Fallout Equestria-Painful Truths

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

Prologue

War. War never changes.

When bale fire consumed the world, those who survived did so in great underground shelters, called stables. When they opened, their inhabitants set out across the ruins of the old world to build new societies, forming tribes and establishing villages.

During the early years, of what was once the Equestrian west coast, large scores of gangs and infighting could be found across the land, with many of the gangs merely trying to survive on the dwindling resources. What they had plenty of however, were weapons and ponies to fight with.

So they fought, taking what others had and in the end those who survived were able to drag out their lives a little bit longer, until someone else came for what they had.

During this time ponies of this area gravitated to the large city of Los Pegasus, a city that was once home to celebrities of the movie industry and home to powerful industries that upheld the mining and industry of the west.

One such power has reemerged and once again, Los Pegasus is a beacon of society in the west, having been restored and maintained through the monolithic white tower that watches over the city.

These are not times for heroes, nor for the faint of heart attempting to clean these lands. These are harsh times, and during in such times there are only the wicked and the cold-hearted who survive. Our story is about such a pony, a pony that does what has to be done to survive and unlike other tales, is not a hero, but a pony on a road towards revenge.

Fallout: Equestria

Painful Truths

Prologue

Night had fallen over the land, the moon’s light concealed behind the ever present cloud cover, making passage into the ruined town very easy, but I had to move quickly, the failing light worked both ways, if I wasn’t quick enough inside I’d have to move slowly and cautiously to avoid the wrecks and rubble, and I was on a deadline.

Galloping down the street, I spied the hulk of an auto chariot abandoned beside the side walk and quickly ran to it for cover. Keeping low, I peered over the hood of the vehicle, my target just ahead and no more than fifty meters away. My objective was a five story building that, unlike the other buildings nearby, was in fairly ok condition, with the eastern side only mildly scorched and the fifth floor missing only a roof. I spied sitting in front of the building was a barricade patrolled by a couple of heavily equipped earth ponies with assault rifles strapped to the sides of saddles that they wore and sporting black armor.
They were too far away to see me, so turning to my left I crept towards the door of a hotel that was adjacent to the objective building’s east wall. By trade I am not the sneaking kind of individual, but with my steel encased hooves wrapped in rags, they made only the faintest of thuds, but I was far enough away that I wasn’t worried.

I entered the lobby of the building, the red carpet on the floor and wood paneled walls both rotting from the elements, the former covered in bits of rubble and debris from the ceiling and as always, tin cans and paper work were scattered about the place. Remembering the map of the area, I raced just a few meters ahead and moved to a door that had once said ‘Stairs’ in big bold letters, but age had faded the words badly. Opening the door and closing it quietly, I ascended the aged concrete stairs to the sixth floor, moving with great purpose.

This had only taken a few minutes, but in that time the patrol guards were already close to the buildings rear and were just below my position, their heads constantly moving and looking at the surrounding buildings, one even turning his whole body to look right at my building, but with the shroud of darkness, I was confident I’d go unnoticed and began setting up for my trip across the street.

I dropped my saddle bags and began to assemble components that, after a fashion, formed an air cannon, the device having been assembled and then taken apart for ease of transport. Assembled and ready to use, I withdrew a long rusted rail road spike, attached a length of cabling to the rear then loaded it down the barrel.

Standing up a bit I couldn’t see the guards anymore, which according to their current pattern, would take around ten minutes for them to circle back, plenty of time I thought and continued working.

I secured the end of the line to the wall, wrapping it around some exposed piping and giving it a good tug to make sure it and the pipes were secure, and to my relief, they were. Pulling myself up onto my hind legs, I saw the steel caps on the end of my fore-hooves as they gripped the rifle, the sounds of the rotary motors on my joints whirling and humming as I moved my limbs. Weapon in hoof, I narrowed my eyes slightly and making out a solid piece of concrete across the way exactly where I had been told it would be, on the target building’s fifth floor where the wall was broken and the floor’s innards exposed. I heaved the rifle to my shoulder, using the primitive sights and adjusting as needed.

As I concentrated on the concrete, I could feel the time slipping achingly fast as my window to cross began to close. I’d have precious minutes to make the shot, enter the building and descend to the next floor down before I was discovered.

I worked my hoof over the trigger, the design not created for a pony per se, but I was flexible. I took a deep breath, and then exhaled, squeezing the trigger, the gun releasing a puff of pent up air, which sent the spike flying across the gap and impaling the concrete.

With the spike now embedded in the pillar, I discarded the spent rifle, went back to my saddle bags and grabbed a bent metal tube that now looked like a V. I strapped on my saddle bags again, took a few breaths then with a running start, threw the tube onto the line and went speeding out the hole in the wall, the six story chasm below an ever present reminder to hold on but I kept my eyes on the pillar as I sped towards it at lightning speed.

I let go just as I cleared the lip of the ruined wall and rolled off to the side of the pillar, the pipe impacting with a tiny clank and then falling, making even more noise.

Looking around I could see the glow of a lamp coming up the stairs. I threw myself to my hooves again, and began descending.

Now on the fourth floor, I craned my neck around the corner spying two other ponies huddled around a card table. They weren’t supposed to be there, but it didn’t matter I assured myself, reaching into one of my larger pockets on my duster I withdrew a dirty plastic bottle and a large, slightly rusted disc with a dark red button on the top. Looking at the bottle, the words on it saying “Wonder glue”. Tearing the ribbed top off, I moved down the next set of stairs taking me to the third floor, stopping when I saw a door in front of me. Turning to the side and facing the wall and stairs, I gave the side of the concrete stairs a generous helping of glue, and then jammed the device to the side of the stairs and tapped the dark button, turning it a bright red and quickly moved towards the heavy metal door ahead of me.

Tipping my hat just a bit to the side, I let my ear unfold and pressed it against the door. I could hear high society music and conversation on the other side with an occasional chuckle. Ignoring the sounds from inside for a moment, I could hear movement upstairs too and knew they had found me out, but still, no problem. Once again, reaching inside my duster pockets I produced another old device, this one a tube with a pin at the top, which I then put in my mouth and pulled on it, just a smidge, to make sure the pin was loose. I then turned around and moved my weight onto my fore-hooves and gave the door a mighty kick with both hind-legs, flinging it open and then with a quick turn of my head, flung the tube inside and completing the turn so I faced the stairs again.

There was only a single, “What in the blue blazes?” and then a loud BANG!

I raced inside, drawing myself onto my hind legs and turned to see a dark blue earth pony guard on the floor in near full combat armor, his helmet lying in a chair only a hoofs reach away with his rifle next to it. He was on the floor clutching his eyes with his hooves and groaning, tears visible in the faint light. I moved a fore-hoof to my hip holster and with a near inaudible click, drew a pistol, the large rings on the barrel visible as I took aim at the guard’s head, pulling the trigger and splattering his brains on the floor. The stealth part of this mission was over.

Taking a quick look around the room, I could see the windows of the third floor had been blacked out with thick black cloth and was the only floor so far that had been furnished, the floor beneath my hooves was a slightly decayed wood paneling that was only slightly aged.

I moved out of the entry room into a larger, study like room, complete with book cases and fireplace. On the floor I could see a pair of stallions, one a yellow unicorn who I knew as The Professor, and one an earth pony dark green, lying on the floor, crying over their lost sight. It was only temporary, but from the sounds of it having a flash bang go off in your face seemed rather disorienting, so I made a note to avoid being hit by one and moved towards the unicorn, picking him up and moving towards the rear south side of the building.

I dropped the unicorn in a chair near the wall, reaching into my pocket to produce a brown wrapped box and a metal device that looked like a buzzer. I heard the earth pony behind me moving around and with my pistol still attached, turned and put a shot in his head. I didn’t need his fumbling around and whining distracting me while I handled military grade explosives.

A dull explosion came from behind the wall separating the study room and entry room and echoing through the hall with the broken entry door, warning me that the guards had tried coming down, not even noticing the mine. Oh well.

Pulling a metal pin jutting out from an elevated point on the side of the box, I then tossed it towards the south eastern corner of the building, and then raced for the unicorn, picking him up and moving back into the entry area. I touched the buzzer and heard a massive BOOM! Papers, wood and rubble flew around the corner from the study area. I walked back into the room, hardly missing the large hole in the wall where the explosives had gone off.

Seeing my exit, I started running for the hole with The Professor in my grasp, but was stopped cold by a sudden command to "freeze!"

“Put your hooves up now!” a mare screamed.

Letting out a sigh I turned, seeing a dark red mare and a blue colored stallion staring at me, the mare with her magical horn levitating an assault rifle in a burgundy colored aura and the stallion, an earth pony, with his mouth around the trigger mechanism of a sub machine gun.

“Drop the professor and we’ll kill you quickly.” The mare snarled.

Raising an eye brow at her I asked, “Please don’t tell me other would be thieves have actually given up after such a proposal.”

The stallion moved forward a step, forcing me to take one back, the mare holding her ground and glaring at me.

“Don’t move!” she ordered again.

I glanced over my shoulder and could see the ground below, not a death drop at three stories up, but enough to make it very painful. The whole time that this was going on though, the only thing I could think about was, “Where was that damn bird?”
I took a step towards the edge and hoped that everything else was going according to plan or this escape would go in the annals of, “worst get-a-ways ever.”

“I said don’t move asshole!” She ordered again.

“No I think I’ll take my chances with the fall thank you very much.” I said with a smile and a nod of my head.

The mare and stallion both took a few steps forward now, the stallion still not saying anything. I was about to look outside once more when suddenly my ear twitched just a bit at the sound of a sublet whooshing noise on the wind.

Knowing it was time to go, I gave the guards a smile, holstered my gun, and brought The Professor closer to my chest and quickly lashed him to my waist with a few leather belts and took another step towards the edge.

“Are you crazy?!” the mare exclaimed.

“Nope, just have a flight to catch.” I answered, tipping my hat then turning and leaping out the window, The Professor suddenly finding his voice and screaming like a young filly as we descended, our fall short lived as I suddenly felt a heavy tug on the leather belts and looked up to see my gryphon mercenary had been right on time, catching us only seconds out the window.

As we pulled away I turned back to see the guards weren’t firing their rifles or shouting obscenities, the mare had in fact lost her concentration on her rifle and dropped it, the stallion too had let his weapon slide to the ground and both stood, wide eyed and slack jawed, staring out the hole and watching us as we flew away from the ruins of the old world city and out into the barren wasteland desert.

***

It had taken a few hours to reach the safe house, the gryphon’s heavy breathing and flapping of his wings constantly there as we flew over the desert to the place his boss had chosen, a place far out of the way of any gangs and far from any towns.

The gryphon swooped close to the ground, back pedaled and dropping me to the ground, his wings kicking up a bit of sand and forcing me to shield my eyes as I walked towards a pair standing just out in front of the hut. I looked to check and see if The Professor was alright and aside from a wet spot on his pants, he was breathing normally but had passed out.
“Get whatcha aftah boy?” a gruff voice asked, coughing and spitting a bit of phlegm to the ground.

This was the brains behind what the mercenaries had simply called a “snatch and grab”. Looking at him I could tell that at one point, he had been a donkey, but like some inhabitants of the wastes, he was changed after the bombs dropped, the radiation making him look more like a corpse.. He must have been old when he was alive and a century and a quarter years did not help, but he managed, creaking forward on his boney legs towards me.

“Just as you planned, except for that rough landing after the zip line, thanks for that.” I said, making the sarcasm blatantly obvious so even the gryphon might partake in the conversation, but he just kept quiet.

“Quit your bitchin’ boy, you’re here ain’t yea.” The zombie looking donkey said, moving closer to the professor and bringing his rotting smell with him, which was not exactly the most pleasant thing to inhale, but I had learned to ignore it while in his presence.

Taking a seat on the ground with a squishy thump, he began looking the unconscious professor over, “So this is the little spit fuck we had to abscond with, eh? Doesn’t look like he knows where good loot is if you ask me…” The donkey said, his eyes slowly moving until they met mine and then just stared, his eyes not blinking while he just looked at me very sternly for a few seconds.

Raising a hoof and coughing, the awkward seconds passed, I moved past him, moving towards the doorway and eager to get this over with. I reached for the handle only to see the door fly open, forcing me to leap back a few steps. I watched as a plum colored mare in a black form fitting strolled leisurely out to the side of the doorway and gesturing for me to enter with both hooves.

I turned back to see the donkey, still watching me, and I stated my goal.

“Alright. I’ll go inside and get the location of your loot. You, merely need to wait outside until I’m done.”

The mercenaries looked unconvinced, but it wasn’t for them to question me, they were being paid either way, just not until I got the information I was after.

The donkey looked away for a moment giving another hacking cough and then back to me again, “Whatever boy, just come find me when you want to really know how to get a pony to sing for you.” The donkey said with a hoarse chuckle.

I paid the donkey’s insult of my skills no mind, I was sure he had worked with ponies before who talked a big talk and in the end come to him for help, but not this pony.

“Whatever.” I replied while opening the door and stepping inside, my hooves giving a muffled thud as I walked across the rotting wooden floor. The closing door behind me screeching shut and thudding as it hit the wall. The shed, was merely that, a shed. There were two chairs, a table and it was made of salvaged sheet metal, very simple. The only source of light was a cobbled together light from a light bulb on a wooden plank, powered by a spark battery.

