Overture - A Fallout: Equestria Story

Chapter Eight: Search And Rescue

"When the world is sick, can no one be well?"

"A Zebra?"

I swayed as the railway wagon lurched and shuddered it's way along the tracks. I liked to think that I wasn't a prejudiced pony, but walking through the aftermath of a holocaust so absolute that the country still hasn't recovered almost two centuries later may have coloured my opinion just a little. To learn that not only were Zebras still around, but that they were still in Equestria was almost insulting. The fact that this meant a Zebra was also our best bet for freedom was a particularly bitter pill to swallow. They were the root cause of everything that had happened to me since the war started.

To be fair I probably should have picked up on it sooner, 'Chekwas' wasn't a very Equestrian sounding name after all. How a Zebra ended up here as a doctor I'll never know.

"Yes, a Zebra." Mercy confirmed, either not noticing or ignoring my stupor. "He's about 11 hands tall, grey stripes, blue eyes, quiffed mane, and a small beard on his chin. His glyphmark is a laurel wreath, but he'll most likely be wearing barding so you might not see it."

"We don't need all the details, pretty sure a Zebra is gonna stick out." MD interjected, bracing herself against the wooden walls as the wagon swayed.

"Details couldn't hurt." Mercy rebutted. "Anyway, I don't know exactly where in the Junction he is, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was the only creature in sound mind that we come across."

I wasn't really sure what she meant by that but it didn't inspire confidence.

We'd left New Dodge, hopped a boxcar heading south that would passright through Dodge Junction. I'd been assured that we'd be able to hop out without killing ourselves.

Mercy had led us to a group of absolutely enourmous old brick buildings, huge warehouse and factory looking structures, railways lines snaking between them, swathes of train sidings serving them all. It was also where most of the cranes I'd seen were situated. Based on the signage it was all old foundries and factories producing railway wagons, which made sense I suppose. It at least explained New Dodge's city walls anyway. Judging by the activity the area had mostly converted to a freight depot. Mercy had had a brief back and forth at the depot with an Abyssinian of all people, to get us aboard. 'Freighty Cat', which was a name so ridiculous I could only for his sake that it was just a nickname. From my understanding he ran the trains, and while I'm not privy to the details it seemed like Mercy had twisted his arm about something or other, granting us passage just a minute or so before the train left.

It was almost a novelty to be riding a train after the end of the world, and actually pretty relieving that there was enough industry in these settlements to necessitate a daily cargo service between them. I had no idea where the train was actually heading, but I presumed it had to be somewhere at least as developed as New Dodge, maybe even more so.

I had actually managed to clean myself up before we left the clinic. Just. I was able to rinse off the worst of the blood but I didn't have enough time to dry myself before Mercy marched us to the train depot. As such I'd left sopping wet, which had since been upgraded to damp. Still though, I was freezing cold, airdrying in a fast moving vehicle was not pleasant, the wind chilled me to my core. We had tried closing the door but it was stuck open, so I was stuck being wind tunneled. I'd tried my best to clean my stuff too, but I'd done a less than stellar job. At least the armour wasn't sticky anymore.

The train had been on the move for about fifteen minutes, cruising over barren plains at some clip. This had probably saved us a few hours travel, and we'd still have daylight when we arrived in Dodge Junction. The train was starting to slow down already, I could hear the screech of brakes in the distance.

Apparently, our passage into Dodge Junction was an enourmous rail depot, presumably the 'junction' itself. The train was going to have to weave through a mess of freight yards and damaged track sand, well, junctions. Navigating the mess meant it'd be crawling through town at a snail's pace, we'd be jumping off when it was slow enough to not hurt. We had started passing larger industrial buildings niw, solitary factories and powerstations, sparcely spaced. I guessed that this was the very outskirts, and as we slowed down things would only get more dense.

I stared out the door, watching the scenery pass, the flat land slowly growing more arid looking the further we went. It was nice to not be walking for a bit, at least. I did feel like an old time hobo, though.

The rocking motion of the wagon was threatening to send me to sleep despite the racket. After the day's events I was absolutely exhausted, everything hit me like a ton of bricks the moment I'd taken the weight off my hooves. I'd almost died today. I'd killed somepony, a living breathing pony. I'd been party to a massacre, and I didn't even feel bad about it. I felt worse that I was involved in it than that they'd died. That made me worried for myself, surely that wasn't normal?

MD floated the canteen over to me, and I took a few sips. We'd not eaten since this morning, I was actually quite looking forward to settling down for the evening and digging into some ancient canned goods. She'd had sold off all the junk she'd picked up at the fiend camp, so she was able to buy some more food and ammo and still have a little left over for the collar removal fund, on the presumption we wouldn't find Doctor Chekwas. I couldn't say I blamed her, I'm all for keeping options open, I just desperately hoped we wouldn't need to, that we'd find this Zebra and everything would be fine. Somehow.

In my lethargic state I almost toppled over as the train squealed around a bend, intertia pulling on me. Buildings were becoming more frequent now as we started to roll into the outskirts, roads lined with old billboards and small homes starting to coalesce.

I poked my head out the door to try and get a look at the town properly, wind whipping at my mane.

I could only sort of see the skyline, but compared to Balitimare it look fine. Almost normal, even. Buildings were still standing, if showing their age, nothing immediately seemed burned or blown up or anything. No skeletal remains, the whole city was there. The MAw tower I'd seen in the distance was looming over us now, casting a long shadow over the rooftops. Just like when we walked through the Baltimare suburbs, it looked like everypony just up and left one day. I wondered if that'd still be the case the further we got in to town.

I turned my attention to my travelling companions. MD was similarly staring out the door, absentmindedly prodding at her collar, hopefully subconsciously. Mercy's attention was fixed on the floorboards, anxiously tapping a hoof. She noticed me looking at her and glanced up with a smile that didn't quite meet her eyes.

I beheld her for a moment. She couldn't have been much older than me, but wore her years. Her nurse apparel had been replaced by a thick old army jacket, ragged and patched repeatedly. I felt there was a sadness to her that I couldn't quite place.

The brakes screeched on as the momentum of the train slowed, like a giant metal banshee grinding it's way along. Loud enough to hurt a little.

Now lumbering, we started to pass by rail yards full of parked wagons and cars, all looking a lot worse for wear than the one we were in. Most rusted, some overgrown, a few collapsed, all making up a huge incidental wall between us and the town. The train began jolting as we passed along swiching tracks and bad joints, shaking us around. I shifted away from the door, just in case. The last thing I needed was to fall under a moving train.

Our boxcar was towards the back of the train, I could see the rest of the wagons snaking around turns in front of us, engine way off in the distance. It was a cobbled together behemoth of a machine stalwartly towing Celestia knows how much weight. Shuddering and rumbling we continued to decelerate passing through another rail yard, more empty than the last one, more gaps in between parked up wagons, sound clattering off of them as we passed. know how fast we were going but it felt faster than it looked.

We shifted and jolted down the tracks. To be fair I would imagine they weren't in the beat condition after decades of presumably less than regular maintenance. I watched the ground pass underneath us outside, gravel splayed between sleepers, more tracks joining us to the side. Random bits of cables and wires joining with who knows what.

"Get ready, we'll jump in a minute." MD called, yelling over the cacophony. Mercy threw her comically large bag over her back and stood up, MD was already waiting by the door. I looked around to make sure none of us had dropped anything, idly noting my wet hooftracks.

A little bit longer and it seemed like we were moving at more of a walking pace, or at least a steady trot. The train was slowly coasting past what looked like some kind of factory, broken remnants of other trains decorating the neighbouring tracks. MD sat down at the edge and poked her head around the doorframe to make sure we weren't going to be jumping into anything before nodding to us both.

"Alright, seems as good a place as any, let's go."

She took a breath and leapt out of the open door, apparently we were still moving faster than expected because she absolutely wiped out on the landing, losing balance immediately and falling onto her side, sending loose gravel flying. I cringed back from the edge.

Mercy jumped out after with little hesitation, a graceful little leap that stuck the landing. She trotted out of the jump and went back to help MD up.

