“So how exactly do you know about this place?” Pot asked before letting out a loud yawn. “It doesn’t sound like something these ‘Ministry of Image’ ponies would tell a prisoner…” He added, his baggy eyes focusing on the shiny dome of the robot that marched in front of them.

Narrative Lampshade had remained mostly silent since we set out this morning… other than the irrational gibberish he had started spouting at the top of his lungs the moment he woke up.

Wait… does that expression even work? I wondered, looking at the machine that held the pony’s brain. He doesn’t actually have any lungs… I guess he shouted it at the top of his… speakers?

Whatever the case may be, he had started flailing his claws around in a frenzy upon first waking up, making me hit my head against the wall in shock. He had calmed down when he saw Pot aiming his pistol at him, but the surprise had still been pretty significant. Much to my disappointment, Pot had lied to me and decided to let me sleep almost all the night through. I told him that it was a silly thing to do, since now he was extremely tired, but he said that he didn’t trust ‘that thing’ enough to sleep around yet.

At least I felt refreshed, the sleep had done wonders to help me put the horrors of the previous day behind me. Once we had gotten Narrative to calm down, the brain apologized and we set out toward Double Hoof Park with him at the lead about an hour ago, but he had remained completely silent ever since.

“During one of my interrogation sessions, they discussed moving me to the ‘Double Hoof location’” The machine replied, using its claws to add air quotes to the last words for emphasis.

Speaking to Narrative was pretty strange, his voice being a constant, droning monotone made it incredibly difficult to understand his tone. Pot seemed to be faring a little better than I was, but at the same time, Narrative had a little difficulty understanding some of the things Pot said. I hadn’t really noticed the dark blue earth pony’s accent all that much if at all, but something about it sent the robot for a spin.

I chuckled, it was like a triangle, I understood Pot better, who understood Narrative better, who then understood me better. We really were the best of friends! Even if I had only met one of them yesterday and known the other for a few days!

“That doesn’t really explain how you know about this weapon thing,” Pot added, cocking his head to the side.

“Anger. Let me finish,” Narrative replied, making Pot frown. “From what I heard before the stasis took hold, they couldn’t move me because they had recently sent a large shipment of artifacts to that location,”

“Wait… So you don’t actually know if there’s any weapons there? An artifact could literally be anything!” Pot said, his tone slowly rising.

“Anger. It is a secret government facility, not a museum, there are very few things it could be other than some sort of weapon,” Narrative stated, his volume and cadence hadn’t changed at all, but his body’s emotion filter had made it clear that he was getting angry.

Pot stopped in place completely, looking at me with an exasperated expression.

“Black Light we can’t be following this… thing around blindly, we’re probably just walking out into the wastes to die!” He said, stomping the street.

“Anger. I didn’t force either of you to follow me, you did that yourselves,” Narrative continued. “I have been in stasis for at least a century, you have lived your entire life in this place. Honestly, it’s a wonder why you even thought that following me would be a good idea,”

Pot whirled around to look at me, his green eyes wide as if he had just come across a great realization.

“That’s true, why are we followin’ this bloody thing around, Black Light?” He demanded, his accent slowly creeping into his angry voice.

I took a concerned look at Narrative, but there didn’t seem to be a single drop of blood anywhere on him. Clearly Pot’s sleep deprivation was starting to get the better of him, if only he had listened to me and let me take the second watch!

“Because he knows where I could find something to help my stable…” I answered. “I don’t think he’s lying to us, I did set him free, after all,” I added, turning to look into the sensor talisman on the front of Narrative’s front plate.

“I am not lying, but I will not promise that there will be anything useful there,” He admitted. “Sad. Truth be told, I just don’t know where else to go,”

I walked up to the machine and placed a forehoof on the spot where one of his claws started, it was about as close to a shoulder as I could find.

“It’s okay, even if there’s nothing there we’ll just keep going until we find something…” I said, trying to be reassuring as my gaze scanned the ruined suburbs around us. “There’s got to be something that… Hey… what’s that?” I wondered, raising my other forehoof to point at the strange sign I had spotted.

There was a large sign that poked out from above the ruined houses that stretched out around us. It was bright yellow, even after all the years that had passed since it had been built. But the thing that drew my attention the most was the words that were printed on it: ‘Golden Stable’.

“Is that a stable?” I wondered aloud, cocking my head to the side.

“Stable?” Narrative repeated, looking out in the same direction I was. One of his claws extended forward and started rubbing the front edge of his brain jar, as if he were scratching his chin.

Pot grunted loudly, making me whip my head back around to look at him. The stallion did not look happy in the slightest.

“Oh no, you’re not going to sidetrack us again,” He stated, stomping the floor for emphasis. “We are goin’ to keep heading to the park, and then we’re headin’ straight for the closest bloody settlement so I can stop walking on this thing!” He shouted, raising his prosthetic leg for me to see.

I took a long look at it and grimaced. No wonder he was in such an angry mood, that leg was probably killing him! I smiled when an idea sparked in my mind.

“I mean… if your leg hurts I can carry-“

“No ya fucking won’t! Just… ugh!” He retorted, cutting me off.

Narrative turned to look at me for a moment before speaking.

“I cannot see the sign clearly, does it say Golden Stable?” He asked.

“I uhh… yeah, why?” I replied, a cautious smile splitting my face, “Is it a stable? Do you know it?”

“It’s a restaurant, but if we’re that close to it then I think we took a wrong turn,” The machine replied.

Pot dropped to his haunches and threw his good forehoof into the air. The prosthetic hoof raised slightly, but he couldn’t bring it up higher than his shoulder.

“Well that’s just bloody perfect!” He shouted. “How do you take a ‘wrong turn’ in the middle of the fucking wasteland? There’s like five buildings around here that aren’t completely ruined!”

“Anger. Well I’m sorry, why don’t you try remembering directions after your brain is frozen in a jar for a century or two?” Narrative replied.

Pot opened his mouth to say something else in response, but he closed it again and instead shook his head. His good forehoof shot up and started to rub his temple in frustration.

“Okay, let’s all calm down…” I started, trying to put myself between Pot and Narrative. “I say we should go check out this stable place and then we can keep going,”

“Black Light-” Pot started, but he was interrupted by Narrative, who moved closer to me and spoke.

“I agree, I need to get my bearings,” The robot stated. “There is no stable there, don’t get your hopes up,”

“But then why would they call it a golden stable? It's confusing!” I pouted.

