FoE: Festering Virtues

8 hours later, around 4 am, Melody woke me up to begin my guard shift. Grumbling, I walked outside, blinking in the predawn darkness. I hate guard duty. I grumbled, looking for something to do that would let me listen for anyone coming.

I headed outside, and glanced at the wagon, and its radio antenna. That’s a thought. I chewed on my tongue for a minute, then nodded. Still limping with my sling, I headed out into the night.

***

A few hours later, Judgment woke up and started making breakfast. She sort of just piled everything she liked into the raider’s meal pot and set it to boil. I dropped off the last body in the lubrication dump and followed the overpowering smell of sugar.

The pot was a dank sludgy grey, with darker bits that slowly floated to the surface before sinking again.

I tilted my head, as Judgment stood by the pot, frantically stirring. “Did you mix Sugar Bombs, sugar flavoring, milk, and set it to boil?”

She nodded, looking like she was going to cry.

“Ok, let’s take it off the stove, and see what we can do.”

Melody came in an hour later to us laughing on the ground playing with the rubbery cereal. She looked tired and irritated.

“Nice job standing watch.” She snarled, her mane disarrayed and bags under her eyes.

“Come on, it’s broad daylight. Anybody who attacks me after I see them is either blind or an awful shot.”

She looked aghast, and opened her mouth to argue, before sighing and shaking her head. “Just… can I have some coffee?”

“I found a Nuka Cola machine in the back. There might be some freeze dried stuff in the break room, but it looks pretty wrecked back there. Somepony used it as a latrine area.”

She looked queasy, but nodded. “Would you mind getting me one of the sodas, in that case? I don’t have any bits on me.”

I nodded, got up and trotted around the back. I bucked it once, and the door fell right off. Admittedly I overbalanced, and fell on my face, but still, that was pretty cool. I grabbed one of the sodas, scooped up the bits in the storage unit, and walked back inside. I sighed.

“What are you two doing?”

“Erm...” Melody groaned, trying to point her rifle at Judgment. Judgment had a knife held against Melody’s neck, and was vibrating slightly, her face strangely intent.

“Ok, give me a moment.” I said, crossing over to where my rifle was stored. I reloaded it, and walked behind Melody.

“Now, both of you drop your weapons, or I fire.” Judgment complied instantly and trotted off. Melody held onto her rifle for a little longer before groaning again and dropping it. She was bleeding from several knife cuts.

“So, why did you attack her?”

Her eyes budged. “How can you accuse me of attacking her? I’m the one who was attacked!”

“You’re injured from knife cuts, have a rifle which should’ve been secured in a bag, and didn’t scream. If you didn’t attack first, you were expecting it at the least, and I don’t think Judgment would attack on her own.” She tried to meet my eye, but couldn’t. She tried to reply a few more times, and couldn’t get more than a few words out each time.

“I thought that if I got rid of the Stable Dweller, you would let me go.” She admitted.

Well, shit…

I stepped forward until I towered over Melody, “Look, I owe getting her back inside the Stable. If you try to kill her again, I will kill you. Or abandon you, depending on what I think is worse. You need to say why you did it, and ask her forgiveness. I’m not going to deal with this again.” Shaking, Melody nodded and slunk off. I took her rifle in my mouth and carried it over to a duffel bag, which I threw into the wagon. Food, water containers, medical supplies, some of the bedding, and a couple plates of scrap metal around key locations. Not useful against anything above a hunting rifle, but didn’t add too much weight, and might keep ponies alive.

I was pretty satisfied that there was enough food for a week. Water was a little harder, but we could always rig up a filter out of sand and then boil it.

“Are we going for a ride?” Judgment asked, bouncing.

“Yes, but not sure when. Do you mind coming with me?”

“Sure!” She continued bouncing behind me. Note to self: don’t bring sugar bombs.

We headed outside, picking up Melody, who was sulking near the Nuka Cola wreckage. We then walked over to the lubrication station.

“Aside from being a really awful rhyming innuendo, the lubrication station is filled with really flammable goo. Normally, I would be tempted to bring as much as possible, but I’m only going to bring a can for the axles. Does anyone want to guess why?” I asked in a sing song voice.

“You're going burn something?” Melody asked sarcastically, looking suspiciously at the droplets of blood leading to the door.

