Fallout Equestria: Oasis

Chapter Two – First Steps

"I don't wanna talk about it."

It didn't feel real when the stable door rolled shut, locking away everything I had known until now. How long I just stared at it in the semi-darkness, I can't say. I wanted to pound on the console at the door and beg to be let back in, but I knew it wouldn't happen.

My whole life I'd known the breadth of width of where I lived, what corridors went where, how to get from one area to the next. This cave was completely unknown. I knew nothing about it, or what lay beyond it. I wanted my gray walls back and I hadn't been out of the stable for more than a few minutes. Outside the cave… outside there was sky, just a word and a thing in old pictures, and grass and hills and trees. They were all just things that existed as words and photographs alongside radiation, balefire and ruin.

I turned away from the stable door feeling more than a little nauseous. The cave didn't seem to be terribly deep, if the faint amount of light reaching me was any sign. I took a cautious step forward and froze. Something moved. It shuffled and sniffed in the dirt and squeaked.

A rat but the vague shape I saw was enormous. Rats weren't meant to be that big! Maybe it wasn't aggressive, but I was not going to count on it. I levitated my pistol free of its holster. The gun shook in my telekinetic grasp. It was almost too heavy for me. Oh, and I was terrified.

The stable had two firing ranges, one for magic and one for bullets. Why the stable had the ranges was a question only the designers could answer. Security used them to train. Morale encouraged their use as a distraction and stress relief. I'd been banned from the magic range by Wildfire after an incident, but I was a fair shot with the little .22 pistols on the gun range.

I'd never shot anything living, or had any desire to do so. I wasn't entirely sure I could. The range targets were just circles, not living, breathing creatures. Even if I wanted to shoot it, I could barely see the thing.

I toggled the light on my PipBuck. Big mistake.

A screech echoed through the cave and was immediately answered by a chorus of others. The thing that turned on me was much larger than it seemed in the semi-darkness. It was all fangs and patchy, diseased fur. I scrambled back as it lunged at me. My first shot ricocheted off the cave wall.

The rat-thing kept coming and I kept backing away until I hit the stable door. I dove to the side as it jumped at me. The rat hit the door with a meaty thump and slid to the ground, but it recovered far more quickly than I expected. My next two shots missed. Targets on the range did not charge and try to rip a pony's face off! At least three more red dots were moving toward me.

Stupid, stupid pony. PipBuck, Eyes-Forward Sparkle, S.A.T.S.!

The rat seemed to freeze mid-leap as I slipped into the congealed time of S.A.T.S. I emptied the rest of the pistol's magazine into the mutant horror. The spell-guided shots tore apart its head and body in a spray of blood and bits of meat as the carcass crashed into me.

I managed to reload the pistol before another giant rat threw itself at me. It knocked me on my back and I immediately regretted using the full charge of the targeting spell on one rat. The rat snapped at my throat, but it got a mouthful of PipBuck instead. I screamed as it slashed at my belly with its claws and worked its jaws on my foreleg. My barding did nothing to keep the things claws from digging into my hide.

I could feel my magical grip on the pistol wavering, the wispy un-glow of my telekinesis sputtering. Was that it? Was I going to die just a few steps from the door without ever making it out of the cave? Would somepony else sent to save the stable find my gnawed bones just outside the door? They'd shake their head and laugh, thinking that at least the reject unicorn had been taken out of the gene pool.

Goddesses damnit, no! I grit my teeth and pressed the muzzle of my pistol against the rat's head. It was breaking its fangs on my PipBuck's casing and tearing at me with wicked little claws in frenzy. I splattered the top of its skull against the cave wall. Even I can't miss something that close.

I shoved the twitching corpse off of me and steeled myself for the next two. S.A.T.S. recharged enough to put three bullets in the head of one. The last rat was smarter than the others and circled to attack my flank while I was occupied with the other. I kicked out of instinct, putting all the force I could muster behind it. All I hoped for was to stun it enough for me to bring my pistol to bear, but something popped when my hooves connected and the rat flopped motionless to the cave floor.

There were still red bars in my vision, but nothing else seemed to be moving toward me. They moved about in my EFS, hostile but – what? Not interested? How did the PipBuck know what was an enemy what wasn't anyway? I turned off my PipBuck light. I'd rather trip over something than invite more creatures to attack me.

If I'd been better at magic I could have sent a little ball of light out ahead of me, far enough away that it wouldn't draw anything else to me. I tried to learn, I really did, but the results when I tried terrified the other foals in my class and the teacher too, I think. After that little incident, I hadn't been allowed to practice light magic any more.

I watched the red bars as I moved through the cave and managed to sneak up on one, only to discover a cockroach bigger than my hoof. It skittered about as I snuck up on it and with a quick stomp the red bar went out. I scraped the roach goo off on a rock and ignored the others. The rest of the way through the cave looked to be clear. Or at least nothing red popped up in my EFS.

I finally managed to control my breathing as I stood at the cave opening, but my heart refused to slow. It was so, so big, endless even. In the rare times I'd thought about what outside might be like I hadn't imagined anything like this. I'd expected something like the atrium maybe, but bigger and with dirt and grass and maybe trees, but still with walls in the distance. The outside world was big. Words failed me. My eyes drifted upward and I forced them back down. The gray above wasn't like a ceiling at all.

The sky, the sky was a terrifying openness that threatened to swallow me whole. The mouth of the cave was safe. I could see its ceiling. Yet, I had a job to do and ponies counting on me. I didn't care so much about them as a whole, but Socket was stuck in there too. Maybe between the two of us we could convince the Overmare it was time to leave the stable when I returned with the talisman. With that in mind I stepped out into the wider world and carefully kept my eyes on the ground. Looking up made me dizzy.

I was so intent on not looking up that I almost ran into the buck standing in front of me. When I looked at him I took an involuntary step back. He was covered head to hoof in scars and had a splotchy light gray and blood red coat and black mane. He had no horn.

I didn't know what to make of that. Of course I knew there were other types of ponies besides unicorns, but earth and pegasus ponies were just another thing that only existed in history recordings and old photographs. I had figured that they, like everything else, had been wiped away by the balefire. Seems I was wrong.

He was also huge. Strudel was one of the biggest stallions in the stable, and this pony looked like he could break my foster brother in half without any effort.

The buck was looking at me with a calculating look in his blue eyes.

"Hate to do this, but give over everything you got."

I backed up another step. That was hardly a proper greeting.

"Now." His eyes narrowed.

The moment I started to levitate my pistol from its holster he was on me. A tap from his hoof shattered my telekinesis and the pistol dropped in the dirt. I fell back on my rump, horn stinging.

"We can do this simple, or hard, but I'm in a hurry and I don't have time to deal with stable pissants who think they can fight back. So, saddlebags, holster and barding, now."

"B-barding? Why?"

Wrong answer.

My head hurt, but only my head, my internal organs still seemed to be internal. I hadn't seen the blow that knocked me out. A pony that big should not be able to move that fast, it wasn't fair.

I opened my eyes, startling the crow looking at me into taking flight. At least it was still day time and I still had my PipBuck. He'd even taken the cord I used to keep my mane neatly braided. I sat up carefully and winced, the buck had ripped the cuts on my belly open getting my barding off. I hoped it served him as poorly as it had me. My PipBuck cheerfully informed me that I had suffered a head injury. At least he hadn't taken a kidney.