My turn now. I checked myself just to make sure I wouldn't be slamming myself into a pole or pillar or anything, but seeing that the ground ahead was clear, I pushed myself out too. The gravel gave way around my hooves, cushioning my fall a little. I landed into a brisk walk, more stable than MD did. I put that down to my Earth pony sure hoofedness.

I joined the other two as MD dusted herself off, dislodging loose stones from her size, grunting. "Fuck that hurt."

"Lucky you didn't hit your head on the tracks, I don't think we'd be able to do anything about that." Mercy added, helping MD clean herself.

I struggled to hear either of them other the clacking of the still passing cargo wagons, steady and rhythmic. We were stood in a big interchange, it looked like dozens of rails met and intertwined here, branching off in all directions. A sad, broken down, grimy looking train stood in front of us as the one we had just left rumbled on behind us, kicking up dust. The old factory loomed over us, the skyline of town poking out behind it.

Old Dodge. Dodge Junction.

I'd never been here myself before, but I remember it being one of the manufacturing hubs of Equestria. They made everything here, from cherry pies to spark batteries to machine guns to pesticide. I was no strategist, but it seemed odd to me that the Zebras hadn't completely leveled this place, considering it's importance as a part of the war machine.

The last wagon on our train sailed by behind us, carrying it's rhythmic clanging with it further down the line, fading into the distance. As it left though, I noticed a new sound replacing it. Me and Mercy both looked at MD, more specifically her PipBuck. It was crackling softly, intermittently.

"Well, that's not fun." She said, staring at the device.

"How bad is it?" Mercy asked, concerned. I wasn't sure what was going on but if they were both worried about it then it couldn't be anything good.

"Not that bad, but a fair bit higher than background." She replied, fiddling with her PipBuck, pointing it around. "I can't figure out where it's coming from, though."

"It's coming from the town." Mercy answered. "The whole place is radioactive. Don't worry, I brought us plenty of RadAway."

Radioactive?

"The whole town‽" I squeaked. I'm no scientist, but even I knew radiation was a bad, bad thing!

"Well, kind of. I think by this point pretty much everything is contaminated. There's a reason they built a New Dodge." She explained. "I'd really recommend not eating or drinking anything we find here."

Ah, okay. Everything was contaminated. Wonderful.

I silently cursed the fact that both of our best shots for freedom were probably here somewhere. Why couldn't they have been somewhere nice and non-life threatening?

"Well, it's not gonna stay light forever." MD chimed in, walking ahead of us. "Shall we?"

I inhaled. Radioactive or not, we wouldn't find anything by just standing here, time was ticking. I followed behind MD, Mercy following me. Our hooves crunched in the gravelly ballast, knocked against sleepers, and clanged over rails. We weaved between decrepit wagons, over flatbeds and through open cars, all accompanied by the clicking of the PipBuck.

"So, where exactly are we going?" I asked. I'd been following MD along but right now I wasn't sure to what end.

"I got no idea about the doctor, but if I had to guess I'd say the Jubilee Hippodrome is probably gonna be towards the city centre, so we'll work our way there and keep our eyes peeled." MD explained.

"You don't know?"

"I've never been here before, Silv. Do you know?"

"Touché."

"Chek would have come through on hoof, most likely from the east heading inwards. If we can make our way there through that area of town I think that'd be a good start." Mercy added.

"Noted." MD added, pausing to check her PipBuck screen. "Any idea specifically where he might be? Something to look out for?"

"Well he was looking for ghouls to study, so it tracks that we'd probably be looking for areas wity more intense contamination." Mercy explained. "He might have marked anywhere he was staying just in case someone came looking for him, so keep an eye peeled for that."

So not only do we have no real direction, the current best plan is to head towards the most dangerous areas? Because this Chekwas might be there.

What on Celestia's green earth had we gotten into here?

"He's a part of the Redemption Order, their logo is a first aid cross in a triangle, that's what he'd tag if he was going to tag." She elaborated.

"Oh, that's what that is!" MD hummed. "I've seen that around before."

"Redemption Order?" I asked.

"They're a small group dedicated to wasteland recovery." Mercy explained. "They dedicate their lives to helping others and recovering old world medicine and magic."

My ear twitched at that.

"So, theoretically, if somepony was to have the data for an experimental spell, they'd be able to work out how it works? Reverse engineer it?" I prodded. I could be onto something here.

"Well, in theory maybe. I'm not a member myself so I can't say for certain." Mercy hummed in thought. "Chek would know, though."

I made a mental note about this Redemption Order. With any luck I might be able to kill two birds with one stone here. Though I held my tongue on my thoughts on the irony of a Zebra being a part of a 'Redemption Order' given the current stare of Equestria.

We were currently working our way through a dusty old factory populated with dusty old robots. All deactivated. They were the tracked kind with real brains, I'd always found the notion uncomfortable, but to see them now fetid and rotted, misshapen and discoloured floating in their domes, was pretty horrific.

Machinery sat dormant, the robots stuck apparently mid-task. The whole place was eerily quiet, our hooffalls echoing off the concrete walls. The only other sounds were the dripping of water from somewhere in the building and the continuing drone of the geiger counter. It made for some real offputting ambience.

We passed a workstation with a nearby trough style sink on the wall which seemed to me emanating a dim glow. I went to check it out and found a stagnant pool of luminous green liquid standing in the basin, supplemented by the decayed corpses of several birds that left a thick, dark sludge below the gloe. The same green liquid was slowly dripping from a couple of the taps, plinking down. I heard the geiger counter go crazy behind me as MD made her way over too.

"Best not stand too close, Silv."

She didn't have to tell me twice. I backed up, scrunching my snout.

There wasn't much else of note inside. The only reason we were here in the first place was it was the path of least resistance out of the freight yard, entering through a still open roller door. If our hoofprints in the dust were anything to go by, we were the first ponies to be in here in a very long while. It was just us and the couple of radroaches we'd spotted scuttling around.

I tell a lie, there was something else I found odd about the place actually. The amount of stuff here didn't match the desolation. Desks still had papers and pens strewn around, open notebooks and coffee mugs. Lockers still had bags and things hanging inside. Even the canteen seemed to still be set up ready to dish out a long, long past best meal. It was as if everypony just disappeared.

There was no sign of Chekwas here, not that I think Mercy expected there to be. We reached the main lobby, a rather grand marble lined room that belied the building's function, and exited through the unlocked front doors.

Even out here it seemed like everything was coated in a fine layer of dust. The roads were empty, and the slowly lowering sun cast a dim light through the clouds. The breeze was still, and no animals called. The air was heavy, somehow. It felt wrong, I think we all felt it, sticking close together as we trotted. The road was wide and lined on both sides by heavy industry, ugly and oppressively large buildings dwarfing us, looking like they were just waiting to be fired up again save for the plantlife that was successfully reclaiming the land. Ivy crawled up pipes and over windows, grass sprang from cracks, an affront to the old concrete and steel.

A lone sprite-bot floated a holding pattern ahead of us, looping between all four corners of a crossroads. As we got closer I was able to hear that it wasn't blaring music, but a message.

"-remain indoors. You should not leave your location for any reason until an all clear has sounded. If possible, shelter away from outside walls, keeping far away from exterior doors and windows. Ensure your chosen shelter is stocked with enough provisions for an extended period of time. Potable water should be drawn into containers now to prevent future contamination. Radiation can not be seen, tasted or felt, but poses a direct threat to life. Again, remain indoors and await further instructions on this frequency. Message repeats. This is an emergency alert from-"

It paid us no mind as we walked past, carrying on it's tiny holding pattern. I wondered how long it had been patrolling this deserted interchange, broadcasting the same message over and over again. It'd almost be sad if it wasn't so annoying.

The road stretched onwards, factories giving way to warehouses and eventually offices further along. It was eerie being in a town so totally devoid of life, it sort of made me feel uneasy. Even given the time and age of everything, the air still vaguely smelled of smoke and chemicals.

I think part of what was making this place seem so strange was the absolute stillness of everything. There wasn't even a hint of a breeze, no plants moved, no litter drifted, nothing. It felt very unnatural. It was almost like the place was actually frozen in time, and I felt like I had more authority on being frozen in time than most.

