Fallout Equestria: S.T.A.L.K.E.R

Chapter 39: That Old Place

48 Hours later...

Crack! Crack! Fzt!

Two beams of pink energy wizzed by over their heads, followed by an insane laugh. From behind the scorched wagon Nikolai could hear the raider with battle saddle that held a magic energy rifle on either side again gallop closer, firing indiscriminately in the general direction of the Stalker and his companions. He raised his gun up over the wagon and shot back blindly, hoping to score a lucky hit. A sudden flash of light later, and the barrage of magical weapons fire halted in its tracks. He poked his head up out of cover and spotted the black and grey form of Aurora, the ruby red gemstone tips of her own magical rifles were sizzling from pitched usage.

"Ohohoho!" He gave the pegasus a thumbs up. "Nice shot Aurora!"

He stood up to full height and studied the ruins of the formerly raider infested gas station. Four pony bodies littered the ground, potmarked with a mix of bullet holes and plasma burns.

"It seems we got 'em all." She replied, her voice welling with accomplishment. "But let's not count ourselves out of the clouds yet, all that noise might end up drawing in more of them."

"We move fast then," He walked over to the pair of energy rifles adorning the battle saddle of the raider Aurora had just melted and heaved the corpse onto it's side. "You want them?"

The pegasus trotted up to the remains and began to remove the rifles from their mountings. "Hm," She inspected their mounting brackets.

"Willow, perhaps you'd like them?"

The bat pony gave her a fanged grin and shook his head. "No, no thanks Aurora. Those look awfully heavy and," He bumped the suppressed carbine on his side. "I've already got this."

The pegasus glanced back at her own rifles. "Mine are more powerful and in better condition than these ones. I don't need them either. They'd just be dead weight. "

Nikolai was meters away by now, prowling through the interior of the station and examining the body of a dead unicorn which had been splayed out over the store counter, he wrestled a submachine gun from the it's mouth and stripped the magazine for ammunition. "Let us change subject, why is that battle saddle even here in first place?"

Willow trotted past Aurora and stopped at the threshold of the shattered glass door to the station. "Raiders'll scrounge and steal gear from wherever they can. There's no telling where it came from."

"Well this better not become habit for them." Nikolai pocketed the rounds from the submachine gun and checked the amount of ammunition left in his rifles magazine. "In whole time here, I have seen three, maybe four raiders with battle saddles." He counted them off on his right hand. "Certainly never with magical... laser guns! Blayt, I don't care what they are really called. Sorry Aurora."

"Aren't you still holding onto that one from Canterlot?" Flashpoint commented mildly.

Nikolai scoffed and widened his eyes. "Hell yes I hold onto 'one from Canterlot'! That shit is freaking cool! I may not know how it works but- melting monsters is pretty fun!"

After a few minutes of silence Aurora raised her voice. "I could... Help you with that? There's some spare magical charge packs on this battle saddle." Nikolai scratched his head as he looked over the counter, finding nothing, he pulled a little satchel of caps from the barding of the dead raider, then looked back at Aurora.

"Strip all the caps and useful ammunition from the bodies. Aurora, strip the magical power cells from that battle saddle- I would love to take you up on that offer." He emerged from the darkness and spun his left index finger about in mid air.

"Давай!" There was an awkward pause among the tree equines before Nikolai cupped his hands around his filter and shouted, "Let's go!"

All in all, Aurora had managed to scrounge up about a dozen Spark Batteries, the very things that Nikolai had-up until now, been simply referring to as "Magical power cells". It had been an enormous facepalm moment for The Stalker as he thought of all the little devices and terminals and even turrets he had passed by, not realizing the treasures could have possessed. What was even worse was the fact that he vaguely recalled having seen more than a fair share of the things just lying about in the open early on in his travels-all the more to grief about. He thought that he must have skipped over that section in the Wasteland Survival Guide, or perhaps he had just forgotten about it after all the commotion he had been through.