I knew I should get moving toward the closest Stable-Tech marker on my map, but what was the point? I'd lost everything. Most importantly I'd lost my gun which, if the cave was any indication, was more precious than the food or radiation meds. To think, I'd once felt life in the stable could be difficult.

"Wow, robbed right out of the stable? That's tough," The tinny voice nearly sent me jumping out of my skin. I looked about frantically for the source. "But you're still alive and at least you don't have an angry cyber-pony chasing you."

I spotted a metallic insect-looking thing hovering a few feet away.

"What, ah, who are you?"

"Call me Watcher. What's in front of you is a spritebot, you'll see them wandering all over. I just took one over when I saw you being… looted."

"You saw that and didn't help me?" I wasn't sure what I expected from a metal bug or anypony really. I just hadn't expected the first pony I met on the outside to knock me unconscious and take everything that wasn't firmly attached to my body.

"Hey, I kept the scavengers from nibbling on you while you were out. A spritebot isn't much match for stallion like that," the metallic voice sounded hurt.

I scratched the back of my neck, mussing my slowly unraveling braid. "Sorry. Thanks for keeping me from being nibbled to death, or dragged off by something."

"The wasteland is no place for a lone pony, let alone one from a stable. Why are you out here?"

There didn't seem to be any harm in telling him, her, or whatever was in control of the spritebot. Maybe they could even help.

"My stable's water talisman blew up, so the Overmare sent me to find a new one because," I started laughing, it wasn't funny but I laughed anyway. "Because my talents could be useful to keep me safe and bring one back."

I kept laughing, only somehow the laughter sounded like sobs. My eyes were watering, I was laughing so hard.

"The best part is, I almost got eaten by giant rats right out of the door. Rats!" definitely not laughter anymore. "Then, the first pony I meet outside bucks me in the head and leaves me to die."

The spritebot was silent. My pathetic crying probably made him decide I wasn't worth bothering with. I managed to get control of myself after a moment, sobbing my head off to someone on the other end of a floating metal bug wouldn't get me anywhere.

"So you're going to let one little setback stop you from saving your home?"

"One little setback?" I stared at the bot, incredulous. "Little? I've got nothing, no food, no weapons..."

"You have your life, and a PipBuck, which is a lot more than most ponies have." I had the feeling I was being glared at. "Now you can sit here feeling sorry for yourself until something comes along to make a meal out of you. Or you can pick yourself up and move forward."

I stood up stiffly. "What do you suggest, then?"

"There's a shack south of here that might have something useful in it and there's a town where you can get supplies to the west."

My PipBuck chirped, showing two new markers on my map. How did, oh never mind. Trying to figure out how the thing on my foreleg worked would probably drive me insane. There was magic smoke and possibly glowing lights involved, I'm sure. I may have slept through most of the classes on PipBucks.

"And what about more creatures on the way? Or other ponies?" Or worse, I just assumed there had to be something worse.

"I suppose that depends on the talents that were supposed to keep you safe, but you have hooves and magic, I think you can figure it out. In any case, find some guns, get some armor and make some friends."

The bot made a crackling noise and started playing some kind of tuba music as it wandered off.

"Friends? With the crazy ponies out here?"

Friends. Sure, I'd get right on that. It went on the list of things to do alongside tripping over a convenient water talisman to save the stable.

It was harder to be sneaky when there were random noisy things to step on instead of the nice smooth floors of a stable. My compass was full of red dots but EFS didn't give any clue as to how far away they actually were. At any rate, I couldn't see whatever was hostile toward me. I really hoped it was just more roaches.

I had already seen something I hoped never to get into a hoof-to-hoof fight with. Some kind of giant lizard with far, far too many teeth and scales. And claws, of course. With my luck, the things could probably breathe fire too. Fortunately, they seemed rather dim and I crept by them without any trouble. Being a sneaky mare was paying off for once.

I spotted something that seemed out of place and moved toward it. It turned out to be a refrigerator of all things, rusted where it wasn't scorched black. I looked around but didn't see anything like a building, or ruins of one, nearby. Inside was an earth pony skeleton wearing a ripped up jacket and a hat. A bullwhip was coiled underneath it as well. Why would somepony get inside a refrigerator like that, ever? Seemed like a good way to suffocate to me.

The hat and the whip both looked to be in good condition so I took them. If I hadn't been robbed I probably wouldn't have bothered, but at this point anything was fair game if it had even a chance of helping me. I put on the hat and felt cooler. Like I could outrun huge boulders, swing across chasms, nimbly dodge traps, and grave rob with the best of them. I gave myself a good shake and continued on toward to the shack marked on my map.

The sign was badly faded, but I could still make out "Thunderlane Sky Diving" on it. I wasn't sure I wanted to know what 'sky diving' was. Another little sign in the window read "Out sick." I crossed the road to the shack quickly. I didn't like moving out of cover with all those little red blips on my compass, not at all.

Nothing attacked me when I went into the open. Things were going my way for a change.

The door wasn't locked, but the place was almost completely empty except a few lockers along the wall, a table with a broken terminal and few burlap sacks. All of the lockers turned out to be empty except for one. Or I assumed it wasn't empty, since it was locked. I would have been annoyed by that if there hadn't been a small pile of bobby pins on the floor near it. Most of them were broken, but I found a couple that weren't.

I didn't have a screwdriver, but that was fine, turning locks was one of the few things my wimpy telekinesis happened to be good for.

I broke all the usable pins I had found.

Stupid lock.

The locker got a good hard kick to make sure it knew it was a bad, bad locker before I started nosing around the rest of the shack. I found the key in one of the sacks in the corner. A sack of all things! It wasn't right, not at all. It also felt so very wrong to be opening a lock with its proper key. I mean, where was the fun in that? It seemed more than a little ridiculous that no one had managed to find the key before me.

Then again, maybe somepony had. The locker was full of junk.

The bottom was littered with bottle caps and empty food wrappers. I ignored them and in rummaging through the garbage found a box of Sugar Apple Bombs, some sealed tin cans with the labels torn off, a rusty pair of spikey horseshoe things, a healing potion, and vials of... something labeled with crosshairs. Two-hundred year old food couldn't be good for you, but it was better than nothing. The only problem being that I had no way to carry any of it.

I drank the potion and started to feel a little better. My head stopped aching so much and the cuts on my belly went from stinging to itching. The food, I wasn't hungry enough to chance dodgy, two century old food.

Socket probably could have made something clever with the duct tape and wonderglue I'd found in one of the sacks. I stared at the sacks for a while. I wouldn't be able to carry it all with my telekinesis and I had no intention of trying to drag a bag full of junk through the wasteland with my teeth.

Half a roll of duct tape and several shredded sacks later I had… well, it was something. I managed to make a vaguely harness-like thing with burlap strips and duct tape, with the one remaining sack tied to it. All the, hopefully, useful stuff went in the sack, except the spikey things. Those I figured out how to put on. It was better than just having bare hooves to hit with, since I had no idea how to use a bullwhip and doubted it would be a very effective weapon anyway.

The sack made me feel awfully lopsided. Also, the whole mess I'd made itched horribly. When I looked at my PipBuck it listed everything in the sack along with its value. I bit my tongue. I wasn't going to ask, I wasn't going to wonder or question. Questions would just drive me nuts. Better to just accept it.

Something caught my eye. Steady.

I selected that and pulled one of the mysterious vials from my bag. OK then, good to know what it was called at least. Not asking how the thing on my leg knew what it was called. Too bad my PipBuck couldn't tell me what it did or was used for.

