Chapter 5: Underpassage
“A fool, leading another fool, to go out and do foolish things.”
/.|-\_=-]_______________________________[-=-]

Ten

minutes flew by like they were nothing and I felt slightly less like garbage.

A rack of nails slid into my new gun, as did shot shells and small pistol magazines into their respective break-action barrels and

loading areas. The place was picked clean by Jester and we were ready to move on, more or less.

Underneath the platform, following the waypoint on my E.F.S compass into a train car that looked like it allowed access into the tunnels

behind it, I decided to point out the elephant in the room, “Uh yeah, so… what if there isn’t anything there at the grocery store?”

“Then we sell everything we get on the way there at town, get drunk, pass out…” She trailed off, tugging on a collapsing door, which

collapsed and fell into the car with a glassy crunch.

“I’m starting to think that you don’t know how to open doors without breakin’ them,” I commented slyly, following the deeply sighing

ghoul inside.

“Oh goodie, more bodies,” Jester sarcastically rasped, lifting up a battered, beaten gun from the ruined body of some raider.

I however, was taking an interest in the fedora atop the skull of an ancient skeleton, slumped over in its seat from when the metro

crashed. The prospect of a sweet hat distracted me from how terrible this entire area smelled. They must have used this car as a bathroom or

something.

As if it were some kind of sick cosmic joke, the top half of the hat tore away from the dirty, cracked pony bones as the rim of the

rotten woven hay hat stuck to its skull.

I scoffed at the cadaver wordlessly mocking me, tossing the dry rotted mass back to it disdainfully. Whatever, it would have looked

stupid on me anyways.

“Whatcha got?” Jester asked me as the scavenger combed over the cramped, angled car, tossing a bent, rusted tin can aside. It was a good

thing her cart was kind of small or it might not have fit in here. Then again, it still squeaked and squealed more than a rat that’s been lit on

fire.

A shrug, “Nothing but a bunch of useless crap.”

“Same here,” she muttered, putting a lead pipe into her cart, next to her dog who was keeping a lookout for trouble.

There weren’t any red dashes on my E.F.S, just some flashing arrow on it as if were pointing the way.

Forcing another door that was a bit stiff and worming her cart through the doorway Jester cussed and cursed her way through with me in

tow.

I didn’t like how quiet and lifeless these tunnels were. There weren’t any other sounds other than the ones we made as we made our way

through them.

Which creeped me out. A lot. It made me think that something was going to jump out of the shadows at any moment.

So when a chunk of rubble from a wall fell to the ground I jumped about ten feet out of my skin. The horrid laughter of my friend was

heard before I deadpanned towards her.

“it’s not funny.”

“You’re right, it’s hysterical,” she smugly rasped.

As I approached the hole in the wall with a bit of far off light coming from around a bend I grumbled, “I hate you.”

It seems like the raiders here had smashed their way through into some kind of... metal-y place. And from the random bits of gore and blood spattered about around the area, I’d say that’s where the ghouls came from.

Covering my nose as I poked my weapon in, aiming it around the corner, and nothing on my E.F.S, so I headed inside to look around.

I opened a bizarre door that opened from the middle when I turned a latch and it fell into the floor, being very loud. Who designed

this? If I wanted to close it, and I’m not sure if I even can, it’d be super hard.

Just what is this place for, exactly?

Some bed frames without mattresses on them, a couple heavy lockers with a few caps and a coffee mug in them, and other random things

made from metal were in the small room. There were these big crate things in the corner with no visible way to open them, which only made me

more curious to what was inside them. The next collapsing door wouldn’t open and there was this folded up terminal thing next to it, humming

slightly.

Password protected, of course. And it was all green text on a green screen for some reason. Uh… let’s try ‘password’.

I didn’t think that would work. Maybe there was a simpler way to open the door?

After fiddling around for a while with the door, I discovered a small removable panel where there was a pickable lock on it.

“Whacha find?” Jester asked from behind me, tapping a wrench she found on the light fixture above us, stopping its flickering for a

moment.

“Door here won’t open. Trying to crack it.”

“Oh, well tell me when you’re done, I’m gonna look around a bit.”

“Don’t get lost. I’d hate to go and look for you.”

With a roll of the eyes, Jester left the room and pushed her cart down the illuminated metal hallways of the service areas.

The door’s mechanics ate my bobby pin when I finally coaxed it to open, slamming to the floor and revealing… a closet.

Well an unlocked medicine box with a small roll of bandages and some chewable vitamins is nice.