But that wasn't all Aurora had found, laying cover down in the dirt was a grimy book. At first glance it looked like another piece of putrid garbage, but something about it caught her eye, and she snatched up and stuffed it into a cloak pocket. Nikolai and the others were already a good twenty meters from the gas station parking lot when Aurora bounded up to them.

Carrying both of the energy rifles, both hastily thrown across her back on canvas slings.

"Blya... Aurora! So you did want them! That is the spirit, huh guys!?" Willow and Flashpoint laughed uncomfortably.

“I don't wanna leave this tech laying around in the open to be picked up by another raider." She delineated. "Even if can't exactly use them since my power armor can only accommodate one pair.”

As they resumed their pace northwards, Nikolai smiled below his mask and murmured something about a 'scavenging gateway drug'. To Willow, who bit his tongue with his own fangs to hold in the welling of laughter.

Off in the distance, the four spotted a small metal sphere in the process of crossing the road. Aurora flared her wings and watched as the object crossed the road. “Sprite-Bot up ahead, not sure if it’s armed. Proceed with caution.”

Nikolai raised his rifle and peered through the scope. "I don't believe it, це знову робота-жук."

"In ponish please?" Willow and Aurora asked simultaneously. Nikolai gesticulated off in the general direction of the sprite-bot.

"Blin, its just another one of those robot bug sprite-bot things! They eh... Play fancy schmancy music and make the occasional big propaganda speeches." He lowered his gun just as Aurora raised both of hers.

"I'm pretty sure they're armed, but they typically won't open fire unless you either shoot them first or they start malfunctioning."

"Oh, you mean like the one that almost fried our brains in Canterlot?" Willow remarked, his voice tinging with dry sarcasm. Nikolai rested his hands on his belt and turned to nod at Willow.

"Almost!"

The Stalker rolled his shoulders and looked back over at Aurora. "Sure, one in Canterlot may have tried to fry our brain-BUT! And this is a very big but!" He beelined for the robot's path without saying another word.

Nikolai ran and ran and ran until he was almost out of earshot. The trio watched in confusion and slight horror as Nikolai jumped up and down, screaming and pleading like a near madman with the sprite-bot for a few moments. Then, all of a sudden, he stopped, and waved his friends over.

The look on Aurora's scrunched muzzle was all that was needed to gauge her newfound impression of The Stalker. A suicidal idiot monkey. When he had spoken about all his adventures in the Equestrian Wasteland two days ago, Aurora was impressed he survived this long. Perhaps he was gifted with a great amount of luck? Or maybe he was more competent at his "career" then he had let on.

"Folks!" The Stalker exclaimed, patting the sprite bot over its top.

"I would like you all to meet Watcher! This guy... He is big creep!" The sprite-bot was quiet for a moment, and then-suddenly, a mechanical voice erupted from within.

"Hello, everyone. It seems that I've become quite popular."

Ok, so maybe he did sort of know what he was doing.

Aurora lowered her rifles, she was at a loss for words. This was the first time she had heard a sprite-bot espousing anything other than tinny prewar music or half-baked "unity" propaganda from Slavers. “Watcher? Are they... a friend of yours?”

"Well no but actually yes but... Ok, I am at a loss. " He hung his head dramatically. "This creep seems to have taken a liking to me, last time I saw him he said that I was and I quote "interesting". God only knows who is on other side of radio."

Aurora smirked. "Well to be fair, you are the only one of your kind in Equestria."

"That I know of!" The Stalker joked uncomfortably.

"The wacky anomalous bullshit that brought me here may have taken others with it. Who knows?" He turned to the sprite-bot and pointed directly into the speaker grate on it's front.

Flashpoint shot him a dangerous look and an arched eyebrow. And Nikolai quickly followed up with; “Is only conjecture! Only conjecture! I will tell you the complete story to you, Watcher. Blin, I don't even know who you are!"

"It's ok." The mechanical voice replied slowly. "We all have our secrets."