Enough wasting time, I had a water talisman to find.

The Stable-Tech marker on my map was closer than the town marker and in the same direction, so I would look there first. Maybe Celestia would smile on me for once and I'd find a talisman right inside the door. That would be nice.

Nothing red showed up in my EFS in any direction so instead of slinking through the dead grass and bushes I trotted along the road. The warehouse was hard to miss, being the only standing building nearby. I stopped at the top of a little rise and took a good long look at it. The building itself was ridiculously over-engineered, huge and blocky and mostly concrete, which was probably why it was still standing as opposed to the piles of rubble out beyond it. The parking lot surrounding the warehouse was full of charred and rusted carts and something that moved. Something that was almost the same color as the carts. I couldn't make out what they were from where I was, so I crouched down and snuck my way to the copse of burned trees along one edge of the parking lot.

Stealth mare powers activate! Heh.

I gave myself a mental bucking, this was serious. I just had to get in that building and maybe this nightmare would be over. As I got closer red dots popped up on my EFS. I waited for one to pass where I could see it.

Robot ponies. Well, sort of. They were vaguely pony-shaped anyway. The one I saw was rusted, dented and seemed to sport of few bullet holes. They moved slowly and didn't seem able to see very well. Being outside and exposed to the elements since the end of the world probably hadn't helped with that. I slipped past them without any trouble. They only looked where they were going, a foal probably could have snuck past them. And here I thought this would be hard.

Just enough light filtered through the dirty windows to illuminate the room I found myself in. The room was a disaster. Part of the ceiling had collapsed and the floor was covered in ruble, half-burned papers and charred skeletons.

I did my best not to step on any of the bones as I slinked through what seemed to be offices. There were file cabinets, desks and burned out terminals and so many skeletons. No point in looking in the cabinets or desks, I rather doubted anypony had stashed a precious bit of pre-war arcano-tech in their drawer. Or a gun, for that matter. I just needed to find a way into the actual warehouse.

The first likely door I found was locked. I growled at it, vowing to find something, anything to pick it with before moving on. The second door was blocked on the other side and I couldn't open it. The third opened easily. That was promising.

I had a few seconds to look at the rows upon rows of untouched crates before I noticed the sound of grinding metal and looked up into the barrels of a turret.

Celestia's sweet something something – fuck!

I scrambled backward through the door as the turret started firing. The hail of lead tore into everything around me, shredding the doors, grazing my neck and flanks, thudding into something inside my makeshift saddlebag, and leaving holes in my hat. Either I was very lucky or –

My EFS lit up with red bars.

"Surrender and be disintegrated!" the command was echoed by a dozen robotic voices.

Flashes of red light shot from the warehouse floor through the door. They sparked and left scorch marks where they hit. At least the robot ponies were terrible shots. The turret adjusted and fired another barrage, following me as I dove behind a desk. Clanking hoofsteps drew closer as I tried to catch my breath. I did the only thing I could think of. I bolted for the exit and hoped they wouldn't follow me outside. If I'd had a moment to think, I might have remembered the robo-ponies patrolling outside.

Instead I barreled straight through the door, remembering enough to shove it open with a little burst of telekinesis, right into one of the rusty outdoor robots. It turned to look at me, its eyes glowing red.

"Intruder detected."

It was too late to swerve or dive out of the way so I jumped and smashed my hooves into its torso. I am not a very large pony. In fact, I'm rather small, undersized even. I just hoped that the spikey horseshoes and physics would help me.

Even with the momentum of a full gallop I bounced off the robot and landed hard on my side. The robot teetered for a moment before regaining its balance. I think I may have added a new dent or two, but I might have imagined that just to soothe my wounded pride. Stupid physics.

A bolt of red light blackened the pavement where my head had been as I rolled and got my hooves back under me. Running seemed to be my only choice today, so running it was. Shots sizzled all around me as I wove through the ruined carts and into the trees. When I looked back the robots were gathered at the edge of the parking lot but didn't go any further.

When I was absolutely sure the robots were done trying to fry me I stopped running and collapsed in the dirt. I wanted water, but didn't have any. I also noticed that not all of those shots had missed. There was a scorched spot on my right flank right in the middle of my cutie mark, which would have been funny if it hadn't hurt.

"Finally filled it in," I nickered and then slid into hysterical giggling.

This wasn't funny, I needed to stop. I needed to –

I hiccupped and then lost what little was in my stomach. It was like the duct fans, or the recycler pipe. Only this time, something had been out to kill me. A lot of somethings. A lot of horrible, magic shooting robot somethings.

Spitting the taste of vomit out of my mouth, I tried to regain some semblance of control over myself. Sitting out in the open was probably an open invitation to any and everything looking to do harm on a pony. My legs wouldn't stop shaking, so I stumbled along the road. The sky diving shack was nice and close, if in the wrong direction.

When I got back inside the shack I took stock of myself and my bag. A bullet had gone right through one of the cans, soaking everything else in something sticky and sweet. My poor hat had several new holes in it with matching grazes on me. I put it in my bag for safe keeping. There were more grazes along my flanks and sides.

That turret should have riddled me with holes. I gave a little prayer to the goddesses for small favors.

My body refused to stop shaking. I could still feel the heat of those magical bolts passing close over my hide. What I needed could be in one of those crates for all I knew, there was just a small army of robotic death ponies to get through.

I curled into a ball and tried not to cry. I was going to fail at this too, like everything else I tried. How could the Overmare send me out here instead of anypony else? Strudel wouldn't have let some earth pony brute knock him senseless, a pony from Sciences could have fried those robots with magical lightning. I watched the magic firing ranges despite not being allowed to use them and some of the Sciences ponies were terrifying. None of them would have had trouble with rats. Me, I botched everything except hiding and getting into trouble. Hiding wasn't going to find a replacement water talisman and finding trouble was going to get me killed.

Maybe I'd been sent out to fail, to die in this nightmare. When I didn't come back the Overmare could just shrug and pick somepony better suited. But the stable was family and the Overmare's job was to keep us all safe. Yet here I was. The magical reject and stable trouble maker who happened to have access to inconvenient data about the condition of the stable.

Just an acceptable loss.

For that alone I had to succeed, and for the chance to see Socket again. Nothing had managed to kill me yet. Not duct fans, sludge pipes, giant rats or killer robots. I could do this. There wasn't any other choice. I would have to be more careful is all, and not get cocky when things went my way.

I was still shaking.

Fine, I would just wobble onward instead of trotting with confidence.

The shack seemed to be getting darker and I was hungry. I hadn't eaten since… I couldn't actually remember. The cans weren't an option, lacking any sort of can opener, so that left the Sugar Apple Bombs. The dried apple bits turned out to be quite tasty despite my trepidation over pre-war food. I just wish I'd had more.

"We could stop here, rest a bit afore pushin' for town," a buck's voice.

I froze, ready to do what, I don't know. Probably run some more. More insane wasteland ponies were the last thing I needed to deal with.

"No, we're still too close to where we got hit, can't risk stopping even for a few minutes," said a mare.

I crept to the window and peeked out. Every one of the four I could see looked blood soaked and wounded. Three earth ponies and a unicorn. The unicorn had so many bandages on his legs I couldn't imagine how he managed to stay standing. All of the earth ponies were armed with some kind of barding mounted guns. The unicorn didn't seem to have anything and he was the only one in the group not carrying packs that looked ready to burst open.

"Can't believe you had us leave 'em behind like that, Spark."