“Precisely. Now what is there to burn?”

“Birthday candles?” Judgment asked.

“Not exactly.” I opened the door. The raiders and most of the pieces of the Stable Dwellers were inside the room. The raiders were heaped into a pile, stripped of anything useful. I’d put some effort into separating out the Stable Dwellers, but there’s only so much you can do when somepony lets an anti-tank grenade detonate less than a meter away from their head. I still can’t believe that Stable Security issued 120 mm grenades for anti-personnel use.

“Is there anything you want to say?” I asked Judgment.

“Nope.”

“Do you mind if I take some of their equipment?”

“Sure.”

“Are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

“I mean, two ponies from your Stable are dead...”

“Oh, they’re only from Production. Not that big of a deal.”

“Alright...” I walked forward and retrieved the Pip-Bucks, ammo, weapons, and a couple stimpacks that I had separated out earlier. I’d placed the last two 120mm grenades underneath the raider’s pile. Judgment got the slightly pitted pistols, while Melody would have gotten the shotgun. But suddenly I really didn’t want to give her a weapon.

I took the chainsaw, more as a tool than a weapon. Maybe I could mount it as a bayonet on another bigger gun. That’s not that detached from reality. Right?.

A few strikes with the firestarter and a readied can with an oil soaked rag was burning merrily. At least until I tossed it inside and the burning grease sprayed everywhere. It went up like a, well, a gas station.

After a few seconds of watching, the fire grew, fed by the numerous holes in the station’s walls, we retreated as the heat got intolerable.

“Ok, Judgment, how do you work these? I’m trying to find where the Joy and Glee went.”

“Joy and Cheer.” Melody hissed.

“Yes. Them. Sorry.”

“Go to the map screen and look for visited locations. Or marked locations. Something like that.”

“Map, err.” My hooves were a little big for the buttons, but I got it eventually. “Ok, so they went to MWT North East, and it looks like they got a marker for err… ‘Stable-Tek Regional Administration.’” I looked up. “Do you think they would have the override code for the door?”

“I dunno.” Judgment said, looking around, presumably for a snack.

“Melody?”

“Probably. At the very least we might learn more about their security systems.”

“Seems like a plan.” I looked at the Pip-Buck screen again. Something looked wrong. It was so hard to see the geography on this thing. “Melody, do you mind getting me the map? I want to check something.” Melody floated it out and over. I lined up the grids and- “Crap… It’s in Fillydalphia.”

“What’s wrong about Fillydalphia?” Judgment asked.

“It got hit with a particularly nasty megaspell. At first it seemed normal, blast and firestorm like any other, but afterwards it caused ponies to slowly go insane. It was a major food and weapon distribution center for the Equestrian military, so ponies looking for safety, ponies who thought they could deal with it, have been flocking there ever since, but it is probably the most violent place in Equestria. Hoofington is probably the most deadly. Canterlot is probably the most hostile to life. But for sheer murderers, raiders, and rapists, nothing comes close.”

“What’s the difference between hostile to life and deadly?”

“One is surrounded by a necromantic cloud that eats your soul, the other has automated defenses that can destroy anything that gets too close.” Melody chimed in.

“Well, I don’t know exactly what the Pink Cloud is, but it causes ponies to melt into solid objects, and ghoulifies ponies into immortal nearly unkillable monsters. The defenses thing is probably right. I’ve heard less realistic stories about underground chambers filled with ghosts, ponies eviscerated and their brains put into robots, body liquefying magic. It just seems more impersonal, like it would do it to anyone. The Cloud seems like it does it because it hates you.”

“That doesn’t make sense.” Judgment said slowly. “They both kill you.”

“Its better when you’re killed because you’re you, rather than just because you showed up.” Melody said, looking downcast.

I coughed, and nodded.

“Well, if we’re going to Fillydalphia, what stops ponies from coming back here and trying to break in again?”

I frowned. I’d been thinking about it, but nothing really seemed to work. Monsters, armed Dwellers, stuff like that meant send in more troops. Collapsed wouldn’t explain why all the raiders were dead. I turned to Melody. “Radiation?”

She thought for a few moments. “Yeah, that’s not a bad idea. You are extremely sensitive to radiation, after all. But doesn’t explain why I wouldn’t show up.” Wait what?