I unhooked The Professor and tossed him into the chair, finally getting a good look at him. The stallion was a unicorn with brown trousers, a white lab coat with a white shirt beneath, both fine looking and only slightly worn from time. There were tools of his scientific trade on him like my pistols were to me, the only difference was I didn’t piss myself when I flew out a window like he did. I took a seat across from him and began fumbling with the cloth booties on my hooves while calling out to the pony, “Hey Professor, wakey, wakey.”

No response though.

I dropped out of my chair to all fours and strolled up alongside The Professor and gave him a few slaps on the sides of his muzzle, “Common professor, Get up. It’s work time.”

Still no reaction, so I thought I’d try another approach, the ever popular, “angry gun toting pony who wants you to spill your guts so I can get on with my life.” I turned quickly to face the table and slammed my hooves on the table, “WAKE UP!”

The stallion nearly leaped out of his chair, swiping his hooves back and forth, “Who? What!” he yelled, his pupils shrinking in terror as he took in his surroundings then finally fixing his gaze on me, his ears dropping to the sides.

“Wh-Who are you?” he asked, his body shaking subtly.

I smirked a little and told him the truth, “Who I am is not important. The only thing that is important is who you know, and what you can tell me about them.”

The stallion licked his lips for a second and then explained, “M-My research would do little in the hooves of someone, like you. I- I am just a biologist.”

I chuckled a bit at the whole, “someone like you” bit, if only he knew. I stood up on my hind legs and began to pace, my mind working better on the move, but at the same time I maneuvered myself over towards him, keeping behind him and his head faced towards the table.

“Not interested in anything you’re doing, just the ponies you know, one specifically”

He turned slowly, his eyes trying to meet mine, “Then-”

Suddenly I turned on my rear legs and slammed my fore-hooves on the table, “I Want the location of your employer!”

The stallion jumped back in his chair by the sudden action and nearly falling, but correcting himself after a moment. He tried turning again but just keep his gaze on the table, licking his lips again and then using his magic to correct his tie, “Who?”

“The Doctor, tell me where he is.”

He began to turn to me and calmly, shaking only subtly, “I know many doctors, one of which you murdered in that building. W-who do you think you are that you can just-“

I moved around the table and before he could blink, moved a hoof to a holster and drew, the gun just beside his head, my face having contorted into a angry, snarling expression, stopping his gutsy outburst completely.

“The Doctor, he’s hard to forget, goes by that title, usually killing innocent ponies and ruining lives.”

The pony sat shaking beneath the gun, I didn’t have time for him to black out again from terror, so with my left fore-hoof free, I rammed it into the side of his head and forced it onto the tablet, bringing the gun pointblank with the tip of his nose, making him talk instantly, “I don’t know anything! P-please… b-be reasonable, just- just tell me what he looks like and I might be able to help…”

I faltered for a moment as I tried to remember a clear description for what he looked like, but all I had were old memories, it had been at least a year since I had seen him last and I had quite a few pony faces I remembered. I realized I wasn’t snarling at him anymore, but instead, was just staring at the table, my expression more of angry confusion. I grabbed hold of my hate, knowing it was enough and ignoring my attempt to recall The Doctor’s face, knowing that if I saw him, I’d know, but I couldn’t explain this to him. With no description to give and not wanting to punish him for my failings, I holstered my pistol and began patting him down, hoping to find anything in his pockets that could help.

I heard a crinkling sound from a pocket. I let go of his head and threw him back in the chair with my right hoof, throwing open his lab coat and feeling around the area of the noise and discovering a folded piece of paper inside.

“Wha-What do you want? Get your hooves off me!” The stallion yelled, “That is not for you!”

I snatched it with my teeth and then put it on the table. It was not sealed and the paper was old, stained with blood or some other dark brown liquid. I opened it and read through the document I discovered it was an old transfer sheet for a military complex, and according to it, we had been losing the war with the Zebra Nation (go figure…) and these were orders transferring supplies to the front lines on Equestria’s western front and written on the top right were written coordinates that had been circled with a date, yesterday. I checked the pages for any other information and after feeling satisfied there were none, I turned back to The Professor squirming in his chair, beads of perspiration running down his face as he adjusted his tie again and licked his lips.

Kicking open the door and tossing the professor at the hooves of the mercs that were congregated around a camp fire outside, I watched the donkey ghoul look at the sprawled pony and then to me, "so... where's the loot?” He asked with a curious glare.

I reached into a pocket and tossed the trio their pay, thousands of gold bits and bottle caps fell out of the opened burlap sack at their hooves, "Right there. Now if you want to double your pay, I have another job for you." I stated.

The mercs looked at the mound of money curiously and then each other. The donkey nodded at them and huddled amongst themselves, hooves and clawed feet around each other’s shoulders, weighing their options in hushed tone.
A few minutes of waiting, and the trio turned back to me, the donkey clearing his throat and gesturing to The Professor, "Fine, but what about him? We don't have enough room to-"

Still standing up right, my hoof went for my holster, connecting with the tinniest snap and then coming out and leveling at The Professor’s head. I didn’t blink and I did not think twice about pulling the trigger, a loud, deep, electric filled bang resonated for a few seconds, echoing across the wasteland plains, and then the body caught up with gravity, and he fell with a thump. The group said nothing, but I could see that what I had done was not what they were expecting. I looked to the ground and watched as some of the desert wind blew against his coat, his body motionless and quiet. Assuring myself that he was an ally of The Doctor, I knew he was a liability and could not be trusted not to try to warn him.

I brought my hoof back to the holster and put away the pistol, raising my head and looking at them partially concealed by the brim of my hat and saying, “Let’s go."

***

The trip has been very quiet, the mercs did not like me and they were a close group, so any talking was only an occasional whisper or a chuckle. I didn’t care, I didn’t know them. I only needed their skills, nothing more.

I caught glimpses of the mare and donkey looking over at me every so often, then whisper to each other. I supposed they thought they were being sublet about it or were being obvious on purpose, either way I just ignored them and kept walking.

***

All told, it took us nearly three hours to reach the destination the documents talked about. I could spy the sunlight slowly beginning to peek over the horizon and kept moving, hoping this wasn’t another dead end because I was too slow.

We reached the top of a hill overlooking what the coordinates told us was the place and as soon as we stopped, I spied the donkey nod to the mare, she gave a quick, sarcastic salute and a smile, then raced off towards the facility.

We sat in an area surrounded by rocks, sitting in silence and just readying our gear, the gryphon worked on his battle saddle harness sporting an automatic grenade launcher and a heavy machine gun. The donkey just continued to watch the roads and check the time on his watch wrapped around his leg. Suddenly we heard the sound of someone’s hooves on rocks, I turned, keeping low and spied a shimmering apparition coming closer. The spectral like pony shape dissipated however to reveal the mare, cloaked in what was known as a stealth buck. She walked past me, continuing towards the donkey and then taking a seat.

“I saw nopony inside, the place is deserted.” She said.

“Could they’ve moved on Duty?” the gryphon asked, looking to the donkey only for him to shake his head.

“Just looking at the roads, I saw no signs of auto wagons or chariots moving along it and if this is some sort of egg head scientist or doctor, this here is one of the few places somepony can get technology from that don’t belong to a gang.” the donkey leader stated, gesturing to the facility with his binoculars.

I didn’t have any binoculars on me, but just from looking at the place, I couldn’t see any gang signs, movement, or guards. Where were the usual patrols of pre-war robots, the random patrols of gangers? It was far too quiet for my liking. Things are never quiet like this.

With a “come here” hoof gesture from the donkey, the group huddled up again. I took a seat on the ground and checked to see I was fully loaded and ready to storm the place, but an, "ahem”, drew me out of my preparations and towards the donkey, all of them staring at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You're a part of this too boy. Get over here." The donkey said, gesturing me to join them.

I sighed, holstering my weapons and waving them off with a hoof, “it’s your team, you handle it, that’s what you’re being paid for."

The donkey just narrowed his eyes, "That ain’t how somethin’ like this works pony. You got to know your enemy. Now tell us what to expect in there from this fella’ you’ve got a hard on for killing.”

I said nothing and went back to checking my weapons. I felt something whip against my head and saw the donkey turning back around, his tail swatting side to side.

“If you ain’t gonna tell us what to expect, then you are the one goin’ in. Not us.” He declared, I nodded and looked at him, “Good. You cover my back, and I’ll go.” I said with a sneer.

The donkey just continued to look at me then to his comrades, then back at me with a sigh, “Fightin’ for somepony is a noble thing, it’s the only thing we got that makes us better than a damned rampaging ghoul. But let me ask you this son, will killing this pony solve your problems? Is this all worth it? Because once you pull that trigger, like yah did with that poor stallion back at the shack, there ain’t no goin’ back. Now I ain’t the best to be givin’ this kind of advice, but you-“

I turned my head sharply to meet his gaze, my eyes narrowing, “His death is the only thing I’m worried about, and from I’ve heard about you and what Equestria did in the war, you are not a role model for thinking before shooting.”

I let that soak in for a moment, the donkey just glaring at me then turning slowly back to his group, huddling up and continuing their planning, while I returned to my maintenance. I heard the others saying things about me, asking why they were doing this when they had my money, but the donkey just continued to talk strategy.

I knew I needed to do this, who was he to tell me I should think it over, I barely knew him. I stopped my work for a second, looking down at my metal shod hooves, the few memories I had from my stable coming back to me, my laughter as I sat on the floor of a room, my father sitting out of sight but telling me how smart I was as I stacked the blocks together to spell dad. For the life of me I couldn’t picture my mother, but I knew she was there, somewhere. These were always hard to remember, didn’t matter how hard I tried to lock them down and remember, and it seemed the more I tried, the harder they became. I wondered if one day I would completely forget them, if life in the wastes and the lessons I’d learned to survive just the day to day struggle wouldn’t just push them aside. I didn’t want this to be my life forever, drifting from place to place collecting bits of scrap and bullets, just so I could make a living. I knew I had to do something, change my life, maybe even stop hurting ponies, but I couldn’t, not with The Doctor still alive. Bad ponies don’t get to stay alive while the good lie dead in a ditch or in an abandoned stable, especially not when there is someone who can avenge them.

I holstered my pistols and started walking towards the facility, more memories suddenly becoming crystal clear in my head, playing like a movie. I could hear someone telling me to hold up, but I didn’t reply. As I ran harder and faster, racing towards the facility with idea of killing my foe, the memories seemed to continue playing, and I believed if I stopped or slowed down, they would too.

My memories began to be the only thing I could think about, and as I got closer to the facility, they were the only things I could see. I could see the atrium of a stable, my father standing at the exit, the door opening and a dark figure stepping through, the shadow slowly enveloping my father. I was running in my memory now, along a cat walk above the atrium floor. My head turned to see the shadow finally engulfed my father, his features concealed along with the figure in the doorway.
I could hear gunfire and laser fire, screams and cries for ponies to get back, but I couldn’t place where they were, only that they were close.

I found myself suddenly running down a staircase, unsure of how I got here, but pushed the thought aside as I reached the bottom of the stairs, now running for the door way that would lead to my father. It parted just as I got into range and I saw a shadowy figure standing in the doorway, my father gone. He just stood in the doorway looking at me, his muzzle moving and saying something to me, then smiling.

I watched him walk through the doorway and I gave chase, moving through the doorway to find myself in a room filled with the bodies of ponies I had never seen before, but they all wore the same blue and yellow trimmed jumpsuit of the stable I was from. As I passed by a body, I could see they were glistening, their bodies having tiny ice crystals formed on the edges of their hooves and muzzles, their complexions slightly blue, almost dead like. I knew these must have been my stable, I knew that someone must have killed them. I sprinted towards the next doorway, trying to make up for lost time and found myself heading up through the stable hallways, towards the Over-Mare office. I pushed myself as hard as I could to try to keep up but he was faster than me, always turning a corner and as I made the same turn, he would be almost at the end of the hall.

Finally he entered through a door labeled, “Over-Mare’s office”. I didn’t hesitate and followed him in, bursting through the door only to see him descending beneath the raised desk of the Over-Mare. I spied her body in a corner her body frozen and holding onto her child for dear life, their eyes closed and both looking at peace.

The sight hurt, but only a little. I knew I couldn’t help them, that I couldn’t help any of these ponies, but I could avenge them, so I raced down the secret stair case after him, hearing loud orders from behind me, commanding someone to, “find him!”
At the bottom of the stairs I followed him through a series of halls and secret doors until I was taken out into the main entrance to the stable, the large gear shaped door pulled to the side and the figure running out. I leapt over the guard rail in front of me, skidding to the side and sprinting after him up a flight of stairs, the figure reaching the top and turning, I couldn’t see him anymore, but I knew he couldn’t be far.

I reached the top of the stairs, I was in a dark building, some scents hitting me instantly of motor oils and machinery, but ignoring the foreign aromas, I could see the figure running through a doorway on the other side of the structure, and chased after it.

I was outside suddenly, still running but breathing heavily. I couldn’t see the figure anymore. Whirling around, I desperately searched for anyone, only to find when I turned around I felt a sharp pain, and then the sound of my body impacting and breaking against rocks. My sense of gravity shot and my head in a lot of pain, I willed myself up, trying to catch even a glimpse of what had happened.