The others seemed too exhausted or concerned with their injuries to bother talking.

"Nothin' we could do. They knew the risks. That featherbrain shoulda been able to fly off, rest were dead or too busted up," the mare hung her head. "Not like I wanted to, but ya can't help the dead."

Despite the mare's assertion that they couldn't stop and rest the four seemed to be doing just that. My EFS showed them as non-hostile blue bars but the pony who'd robbed me hadn't shown up as red either. At least, I don't think he had. They were all injured, but I was still outnumbered and they had guns to my spiked horseshoes. I would be better off waiting for them to leave than chancing them being hostile.

Spark shook herself and sighed. "We need to get as close to Bridleton as we can before dark."

The others nodded and started walking. The unicorn swayed where he was a moment before taking a syringe out of a pocket in his barding and jamming it into his shoulder.

I waited for them to get well down the road before leaving the shack to follow. We were going to the same place it seemed. Maybe I would try talking to them if I was sure they wouldn't attack me.

The group could only move as fast as the injured unicorn and had to keep stopping so he could change his bandages with the mare's help. The other two stood guard when the group stopped and seemed more resigned than watchful. It wasn't hard to stay undetected.

Spark kept feeding the unicorn healing potions and swapping out his bandages but the bleeding refused to stop. He left bloody hoofprints with each step until he collapsed.

The mare was by his side in an instant.

"Come on Nail, it's just a lil bit further."

The unicorn shook his head, "I'm done. Somethin' on those knives…"

"Damn it, get up. I'll just keep pouring healing potions in you 'till we get to a doc."

"It was nice, I –" the buck coughed and went limp.

Spark nuzzled his cheek and sobbed.

It didn't feel right watching them anymore, like I was intruding on something private, so I snuck ahead while they dug a shallow grave. I tried to ignore the way my eyes stung and the fact that I'd just watched a pony die.

I kept ahead of them in the growing dark, using EFS to spot anything hostile and kill it before it realized I was there. Mostly it was rats, thankfully smaller than the ones in the cave, and some kind of spine covered monstrosities. S.A.T.S. and my spiked horseshoes seemed more than up to the challenge, even when they attacked me before I could get the drop on them.

The next two red bars on my compass turned out to be ponies.

I smelled them before I could see them and almost gagged.

"Sure you seen traders?"

"Yeah, all shot up and movin' slow," the buck chuckled darkly. "Pretty lil mare wit 'em too. Shouldn't be trouble."

My heart started pounding as I realized that they planned to attack the group I'd been clearing the way for. They had more of those saddle-rigged guns and barding that looked armored. I couldn't let them ambush the others, but I didn't want to hurt ponies.

"Jus' cripple the mare a bit this time, don't kill her. Dead ain't half as fun as one that tries to fight back."

Scratch the part about not hurting ponies. I would have to do this carefully though. All I had was my hooves.

And magic.

I wanted to kick myself. But in my defense, it's not my fault I tend to forget the spells I can do when I almost never had a chance to use them in the stable.

A few moments of concentration and magic tingled from my horn over the rest of my hide. My one good spell, the one that earned me my cutie mark, didn't make me invisible. But it did make me very blurry and blend into my surroundings. I didn't have to worry about the overglow of my horn giving me away either, I didn't have one. Or rather, what my horn produced wasn't a glow like every other unicorn I had ever seen, but a shadowy un-light that seemed more prone to eat brightness than produce it. The Medical and Sciences ponies eventually gave up trying to figure it out and just labeled me deficient because of my weak telekinesis and… issues with other unicorn magics.

The fact that for once it would be an asset left me almost giddy. I would have been happier if the circumstances hadn't included ambushing ambushers.

I slowly stalked up to the two bandit ponies, mindful of making any noise.

"Wuzzat?" One of the bandits turned and looked right at me.

Too late for him. I slipped into S.A.T.S. and hit him with spell guided forehoof strikes.

The first hit raked across his face in slow motion, forcing me to watch his eye rupture as my spiked horseshoes tore him open. The second attack slashed across his neck, opening furrows across his throat.

"Fuck." The bandit fell back, the wounds on his face and neck gushing.

The other bandit spun and bit down on his saddle's trigger, but I had already scrambled out of the way and the wounded bandit's chest exploded as buckshot tore into him.

"Fucking slippery bitch!"

I tried to circle and charge him from the side, but he turned to follow me.

Crap.

I'd let go of the spell when I came out of S.A.T.S.

The bandit sneered at me and bit down on the trigger. This was going to hurt.

Nothing happened. The bandit's shotgun made a metallic ping and nothing else.

I lowered my head and charged right at him. He reared up to smash me with his forehooves as I closed my eyes and drove my horn into the base of his throat. I felt hot wetness flowing over my face as the bandit slowly collapsed on top of me.

It took me a bit to work my horn free and push the corpse off of me. It must be an earth pony thing to be big and heavy. Or I was just a runt, or both.

The smell of blood turned my stomach and the feel of it drying on my face and slicking my forequarters made my skin crawl. I could taste it on my lips.

I preferred the stable bilge sludge.

The shaking stared again. I'd just killed two ponies, even if they'd been planning to kill others and worse, they were still ponies and not stupid mutant animals. Did they have families? Loved ones?

I tried not to think about it as I went through their packs. The saddle-mounted guns were too heavy for me to use, even if I could get them off the saddles, but they had proper bags and a fair assortment of other things. I replaced my burlap sack with the cleanest of the saddlebags and added a few healing potions, shotgun shells, and what looked like rifle ammunition as well as a little revolver and plenty of bullets for it to my collection of stuff. In the end I gave up trying to get the guns off their saddles, I was more likely to break something important in the process than recover the weapons.

No matter how much I tried to calm myself, my body refused to stop trembling. It was done, I was alive and things were looking good. I even had proper bags and things to trade in town.

Every time I blinked I saw a buck's eye splitting open in slow motion. I couldn't ignore the taste of another pony's blood in my mouth, or the feeling of it on my coat, in my mane, drying to my horn.

Not even a day out of the stable and I was a killer. I could have just gone past them and made it to town. Instead I ambushed a couple ponies to protect a group who didn't even know I was helping them. They probably would have fended off the two bandits easily, considering how quickly I had managed to kill them. Moreover, who was to say the three coming up the road weren't just as bad as the two I killed?

I needed to keep moving, I had a task to do. I just needed to stop shaking so much so I could walk without tripping over everything. Steady myself a bit.

The inventory spell in my PipBuck brought one of the vials to the top of my bag and I plucked it out. I just hoped the name had something to do with what it actually did. The auto-injector needle stung as I jammed it in my shoulder, but the shaking stopped within moments.

I felt calmer. At least my body did, even if a part of me was still screaming and crying over what I'd done.

As I made my way down to the road I realized just how good of an ambush spot the bandits had been in. The traders would have passed them without knowing they were there and gotten hit from behind. Or at least that's what I would have done in the bandits' position.

I'd forgotten that the group would be moving much faster without the injured unicorn and came out of the bushes almost on top of them.

"Oh, um, hi." I waved a hoof at them.

There was a sharp crack and the feeling of being kicked in the foreleg just above my PipBuck. A second crack followed the first and something tore into my chest. My leg buckled and I slammed face-first into the road. Someone was bawling in pain.

Oh, right. That was me.

I think I passed out for a bit after I hit the ground.

"Idiots! How many raiders do ya see wearin' PipBucks?"