I stuck a pill in between my lip and teeth so I could suck on it for a while to get the taste of vomit out of my mouth Then, I took a

heavy battery and a few nuts, bolts, and a couple small gears from a tool cabinet. My PipBuck aptly named the small pile of scrap in my hoof

‘scrap metal’.

Maybe Jester could get some use out of it.

Anyways, it was time to move on after one last sweep of the room. There's been some slightly useful stuff and I didn't want to miss out on anything that might help.

Bathroom with nothing useful in it except for a half pack of cigarettes in the trash, (Don’t ask me why I dug through that, but hey.) a

couple of unreadable scribblings from two hundred years ago on some crumpled paper, empty syringes on a table, a busted ham radio, and random

small caliber bullets stashed everywhere.

It makes me think about why somepony would stash a small box of 9mm rounds in a desk with some kind of computer bank next to it. In a bathroom. What? I'm confused. I'm just going to leave.

When I found Jester, she was gutting a robot that had long powered down, and she had a bottle of something and was drinking from it like

it was the last bit of water on the planet. Of course she was.

That stupid little dog was asleep in the cart as I sat down in a ruined chair to check my bandages. They weren’t falling off at least.

And now the Med-X was starting to wear out. I gotta tell you, I wasn’t feeling too great, but the bandages were helping.

“Hey can I get a drink of that?”

“Here, ya bum.” a bottle enveloped in a red glow raised into the air and I took it.

The label said that it was scotch. Weren’t you supposed to sip this or something? Whatever. I took a small drink of the smoky liquid, which had immediate positive effects of me feeling better.

But there was also my PipBuck letting me know that I was slightly dehydrated. I definitely wouldn’t have realized that on my own that I

was thirsty. Thanks PipBuck, you’re such a pal.

I ate a few more vitamins from my already small supply before offering it to Jester, who declined my offer with a sneer.

Whatever, more for me.

Maybe it was a bad idea taking a bunch of vitamins and drinking scotch, but so was letting myself get stabbed. Besides, they were

vitamins, how bad could they be?

Quite bad, as it turns out. As I uncontrollably evacuated my stomach onto the metal flooring, my PipBuck was telling me that I had

started to become malnourished. Today was really coming together, huh?

“Dumbass.” Jester rasped with a shake of her head at my weak stomach.

Maybe I shouldn’t have taken them with alcohol. I didn't think that vitamins plus alcohol equals barf. I don't think it was the vitamins.

Either way, this whole vomiting thing is really becoming a problem. If I couldn’t get it together soon I’d probably die or something.

And I can’t find Molly as a corpse.

After we cleaned the area out, me and Jester here decided to continue searching the halls for more loot. If you could call coffee mugs

and an empty bottle of hydrogen peroxide, that is.

That probably would have been worth a lot to Cutter. Even if there was only a little bit left she might have paid out the ass for the

antiseptic solution.

But what can you do but wonder just who used it and for what exactly?

Tossing the glass container to the dirty floor I looked to the little flashing arrow on my E.F.S, which told me that I was going in the

right direction, generally. It’s been leading us to the opposite end of this place as the pony flies.

I found a small amount of caps tucked in the small scraps of clothing the dead ghoul holding a chewed up leg in a death grip. No idea

why I actually searched the body, but hey. Money.

Hell, Jester’s doing it. Then again, I don’t think she has the same standards as the average pony.

This whole process was taking too much time. I had to hurry things along. “So what, we’re just going to dick around or are we going to

move on?”

“Well ain’t you impatient all of a sudden? What’s your rush?” Jester asked, casually placing some electronic scrap into her cart.

“My friend is out there, in goddesses knows how much danger, and here you are, picking through the guts of a computer when we should get

going.”

She dropped the terminal to the floor. “Fine. I just love the shithole I live in now. No, no, don’t bother to help out a gal but

you and your mare-lookin’, big-eyelashed, flightless, selfish ass can just go on and leave to chase after your tail.”

“For fuck’s sake, Jester. Will you just listen to yourself? You’re acting like a total foal. This is a kid we’re talking about here.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, I hate kids. My position stands. We either go my way or my way. I’m not going anywhere else with you until

we get to the store.”

“How do you know if there’s even anything there? How do you know that all of this isn’t just a massive waste of time?”

“Because shut your fucking face. If I say I’m going to do something, I’ll do it. Now I’m going to the store, and I’m going to find a

shit ton of stuff to sell back in town, and then I’m going to drink until I pass out in my luxury penthouse at the tippy top of town.”

“There’s a penthouse for sale in North Wicker?”