I could see I had fallen down a hill, coming to rest just beside a road. Just at the crest of the hill I could see the figure standing there, his eyes a turquoise color, but his coat and other features still hard to make out. He just stood there, glaring at me until suddenly his ears perked ever so slightly, then looked down the road. I could see he had a pistol in his mouth, with blood glistening in the moon light on his muzzle. He then turned to look over his shoulder, his expression growing even angrier and then turning towards me, his eyes looking at me for only a moment before he turned and ran away.
As he ran, I could hear a voice calling out, asking for a pony called The Doctor. I wasn’t sure who they were talking about, but at the same time, I knew it was him. I knew this pony had lead to the death of my stable and I was going to make him pay.
I snapped back to my senses, remembering it was just a memory and trying to remember how I had gotten here, sitting in a chair, the back of a terminal just in front of me, sitting on a large wooden and metal desk. I got out of my chair and walked over beside the desk, seeing a broken window just behind the desk.

No one sat at the terminal, so I walked over and pulled up a chair, pushing the power button, which after a moment, caused the screen of the terminal to spring to life with a green glow, a blinking terminal prompt sitting at the top left of the screen awaiting a command. I asked the terminal with a few button presses, to access any file on this terminal, any logs or searches made from here.

It took a moment, but then it showed me that all other data had been deleted, recently, and there was only one message left.

I opened the file and began reading the message...

“Welcome Mr. Fell Iron. I hope that you have found your way here and that after your nap, have thought to check this terminal. If not, then this message means nothing to you. But if you are Mr. Fell Iron, then I must apologize for not being able to meet you in person, but I am a very busy pony.

I write this also to remind you, that you have failed, and because of that, you are now without any clues as to where I have gone. With no leads, I suspect you will find a place to wander off to, perhaps even try working on not continuing to be an embarrassment to your entire stable Mr. Fell Iron.

I am no soothsayer, but if this is the effort you are putting towards finding me, then I suggest that you should learn what it takes to survive out here, learn how ruthless a pony must be in these times in order to get what they want. These are the skills you must know if you are to catch me, mercy and kindness are a weakness that is not shared by your adversaries, Mr. Fell Iron.”

I slammed my hooves on the table, furious with myself, wondering how I could have been faster to get here, how could I have gotten that pony to hand me the location to this place instead of spending precious minutes on trying to get him to speak.

I re-read the message, hoping for information, but there was nothing and the only thing I could see that stood out, was in the opening statement.

Nap? What nap?

I looked outside and saw that it was still dark out. I sat in the chair and checked again, there was no sun coming up, the sun was setting. I checked the time-stamp on the message, seeing it was marked having been created this morning!

I raced outside as fast as I could. I ran through the halls, bullet holes were scattered all over the walls and bullets casings and bodies were amongst the trash on the floor, bodies of ponies in gang leathers and looted suits of combat armor, I could even see robot bodies and the destroyed hulks of turret emplacements on the ceiling. I wasn’t sure what sick nightmare this was but I wanted out, now!

I ran out the front doors to see two burnt out auto wagons, one with a large, quad barreled gun on the back and the other covered in pony bodies and gore, the engine blown apart and riddled with bullets. I began approaching the wreckage, looking everywhere for any survivors, but no one was moving, no sounds besides the occasional howling wind.

Almost to the wagons, I spotted a familiar wing protruding from behind a sandbag wall and I raced over to see what had happened to the gryphon.

When I got closer I saw he was not alone, the mare and donkey lay beside him, their eyes closed, each with a bullet hole in their heads coming from the front. At my hooves, I spied four cigars lying in front of the donkey, three with the ends torn off, the fourth sitting just a little away from the others.

I went to check the loads on my pistols and found they were empty, my breathing began to pick up and I felt strange, I wasn’t sure what had happened, but for some reason I think… I think I killed these three.

I started looking around, looking for anyone who wasn’t dead, but still no one. I didn’t know them, and I owed them nothing, but I knew that somehow, The Doctor had been responsible, even perhaps going out of his way to drug me and turn me against them, but I didn’t know, and it hurt. It was a strange feeling. I knew what it was like to not be able to remember something I wanted to, but this, this was different, if I had killed these three, because of what The Doctor did...

I bent down next to them, taking back the money I had given the donkey earlier. I had been told that the dead didn’t need what they had on them, and I knew that this might be rather harsh, but still did it. I took their weapons and everything I could store in the saddle bags I grabbed off the donkey, loading up on guns, bullets, meds, everything.

Loaded up I started walking towards the road, knowing that I had no leads, nothing to follow. The ponies who had died out in front of the place had obviously been gangers coming here for loot and found us, thinking the mercs were trying to steal their find and tried to kill them. They had no markings, and the vehicles were common enough to find if you were from one place.

I began walking down the stretch of road out in front of the base. In the distance I could see a white glow emanating in the distance, but I knew the source, and began heading towards it.

The light was a beacon, beckoning all towards it, acting as a sort of lighthouse in the sea of disappear and evil that was the wastes.

As I walked I just continued trying to imagine his face, The Doctor’s, knowing that he was right. If I was to try to kill him, things like mercy, and pity, were a luxury I could not afford. Nothing else mattered, no one else mattered. All I wanted was my revenge, and whatever the cost, I’d have it.

_______
( Based in the universe of Fallout Equestria By Kkat. http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/04/story-fallout-equestria.html )
(Pre-reading/ general help done by: Horus_Ascended, Msvman)

Chapter 1

Anyone outside would tell you that it was hot. The cloud cover was sparse and not as thick as most days, which had the temperatures scorching the area.

The road was broken and in horrible disrepair, but that was how things were in the wasteland, ruined.

There was almost no one around to see the tiny black dot bobbing down the road, hovering on tiny wings just above the ground, no more than a meter or so.

As it followed the road more one could see that it was black at one time, the paint having faded and the metal rusting in other areas, a large panel on the front with a grill forming something akin to an eye and underneath the eye sat a tiny rod with a glowing red tip. Along the back of it’s spherical body were antennae and other broadcasting equipment, giving it the ability to transmit and broadcast radio frequencies, which it was doing, broadcasting a very familiar tune to those who had seen them before, heavy on tuba and accordion.

The music suddenly clicked off and the bobbing sphere stopped bouncing, turning left and then right.

“Hello? I don’t usually do this, but you are the only pony I’ve seen out here. Do you have any idea-“

A shot rang out. It boomed with a sublet electric buzzing as it punctured the central eye of the robot, dropping it where it flew. A figure walked out from behind a hulk of a auto wagon and approached the machine, walking cautiously and keeping a weathered eye down the road.

The pony loomed over the machine as it sparked and twitched, the broadcaster screeching and buzzing, and then dying.

“Stupid sprite bots, I thought these were all destroyed, damn things. Oh well, looks like dinner is on you, you little bastard.” The pony said, kicking it with a hoof and then lashing it to its back and then continuing down the road.

Chapter 1:

♪ This ain’t no place for no hero ♫

As I walked down the road more, I could see a glistening spire in the distance but it was no sign that I was any closer to the city. That damn place was visible from anywhere.

Keeping good watch on my peripherals, I could see that the normal squatters and people lining the road had scattered, probably hearing the machine before they saw it and thinking something from the city, who knows.

I’d been walking this road for nearly eight hours and I was actually hoping for something to do, a mugging, maybe even some raiders, raiders were fun to fuck with. Unfortunately the damn bot had scared everyone off and now I was stuck with that damn tune in my head, whoever had created it was a genius, and in my opinion, should have been shot for making such an obnoxious song.

My head was bobbing back and forth to that stupid song as I passed by the remains of a roadside power station. I turned to see a couple of ponies gathered underneath the overhang, a couple of cars sitting next to the recharge stations, burnt out and abandoned, but acting as a nice place to take cover from the heat and onlookers. I looked back to the road ahead and was greeted with the crooked smile of a brown unicorn stallion, his eyes looking from my legs to my saddle bags, “them some perty hooves you got there.”

“Uhm, thank you? Nice… smile.” I said, seeing his crooked and rotted teeth and thinking this buck clearly was from out of town.

“Them some perty teeth too…” he said, licking his lips, his left eye twitching only slightly.

“Thanks.” I said as I moved past him, but he jumped to the side and blocking me, I tried again and the same outcome.

“You know blocking someone’s path is the easiest way to upset someone right.”

I watched as his horn glowed, a pair of revolvers flying out his leather barding and rushing to the sides of my head, “You think this is a game!”

“Well as you haven’t stated any rules, so no. And since you haven’t given any demands, this can’t be a rob-“

I felt the guns press against the temples of my head harder, “Give me yo’ money!”

“There you go, now see if you started off with demands and not complimenting me, we could have gotten here quicker.”

The guns pressed harder, so I thought it prudent to oblige the buck, dropping my saddle bags and the bot, but that didn’t seem to satisfy him.

“The shoes, I want them metal shoes” he demanded, levitating my stuff away.

“Shoes don’t come off, sorry.” I explained, but that wasn’t what he wanted to hear, oh well.

While he had rambled on with his compliments I had made sure that I had also looked for things to compliment him on, but those were few and shortcoming, so I just made notes of what looked in pain. I could see his front leg was slightly askew and whenever he moved, he kept the weight off it, broken me thinks. The road I traveled on was covered in rubble and sand, which I had made sure to note while I walked along, but only now was it useful.

Step one, blind him.

Quickly I kicked a wad of rubble and sand into his eyes, then jumping onto my hind hooves and righting myself, his guns discharged where I had been but both guns only hit asphalt.

Step two, disable.

With a kick I targeted his crippled limb, putting all the force I could behind it. This elicited a powerful yelp and brought him to the ground quick, which in turn, summoned his friends under the overhang of the recharge station and that in turn, forced me to enact step three, fuck shit up.

My hooves moved to my side, the metal caps on my hooves locking with the firing mechanisms with a soft click and telling me they were attached. I brought the guns out of the holsters and turned to the ponies camping in the station which were already taking up arms and diving for cover behind the auto-wagons.

I took aim at the closest of the pair fired, the shot flying straight at his head and out the back, impacting the pavement, but his body was still moving, not having caught on that it was dead and carrying him a few more steps before slamming into the side of the auto.

The other in cover, a unicorn, fired an assault rifle blindly which was held in a magical aura, hovering over the hood of the auto, I supposed she was hoping to get me with a lucky shot.

I moved for the crippled buck in front of me, putting a hoof under his good hoof and lifting him up for a shield. The assault rifle pony peeked over cover, seeing me and firing much more aimed shots, but they still flew wild and inaccurate, poor maintenance from the looks of it.

While this was happening though, I had seen the unicorn was a she, and making sure to sight her in, then firing, the round flying through the car, through her, and impacting into the ground. Her face contorted and she stood aghast, the mare in complete disbelief as she realized that she’d been shot through the auto, her aura dropping the rifle and falling to the ground screaming. I threw the buck to the ground and sprinted to the auto, making sure that if she was planning to shoot me as I approached, that I’d be prepared.

My back slammed into the car door and I peeked up for just a moment then back into cover. She was on the ground writhing in pain and screaming for help, her voice growing weaker with each call. I ran to the hood of the wagon and slip across, landing just behind her as she tried crawling away, I spied her rifle just beside me and kept my pistol on her, making sure she had nothing else on her, but the longer I watched the more genuine she seemed. I walked over to her and flipper her over to see a hoof trying to plug the hold in her belly and begging to be spared. Ignoring this I followed her path with my eyes towards a medical box and a door leading into the station, I turned to her and pointed the pistol at her.

“Who else is inside?”

“P-p-lease, we- we didn’t mean it.” She blubbered, her breathing becoming erratic and her voice growing quiet.

“Tough shit, who’s inside?” I demanded, putting a hoof on her gut, but this only made her stop talking, so I stopped it, making a mental note on when such an action was appropriate.

“P-please… help… me…” she started, but her stopped breathing and her eyes closed, damn it.

I looked at the place and figured it might be nothing, but just to be safe I reached into a pocket and grabbed a grenade. Holstering the pistols I put the pin of the grenade in my mouth, dropped to all four and trotted up to a boarded up window with a gap in the wood planks nailed to it.

“Anyone inside comes out now! If you don’t, Mr. Grenade goes in!”

No response.

With a shrug I shook my head in the direction of the window, the grenade coming off the pin and flying inside, exploding a second later, still nothing.

After the grenade, I moved inside and cleared out the charging station, found almost nothing inside except for some cans of beans and other pre-war food, nothing huge, but still good trade supplies. The bandits also had had nothing super interesting. The medical box had a healing potion, some water, and a few bandages, medical pony stuff. I collected up guns, bullets and such , then trotted back to see crippled pony was just cowering on the road, he hadn’t touched his gun again or my bags, so grabbing those up and strapping the bags to myself again I began trotting down the road, the cripple left cowering on the road, stripped of his goods and alone.

All the goods I’m sure wouldn’t be worth the two shots I’d used, but oh well, at least I had that fight to mull over, but as I continued on I found myself with a bit of a skip in my step, still remembering that damn sprite bot song. So, not wanting to fight it any longer, I bobbed my head to the tune of the song and continued on.

So far a good start to a Wednesday.