Pot rolled his eyes and sighed deeply.

“Fine! Let’s go get sidetracked again, whatever,” He relented, having finally seen that I was right.

We made our way down another ruined street. If I was being honest, the wasteland was slowly killing me with just how drab and boring it was. Most of the buildings around me seemed to just merge together into a brownish-gray mass of uninteresting nothingness. Even the few buildings that looked like they might have something interesting in them held naught but a hoofful of bottlecaps and ancient, ruined clothes. It simply looked as if some uncaring goddess had painted the world with a thick layer of rubble and dirt.

On the other hoof, however, the uninteresting landscape all but forced my eyes to stare at the golden sign ahead. It was as if the entire area were trying to guide me toward the one interesting thing that was in it. All that knowledge did was bolster my resolve to go there, however, anything would do to break the monotony of the trip.

We rounded a corner and came face to face with the Golden Stable. It was remarkably well-preserved, the red paint on the bricks that made up the front was still mostly intact, save for the occasional graffiti. The roof had evidently seen better days, but most of the tiles were still attached to it, even if most of them were cracked.

The building’s name had once stood above the door, but most of the yellow letters had fallen off over the years. Fortunately, however, the silhouettes of the fallen letters were still visible enough to make out the words: ‘Golden Stable: Buffet and Thrill’

“This looks promising!” I said, hopping in place excitedly.

“I don’t need to go inside, I think I remember the path from here,” Narrative Lampshade retorted, getting closer to me. “Its due west, we should get there in an hour,”

“You heard the tin can, we can keep moving,” Pot said, his brow still furrowed from the earlier discussion.

“B- but…” I stuttered, looking at the building’s weathered wooden door. “Come on… just a little look around, how long could it take?” I pleaded.

Pot rolled his eyes.

“Fine. We look around, and then we leave,” He stated, stomping on the floor. “Ten minutes, tops,”

“Yessss!” I said, walking up to the door and pushing it open.

The inside of the restaurant was in significantly worse shape than the exterior. Where I had expected to see a kitchen and tables I was met instead by a wide open area where one or several walls appeared to have been knocked down. Three tables stood in the middle, covered in empty cans and an unlit lantern. Bedrolls were strewn about near the walls, many of them being so filthy that the original color had been completely lost.

Something on the tables drew my attention, a single white box with bright blue letters reading ‘Fancy Buck snack cake’ was on it. I smirked and walked closer, scooping the food up in my magic and smiling wider when I noticed that the box appeared to be full. I tore it open and took out the contents, finding the snack cake, perfectly preserved and still safe within its plastic wrapper.

“This is a campsite, we need to get out of here,” Pot said when he walked into the building behind me. “Like… right now,” He added, his voice shaky.

“But there’s nopony here, why would they abandon their stuff like this?” I wondered.

“Fear. That probably means that they are not far, we should leave,” Narrative said.

I stuffed the snack cake into my saddlebags and turned around to look at my companions. I really wanted to explore some more, but they had a point, we should probably leave. The revolver hanging off my leg felt uncomfortably light without ammunition.

“I think we should check to see if there’s any guns here,” I said. “I’m all out, and neither of us can use the rifle rounds I took off that griffon,”

“Well I think we need to get as far away from here as possible!” Pot shouted back.

“Pot! Think about it, if they didn’t leave any guns behind then they probably left something that we can sell for ammo !” I offered, trying to convince him to let me explore.

I knew there had to be a stable down here, I could feel it in my bones. All I had to do was-

“Oh no…” I said when my eyes passed over my EFS.

“Oh for fucks sake, what is it now?” Pot said, his anger melting away into desperation.

I looked at the open door, then back down at my EFS.

“Ponies are coming,” I said, looking around the restaurant for a spot to hide. “There!” I shouted, pointing at a doorway that opened into a descending staircase.

“Fear. We will corner ourselves,” Narrative stated.

“Fucking…” Pot said, looking towards the door. “Screw it, let’s go!” He added, darting towards the stairs.

We all but tumbled into the basement, it was incredibly dark, leading to me slamming my shin into something that was on the floor. I bit my tongue to avoid screaming out, and looked back at my two companions. The only light that could be seen was a faint blue glow coming from Narrative’s brain jar after I used a flash of magic to shut the door at the top of the stairs.

I switched on my PipBuck light, but Pot was quick to put a hoof over it and shake his head. I wondered why he was so opposed to letting me see what was down here, but I decided to turn the light off to keep him calm.

“Are you two okay?” I whispered.

“Shut up, Black Light,” Pot whispered back, covering my mouth with a forehoof.

In the silence, my ears twitched around as they picked up the sounds of many, many sets of hooves coming into the building above. My eyes focused on what little light bled into the basement from the staircase.

As my eyes adapted to the darkness, I started to make out what was around us. It was some sort of storage area, with large metal tables strewn about with empty metal boxes stacked on top of them. Pot moved my head to look into his eyes and silently gestured towards the back of the basement with his head.

I nodded in understanding and we slowly crawled deeper into the darkness, pulling further away from the staircase. Something curious happened above, however. The ponies who had just entered the upper floor were arguing… or at least it sounded like arguing. Their voices were raised and violent, with multiple of them stomping the floor.

“I’m going to go listen closer,” I told Pot.

The stallion started shaking his head vigorously, but I smiled to let him know that everything was going to be okay. I tried to scoot closer to the stairs, but I found myself unable to move when Pot placed his forehoof on my shoulder and pulled me back.

Why’s he so angsty? I wondered. It’s not like I’m gonna run up there and start kicking ponies!

“It’ll be okay,” I whispered to him, using some magic to pry his hoof off my shoulder.

The stallion grabbed his head with his good hoof and started shaking his head from side to side. I wondered what had gotten into him, but it could wait until after I had figured out what was going on upstairs.

Very carefully, I crawled over to the staircase and went up a couple of steps. I had been correct, the ponies were arguing. But about what? I went a couple of steps higher, swiveling my ears to try and make out what the ponies were saying.

“-Talk to me like that!” A voice shouted, a mare.

“I left it right here you jackass!” A stallion replied.

My eyes darted to the bottom of my view, counting the blue bars on my EFS compass. It didn’t look good, despite my PipBuck not tracking vertically with any degree of accuracy, I counted at least a dozen bars.