“Well, no. Fuck you Flyboy. My point is I’ll be living behind the walls, not outside of them.”

“Fine, fine. I get it. Can we just please get this moving?” I asked, starting to become very irritated with Jester about now, “You don’t have to take literally everything that isn’t bolted down, and then unbolt that stuff.”

“Besides, shouldn’t you be trying to keep that cart light?”

A grumble directed at me before the ghoul shook her head, reluctantly agreeing with the tactical decision to not weigh her cart down

with broken terminals.

“Not worth that much anyways… was gonna pick them clean later.”

“I do not care.”

=- |\_._/|/ -=

“You care that I screw around with computers now Flyboy?!” Jester shouted over the sentry fire pinging off the metal walls of the small

corridor, doing its best to fill us all with holes in the alcove we hid in.

The ghoul was doing her thing with the computer with a surprisingly effective hacking tool (a freaking hammer of all things) lodged in

the side paneling of the collapsible terminal. It was holding a bent panel open, where jester had done some interior decorating.

It was barbaric and brutal, but she somehow made it all work. For some reason, the black maned mare kept restarting the computer, but I

was a little busy hugging the wall so I wouldn’t get a lot more religious if you know what I mean.

Some flying sparks from bullets striking metal bounced off my clothes, but also singed my face slightly. (Beats actually getting hit.)

There really wasn’t room for two ponies, some shelves, a shopping cart, and a dog here.

And then, there was nothing. No ear-splitting gunfire from the ceiling, no immediate threat of death, and no sassy remarks from Jester.

For now, at least. She seems more focused on seeing if her dog is fine than anything.

“I’m okay too, if that matters at all.”

“Eh,” she waved a hoof in my direction while hugging and petting with her dog. It looked like it just oozed stupidity with that glazed

over look in its eyes with its tongue lolling out, not a care in the world.

What the hell was wrong with that dog?

“So. How’d you…” I waved a hoof at the terminal.

“Mostly luck. I was sure I was gonna break it with the hammer. But yeah, basically I unplugged the power cord for a couple seconds and

triggered a security reset. From there I pretty much whacked it with a stick until it let me in and I turned the gun off.”

So Master Hacker Jester just bludgeoned her way in huh?

“I’m just glad it worked. Come on, we’ve got better things to do.”

=- |\_._/|/ -=

“How long’r you gonna take Flyboy?” Jester asked me as she stood by her cart. She pined over the contents within while periodically

taking a moment to wool around with her dog.

“Well, opening a locked door takes a while. Give me some time. By the Goddesses.”

According to the nifty little map on my PipBuck, this door is pretty much all that lies between us and our goal, maybe. Or not. I don’t know, it doesn’t go that far.

With a click and the sound of complicated metal workings sliding around I pulled back from the access panel near the metal door to

release the catch in the middle.

“What is the point with all this security? All the locked doors, the Goddess-damned automated sentries. It all seems ridiculously

unnecessary.”

The ghoul stopped to open up a metal cabinet in the short hall with blue painted walls. It sure was stark contrast to the green tinge of

the previous corridors. Hopefully this was the end of all this tunnel bullshit.

Nope. Not an exit.

What is this? It doesn’t really look like it’s part of any kind of metro. The room was essentially a huge box with scaffolding out the

ass and strange machines with no obvious function on the ground floor.

There was also this kind of ambient humming coming from somewhere, but I couldn’t really tell. From the machines? Inside the walls? Who

knew? There was a light visible in the corner, so that could be investigated.

After a bit of tactical chatter, Jester left her cart behind to follow me and to act as backup if things got nasty. She held her gun

close as I took mine out, doing my best to keep quiet while sneaking against one of the blockier machines.

Creeping around the corner of the machine I could see the source of the light was a desk lamp powered by one of those big batteries and

some wires.

Next to it was a ghoul pony slumped over on the desk in a chair. Judging from the stocky build I presumed he was a stallion and the fact

he was wearing actual clothes and not cobbled together scraps and trash armor he might not be feral.

Well, the small hole in his skull told me he wasn’t up for any kind of talk. I lowered his head from which my gun held up but not before

sliding out the journal he used to pin down.

“Wonder who killed him?” Jester asked, looking around, trying to see if anypony were on the catwalks.

“Dunno, but John Doe here might have died not too long ago

“What Doe?”

“You never-? Well on TV I see like these hospital scenes or cop dramas and if they don’t know who the dead guy is they just call ‘em

John Doe,” I casually explained, trying to make out what John’s last entry said. The blood coating the page made it kind of hard to see.