“What was that about radiation?”

“Oh, idea!” Melody sang out as she ran over to the wagon and hopped on the radio. She coughed a few times and croaked out. “Control, this is MG. Oh, god is that blood?” She waited a few moments, and repeated the call, minus the question.

“MG, this is Control. Status report.”

“We got into the Stable. It was filled with yellow smoke. The soldiers charged in and collapsed. I tried to help them, but I nearly passed out. I’ve been coughing up blood ever since. Its getting worse.”

“Understood MG. We do not have any units in the area. You will be remembered on the Administrative Memorial Plaque. Out.”

Melody shut off the radio. “Well, that’s sorted.” She said in her normal voice.

“That’s a little callous.” I said slowly. What type of a pony counts somepony out like that?

“I’ve had to make that call before. You get used to it.”

“You administrator ponies have functional bodyguards two times normal size and four times normal mass, and you need to deal with other administrators dying en mass relatively often?”

“It's the military, you expect it.”

“Shouldn’t be that often, especially before you’re actually involved in a major conflict.”

“We anticipate it. The Colonel’s worked out expected attrition rates. We’re well inside his estimates.”

“Well, that’s kind of horrific. Still, I suppose that’s taken care of. They should move the breaching team somewhere else, assuming that they don’t want to deal with poison gas.”

“Probably. That should push the Stable to the bottom of the priority list. Anything else you can think of?”

“Not really. Judgment?”

“More Sugar Bombs?”

“We’ll pick some up on the way. Once we’re past the mountain pass, supplies shouldn’t be as much of an issue.” I said.
Melody piped in “I just need to grab some stuff, then we can head out.”

We finished packing, and I ran down a mental checklist. 27 rounds .50 cal, rifle, chainsaw, multitool, firestarter, compass, canteen, medical kit, armor, neckerchief, and the stuff I didn’t take out of my saddlebags. Melody, shotgun, ammo, canteen. Judgment, two pistols, ammo, canteen, Pip-Buck. That’s the essentials.

Still we spent a little more time making sure that there was enough food and water on the wagon, along with the radio and medical supplies. We were practically overloaded with combat drugs, since the raiders had only taken a single dose each. Plenty of potions. My stomach churned a bit at the sealed case with a zebra glyph on the front. It made a fun tinkily noise when I bucked it into and through a brick wall. Judgment looked confused for a second, before turning back to arranging some extra harnesses on her armor. Melody looked worried, but nodded hurriedly when I raised an eyebrow.

And with that, I hooked myself in, ignoring a twinge in my leg, and we headed west, out into the wasteland, towards Fillydalphia.

Well, that was the plan at least. Barely an hour later, Melody called us to a halt. She looked concerned, and screamed

“Red, why is your leg spraying blood?” Well, less concerned and more horrified.

I looked down at the bandages, which had slipped off during the easy canter, and blearily agreed. Yes, that is blood and it is spurting out of my leg. I stared for a few seconds. The thought Well, that explains the dizziness, eventually crawled across my brain.

Slowly, I brought the wagon to a halt, as Melody hopped down with the tourniquet. She rapidly forced it around my leg, tightening until the blood stopped, then undid the harness and dragged me towards the side of the road, dumping me behind a concrete barrier. She darted back to the wagon, digging for a medical kit.

Judgment hopped down, looking curiously as Melody pulled out several healing potions.

“I thought you fixed this!” Melody said, examining the wound carefully. “What did you do?”

“Tourniquet, wonderglue, and an infused bandage. Oh and a sling.” I slurred. I feel weee!

Melody’s mouth opened and she gaped at me aghast. “You have healing potions! Why didn’t you use them?” She demanded, uncorking one of the potions and shoving it in my mouth.

“I wasn’t sure if potions could help if there wasn’t blood flow to a body part.”

“So, you decided to cut off all blood flow and hope that a bandage would fix it? These are for simple cuts! Not for serious injuries. It’s a wonder that you’re alive at all!”

“I made sure to seal the wound with wonderglue. I wasn’t going to bleed out.”

“You decided to seal metal fragments under your skin. That’s all. Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

“You tried to blow my leg off?”