“You spend half the day high on dash, dipshit, you probably ate it and don’t remember!” Another mare added.

“I did not!” The stallion from before barked. “You probably ate it, didn’t you?” He demanded.

“I’ll bite your other eye out so you can take a look in my stomach!” A mare shouted back.

I heard the distinctive sound of a gun cocking, followed quickly by multiple others. Nothing but the sparkling sounds of unicorn magic filled the tense silence that befell the upper floor. My heart started to beat a little faster, that familiar warmth starting to creep into my chest at the prospect of an impending firefight. Almost on reflex, I slipped out of my saddlebags, letting them drop to the floor behind me.

“Empty your saddlebags on the floor!” The stallion who had shouted earlier ordered.

“Or what? Gonna shoot me?” The mare replied.

A single gunshot rang out, making me jump in surprise.

The last thing I heard before a hailstorm of gunfire broke out was the dull thump of a body hitting the floor. More thumps came from upstairs, but not all of them were from ponies dying, as most of the bars on my EFS remained where they had been.

I needed some of that, but I only managed to get up two steps before I was yanked back by my tail. My muzzle slammed into the stairs, filling my eyes with stars. I lifted my head and shook it slightly before looking back and staring at the culprit.

Pot was standing below me, my tail firmly held in his mouth. He spat it out and looked at me with a furrowed brow.

“You don’t have a weapon!” He said, his voice dangerously loud. “Let them kill each other!”

I looked at the stallion for a moment, the burning in my veins reaching a fever pitch. He was right, I didn’t have any ammunition…

But he has…

A wide smile parted my face when my eyes darted down to Pot’s pistol grip. It wasn’t exactly a good weapon, but it was better than nothing. The stallion recoiled back slightly when he saw my horn light up, but whatever he had been expecting, it wasn’t for me to wrap my telekinesis around his weapon.

“Gimmie this for a sec!” I squeaked as I pulled the gun out of his leg holster.

“Wait no!” The stallion shouted, but it was too late.

With the rickety gun held as firmly as I dared in my magic, I launched myself up the stairs and slammed into the door, ripping the hinges off the doorframe. I didn’t step out of the stairwell, knowing that the walls around me would provide some much-needed cover.

The scene in front of me was pure chaos. Upturned tables and bodies dotted the floor, and multiple ponies dressed in rags had taken positions on either side of the room from where they were shooting at each other from behind piles of rubble and what little remained of the restaurant’s walls. Two bars on the right, four bars on the left, one ahead. I counted. Movement on my right drew my attention.

An orange earth pony mare with bloodshot eyes turned around to look at me and started to whip her body around to try and aim her battle saddle rifle at me. I let out a chuckle. Internally I had been dreading the thought of these ponies not being aggressive and having to explain what we had been doing here peacefully. But they had pointed a weapon at me, so they were clearly not good!

Pot’s gun fired at… something… I didn’t really know where the bullet had gone, but I shot thrice more before the mare could finish lining up her rifle. One of the bullets just so happened to hit her in the side of the head, splattering a stallion that had been hiding in the rubble next to her.

The pony lit up their horn and spun a pistol around to aim at me. Not trusting Pot’s gun, I dispelled the telekinesis and instead focused it on the other unicorn’s gun, preventing him from aiming as I charged out of the stairs. Bullets flew around me from the other side of the restaurant as another one of the evil bandits opened fire.

The unicorn stallion threw his forehooves up to try and grab me as I slammed into him, tackling him to the ground with me in a rather violent hug. I swung my head at his, slamming our horns together. Both spells backfired, sending a shot of electricity down my spine that almost made my legs cramp up. Out of the corner of my eye, however, I noticed that the magic holding the stallion’s pistol had imploded.

Gotcha! I thought gleefully as I twisted my head to bite onto the gun’s mouth-grip before the stallion could recover. I pressed the barrel of the gun against his forehead and fired, nearly hitting the foreleg I had wrapped around his head in the process.

“Who the fuck is that?” One of the raiders on the other side of the restaurant shouted.

“She’s probably the bastard that ate my snack cake!” A stallion shouted.

The sheer ridiculousness of what I had just heard almost made me lose my focus, but I was forced to pay attention again when a large red earth pony launched at me from behind a half-collapsed wall, armed with a rusty combat knife. He looked beyond furious, but I was forced to throw myself to the floor when I saw a large gun float out from behind him and open fire at me.

I rolled to the side, putting the charging stallion in between me and the shooter. I had to applaud the raider for their ability to not shoot their friend in the back, but it wouldn’t mean much once I killed both. With a grunt, I reared up to face the stallion-

My right rear leg went limp when I tried to put my weight on it, leading to me doing little other than messing up my balance.

“Ough!” I wheezed when the pony slammed into me.

I barely got my foreleg up to catch the blade with my hoof. It bit into the horn, but it was nowhere near sharp enough to reach the softer tissue underneath. The pony tried to tear the blade out, but it had gotten stuck enough for him to just move my hoof around slightly. He had me pinned on the floor, something that I realized when I tried to kick him off of me only to fail in landing a hit.

The stallion’s nostrils blew hot air onto my face as he furiously bit onto the knife grip, he was so close that I could almost count all the popped veins in his eyes… Wait… that’s it! I thought with a loud cackle.

I used the hoof that had the knife stuck in it to push the stallion up, pulling his head a little further away from mine. As soon as I could move my neck freely, I angled my forehead properly and then let my foreleg go limp, causing the stallion to slam his head down onto me. My horn jammed directly into his right eye, hitting something hard inside the pony’s head.

The stallion screamed and tried to pull himself off, but I wrapped my other forehoof around the back of his head and pressed him against my horn even harder. With a muted crunch, my horn sank about a hoof’s length into the pony’s head, pressing his muzzle against my forehead. I closed my eyes to avoid getting any blood in them and shook my head around, feeling the stallion start twitching before he eventually went limp.

“What the fuck is that?” A pony shouted before at least two different guns opened fire… but they weren’t shooting at me.

“Fear. Stop shooting” Narrative’s voice cried out.

I shoved the stallion off and wiped my eyes clean with a forehoof, raising my gaze to watch as Narrative Lampshade flailed his claws around to try and cover his brain jar as bullets ricocheted off his body. My eyes focused on the two ponies that were shooting at him, a unicorn mare with a rifle, and a stallion with a pistol. I raised my right forehoof and focused on the knife that was still stuck in it, yanking it out with my magic and throwing it at the mare as hard as I could.

