Stable 111 had to have been the most boring place in Equestria. It was the same thing, all day, every day, for your entire life. You were born in the Stable; you died in the Stable. Most ponies were just happy not to be living in the wasteland to think about that all too much. Not Vesper Moon, however, she almost resented being born in the Stable. Ever since she was a filly, she had dreamed of life on the surface and the freedom it must bring. Living in a Stable meant that your entire life was laid out for you. She had been assigned her job as a member of Stable Security when she came of age, and barring any horrific tragedy would be the job she had till she either retired or dropped dead of sheer boredom. She lived this life for years but could never completely resist the call of the wasteland. She had only heard stories growing up; some said it was an anarchistic hellhole, and some said Zebras took it over. Some said there was nothing, just blackness. No pony knew, of course, the Overmare would never allow any pony to leave. Vesper listened to these stories and wild speculations until it eventually became too much for her to only hear about. She made a plan.

Being Stable Security allowed her access to parts of the underground bunker most ponies were restricted from, including the Stable entrance. With the help of some old technical manuals, she would open the large steel door that kept her trapped in the tomb of Stable 111. She snuck away from her post on a quiet day and crept towards the entrance. There, she used the knowledge gained from the manuals and opened the stable door. The sounds of mechanical hissing and grinding filled the room as fresh air entered the Stable for the first time in more than a century. Alarm bells rang out as Vesper heard her fellow security officers begin to gallop toward the entrance. Quickly, she grabbed a saddle bag full of food she had stashed and made her way towards the metal door. Standing right inside the entranceway, Vesper gave one last look at her home before galloping outside, her cyclical life in the vault being sealed away by a loud metal clang. She had never felt so alive and ready to see what this new world had in store for her.

Vesper quickly came to realize that the wasteland was violently overrated. She spent her first few hours of freedom dodging bullets and hiding from raiders. She had lost her only fresh food to a surprise mugging. She had no means to defend herself until a raider casing her managed to kill himself by tripping down a flight of stairs in a building she was hiding in. That encounter left her both scarred and holding a brand new (at least new to her) pistol she could put to use.

Over the next few days, she would make her way from one poorly put-together town to the next, trying her best to make ends meet and not die of starvation. A few days of traveling had gotten her a small amount of fresh water, a gun, and some food older than she was, all stored in a saddle bag she… found… on the corpse of a recently deceased raider. Vesper had quickly gotten over the ick of looting dead bodies… as well as the process it took to make a raider dead.

On a particularly cloudy evening, Vesper found herself in the bar of a small little town on the outskirts of a small city. Every town like this had a bar. Ponies in the apocalypse had priorities. At this particular bar, Vesper struck up a conversation with an older pony who said he had a job for her. The fifteen or so ponies in this town used to live with many more ponies inside the city. Things were going pretty well for them until a gang of raiders showed up and decided that they should live there instead. The townsponies tried to put up a fight, but most of them just ended up being either killed or enslaved. The ones who made it out settled down here.

Vesper was momentarily worried that the older pony would ask her to take back the city from the raiders single-hoofed. Fortunately for her, he only wanted her to grab a family heirloom from his old apartment in the city's center. The old pony said the raiders had been much less active recently, so he figured this was a good opportunity to get his heirloom back. Easy enough, Vesper thought. The guy paid well, and she could sure use the caps. Pure water was expensive, and she was not looking forward to resorting to the glowing stuff. She figured she could get in and out before the sun went down.

Following directions from the older pony, Vesper made her way through the sewers under the city. They were a good way to get around a city unseen but at a great cost to one's nostrils. After what was possibly an eternity of walking, she arrived at a ladder to the surface. Carefully, she made her way up, slowly pushing the sewer cover out of the way. She poked her head out to get a peak at the street above. Seeing nothing, she pulled herself up and out. She grabbed her mouth, held the pistol out front of her bag, and began walking the streets.

The city was much like every other bombed-out city that Vesper had wandered through. Blown-out buildings on either side of her, ruble and burnt-out cars in front of her. All the signs of a new civilization rising up made the city a touch more depressing to her. Mended windows, and market stalls, she even noticed a few plants were grown in a makeshift garden. A chance of rebuilding taken away by those who are too selfish to help others.

Making her way down some of the city's more narrow streets, she came to what appeared to be the entrance to the raider's camp, where the old pony's apartment was. She quickly ducked behind a nearby dumpster, peaking above slightly to get a look. The large wooden gate was adorned with spikes and barbed wire, with a few pony skulls littered around to complete the look. These are all prevalent features of a raider camp. What was missing, however, were the raiders. Even in the less well-organized gangs, at least one or two ponies should guard the front. Vesper saw no pony anywhere near the front. Aiming her pistol at the gate, she slowly moved away from the dumpster and towards the entrance. She gently tapped the gate with her hoof, causing it to swing open just enough to see inside. To her surprise, she once again saw no pony. She pulled the gate open more, allowing her to slip in quietly. Maybe the raiders had moved on? It would certainly make her job easier.