"Ok..." Willow mulled about. "Who are you? You know who we are-"

The sprite-bot beeped and whizzed for a moment before responding to them with, "Look, I don't have much time left before I loose the connection, if you're really that curious..." The broadcast cut out for a moment, and for a few brief seconds Nikolai was a bit annoyed that 'Watcher' had left them on a cliffhanger.

"Hey, спостерігач! Watcher! Finish sentence!" He snapped his fingers.

"...Head to Tenpony Tower, there may be somepony there who can help..." The mechanical voice cut out, replaced by another jarring piece of instrumental music.

"Well," Aurora murmured. "That was abrupt.

"We're not really about to start taking orders from a sprite-bot?" Willow asked Nikolai. Who shook his head and pointed off at the bot as it meandered over a rise and out of sight. "Nyet, but this 'Tenpony Tower', it is in Manehatten. We are already going to Manehatten, so why not add one more stop to list?"

"Nikolai," Willow began again, "The Manehatten ruins are enormous, trust me, I've been there before. We could spend weeks crawling our way through that city and still never find what we're looking for, except..."

"Except what?" Nikolai cocked his head. "Except for this 'Tenpony Tower' place?" Willow nodded. Nikolai waved the comment off, replying with: "It must be called a tower for a reason, right? How hard could it possibly be to spot?"

Nikolai had a point, but then again, Willow was the only one among their whole group who had even seen Tenpony Tower before, albeit from a distance. So at the very least they had his word to go off of, not just that of a flying radio. But this still left most of them with a whole heap of concerns. As far as Nikolai saw it, they hadn't come across any friendly settlements or towns on the eastern side of the Canterhorn mountains. None of the creatures here had ever seen or even heard of a human before, certainly they wouldn't shoot at him on sight if they were half decent and willing to give him a chance. Most were.

Aurora, Willow, and Flashpoint were a different matter altogether. Admittedly, Nikolai had befriended some of the most 'unique' species in the Wasteland. Pegasi, Thestrals, and Zebras were all rare sights. With Nikolai by their side they were sure to draw unwanted attention. Lots of unwanted attention. There was only so much they could hide behind long cloaks and hoods.

The Manehatten ruins were still a few days walk. Off in the east, an immense strip of asphalt ran from north to south. A superhighway, punctuated with the remains of ancient traffic. The distant crackling of gunfire and mutant calls were the only telltale signs that they weren't alone out here. Everywhere they looked now they could see the remains of old towns and communities, most decayed and wrecked beyond recognition. Homes, storefronts, low office buildings and warehouses dotted their sightlines. Once or twice, they tried to shift their path towards the ruins, only to be quickly deterred by sporadic and brief encounters with mutation wildlife or the occasional ghoul.

It was Aurora's curiosity that broke the silence; "Have you ever stayed in any settlements for any length of time?" She croaked quietly.

Nikolai stepped over a downed streetlight and kicked a brick. "Never more than a couple of days. Ask me something else."

"Ah," She continued, "I was just thinking about how impressive it is that you've managed to gain access to all the places you've visited with so little difficulty. Usually most wastie- Wastelanders aren't so welcoming, their instincts usually tell them to shoot anything that they don't understand."

“Ah…” He ran a hand along the length of his rifle and checked his watch. “All this 'usually' talk, It is all in how you present yourself, Aurora. That is how I got you all to come with me in the first place!" It sounded odd to Aurora that Nikolai was able to get past ponies just by making brief conversation with them. But she decided not to press the issue.

“Have you seen other pegasi before you met me? Other than the Enclave?”

“Other pegasi? Aside from Cirro? Not really. Of course I have come across Enclave folks before- But I have never properly ‘met’ any of them like I have with you." He glanced over his shoulder, checking to see if Aurora was still there.

"Well, I'm certain you won't find many other pegasi down here. Do you know why that is?" The Stalker halted in his tracks.