We weren’t too far apart, but the knife was not made for throwing. The weapon flipped around in mid-air and slammed into the mare’s chest with the flat of the blade, bouncing off without doing any damage. The mare looked at me, then at Narrative, and then at her gun.

“Fuck this,” She said, running out of the restaurant.

“Wait!” The stallion shouted, spitting his gun out and rushing out behind the mare. But I wasn’t going to let both of them get away.

My magic wrapped around the falling pistol, whipping it around and firing into the stallion as he ran. He kept running, however, and then slammed into the wall beside the door, leaving a blood splatter on it before collapsing to the ground. I got up shakily, my heartbeat feeling off… as if it were muffled, despite being inside my head.

“Unstable emotion. Nightmare. No. Can’t be,” Narrative droned, spinning in a slow circle. “Nightmare. Wake up,” He added, clutching his brain jar with his claws.

“Hey… calm down…” I said, my tongue feeling as if it were too big for my mouth.

“Nightmare. Wake up. Luna. Help,” The machine continued before suddenly falling silent and going limp.

I looked at him for a moment, not entirely sure why. Had he just been talking? Whatever the case, my attention was drawn to the stairs behind him, from where a figure emerged.

“-Throw me down the bloody stairs?” Said the new pony, a stallion.

His coat was dark blue, and one of his forelegs was made out of metal. What an odd-looking raider... Wait, no, I knew that stallion…

“Pan?” I wondered.

“Black Light! This bastard threw me down the stairs to rush up behind you, what happened?” The stallion asked.

“One of them got away…” I said, feeling a little lightheaded as I turned to look at the door. “Stay with Narrative, I’ll go… I’ll go hunt her down… I’ll… I need to…” I added, staggering slightly when I tried to walk forward.

The earth pony rushed past me and sat down on the floor, putting himself between me and the door. I furrowed my brow, not understanding why he was being so annoying. Could he be defending the raider? No… It couldn’t be…

The pistol floated up and aimed at his head. Pot’s green eyes opened wide and focused on the gun as he brought his non-metal forehoof up.

“H- hey, calm down…” He said cautiously. “You’ve got some holes in you, lass…” He added, pointing at me.

I looked down to try and see what he was talking about-

“Oh…” I said, flopping to my haunches.

There were two holes on my left rear leg, and another two on my belly. My white coat had become caked in blood, especially the leg. So that’s why I couldn’t jump. I thought. A slight chill started to creep into me, making me shiver slightly. The gun dropped out of my magic, clattering onto the floor.

Pot walked forward, gently lowering me to the floor.

“Stay awake,” He said… or at least that’s what I could get out of the muffled mess that my ears caught.

I watched as the stallion started checking the bodies around us, feeling my breath get shallower as my legs lost sensation. I wondered what he could be looking for… Maybe a better gun, he could really use one.

“Hey!” Pot shouted, shaking my head.

When did he get there? I wondered. He had just been digging around for a gun, how did he get so close?

“You’re… soft…” I mumbled, nuzzling the stallion’s chest as he cradled my head.

“Can ya help me ya damn tin can?” Pot shouted at somepony I couldn’t see. Tin Can was an odd name, who’d name their child after a tin can?

That’s when the realization hit me, this was Pot, my cook friend.

“Mushroom!” I said, understanding what he was asking.

“What?” He asked, looking at me with profound bewilderment.

The stallion groaned. Guess we’re out of mushroom soup… bummer.

I watched as he bit onto a pink bottle, ripping the cap off and spitting it onto the floor. It was probably some kind of juice, or maybe even some sauce! I hadn’t even realized how hungry I was, but Pot was always there for me. He was a great friend, and great friends deserved hugs!

“Stop trying to grab me ya daft bastard!” The stallion shouted, shaking my weak forehooves off his shoulders.

Wait… why were my foehooves weak? They were supposed to be strong, the strongest in the wasteland! The hero of the stable couldn’t be weak… No… not the stable… What was I the hero of again?

Something was jammed into my belly, but I didn’t pay it any mind, as I was too focused on trying to remember. If it’s not the stable… then what was it? Up-top Land? No, that sounds silly, only a child would fall for that. Maybe it was uhhh… The world? No, couldn’t be… what then…

“Owwww…” I whined, trying to rub my belly. It was hurting pretty bad, maybe I had eaten something I shouldn’t have?

No, that couldn’t be it. Pot gave me all my food, and he wouldn’t let me eat anything bad! Where even was that stallion? Hadn’t he just been-

Oh, he’s holding my head… I realized. Wait, why? What is he doing? I wondered, looking at the blue earth pony.

I was laying on my back, with my head held against his chest while he pressed his good forehoof into my belly. I looked closer and saw that he was holding a bottle against my red coat. Wait a minute… my coat wasn’t supposed to be red.

“What…? I asked weakly.

Pot threw the empty bottle to the side and started to rip up some barding with his teeth. I watched in silent amazement as he tore long strips of fabric from it before reaching for another bottle and biting at the cap. He struggled with it for a moment, with the bottle sliding out of his lone forehoof, until he simply groaned and slammed it against the floor.

The neck of the bottle shattered, spilling some weird-smelling liquid next to me. Pot picked it back up and then dumped the rest of the contents onto the fabric he had just torn up. Once it was soaked, he got to work on wrapping it around my belly. A bandage, I realized.

And that other bottle was a healing potion! I realized as my brain slowly started to work again. I shook my head slightly and stared at him while he wrapped more bandages around my rear leg. I had been shot… but how? I was sure I had rolled out of the way of the bandits.

“Was I… too slow?” I mumbled, holding a bloodied forehoof up to my eyes.

“Black Light? Is the potion working?” Pot asked, taking my forehoof and pressing it against his chest.

“I- yes…” I said, looking down at my belly and focusing on the odd glow that came out of the spots where I had been shot.

“Thank Celestia these bastards had a potion on them,” Pot said, looking around the restaurant for a moment before focusing on me again. “What the fuck were you thinking?” He asked.

“I thought… I could get them all…” I said weakly, offering him a smile.

Pot sighed deeply, holding his head in frustration.