***

About an hour down the road I finally reached a trade post, one of the few that existed on this road according to a pony I asked and so I’d try to make it worth it while I continued back to the city.

It was a small town, probably just a wagon train station way back when for big cargo auto-wagons. Now days, it had the cargo wagons surrounding the town, acting as fairly impressive walls that stood nearly three meters high.

Moving closer, I saw the ever familiar gate guards appear, both sporting special saddles with assault rifles attached to the sides, a control mechanism running from the rifle’s trigger housings up to a control bit sitting in front of the pony’s mouth, a very common battle saddle configuration.

“What’s your business here?” a blue earth pony guard buck called out.

“Here to sell some stuff, maybe buy some stuff, maybe even do some stuff.” I replied obnoxiously

I could see the other guard, a dull green colored earth pony buck just squint his eyes at me then turned to his buddy and nodded. The blue buck went out of view and the gates began to open. I tipped my hat and trotted inside.

Inside was rather ratty and degenerate, but overall well set up. The interior cargo wagons were used for living quarters, while the primary recharge station acted as the central market from the looks of things. I could see a sign on the other side of the town telling me that the building below it was a weighing station, but it gave no clue to its primary purpose now days, just that it handled a lot of traffic from the looks of it, ponies coming and going fairly frequently.

Still walking, I spied a unique collection of large cargo containers with a cargo wagon, the back of it acting as the entrance with a sign declaring it to be a hotel. When one walked up the hotel cargo wagon hallway, they were allowed to stay in one of two areas that were made from the large cargo containers stacked two high and three long.

I continued towards the market though, passing by some rather inscrutable ponies, but just from their aggressive stares and the weapons, they were probably some sort of local gang or something of the sort. Rolling my eyes and continuing, I passed by a pair of happy and from the smell, very drunk, ponies, who were wandering around and being merry and such. The drunken pair were the last of the notable ponies, but there were dozens crowded around the recharge station and I moved past the makeshift barricades and entered their market area.

A dozen merchants were wheeling and dealing with ponies for their wears and gear, each merchant seeming to deal in one or two specific items, but some seemed to sell whatever they found on the ground.

I moved towards the one surrounded by a pair of pony shaped robots, the tops of their heads with a glass panel where the face would be, sitting between two pincer like metal supports. The pony bot’s neck was a set of black plates descending till it reached the chest where then the yellow plating that made up the vast majority of the pony bot began again. The bot was supported on four powerful mechanical legs with hazard stripes ringing around the knee joints, this told me these were probably just maintenance robots.

The merchant was sitting on his rump, turned to see I was eyeing his bots and gave me a big smile and threw his fore hooves wide, “Welcome, interested in either of the protectaponies? How about any of my other old world devices, need a terminal?” the robot salespony asked charismatically.

He was a dark tan buck, a bit shorter than the average equine and with a near balding mane of dirty blonde which was held out of his face by welding goggles. He wore a repurposed stable uniform. The standard blue with yellow trim jumpsuit had lots of tools jammed in the many pockets on it.

“No thanks. I need to know what I can get for this.” I asked, unlashing the sprite bot and then putting it on his work bench, which also doubled as his area of bartering.

He mulled over the bot for a few minutes while I sat in front of him and observing what he was looking for. I was fairly good with repairs and knew my way around Stable-Tec electronics, so I was confident it could be salvaged or at the very least, sold to the city for a recycling bounty. The merchant’s head arched back from the bot and he turned his head to me with a grin, “Pretty nice sprite bot you got here, where’d ya find it?”

“Out on the road, darn thing just wandered up and started talking, strangest thing.”

“Huh… never had that happen, probably just picking up a radio broadcast or something, plenty of those around here.”

I nodded and gestured at the bot, “So how much?” I asked raising an eye brow.

“Well I’ll give you two hundred for it, plenty of ponies like having them around to play music or strap bags to them to carry crap. At the very least, sell it to the city.”

I wasn’t much of a merchant, but I knew these could go for a little bit more than that, but I looked out at the crowd and the slowly failing light and I wanted to make sure I got a room before the rush hit the hotel. I nodded and held out a hoof, which after a moment was weighed down by a pouch he dropped on it. I brought the pouch to my mouth and checked the amount which seemed legit, thanked him for his time, put it in my bags, and wandered to the pony selling munitions.

The pony’s selection was rather crap, but I was after bullets more than anything and began looking to see if she had anything of use which then demanded her attention so the mare turned and smiled, “Can I help yea find something specific?”

I looked at her and sighed, “What bullets do you have?”

The merchant nodded lowered herself to the floor and after a few no’s, pulled out a metal box with green, peeling paint and sat it on the table. She opened the top and looked up at me, “I got 9mm, some 5mm, lot of .357, and a ton of 10mm. Any of those you need?”

I shook my head and walked away. She called out asking what I needed but she didn’t look like she’d carry my caliber.

After my romp through the merchants I wandered over to the hotel again and went inside, following the length of the tunnel until I reached the split and a mare sitting behind a desk. She looked up at me, a cigarette in her mouth and mouthed it to the side and hacked and coughed a bit, then cleared her throat, “It’s a hundred a night, hundred an fifty for any night after the first.”

My expression was meant to confer my lack of amusement in her prices, but from the look of the peach colored mare, she didn’t give off an aura of negotiating and so I gave the wrinkly old mare her bottle caps, which she checked immediately, and after a minute of scrutinizing the amount, gave me a room key with her magical aura and I left.

I walked down the hall and found the number corresponding to the number on the key, 5. I put the key in the door and turned the handle to be met with a not so welcoming smell of old and unwashed pony. I trotted inside and closed the door with a hind hoof, then began un burdening myself with my gear. The room was no more than then a two by two meter box, the interior red paint having peeled back and exposed rusted container beneath, but it was sufficient for a nights stay, and I dropped my saddle bags on the crate in the corner of the room and pushed the ruined chair to the corner adjacent to the door. I eyed the bed and without even needing to touch it, I could smell that it was more a hazard than anything, believing ponies used these beds for more than sleeping.

I laid out my few belongings and set to work making sure everything was there. I started with my bag of caps, which had grown exponentially after selling everything I’d found three weeks ago at the military base and encountering The Doctor, but I hadn’t taken the time to count. I unloaded my other goods and went through the motions of cleaning them the best I could and just checking everything was there, but really it was just a time killer and getting me ready for bed. The whole time this happened I could hear my neighbors above me were being very loud with their activities and the pony in the room behind me was playing his music rather loud. I heard yelling in the hallway from a mare to a buck saying something about her not paying for his bad service, this went on for a few minutes and ended with the mare beating some pony up in the hallway. I took my saddle bags off the crate and pushed the crate in front of the door, it wasn’t heavy, but it was just for peace of mind.

As the night dragged on I heard the noise beginning to die down, music pony was the first to shut up, the songs finally ending for the night and the radio turning off. Second was the ponies above, their activities finally ending, but of course as soon as I think I’m home free, they’re back at it again.

All these noises were coupled with just the sounds of the night and any other noises , the closed space reverberating even the tiniest sound. All and all though, the sounds were the ambience that reminded you that you were alive and slowly I started to nod off, I made sure to stay awake as long as possible, my eyes fixed on the door, the crate in front of it, the bed across from the door, I kept staring at them and in the end I nodded off, eye lids closing and a final yawn.

Clink.

Someone dropped something.

Clink, Clink.

Clumsy ponies.

Clink, Clink, Clink.

Soon to be very dead ponies, honestly, who would keep…

Clink, Clink, Clink, Clink, Clink…

I opened an eye, checking the room, the light still on, check. The door locked and braced, check. I listened closely, but I couldn’t hear anything else, it had stopped, probably someone spilled a case of bullets. I sniffled a bit and moved myself back into a comfortable set-up in the chair again, closing my eyes and enjoying the quiet, very peaceful, very… quiet.

I couldn’t hear the stamina couple upstairs anymore, and from having to listen to them go at it for hours, I doubted they’d end so abruptly. I got out of the chair, strapped on my gear and moved towards the door, moving the crate away as quietly as I could, but it was a metal box, the crate made noise.

Clink.

I flipped the switch to the lights and the room went black. Slowly I opened the door, peeking with one eye into the hallway. I couldn’t see anything, just a partially lit hallway as before, but the smell. I didn’t have the keenest nose, but only a person with no nose could miss it, it was faint but there, a sort of sweet but tangy smell, very weird combination.

I opened the door and stepped into the hall, keeping on all four and low as I stalked towards the stairs.

I heard a whining noise beside me. I raised up, drawing and pointing in one action, but it was just a colt. He looked up at the pistol, ignoring any intimidation it held to a more mature mind and then looked at me, a model rocket in his under developed mouth as he drooled on it. I holstered and continued up stairs, peeking back to see him still sitting in the cracked door way, looking at me while I ascended.

The second floor was like the first, minus the doorway exiting the building with nine doorways. The fluorescent lights buzzed and flickered fairly regularly as I started down the hallway. I saw the fifth room ahead which would be where the noise was coming from. I raised myself up and drew both pistols who I knew were loaded and charged to full.

I heard yelling coming from down the hallway, then a door burst open and a pair of figures came at me, I aimed at them and watched them freeze in place with absolute terror, their mouths open, teeth gritted and eyes wide as they fell to their rumps and came sliding to a stop just at the ends of the gun barrels, one for each. I looked up and saw a mare run out in the hall with a double barrel, ranting and raving about some pony being a cheating slut. I hurled myself to the side just as the gun discharged. I flew through a door into a dark room on my back.

The ponies in the hallway scampered off quicker than I’d have thought, but they have plenty of reason to with the mare screaming obscenities and reloading as she raced after them. This all happening in the time it took me to blink away the dizziness while getting back up to my hooves, shaking my head and finally remembering that I had been standing in front of rutting couples door, I turned, guns trained on the area where I believed the bed was.

“Hello?” I asked, nothing replied.

I backed up towards the door, my left fore-hoof going for the light switch, having trouble finding it of course.

“Comon, common.” I beseeched the light switch, hoping it would move to my hoof instead of avoid it.

Finally I turned, saw the switch just below my hoof, went to hit it… then heard the hissing voice, shit.

Something barreled into my chest, hurling me into the hallway and started clopping against metal. I looked down to see a brownish yellow colored earth mare banging on my chest with her hooves, the hooves hitting my chest plate and doing nothing. I shoved her to the side and got to my hooves, guns trained on her, “Calm the fuck down, it was an accident!”

The mare got to her hooves and hissed at me and got to her hooves with surprising agility. I held my ground and kept the guns trained, she just snarled and hissed, but from the sounds of it, she was either throwing her voice, or it takes two to make a pair, shit.
The buck flew out of the room, I ducked and jumped back, his face impacting the wall. Hissing mare took the chance to lunge at me, missing just barely with a hoof swipe to the gut and I jumped back again.

“I’ve never hit a girl in my life, but you’re not making it easy lady, get back.” I threatened.

She didn’t notice and came at me again, this time lunging with her whole body. I side stepped and the buck, who I hadn’t seen get up, came low and caught my legs.

“Bitch!” I yelled, falling on the floor face first, landing hard on my jaw, ow.

I rolled over to see hissing mare trying to drop her hooves on my head, I rolled to the side, just in time to see dumb buck drop his hooves on one of my hind legs with a crack. I brought the leg up into his jaw, hearing a louder crack as metal met bone, but it was short lived, feeling a bit of drool land on my face I lifted myself up to hear hissing mare’s face impact with the metal floor. I got to my hind legs and kicked buck in the side of the head, another crack and turned to see mare already recovering from the face plant and coming at me again, this time with talons on her hooves, the fuck?

I swiped the hoof aside and pistol wiped her with the other hoof and forcing her head against the wall.

“Fuck it!” I said, using the hoof not pinning her head to the wall, putting against her forehead and pulling the trigger, the shot going through her head, through her pack and through the floor, fuck.

I let the now holy mare drop to the floor just in time to feel the buck’s clawed hoof hit the side of my head then shoved my head against the wall, ow! I swung with my right fore-hoof into his gut and kept swinging, hearing crack after crack but the bastard wouldn’t drop! I felt him hit the back of my head and a dull clang, I saw him look to check what had happened and took the opportunity to duck, his concentration having been taken away from the pinning hoof and giving me the chance to escape. Partially ducked I moved out from underneath him and sprinted for the end of the hallway, he snarled and hissed at me. At the stairs to the bottom floor I crouched and spun on my hooves, bringing my guns up and pointing down the hallway, both bodies were gone and the door to their room was still open.

“What the…”

Suddenly I heard noise down stairs, shit, I’d forgotten there was a stair case at the farthest end of the hallway. I turned and ran down the stairs as fast as I could, jumping the last few steps and pointing my guns down the hallway. I saw the ass end of the dead mare racing around the corner, exiting the place. I raced after them and as I hit the exit I slipped and fell, falling on my stomach, my jaw slamming against the floor again, ow damn it! I looked down, cursing whatever had felt the need to trip me, my anger subsiding a bit at the sight of a toy rocket left sitting in the hallway, fuck.

I got to my hooves, holstered my guns and sprinted on all four out of the place, skidding into the main hallway and seeing the mares rear again and disappear heading out towards the market place. Diving into the street I could see the pair moving to the market, the buck with something in his mouth and I gave chase, racing past onlookers.