When I opened my eyes Spark was looking down at me. She was rather pretty, close up. The mare looked worried though, which was silly. She didn't even know me.

"She came right outta the bushes covered in blood, wasn't gonna take a chance."

"Hurts," I whimpered.

"I know hon." Spark took a syringe out of her pack and stuck me with it. The pain ebbed somewhat. I looked at the hole in my leg, but I couldn't be sure how much of the blood was mine and how much was the bandit's. I assumed there was a similar hole in my chest. The edge of my vision was full of flashing warnings from my PipBuck but none of them made sense.

"You used all the bandages and most of the potions on Nail."

"I know. It's a good thing you didn't hit anythin' vital, Scatter. Help me get her on my back."

"Why're we helpin' her, again?" Scatter said. The other stallion hadn't yet said a word.

"We broke her we get her fixed, simple as that. Now help me before she bleeds out."

The next thing I knew I was looking down at the road. I wasn't walking, but I was still moving. Spark kept talking to me, telling me to stay awake, but it was hard. Sleep seemed like a better idea anyway. I had a pretty good view of her flank from where I was draped across her packs. Her cutie mark was a red lightning bolt. I just stared at how it moved with each step she took.

She smacked me in the face with her tail, again.

"Huh, wha?"

"Stay awake," the mare admonished. "What were ya doin' out there anyhow?"

"Clearing the road for you. Ambushed some bandits."

"Why?" the mare sounded genuinely surprised.

It was a good question, and I didn't have any real answer. I could have just slipped past them. What did I owe some strangers? Especially when those strangers ended up shooting me like I'd been afraid they would.

"Don't know. Saw you at the shack, seemed to need help."

"You saw us at the sky diving shack? Why didn't you talk to us?"

"Shot me," I mumbled.

"I guess we did a bit," her tail lashed across my face again. "What's your name?"

"Whisper," I slurred my name. Everything felt fuzzy and muddled.

"That's a nice name," Spark said. She kept talking but I couldn't make sense of the words. I felt warm though, light headed and giddy. It was nice.

Something kept swatting my face and Spark was yelling at me, but I was so tired I let myself drift off.

Pain.

Something was digging in my chest.

A charcoal coated unicorn was looking down at me with intense concentration in her red eyes.

"Ah hah!" I felt something rip loose and screamed. Straps held me down, or I would have thrashed and flailed at the unicorn.

"Quit squirming you foal, I have to get these shards out before I can close you up." There was another wrenching movement in my chest. "Stop bleeding too, while you're at it. Wait, don't stop. That means you're still alive."

There was one last tug and the charcoal unicorn grinned. A pair of bloody tweezers floated in front of my face holding a twisted chunk of bullet.

"That's much better," the tweezers whisked out of my sight and the unicorn poured the purple liquid of a healing potion into my wound. "You're actually lucky those traders used such cheap bullets and they broke up instead of going right through you and hitting something important. You might want to invest in some armored barding if you plan on getting shot again. Or not, I could use the caps."

A moment later my chest was being wrapped up in bandages. I was strapped down lying on my right side, my left foreleg already bandaged up.

"You should take it easy for a day or two. You lost a lot of blood, and while healing potions are amazing, you still need rest." The unicorn did not undo the straps that held me down. "By which I mean – you are going to rest until morning at least."

I pulled at the straps.

"Oh no. I've fixed enough stable ponies that came wandering through here to know better than to let you go, 'rest' I say , 'of course' they say and what do they do? Wander off and get themselves shot again, or blown up, or some other idiot thing," she tapped my forehead with her hoof. "PipBucks do not make you immortal and I don't care if your fancy medical spells tell you that you're good to go, 'cause you aren't."

I flattened my ears back. I didn't think the arcano-tech thing on my leg made me immortal.

"How am I supposed to sleep tied to a table?"

"You weren't supposed to wake up yet, actually," the unicorn scratched her purple and white striped mane. "Sorry about digging bullets out of you while you were awake."

The straps glowed pink and unbuckled themselves, allowing me to sit up and look around. My wounds didn't hurt, but I didn't feel numbness from Med-X either. The unicorn's horn kept glowing for a moment after the straps were undone.

"There. That should keep the pain off so you can sleep."

The room was not the clinic I expected. Dingy walls were lined with shelves crammed full of bits of machinery, scrap metal and broken down weapons. The sheer amount of grease and grime on everything made my skin crawl when I thought about being operated on. The table seemed to be the only clean spot in the room.

"You're the town doctor?" I could almost hear the cries of outrage from ponies in Medical.

"Nope!" the unicorn shook her head. "I'm the mechanic. Doc died a while ago, I'm just good at fixin' all sorts of things; guns, generators, ponies. We can't get a new doctor to settle here, not with what Maneford is paying for experts. But I did learn a few medical spells from Doc before he kicked it so I'm almost like having a real medic."

I stared at her as she grinned at me for a moment before deciding it was better not to think about it. She turned just enough that I could see her rather odd mark, a wrench with a syringe a stuck into the handle.

"Since you're awake, you'll probably want to sleep in a bed instead of on a table. That merchant pony said she rented a room for you. She also paid for you to get fixed up, so you don't have to worry about that," the mare paused, blinked and then pointed at a small table off to the side. "I almost forgot. You can keep those if you want."

The table was littered with bloody gauze, similarly bloody surgical instruments, empty potion bottles and twisted shards of bullet. I could only assume she meant the bullet fragments.

"Why would I want those?"

"Some ponies keep souvenirs," she shrugged. "Your leg should be good enough to walk on, but I'll carry your bags for you. That is, if you want the room. Table is still an option though."

My leg didn't hurt when I tested it, but it did feel weak and more than a little wobbly. That meant walking absurdly slow even though the hotel and bar was just down the street from the "clinic."

The charcoal unicorn would not stop talking. As much I liked pleasant chatter, I had to concentrate on not face-planting every other step. Her name was Night Star, but I could just call her Star or Night if I wanted, and she was really pleased that I hadn't died on her operating table. I learned more about the town of Bridleton than I really needed to know as I hobbled along. She was also levitating my bags beside her as she chattered and caught me more than once with telekinesis when I stumbled without missing a beat in her talking.

Show off.

I was sweating by the time I staggered into the bar portion of the Bit and Bridle Inn. Star's cold metal table almost seemed like the better option after all that effort. Even having to limp the entire way I shouldn’t have been so tired. Then I remembered the blood loss. Right.

The room was full of tables, most of which were empty except a corner where Spark was staring at an empty glass.

"I told you I'd save this one," Star said brightly to the barpony.

"Didn't doubt ya for a second," the barpony dropped a small stack of bottle caps on the counter which Star immediately grabbed up in her telekinesis.

Were they betting pieces of garbage on my survival? That wasn't – oh never mind. I felt far too tired to even bother being outraged, offended or whatever.

"About that room," I really did want sleep, more so with every passing minute.

Spark looked up, her eyes going wide. She shot from the table and nearly bowled me over, crushing me in a hug.

"I'm so glad Scatter didn't kill you," she let go after a moment. "If you need anything just ask, it's the least I can do."

"You don't happen to have a water talisman, do you?" It couldn't hurt to ask.

"N-no. That's a rare piece of pre-war magic. Maneford might though, that's where we're going when we finish here. You're welcome to come with us when we do."

"I'll think about it, right now I just want sleep."

The barpony cleared her throat. "You aren't sleeping on one of my beds in that condition, you'll ruin it."