“What? I’m more confused than ever. What the hell is a TV? Cop dramas? Just who are you?”

So we’re having this conversation? Okay.

“I’m not from around here.”

“Well that’s obvious, Mr. Robot-Leg.”

“Look. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

She raised her weapon to point it towards me, “Humor me.”

Aw crap. “Woah now, let’s not get dangerous now.”

The hammer on the gun pulled back as it floated somewhat nearer towards me. “Where are you from?”

“I’m a traveler,” Well, that isn’t not true. “I don’t exactly have a hometown.”

“And this kid you’re looking for?”

“Her name’s Molly and she’s a friend. Can you put the gun down now?”

“I have more questions, so no.”

Damn.

“What is up with the robot leg?” She motioned her weapon in the direction of the object she was referring to.

“I found it. Had some ponies put it on me. It took a lot of surgery to make it work and it’s worthless to anypony but me. It makes me a

lot less like a tripod.”

That seemed to satisfy Jester for a moment, as evidenced by her lowering her weapon. “What’s a tripod?”

Am I going to stand here all day explaining shit to her? “A camera stand. It has three legs.”

“Oh.”

I thought that it was time for a subject change. “So about the dead guy. What do you think happened?”

“Well from my amazing detective skills I can tell you that he was shot. With a gun. That fires bullets.”

“You’re hilarious. I mean what specifically happened.”

A shrug, "Beats me. What's with Deady's book there?"

"Some kind of journal, maybe. But there's a whole lot of blood soaked into this, and what I can see is gibberish. I don't speak math."

"Neither do I. Put it in the cart, we'll figure it out later. This room's givin' me the creeps."

I took up the lamp and the battery as well as a pack of cigarettes from John's vest before tossing the lot into the cart.

We lifted and pushed the heavy container up the stairs of the catwalks, and around the edges of the room to a door illuminated by a

bulb on its last legs.

Pointing our weapons at the door, we opened it. Big surprise, there was a dimly-lit hallway lined with metal.

Jester took a moment to investigate some shelves in an alcove for anything of value. All she found was useless dead weight, plates,

wooden boxes full of junk, even an iron.

I ignored the shelves with the oddly-placed items on it to scout a bit ahead when a couple red dashes appeared on my E.F.S. Well it

looks like nap time's over.

It might just be another one of those- gyuh- radroach things, but still, it doesn't hurt to have a nail gun out.

Getting low I made my way through the tunnel to a corner to hear a voice.

"I mean, where the fuck did those things even come from?"

The sound of something heavy being pushed around was heard before a second voice said, "Don't ask me, I wasn't in charge of the

diggin'."

"Well then who was?"

"Does it matter? We gotta get outta here already. I think I hear somethin'."

I tensed up, ready to hit S.A.T.S in case things got actiony.

"Ah you're just hearin' things. It's all these damn pipes."

"Well I don't like it. It gives me the creeps. Makes me think those zombies sniffed us out. Hey where's the key? I wanna lock the door."

"It's right here, stop worryin' you baby." The distinctive sound of a unicorn's horn becoming enveloped with magical energies was heard

before a metallic sliding sound was heard. Well I wasn't going to be locked out, so I leapt out from around the corner, activating S.A.T.S.

A nail goes into the guy on the left's foreleg and the door falls back down with a slam.

"Jester! Get over here now!" Tackling the other pony was surprisingly easy, maybe his buddy being shot distracted him? Whatever the

reason, I was taking advantage of this moment by smacking across the face with the brunt of my nail gun.

It was slightly hard to counter being smacked in the face with some heavy metal object. Especially for an Earth Pony. Finally, Jester

comes running, armed with her cart and a yapping dog.

She rammed into the first pony with it, knocking him over so she could get a gun on him. The ghoul looked to me on what to do next.

"Should we kill them or what?"

Looking them over, I saw they definitely wore the uniform of psycho killers, but from the way they were talking earlier, they might just

be cowards.

"We'll see. Don't do anything stupid." I poked at my hostage's chest with the exposed nail at the end of my weapon, causing him to wince

and jolt back slightly.

I turned to the others, there was some kind of key on some kind of strap around his neck. Well isn't that convenient?

When I got low to the ground to retrieve the key, the sound of clopping hooves was heard behind me.

I whipped around to see that paranoid idiot running away, then the barrel of Jester's gun hover next to me.

"No wai-" *BLAMBLAM!*

And of course she fucking hits him! The first round of buckshot tore into his hind leg, while the other slammed into his side, downing

him as his buddy called out his name. I couldn't hear it over how loud it was.