I skidded beside the barricade just beside the entrance, a scuffle inside and gunshots ringing out. I drew myself up, drew both pistols and peeked inside.

The buck had the colt in his mouth, the colt wailing with blood dribbling down his back. The mare had taken a pistol and shot the gun merchant and was grabbing what she could, the hole still in her head and back, damn… non-dying ponies!

I took the lull while they armed themselves and advanced towards a recharge pump, the buck hissing and pointing at me, causing the mare to turn around and unleashing a flurry of bullets on my position, forcing me to dive the rest of the way. I got small behind the recharger while she just continued to fire away. I waited for her to stop and then peeked to see the buck was rummaging in the gun merchants area while the mare reloaded.

Taking my chance I rounded the corner, peek-ah-boo’ing the mare and firing once, twice, three times into the bitch before her head was no more, the shots flying through and going into the actual recharge station building. I moved back into cover and looked for the buck, I couldn’t see him anymore.

Standing and turning, I slowly advanced, crouching slightly and keeping an eye on the merchant stand. Suddenly, I saw something go flying out the side of the stand, I fired two shots into it and watched it stop and roll along the pavement, it was a trash can, the hell… crap.

I turned and saw the buck with a quad 10mm sub machine gun battle saddle, each fed into a pair of large drums on the buck’s back and now with the colt strapped to the front of his chest and neck, his face hidden behind a heavy metal welding mask, the battle saddle control mechanism running from the guns and running underneath the mask.

“Are you fucking kidding me!” I cried and turned, racing back to cover, just as the guns opened up. Who the fuck makes these things, I want to know so I can shoot them!

The fire just kept coming and I could see my cover disintegrating quickly and the barricade in front of me being riddled with holes quickly. I watched as the shots began to encroach more on the right side, slowly approaching me, so I moved around the left side and took a glance, seeing the buck moving along the right side hoping to flank me, so I moved left. I saw him see his error and still firing, began moving left, so I started moving to the right side, hoping he’d run out of ammo eventually, but still nothing.

We danced around and alternated sides twice more, him still firing, and never tiring. The fuck were these things attached to, an ammo press?!

Finally, after the longest and most impressive length of fire, he stopped. I stepped around cover and drew my guns on him, his face low with the face plate covering him and the child, but making any head shots possibly hitting the colt.

I took a step forward, he took a step back. I’d move to a side, he’d mirror it, he was good.

We did this a few more times, but I was growing impatient and after a double take of the situation, he was almost to the doorway. I started hearing more gunshot. Screams and cries for help just outside. He started backing up towards the doorway, slowly, but I would step forward deliberately, asserting that if he made a move, I’d be ready. He was getting closer to the door and from the sounds of it, I couldn’t get outside before he was already back into the populated area, I made a choice.

“Fuck it.” I muttered, and fired both pistols for his eyes. The shots left the barrels loudly with a bang and a electric current undertone to them, both impacted exactly where I had aimed and had exited out the back, but unlike what I had planned, the shots threw the buck off his feet, hurling him a few meters back and him landing with crunch, his face impacting first and then his body pulling in a direction it shouldn’t and snapping his neck. I holstered a pistol and raced over to the corpse, pulling back the mask and seeing the colt.

I brought up a hoof to my face and gave a heavy sigh as I saw two large puncture marks in the back of the colt’s neck, the little guy’s eyes shut and his color rather pale, he wasn’t breathing. I could hear the gun shots beginning to die down and the screams growing less and less. I turned back to the colt and shook my head and biting my tongue. The gunshots were now only a hoof full of rifles, but then I heard an explosion. I looked back at the colt and then at the entrance.

I made my choice, holstering my gun and dropping to all four and racing out the exit of the merchant place, seeing the front gate had exploded and seeing a horde of something flooding the main entrance. I looked up and saw black shapes buzzing around and dragging off screaming ponies, guns blaring around in their terrified teeth or on their battle saddles, but the figures carrying them off didn’t seem to mind. I sprinted for towards the weighing station as fast as my hooves could carry me, the sounds of gunshots finally ending and replaced with a buzzing on the wind and hisses advancing into the township.

I reached the station, lights still on I advanced slowly to the windows and peered inside. I could see a couple of mares huddled together on dirty mattresses while bucks and mares sat in the other room loading firearms. I thought about telling them to hoof it, but I heard a loud buzzing overhead and then the clink, clink of them walking along the roof. The gun ponies inside lifted their guns up the best they could, the mares trying their best to keep quiet.

I could see the side exit to the township just nearly by, the door open and waiting for me. I turned back to the township, seeing the fire from the doorway growing and dozens of red lights bobbing around in the black, the lights to the town having fallen black and throwing nearly the whole area into darkness.

I knew I had to escape, but looking inside I figured these ponies wouldn’t last thirty seconds with these things, but I could see the advancing red lights moving closer and closer, some flying away into the night sky with what I assumed were more ponies underneath them. My window of escape was closing and looking back inside once more, the clink, clink, clinking noise was drawing the ponies attentions to the ceiling, one telling the creatures to go fuck themselves and firing a few shots into the ceiling.

Once again though, I made a choice and knew that if they were dumb enough to stay in there, It wasn’t my fault if they were dumb enough to not see the obvious distraction. I blitzed the doorway, hearing a loud bang and warping of metal, more gunshots ringing out and the mares on the mattresses finally letting out their pent up screams.

I made it to the door way and closed it behind me, a loud clang of the locking bar falling over the door and locking it from the other side. I drew out a mine and placed it in the dirt just ouside of the doorway, tapping the red button and then hauling ass as far as I could.

The gunshots and screams finally subsided and the buzzing eventually was lost on the wind the further I ran away. Feeling I had a moment I turned to see what had happened, pulling out a pair of binoculars from my pocket and looked at the settlement. The front gate had in fact been blown apart, tops of roves had been smashed inward and watching the last remnants of the city being carried off. I could hear the roars of engines coming down the road and I ducked behind some rocks, but kept an eye on who was out this late at night.

It was a convoy at least six auto trucks long, two were covered with canvassed backs but the other three sported massive anti-aircraft guns. Two were quad guns and the other was a heavy looking, single barreled gun and the middle truck of the unit had a large spot light on the back that was deactivated. All the trucks had headlights and lights over the driver and passenger side doors, and a light coming off the back of the auto truck cab, illuminating the cargo area. The trucks continued on down the road until they were just outside the city and I had to go back to the binoculars again to see what was happening.

The canvassed trucks disgorged a few dozen ponies while the spot light began shining into the night sky, illuminating dozens of black figures that were outside the range of my vision. The AA guns began firing hundreds of bullets, the sounds a rapid and deep thud, thud, thud as they riddled the night sky with tracer fire. The single barreled gun began to fire, a very deep, boom, boom, boom as large clouds of grey began appearing in the sky, only the slightest sign of an explosion, causing half a dozen of the black creatures to fall at a time. The black creatures tied flying right at the mounts in a great horde, but the combined fire of the three AA guns were killing them far faster than they expected, near a hundred dead within a minute. Movement tore my gaze to the weight station and I saw a dozen fly away from the guns, ponies underneath them as they took to the skies.

The fight was over in a couple of minutes and I could see pony shaped figures moving from the convoy into the town. I took that as a sign to leave and so I began on my trip again towards the city.

I was fairly confident that after what just happened, I could sleep another time, and continued into the night, using the lights of the massive white tower in the distance as a marker for direction.

***

The night had been thankfully rather quiet. I had been able to guide myself by the light of the city down the road, but it was pitch black and the station, which was now a ghost town. Hopefully it wouldn’t scare off traders, but I doubt the traders who had been there that night and escaped would forever forget that.

When the morning had rolled around though, bad thoughts about last night aside, I’d found a quiet town, or what looked like a town. As I got closer to the, “town”, I could see it was more like someone had camped out here and merchants just stopped by.

I saw that the camp was built on the side of the highway, easy to spot and had vendor stalls for each of the merchants to occupy, but other than that, it was a pair of shacks and some tents for others to occupy I supposed.

I saw a unicorn mare opening her door, stretching and giving a yawn, all things I’d pay to be able to be doing right now.

I hobbled over to her, feeling only a bit out of it from having not slept in awhile, and only slightly wobbling about like a drunkard. She watched me confusedly as I wandered into camp, stopping in front of her and sitting down.

“Ma’am… you wouldn’t happen to know where a pony can buy a bed for the day, would you?”

“Uhm…” She started, looking around and shrugging, “fifty caps and you get to use a tent?”

I dived into my bags, finding my caps and dropping a hundred in her hoof, “double, and nopony bothers me.”

I didn’t wait for a response and just chose the closest tent and with a very thud, fell onto my cardboard box mattress and passed out.

What felt like seconds later, I head metal clanking against each other, and chains. What do metal and chains have to do with each other. I opened my eyes and saw, the desert. I rolled over, and saw the damndest thing, manacles. I licked my lips as I began to ponder over what having my legs manacled together meant, but this was rather short lived, damn.

I felt a rifle butt hit my face and causing me to fall onto my back, nose bleeding, ow.

I looked to see more manacles being attached to my legs and a magical aura taking away my stuff, my gun belt unlatching itself and floating away, poop.

I raised my self up again and as I went to open my mouth to say something about how I didn’t pay for the kinky tent, another rifle butt hit me, and I fell again.

“Shut your mouth.” A stallion commanded, walking past and looking through my stuff. The mare floated my bag of caps up next to her then dropped it on her hoof, the bag giving a good clinking sound and her giving me a devilish smile.

“This bastard just walked up to me, gave me his money and then passed out in the tent. How fucking good do you have to be, thank you master!” the mare chuckled.

“Dumb fuck, and here I thought after the last haul it’d be awhile before we found anyone else to sell.” The stallion explained, reminding me that once again, I need to ask more questions before paying for my own enslavement.

I wasn’t much of a locksmith, but here’s hoping I told myself as I removed the bobby pin I kept under my tongue, just in case. I moved my foreleg manacles close and began picking, hoping that my bags were interesting enough to keep their attentions.

“The fuck? How’s anypony supposed to use these?” the stallion demanded.

“Dunno, probably broken, dumb fucker, walking into a camp with broken guns.” The mare said arrogantly, hawking a loogie and spitting.

I heard the pair saying something but couldn’t exactly tell what, then one pony was walking closer and one further away. I tried picking faster but again, I’m no good at it, so I just kept going, but I watched myself being dragged out of the tent, shit.

I was outside the tent in the center again, I could see that the shacks were really out houses, and the stalls were most likely abandoned. Sitting up, I could hear someone walking around the side of me, so I lowered my head and continued to pick, using my nose to cover the lock picking.

“Comon get up.” The stallion said, hitting my shoulder. I needed time, so I began to do my best poor pitiful me impression. I began to sniffle and cry, but tears were hard to conjure, so I began to bite the inside of my mouth, painful, and drew a few tears.

“Comon cry baby get up, gotta get you to the market before they start the bidding, I’m sure somepony can use your ass for target practice, or for mine clearing, whatever happens first.” He said dryly, hitting my shoulder again, which was not helping the whole, being bad at lock picking thing, but I was almost done, boy would he be in for a rude-

He hit me again and snarled, “Comon you dumb fuck!” he yelled, the hit knocking my bobby pin out of my mouth and knocking me onto my side, damn it!

Eye twitching, I tried thinking of something, anything, but I had nothing, fuck! He began dragging me away instead of waiting for me to go on my own terms, which besides the rocks and such hurting the underside of my jaw, was the time I needed to think, but think of what, crap!
I looked around, there were rocks, dirt, and, more rocks, there was nothing, what to do! I looked around, and spied it, my salvation, and my key to turning the tables. I rolled over onto my back, my duster getting caught underneath me and making me look ridiculous.

“Bathroom!”

He stopped, turning slowly to me, and gave me a look of, are you kidding me?! I just nodded a bunch and started gesturing to the bathrooms like an idiot. He face hoofed and started dragging me back towards the outhouses. Once there, I scampered inside like a filly and closed the door behind me. With a sigh, I began trying to think of what to do, I imagined I could over power him, but there was no telling what the unicorn was doing, for all I knew, she was getting the rest of their crew. I contemplated my options and came to the conclusion, that I was screwed and I was probably about to be sold into slavery, and the only escape attempt I could conjure, required I be on the toilet. I hate my life sometimes, a lot.

I heard the stallion banging on the door and telling me to get out. I looked around saw nothing, not a gun on the back of the door, no random melee tools forgotten inside, nothing, damn, these idiots were just smart enough to not make these too easy. Eye twitching again, I frantically searched and saw something very useful indeed on the floor, standing and grabbing it with my teeth.

The stallion knocked once more and told me to finish or he’d break his hoof off in my ass, which seemed more rather short sighted on his part, but that might be just me.

While I was over analyzing his threats though, he threw open the door, and I reacted. I was already bent over and flew out of the room, ramming my head into his gut and knocking the wind out of him and landing me on top of his chest. He was stunned for a second, so I began beating him with my manacled, steel capped hooves (why the fuck had I forgotten about those!) in the face. He rolled to the side, throwing me off and going for a knife, I kicked it from his mouth, and as he went to pick it up, I got to my hind legs and brought the chain around his neck, pulling back as hard as I could.