We trotted over a bridge spanning more train tracks, a great embedded swathe cut into the ground, dozens of rails lying dormant. The bridge creaked slightly but held, we were probably the first ponies to cross it in a long, long time.

The other side of the bridge was decidedly more town-like. Offices and a few scant small factories still dotted the roadside, but shops and cafés were now present too. Definitely more domestic.

This was almost stranger, at least the absent hubub of heavy industry was almost alien to me. But a place like this, this could've bene anywhere. Baltimare or Trottingham, Manehattan, whatever. Preserved but absolutely desolate. It almost gave me shivers as we navigated through what was once an urban sprawl. Never had the term ghost town seemed so apt.

It was starting to get dark now, overcast sky growing blacker and blacker, hopefully through sunset and not because it was about to rain. I was almost expecting to see all the streetlights illuminate, but such was not the case.

MD seemed agitated, flowing at the road ahead, slowing down before signaling for us to stop at another crossroad.

When we stopped walking there was a total absence of sound, I hadn't realised how quiet this place was save for our hooves on the ground. It was stone dead now except for the quiet crackle of the geiger counter. MD was glancing around, but not seeming to stop to look at anything in particular. I couldn't see anything myself, just the empty void ahead.

"Is everything alright?" Mercy asked.

"EFS is going crazy, the whole area ahead of us is lit up red. Might be nothing, but..." MD trailed off, whacking the device with her other hoof. Red meant bad, I knew that much. "Maybe we should duck in somewhere."

The closest building to us was some kind of little café sandwiched between two soulless office blocks, chairs and tables still sat out front, looking like a converted home. Quaint, cosy. We hurried over, crowding the patio as MD tried the door.

"Locked, give me a minute, watch my back?" She muttered, horn glowing. I tuned back to face the street, anxiously looking up and down, waiting for some new kind of horror to appear.

Thankfully whatever MD was doing worked and the door quietly clicked open before anything could get the drop on us. We pushed in and slid a chair against the door handle to hopefully prevent anything from following us inside.

'Briar's Bakery'

The inside was like a time capsule, sort of like the factory we were in earlier. The display cabinet was filled with the powdered remains of long decayed pastries, mugs still waited on tables, now filled to the brim with mold. It was much less dusty in here, though. I leaned against the counter as Mercy and MD peered out the windows. Tension may have been high but I was grateful for whatever rest I could get.

Over the dead quiet I could hear something. I thought it was the building creaking at first, but the more I listened the more I realised it had cadence, intonation, pitch. A voice.

"There's somepony here!" I hissed, trying to keep as quiet as possible just in case they weren't looking to make friends.

They both whipped their heads around to face me. Mercy's ears pivoted to hear what I was hearing, glancing between us both and nodding. "Downstairs." She whispered.

MD pulled out her shotgun, keeping it close to her body as she slowly crept towards the counter. "Can't make anything out on the EFS, still too much red outside."

I pulled out my pistol just in case. MD stepped behind the counter and nudged open the wooden door, revealing a split staircase heading up and down. "You wait here in case they rush us." MD instructed Mercy, who nodded in response.

MD gingerly stepped down the stairs, I followed behind and Mercy stood guard at the top. The staircase turned a corner and ended with a short hallway to a large wooden door. I could see a warm yellow light shining through from underneath. The muffled voice continued within.

"Hello?" MD called out.

There was no direct reply, but the voice carried on.

"We're friendly." She continued.

More of the same. MD looked to me and back at the door.

"We're coming in."

She took a couple of steps back and twisted the handle in her magic. It didn't immediately budge, and I could see her straining a little to get it to give. The glow around her horn intensified for a moment, and with and invisible shove the door groaned open.

We were hit by a waft of foul, stale air, dust flying out of the room.

"-remain indoors and await further instructions on this frequency. Message repeats. This is an emergency alert from the Dodge Junction Metropolitan Council and the Ministry Of Wartime Technology. An attack from the Zebra Empire is currently underway and we have detected lethal levels of radiation-"

The radio droned away as me and MD both choked on the smell. Musty and rotten. It made my eyes water and set MD gagging. It was old decay, advanced rotting, horrendous.

There was nopony here anymore, we'd just heard the looping broadcast, but that's not to say there was never anypony in here. Spread around the room were the mummified remains of half a dozen ponies, empty cans and bottles scattered on the floor around them.

"Oh Luna." MD spluttered, trotting in and flipping the radio off.

Whoever they were, they had been here for a long while. The bodies were dry and flakey, vacant, eyeless sockets staring at us. A couple of their cutie marks were still visible. A few were huddled together. Judging by the empty shelves they ran out of food and starved to death in this basement.

My heart ached for them. Poor souls. Trapped like rats waiting for instructions thar never came. At least they were in a better place now.

"Is everything okay?" Mercy called from the ground floor. "I heard a commotion."

"We're alright, there's nopony here, don't worry." MD yelled back. "We'll be up in a second, can you keep an eye on the front door?"

She glanced around and started rifling through the room, quickly locating a first aid kit. I took a deep breath and followed her in, making a point to only breathe through my mouth.

Aside from the empty shelves, the room had a desk on the far wall, on which sat the radio, a spark lantern and a terminal, all still on. Not seeing a whole lot else, I curiously looked at the terminal. It was unlocked, awaiting input.

[STOCKTAKE - ONGOING]
[STOCK RECEIPTS]
[DELIVERIES]
[RECEPIES]
[LOG]

I semi-curiously navigated to the Log, opening it and bringing up a wall of text.

[1]
I'm such an idiot, I knew I should have applied for entry to that new Stable. I'm stuck here now, my own fault. Me and Kneady have hunkered down with the customers that were here when the alerts went off. I've got no idea what's happening up there, but I hope the all clear comes through soon, it's pretty claustrophobic down here. There's nothing to do but wait so I thought I'd keep a little log going.

There were more entries, but I elected not to read them. I didn't need to know the ins and outs of how these unfortunate souls spent their last days, it seemed inappropriate. The least I could do was let them have their privacy in death. I shook my head sadly, sparing the bodies another glance. I hoped they didn't suffer too much. I couldn't help but think this could've been me, under different circumstances. There but for Celestia's grace was I.

"Hey MD, there's a recipe list on this thing, figured you'd be interested."

"Oh, score! Thanks Silv!"

She came over to the desk and interfaced her PipBuck with the terminal, tapping the keyboard. I picked up the lantern, it was at least something we could use moving forward.

I headed back upstairs.

The bedroom we found ourselves in was admittedly rather homely, and being on the first floor gave us a little height advantage and a pair of windows to look out to the street through. The room was bathed in the yellow glow of the lantern, as far as I could see this made ours the only building with lights on. Normally that'd make us a beacon for anything to find us, but just as it was earlier, the street was still deserted. Even still, we all kept our eyes peeled. MD insisted that her EFS was still lit up fully red. I was watching out the window.

I had felt very strange about sharing a building with half a dozen corpses, but MD and Mercy didn't seem to share my feelings about it. Guess I just had to get over myself.

Mercy had whipped us up a delicious fruit salad out of her own rations. It was the freshest tasting canned fruit I'd ever had, though I was lamenting the lack of any sort of alcohol I could use to take the edge off. It had been a very long, very trying day. Almost dying was heavy. Taking a life maybe moreso.

"See, the thing with our Stable was the everypony was a Unicorn. I mean, literally everypony." MD explained between mouthfuls of fruit. "I think being cooped up for that long with only your own tribe led to like, a kind of unicorn exceptionalism that Goldheart is still buying into."

"How can it have just been Unicorns? Who grew the food?" I rebutted.

"I'm telling you! I didn't even know other ponies still existed until I left, I thought it was all Unicorns everywhere!"

"Well, that tracks." Mercy sighed. "Goldheart always was prickly treating Earth ponies. He really seems to have a real hatred for me, though. And don't get him started on the fact he works under Chek. He's been trying to call the shots from day one, or so I've been told. Since he's the 'best suited'."

"Bucking tailhole. I can't believe nopony's done him in yet." MD scoffed.

"Oh, believe me, they've tried." Mercy chuckled. "More than one swing has been sent his way."