"Son of a motherfucking whore, Jester!"

"What? He did something stupid!" The ghoul shouted back, expelling the smoking shells while rubbing at her ear with a hoof.

I made some kind of whiny groan when I approached him. He was still breathing? Celestia gag me with a banana. What do I do?

"We gotta help him." I held a hoof in the injured pony's direction.

Jester made sure that his friend wasn't trying to do something as well by pointing her reloaded shotgun towards him, asking me, "Why?"

"Because! You shot him!"

With a wave of her gun, "And? You shot this guy."

"Not to kill him!" I flailed a bit before continuing with, "Give me some medicine or some shit! Luna give me fucking patience!"

Jester looked like she was about to laugh, "Uh, no. He's dead, that's the end of it. I ain't helpin no raider asshole."

All I could manage was, "What? What?!"

"He picked the wrong team, Flyboy." She motioned her gun towards the pony who's breath became more shallow as the blood began to pool

around his wounds, "They both did."

She slammed her weapon into the raider's head, rendering him unconscious. "Not worth the ammo..."

Yelling at her for doing that wouldn't have solved anything so I turned back to the pony that was on the fast track to being dead. I

couldn't help but feel guilty about him being shot for some reason.

He was scared, that much was sure. You didn't have to have hawk eyes to get that from him.

I looked to my prosthesis.

No.

I'm not a murderer.

But would it be better to just end it here and now? He could lie here for hours and still be alive, suffering.

"You gonna stand there all day or what? I thought you were in a hurry."

Train of thought derailed and focus drawn away from the raider in front of me, I turned to Jester, who had already taken everything of

value in the room and put it into her cart.

"We can't just leave him here."

"Of course we can. Just watch me. He deserves it. I bet you a hundred caps these are the bozos that popped ol' Johnny boy back there.

Come oan." And with that, she opened the door that led into what looked like a metro tunnel from here.

Looking back to the pony for a moment, I took a step away from him before hesitating, then joining with Jester.

After a stretch of awkward silence expect for the sound of our hooves on the concrete floorings, I realized I left the nail gun back at

the room.

"Aw hell I left the-"

"Right here, dumbass." Jester lifted up the nail gun in her hoof before setting it back down in the cart.

"Oh. Thanks. I um, I guess I'm sorry for yelling at you back there."

"You better be."

"I'm trying to apologize here, damn. Why are you such a hardass all the time?"

"Because I am."

The fact that there was a lack of a bottle near or in the ghoul's mouth dawned on me. "Aw you're cranky because you ran out of silly

juice."

"Shutup."

Hiding my guilt of leaving somepony to die with making fun of Jester, I continued with "What's the matter? You need a sippy cup?"

"No I mean it, shut up." She held up a hoof to stop her dog from barking. "Something's happening."

"Aw what now?" I was really starting to get pissed at the endless torrent of shit being dumped on my head today.

"Shh!" The ghoul shushed me, flailing a hoof in my direction while looking to the ceiling.

There was a light crumbling noise from above and then a visible crack appeared on the ceiling. A small piece of rubble popped out and

fell, impacting with the side of my muzzle and stinging a bit.

I reacted accordingly, holding a hoof to my face while making a silly-looking expression of irritation and pain.

"We should hurry the fuck up, Flyboy. I'm like eighty percent sure this place is about to fall down on our heads."

"Oh that's just perfect."

"Yeah, it is. let's pick up the pace just a little."

=- |\_._/|/ -=

The ceiling and walls kept making ominous groans and creaks as we hurried through the tunnels. They seemed to go on and on and on. If we

had any kind of transport, we'd be able to move quickly through these ancient, abused tunnels that have had zero maintenance for the past two

hundred years. But we don't, so trudging along like this is the only way through this damn place.

At the end of a curve there was a short upward slope that appeared to open up into a station ahead. Me and Jester didn't waste any time

rushing up and into the large room.

So far, there weren't any nasty red dashes on my E.F.S. Good. I was exhausted anyways.

There were signs of a camp scattered around, cinder brick fire pits filled with ash, a million empty soda bottles everywhere, and the

pungent aroma of the residents that last visited this area lacked proper facilities.

Jester held a hoof over the ashes in the pit, "Cold. Nopony's been here in a while."

"That's weird, where'd you think they went?"

A shrug, "Who knows? Maybe whoever was here just got tired of the scenery or maybe it was just time to pack up. Or maybe the ferals got

'em."

"A hundred different reasons why we should get topside. What do you say we do just that?"

"Alright."