He began hitting his hooves against mine, but the manacles and caps blocked his attempts to break my grip. I wrenched his head violently, a confirming snap telling me he was dead, and I dropped to the ground in success.

Woohoo… wait.

Why was my ear cold?

I turned, looking up to see the mare was seething, her breaths heavy and hissing through her teeth, her horn glowing around a drum fed combat shotgun.

“Was that a no no?” I asked, refraining from smiling and then watching her swing a hoof across my face and my world going black.

Crap.

***

The sound of a loud motor revving awoke me, my eyes taking a moment to focus on where I was exactly, and my brain having trouble figuring out why I was on the road headed forwards, but facing backwards, very perplexing stuff.

I looked down and saw I was sitting atop a large metal covered wheel, going very fast. Looking over my shoulder I could see the mare, low to the motorcycle as she glided it down the road, the bike roaring as it flew down the road.

I was fairly impressed that these two had the ability to afford a motorcycle, but I wasn’t going to question how they transported slaves with something like this, or thought it was smart, but I didn’t care, I was now the proud owner of a bike, the mare just hadn’t realized it yet.

I saw my legs were chained together, inhibiting me from stretching very far apart, but that was fine, as I produced my trinket from the bathroom excursion. I began picking the lock again, and even with my shitty luck, I managed to pick up from where I left off, popping the lock immediately and freeing a hoof, which let the chain fall, crap it was falling. I lunged to grab it but it hit the road and began dragging, making a distinct sound, shit. I turned to see the mare had heard it and was going for something, I looked beside me and saw exactly what I wanted, grabbed it in my mouth just as she pushed me off the back of the cycle.

Tucking and rolling, I rolled along the ruined pavement and bounced, a lot, and it hurt, a lot.

Shaking off the whole, “being thrown off a bike going very fast feeling”, I managed to stand, staggering and falling, then repeating the gesture, but staying up right and shaking my head again. I could see the mare cut on the brakes and screeching to a halt, using the momentum to turn her around and facing me. She revved the engine a few times, I bent down and picked up my tool of choice. It was long, having aged well in the apocalypse and with a rather satisfying taste unlike some old shit ponies are forced to put in their mouths. The mare even at this distance was clearly smiling, giving me an evil eye and revving again. I turned to the side, looking at her and lifting up a hind leg and hitting the weapon against a hoof in both hooves, making sure it was good and solid and hearing the clunk, clunk. It was a nice sound and I thought, the best way to end this, “oh so fucked up”, encounter.

She gunned the engine, biting her tongue and staring at me extremely determined, the bike thrusting forward and roaring towards me. I hopped up and down a few times, getting nice and loose and shaking my head back and forth, I had only seen this in magazines, but if you’re going to learn something, you should try using it at least once. The mare was almost on me, seconds away. I closed my eyes, rolling my shoulders then, with the weapon under one hoof, I pointed the other off into the sky.

She was no more than two meters away as I dropped my pointed hoof to the weapon, managing to hold it between my hoof caps, bringing the weapon just past my right shoulder and hopping to the side just as she was a hoofs touch away.

“Swing batter, batter, batter, swing!” I yelled, bringing the aged baseball bat right into line with her face.

The scene slowed in all the excitement and allowed me to make out her priceless expression. Her eyes were wide in horrifying disbelief at me, with the left eye on the verge of twitching. Her mouth hanging wide open as she was asking, “how the hell-“, but of course she wouldn’t get to finish, the bat connecting with the left side of her head, exploding in a shower of splinters and ejecting her off the bike. The bike drove on for a few seconds and then crashed, the mare however was thrown back a few steps away from me and crashed to the ground in an oh so satisfying sound of crunching bone as tiny splinters of wood rained down.

I brought the handle of the bat onto my shoulder and took a deep breath, closing my eyes and mentally giving myself a pat on the back and nodding at how impressive that was. I thought back and remembering the book I had read, it really was just as easy as the book said, but they had used a ball. I looked down at the mare’s head, and nodded, close enough.

After tossing the remains of the bat, I swaggered over to the bloody heap that had been a mare and removed the key to the manacles, the manacles dropping to the ground with a heavy clank. It was nice being free again.

I walked over with a skip in my step to the bike, picking up my saddle bags and righting the bike. I gave the vehicle a quick once over, checking to make sure it looked serviceable still, and after all that had happened, it seemed fine. With the bikes repairs on the brain, I had nearly missed the noise coming from behind me, and turned to see the mare was still conscious. With a sigh, I dropped the kickstand to the bike and turned to the mare, her body horribly mangled and trying to crawl off to the side of the road.

I strapped on my bags, guns, and added her loot to mine and then, with a whistle, trotted rather gleefully back beside her on all four. I watched her stop moving and her right eye moving meet my gaze. Her eye was darn near completely red from blood vessels popping, was crying, but I felt this was fairly normal, being in the state she was, so I felt congratulations were in order.

“Wow! You’re still alive, that’s talented.” I said, taking a seat and gesturing at her whole body with my hooves, “Too bad you weren’t that good with anything else in your life, or you wouldn’t be here, bleeding on some random stretch of road.” I finished, giving her a smug smile. Looking around for a second, basking in the victory rather blatantly in front of her then taking a deep breath and smacking my lips a few times (damn I was thirsty, but that could wait), then looked down at her again.

“Should have just left me in the tent like I asked you to, very nicely I might add.” I told her, looking down at her broken body and just reveling in how well that had worked out, she didn’t return the sentiment obviously and instead just continued to cry.

“P-please, kill me.” She begged, coughing up a wad of blood, her eyes to rolling back in her head a bit.

She was tough, I’d give her that, being hit in the side of the head with a bat hurt, being thrown from a bike hurt too (as my recent experience told me), and being thrown from a bike with a bat and tossed to the ground, I’m sure was a whole different kind of pain.

I hardened my expression and glared at her, “You were about to enslave me. If you want to die, just do what you were just doing, being yourself, seems to have gotten you half way there.” I snarled.

If she thought she deserved any pity, she was looking to the wrong pony. I started walking away towards the bike, ignoring her cries of pain and begging for mercy.

I had never driven a bike before, but the mare seemed to be good at it to a degree (being knocked the fuck off, aside) and had shown me the basic mechanics. I mounted the bike and remembering what she had done, brought my fore-hoof down on the handle jutting out from where my legs would sit if I was in mid sprint, which is what it felt like, laying on my belly and my hind legs against the rear pegs. I turned the key with my mouth, the motor humming to life and then revved the engine, it was loud and powerful, like a powerful beast, snarling and roaring as it was preparing to be released. I revved it again and (after a fashion), got the kick stand up and drove the bike up alongside the dying mare, her eyes following me until I was now looking at the front of her face, the left side marked with the outline of the bat, swelling and very angry looking, her eye closed due to this and twitching, while the nose and mouth leaked blood onto the pavement.

“P-Please…” she asked, the roar of the bike almost completely nullifying her last request.

I thought about this just for a moment, and reached a conclusion. She would not have granted me anything as noble as a last request, nor given me a quick death had I been forced to live a horrid and painful life in some pony else’s services. With her final time on this earth, she would be allowed to think over her life in intense pain. Seeing how it had lead up to this very moment, and how the old saying still held true, “what goes around, comes around.”

I sped off into the distance, not looking back. The past few days had been rather, quick and simple, but that was life in the wastes it seemed. These were fucked up times, ponies behind armored walls and totting guns weren’t enough to stop the crazy stuff happening, it was enough to drive a pony crazy. Myself though, I just continued on, kept moving and kept my goals clear.

My goal right now, was to get to a place I could trust, get some sleep without worry of being enslaved or carried off in the night, and the only place right now that seemed able to do that, was the city. So I rode on, the white tower in the distance a goal marker, an indicator that they were almost there.

Trouble was, no matter how long you walked, or rode for, it was always so far away.

_______

( Based in the universe of Fallout Equestria By Kkat. http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/04/story-fallout-equestria.html )

(Pre-reading/ general help done by: Horus_Ascended, Msvman)

Chapter 2

Long ago this particular roadway was used daily, hundreds of vehicles coming and going to the city. The faded grey stretch of road now was barren, desert plains stretching for kilometers in every direction around it.

Looking on a particular area of the road walked a group of ponies surrounding a deformed creature strapped to a cart and carrying a heavy pack laden with all manner of tradable goods.

The creature that once had been a cow shook off the beads of sweat pooling at her brow.

“It’s so hot out here!” the two headed cow mutant whined.

“I know it is! It’s a desert, it’s always hot!” the lead stallion shouted at his charge.

The cow mutant only huffed and continued walking, four other ponies walking along side, some with guns at the ready, others just casually strolling along, but all had their eyes peeled for danger.

The lead stallion stopped for a moment and let the mutant cow pass him. He lowered his head and turned one of the dials on the radio strapped to the side of the cow mutant, the volume to the song growing louder and the stallion bobbing his head and tapping his hooves to the beat and then moving back to his place at the lead of the formation.

The song, heavy on trumpet and trombone, played loud enough for the entire caravan to hear.

“Might want to turn that down Swing, no telling who is out here listening.”

The stallion just turned to the mare with a big grin on his face, “Relax girl. Nothing is going to happen-“

There was a shot, the lead pony’s head exploded. The others frantically searched for the shot, the mare just hurled herself to the ground in her heavy combat armor and battle saddle with a thud and the others followed suit.

The group continued looking around, they could see no shooter. The stallion at the rear of the formation called out, “See anything?”

The mare said nothing, wishing she had seen the direction the shot impacted so that she would know what area was safe to take cover in. She told herself it was a trap, a raider ambush, or a gang, something. She needed to get out of here, she knew this would be her end if she didn’t move, but she was too scared.

Whoever this pony was, they were good, and they were probably relocating, or just waiting for them to get up, her mind told her. She cursed her luck, knowing she shouldn’t have taken this job, but she, like most in the wastes, needed the caps.

Minutes began to slowly creep by achingly slow when all of a sudden the group began to hear a faint rumbling noise coming down the road. The group turned to each other shrugging, the mare however, turned to look down the road, spying something in the distance. She turned to the cow, urging it to get down in take cover, but it just stood there, eating and tapping it’s hooves to the beat of the song.

Squinting in an attempt to make out what was on the road, her expression changed to confusion at what she thought she saw. She had seen many scattered about the wastes, usually in groups or tipped on their sides, but rarely in working order.

The group of caravan ponies watched the motorcycle drive into view, a light powder blue pony drove closer to them and then stopped, putting a hoof down and looking at the group crouched on the ground with a pony missing his head, raising an eyebrow.

“You guys alright, need some directions or something?” he asked nonchalantly.

“There’s a sniper! He got Swing dance!” one of the caravan guards explained, keeping his voice low as if the sniper was listening in.

The pony on the bike just looked around for a moment and then back at the stallion, “Must have been a disgruntled customer, anyhow, get out off the road, highway sees a fair amount of crazy drivers who love hitting ponies just for hell of it.” The pony said, causing the mare’s eyes going wide and ears folding against her skull.

The caravanners said nothing, the bike pony just nodded his head for a moment and then inhaled deeply, “Okee dokey… you guys, uhhmm… you guys have fun with the sniper thing. Oh, and if you do die for… whatever reason, try to do it to the side of the road. If there are bodies on the road, no one is going to clean them up, sooo… yea, good luck.” He said with a sarcastic tone, muttering something about morons and rolling his eyes then gunning the engine and speeding off.

The caravan watching him drive on until he disappeared on the horizon, then turned to each other, the cow just eating some of foliage on the side of the road now, it’s lips smacking together, “Nice pony, cool bike too.” It said then began trotting on.

The other caravan members eventually got to their hooves and joined the insane bovine as they continued towards the large white spire in the distance.

Chapter 2:

♪ I'm on my way to the promised land ♫

“Good morning Los Pegasus. This is your morning news from the beacon of hope in the wastes, Masters Tower.”

Riding through the rest of the afternoon and the night, I had finally managed to reach the outskirts of the city, no more than a few dozen kilometers to the actual walls of the city, but this was as far as I needed to go for anything. The radio broadcast from the city was available to anyone as long as they had an antenna that could catch it. Masters tower acting as a massive radio dish that allowed for nearly anyone to hear it, but the bike had only started getting radio broadcasts last night, the radio on this thing was shit. For the most part though the radio was mainly for updates of the city, and although they did some stories on surrounding areas, it mainly was for city people.

I continued listening to the radio as I continued riding towards my destination, the cracks of gunfire and constant sounds of automatic fire told me I was in the right area, or at least close.

“I welcome everyone to Master’s station. Now let us jump right into the news of today, The Master Engineers have just activated another block of lighting in the city and from reports out along the highway, they have also worked on nearly three kilometers of lighting for you late night travelers, well done engineers. On another topic for you out on the highway, I would just like to thank the vigilant efforts of our noble security forces, who last night, responded to a call that Big Rig, was attacked. The reports, sad to say, do not look good, and I am sorry to say that nearly everyone there, has been killed. But do not despair, upon the arrival of our fair cities security forces, they killed every attacker they came across, killing hundreds within the first minute of the encounter, good work security. Our hearts go out to those poor souls at Big Rig.”