"Yes, yes I do. You folks try to come down here and try to police the Wasteland, it is a whole conundrum. Spare me the explanation and do not try to debate this with me, it is plain and simple truth. Ask me about something else, будь ласка. Please. I like to getting to know my friends better, I like money. I like vodka, I love eating. But I never have really been a man who talks politics." Nikolai was eager to get to know his compatriots more whenever the chance offered itself. And he had long since found that it made for a fantastic way to pass the time.

"Ok," Aurora answered with an upbeat chipper. "Have you ever found anything interesting for sale before? In town, I mean."

Nikolai contemplated the question for a short moment, "Yes, I have. I have seen cool stuff being peddled by trading caravans too. Most of it useless to me." He wiggled his fingers. "But there were a few things that I harbor great, great interest in."

Aurora nodded in his direction, signaling for him to continue. "Go on?"

"Healing potions, and what not. Any magical remedies that I can get my hands on. Where I come from there is nothing of the sort-Except for, perhaps, Vodka. But the likes of Rad-away? It is practically miracle panacea!" He scratched the back of his head. "Ammunition, of course. Little things to repair my vest from time to time, curiosities."

"Nikolai's hardly a thrifty shopper." Flashpoint chuckled. The Stalker raised his right hand.

"Guilty as-" He paused, contemplating his choice of words. "-As a man who has committed no wrong! I like to think I am a cool dude, I like cool shit! You cannot blame me for that, yes?"

Willow hocked a laugh so loud it scared a bird off it's roost on a rotting telephone pole. "You're a fun bunch to hang out around, you know that, right?" The bat pony spat happily.

"Flashpoint!" Nikolai called. "PipBuck? давай, come on, let us see how much further we have to go."

Flashpoint's ears curled back antagonistically. "We will get there when we get there!"

The Stalker made a pouting motion with his arms. "Ohoho... That is not good answer! Give me a better one!"

Hours more went by like this. All the while the sun grew lower and lower on the horizon above the cloud cover. They talked and talked and talked, speaking all the while more like old friends then people who had only just met each other a few days or weeks prior, and that was just how Nikolai liked it. From time to time, he would find himself overwhelmed with a feeling that was difficult to explain; He was his own man, his own employer. His work day began whenever he and his compatriots felt like it, but with that freedom came the burden of responsibility. The Stalker was, for lack of a better word, a hobo. A heavily armed vagrant who roamed from place to place and was partly in charge of keeping his companions, and himself, alive and as healthy as possible.

Sunset, its as if a set of enormous window shutters were thrown over the world for half of every day. Paired with the cloudcover, it was almost obscene how dark it could get. Nikolai had finally decided to begin using the night vision device he had acquired back in Canterlot again. The way he figured it, Aurora had seen plenty of advanced magical and conventional technology amongst the trio, and she either didn't seem to care, didn't think it was a big deal, or was trying to keep quiet about it. If anything she had been taken slightly aback by it all. And still they had more to hide. She may have known about the water talisman, it had proved to be a godsend to the group, but it was just one amongst several other 'artifacts' and quirky magical objects that Nikolai had accumulated during his travels.

Some, he had yet to test out. Some, he was a bit worried to test out.

"There, you see that?" He pointed to the parking lot beyond the entrance of a ruined three story building. The spray painted and mutilated sign by the road read: "Featherstown Pharmaceuticals."

"See what?" Flashpoint inquired. Nikolai pointed to the dark figures stretched out on the asphalt. "Bodies, they look like they have been killed recently. Whoever killed them must still be in the area." Aurora turned off at a left angle and squinted closer at the bodies.

"This armor looks a bit like raider barding, and are you sure it wasn't something that killed them?" She asked incredulously.

Nikolai shook his head once and pointed to the small, jagged holes in one of the corpses. " Bullet holes, well placed ones at that. Check it out," He took a knee besides one of the bodies, a grey unicorn whose horn cracked and sparked with yellow magic when The Stalker prodded it with the barrel of his gun. "That is fresh blood, Aurora." He said grimly. "Willow?" The thestral creeped up to the body and looked it over.

"No coagulation, no bloating, the radroaches haven't even gotten to the body yet." His muzzle twitched and wrinkled behind his cowl "I can smell gunpowder, and the blood is still warm."