I had almost forgotten that I'd taken a bath in bandit blood with more of my own thrown into the mix than I wanted to think about. The barpony lead me to a room with a tub of water and gave me a brush and soap. I had to change the water twice before I stopped dying it red. I also had to ignore the ticking from my PipBuck telling me I was being exposed to radiation in the water.

The bandages Star had put on me seemed pointless. I couldn't find any sign of the gunshots other than round patches of slightly darker gray on my chest and above my PipBuck. Scars, I realized, but they were barely noticeable. Next time I wouldn't startle a bunch of armed ponies after helping them. I also scrubbed the scorch spot out of my cutie mark, returning it to its normal empty self.

It was just an outline of a unicorn, like a doodle on my flank in black marker. I'd gotten it after the first time I cast my blurring, faux invisibility spell on accident. Somepony had startled me and a burst of magic left me almost invisible. At the time I was just thrilled to finally have my mark. It wasn't until later that I figured out it was the thing that ensured I would never be assigned to a section. Not that it mattered at this point.

Cleaning my mane took its own refill of the tub, but I managed to wash the gore out and return it to its normal light blue and blue-gray. Since I had nothing to tie it back with I let it fall loose. I'd have to trim it down later. I kept my tail short to keep it from getting tangled or caught on anything while skulking through the stable, I'd just cut my mane to match now.

"So there was a pony under all of that," the barpony said when I went back to the bar. "You clean up nice sugar."

"That room?" I tried to ignore the heat rising in my cheeks.

The barpony waved at the stairs across the room. "First door on the right, Star left your bags in there and Spark wants to talk to you when you wake up."

"Thanks." I didn't look back as I went up the stairs, but I had the feeling she was still watching me.

I found my room, my bags and my bed and promptly dove into the mattress. It wasn't Stable-Tech spongy-ness, but it was good enough.

I wish I could say that I was haunted by dreams of vague and dire prophesy or nightmare replays of what I'd been through, as that would make a good tale. Alas, I slept soundly until the room grew brighter. The first time I woke just long enough to turn away from the window before falling back to sleep.

Knocking at the door finally convinced me to drag myself out of bed.

It was the barpony from last night with a tray in her mouth. She set it down and smiled at me.

"Courtesy of Miss Spark, she hasn't spared any expense so I guess she likes you," she winked at me, making me blush.

I tried to cover my reaction by examining the tray. There was canned vegetables, canned fruit, Sugar Apple Bombs and a bottle of something orange-ish. It seemed like a lot for one pony.

"Night Star wants to see you to make sure everything healed right and Spark wants to talk to you when you're up and about. Night's probably in her workshop and Spark'll be around somewhere, probably haggling with Umbrage in the general store."

"Thank you," I realized I had no idea what her name was.

"Apple Gin and you're welcome. How do you like my little establishment?"

"It's – nice." Not that I had much to compare it to other than the stable and some ruins. Though I couldn't imagine how she managed to have clean sheets and mattresses when everything else I had seen so far was dingy and decrepit at best.

"Just nice?" the mare pouted.

I looked away from her, not sure if she actually felt put-out or not.

"Do you bring all your customers food in the morning?"

"It's almost noon, and no. I do, however, make exceptions for cute mares," her poutiness evaporated instantly and she grinned. "I'll leave you to your breakfast."

She turned and left with a swish of immaculately groomed green tail. I definitely did not watch her tail and white flanks saunter down the hall until disappearing down the stairs. Now if I could just stop blushing like a school filly every time she looked at me.

When I left my room I had a new favorite drink. Sparkle Cola was just pure carroty awesomeness. What were another few ticks on my PipBuck compared to the flavor? I owed Spark a lot now. Getting me healed, a place to stay and food. It couldn't compare to killing a few a nasty critters and – and other things. I didn't want to think about the other things, didn't want to think about driving my horn into another pony's throat and feeling him die on top of me, or punching another in the face with spiked horseshoes and watching –

Damnit.

There wasn't time to think about it. I couldn't let myself dwell on what was past, I had things to do. First I wanted another try at that warehouse. Somepony had to have guns or something I could trade the stuff in my packs for that would help me deal with the horde of robo-ponies. If not, I would figure something out. I had to be absolutely sure what I was looking for wasn't in that warehouse before I moved on. That meant finding the general store and probably Spark as well.

The big sign with 'General Store' painted on it above one of the buildings was a good hint that it was the one I was looking for. I took a good look at the town in the daylight. Bridleton wasn't very large, just a dozen or so patched and rebuilt buildings clustered along the road. The town was surrounded by a piecemeal wall of rubble and sheets of metal. Ponies with hunting rifles were patrolling atop the wall. Besides the Bit and Bridle and general store there was another shop that looked like a restaurant and Night's clinic, though the sign was for Blue Falcon Cart Repair and "clinic" was painted in red on a board next to the door.

There were ponies in the street as well. Some were at the tables in front of the restaurant while others ambled down the road. I got looks from them as I walked to the store, but they were curious rather than wary. Bridleton was a safe place, Night had said, its citizens worked hard to keep it that way so caravans would stop and rest before pushing west toward Vanhoover or east into the Equestrian Heartland. The town sat in the middle of the only real pass through the mountains between the coast and the rest of Equestria, which would have made it a trade hub if not for Maneford.

I really hoped I could get back into the warehouse and, if it didn't have a water talisman, back to Spark in time to go with her to Maneford, since it was on the list of Stable-Tech facilities in my PipBuck.

"That's highway robbery!" Spark cried as I entered the general store. "It's worth at least twice that in Maneford."

"I don' give a hoot if they'd pay enough caps to swim in, there ain't enough demand fer fancy gizmos like that. I'd have to sell it to another traveler," the old stallion behind the counter scowled.

"It's a MAUR-17, state-of-the-art. Look, it has a built-in spark recycler, uses half the energy, has an intensity selector and a targeting module," Spark was pointing to some kind of box with a mouth grip and various other protrusions on it.

"An' who am I s'posed to sell it to? Steel Rangers, those Hoofologist nuts? No, now that I think about it, I don't even want it in my shop. Damn Rangers will probably smell it and burn down the whole town."

Spark took the box-thing and put it back in her saddlebag and sighed.

"Take the caps for the rest of it and be happy," the stallion said.

"Fine," Spark nodded.

I watched Spark scrape bottle caps off the counter into a small sack while the stallion put the various boxes of ammunition and other things on the shelves behind him. Sometimes I can be a little slow, so it took me a while to connect talk of caps with bottle caps and to realize that ponies were using them for money.

Then I wanted to kick myself for leaving that locker full of them. There should be a book or something to explain things like that to stable dunces like me.

"Hey Spark, you wanted to talk to me?"

Spark dropped the sack of caps in her saddlebag. "I wanted to give you something, but I was going to give you a choice since I don't know what you'd want."

"You've already done enough," I shook my head. "I was going to ask if there's anything I can do to repay you for – everything."

"Scatter went back to look at those bandits you took out and believe me, you saved our lives so don't go thinking you owe me anything. Payin' for you get patched up doesn't even figure into it."

"But the room, the food," I didn't even know how much simple things cost out here. It just wasn't a consideration in the stable.

"Gin and me are old friends, so I get a discount," Spark dismissed it with a wave of the hoof. "So just tell me what you need."

"If you have anything that will help me take out a small army of robots, that would be helpful."

The mare's eye lit up as she grinned and nodded.