"Why doesn't Chekwas just ditch him? Seems like a terrible time for everypony- uh, everyone involved." I asked. Truth be told I still didn't really know how I felt about Zebras given everything, but Goldheart just seemed like a twat.

"Unfortunately he is incredibly skilled. The community would be at risk without him. We're stuck with him for better AND for worse."

"Stable clinic was pretty swish." MD chimed in. "Ended up there more than once."

"Yeah, well hopefully we can put Goldheart back in his place." I snorted, turning my attention back to the view from the window.

For all intents and purposes it was pitch black outside. The moonlight couldn't break through the clouds and the lamp light wasn't strong enough to reach the other side of the road. The building occasionally creaked and groaned, as if protesting our presence.

"So not to change the subject, but what were you girls coming here for anyway?" Mercy asked, mouth full. "It's pretty rare anyone comes to the Junction."

"It's a bit of a long story, but we're-"

"Looking for something to buy our way out of these collars." MD interjected, giving me a side eye.

"But why here?" Mercy followed up, tilting her head. MD looked at me warily.

"I think we can tell her, I really doubt she's out for the money." I rolled my eyes. It was pretty clear to me that Mercy's only goal here was finding this zebra.

"The less ponies know the better." MD answered, apparently not convinced.

"We're looking for Octavia's cello."

"Silver!"

"Oh come on, like she's gonna turn on us!" I said, smiling at Mercy. "She's got her own stuff to worry about. Besides once we find the doctor we'll be golden."

"I can't say I know what a cello is to be honest, I'm really just trying to find Chek." She confirmed, tail swishing. It was kind of cute, the way it tufted at the end sort of reminded me of a paint brush.

"I'm less worried about her and more worried about anypony else who might hear. We won't be the only ponies looking for this thing." MD replied.

"Anypony else? MD the only other ponies we've seen since we arrived are dessicated!" I contested. "Besides, we won't even need the cello if we find the doctor first."

"We might be free from exploding for now but they know where I live, Silver! What's the point if Red Rein can just show up at my house? We need to find the cello either way and pay them off, then they have nothing on us. Square. Done." MD explained, frowning.

"I'm basically a ghost, MD. They have nothing on me but I've got the same collar as you. Even if we do pay them I wouldn't trust them to keep their word."

"Look, I'm just saying that no matter what we need to find that cello." MD huffed. "You might be a ghost, but Baltimare is my home. I have friends and family there, a life. I can't lose all that, not again. I need this."

I didn't respond right away. Her wants were not my wants. If we could get these collars removed then I really didn't want to be out on this stupid search. I understood where she was coming from of course, but I'd almost been killed on the first full day of the search, and truth be told I found being in the ruins of Baltimare incredibly depressing. I didn't know if I saw a future there beyond helping Dandelion.

I liked MD, I knew why she wanted to do this, but given the choice I wouldn't be here.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to start an argument." Mercy offered quietly. "But whatever your plans are after this, I wish you both the best of luck."

"It's okay." I assured her, snapping out of my thoughts. "We just haven't had a minute to actually work out what we're doing."

"Yeah, we're kinda on the fly here." MD agreed. "Didn't really plan anything on account of... Well, y'know." She awkwardly smiled, gesturing to her neck.

"Well, for what it's worth I've been in your horseshoes. You both seem like you're handling it well." Mercy offered, sympathetic gaze meeting both of our eyes.

That was an unexpected development to say the least.

"You have?"

"Mine wasn't on a timer. I don't know how long I was held. Years " She replied, staring into the middle distance. "They didn't even keep me as a slave, I was a beast of burden."

Oh Cadenza, am I ever going to be told something that isn't unbelievably harrowing?

"Celestia above." MD muttered.

"I won't go into it, but that's how I know Chek can help you, I wouldn't be here otherwise." Mercy finished, eyes closed.

Horrible as it might sound, I was greatful not to be getting the full details. Literally everything I'd seen an heard the last few weeks had been awful, i didn't need Mercy's tragic past compounding that. I'm sure the wasteland would do a pretty good job of that given due course.

I mentally huffed and turned my attention back to the street outside. For all intents and purposes it was pitch black. The moonlight couldn't break through the clouds and the lamp light wasn't strong enough to reach the other side of the road. The building occasionally creaked and groaned, as if protesting our presence.

"It's pretty late, maybe we should think about bedding down." I posited. I was greatful to not be on watch first tonight, since we'd stopped to rest the weight of today's events had fully caught up with me. I was taking third shift tonight.

"Yeah, probably." MD agreed, shifting in her bedroll. "You all set to keep lookout, Mercy?"

"You can count on me." She affirmed, taking my spot on the window as I moved out of the way, borderline collapsing into the embrace of my own sleeping bag.

"Amazing, thanks, wake me up when it's my turn." MD replied, flicking through her PipBuck. "I'll wake you up when it's your shift, Spooky."

"Spooky?" Was she talking to me.

"Yeah, Spooky." She nodded, grinning. "Y'know, since you're a ghost and all."

Ass.

"Goodnight MD." I groaned, closing my eyes.

Not much exciting was happening, which I guessed was for the best. I yawned but fought the claws of sleepiness. I fished a Sparkle Cola out from MD's bag. She'd picked up a load of stuff from the traders in New Dodge, I thought I could use them to keep myself awake. It wasn't coffee, but it'd do. I did wish it was cold, though.

I was again lamenting the lack of any real way for me to keep track of time. I really needed to keep an eye out for a watch or something. A PipBuck would be amazing, but I had a feeling I wouldn't find one just laying around anywhere.

I think it'd had been an hour or so of sweet nothing since I'd changed over with MD. Mercy had curled up on the soft carpeted floor, muzzle tucked under her tail and MD was quietly snoring under her blanket.

Honestly the image of the dim street was starting to burn itself into my brain before I noticed something was actually happening outside. It was gradual and slow, it took me a moment to notice, but there was a light. A bright green light, slowly but surely travelling down the road. I dimmed the lantern and turned back to the window.

It approached from the right, casting a shining radius all around, illuminating the street. I didn't really know what I was looking at until it was only a few yards away, but when I saw it I was dumbfounded.

"What in Tartarus is that?"

It was a pony. Or at least used to be a pony. It looked dead, it's skin in tatters, fur, mane and tail long since fallen out, it's nose and ears eaten away, horn broken, eyes vacant and milky. And it was glowing. This thing was the source of the light, it's skin a sick green, light emanated from it's insides shining through missing patches. The crackle of MD' geiger counter gently intensified the closer it got.

I was so focused on this abomination that I almost didn't notice the veritable army following it. Over a dozen similarly decayed ponies shambled along behind it. Though none of them glowing it didn't make them any less horrifying to look at. Flesh hung like rags from them. Lips were missing, teeth were bared. Some hobbled on missing limbs. I would have sworn one or two of them were wearing the remnants of old combat armour. The light from the glowing one cast a ghastly shadowed visage across them all.

I kept as still as I could, I was worried the movement might attract their attention. I swear a few must have looked up at me, but either didn't notice or didn't care enough to investigate. The herd sailed right by us, meandering past the window and further down the street.

Whatever that was, it was disgusting, but they didn't seem to know we were here.

Eventually the glowing one meandered around a corner, it's cohorts shuffling after it. The light began to fade away until it was dark again. I kept my eyes fixed on the street for a while after to make sure they were definitely gone, but relaxed after a little while when I didn't see any further sign. Satisfied they were gone I grabbed another Sparkle Cola, questioning what I had just seen. The street was just as it was before whatever that was. Did I imagine it? A waking dream? Maybe I was more tired than I though.

And if that was real, what had we gotten ourselves into by coming here?

I sipped from the bottle and continued my watch, just in case those things came back. It was definitely something to tell the others about when they woke up.

"That's what a ghoul is?"

"Mmmhmm." MD confirmed.

"You've never seen one before?" Mercy piped in.

We were in the process of packing up and I was filling evrypony- everyone in on last night's roving party while putting stuff away. I'd called them mutants, I didn't really come up with a better wor to describe them.

But no, apparently I should have known that 'ghoul' meant irradiated zombie this whole time and not like, I don't know, a ghoul. The word ghoul makes me think of goblins and demons, fairytale stuff.