“We are not getting sidetracked again, got it?” He stated. “Your luck is going to run out, and I’d rather not get killed because of it,”

My ears drooped at his words. The last thing I wanted was for him to not feel safe around me. Could I really have made him lose faith in me? No, it couldn't be. I had to find a way to get him to trust me again. Maybe if I killed the one bandit that had gotten away! Then I could-

Three bars… I noticed.

“Pot… One got away…” I said, still not strong enough to stand up-

No! Get up right now! I shouted at myself internally.

I flailed my hooves around to try and roll onto my side, but Pot pushed me back down.

“Leave it, they’re gone,” He said, furrowing his brow.

“No… there!” I shouted, flailing my legs at the third bar on my EFS.

The stallion looked at the wall I was pointing at before whipping their head back to me.

“Stay here…” He muttered, taking his gun out of his leg holster. Apparently, he had picked it back up after coming up the stairs.

“No… wait…” I said, trying to get up again only to have the earth pony push me back onto the floor.

“Stay. Here,” He stated, looking at me with concern, “I’ll go scare them off,”

Despite my protests, the stallion got up and slowly walked towards the front door. I struggled to get up, but my heart felt weak, and it couldn’t send enough strength to my legs to get me up.

Pot walked outside just as I managed to flop onto my side, but I was too tired to keep moving. Why was I so tired? I was supposed to be able to run for hours, yet here I was, struggling to get off the floor. The sound of my own wheezing breath was incredibly distracting, a constant reminder of my own weakness. I closed my mouth, intent on not giving the world the luxury of listening to me gasp for air.

But the wheezing continued.

What the…? I wondered, until I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.

The stallion I had shot point-blank in the head was shakily getting back up. He breathed in deeply and then coughed onto the floor, with a spurt of blood shooting out of the bullet wound in his head. He slowly turned until he was facing me and furrowed his brow.

“You… shot me…” He slurred, dragging himself closer to me.

A flash of panic ran down my spine as the stallion approached, but that strange feeling of exhaustion didn’t let me do anything other than weakly drag myself away. I couldn’t even muster up any magic, but at least it seemed the stallion couldn’t do it either.

He got closer. I tried to kick at him with my right rear leg, but the two bullet holes in it only made me wince in pain as soon as I tried to move it. The pain didn’t last long, however, because the stallion climbed on top of me and shoved both his twitchy forehooves up to my throat.

I raised my own forehooves, but it felt as if his grip were made of steel. No matter how hard I pulled on his legs, my forelegs just couldn’t muster enough strength to break his chokehold. Fight… Back…! I roared in my mind, resorting to hitting the stallion in the face. But my hooves were too weak.

My vision started to blur. The stallion above me grit their teeth and growled like a wild animal, a thick drop of blood dripping from the hole in their head and onto my face. A black ring started to close around the edges of my vision, blurring my EFS compass as it did. Fight…! Please…! I tried, my forehoof slipping off the stallion’s forelegs.

Bang!

The stallion above me went limp, felled by a second shot to the head. I tried to push him off again, but couldn’t get him to budge.

“Black Light!” Pot exclaimed from the doorway, his pistol falling to the floor.

The earth pony rushed over to my side and pushed the dead unicorn off my chest. Panting with effort, the stallion reached down and hugged me.

“I- I’m sorry, I thought you meant outside-” Pot said, his voice shaky.

I coughed slightly to clear my throat.

“Its… Fine… Thank you,” I said, smiling.

He seemed less angry at me now, that was definitely a good thing. I adjusted my position slightly to avoid getting stabbed in the side by his prosthetic leg, feeling how the strength slowly returned to my body.

“Does it hurt?” He asked, looking at me with concern.

I glanced down at myself. To be honest, I was in a lot of pain, it was only tolerable because I wasn’t moving at all. I didn’t want to tell him that, however, I couldn’t show weakness, I had to be his protector.

“N- no…” I said, trying to sound as strong as possible.

Pot sighed and turned to look at Narrative, who hadn’t moved at all since going limp.

“We could ask him for some MedX…” He said absentmindedly. “What happened to him?”

I looked at the robot as well. Both of his claws were extended and hung limply in front of his chassis. The braincase above had lost its blue glow, but the brain inside remained intact. The jar itself had a round white spot where a bullet had hit it that kind of looked like a flower, but it didn’t seem to have pierced it. Several bullet holes dotted the left shoulder and front plate from where he had taken a few hits in the fight.

“I don’t know… He just rushed out and got shot… then he went limp,” I offered.

“He said something about wandering range before pushing me down the stairs and rushing up behind you,” Pot said.

“Good thing he did…” I replied weakly. “If he hadn’t I would’ve… Would’ve…”

“You’re okay,” Pot said, interrupting me.

I hung my head slightly in his grasp before replying.

“Yeah… Just tired…” I muttered.

Pot chuckled softly.

“Aye, healing potions will do that to you if you don’t drink them,” The stallion said. “You can rest a bit, I’ll check to see if there’s anything useful on these bastards,” He added.

“Yeah…” I said weakly before fading off to sleep.

My dreams were uneasy and wild, full of beheaded ponies that desperately wanted to steal my head for their own. While normally I wouldn’t have let myself be intimidated by a pony who had been so careless as to lose their head, these were different, these were strong.

They were too strong, my blows did nothing, my magic bounced off their bloodied coats, and when they grabbed me, I could do nothing but scream as they pulled and twisted to try and steal my head.

I shot upright, sitting on the floor of the restaurant. Pot, who had been sitting nearby, jumped into the air in shock. He recovered and rushed over to me.

“Black Light!” He exclaimed, “Are you okay?”

“I- yeah…” I muttered, but after taking a deep breath, I realized that my legs felt strong. “Yeah!” I exclaimed, more excited.

I got up, a task that felt almost laughably easy compared to earlier. My rear right leg was still sore, but it was nowhere near the agony I had felt before. I giggled, flexing one of my forehooves and feeling that wonderful burn in my muscles again.

“Hey, take it easy, you’ll hurt yourself,” Pot chided.

“Nah, I’m fine, that little nap did wonders!” I said, smiling.

The stallion raised an eyebrow.

“Little nap?” He asked, incredulous.

I cocked my head to the side, but then I noticed a couple of things. For starters, I had been lying on a bedroll. Pot’s bedroll sat a short distance away, already rolled up. One of the tables had been put upright again and was covered with an assortment of horrible-looking guns and other random items. I turned towards the door and saw that it had been covered with Narrative Lampshade, who had a rope tied to his front plate and between his tracks to keep him from moving.