The camp was built around a group of apartments circling a small park with a fountain that had long since stopped working. Gently shutting the gate behind her, she spots the old pony's building. Pistol at the ready, she made her way across the park. The first thing she noticed was the amount of blood on the ground. Blood was a common feature of raider camps, but this was more than she expected. Were these raiders attacked? Is that why they left? Vesper considered this as she approached the old pony's home.

Slowly, she pushed open the door that led into his building. Seeing no immediate danger, she entered the lobby and turned her Pip Buck's flashlight on. The bright green light from her forehoof revealed yet more blood covering the walls and floors. Vesper wasn't sure if it was raider blood or townspony blood. Either way, it didn't make her feel welcome. Poking around the lobby, she found a surprising amount of unused Dash, medical supplies, and even some ammo. She found this odd; normally, if raiders were going to abandon a camp like this, they'd take all this stuff with them. Vesper looked on the bright side and scrounged up some medical supplies and ammo for herself.

After her looting, she made her way to a stairwell at the back of the lobby. She gently pushed open the door, her pistol entering the stairwell before she did. The fact that there were no raiders in the raider camp made her feel slightly more at ease, but at the same time, the amount of supplies left behind gave her an eerie feeling. Sure, it was nice, but why would they have left it? These thoughts raced through her head as she crept up the stairs, almost expecting one of the missing raisers to leap out of the walls.

After slowly climbing the stairs, Vesper reached the 5th floor of the building, where the old pony said his apartment was. Her pistol trained at the end of the hall, she gradually made her way toward her target. The hallway was dark; she could barely see a thing. She still had her Pip Buck's light on, but its soft green glow did little to illuminate the dingy corridor. She glanced at each door she passed, waiting for an ambush she was sure was about to come. Before that could happen, she tripped on some unseen object on the floor, her pistol tumbling to the side of her as she fell onto her hooves. She immediately assumed it to be a trap, quickly rolling herself onto her back and grabbing her discarded pistol at the same moment. When she finally regained focus, she saw what she had tripped on. Basked in a green light was the corpse of a raider.

This definitely wasn't a normal corpse, though. Whole pieces of their arms and legs were missing, almost like something had bitten through them. Gashes covered the rest of their body. What worried Vesper more was that they looked pretty fresh. She pulled herself up and carefully approached the body. She noticed their hoof had a Pip Buck that looked similar to hers. Badly beaten and scratched but still similar to what she had. Inspecting it closer, she noticed it had a holotape inside. Carefully she ejected it from the dead raider's and placed it into her own. A few seconds of mechanical buzzing later, it began to play.

A moment of static and trotting sounds give way to a voice clearly out of breath. "Is this thing on?" the voice says before they start to fiddle with the Pip Buck they're recording on. "That thing fucking got me," the voice winces in pain. "Goddess, that hurt; I barely got away in time." The voice groans once again and seemingly falls to the floor. Between swears and pained breaths, Vesper could swear she could hear what sounded like… a roar.

The voice continues. "The rest of the gang made their way into the subway across the street; whoever finds this, that's your best way of getting out of here." Vesper could hear more panting and heavy breathing. "I-I'm just gonna…sit down…just for a second." The voice cuts off, and a few seconds of silence later, the recording ends.

Vesper had no idea what that tape was talking about, and she had little intention of finding out. Quickly, she found the door to the old pony's apartment. Without hesitation, she swung open the door. The apartment was small; finding what she was sent for wouldn't be hard. After a short while of searching, she grabbed what the old pony was looking for, an antique pocket watch. Shoving it in her saddle bag, she quickly trotted out of the apartment and back into the hallway, carefully stepping over the raider's corpse as she returned to the stairwell.

Once at the bottom of the stairs, Vesper could see the sun setting over the city skyline. There was no way she would make it back the way she came by nightfall. She panicked momentarily before remembering something the pony on the tape had mentioned. If the raiders left the city via the subway, why couldn't she? Surely they'd all be gone by now anyway.

She made her way back through the lobby of bodies and out into the street. She began to rot faster, the idea of being alone at night making her shiver. Her Pip-Buck once again came in handy. It held tons of pre-war maps. Using them, she quickly found what she assumed was the subway station the tape had mentioned. Once again pulling out her pistol, she carefully made her way down the steps and into the dark station lobby. She turned on her light, flooding the station with a green glow. Immediately she took note of the blood on the floor. Blood was a common sight, but something about this made her feel uneasy. She almost thought it looked… fresh.