In my defence though, I don't think mutants was wrong. These were literally ponies exposed to an ungodly amount of magical radiation, so I've been told. I don't understand the mechanics behind it but I was told that for all intents and purposes they were immortal, too. I couldn't imagine anything worse than an eternity spend as a mindless, decaying corpse. I shuddered to think.

"A glowing ghoul is new on me though." MD added. "I'd hate to count the sieverts coming off of it."

I hadn't neglected to mention the geiger counter spike. That and the fact that the thing had been going off constantly since we got off the train meant we'd had a round of RadAway for breakfast to stay safe. For medicine, it was surprisingly not entirely unpleasant.

The wall of red marks that MD's EFS was showing her had disappeared. I surmised that the horde of ghouls was what it was detecting. Where they'd gone was anypony's guess. Leaving the bakery we walked down the street unimpeded, pressing further in to town. It was easy to track the movements of the ghouls from the wide swathes of hoofmarks they left in the dust. Helped us know which direction not to go.

We did find one straggler, though. Hanging by a back leg from a rope thrown over a lamp post, swaying gently and very angry, grunting and struggling, a zombie-like facade of a pegasus stallion. It looked like some kind of trap, but why?

"This has to be Chekwas' doing." Mercy hummed. "He's got to be nearby."

"Why sling it up, though?" MD asked, waving a hoof in front of the thing's face, his head tracking her movement.

"Observation, probably." Mercy pondered. "I'm sure he'd probably want to see how they'd tick without needing to run away all the time."

The ghoul snapped and tried it's best to swipe at us, fruitlessly. It seemed to only possess mindless rage.

Without saying a word MD floated her pistol to the thing's head and pulled the trigger, it's body falling limp, the crack of the the shot echoing down empty streets for what felt like ages. I recoiled, shocked. "No way to live." She muttered, holstering the weapon as brownish, sludgy blood fell to the ground. I felt like I'd just watched an execution.

"Celestia MD, what the hell!"

"Trust me, I was doing him a favor." She replied cooly. "Whoever he was isn't there anymore."

"That could have been a research specimen." Mercy pointed out uneasily.

"Well it doesn't sound like he'll have a hard time replacing it. Let's keep moving." MD instructed, continuing down the road.

Mercy seemed torn but didn't say anything further. I couldn't help but stare at the gently swaying corpse as we started on the move again. I might have been out of my depth with all of this ghoul stiff, but it just didn't feel right.

It was still early morning, dull light filtering down though the grey. We headed towards a crossroads that was barricaded by an abandoned MAS mobile outpost —some kind of monitoring station on wheels— consisting of a roadblock surrouding a large, armoured caravan. Whoever was manning it was long gone, and we found nothing much inside save for a long expired dosimeter and stacks of useless paperwork.

We found another ghoul strung up, which while unpleasant seemed to be a good sign that we were heading in the right direction. MD did that one a 'favour' too. I was honestly a bit wary about this behaviour from her, there was no need for this.

The buildings continued to get less brutal the more we walked, it wasn't long before the gritty semi-ndustrial sprawl had given way entirely to a more city looking city. We happened on a long empty public park, grass browned, benches sat unused, drinking fountains dripped green, a Sparkle Cola machine hummed away, still desperately clinging on after years of neglect. The sides of the roads were lined with parked up chariots and coaches, owners never to return.

I marvelled at just how intact everything still was. If you had told me the place was abandoned last week I would probably have believed it. I just couldn't put together the why. Why so little damage, why so much radiation? The ticking of the geiger counter had been steadily increasing again as we got closer to what I assumed would be the centre of town. Taller buildings loomed closer now, making the quiet more oppressive, insulating us and causing our hoofsteps to echo and bounce in all directions, playing tricks on our ears.

At least I hoped they were tricks.

"This is strange." MD announced as we trotted through a Skywagon Station, rows of shining metal vehicles all lined up outside the art deco building, still awaiting long-gone Pegasi pilots.

"What do you mean?"

"All of these have had their batteries taken, see?" She said, swinging open a access panel on the nearest chariot revealing the empty space within. Now that she'd pointed it out I could see that every single one of the parked vehicles had this panel left open. "That's not normal."

"You think it was the doctor?" I asked, not really sure what to make of it. I wasn't a mechanic by any stretch.

"I think I've found something!" Mercy yelled from a few spaces over.

Me and MD both galloped over. Mercy was stood in front of another Skychariot, door cracked and dim yellow light shining from inside

"Chek, is that you? Chekwas it's Mercy, I'm coming in." She said, nosing the door open. MD drew her pistol, I grabbed mine too on the off chance something happened. We followed close behind Mercy as she climbed the step up.

The inside had clearly been used as a shelter fairly recently. A bedroll lay across the back row of seats and a lamp lit the cramped space. A couple of empty cans sat next to a large open bag, half full of provisions. A couple of sheets of loose paper sat on a seat, a pen placed neatly on top. Otherwise, it was empty. I holstered my gun and prodded around. Mercy made short work of inspecting everything, picking up the notes and scanning them over.

"This is his, he was here." She said, voice rising. I'll admit that I got a little bit excited, the prospect that we were close to finding him, close to losing the collars, was a very welcome one.

"Does it say where he is now?" I asked, hopeful. We were 3 days into time now and I could not wait to be rid of this thing around my neck.

"No, just a list of medical equipment. But he can't be far."

"Why don't we just wait for him to come back?" I offered.

"No way, if he was only meant to be gone a few days then why is there so much unopened food here?" MD pointed out, prodding at the bag and causing a box of snack cakes to plop out. "If he was coming back there wouldn't be this much stuff left. We can't afford just sit around and wait. Timer, Spooky."

"Yes, thank you, I hadn't forgotten." I glowered. She was right, but she didn't have to say it like that. "What do you suggest then?"

"Well, if I was a doctor and I needed equipment, I know where I'd go." MD said, picking up the fallen box, opening it, and shoving a cake into her mouth. "Thr horfitl."

Hospital. Right. That made sense.

Heading to the hospital had it's advantages. Following the road signs had brought us in to the city centre, which also had brought is to the Jubilee Hippodrome. Failing finding Chekwas here we were only a stones through from our cello search area. However it wasn't without it's downsides, most notably the intensifying magical radiation levels, which just pipped the increased presence of roving ghouls to the post. Mostly just loners shambling around, easily avoided thanks to MD's PipBuck, but still encounters that I was happy to avoid.

What I was more concerned about though was the radiation. MD's geiger counter had been going crazy and didn't seem like it would be settling down anytime soon. The air had taken on a greenish hue, glowing motes floated around in the air, and the ground was smothered in a thick silt-like layer of dust, kicking up and swirling in our hoofsteps. I was sure I shouldn't be breathing it in, though considering the startling number of bodies we'd now seen wearing gas masks or hazmat suits I supposed it wouldn't have made much difference either way.

I just hoped we'd brought enough RadAway.

Things did actually start to get more chaotic as we got closer to the city centre. Doors were left wide open, shops looked to have been looted, homes were barricaded, army chatiots stood haphazardly. Nothing recent, but a definite contrast to where we'd come from.

Dodge General was a wide, stout building, solid and built of large slabs of stone. Several floors high and half a block wide. If Chekwas was in here we were still going to have a job locating him.

The Hippodrome was only a stones throw away at the other end of the road, an ornate granite building with plenty of arches and columns, dark stone stark against the more generic high rises of the rest of the block. Hopefully we'd find what we need quick either way.

"Okay Mercy, me and Silver are getting near the point of no return." MD said. "If he's not in here, we have to cut off and carry on our own search."

We were approaching the 48 hour mark on the timer, MD was worried that if we took much longer we wouldn't have enough time to get from Ponyville to Baltimare if the cello wasn't actually here. I still thought it would be a better idea to keep searching for Chekwas than some old instrument, but what did I know, right?

Mercy nodded as we stared at the entryway to the hospital. Even from out here it was easy to see the carnage that was the lobby. The doors had been ripped off their hinges and all the windows were broken. There were piles of skeletons, all rammed together like a calcified stampede. Fixtures had been ripped up in the crush, seating and counters toppled uselessly on the floor. Whatever had happened out there made these ponies desperate to be in here.