“How long was I asleep for?” I asked, rubbing my head.

“Since yesterday afternoon, it’s morning now,” Pot explained, walking back to where he had been sitting. “I put that thing in front of the door so it wouldn’t open,”

The stallion went back to slowly stirring a bowl he was holding on his lap. I walked over closer to try and see what he was doing, finding a strange yellowish cream inside the bowl.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Breakfast,” The stallion said with a smile.

The mere mention of Pot’s cooking made my stomach growl in anticipation. I walked over a little closer and sat next to him, waiting patiently.

After a few more minutes of stirring, Pot grabbed a second bowl and poured half the mixture into it, passing it over to me. I took the bowl in my magic and eyed the paste, it smelled sweet, making my mouth water slightly.

I took a… Sip? Bite? I slurped up a little bit of the mixture and almost fell onto my back from the sheer creamy deliciousness that my tongue was assailed by. I raised the bowl higher, all but pouring the mixture into my mouth. It was just… delicious.

“This is so good!” I said, licking the bowl.

Pot stared at me with a slightly concerned expression as he carefully lifted his spoon from his own bowl, drinking some of the mixture.

“Glad you liked it, my mother used to make it for me…” He said, his ears drooping slightly.

Touchy subject… I realized. I looked down at the bowl and then back at Pot, smiling.

“It tastes amazing, what’s in it?” I asked, trying to change the subject somewhat.

“Eggs and sugar, I’m actually surprised these ponies had some,” Pot replied smiling.

“Eggs?” I asked, “Like those that come in little boxes?” I remembered seeing a researcher eating some one time, he had said that they weren’t good for fillies and refused to give me any.

“Uhhh no…?” The stallion replied. “I’m pretty sure those are pre-war,”

“Wait then how were they still good?” I asked, looking down at my empty bowl.

“These were fresh eggs, don’t worry,” Pot reassured me, “You’re thinking about Yum Yum’s,”

I cocked my head to the side in confusion.

“Yum what?” I asked.

Narrative Lampshade let out a loud blaring sound, making me whip my head around to look at him. The blue light had returned to his brain jar.

"Happy. Creamy and dreamy, they’re always a hit. For many or one, Yum Yum's a perfect fit. Spicy, tangy, and oh so fine. Grab a dozen and taste the divine," The machine stated.

“Uhhh… What?” Pot asked.

“The jingle from the radio, I used to love Yum Yum’s,” Narrative explained.

I got up, smiling at the robot.

“Narrative! You’re all right!” I chirped.

I ran over to the machine and wrapped my forelegs around him in a big hug.

“Yes, I appear to have taken minor damage,” The robot droned. “And my body sedated me, what happened?” He demanded.

“I uhh… There was a-” I started, but Pot cut me off.

“Nothing, you just hit a wall and shut down, so we stopped for the night,” The stallion stated, shooting me a warning glance.

“Yeah, what he said,” I offered with a smile.

“My sincerest apologies, then,” Narrative said. “Shall we continue towards the park?”

I looked at Pot with a pleading expression. The stallion looked at me and sighed.

“If you feel like you can take it, then let’s go,” He said, “We should look through the stuff I found to see what we should take,” He added, pointing towards the table where he had laid out all our loot.

We took some time to look over the small arsenal of atrocious guns that had been laid out. I quickly realized why Pot hadn’t replaced his pistol with a better gun: there was no better gun. The only thing I could find even remotely useful was a bolt action rifle that looked as if it had been made with a lead pipe and a street sign. One of the battle saddles had been modified for bolt action weapons, sporting a second lever to be able to use the gun, but it was too small for Pot to wear. I took the rifle for myself, sliding it across my back.

There was one other rifle, it looked semi-automatic, and I recalled a unicorn mare using it. Whatever it may have been, the gun had broken when she threw it away. None of the other guns could really be used to repair it either… a pity.

As for ammunition, I had twenty-three shots for the rifle, and Pot scrounged up fifty bullets for his pistol. The bullets may have not been any caliber I could recognize, but they were all more or less the same size. So while we couldn’t take all the guns with us, we could still make use of the bullets. The other thing that would definitely be useful was the four apple-shaped grenades one of the bandits had been carrying in a box labeled ‘explosives, do not touch’.

The raiders had had a lot of food on them, fresh food too, much to Pot’s surprise. Small pieces of cheese and hardtack, stowed neatly away in pieces of cloth. Almost half a dozen eggs and a rather odd-looking piece of meat as well, all things that were stuffed into the new saddlebags that Pot instructed me on how to make.

Sure, he couldn’t do much with just one leg, but I still had my horn. And through a series of knots and loops, we managed to attach several of the bandit’s saddlebags onto Narrative’s chassis. I would never say it, of course, but I appreciated no longer being burdened with carrying all our supplies.

We set out towards the east after lunch, which wasn’t much more than some of the cheese. Pot had insisted on eating all our fresh food first. The cook’s small burner had run out of gas, however, so we couldn’t cook the meat.

“Hopefully I’ll find somewhere to refill the gas bottle before this goes bad,” Pot commented as he stuffed the cloth-wrapped meat into one of the many new pockets lining Narrative’s sides.

My leg still hurt, but it was bearable. I slowly limped behind Narrative as he led us down the ruined streets. Despite the silence, I couldn’t help but look around nervously and glance at my EFS compass every couple minutes. That last mare had gotten away… How could I have let her get away? She was definitely going to come back to bite me in the flank, I could feel it in my bones.

I looked back to scan the ruins we had already passed, absentmindedly grabbing my rifle with my magic. Pot, who was walking behind me, raised an eyebrow and looked back as well before turning to look at me again.

“You good?” The stallion asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah… yeah…” I said, shaking my head softly and looking forward again.

We eventually came to the edge of the park. It looked pretty much identical to the Trotterton reservoir, that is to say, it was a wide open patch of scorched dirt. Unlike the other park, however, this one had no buildings in it. Either that, or whatever buildings were here had been completely destroyed. We had come to one of the edges of the park, where a fence separated us from the park proper.

I noticed that the ground was covered in holes of various sizes, some looked like I could poke my head into them, but others looked as if an entire pony could fall inside. Pot noticed them too and stopped in his tracks, pressing his face against the bars of the fence to stare into the park.