Of course listening to that had brought back the memories of that night a few days ago, the ponies being taken away into the night and that colt, damn shame.

I listened to the radio go on about other works in progress through the city, the possibility of a water purifier for the city, other engineering project, how the war was going, ect. All of these were the main topics the city concentrated on, mainly things that benefited the whole. After the news came updates on the war, how we were doing and anything to note, which usually were how we weren’t losing, but we weren’t winning, but it was never put that way. The final notes, the main thing ponies on the outskirts were more interested in, was how the gang war was going, and who was winning here. I listened to the results and for the most part the list was the same as the last time I had been here, a few gangs having been removed from the list or a few new ones joining in, all moot really. The overall message was that the Lead dragons, the primary security force for Los Pegasus, were still the best, and that they were the only ones deserving of any attention, everyone else either needed to drop dead, or step up their game.

The voice on the radio finally said that was all and cued the music to start, a snappy set of trumpets and drums then breaking to a piano and drums, very hoof tapping kind of music, which was a shame since I was driving. So I turned the radio off and gunned the engine, hoping to get a rest soon, sitting like this was actually starting to feel weird.

About fifteen minutes later I finally spied the gates of my destination. I pulled up the gates of the place, the old world letters on the side of the building calling it “son tor”, the other letters having fallen off from time or fighting, who knew . Stopping at the gate I could see they were just the old world factory doors, but with a lot more plating on them. I spied the guard looking through an impact hole on the second story of the building, I tipped my hat and he just disappeared, the doors opening a few seconds later and I rode inside.

The interior of the place was very spacious, it even sported an area for travelers to stow their vehicles. I pulled my bike into an area next to an auto-chariot and parked it, setting down the kick stand and dismounting.

Walking towards the main living part of the town, I could see that the place on its own, had no rooms and with roof, wasn’t exactly great in the rain, or a dust storm, or much of anything. But, the town was still here, the merchants and township itself having crafted two story high shanty homes and stalls in the center of the building, the outer areas being used for defense and movement around the town. The building was about a kilometer in length and about half that in width, easily one of the larger towns I had visited.
I made my way into the town, hoping to get to the market stalls and see what they were selling today, but first, food. Wandering through the streets I could see the concrete floors were covered in straw and garbage or bare concrete, but in some areas there were craters, piping snaking through it and filled with puddles of water. The first time I had visited this place I had wondered what drew ponies here. Sure there were fairly thick walls, but there was no roof for Mater’s sake, who lives in a building with no roof? As I navigated closer to the city center though, I could see the reason why.

In the pre-war era water purifiers were probably not a norm, hence why they were hard to come by, but in some places, like stables or places catering to the rich and elite there might have been some, this wasn’t the latter. At the center of town sat a single large piece of machinery with a once hidden stair case at the base that once lead to the stable below, now had a large pipe trailing out of it and connecting to the sprinkler system above it, tiny pipes come down from where the sprinkler heads once were and now feeding pure water into most homes or places of business. I was impressed the very first time I had seen this, and even now, it was still impressive.

Sontor was an interesting place with clean running water and its location was ideal, it was only a few minutes off the highway, so most traders used this as their primary hub for trade, selling it to people here and then heading back home, leaving the town’s inhabitance to sell away the goods they had bought at a price to the city. Also with its location being outside city limits, it meant it wasn’t subject to the crazy gang fighting taking place on the city outskirts.

Music played over the speaker system to the place, giving the place a much more friendly feeling, which was a rare instance in the wastes. Walking down a side street I spied a place that at least claimed it had food, so I corrected my path and started towards the place known as “The Wrong Turn.”

The Wrong Turn was just a shanty building, the thing setting it apart though, was that there was a milk auto-wagon crashed in the side, and from the looks of it, the vehicle was still functional, the motor idling as it sat crashed in the wall.

With a hoof I pushed back the swinging door and was greeted with the smell of a dirty, dank and booze filled pub. The light from the doorway only came inside so far, probably more afraid of the individuals in here than anything else and as I closed the door the light retreated back into the safety of the outside.

Trotting through the bar, keeping my head level and my gaze as cold and ruthless as anyone else in the bar, I maneuvered around the oh so large and shaggy occupants of the stable, who I believe I forgot to mention were buffalo, massive, four times the size of a pony, buffalo. Other races occupied the bar too, groups of cloaked zebra sat in the shadows, black carapace creatures known as changelings sat with others in the bar, most in groups of their own with other pony sitting with them, whom I suspected were also changelings.

I trotted up to the bar and took a seat on a bar stool and ordered a drink, a minute later a frothy mug slid up to me and I took a drink, suddenly remembering I wanted food and letting out an annoyed sigh and banged my head against the bar, damn it.

“You still owe me Fell, pay up!” the gruff voice demanded.

I slowly wheeled around in my chair, mug attached to my hoof and head tilted to the side. It was a rather large white stallion covered in tattoos and missing patches of his coat. He needed a bath, smell aside, he looked disgusting, but what he lacked in hygiene, he more than made up for in scars, a large one running over his left eye and his mane buzzed off and replaced with bolts. Very charming fellow I’m sure.

“I owe you… why?” I asked, having never seen this pony before… I think.

The rather large pony rushed me, forcing my head against the bar, “You tried to run out on our card game, you owe me five hundred caps!” he explained rather loudly in my ear.

He gave me a shove and took a seat next to me, I rubbed a hoof along the side of my head, slowly turning to glare at him.

“So, you’re gonna do a little job for me, do it, and we’re square.” he stated harshly, but I just shook my head, “Don’t work for peanuts, I’ll have your money tomorrow.”

The stallion just sat there, staring at me and then began to smile. With three taps of his hooves on the bar the door opened again, light spilling in from the much more illuminated street outside and the sound of heavy hoof steps walking inside.

I didn’t turn, and instead, just finished my mug off since I was probably about to lose it, but as I went to take a sip, some pony blitzed the bar and hit me from behind with something, damn it.

I heard more hoof steps rush up and begin hitting me, kicking and stomping, it hurt, sort of, and after the longest minute or two, they stopped. One of them spit on my face and then they left, but I felt someone move in close and whisper, “Have my money, or I’ll let them just kill you next time.”

I gurgled my reply and he just punched me in the side of the head, what was a little bit more head trauma anyways.

Rolling onto my stomach I stood up and walked out, some of the patrons in the bar watching as I just strolled over to an empty table, a skip in my step as more jazzy music began to play over the radio. My head hit the table with a loud thud, probably shouldn’t have done that, but oh well.

“Ahem?” a mare’s voice asked.

I flipped my head over to face her, my eyes kind of meeting hers as she started examining my face more clearly horrified by what had happened, but before she could ask anything, I placed my order for food, water, and some a pillow if they had one. The mare just nodded and scampered out of sight.

I was seriously tempted to close my eyes, but as I started I heard someone pull up a chair- make that two, two people took a seat at my table, and I was not in the mood to turn to face them, so I just sat there ignoring them.

But again I wasn’t allowed to be alone, and they began talking to each other about how their days had been. I slid my head on its side until I could see them both and just stared, eyes wide in feigned interest at their conversation. They were a aged zebra and earth pony, both in patch work clothing that was covered in pockets that were jammed packed with all sorts of trinkets, spoons, knives, paper, you name it I bet they had it. Never mind, I knew one thing they didn’t have, “You guys alright there? Doing ok?”

The pair looked at each other then nodded slowly at me.

“Good, just wanted to make sure my bleeding interrupting your conversation. So please, resume your conversation.” I said, nodding my head awkwardly on the table.

“Hey we didn’t knows you were awake, we thoughts you was asleep.” The earth pony explained, and I was inclined to cut him a break had my head not felt like someone had beaten the shit out of it, but oh wait, it had.

The ponies stopped looking at me for a second, their gaze drifting to something behind me, great.

I slowly turned, finally forced to lift my head off the table and look at someone, but if I was to do this against my will, I’d make sure it was the most hate filled stare I could manage, all my hate. However there was no one behind me, great, now I was being tricked by a couple of old fa-

I saw a hoof wave in front of my face and I looked down, my hate stare mixing into confusion, which apparently was funny to the little pony I was now glaring at. He was a small tan unicorn pony with a dirty blonde mane that was a mess, but not in a struggling pony sort of mess, just a mane style I supposed. He just stared up at me with a large pair of lavender colored eyes and a massive grin. He raised a hoof and sat there, hoof raised in the air, bracing it after a minute and then waving it a bit.

“I think he wants you to… pick him?” the zebra said behind me.

That had been my guess too, but I couldn’t bring myself to accept it, so I did the next best thing.

“Who the fuck are you pipsqueak, because unless you’re my waiter and brining my order, get lost.” I said, turning back to the table and slamming my head on the table, ignoring how stupid I looked, the pony trotting away, hopefully getting my food.

The ponies continued on talking for at least five minutes before my food arrived, the mare waitress brining it, but with no pillow, oh well. I munched down on my grilled carrot and jalapeno pepper kebab, eating peacefully for nearly the whole meal before I could see that hoof again, waving at me.

As I turned to face him, I wondered if stabbing him with a skewer would be considered assaulting a child or an adult. I was sorely tempted to try my luck, but apparently he took my expression as a cue to talk, damn it.

“Hello, my name is Red Shirt and…” he suddenly looked perplexed and brought up a hoof and continued, “and I was very much hopping… no wait that’s not right...“ he said, pulling out a pencil and scribbling something on the bottom of his hoof and then cleared his throat, “Hello, my name is Red Shirt, and I was hoping… to request you to help me on a… pic? Oh, right. I was hoping, to request you to help me on an epic quest, filled with danger and untold peril. Will you help me?” he finished rapidly, giving me a large, nervous grin. Was he sweating?

My hate had washed away, replaced with only confusion, great mounds and heaps of confusion. Not confusion as to why I hadn’t punted this pony out the window, but completely baffled at the fact that… I wanted to help him. I need something stronger than water, now.

I shook my head to rid this pony’s whimsical spell he held over me and glared at him, not angrily, but genuinely wanting to hear this proposal, hoping it was a good enough story so that when I kicked him out on his ass I’d at least be laughing.

“What’s this “epic quest” kid?” I asked making the quotes with my hooves.

“Oh, uhm… it’s… uhm…” the kid looked back down at his hoof, chuckled, looking at me and feigned smacking his hoof against it, “forgot it’s on the other one, one second.” Raising the other hoof he began reading off it, the whole time I came to the realization that he was wearing a pipbuck on his right leg. The techno arcane device was a marvel of unicorn and earth pony science, or so the stupid brochure had claimed when I was pinning down inside of a Stable-Tec building, good read while waiting for a turret to run out of ammo. I shook myself out of the memory and found that the pony was not trying to read text off one of his read hooves, hugging with hind leg with wobbling around on his back. I had to speak up or I was afraid I would do something rash.

“Hey… kid? Uhm… how bout using the… yea know…” I said, trying to let him fill in the gaps while I gestured at the pipbuck.

He just looked at the device, then at me, then the device, then me, again.

“Why, it doesn’t know what I’m looking for.” He replied, and then began wrestling with a hind hoof again.

My mouth just hung open, and I said nothing, my face contorted into sheer disbelief, how… how was he still alive? It hit me suddenly, I pushed myself back from the table, thanked the gentlecolts for their conversing and started running towards the door, at least I thought I was running, it seemed more like walking, why was I walking, run damn you legs!

The boy spied me leaving and hopped up and raced after me, forcing me to continue my internal struggle.

“I found it, I had put it in my pocket for safe keeping.” He assured me, “My stable sent me to find some pony, to help me, bring back… something.”

I stopped, turning to him, why was I indulging this moron!

“Something meaning… what?” I asked. Shut up and walk away damn you!

“Uhm… I don’t really know? They were really just interested in me getting this thing quickly, they kept shoving me towards the exit.” He explained.

“Well… ok, how are you supposed to find this… something, if you have no idea what it is, tell me that?” I asked, pushed open the door and making my way out onto the street, the kid right behind me.

“Uhm… I dunno. I’m sure we could go back and ask them.” He said beaming at me.

I nodded and continued to play along, wait when had I given into indulging this pony!?

“How much are we talking? My rates for “epic quests” can be fairly high.”

“Oh I don’t have any money.” He said cheerfully.

I froze in place, of course you whore! Hear something about money and you’ll stop.

I turned to him, arching an eyebrow, “No money?”

He nodded.

“I don’t work for free. Scram.”

I began walking away, heading towards the market to see if anyone had managed to find anything good and trade to a weapon merchant her, but I could still hear hoof steps behind me, so I turned to see he was trailing right behind me.

“Seriously, if you don’t have anything to pay for this thing, I got nothin’.”

He frowned and then began looking at his hooves again as if he had written down an explanation or a retort he had yet to use. I continued towards the market and yet again found he was following me.

My shoulders slumped and I turned to him to him with hooves outstretched, “Go away…” , but he was adamant and when I stopped, he’d check a hoof, but it seemed like he had nothing so I left and he followed.

I didn’t have time for this lost puppy routine, so I sprinted towards an alley way, the pony in hot pursuit.

“Wait up!” he cried, but I just began dodging and weaving through alley ways, finally coming to a dead end. I did a 180 and saw the kid crash right into me, his head knocking against mine and pushing me off balance, causing me to fall to the dirt.