"You think they're still around?" Aurora asked rapidly. "Maybe they're inside?"

"Hah, you think they are inside this 'establishment'? This, place of pharmacutical wonders, yes?" His choice of words may have aroused sarcasm, but his tone of voice made it seem like he was dead set on investigating the interior. "They were all shot in the back..." Nikolai began to side step back away from the sightlines into the dark pharmacy.

"Fleeing?" Flashpoint cocked his head and stared at the storefront.

"It sure looks like it. I can sense something moving in there." Willow responded.

"Nikolai, what are you think?"

The Stalker shooed the group away from the parking lot, and then turned and began to wave and gesticulate to them, his motions barely visible in the blackness. "Ok, Flashpoint?" The zebra's eyes widened at the mention of his voice. "You will be behind me, Willow, you are going to take up spot behind Aurora. So... We will close in around entrance in big, wide arc, stop on either side of it, and then swing on inside and-Eh... How should I say this? Ah, investigate!"

Willow looked back at the building, and then at Nikolai, and then back again to the building. "We should try a more subtle approach, I'm certain there's a back entrance to that place-"

"Is fantastic idea-We shall do your thing instead of my thing Willow!" The Stalker roared authoritatively, a little sliver of moonlight glinted off his night vision device.

Aurora nodded and smiled under her mask at the mention of the thestral's idea.

"Alright-Eh-Aurora," The Stalker took a knee and began to point. "Willow and you will take the south side of structure, Flashpoint and I will take north side. Call us over the radio if you find anything, ok?"

They split off into two teams, each scouring the perimeter of the pharmacy until they came to a loading dock around the back. The Stalker looked on at the rusted garage door that blocked their view of the interior with mild apprehension as he pressed on the second frequency preset button on his radio and was about to begin to press the talk button when Aurora and Willow both came into sight from around a wrecked semi truck. A bit of overhead wiring from a telephone pole sparked and crackled with blue light, showering them with a few sparks.

"Well it looks like you beat us!” Aurora trill as she and Willow regrouped with Nikolai and Flashpoint. She turned her head and looked at the door. “Now how do we get that open?”

Nikolai put an index finger to the tip of his mask filter then walked up to the garage door, palming his crowbar threateningly. He took a look at it, then at the locked door beside it. He paused for a moment and knocked on them experimentally.

"Nikolai-What-are-you-doing?" Aurora spat. "We doing need the tribe of raiders in there to know we're here!" Her warning went unheeded by The Stalker.

Nikolai looked back at the trio of equines standing behind him. He hefted his crowbar, stepped back, and then swung the steel hook through the corroded aluminum with a loud crash. Flashpoint looked like this was part of the plan, while Willow bit his lip and tried to keep from cracking up laughing.

"Oh, here they come!" Aurora sang sarcastically, shaking her head.

"Mm, one moment," He left the crowbar hanging in hole he had just punched in the door. The Stalker fumbled over his pack and withdrew a bottle of Vodka in a paper bag. He took a long swig, gasping in satisfaction as he finished wiping his mouth, he set the bottle aside, grabbed his crowbar, and began to viciously sheer off sections of the door until there was enough give for him to kick it in. He peered inside for a brief moment, and then raised his rifle in his right hand, and the Vodka bottle in his left. He burped under his mask and then whispered quietly. "Is clear- давай, ми йдемо туди! Come on, we go there!" He climbed through the entrance he had fashioned himself.

"Does this happen often?" Aurora felt exasperated.

Willow patted her on the shoulder as he stepped forward. "Yep."

The mare looked over at him. "You're serious?"

"Yup." Flashpoint added.

Aurora's voice fell flat. "I believe you guys wholeheartedly."

The loading dock was dusty and decrepit-Overhead lights and pieces of the ceiling hang haphazardly over their heads. Something was creaking down the hall, a destroyed pipe that led to a sink in a break room. Ahead was a corridor that led to another door, with a set of mothballed lab coats and changing lockers arrayed along the side. Further in from the loading dock the main hallway expanded out into a storage room just ahead of the counter, with a staircase leading up towards old offices.