“I don’t like those holes,” He muttered before turning to look at me. “Does your leg terminal thing see anything in there?”

I stared at my EFS compass, but there was nothing there. The holes were slightly disturbing in a way I couldn’t really put into words.

“Are you sure this is the place, Narrative?” I wondered, turning to look at the robot.

“Yes, this is Double Hoof Park,” He replied. “But I’m not sure where the facility could be hidden,”

I sat on my haunches and considered the park. The lack of any buildings was throwing me off, but it couldn’t be that well hidden.

“Black Light…” Pot said, sitting next to me and putting a foreleg on my shoulder. “I really think we should keep going, remember what happened yesterday,”

“Wait, let me focus,” I responded, raising a foreleg.

There was something about the holes that stuck out to me. They weren’t artificial, something had very deliberately dug them, but there was a pattern to them. Small holes were closer to the outside of the park, with the openings getting progressively larger as they drew closer to the center. Everywhere except for…

“There!” I exclaimed, pointing at a spot near some broken benches.

Pot followed my hoof, but quickly cocked his head to the side in confusion.

“What’s over there?” He asked.

“Look at the holes. There’s holes everywhere else in the park, but not there,” I explained. “Whatever made the holes avoided that spot,”

“I’m more worried about what made the holes in the first place,” The stallion replied. “We should leave,” He repeated.

“Aww come on, my EFS says its clear. Just a quick peek,” I pleaded.

Pot looked at me with a distraught expression.

“No, Black Light, we’ve been through this yesterday,” He said, stomping the ground softly. “And this definitely doesn’t look safe,” He added, pointing into the park.

“Well uhh… I’m going in anyway!” I stated, huffing.

“What?” Pot said, staggering back as if I had hit him.

My resolve faltered for a moment, but I checked the EFS again and reassured myself that it was clear.

“I’m going to go check if there’s anything there, you can stay here if you want. I can’t pass up the chance of getting something that could help my stable,” I said, keeping my tone stern.

The stallion furrowed his brow. And looked at Narrative pleadingly.

“I physically cannot leave her side, no matter how much I’d like to,” He said.

“See? Narrative trusts me, why don’t you?” I asked.

“You’re an asshole,” He announced. “Fine, let's go,” He added between gritted teeth.

I smiled at my charisma. He had been surprisingly easy to convince. Guess he wasn’t that opposed to exploring this place after all, I thought gleefully.

We made our way to the entrance of the park, where a large gate had once stood. The gate lay on the ground inside the park, bent out of shape as if it had been kicked off its hinges by a mighty buck. A simple depiction of a leg ending in two hooves could be seen on it, with the words ‘Double Hoof Park’ engraved on the metal below.

“Fear. Are you certain your PipBuck doesn’t detect anything?” The robot asked. “These holes have been dug by a large predator, even my terrible sensor talisman can pick up on the claw marks,” He added.

I looked at one of the holes and realized that he was correct. Long claw marks could be seen around the edges of the holes where some creature had torn up the earth. Despite this, my EFS vehemently refused to show any bars other than Pot and Narrative’s.

“Yeah, it’s all clear, they’re probably old,” I said.

“Or whatever made them just left to get food or something and is about to come back to find us snooping about…” Pot interjected. “But its not like that has ever happened to us, right, Black Light?”

I chuckled at the stallion’s joke.

“We don’t even know if those bandits were looking for food!” I pouted.

“No, I mean… Nevermind…” Pot grumbled.

We reached the clear spot in the middle of the park, but I ran into a bit of a problem… There was nothing here. No building ruins, no conveniently placed hole, nothing other than plain dirt.

“Well would you look at that, there’s nothing here,” Pot announced, “Please, let's get out of here,”

“No… there has to be something here…” I said, looking at the plain dirt.

Pot threw his head back and screamed into the clouds. I whipped my head to look at him, worried that he might have gotten hurt. He lowered his head again and looked directly at me, his green eyes alight with anger.

“Okay that is it,” He shouted, “You are not going to drag me across the wasteland and into a grave, Black Light!”

The stallion started to pace around me as he continued ranting.

“Ever since I bloody met you you’ve done nothing but throw yourself into the most dangerous place you can find. I can see that you don’t give a single fuck about your own life, but I care about mine!” He stated, stopping in place to stomp the ground with his good forehoof. “You said you cared about keeping me safe… well this ain’t it!”

“Pot I-” I started, but the earth pony was not done.

“Shut the fuck up! If you really want me to be safe then you are going to help me get to the closest settlement, and then you’re going to grab your little talking coffee machine and fuck off somewhere far away from me, got it?” He said, the veins in his neck becoming clear from the strain of yelling so much.

My ears drooped. I didn’t like making adults angry, but what hurt the most was knowing that he didn’t trust me to keep him safe. Why? Had I not bested every single challenge so far?

“Fear. You might want to stop shouting,” Narrative stated.

“Oh yeah? Why’s that, all-knowing tin can?” Pot shouted back.

“Fear. There is a large creature approaching,” The robot responded, raising a claw to point at something in the distance.

I followed the claw and saw what he was talking about. A pair of bright yellow eyes were looking at us from inside one of the nearby tunnels.

“Oh for fucks sake!” Pot exclaimed before the monster erupted from the hole.

At first, I had assumed it to be some kind of tentacled abomination, but when it came into the light I realized that the tentacles were only some kind of tumorous growth on the top of its snout. A snout that was full of monstrous jagged teeth.

The monster’s fur was dark purple and spotty, with most of its body being completely hairless and covered in festering red sores. Two long forelegs ended in flat-tipped claws, and the rear legs were stubby, yet impressively muscular. Its head whipped around to focus on Pot before letting out an earth-shaking roar and charging at the stallion.

My new pipe rifle floated up beside me and fired almost by reflex. While the sight was nowhere near accurate, the creature was so big that the bullet still struck true. Not that it did much, as the wound was simply lost among the sea of bright red sores on the creature’s left shoulder.

It clearly felt it, however, as it changed targets almost immediately and started to charge at me instead. I shot again, sending two more bullets into the monster, but they didn’t even seem to slow it down.

“Pot! Run!” I shouted as the creature drew closer to me.