“And now you’re probably crippled, so same end result. Good choice.” I shrugged, not much you can say to that. She sighed. “Look, magic doesn’t really undo magic, at least not without a lot of effort by a skilled doctor. So, whatever damage you’ve caused will likely stay there. Doesn’t look like much healed, so drinking a couple healing potions now would probably restore the muscle mass so you could walk, even if you probably won’t ever go faster than a canter again.”

I nodded. Melody looked pensive for a few seconds, then continued. “Judgment, can you grab a ration bar? After that much bloodloss, the potion is going to use up a lot of his reserves.”

Judgment jumped to it, and I slowly ate yet another ration bar. I felt like I should be getting bored of them. They didn’t taste particularly good, but they were satisfying.

The potions didn’t take long, and when Melody removed the tourniquet, all that you could see was a scar. I tested my weight, and it felt fine, though it was definitely harder to lift my leg. The forehoof just didn’t respond properly. Makes sense, the tendon was severed. I thought glumly, and resumed pulling.

***

Melody suffered the most during the journey. Judgment couldn’t get enough of the wasteland. Found everything interesting. Which is pretty impressive on an open road surrounded by gently rolling hills, still scorched earth, and mounds of radioactive dust. And she kept asking questions about it.

The southwest of Mane was less inhabited than the rest of the area. It was the least safe, since it was a day’s trot from the mountain passes, meaning that raiders and wildlife could reach it relatively easily. Little food and nearly no safe water; living off the land wasn’t feasible. And nobody had bothered to clear the couple inches of radioactive dust that killed off plant life, so most ponies didn’t stick around for long.

Still, the road was relatively safe. Clear directions and guaranteed hard ground under the thin layer of dust meant that we could keep up a pretty descent pace despite my injury.

I tuned out most of the conversations, trying to figure out how we could cross Phillydalphia, but occasionally, keywords would catch my attention.

“Why did Red kill Joy and Glee?” Wait, what?

“Yes, Red. Why did you kill the other Stable Dwellers?” Melody asked sweetly. I was getting really annoyed at her bouncing between helpful and passive aggressive.

“I didn’t. They did that weird robot thing and primed a grenade before going back to normal. The spoon flew off, and it exploded.”

“Why did they prime the grenade?” Judgment asked, after digesting the news for a few seconds.

“Umm, because they thought I was attacking them?”

“So, you did kill them.” Melody prompted.

“No, inexperience killed them. If they knew how to use grenades, they wouldn’t have died.”

“The Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell allows the untrained operator to be as effective in combat as a trained soldier.” Judgment said, as if reciting something.

“Maybe on the range, but from a tactics standpoint or when something goes wrong, no way.” I mused for a few seconds. “When we stop for the night, you’re getting a crash course on how to use weapons. I’m not an expert or anything, but I don’t want you to die because of something stupid.”

The other two nodded, and Melody giggled. A little psychopathic, but I suppose that’s par for the course.

The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful. Melody kept watch and dealt with Judgment as necessary. Judgment alternated between questions and, from the muted cheers and moans, playing a game on her Pip-Buck. I kept walking and kept watch. Mostly kept watch. Kept getting distracted by the minimum number of flips to get pancakes in the proper order. Did I mention I don’t like guard duty?

Either way, eventually we made it to the Mountain Pass. It was tall, steep, manned by paranoid ponies with high power rifles, and the only in and out of Mane. Also not much to say, other than we gave them a toll, consisting of Melody’s old rifle and its ammo. Didn’t like the idea of her having a longer range weapon that could punch through my skull. Buckshot’s not much less deadly, but, considering that Caravan took a .22 to the eye and shrugged it off, it might make a difference.

The first thing that happened once we were through the pass was Judgment jerked up, looked at her Pip-Buck for a moment, and tapped it a few times. Suddenly, music filled the air.

“Ooh, Love Me Like There’s No Tomorrow, I think this is Sweetie Belle’s cover.” Melody said, perking up and inching closer to the Pip-Buck. I looked at here, remembering something about not liking music, then shrugged. Not my business.

Singing along softly, Melody led Judgment through the song, adding embellishments to as the slow sad song wound its way over the rocks. I mostly kept the wagon steady down the steep cliffside trail.

All too soon, the song was over, and a rich deep voice came over the radio. “And that was Sweetie Belle -,” “I knew it!” Melody exclaimed, hoofpumping in the air. “- Tomorrow. And now for some news.” I cocked an ear, and Judgment shushed Melody quickly.