The gate barring us from exiting was pretty simple to open. There was a big release lever on the inside portion of the thing. Probably

for emergency exits or when the power's out. I guess this situation kind of counts as both.

I did the honors, pulling the gate open for Jester like a gentlepony, asking her about that whole area we went through earlier.

"I dunno. Who knows what half the shit around here is?"

Trotting up the steps to find nothing wanting to kill us, just a big plaza-type area with a bunch of boarded up stores that had either

collapsed upon themselves or became buried in rubble from other buildings that had fallen.

There was a few that might be enterable but the main point of interest was the large cargo wagons near the center of the plaza. They

were covered and filled with construction equipment. Paydirt.

Before I went off and rushed over to the wagons, a hoof stopped me. "Hey dumbass. You got a death wish or somethin'?"

"Wha-?"

I felt my head being grabbed by something and forced slightly downwards. I saw little red lights. and creating these lights were dirt-

colored disks on the ground near the treasure-filled wagons.

"Landmines?"

"Those are landmines?" the comical spiked sphere where my mind held an image of a landmine was replaced with these weird tan pucks.

"Huh."

"Just stay away from those wagons. I'll take care of the mines. Watch Marty and stay out of trouble."

"Will do. Come on, you." I began to push the cart away from the wagons and Jester as Marty whimpered and whined for his master.

Cracking open a vending machine flickering in the night I took a swig of some lukewarm, hyper-aged sodie pop and boy was it radioactive.

The PipBuck's Geiger counter make a soft little tick with every sip, but with it really being the only source of sugar around here I couldn't

complain.

Well, I could, but where would that get me?

Not asking why there were still drinks in the machine, I tossed the empty bottle to join its siblings on the ground, pocketing the

bottle cap that held the bubbly drink inside.

The cola only gave me a temporary boost in energy, soon my eyelids were heavy again and to top it off my good forelimb was starting to

hurt pretty bad again.

I tossed the empty Med-X needle back into the medicine box, sighing contentedly. That really hit the spot.

Reaching one of the stores that appeared to be intact I took up a weapon and carefully opened the door. Well, apparently there was

electricity from somewhere because most of the lights on the ceiling were on. There wasn't anypony home, though. Strange.

There were a lot of empty cans and bottles and stuff on the shelves but I did find a bit of food and other things here and there. Jester

was going to like this.

By the time I left, I had a pretty decent haul. I didn't comb over every inch of the place like Jester would have, I didn't even go for

the basement door. Who cares what's down there? I didn't want to go underground for a while.

Returning to my ghoulish friend, she was tossing stuff around the wagons, "Fucking useless! There's nothing here. Just a bunch of

ladders. Who the fuck needs ladders?"

"Well, the bombs were worth it I guess?" I motioned over to the pile of deactivated mines.

She shrugged for the umpteenth time, "Yeah I guess those'r good too... whacha got there?"

"Just some random crap, nothing much. Well I did find this." I presented a bottle of beer to the ghoul.

"Gyuh, anything else?" She seemed disappointed that it wasn't hard liquor but took it anyways.

"Well you suck," I quietly said while the ghoul slowly drank the beer, acting like it was poison with every sip. "Alright time's a

wastin', let's get a move on."

"Which way?"

I pointed a hoof where my E.F.S compass told me and we headed out.

=-|\_._/|/-=

I surveyed the area as Jester picked apart the blown open robot that had been wandering around, babbling with a Trottingham-type accent.

It resembled some kind of robot octopus thing with those metallic tentacles, it was really weird.

Just glad that Jester popped it before it could cut my head off.

Goddesses, it was quiet.

There was one big light in the distance that was catching my attention and my E.F.S was pointing me straight towards it. How it knew

exactly where I was supposed to go was still a mystery. I just wrote it off as one of those things that I'll never know before. I listened to

another pre-recorded message play in my head alerting me of my diminishing power reserves.

Turning and raising my prosthesis for emphasis, I started to complain to Jester, "Hey you done there cause we-"

something small and hard hit my prosthesis, causing it to bash into my head. Which hurt, a lot. "Gah! What the fuck?!"

I was pulled down by Jester's magic, "Holy donkey dick Flyboy, you're lucky!"

Huh? What does she- Turning my hoof, I could see that there was a heavily flattened round embedded into the casing of my Omni-hoof. It

was simple enough to pop it out, leaving a small divot in my hoof. Great.

Jester's dog was in the pony's hooves and another round pinged off the powerless robot acting as our cover's shell. We needed to get

somewhere safer.