The monster leaped into the air, bringing both of its immense forelegs over its head as if it intended to crush me. Thinking quickly, I charged towards it, rolling in between its rear legs just before it slammed down, narrowly avoiding the hit.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Narrative fleeing as far away as he could. Pot was standing next to him, digging through one of the saddlebags that were strapped to the machine’s side. What in Celestia’s name is he up to? I wondered, but the monster forced me to stare at it again when it let out a guttural roar.

It clawed at the spot I had just been in viciously in frustration, using those large, flat claws as shovels to tear dirt away from the ground for a moment before turning towards me and focusing its large yellow eyes on me. If only my gun could shoot straight, then I could… Wait, that’s it! I thought.

I slipped into SATS, feeling the world slow down to a crawl around me. I looked at the creature in front of me, which the spell labeled as ‘Maulwurf’, and tried to focus on those bright yellow eyes. Much to my dismay, the rifle I had taken from the bandits was too terrible for even SATS to make it shoot with anything resembling accuracy. It was still worth a shot, however.

Two shots rang out once the spell ran its course. The first one went flying right past the monster, had it had ears, I probably would’ve shot it off. The second one came surprisingly close to the eye, but it still missed, bouncing off the creature’s forehead instead and leaving a long wound along it.

With a roar, the monster charged me again, swinging its left paw in a wide arc. I jumped back to avoid the hit, but my wounded leg cried out in anguish as soon as I landed, making me collapse to my knees. Stunned as I was, I had no hope of even thinking about dodging the monster’s backhand.

The creature’s leg smacked into me with the strength of a small explosion, sending me flying into the air. I flew for a moment before slamming into the dirt a little further away and bouncing a couple times. The weak knots that held the bandages around my rear leg became undone by the impact, making them slip off and onto the floor.

I shook my head and looked at the monster as it rushed me again. I rolled out of the way, leaving my blood-soaked bandages behind on the dirt as I did. The monster slammed its claws into the dirt, nearly hitting me with the left one. I tried to get up, but my rear leg couldn’t do much more than send shots of pain up my side.

The monster, however, seemed to have lost all interest in me. The many wormlike growths on its nose had all moved to point at the bandage on the ground in between its claws. I used one of my forelegs to drag myself a short distance away from the monster.

What the- I thought before the creature lowered its head and took a deep sniff of the bandages. Its eyes rolled up into the back of its skull, turning nearly completely white as it grumbled before going into a frenzy. Its claws slammed into the ground over and over, tearing the bandage to sheds with its jagged teeth as it tore long grooves in the dirt.

My eyes nervously glanced down at my wounded leg, which had already started bleeding again. As soon as that thing realized where the blood had come from, I was going to be mincemeat.

An odd sound came from the spot where the monster was digging, bringing my attention back to it as I continued to try and drag myself away. A large flat rock had appeared at the bottom of the hole. No… not a rock… cement!

Whatever it may have been, the sudden scrape of its claws against a hard surface seemed to snap the monster out of its frenzy. Its massive head turned to look at me, pieces of the torn bandages still stuck between its teeth. My blood seemed to freeze solid as the monster opened its mouth wide, it could easily bite me in half, was this truly how I was going to go?

No! I roared internally, firing up my horn and forcing the monster’s jaw to stay open. It held, but it was a losing battle, this thing’s mouth was unbelievably strong, even stronger than my magic. I tried to think of a way to slip out of this, but nothing came to me.

The monster started flailing at its own mouth with its claws, apparently thinking that something had gotten stuck inside of it. As long as it didn’t think to skewer me with them, then maybe I could-

Something landed on my chest, I glanced down and spotted a loop of rope, the same rope that Pot had used to tie up Narrative the previous day.

“Black Light! Hold on!” Pot shouted before throwing something else at me.

I watched the object fly through the air for a moment before realizing what it was: the three grenades we had taken from the bandits, tied together in a bouquet. The explosives landed next to me, where I noticed that all three of them had had their stems pulled. Realization dawned on me immediately and I craned my head around to bite onto the rope.

“Now!” Pot barked, biting onto the rope and yanking it back.

The other end of the rope had been fastened around Narrative’s chassis, who rushed away from the monster as fast as he could, dragging me away. My magic collapsed under the strain of the beast’s mouth, but I was already too far for it to hit me. The rope slipped out of my mouth, but I was more than far enough to look at the monster as it roared once more.

All three grenades went off at once, cutting the monster’s roar short. The entire section of the park that hadn’t been dug into shook, cracking along the middle. The creature whined in pain as the earth opened wide, tumbling into the sinkhole.

I cackled, my heart fluttering at the victory.

“How do you like them apples?” I shouted at the creature.

Pot and Narrative came up to where I lied on the ground, with the earth pony looking at the hole with a wide smile.

“I can’t believe that worked!” He said, chuckling nervously.

“Yeah! I was sure I was going to-” I started, but I was cut short by the ground beneath us letting out a horrible rumbling sound.

Pot’s eyes went wide with alarm as he looked at the hole where the monster had fallen into. I followed his gaze and saw that the cracks had widened, and were heading directly for us.

“Pot!” Was the last thing I could say before the ground collapsed, sending me tumbling through dirt and debris into Celestia knew where.

STABLE-TEC UNIFIED OPERATING SYSTEM

COPYRIGHT 1624 - 1626 STABLE-TEC

Biographical Registry System v.147

Full name: Patch Collage

Classification: Unicorn mare – 19 years of age – C-7ed6c2 M-8e7797 E-1d057e

Cutie mark: a piece of fabric with two different colored patches

Patch Collage was part of a small group of recovering drug addicts who lived in a Golden Stable in baltimare, she had joined the group to fuel her dash addiction, which had broken her relationship with her family. The group took her in with open hooves, and while recovery was a long road, wrought with mood swings and relapses, they had managed to remain clean enough to set up a small trade route between some local settlements.

This changed after the group’s encounter with the Witch of Baltimare, which resulted in all of them dying, save for Patch Collage, who cast down her weapon and ran away, swearing to herself that she would go completely clean and bring her life around after the sheer horror that the Witch had made her experience.

After some time wandering the wastes, she made her way back to her family’s farmstead and lived out the rest of her life with them, never touching any sort of drug again.

Author's Note

If you are enjoying this story, please consider taking a look at my Discord for extra content, early updates, and other news surrounding my work! And while you're here, why not consider my Patreon for special rewards to folks who pledge! (A huge thank you to all my generous patrons!)