Compared to the semi urbanscape outside the interior had a distinct lack of profane raider graffiti, and, while the interior did appear to have been ransacked at some point in the past, with few things of any value actually left on the shelves. The one thing that did actually appear to have been left untouched was a locked vault in the back corner of the pharmacy. A freezer for items which had likely long since passed their expiration date.

There was a keypad on the wall beside the vault door, and a keyhole in the actual door beside it. Nikolai was far from an expert locksmith, he hardly knew anything on the subject, but he had seen enough doors in his day to know that this one in particular more than likely used some kind of deadbolt.

Aurora's eyes watching vigilantly for foreign movements in the room behind her visor, hopeful that no hostiles would walk into them breaking into their territory. “Don't know if the radiation prevented all those medicines from expiring like it did with the food.” Nikolai deadpanned around to face Aurora and threw his arms up.

"I don't know what kind of horse crap textbooks you have been reading, but radiation does not act as a food preservative." He pointed back at the vault door. "Oh, and-eh... this thing..." He scratched his head through his hood and his mask. "I... Eh-This may be a little much for my skills with crowbar, or with bottle. I have bobby pins, but I would not really know where to even begin with getting this open."

She shrugged her shoulders. “I think you need a password, but if you'd like I can wish you luck in trying to guess it."

He wagged his finger. "Tsk, tsk... Perhaps some careless fellow left his back in one of those lab coats or... Lockers?"

“Perhaps. Go and check, I'll look around and see if this place is clear." Aurora bounced off up the stairs.

"Ok, Flashpoint? You and Willow go check out those lockers. If there is anything of any note or value left, take it. If you figure out what the code to that door is-" He raised his mask and took another gulp of Vodka. "Oh, then you tell me and you wait, yes? Yes." He wiped his mouth and turned towards the counter. "I will check out isles. Remember, those bodies are still fresh. Whoever or whatever did that is all too likely still in this place, ok. That's all, відпусти нас! Let us go!"

Having gone their separate ways, Nikolai now had before him the delightful task of vigorously scouring the isles for the thing that had killed the raiders outside, and the shelves for anything of medicinal value. On this, he fell flat, if what was left at the back of the store had been minute, then then there was next to nothing here. He glared down the isle, casually looking out into the parking lot. He took a few more steps forward, and all of a sudden, metallic hoofsteps reverberated off of the linoleum.

Upstairs, Aurora had been scouring through a desk when her EFS suddenly lit up with two blinking red dots, and she promptly filled the airwaves with profanity. "Nikolai? Nikolai! You've got movement up ahead and to your left. Nikolai? Fucking answer me, damnit!"

The Stalker crouched down along the edge of the isle and thumbed his radio. "I can tell, shh..." He shushed her over the airwaves as he snuck closer and closer to the store entrance, where the sound of hoofsteps was progessively growing louder and louder. All at once, he bounced up to full height and spun around to face whatever was toddling down the other isle.

"Die, intruder. Have a-nice-day." The protectipony's mechanical voice exclaimed happily.

"Ah!" Nikolai shrieked angrily, hardly thinking, he raised his bottle and hucked it at the robot before turning to run as the gun barrels on it's haunches sent a pair of bullets careening into the wall where his head had been a second ago.

Nikolai scrambled back into the opposite isle and began to back up while firing wildly into the shelving, hoping to score a lucky hit. When he suddenly came up with an endearing idea. He would outflank the bot, but how?

"The vertical way, of course!" His mind spat out. His system already flooded with ethynol, he scaled the shelving until he was directly above his quarry. Then, with all the might he could muster, he threw himself down onto the bot and knocked it to the floor. It's gun barrels sang once more, and bullets raked the ceiling as it's metal legs flailed helplessly against The Stalker."

This must be what American cowboy feels like. Nikolai's mind resounded. He pressed his rifle up against the bot as he jeered; "Cheeki breeki!"