“Looks like the mutant raiders have left Equestria for good. I’ve gotten reports that their last barge has pushed off from Hoofboken and looks like its traveling north. Not too much out that way, so be on the lookout for half frozen chem addicted giants. Now, for the rest of Equestria. Manehattan, many mutants with the munchies. Fillydalphia, filled with fix-seeking fuckers. Canterlot, cloaked in caustic Cloud. Hoof, heaps of hellish headhunters. Las Pegasus, currently going through a very harsh drought. Local scientists are attempting to restore the pumping system.”

The three of us exchanged a series of worried glances.

“Good news from the rebuilt towns. Ponyville’s new sheriff stated confidently that the new walls would keep raiders out for 100 years. Paradise Falls” The chocolaty voice became nasally and mocking, “issued a statement formally ending their relationship with the 3rd Experimental Division.” He chuckled, “So, it looks like you unicorns can come out from under the bed. Now they’ll hunt you just like everypony else. Guess pony experimentation was a little too far for those slavers, even if it took the 3rd leaving entirely to admit it. Now for your five day forecast. Cloudy with a chance of dismemberment. And with that, here’s a few commercials.”

Unicorn slaves? I looked at Melody, but decided not to press. Her business, not mine.

***

What’s the worst way to deal with a dangerous situation? Not by overreacting, or by being scared, it’s getting used to it and not paying attention anymore.

Fillydalphia was originally built around a river, but over time the city had shifted towards the rail lines, designed to bring masses of ponies and supplies right to the front. Massive warehouses, barracks, repair yards, everything you would need to keep a war going for years ringed a series of fortified rail lines, gracefully arching out towards the west, heading towards the Hoof and the front lines proper. More east, the city gradually became more civilian oriented, though the war effort made itself known. From individual dwellings in the Old Town, the size and complexity of the buildings gradually grew, until block spanning identical tenements crowded against the factories and steel yards fueling the war effort. A more poetic turn of mind would have commented about how it reflected Equestria’s growth, from a community to a faceless monolith, turning ponies into work, work into weapons, and sending everything to the front.

Instead, I looked at the crater firmly in the middle of the city, nearer a large… carnival? Funhouse? How’d that survive? Well, the crater glowed, its ghoulish maleficence shifting and changing, the skies above it looking sickly and unhealthy. It was unnaturally hot, I was tempted to take off my armor, but the occasional gun shot made me think twice.

“Ok, Judgment, where are we trying to go?” I asked, trying to figure out a way through the killzones also known as graceful, wide avenues.

“That direction, about 12582 meters.” She said, hopping down from the wagon, onto the highway cresting a hill overlooking part of the city. I walked behind her and followed her hoof. She was pointing towards the carnival. We would avoid the crater proper, but there was still the issue of the 13 or so blocks of dense apartments.

“Melody, about 6 kilometers to where the apartments start?”

“Those are apartments?”

“I think so? If you look carefully, you can see balconies all along them, which means residential. Offices wouldn’t bother with that, and factories usually go with hanger style.”

Melody looked incredulously at the city, and pulled out a pair of binoculars. “… five, six, seven, eight, nine stories tall? And that’s got to be a hundred balconies on a side. Square, so...” She trailed off thinking.

“With those numbers, assuming that they maximize space not bothering with windows inside, each building contains 90,000 apartments. I think it’s closer to a third of that, since it looks like the balconies are more spaced out on the corners, so the apartments are rectangular. They probably added shafts for natural light, and some recreational space inside.”

“By Celestia, that’s…” She was left speechless. We both thought of the stadium, designed for maybe 2 of these apartment complexes. Probably the second largest city in Mane, and this place would eat it without even trying.

“Yeah. It’s big. And we need to get through that. And a lot of them are probably inhabited by at least a couple raiding bands.”

Judgment pointed towards the rail lines. “Could we follow those?”

Melody and I grimaced in unison. Aside from being a defensive dream, tunnels tended to be inherently dangerous. Bury a megaspell, detonate it, and a lot of energy is going into the ground. Prewar Equestrian engineering was pretty good, but they didn’t usually plan on it standing up to that. If it wasn’t reinforced, a firefight could bring down the entire section. If it was, then whoever reinforced it could bring down the entire section.