Despite it all though, fresh hoofprints beckoned us in.

We all gingerly entered, trying our best not to step on any bodies, keeping as quiet as we could. Not that it really mattered, no sooner had we breached the doorway had a ghoul reared it's head from behind the desk, popping up right in front of me.

Seeing them from a distance was horrible, it was something else entirely to behold one up closer. The layers of it's skin flopped around, as if delaminated, it's eyes milky and unfocused, yet staring directly at us. It let out a deathly groan and scrambled my way, creaking and jerking towards us, lunging over the desk. I was literally being charged by a corpse.

Fortunately, between us we made quick work of it, by the time I'd drawn my pistol MD had already loaded some buckshot right into it's head, putting it down permanently, erupting into an explosion of dried flesh and already congealed blood.

The blast unfortunately served as a clarion call for more abominations. Hoarse screams sounded out as more ghouls made to rush us from connecting hallways. I landed two shots in one's forehead, and another all but exploded from the force of MD's shotgun.

"Well fuck me if it isn't a party in here." MD nickered, pumping her shotgun. Growls rang out from adjacent corridors, more horrors emerging through swinging doors.

I managed to stop one ghoul, blasting into it's barrel until it collapsed. MD made swift work of another. For her part, Mercy had managed to kick one so hard it flew across the room, sending it crashing to the opposite wall and landing in a heap, dead.

"I don't think they're going to stop!" Mercy yelled as the hallway doors were pushed open by more rushing zombies.

"Let's move." MD commanded, pressing ahead towards another set of doors. Almost on cue, three more ghouls appeared, so blindly driven to get to us that they all got jammed together in the doorframe. Even stuck, they were still clawing with their forelegs to try and reach us.

"Nht taht whey dhen." I muttered around the pistol grip. More ghouls built up behind them, pushing, slowly but surely dislodging the blockage, threatening to spill out. This was very quickly getting to be too much, I couldn't focus on one at a time.

"Over here!" MD yelled, directing us to a more open hallway. I ran after her, and judging from the sound from behind, the newly dislodged ghouls ran after me.

I wished I had a more powerful weapon, something with more of a spread. There was no way I could hit them while I was galloping. MD kicked a door open ahead of us and turned around in the entrance, Mercy running past her.

"Get down!"

I ducked my head as MD fired a barrage over me, tearing our pursuers apart and causing the ones following them to tumble down over their bodies, buying us a bit of time. I scrambled bacl to my hooves and ran for the door, MD pushing it closed behind me and Mercy pushing a cabinet in front of it, hopefully keeping them out. On the flip side though, it was keeping us in.

"Another door over there, let's keep moving." MD instructed. The banging on the door had already started, it was only a matter of time before they got in.

It looked like we were in a small office of some sort, not that I had much time to take in the sights. The other door led us out to another corridor, thankfully less populated than the last one. A couple of ghouls were shambling around the far end, but hadn't noticed us. It wasn't hard to pass by them undetected, I can't imagine two centuries worth of exposure to radiation did the sensory organs a world of good. That and I'm sure by this point their brains were well past their sell by date. We sailed around a corner out of eyeline and ducked in to an empty examination room, stepping around some more recent looking bodies in the process, quietly clicking the door closed.

Safe. For now at least. I sagged down, this was a nightmare, we were being pursued by a literal hoard. I was really trying to breath as quietly as possible, but not only was that quite hard given the circumstances, I'm not sure it would have helped us hide anyway given just how loud and constant the crackle from MD's geieger counter was now.

"Okay." MD hissed. "Where do we start?"

"I-I don't know, I wouldn't know where to look." Mercy jittered back.

"Well, then what might he be looking for?" MD interjected. "We can't just sweep the whole building for him, we'll be up to our necks in crusty zombies."

"What sort of equipment was on the list?" I asked.

"Uh, tranquillisers, anaesthetic, restraints, medical grade crystals, magnets... H-he wanted to research ghoulification, how it effects the brain, try and prevent victims going feral."

"Okay, that's a start. How would you do that?" MD asked.

Crystals, magnets, the brain, this was all ringing a bell.

"MRIs. Scans the brain." I answered. "They're big machines, they take up a whole room."

Magical Resonance Imaging machines. I had to be scanned in one once after I managed to bean myself in the head with a chunky pendant, I'd lost my grip on it while I was working it on the polishing wheel. That was not a fun few days.

For the record, I hadn't done any permanent damage.

"You think he's putting ghouls in these machines?" MD tilted her head.

"I don't know, MD, I just know that's what you'd use to scan a brain."

"So where do we find them?" Mercy asked.

"You're the nurse, you'd have a better idea than me."

"We can look for the stairs or elevators or something, they usually have those little lists of what's on what floor, right?" MD offered.

We didn't really have much else to go on. Tartarus, we've been going on nothing since we left the Red Rein compound. It struck me that at this very moment in time my entire life depended on the outcomes of two moonshot schemes that both had little to no planning.

We didn't have too much time to mull anything over. Apparently our conversation had managed to attract some attention, if the slamming on the door was anything to go by.

"Guess break time's over." MD whinnied, reloading her shotgun. "You know, for a hospital, the bedside manner here is awful."

"Hang on guys, I'm not feeling too great..." MD called, leaning against the wall of the landing.

We paused behind her, I watched down the stairs for any stragglers that might try to follow us. MD heaved, the sound echoing all the way up and down the cold concrete stairwell.

"That doesn't look good."

I turned to see what was happening. A pool of vomit sat at MD's hooves, concerningly red in colour. Blood.

"Hmm, radiation sickness." Mercy mused, opening Chekwas' bag. "I told you not to eat anything we found here, I should have stopped you taking that cake."

How long had that cake been sat in that Sky Wagon if it was contaminated enough to make MD ill? Mercy shoved a bag of RadAway at MD, who tore it open with her teeth and gulped it down, throwing the empty plastic to the ground.

"That should stop it getting worse, for now, but you're probably still going to feel nauseous for a while. Maybe itchy, too." Mercy rattled off.

I wasn't feeling itchy until she mentioned it, but now I was, all up and down my back. Was I sick too?

"What, no lollipop?" MD smirked. Mercy didn't seem that amused.

MD drank from her canteen and gargled, spitting the water out over the bannister and down the stairs. She did look a few shades paler than earlier. She was shaky as she steadied herself. A lot more fragile than I was used to seeing her, at least outside of the aftermath of a fight.

"Alright, back to it."

We carried on up the stairs, I made sure to step well over the pool of vomit, wretching ever so slightly as I danced around it.

We were heading to the seventh floor. Looking for elevators had paid off, there was a little map on the wall detailing all the floors. Of course the elevators themselves were out of action, so we had to climb our way up, hoofing it step by step. It might not sound like a lot, but we were all carrying heavy bags full of equipment and were feeling it. Except Mercy, she seemed to be handling it with ease.

"Hold on, this is..." Mercy started, pausing in front of us. "These are Chek's saddlebags."

She prodded at the tattered pile of fabric, contents strewn accross the landing, unopened RadAway and RadSafe, cans and syringes of some kind of liquid, and reams of loose paper scattered around.

"We can't be far then."

"I just hope he's okay." Mercy said, ears flopping down as she collected his possessions. I may be pretty new to all of this, but even I could figure out losing anti-radiation medicine in and environment like this was pretty dire.

Reaching the seventh floor landing, I was a little nonplussed to see the doors had been removed. Not forced off like the main entrance, purposefully and carefully removed, they'd been unscrewed from their frame. Peeking around the corner I could see they'd been set up as a form of barricade, partitioning off a part of the hallway, and were adorned with some kind of markings. A huge bag sat nearby, identical to Mercy's. From the ceiling hung bouquets of old cans? No idea what that was about. More loose cans and scorch marks marred the floor, and old blood congealed in pools. Piled up ghoul corpses lined the sides of the hallway, bullet holes riddled the walls. If he was still here we clearly weren't the only ones to have figured it out.

"This is his, he's here!" She said excitedly, making to step forwards before MD stopped her.