I watched as she took a Mint-al from a tin to chew it up before she started to talk loudly at me, "Alright this guy is shooting pretty

suckishly so if one of us shoots at him, the other can bolt over there to that crappy little wall. See there? Go there! I'll shoot bullets!"

Jester raised up a .32 pistol with her magic. Guess that little pop gun has a use after all.

While my comrade provided a distraction for me, I galloped as fast as I could without dropping any of my stuff from my bag or hurting my

damaged leg any further. This whole building, which simply screamed 'apocalyptic ruin' with its grey interior/exterior, lovely piles of slag

lying about, and lack of most of its structure, save for a concrete coated steel skeleton of a building.

Whoever was at the top of these sad ruins sure was persistent, and had a lot of ammo apparently because he wouldn't stop trying to shoot

his way through the wall I hid behind.

With my single shotgun over the wall I blind fired into the air, which bought Jester a few seconds while I pushed a new shell into the

barrel with my teeth while the spent one fell to the ground.

The ghoul nearly fell down when she got up to me. "Took ya long enough! So I got these!" Jester held up the box she was keeping the

mines she disarmed in while doing her best to console the barking canine in her hooves.

"What good are those?" I asked, holding the shotgun's barrel in my good hoof so I could pull out a shell and insert the fresh one with

the same hoof. I pocketed the empty hull, it's not like these are raining from the sky, right?

"Well lemme show ya!" She armed one of the little bastards.

"Whadya- I'm right here!"

"Don't worry, you're friendly to it," Jester 'explained', hurling it over the wall.

After a few seconds of tense silence, another gunshot rang out to slam into the wall. "I don't think that worked."

"Well no shit!"

"Any other ideas?

"I could throw you over the wall."

"I hope you're joking. You're joking, right?"

"Kinda," the ghoul bared her gnarly yellow teeth at me. Was she smiling? I couldn't tell.

"But seriously, do you have a plan or not?!" I shouted, blasting another volley of pellets at our assailant. Still, there came a steady

flow of bullets our way. What is with this guy? And why does he got so many got-damn bullets?

I spent my last shotshell with some more blind fire and I tossed my weapon down to the ground, "Damn ALL! Jester! Plan?!"

The ghoul tapped at her chin with a hoof, "I'll cover you while you go up and kill that guy."

"So... Exactly what we've been trying to do?!"

"Pretty much."

"Gah. Alright. Don't get me killed, alright?"

"I won't! Now move ya ass, go on. Get."

There wasn't time to get a good look at the sniper, hell he nearly grazed me when I tried to look up before reaching an area that had a

staircase leading to a second floor, which provided me with ample cover. It was still pretty terrible, but I wasn't decapitated so there was

that.

There was Jester's mine, laying in the mud, the little red-orange light highly visible at night. There was no way that I was getting

near an active landmine so I checked my E.F.S.

When I barely moved around the red dash swung around violently. He's probably above me. Why doesn't this thing say that?

I noticed that my dear comrade wasn't providing me with cover fire at the moment. "Jester what are you doing?!"

"For fuck's sake gimmie a second!"

Soon, beefier shots than before erupted from the ghoul's position. Seems like she swapped out weapons. I made haste up the stairs to the

second floor and across some boards acting as a bridge to a pillar with some floor around it.

A lonely island in this sea of decay. there was more refuse bridging the gap between this and the other side of the building and I was

surprised that I haven't been shot yet.

Maybe our sniper can't hit moving targets that well?

Up some more stairs to the third floor and, using the E.F.S, I quickly spotted the sniper limping along, trying to get to a more

defensible position. One of us must have winged him.

I didn't have that much in way of weaponry, so I did the only sensible thing. I hauled ass across the decrepit floor that felt like it

was minutes away from collapsing like a madpony. I whipped out the 10mm pistol I had and I was planning on shooting the raider, who was

evidently female and was a unicorn to boot. She also wore some rather raggedy clothing, but that was beside the point.

Crazybitch McSniperface swatted my weapon from my hoof with the hunting rifle she carried! She tried to smash the gun into my head next

but that was hard with me grabbing her club while my other hoof impacted with her chest.

I dropped her weapon to the ground and took advantage of how terribly she took my punch to plant my forehooves on the ground, turning

about and bucking into the pony. She fell over backwards onto the ground, near her makeshift sleeping area made from cardboard and raggedy

sheets.

When I turned about, I saw the pony trying to get up again. I tensed up again, assuming a fighty stance in case I had to punch her

more.

"So how about you say-" Before I could finish, a loud crumbly snap was heard, followed immediately by the floor my sparring partner was

on decided to become a slope.