“Those will be a last resort.” I said as Melody said “No.”

“They’re doing to be really dangerous.” I followed up, by way of explanation.

“I thought you said something about killzones on the way over here.”

“Well, the issue is that there really isn’t a good way to force your way through a city, except by leveling it. Most windows work as good sniper posts, plenty of open ground with minimal cover that can be seen from really far away. Good chance we’ll be using this chainsaw to dig our way through the walls rather than use the hallways. The underground is at least as dangerous, but digging through that is even harder.” I said, nudging the looted ponyripper.

“Ok, scary death city, we need to go through. What else?”

“Umm, that’s about it. Just need to pick our way through the suburbs and, well, yeah, the city.”

Judgment look at the burnt out ruins, stretching for kilometers around the city proper.

“What about the suburbs? How deadly are they?”

“Too burnt out for serious scavenging, most ghoul herds would have been turned further out.” Melody said slowly.

“So, pretty safe?”

“Somewhere between maybe and yes.” We set off.

The six kilometer walk was pretty easy, though I kept scanning the apartments for glints, really didn’t like the idea of a sniper following us. Still, we made it near the edge, two or three blocks away from the monoliths of the city, wen Judgment jerked to the right and drew her guns.

“There’s somepony over there!” She whispered loudly, somehow combining the white noise to make it hard to understand with enough volume for anyone to hear. I am seriously going to need to teach her how whisper properly. What the actual hell?

“Are they hostile?” I asked, awkwardly reaching for my rifle, still strapped into the wagon.

“No, but they’re easily intimidated.”

“You think your pistols will be scarier than Red?” Melody asked.

“Wait, how do you know that?” I asked, trying to turn to look at her. The harness was getting really annoying.

“Ugh, my S.T.A.T.S. gives a basic profile of everypony. Which is why I’m out here in the first place. Didn’t I tell you?”

“What? No… I don’t think so. Also, stats?” I said.

“I just tune you out most of the time.” Melody replied airily.

Judgment glared at Melody, before turning to me. “We were sent to get the advanced profiler. Which was undergoing final checks at the Regional Stable-Tech Facility. At least that’s what Joy had in her notes. And, what was the other thing? Oh, Special Training And Tactics Spell. S.T.A.T.S. Works with the Eyes Forward Sparkle spell to help users navigate life.” Judgment turned back to Melody. “And Red’s base intimidation stat is stupidly low.”

“That monster is bad at intimidation?!” Melody yelped, as my eyes narrowed and I cocked the .50 cal rifle.

“He’s a big softie. His aggression, sadism, and confidence scores are all in the bottom quartile, and that’s based off the vault baseline.”

“He killed five soldiers!”

“His morality stat is in the upper qunitile. Probably thought there was a good reason.”

“Oh, so he’s perfect? Low evil, high morality?” Melody asked sarcastically.

“Oh, definitely not. Education is low, social grace is low, perception is low, willpower is low, and his emotional intelligence score is nearly zero, which probably means he chronically suppresses his emotions.” Judgment said, the last part sounding stilted and read.

“While I appreciate the discussion, can we please deal with the person probably cowering behind that wall?” I broke in, having given up unhooking the bloody harness.

“Oh, sorry about that.” Judgment apologized, and magically undid the straps. We walked over to where her S.T.A.T.S. said the person was and peaked around the corner. Behind the wall, through a mostly intact door frame, was a fairly elderly unicorn and a brahmin, weighed down with a significant amount of scavenge.

“Hello.” Melody said, followed by Judgment, who was gritting her teeth at not being allowed to pull out her weapons. I stayed back. We had decided that I probably shouldn’t be the first person ponies see.

“Hello gentlemares, how are you doing this fine afternoon?” The scavenger said, either not having heard our discussion, or spent the time we were arguing to set up a few mines just in case. I looked around for traps. Low perception, my ass. I thought to myself. While I didn’t find anything, that didn’t prove that I missed some in the first place.

“We just happened to be in the area and wanted to talk.” Melody continued.

“I heard, and my laser pistol isn’t exactly happy about what I heard.” His voice dropped the false jollity, and I saw the glow off the far ruined wall. “Now, let’s have your third friend come in. I know that he won’t hurt me, so let’s make this nice and easy.”