"Hold up, the geiger counter is going crazy!" To prove her point, she swung her leg around the corner, the PipBuck's already frantic clicking becoming veritable static. Wonderful to know I'd just stuck my head out into that. "The concrete is kind of shielding us here, but that hallway is can't be good for us. Like, at all. We need a plan, I don't want to be vomiting blood again."

"If it's that bad we need to do something quick, I have his RadAway, he could die!" Mercy pled.

I won't claim to know a whole lot about magical radiation, but hanging out with Perfect taught me a thing or two about how hospitals work. For once, I had an idea. A pretty good one, I though.

"Hey, what floor were the X-ray machines on?"

I still thought it was a pretty good idea. But a few issues did become apparent as we went.

The first were purely logistical. Navigating a floor we hadn't cleared in a zombie infested building was not particularly fun or easy. We were starting to run low on ammo, and it was exhausting being on alert all the time. This extra detour was eating into our time too, it may have only been an extra 10 or 15 minutes, but it was adding up. MD was already anxious about being here at all, and backtracking was not helping that.

An issue that I didn't expect though, was that somepony else had had the same idea. It probably shouldn't have surprised me that in a hospital exposed to high levels of radiation, hospital workers regularly exposed to radiation would wear their protective clothes, but it did for some reason.

Rather dishearteningly though, it didn't seem to have worked for them all too well. To be fair, I could hardly begin to guess if the radiation killed them or something else, but it still wasn't the best endorsement for my plan.

There were several sets of lead lined aprons and gloves on the wall, but I thought it would be better to try and get the full suits, which unfortunately meant evicting their current occupants.

I'd seen a lot of bodies by this point. In various states. I'd even been responsible for some. Seeing them was never pleasant, but I can say with certainty that nothing compared to robbing a corpse with the sole purpose of wearing the clothes they died in. The bodies may have been old and skeletal, but that didn't mean there weren't any... remnants.

Dust and dead skin, fur and hair. Mystery stains. It was grim. I did not relish it, but I told myself it was only until we had retrieved Chekwas. It would be worth it.

This is where the final issue became apparent. These suits were heavy. Really heavy. As in a whole other pony's weight heavy. They were a struggle to get on and just as bad to move around in. Even worse, they were so insulated that MD's EFS stopped detecting anything and she couldn't work her magic properly, her horn covered in protective padding. Straining, she could just about operate the trigger of her shotgun. This was a small saving grace as the suits had face covers, meaning I couldn't hold my gun and MD couldn't operate the bit of her battle saddle.

We were protected, but slow and bordering on defenceless. And the less said about the trip back up the stairs the better. At least the lead lining would also act as armour. Hopefully, at least.

We reached the seventh floor again, lumbering, breathless and sweaty. Me and MD anyway, Mercy seemed to be handling the extra weight like a champ.

"Let's hope this works." MD huffed, turning on to the hallway.

It felt different here. I knew that radiation isn't something that can actually be felt, but I was feeling something. It may have just been my brain knowing it was dangerous to be here, but I was sure I could feel hostility from the air itself, as if telling us we shouldn't be here. The sooner we got in and out the better.

Slowly, we crossed the barricade, stepping around the piled bodies, plodding into the closed off section. A row of doors on either side greeted us, each one an examination room, each one locked with a wooden board blocking the handle. Through the slit windows I could see that individual ghouls had been trapped in the little rooms. Some paced, some flopped on the floor, a couple tried to break out to get at us. Why trap them rather than kill them? Test subjects, maybe?

One room in particular had been left open, populated with several gurneys hosting several dead ghouls, all of which seemed to have been autopsied, a lantern providing a dull light. Grim.

At the end of the hallway was a larger door. An ominous buzz came from inside, and a glow was visible around the edges.

MRI Examination Room 1

"Chekwas?" Mercy yelled, voice muffled by the padding. There was no response. "Chek, are you in there?"

The door resisted opening, sticking to it's frame. The more it swung, the more bluey-green lighted poured out. Mercy leaned her full weight into it, slowly inching it open. Bullet cases jangled and rolled as the door finally swung free.

A glowing ghoul had been restrained, tied down to a wooden board, and was in the process of being scanned by an MRI machine, whirring and grinding away, protesting after decades of inactivity. The ghoul was not happy. It writhed as best as it could, screeching and grunting, but unable to break free.

In one corner was the still body of another glowing one, evidence of broken binds around it's pasterns. It was still glowing even in death, sat limply under a chalkboard covered in sprawling notes. In the other corner was a messy pile of wires and stackd of old spark batteries, the apparent power source of the machine. They sparked occasionally, contents slowly leaking, obviously all juryrigged together. The wires led not only to the machines, but into a walled off control room, blinds drawn but door slightly ajar.

"A for effort, but this wiring is a deathtrap." MD observed.

"Chek, are you here?" Mercy called, pulling the door open. He was indeed there.

I recoiled at the sight of the zebra leaned up against the wall. However long he'd been in here with these irradiated freaks was clearly too long.

For lack of any better way to describe it, he was melting. This wasn't the dry rot of the ghouls, his flesh was slimy and sludgy, loose and waxy, glistening. A large pool of bloody fluid spread out around him in all directions, trailing from a desk which was home to a terminal and a humming printer streaming paper. Through the torn and tattered remains of a hazmat suit I could see thay swathes of his fur were missing, the skin underneath thin and translucent where there was skin left at all. Blood ran from his eyes, ears, nose and mouth, trailing down his front. He was liquifying from the outside in, a grotesque perversion of the equine form. A scant few empty RadAway pouches sat next to him, along with a rifle and spent boxes of bullets.

Most alarmingly, he was still alive. His chest heaved slowly, hot, wet breath leaving his mouth. His sunken eyes focused squarely on us, sparking with recognition. Not only was he alive, he was aware.

"Luna's fucking teats." MD heaved. I didn't really have the words to express any sentiment I was feeling.

This was meant to be our best shot at freedom.

"Terra Mater, Chekwas!" Mercy cried, rushing to reach the Zebra. "G-g-gods, what do I do?"

I was pretty sure Celestia herself wouldn't be able to help him at this point, he looked like a slug.

"Is he... is he turning into a ghoul?" MD asked, uneasy.

"I-I don't know! I don't think so!" The mule whinged, frantically searching her bag. Chekwas strained to shake his head, groaning.

"No... save yourself..." He croaked weakly, chest rising with the effort. His teeth were stained red with blood.

"A-absolutely not! We're getting you out of here." She grunted, stomping a hoof. "Can one of you find a tarp or a sheet or something?"

I didn't move, I sort of stopped focusing entirely. Internally, maybe selfishly, I was panicking about our bomb collars. He was supposed to take them off, we were going to find him and this would be over. But I could tell just from looking at him he was in no state to move, let alone manipulate explosives. Hells, I was astounded and slightly disturbed that someone could even be alive in that state. He was basically goo!

On a base level I recognised that this was an incredibly disturbing site and a grotesque scenario, but I didn't feel all that effected by it. I was disgusted, but I wasn't horrified that this could happen to somepony, at the pain he must be in, that I was watching someone die in an incredibly gruesome manner. I was angry. I was angry that my best shot for survival was as good as dead, that we'd wasted time in finding him, put ourselves in mortal danger for no reason. I felt stupid that I'd insisted on searching for this zebra like we'd just find him fine and dandy after he'd spent days in an irradiated hell hole. Why did I think I knew better?

This whole detour was all for nothing. We could have searched the whole hippodrome and been on our way by now.

The wasteland was starting to get to me. I felt bad for not feeling bad, but I also didn't know him, and he was a zebra. Objectively this was all very sad, but I didn't really care at all.

"A tarp, a sheet, anything please!" Mercy growled at us, borderline sobbing.

"Mercy, look at him! There's nothing we can do now." I replied, failing to sound sympathetic. "Maybe we should-"

"Should NOTHING!" She screamed. "We are leaving here with this zebra, understand? We can help him and he can help you! J-just like he helped me."

"Quiet, the whole building will hear you!" MD hissed. "There's no way he can help us now, we have to get out of here while we can."

"But-" Mercy started.

"Go, now!" He interrupted croaking, feebly pointing a deformed hoof to the main room, which seemed degrees brighter than I remember it being.