He fired a shot into its glass sensor dome. The bullet tore through the internal spell matrix and sent shards of glass flying back at Nikolai, the concussive blast of the suppressed shot at such close range left a scorch mark on the bots hull.

At the same time, Aurora stormed down the stairs and ignited her magical energy rifles, slagging the bot behind Nikolai and turning it's center of mass into a glowing puddle of metal. Aurora climbed up over the counter, nearly snagging her long cloak in the process.

"Nikolai?" She called out. "Are you alright?"

The Stalker picked himself up and dusted his pant legs off. "Da. You see that?" He pointed down at the bot. "I was like true American cowboy! Nikolai, ти дурень you fool!" He looked about, admiring his work. "Did you see anything else? Hear anything else?"

"I think you mean, see anything else. No, I didn't-And don't worry about about the others, I already radioed them." Nikolai pointed off past Aurora at the two recognizable silhouette cantering down the hallway behind the counter towards them.

He clapped his hands and pointed at her. "I have always wanted to wrestle a robot!"

She shook her head “You're an oddball you know that? Actually, nevermind. We should meet up with the others, it's better if we stick together. Safety in numbers.”

"Call me what you like." Nikolai told the enclave mare. "I said this before, I will say it again: I like think I am a pretty cool dude, and I like cool dude shit!" He belched and coughed into his fist. "Excuse me." He strolled past her.

She followed right behind him “So, found anything worth taking here?”

"Nyet, all gone-Except a few sealed packages of pain medication and minor antibiotics. All the magical potions and what not are gone."

“Sitting abandoned for years and without any restock this place is going to run out of its medical necessities, we're glad we got the last remaining unspoiled medications.” She took a step backwards and cracked a sparkle cola bottle underhoof.

Amidst the chaos, Flashpoint had managed to stumble across a key which fit the vault lock perfectly. Nikolai spun it in place, and then pulled the door back and flashed his weapon light into the dim room.

"Huh...Ah! You're not getting any more out of me!" An egalitarian voice spat.

"Not this again." Willow chirped quietly.

Nikolai raised his night vision visor and shined his gun light at a squirming figure in the back of the room. The light glinted off a pair of big green eyes. It was a unicorn-He looked the creature up and down and took note of what appeared to be a set of up-armored business wear and a grimy old fedora with a pair of goggles to boot.

"Calm down, we're not going to hurt you." Aurora dolled, turning to Nikolai. "Pretty snazzy for a Wastelander, don't you think?" Nikolai smirked under his mask.

"Da-Pretty snazzy, now who are you and why are you in here?" Nikolai kept his rifle trained on the unicorn." That door looks like it was locked from the outside, how long have you been in here?" The stallion fumbled and dragged himself up to all fours. The Stalker noticed a pump action shotgun hanging from a sling on his side and a bandolier of shells, but decided against inquiring about it. Lucky for him and the others, the stallion was more than happy to share his story to a group of polite strangers.

"Why, I am a courier, a mailpony.... to the simple-minded." The unicorn clarified.

Flashpoint, who had been noticeably quiet since the debacle with the bots, finally spoke up: "You're a courier? From where?"

The fellow he was speaking to seemed a bit irritated when Flashpoint asked that, which was odd because he hadn't even questioned Nikolai's appearance yet- But he couldn't seem to take his eyes off of Flashpoint.

"Friendship City... " He said slowly, "It's up by Manehatten, why do you ask?"

Nikolai stepped past Flashpoint, lowering his rifle and watching as the unicorn suddenly realized that he was the only one among them who wasn't standing on all fours. His masked face tilted down and looked the stranger right in the eyes.

"Hello friend!" He said in a loud, blunt voice, "Name is Nikolai, what is yours?" Before the courier could give a response The Stalker added. "What coincidence, yes? We are traveling to same place, please, dust yourself up and come with us."

The Vodka was doing it's job, just as usual.