“Red? Would you mind coming over here?” Judgment said, her voice tight from fear. I sighed, not surprised, but a little annoyed. I unhooked my chainsaw, and strapped it into place. The absurdly large rifle, by normal pony standards, went on the other side. One good jerk, it would twist around out of the way, and the ponyripper would be ready to be revved up. Leather armor, in place. Metal plates, large and obvious. Blue and yellow neckerchief? Completely out of place compared to everything else. Oh well, nothing else to really do.

I stepped forward, but the doorframe was too small. I could squeeze through or…

Turning around, I bucked the door, shattering brick and sending rubble flying. I turned, and lumbered through the door, stomping heavily enough to make imprints in the ground. Nearby rocks jumped. I stepped under the doorframe and stood up to my full height, looking over the scene.

Melody and Judgment were against a wall, with a laser pistol aimed in their general direction. The scavenger was twitching, and looking at me in horror. I wasn’t sure how much one was related to the other. A different gun was pointed at my leg, about head height on a normal pony, the glow flickering as he took in my massive… well everything.

“You were saying?” I asked, my eyes narrowing, an evil sneer spreading across my mouth. “I don’t take kindly to threats.”

“Umm… yes. As I was saying, I’m a humble merchant, and these are my wares.” The scavenger said, dropping his weapons and backing into the corner. Melody’s eyes lit up, and she leaped for the gun. I walked forward, put my hoof over the gun, pushing it out of her telekinesis field, then crossed over to the opportunistic scavenger. I sat down, my head still level with his.

“We’re going to have a talk. I expect your full cooperation.” I boomed, purposely much deeper than normal. The scavenger nodded wildly, and sat down, eyes wide.

Our little discussion was fairly productive, though he tried to “take advantage” of what he had overheard a few times. This stopped after he decided to ram his head against my hooves. Nursing a few loose teeth and a bloody nose, he became marvelously forthcoming. Apparently, a block over was mostly depopulated, a small war had broken out a month or two back that ripped apart one of the larger raider clans. Beyond that was mostly small families and maybe a few remnants, up until “The Colts” who controlled an entire apartment, and were fairly vicious about defending their turf. Still, they were less insane than most of their neighbors. After those four kilometers, he didn’t know much. Monsters or some such roamed the area closer to the crater, killing anything that got close. Still, enough planning could deal with anything non-sapient. And sapient just took more firepower.

The bigger issue was getting there in the first place. 4 apartments wasn’t optimal. Still, not much gain from putting it off.
The trader bolted the moment I let him, his brahmin in hot pursuit.

“You two didn’t need anything from him, right?” I asked belatedly. After being freed, they pulled lookout duty, Melody sniggering when the trader challenged me.

She shook her head now, while Judgment tilted her head hopefully and asked “Sugar bombs?” I rolled my eyes.

Only thing left to do was camouflage the wagon, after taking a few days worth of supplies off it. Guns, ammo, food, water, medical supplies, and sleeping gear went into the saddle bags, and Melody scrounged up some iron sheeting from the rubble. We pulled the wagon into an alleyway, wedged almost on its side, before covering it with the sheeting, and rearranging the rubble to make it look like it fell there naturally. Or at least from when the wall collapsed. Most of an hour later, after clearing our hoofprints with telekinesis, we stepped back and checked out handiwork. Couldn’t do much about the hoofprints on the sheet metal, since it disturbed the rust and our chemistry knowledge was marginal at best, but if anyone got close enough to notice, they’d probably notice the full intact wagon as well.

“Mines might be helpful here.” Judgment said after a bit.

“Probably but there are enough scavengers that that they might raise the wrong type of attention. And we’d need to unicorn proof them anyway.” Melody replied, looking at the prospective minefield.

“We could hang up a sign saying ‘Warning! Mines!’” Judgment replied.

“Not a bad idea. Melody?”

“Fine, I’ll get it.” She used a small knife to cut off a bit of her mane, and dipped it in the small puddle of blood the trader left behind. A few quick strokes, and we had an effective, if ghoulish, sign.

Footnote: Level up.

New Perk: Toughness – Keeping a stiff upper lip has paid off, you actually take less damage. You receive an additional -20% to incoming damage, added onto your armor resistance.