"I have just what you need. Or I will, it'll take me a bit to get it together. Not too long though, maybe an hour?" Spark paused. "What do you need anti-robot things for?"

"There's a warehouse off the road just a little way from that shack. It might have what I'm looking for in it but I couldn't get past the robots inside." Or the turret, but this time I would be prepared and not walking blindly into a deathtrap.

"You mean the old Stable-Tech warehouse east of here?" the stallion said.

I nodded.

"I'll pay your two-hundred caps to make it safe enough for other ponies to pick through." He pointed at a board on the wall. "I've had that posting up there for months and not one merc or drifter has taken the job. Since you're goin' there anyway, might as well get a few caps out of it and if you can shut down some of the bots instead of destroying them I'll double it."

"You can't get any anypony to take the job because you won't pay them enough to risk their hide in that deathtrap," Spark glowered at the stallion.

"I could have said nothin' and just waited for her to open it up and save myself the caps," the stallion pointed out.

"I'll get to work on what you need," Spark said as she left the shop.

"So," I eyed the shelves of supplies. "Got anything good for fighting robots?"

"I might, but it depends on what you've got to barter with."

Bartering is hard. That or Umbrage was just a cheapskate and a jerk. Possibly both.

"Won't you make a lot more if I survive all those robots? I mean, from other ponies looting the place and selling it here, or whatever."

The old stallion grumbled but added two more healing potions to the pile.

"I'll swap the shotgun and rifle rounds for an equal number of jacketed flat points for that little pistol of yours, too but that's all the charity you're getting from me and you'd better not die."

That seemed fair enough. I added the shells and rifle bullets to my growing pile of barter material.

"How about that pistol?" It didn't look all the much bigger than the pistols for the firing range.

"Look kid, pistols aren't gonna be worth much with what you're puttin' yourself up against. Why not try a rifle? I have some good ones," he gestured to the ones mounted on the wall next to the shelves. They looked heavy, and unwieldy. "Or a shotgun. Spark shells are good for robots and I happen to have a few."

I tried levitating each the rifles but they were all too heavy for me to use for very long, the shotguns looked even heavier. Except for one, but it looked to be in the worst shape of the lot.

"How much for this one and some of those spark shells?" I picked up a little sawed-off double barrel shotgun and aimed down the barrels. It felt comfortable, about as good as the revolver. Even if the barrels were a bit rusted and the stock was beat up.

My bags were much lighter when I left the general store. I couldn't shake the feeling that I wasn't the one who made out on the deal. The bandits' packs had been full of little bottles of meds with names like Rage, Buck and Hydra. I hadn't even wanted to find out what those did, but Umbrage had been more than happy to take them off my hooves.

Well, I had my pistol and my new shotgun, ammunition for both and I still had whatever Spark was cooking up to look forward to. I just hadn't had enough junk to trade for some kind of armored barding. The old stallion refused to budge even a little on his prices for any of it. I would just have to avoid getting hit, I suppose.

Spark was waiting for me in the Bit and Bridle, with grenades. Well, that's what she called them so I took her word for it. They looked like tin cans with wires and spark batteries to me.

"They're spark grenades," she explained. "They damage spell matrices and force them to shut down or outright fry the talismans."

"What about ponies, and PipBucks?"

"You might get a mild shock if you're too close and I don't think they'll do anything to your PipBuck, those things are almost indestructible. Just try not to be in the blast radius if you can help it."

I put the three grenades in my bag. "Thanks, for everything."

"They're hoof-made, so the timing and power might be a bit dodgy between them. I didn't really have all the parts I would have liked."

"They're amazing. As long as I can get a few of those robo-ponies with each one I'll be happy. That boxy thing Umbrage wouldn't buy, did you make that too?"

Spark laughed. "No, no. I just bought or scrounged the parts for it. I was going to sell it, but no pony seems to want to buy it. You don't want it, do you?"

I shook my head. "I have no idea how to use that thing."

"It's not hard," she ventured.

"You've already given me enough, really. When I get back, if that warehouse doesn't have a talisman, I'd like to go to Maneford with you."

Spark just nodded. It was past time to go. The day was quickly slipping away.

The way back to the warehouse was still clear. I suppose I had a little to do with that. I trotted along the road, I didn't want to tire myself out, but I also didn't want to waste time getting there.

The warehouse was still there with its roaming outdoor robots. This time, however, I wasn't going to sneak past them. I didn't need more enemies at my back if I had to run again. My little revolver would just have to be up to the task.

The rusted casings of the robots were no match for my pistol's jacketed bullets. I took my time to aim carefully between dodging bolts of fiery magic. One or two shots to the head were enough to take them down. It was nice to have the right tool for the job, or at least one I could use more effectively than my hooves and lack of body mass. I made sure all the robots in the parking lot were smoking doorstops before venturing back inside.

The lobby and offices were empty of robots or any sign of them other than the pock and scorch marked walls. Nothing red showed up on my EFS. They had gone back to waiting for something to trip whatever alarm I had stumbled into. As I crept to the door with the turret, I swapped my pistol for the shotgun and its spark rounds. I'd only gotten a dozen of the shells out of the stubborn shop pony, enough for six shots if I loaded both barrels and I wasn't going to chance one shell not being enough.

Magic tingled over my hide after a moment of concentration and I took a long, calming breath. I didn't know what the turret used to target things, I just hoped blurriness and S.A.T.S. would give me enough of an advantage.

I jumped out into the middle of the open doorway, slipping into S.A.T.S. as the turret came to life. This time I wasn't caught flat hoofed. This time I had the drop on it.

My shotgun roared as time resumed its normal flow. I almost lost my grip on it from the recoil. The turret sparked and made a satisfying pop as the little red talisman it had for an "eye" shattered.

Then all hell broke loose.

My EFS lit up with red and the small army of robo-ponies issued their cacophony of idiotic demands for me to surrender so they could kill me. I dashed up a set of rusted metal stairs as blasts of magic peppered the wall behind me. I shoved my shotgun back into my saddlebag and pulled out one of Spark's grenades.

I stopped at the top of the stairs and waited for them cluster at the bottom, flinching as erratic bursts of magic flew past me or splashed near my hooves.

I pushed the little button on the grenade and rolled it down the stairs.

It made a flash and sizzle. Several of the robots jerked and went still, others ground to a halt after a series of little internal explosions. One's head exploded completely. The robots behind them didn't seem affected at all and pushed the broken down husks out of the way and started climbing the stairs.

I tried not to think about how stupid a place a catwalk was for fighting as I pulled out my revolver. The shotgun and its specialty rounds were a better choice, but I'd have to get close to hit anything and I really didn't want to do that if I could help it.

The catwalk shifted as the mass of robots crowded up the stairs. I fired into the crowd, but the bullets just bounced off their bodies. These robots hadn't been ravaged by outside weather for two hundred years. That complicated things somewhat.

I raced down the catwalk, looking for a way down. There was only one stairway and it was clogged with robots intent on incinerating me.

Not good. I had to jump. A stack of crates looked promising, if I could jump that far.

A bolt of pain scoring across my croup decided me.

I backed up to the opposite edge of the catwalk and tried not to think about how far above the warehouse floor I was. Or how far the gap was.

Just a hop. I lurched forward to gain some momentum. Red flashed past the end of my muzzle.

A skip. I brought my rear hooves to my front.

And a jump. I shoved up and forward with as much force as my back legs could muster.

I may have closed my eyes for a second or two as I stretched out over nothingness. The ancient wooden crate groaned as I landed atop it. If only somepony had been around to see that. Ah well.

