twilight Sparkle. Apparently, an accident in one of the big secret buildings she worked in called for the implementation of them all over the west side of Equestria near the Everfree Forest. Never got the details of this accident. I was an engineer not a doctor.

And being the lack of doctor that I am, I did not notice the loud chirping that came from my PipBuck before the door to Radiology opened. My stomach did as it immediately purged what little I had left in it out. Inside the room was a long bed with a decomposing corpse strapped to it. The corpse was glowing a bright neon green that lit up every corner of the room around it. Quickly I shut the door before my Grays shot through the roof.

5.53 Grays.

"What the fuck was that?" I mumbled to myself.

Then it somehow got way worse. Worse than the rising levels of Grays. The door tried to open itself.

Something was alive back there?! How is that even possible? Just a mere glance of the room nearly added an entire Gray to my levels. Not only that, but all the windows were intact and it took a magnetically accelerated hammer to break the door down. There is no way that there would be anything alive by the standard definition of "alive".

Robot? No. Robots that could fit through a door usually don't more that fast and they would've busted to door down like it was made of tinfoil.

Animal? No. Animals usually don't posses the capability to escape a room like that. And with how high the radiation was, it wouldn't talk more than a minute to cook something to death.

Thud!

The door tried to break itself down again. I am not sticking around about to drop from radiation poisoning trying to hold a door up. Time for a change of plan.

Running for my life.

And so I did. I ran down a random corridor that I haven't been down yet. Soon I came to a door still open slightly. I ran into it and closed it, locked it, and melted the doorknob with the blowtorch.

There. Absolutely nothing was getting in now...

...

... and absolutely nothing was getting out.

Fear makes ponies stupid and I had just fell for it. Unless I plan on doing the hammer/magnet trick again, I have no real way of getting out of the room.

There was a low hiss from the other side of the door. A feeling of dread funneled into the room from the bottom of the door as the creature shambled its way past. The hoofsteps were heavy. Lumbering. Almost as if it took effort to move but held power deep within them. I had no clue what was just past there, but I knew for a fact that it was something that can and will kill me without a second thought.

So I just had to do it first. But with what? The pistol needed a new cooling system or it might as well be a blue flashlight.

I backed away from the door to contemplate my next move...

When I came face to face with a Steel Ranger. Or at the very least, its armour. Powered down and slightly rusted, but in good condition despite the look of age and the dust covering it. A pale skeleton lay beside it, its saddlebags still intact. But more important than that, was a shotgun. A twelve gauge shotgun with a finely polished wooden stock. I picked it up and set it to the side to open the poor pony's saddlebag.

13 Twelve Gauge Shotgun Slugs
2 Bottles of Fresh Water
22 Gold Bits
1 Pouch of RadAway

All but the last item went back into the saddlebag as I took it as my own. Opening the RadAway, I drank it down without a second thought ignoring the watered down taste of orange. When it was gone I looked back at the PipBuck's Rad counter.

4.53 Grays.

Not enough to keep me from Death's Door but enough to keep him away for now. I picked the shotgun back up and loaded it.

Step two, kill that mother fucker outside the door.

No problem.

BANG! Chik-Click

With a powerful explosion of sound and light, the doorknob spiraled off into one direction and the lock spiraled into another. I crashed through the door to come face to face with the thing. It was a corpse more or less. All of its skin was missing having rotted off. Its teeth were yellowed and missing while its gums were dripping a black tar-like fluid that must have been its blood. It had no mane nor tail. Its eyes were filmy white like pearls.

It charged it me, intent of feasting upon my flesh. That was its final mistake.

BANG! Chik-Click

The two slugs perforated its head and chest, leaving it with no face or internal organs as far as I could tell. I looked to the shotgun held in my wings and gave a satisfied little smile. At that particular moment in time, I don't believe I've ever had a healthier or more deeply felt respect for any object in the universe than the shotgun I now hold.

4.75 Grays.

Fuck. Saving the respect for it later. Need to get more RadAway now. Slinging the shotgun to my side, I dashed through the hallway and through the glowing green room as fast as I could, slamming the door shut behind me. I didn't even bother looking at the Rad counter at this point. It was probably way higher than I wanted it to be. The lights were off and the light switch was probably just as broken.

Blowtorch.

With a quiet little his and a pop from the flint igniter the room lit up with the warm glow of blue and white light. And only the room. I remember one time that my dad explained why RadAway was colored a glowing orange. He said that it was so it could be easily identified even without the labels, but also because it reflected light that was more appealing to the eye than if it was any other color. He also said something about how the color orange is typically the color of energy, but I never understood that. Being an electrical engineer, yellow was the color of energy while simultaneously being a warning to ponies who wanted to mess around next to conductive coils and transformers.

I think I finally get what he meant by orange meaning power. The small flame I had was enough to transform the racks of radiation purging medicine into a walls of glowing orange lights. I could've and would've died right there of complete shock. I hastily grabbed seven of the damn things and downed them as fast as possible. After about another minute, I looked back at the Rad counter.