"Er..." Nikolai didn't let the stallion start. "If you desire safe travel," Nikolai told him, "Come with us, guide us to Manehatten, and we will keep you safe-yes?"

He thought about it for a moment, and then finally extended a foreleg, seeming to understand that Nikolai looked pretty intimidating, and that, judging by the imposing AK 101 that had itself firmly seated in his 'strange talons', and the company he had with him, he would make for a fine escort. And the unicorn in question was headed to Manehatten anyway, he had nothing to lose by simply letting them follow along with him.

"The name's Paper Plate, I would be pleased to have you with me." Nikolai leaned over and shook it, making Paper feel small.

And then they ate. And then they slept. They slept for a good nine hours. Until they were inevitably awoken by Willow and Aurora, who insisted they got going.

And so they went. They went a-ways, through the devastated countryside and increasingly frequent megaspell torn urbanscapes, keeping off the highway so as to avoid what Paper had told them would more than likely be slaver and tribal checkpoints meant to catch loaded caravans traveling either south from the Manehatten ruins, or north, from the many still mostly pristine military bases, all prime targets for scavengers.

A day passed, and then another, and then, a few hours.

"Flashpoint, Aurora, keep up!"

Nikolai waved them along enthusiastically, bounding up the hill with newfound enthusiasm. The four equines dolled on behind him at a meager pace, except for Willow and Paper. Both of whom knew what would be found when they reached the summit. The air already felt different, and the wind was blowing in from the east, kicking dust off the top of the hill.

Panting lightly, Nikolai stepped over an ancient blackened tree trunk and finally reached the top. And what he saw quite literally took his breath away. Stretching out into the horizon were the colossal ruins of a massive city, far to the northeast, was an enormous statue rising up from an island in the water. To almost his direct front, still kilometers off, were the towering ruins of a bridge, torn apart in places as if a giant had taken a sledgehammer to it in anger, only to forget to finish the job in precious few portions. Noxious clouds of yellow-green-brown fog rose up from the river that ran between the mainland and the island that was home to Manehatten proper.

The rotting, destroyed hulks of high-rise skyscrapers, many tipped onto their sides like dominos, blocking lanes upon lanes of blackened and scorched traffic below littered entire scene. His Geiger counter let out a few ticks as a sudden gust of wind blew dirt and radiation strewn ash up the slope towards him. Closer to him, maybe just a hundred odd meters down the slope sat the collapsed and torn remains of sprawling suburbs, flattened atop one another like fenceposts after a strong wind. Far off, a mutant cry broke the eerie silence Nikolai had found himself in.

This place was real. He was standing above it all, looking out at it. In all his travels across the Wasteland, he had never seen such... Sheer destruction. A city that, for all intents and purposes, reminded him of New York and Manhattan back on earth in such a state of absolute collapse and abandonment. And still, he knew inside that this place... Wasn't abandoned. It was teeming with raiders, slavers, scavengers, ghouls, and very likely far worse things. A dead city that was still very much alive on the inside. And, across the bay, barely visible through the morning haze, was a perfectly intact skyscraper with what looked like raised rail lines running past it.

"That must be Tenpony Tower."

Nikolai murmured, he felt a measure of anxiousness leave his body, he turned to congratulate Paper, but the unicorn was nowhere to be found. He had left among the commotion preceding their accent to overlook. An odd move for an odd, odd pony. But Nikolai hadn't gotten to know him like he had Aurora, so he didn't really mind.

"Wow, just like old times, huh Nikolai?"

"Da, товариш. Yes, my Friend."

Flashpoint came up behind Nikolai and took his place beside The Stalker. Willow and Aurora took spots to the left and right of Nikolai and looked out at cataclysmic ruins of Manehatten in the dead quiet of the early morning. As luck would have it, a break in the clouds had formed high above them, big enough to allow a little ray of sunshine to creep through and light up the four of them like a great big aerial spotlight.

The date was approximately one month to the day when Nikolai had first dusted himself off on the outskirts of Salt Cube City. And he still had a long way to go.