At least it worked.

I hopped down crates stacked like an over-sized set of stairs to the warehouse floor. The robots seemed confused by my disappearance. I could probably have left them up there while they wandered around looking for their vanished target and started searching the crates.

On the other hoof, if one of them came back down or just looked down while I was busy nosing through things I'd lose my advantage.

I reloaded my shotgun and recast my blurring spell. There was a little warning twinge in my horn and pressure that warned of a coming headache if I kept pushing myself. Not that I had much choice at the moment.

The robo-pony I snuck up on never had a chance. I put the double blast of spark shells in the back of its head. This time I held on to the spell as I stayed low and moved out onto the catwalk once again. The robots fired wildly toward the sound of my gunshot before stopping and going back to aimless searching.

My horn was starting to ache from keeping the spell up. I wanted to get one more of them and try to get them back into a group where the grenades could do some damage. A sharp stab of pain through my horn forced me to let go of the magic before I was ready.

"Halt!" The robot got a pair of electrical slugs in the face before its weapon could go off.

Fire splashed my neck and shoulder as I tried to dive out of the barrage. So much for not getting hit.

I scrambled for the stairs as soon as I was sure they were following me again. They did exactly what I hoped they would. They bunched up on the stairs. There might be a lot of them and they had magical energy weapons, but they were really, really stupid. I traded my shotgun for another spark grenade and waited for them to line up just so.

A press of a button. A flash.

Flash?

I tried to scream as my whole body locked up. Every muscle went taut as lightning shot through me. My EFS flickered and random symbols flashed in my sight. The sensation went on and on until it was suddenly gone and my legs gave out under me.

My vision was clear. No compass, no S.A.T.S. charge, nothing. The screen on my foreleg was dark.

Not good.

I struggled to stand up and groped for the last grenade in my bag. Random muscles kept twitching every few seconds as I finally found the last grenade.

I pushed the button and tossed it at the lead robot. It smacked against its body and crackled. Three more of the robo-ponies went down. That left far too many.

Three more shotgun blasts turned another three into sparking statues and I was out of shotgun shells. That left my revolver and only a hit in the robot's faceplate did anything to them.

The muscle spasms kept throwing off my aim as I drew the robots into the maze of stacked crates. As long as they didn't somehow get the bright idea to flank me I could pick them off one at a time. One of the broken robots clogged the way just long enough for me to dig in my bag for a vial of Steady. The wonderful, wonderful chemicals finally stopped the damnable twitching so I could actually hit consistently.

I came to a corner and started to back around it when I felt heat skim under my belly. They'd flanked me.

Fuck.

The hammer clicked on an empty chamber.

Fuck fuck fuck!

I should have traded for something that was less of a pain to reload. The cylinder didn't pop out. Each chamber had to be reloaded one at a time. I tried to ignore the splashes of magic fire around me. The only thing keeping me from getting cooked was their terrible, terrible aim.

There were only two robots flanking me so I turned on them. The next three shots missed their mark and dinged off the robot's head.

This wasn't fair, things had been going well. Why did Celestia hate me?

The robot staggered from the next shot but started moving again. The weapon port in its head started to glow for a second before something internal exploded and it collapsed. That left one in my way. So I charged straight at it.

Stupid, stupid idea.

I tried to dodge its shot, but I felt the bolt sear into my chest right where Scatter had shot me. That shot wouldn't just be another black spot on my hide. I snarled in pain and anger and put the muzzle of my pistol right in the robot's face. It shuddered and went still with two bullets planted into its brain or whatever it had.

A quick duck into another aisle of crates gave me just enough time to reload again. Bullets were getting scarce and I really needed a healing potion or ten, but there just wasn't time. I glanced at my PipBuck but its screen was still black. It would be really nice if it decided to turn back on.

Any time now.

Still nothing. That figured.

I waited for the next robot to come around the corner and shot it point-blank.

Only two or three left.

It hurt to breathe, but I couldn't stop to think about it. I ran down the aisle to try and flank the remaining robots. A running jump put me on the back of one and I jammed the pistol against its head and fired twice.

I was getting sick of goddess damned robots. The next bot turned as I ran toward it. The robo-pony kept shooting where I had been as I wove my way up to it.

Another shot and another dead robot. Just one left, finally.

I emptied the remaining chambers of my pistol into its face and stomped its head until the casing cracked open, spilling wires and bits of broken gems onto the floor.

Then I collapsed as the adrenaline wore off. My chest was in agony, my hide felt like one giant burn. I struggled to get to my healing potions, drank down two of them, poured one over the blistering and charred hide of my chest and sprinkled what was left over my other burns.

The burns began to soothe a little and I injected a Med-X for good measure. After a few minutes of rest to catch my breath I got back up and started to look around.

I wanted to find some kind of inventory. Opening every crate to look for a water talisman just wasn't practical. There had to be a ledger or a working terminal or something that said what was in the crates. At least, I hoped so.

All of the terminals in the office area were burned out and I couldn't find anything like a ledger. At least none that were intact enough to read. I did find a gun though, a .44 magnum and bullets for it, and an assortment of other things like snack cakes, tins of Mint-Als, and more ammunition than seemed right for an office to have. Most of it was in sizes I couldn't use but I did find some for my pistol and even a few shotgun shells. Then I came to the locked door.

I glared at it.

"We meet again." This time I had plenty of pins.

It took a few tries and a couple broken pins but I finally tickled the lock open. The little office had a working terminal. It was even still logged in so I didn't have to try and guess the password.

Most of the files were corrupted, but it did have a few memos and a shipping manifest. I looked at the memos first.

To Slate, Stable-Tech regional manager:

I'm sorry, things are hectic enough around here trying to get the stables outfitted and ready without having the Ministries, or whomever, trying to redirect our shipments. We just do not have the extra stock on hand – not in the quantities these officials are demanding – and I still haven’t heard anything from the main office authorizing these requests.

Betty

Well, that told me almost nothing. I opened the next one.

To Slate, Stable-Tech regional manager:

One of those O.I.A ponies came in here waving papers signed by Princess Luna and demanding that I reroute the spare water talisman shipment for Stable 15 to Stable 19, said there would be hell to pay if I didn't do it right now. What could I do? You were out of town and he had signed documents; I even checked the royal seal. So it's done. Hopefully we can get Stable 15 properly supplied after the next lot arrives.

Betty

That explained the lack of a spare at least. I guess the shipment didn't arrive before the end of the world. The shipping manifest reflected the memo. There weren't any water talismans in the warehouse. It was, however, full of machine components for all sorts of other things. They would probably be valuable to somepony at least.

I switched off the terminal and sighed. All of that for nothing but a couple saddlebags full of salvage to sell. At least I knew now, even if it was futile.

I rifled through the desks and cabinets one more time to make sure I didn't miss any stray caps before leaving the warehouse behind me and heading back to Bridleton. Some other pony could pick over the robots I'd scrapped. I didn't even want to look at them.

Footnote: Approximately fifty-eight days of water remain.
Level up!
New perk: Travel Light - You like to keep it light and agile. You gain increased run speed when wearing light or no armor. All the better for quick escapes. Armor is for chumps anyway.

Skill Note: Unarmed 25, Sneak 35

(A/N: Thanks to Kkat, Somber and the others making such a fun sandbox to play in. Also, thanks to Koneko for brutalizing my semicolon and hyphen abuse, and for general editing.)