0.33 Grays.

Though I still felt like throwing up, I was fairly certain that was the seven pouches of RadAway talking and not the Grays themselves and I'm sure the feeling would pass soon. And sure enough it did after another minute or two. I stuffed as many extra pouches into my saddlebag as possible, thirty in total, and turned to look at the door I flew in from. In the room next to mine was most likely a creature much like the one I gunned down earlier. However it's mere presence seemed to be the source of most, if not all, the radiation in this building. It would explain why the Gray count got higher the closer to this room I got. For all I knew, it might even be controlling the other walking corpses if there are any in the building.

Looking to my side, I found a small bottle of Rad-X. I opened it and downed it in one shot. After the disgusting fluid made its way down my throat and hit my stomach, I reopened the door and looked to the glowing green form on the operating table. Like I suspected before, it was much like the walking corpse that I encountered before. Its four legs were strapped down and a metal helmet was melted to its head. The helmet resembled ones that soldiers wore during the Resource Wars. It must've been a soldier near the end as there would be no way that any sane doctor would leave a soldier tied to a table like this.

The hissing form thrashed and struggled for my face as I looked at him with a solemn frown. Not even the slow click from the PipBuck's Rad Counter could break me away from the living form of a dead soldier. I cursed my lack of a good cooling system, otherwise I would've made it clean. I didn't want to blow its head to chunks with the shotgun either and smashing its head in with the hammer was not the end that this soldier deserved...

... then again, being turned into a being of death wasn't the end he deserved either.

With a heavy sigh, I leveled the shotgun to the soldier's head and racked a shell.

BANG! Chik-Click

In the end, using a shotgun slug to end the poor thing's life was much better than leaving it here to suffer. I may have to fight an eternal war against the damned in the pits of hell for my own sins, but at least this soldier didn't. Luna willing his soul will reunite with whoever is waiting for him.

The light from the corpse's body seemed to slowly fade away until it was a dull glow. There was a dog tag around his neck.

"Sargent Amber Glow of the 86th Blackwing Armoured Division," I mumbled to myself.

The Blackwing division. I thought Amber Glow died just after the Battle of Brimstone's Fall. I would think so, I pulled him out of a crater there. He had a piece of shrapnel lodged in his stomach and chest.

No. Not now. I couldn't think about that now. It was too painful to think about. Too early.

I looked just to the side of the table that the late Sargent Amber Glow lay on. It was a yellow box that hung on the wall. On the box was a set of pink butterflies on it; the symbols of the Ministry of Peace. Judging by the fact that it wasn't scratched or dented, it must've been locked. Locks like those were well known for being broken into by the skilled few who could handle a screwdriver and a bobby pin. They told stories about unicorns, zebras, and some earth ponies who ended up in prison only to break out via the means of a screwdriver and a pin they brought in somehow. Theoretically, I was told, I could manage such a feat. Wings can and are often used as hands to aid in fine mechanical work and calibration of sensitive machines.

I was not such a patient pony.

Taking the hammer into my teeth and attaching the magnets to it and the lock itself, I would pry it apart like a lever.

SNAP!

And like the brittle cold steel it was made from, the lock gave way. In the box was a few bandages, a dusty bottle of Buck, and a Stimpack. I guess this hospital preferred hard drugs than Health Potions made with unicorn magic. I would agree.

Pulling the plastic cap off the needle, I jammed it into my thigh just above the previous day's bullet wound. It stung at first, but slowly I felt the flesh stitch itself back together. Once the little indicator on the top hit empty, I pulled it out of my leg and tossed it to the side to let some other poor bastard deal with it.

I took one last look at my commanding officer, wishing I had a better way of ending his suffering than with a shotgun, and gave him a salute. If I had a flag I would drape it over his corpse. Alas, I did not. So instead I stood there and gave him the moment of silence he earned from his services.

And then, I was off once more. To where I didn't know. For what, I couldn't say. For who...

... I'm not sure anymore.

Footnote: LEVEL UP

New Perk: Medic

Is there a doctor in the house? Health Potions restore 40% more Health and RadAway removes 40% more Radiation.

Introduction

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria,

SInce the dawn of ponykind, when our ancestors discovered the killing power of rock and bone, blood has been spiled in the name of everything: from Celestia, to justice, to simple psychotic rage. And with the great awakening of these ideas, a spark ignited a fire that would soon spiral out of control leaving its mark on all who lived...

All who died...

And all who was to be.

After a millennia of peace, the nature of ponies and zebras could no longer contain themselves. The world was plunged into a war that would soon plunge the world into balefire and radiation. Ponies and zebras has succeeded in destroying the world.

Or that was what they believed.

A Wasteland was born from the destruction. A Wasteland that corrupted all that lived...

All who died...

And all who was to be.

Along with the ones who survived the nuclear onslaught, ponies survived in great underground shelters known as Stables. Designed as a way to preserve life, there were an unknown number of these stables built and so an unknown number of ponies and their offspring survived oblivious to the world above. The Stable was their world. The Wasteland was too, but they did not recognize that fact just yet.

Same as it was in the 200 year old City of Bones; Detrot. A megaspell of power that put all the other megaspells to shame. Not in casualties. Not in balefire. But in its results. Upon its detonation, it blasted the atmosphere apart so badly that the temperatures dropped to near impossible levels. Not only that, the levels were sustained. And with the cold, comes snow and ice and death, killing thousands more who had come to the city with a promise of riches. Seducing all who lived...

All who died...

And all who was to be.

Fallout: Equestria - Castle of Glass