The glowing ghoul was glowing. Well, obviously, but glowing brighter, and it seemed more agitated. None of that could be a good thing.

"Guys, I dont know what this is but I don't like it." I said, cautiously backing away towards the door.

There was an incredibly bright flash, blinding, it made my eyes water and fucked with my vision for a good few seconds. A wave of something washed through the room, and MD's geiger counter went insane, even under the lead shielding.

I tasted metal, I licked my teeth and found my gums were bleeding. My stomach was doing backflips, my ears were ringing. I looked around disoriented, Mercy groaned, MD was sick again.

"Fuck this, we're leaving, I can't take any more of this." MD huffed, trudging back towards the hallway.

"Don't go, I can help him!" Mercy protested. I could tell she was crying under her suit. "I-I can fix it."

"How, Mercy? How can you fix this? His skin's falling off!" I yelled. "If we spend any longer in here we'll end up like him."

"Go... Mercy..." He wheezed, limply raising a sopping foreleg to point at stack of papers under the chalkboard. "My research... take it to... Buck Hill... the Order... Please..."

"Chek..."

"Please, Mercy... take it."

BLAM

The roar of MD's shotgun filled the room. I whipped my head to the door.

"We need to leave, they know we're up here!" The Unicorn yelled. "I've only got 5 shots left, I can't reload wearing this thing!"

I shuffled out to rejoin MD, I didn't need to be there when he breathed his last, nor did I really care to. He couldn't help us, that was that, and we'd already taken an insane dose of radiation just being in that room. We had to get back to finding the cello, I couldn't waste any more of our time. The sooner we got out of here, the sooner we could take off these suits too, they were not comfortable on any level. I just hoped we'd have enough RadAway to avoid joining him.

A decapitated ghoul's body was splayed out the stairwell doorframe, brains splattered down the hall, the barrel of MD's gun still smoking lightly.

"I can hear more downstairs." She half whispered to me, muzzle of the suit now splattered a crimson red I noticed. There was indeed shuffling and muffled banging echoing up and out the stairwell door.

"This place sucks." I whined.

"Yeah, well, you brought us here." MD pointedly replied. Ouch. "Let's just get out of here so we can find the cello."

"What about Mercy? We can't just leave her here."

As if on cue, a sniffling Mercy walked out of the room and past us, her suit stained around the fetlocks. She didn't stop to wait for us.

"Well, there she is, let's go." MD answered, following her out.

"Hey wait, are you okay?" I asked, catching them up.

"OF COURSE I'M NOT OKAY!" She exploded, turning and shouting at the top of her lungs. "How could I POSSIBLY be okay?!"

A lone ghoul galloped out of the stairwell, screaming towards us. Before I could even flinch Mercy bucked it so hard she decapitated it, sending it's head flying down the hallway. It rolled like a squishy bowling ball, coming to a stop facing us. I looked on, both horrified and now a bit scared of our travelling companion as she stormed off down the stairs. I would never have expected she'd have that in her.

"Okay, okay, try the understage!"

"We've turned over understage twice, it's not there!"

The Jubilee Hippodrome was thankfully not as big as the hospital and was also devoid of any ghouls, save for the few that had followed us in. It was in a much better state than Dodge General, so much so that it was almost like nopony had ever set hoof inside.

The upsides ended there though. The already thick air was borderline soupy in here. We'd practically torn the place apart but hadn't found any instruments at all, let alone the cello we were after. Mercy hadn't uttered a word since her outburst, she was almost unresponsive, blankly trudging around like a golem. She'd obliterated a few more ghouls on the way out in an intimidating display of violence. We'd all taken a few hits but managed to make it out of the building relatively unscathed, radiation aside. Other than that she'd been teary but silent. We'd downed all our remaining RadAway when we ditched the lead suits and MD's PipBuck still said she had acute radiation poisoning. We had no way of telling but I couldn't imagine me or Mercy were doing any better. My gums had stopped bleeding at least, but sooner or later we'd probably need actual treatment.

Moods were already through the floor, but the longer we were here the more apparent it was becoming that the cello wasn't here. I was very quickly becoming hopeless.

"What about backstage?"

"It's empty, MD, just like the rest of this place!" I shouted back, poking my head around the stage door.

"There has to be something!"

"There's nothing here! Looking again isn't going to make it magically appear!" I glowered, trotting back out to the wide open stage. "Face it, Dodge is a write off."

"Fuck this fucking town!" MD growled, punching the wall. "I fucking hate this fucking place!"

I couldn't argue with that. Mercy was sat on the edge of the stage, sniffling.

The full weight of the situation dawned on me. Our two best options for survival were a total bust. If the cello wasn't in Ponyville we were dead. If we couldn't get back to Baltimare on time we were dead. Damned either way.

"Oh Celestia, we're so bucked." I muttered. "We're so bucked, we're so bucked..."

"Shit, all we can do now is head north-west and pray the cello is in Ponyville, 'cause if it's not..."

"Ponyville?" Mercy mewled quietly. "You're going to Ponyville? Terra Mater, why not just kill yourselves now and save the effort?"

"Why do you care? You don't have to come, you can just go home." MD retorted, frowning at the mule.

"Mercy-"

"As a matter of fact I need to get to Buck Hill now, thanks to you both, so we're going the same way." She rebutted. "I would just prefer to get there alive."

"Look, Buck Hill or wherever, I don't really care. We need to get to Ponyville."

"There's nothing in Ponyville but death and destruction, you're fools for even considering it."

"Oh, okay then, please tell us where else we might have a chance of finding a wondrously valuable artifact before our heads explode?" MD taunted.

"Screw you, I'm trying to help!" Mercy chided.

"Some help! All you've done is suggest suicide and talk to us like we're idiots!"

"Because it's a stupid idea!"

"We don't have much of a choice, Mercy. It's that or just give up." I sighed.

"Oh, like you gave up on Chek?" The mule spat, eyes cold.

"Hey, there was nothing we could do for him!"

"You didn't even try." Mercy glowered, pushing herself up to face us. "He would have broken his back to save you both."

"What was I meant to do, I'm not a fucking doctor!" MD retorted, prodding Mercy's chest. "Look, I'm sorry, but he was beyond help."

"Who are you to make that call? Either of you‽"

"We were trying to help!" I pushed back.

"Could've fooled me!" The mule chuckled humourlessly. "I should have known you were 'just trying to help' when you left him to die."

"We said we'd help you find him, and we found him! If we stuck around we'd be flesh-piles too!" MD snorted, borderline muzzle to muzzle with Mercy now.

"Can we all please just calm down‽" I stepped between them. "Look, I'm sorry things are the way they are, but we don't have to be like this. We're all big girls, let's be civil, please?"

They both stared at me. I didn't realise tensions had gotten so high.

"MD, Mercy is upset and expressing concerns. Mercy, I'm sorry about Chekwas but between all of us there wasn't anything we could do. Trust me, I wish it was different, but it's done."

"I know it's done, I finished it." She muttered darkly. "He asked me to."

Celestia, that was morbid. Stopped my train of thought for a moment. I looked at Mercy and MD both. I didn't feel too bad about the ghouls we killed, they seemed pretty mindless, but that was... heavy.

"L-look, I know you're upset but time isn't on our side here. Our best shot for finding the cello is Ponyville now, there's no reason for us to be standing around getting more irradiated so Mercy if you're coming with us can we get moving, please? Get out of this Celestia forsaken hellhole amicably?" I smiled. They did not.

"Sure."

"Whatever."

Wait, were they both mad at me? Why? What had I done?

"Let's just get the fuck out of here." MD nickered, coughing as she collected her bags, spitting out more blood. "Argh, this place fucking sucks!"

Mercy shoved past me to grab her own stuff. I slung my saddlebag over my back.

The atmosphere was heavy and incredibly tense, entirely unpleasant. Today had brought only the worst possible outcomes for us all. I could only hope things wouldn't get any worse.

Ponyville awaited.

Mercy has joined the party.

New Perk: Healer - Is there a doctor in the house? Health potions restore 40% of lost Health and RadAway removes 40% of radiation while accompanied by Mercy.