Hopping over a set of turnstiles, she trotted down a set of metal stairs onto the platform proper. Moving her hoof in front of her, the green light of her Pip-Buck caught something in front of her. The green light made it hard to see much; she focused her eyes on what was before her. She quickly realized it wasn't something but many things. Bodies, a lot of bodies. She figured these were the raiders missing from the camp. Getting closer, she realized these raiders weren't just shot or attacked; something mangled them. Some had missing arms; others were missing legs. Some were barely recognizable as ponies. Vesper had seen the endings of horrific massacres before, but this was a whole other level. The bricks lining the floor were practically dyed red with blood. She had to stop herself from throwing up.

Vesper weaved around the bodies littering the floor, composing herself, trying to get her bearings. She pulled her hoof up to check her map but blinded herself with the light instead. She turns it off. She needed to rest. Taking a few deep breaths, she went to pull her canteen from her saddle bag. Before it could reach her lips, she felt and heard a loud rumble. Vesper thought for a moment it was the subway, but... it probably was in no shape to run based on the state of the rest of the city.

She heard more. It definitely wasn't a subway. It almost sounded like trotting. Really, really loud trotting. It got louder. Faster. The ground beneath her started to shake the louder it got. Little bits of the ceiling above her began to come loose. Vesper stumbled around, barely able to tell what to do, her mind going in a million different directions. The steps are getting louder. Moving backward, she trips over one of the many bodies, sending her tumbling to the floor. Before she can even get her bearings, the few remaining lights in the subway station go out, plunging her into darkness.

The loud rumbles stop.

The only thing Vesper could hear was her own heart beating out of her chest. Her breaths became ragged and staggered; she could barely tell where anything was. She reached for her Pip-Buck. fumbling around, she finally managed to get the light on. Green flooded the station. She quickly started looking around. The only thing she could see was corpses she sat in the middle of, their blood now staining her Stable barding. She started to calm down, unable to see any danger. She pulled herself up, taking a few deep breaths as she prepared to leave as fast as possible. Before she could take one step, the ground beneath her shook once again as a monstrous roar pierced her ears. She slowly turned around, coming snout to snout with a hulking Deathclaw nearly twice her size. It hunched over its body, putting its head almost right in front of Vesper's. She could see almost all of its sharp blood-stained teeth. The world seemed to stop, the fur on the back of her neck standing up. The few moments she stood in front of it seemed to last forever. Breaking the stand-off, the Deathclaw roared directly into her face, sending spit all over Vesper and her mane. Without a second thought, Vesper bolted into the subway tunnel, galloping faster than she felt like she ever had before. She heard the beast took off after her.

Vesper couldn't tell how long she had been running. The only thing on her mind was to get as far away as possible. She didn't dare to look behind her for fear of the monster catching up to her. She knew it was behind her; she could hear its thunderous stomping and even louder growls as it ran after her. She kept running. It was a good thing the subway lines were relatively straight; her rapidly moving hooves made the green light of her Pip-Buck bounce around the tunnel. She galloped as fast as she could, trying in vain to get away from the Deathclaw right on her tail. She felt a glimmer of hope until she caught her hoof on the track, sending her flying face-first into the ground. Quickly, she picked herself up. She could feel blood coming out of her nose. She could hear the Deathclaw getting closer. Looking around, she spotted an abandoned subway car. Before she could move, the Deathclaw caught up with her, one of its huge claws striking her in her side, sending her flying into one of the tunnel walls. She could feel the deep cuts on her side and flank, and she was pretty sure the fall had broken one of her legs. She had no time to think about that, as the Deathclaw was running at her again. She reached into her bag as fast as she could, pulling out her pistol and popping off a few desperate shots at the monster. Through sheer luck, she managed to hit it a few times. It staggered. She saw her chance. Fueled purely by adrenaline, she bolted from the tunnel wall, past the Deathclaw, and into the subway car. She turned off her Pip-Buck light and tried her best to stop herself from hyperventilating.

The Deathclaw started moving again, determined to find its prey. Vesper tried her best not to move a muscle, a task that was getting increasingly harder. She felt woozy. The monster had given her a real beating. She didn't think she'd ever been in this much pain. But still, she kept as quiet as possible. Even so, she couldn't stop herself from shivering madly. She could hear it sniffing loudly, getting closer and closer by the second. She looked up, seeing its massive maw right outside, only a few feet from where she was hiding. It stuck its head through the open door, turning towards her. Without thinking, she dove for her pistol, grabbing it with her mouth. The Deathclaw leaped into the car, letting off a screeching roar, its open mouth aimed at her head.

Vesper let off six shots rapidly.

The Deathclaw's jaw snapped shut.

Author's Note

Thank you for reading! This was just a little story to get me back into the swing of writing fiction, I hope you enjoyed this short little fic of mine ^^