Being standing already I was able to stop myself from falling over and I tried to reach out for the pony, but she had already tumbled

off the edge and was now falling to the first floor through the fresh hole over the second floor. This was immediately followed by an explosion.

That must have been Jester's mine. Damn.

Scrambling back up to where the floor was slightly more solid I looked around, doing my best to ignore that I just killed yet another

pony.

There was a ham radio that was turned on and a static-filled voice was emanating from it. "Yo Green, what the fuck's goin on up there?

Green? Hey Green? Come on, you're not still mad about that last haul? Boss gets first dibs, you know that."

Her name was Green? Strange, seeing how she wasn't green, more of a magenta.

I turned off the radio and tossed it out the window. Not sure why I turned it off first though. Let's let them believe their sniper's

still alive.

Found the odd bit and cap here and there, dismissing random junk the scavenger would just weigh her cart down with. I pocketed every bit

of ammo I found, and the most interesting kind were the bullets left over from Green's little shooting spree.

My PipBuck identified them as Hollow Jacket .308 Rounds. Not sure what that meant, but it seemed to be some kind of special ammunition.

Cool beans.

After that I found some hyper-preserved snack foods, and the gun that was being fired at me so much. Luckily my pistol was still on this

floor after being batted away from me like it was.

When I returned to Jester with my loot, she was fairly neutral with her greeting. She asked if I found any liquor, I hadn't. She didn't

care about the fight nor did she gloat about her mine killing the sniper. Guess she just wanted to move on.

I was still trying to get over that I had killed a pony like this. I mean, this wasn't some frothy psychopath with a bloodied pony skull

hanging from their neck while forcing themselves upon some innocent pony, Green looked fairly sane. And I had kind of wanted to not kill her at

the end there, and I kill her anyways.

Like swatting at a fly then trying to let it out a window only to crush it with the window.

This kind of sucks.

=- |\_._/|/ -=

"Well somepony had a lot of time on their hooves." Jester mused at the tremendous amount of graffiti on the concrete block wall. I

couldn't very much tell what half of it was, but some of it was definitely clear.

I turned away from the explicit pornographic graffiti with a slight blush, clearing my throat.

"They sure did. So how much longer do you say it'll take before we get to this damn store?"

"Hell if I know. I just know the general direction it's in."

"How do you know that?" I asked Jester, staggering along on my hind hooves and massaging my injured leg with my prosthesis. Those

bandages sure were doing their job. The magics in the medicine that had been soaked into them slowly mended my bite and stab wounds and my knife

hole felt like it was nearly sealed up.

Should probably not mess with it any further. Don't want to tear it open and be back where I was hours ago.

"Ponies talk, I listen. A lotta talkin goes on at the Grassy Ass."

"Guess that makes sense. Whenever I hear somepony talk about a place this thing here puts a marker there for some reason. I don't know

how it works."

Jester eyed the PipBuck on my leg for a moment while pushing her cart along, "I told you something, you tell me something. Where'd you

get the PipBuck?"

I shrugged, "Wish I knew Jester. If I did I'd tell you."

"Guess we both got things we'd like to know more about."

"What do you mean?"

"Can't remember anything past a year ago, when I was ghouled."

"Ah. That's gotta suck. At least you know where you're from, right?"

The ghoul looked to her raggedy stable barding with the yellow 56 on the collar before saying, "Yeah, maybe. Cutter says I might just

have been wearing it when I got all hyper-exfoliated."

It was my turn to shrug, "Anything's possible. After we find Molly, we'll see to looking for that Stable of yours. Might get some

answers then."

"Thanks, Flyboy."

Continuing to fiddle around with the PipBuck's features and settings, I quietly responded with, "No problemo."

-=-________________________[|]|.,/=|oO.0l Stable-Tec|l[{/%/}]l|Stable-Tec l0.Oo|=\,.|/[|]________________________-=-
Welcome to Level Six!

Lockpick increased to 45
Unarmed increased to 35
New Perk!
Iron Hoof (1): “if it doesn’t work, try punching it.” You’ve been in enough hooffights to know where to hit somepony where it really hurts.

Unarmed attacks now do +5 damage.

Author's Note

Fok it, I'm breaking the chapter off here.

List of delays. School, internet, procrastination, power outages, writers block, TF2, work, writing this list.

I'd like to thank [Kkat] again for creating [Fallout: Equestria] and for inspiring me to write this. I'd also like to thank [regolit] for making so many comments and hopefully I'll be able to [write] more unless life has other plans. which they most

assuredly do. [brackets]