Growling and wanting to punch the kid I heard multiple hoof steps behind me and looked up to see ponies behind the kid too, damn it!

The exit was the most well guarded, a zebra and a pair of heavy earth ponies and I doubted the dead end was filled with teddy bears.

“What’s behind me kid.”

He looked at me and gulped, “There’s a unicorn and an earth pony.”

Nodding I moved my hooves to my holsters, keeping the awkward landing and using it and my duster coat to block the view of my weapons.

“Are they going to rob us?” the kid asked, but there was far less fear on his face than I had expected, he was barely shaking. I examined the weapons and from the looks of things, it didn’t look like they wanted just my bottle caps.

“When it happens, it’ll happen fast, just keep down and out of my way.”

“Wh-what are you going to do? Kill them?”

“These aren’t squirt guns kid.”

The boy nodded and sat perfectly still, my hooves already connected to the guns and waiting for the moment, whatever it would be.
I heard hooves behind me approaching, but I kept my eyes on the zebra mare and friends, the mare taking a few steps forward and giving me a blood thirsty smile, “Make them-“

She wouldn’t finish that statement.

Hind legs springing me backwards I felt myself slam into someone, my fore-hooves already bringing the guns out and on the zebra’s friends. Both fired at the same time and both impacted the large earth pony’s heads before they could even realize I’d shot, the backs of their skulls tearing open and gore flying out. I didn’t sit long enough to even watch the bodies fall, swinging my body to the right and waiting for a target.

A dark brown earth pony charged at me with a massive wrench in an over head swing. I side stepped, his weight carrying himself in front of my right gun and fired, the shot easily going through the skull and flying into a nearby wall, piercing the shoddy shanty metal.

The unicorn had a massive hammer that she held in her magical aura, the hammer already swinging low for my legs. I hopped back, firing two shots but both impacted the thick head of the hammer and were stuck, damn it.

She charged, head low and trying to spear me with her horn but I feigned right, putting her between me and the zebra.

Now on the side of the stumbling mare, I fired a shot pointblank right through her fore-leg shoulders, the shot’s power probably crippling them unless she got magical medical attention and stopped her, the scream coming from her was very loud and whiny. The zebra preformed a front flip, clearing the kid and landing just within hoof reach, not the place to be against a zebra.

Enacting my plan to combat the zebra mare, I grabbed the hammer mare as she fell and brought her just in front of me, the zebra’s first punch hitting low, the blow causing a fountain of blood to erupt from the mare’s mouth as the zebra’s blow probably crushed her intestines. I kicked the mare away and fired two shots through her back, the zebra saw this action coming and easily dodged it.

What the zebra could never have counted on was how powerful the shots were. The mare, now in an incredible amount of pain, was split in two by both shots cracking and releasing a plume of energy that exploded with a crack and threw the zebra off balance.

Seizing the moment I tried moving in close for the kill, the zebra recovered quickly, hopping to her hind legs and coming at me with a hoof strike to the right arm, the blow hammering against my shoulder with a meaty thump. I returned the favor by trying to swing at her from the left which she side stepped to move away from and ran into my other hoof, stopping her for just a moment and rammed my forehead into her face, the metal on my head cracking against her nose and causing blood to gush everywhere.

Not finished, my head now at her neck line and my right hoof grabbing her waist, my other hoof holstering and I threw my weight into her, smashing her against the wall. She slammed her hooves against my sides, but when I wouldn’t let go, she squirmed out of my grip, flipping over and landing behind me, right where I wanted her, my left hoof holstered at my side but still locked to the gun, I fired, the weapon’s shot discharging with a loud crack and boom then the sound of the mare impacting the wall a few meters behind us.

Standing up straight, knowing I needed a healing potion badly, I holstered the left gun for real and turned, my duster swishing in the wing and resting just behind me. The zebra sat up against the wall with both hooves trying to cover the hole in her gut, not even trying to stand. I could see the earth pony bucks were all dead with good head shots, the mare, to my annoyance, was still alive and weeping and hacking in the lap of the kid who sat horrified. I heard coughing and moaning from the zebra and I whirled around to glare at her with every ounce of my rage.

I took a few steps forward and smacked my metal hoof against the side of her head eliciting a cry of pain.

“Don’t like being hit do you, shit hurts doesn’t it!”

I crouched and punched my empty hoof into her gut wound and she howled in pain, but I kept just kept the pressure on and then punched it again. The mare’s eyes started to close and she began to turn a bit red. I put an ear to her chest, her heart was faint and he was very sweaty, blood dripping from her mouth onto me. I pushed her angrily onto her side and stood up and started walking away, pissed that she was dying before I was finished.

The kid was still where I had last seen him, the cold half a corpse still in his hooves and as I moved closer, I would have sworn he was crying. With a hind-hoof, I lifted the corpse off him and kicked him onto his back, he face on the verge of full blown weeping, it was disgusting I thought, rolling my eyes and sighing.

I said nothing and brought myself onto all four, trotting back to the main street to go on with my day.

***

Out of the, oh so annoying alley way, and back into the main street. Once again I tried heading to the market just as a few of the city guards came rushing up and barely brushing past me as I lowered my hat just a bit. But guards and crazy alley morons, the trek to the market was worth it, tons of vendor stands sat around the area, houses acting as boarders and consolidating all the trade to this area like a funnel. I spied several gun merchants, but most looked small time, though it was always the small time merchants who carried the interesting trinkets, so I started with each one, but to no avail.

I needed sleep, but my priorities were bullets first and the only ways to get them were through gun merchants (who usually didn’t even know what kind I was talking about half the time,) and through more dangerous means.

It was a fairly average building, still just a shack, but with colorful neon lights on the outside declaring they were “Salvage brokers”, and that they were open for business. I stepped inside and could see it was a waiting room, a couple of zebra’s waiting in chairs and a large bull headed monster sat behind a desk dressed in a only slightly worn out dark gray suit. He was at the desk on a terminal typing something when I came in, looking up at me for just a second and then returning to typing. I walked over to the desk and sat down, the desk nearly concealing me, it was big but then again, he was a big guy, two meters tall at the least.

I looked around on the desk, wondering how to get his attention properly. A sign sat off to the side made of card board, “Ring bell for service.” I looked at the minotaur, still ignoring me and rolled my eyes, and tapped the stupid bell.

The minotaur sprung to life, turning to me with a big smile, “May I help you sir?” his voice deep and booming, but strangely charismatic.

“Uhm, yea. I need to know what jobs you guys have in the area.”

“What kind of jobs? Military salvage, medical, robotics?”

“Military. Primarily military complexes dealing in R&D.”

The minotaur turned back to his console and began tapping away at the keyboard and then with a hand on chin he glared at the screen.

“I had one… but it looks like it’s taken? Strange.”

“Taken how?”

He leaned closer to the screen and pushed a few keys and then shrugged at me, “Dunno, a site can’t be “taken” like this.”

“well if I can still take it I will.”

Shaking his head he explained, “If it’s full I can’t sign you up for it, sorry sir. I have some other military sites that need extra help or a pony good with terminals.”

I declined and thanked him for his time, asking if they had a bathroom. He nodded and pointed just down the hall. I went inside and closed the door. I needed that address, and so I tried to think of a way to get him away from the terminal for a second. I started pacing around, waiting for something to hit me, but nothing did. Turning I lost track of where I was in the room and rammed a leg into the toilet, ow! I was about to curse at the device when I realized, this could work.

I ran out to the front desk, covered in water, “The toilet exploded, it’s crazy!”

The minotaur turned suddenly, aghast at the news and raced down the hall. Craning my neck back I could see when he was far enough away and walked over to the terminal and began working the keys to get to that address. From what I could tell, the company sold the locations of the loot to people or helped find scavenging jobs for ponies desperate enough to risk their neck versus old world security systems. I found the building I wanted and when I tried to find out more, I found that the contents had been deleted, only the location remained. Someone was trying hard to keep this find a secret, which meant I wanted it more.

I heard the minotaur coming down the hall. I had what I needed and I sprinted for the doorway, hearing him asking, “who tries to flush a plunger down the drain.”

***

The rest of the afternoon I spent gathering some supplies and needed supplies then headed out, using the rest of the daylight to get to my destination and hopefully, would arrive at the installation by night fall.

Gunning the engine down the highway I tried keeping along the route I’d been told to take from the pony I’d asked about the address. He said that the place was north-east of us, about a six hour walk. After getting the general area from the pony I’d made sure to buy a scavenger’s map and look for noted wasteland land marks (gang territory, raider dens, areas known of a certain beast, ect.) and plotted the best route I could think of through raider territory, the other routes heading through gang land and I’d rather not deal with any of their city shit.

At about three hours out from Son Tor, no one had bothered me yet. Which would be good in a normal world, but that’s not the kind of world we lived in.

After a few more minutes of riding hard across the open desert plain I could make out a set of ruins and thought they might be on the map, giving me an estimate as to where I was. So altering my course I began veering right and heading towards the town.

I stopped just outside the city, pulling out my binoculars and checking the buildings and such.

The city itself, was incomplete, probably still a work-in-progress even before the bombs dropped. I could make out a few pony shaped silhouettes wandering around, but I wasn’t close enough to see any weapons, possibly just a regular town. I couldn’t see a name on the city from here, but it was possible it wouldn’t be on the map anyway, but I’d try anyway and headed towards the town.

As I drove up the towns people just glanced at me then returned to their duties. I found a parking area between an unfinished concrete structure and a grocery store and pulled the bike next to a wrecked auto-chariot.

Stepping onto the half finished side walk I started looking for someplace of interest, primarily a town hall or an official building. But there was nothing, no completed town hall or anything, just a lot of half built buildings and hobo ponies wandering around, nothing of interest, great.

I flagged down the first pony that trotted past me, he just stopped and stared, not the least bit intimidated, just confused.

“Can I help you.” The mare asked, her tone more annoyed and aggravated than curious.

“Uhm, yea… what is this place?”

“This is esst Siie.” She said with a bit of a stutter, her expression completely unchanged the whole time.

“Interesting name. So… got a map to help me find out where I am, kinda mixed up out here.” I said, turning side to side with my hooves raised.

The mare just blinked and walked away, great.

From the looks on all the pony’s faces, this was a swell town, the clearly lacking smiles on their faces meant that this was a place you could trust.

I figured that the unfinished town hall would be the best place to start, so I thought, what the heck and started trotting towards it. Trotting in that direction I began trotting across the small park like area, a few dead trees dotted the area with decaying benches on hoof paths. All these though were normal, what was not normal, was the grass… because there was grass. I leaned down to examine it, it looked like any grass I’d ever heard of, green and shiny. Too shiny though. Curiosity got the better of me, I licked a blade of grass and arched back, my tongue and mouth spasming at the foul tasting… thing, that I had just licked. I looked closer and bit at the blade, my tongue retreating to the back of my mouth while I fought with it, the grass not wanting to come up and finally forcing me to give up. I glared at the evil grass and accepted that some pony might have overzealously, and stupidly, warded their grass. Nothing said dedication than keeping your grass alive through the apocalypse.

The rather embarrassing defeat by the lawn just forced me towards the town hall faster, the idea of some random pony in a hat and duster driving into town and then fighting your immortal grass would be rather hilarious to watch, as long as you aren’t that pony. However, grass fight aside, no one had tried saying anything, no one laughed at the moron on the grass, no one insulted me.

The only thing that this said, this town needed to loosen up.

Trotting over and moving up the stairs of the central structure I found the doors to the town hall, which were rather impressive. The paint was peeling and faded on rotted wood paneled doors. It would have made an impressive building if they had finished it, but yea know, end of the world and such, usually puts a damper on plans. The doors looked thick, and so I thought a good push would do it. I stood up and with both fore-hooves, shoved the front doors open, they weren’t thick, and they weren’t in good condition, oops. I fell on my face as the doors flew open with ease and fell to the ground.

I sneezed and a few coughs, the dust having been unsettled and now floating through the air as I waved the dust away from my eyes and struggling to my hooves.

Coughing and squinting through the dust, I could see that whoever had built this town were some cheap bastards. The place was filled with wooden crates and mannequins, who the hell needs this many sewing dummies? Crossing the room, I walked along side one of the crates and read the shipping label that was terribly faded but the words were easy to make out, the three letter organization making me take a few steps back towards the exit.

What was the Royal Equestria Army doing with mannequins in this town?

I ran calmly out of the building, trying to not look any weirder than I already did to these ponies and tried moving to one of the more populated places of town. The ponies on the sidewalks and sitting on the benches still ignored me.

I reached the side walk, slowed my pace and calmly approached the nearest pony on a bench. Give them a big smile Fell Iron!

“The fuck is going on with this town?” I demanded, glaring questioningly at the pony just sitting on the bench, a sparkle cola in his hooves.

He just drank his cola and said nothing, not even looking at me. Rude old buck I thought, moving in front of him and waving a hoof in his face, his concentration not even broken.

I turned and looked behind me towards where my bike was stored, my eye brow slowly rising. The same mare, glasses and chain trotted down the street, the same way. I turned to the buck and slapped the cola out of his hooves, or at least tried to. The cola wouldn’t budge and the buck just sat there, then took a drink. I looked closer to see that his fur was matted and filthy, and that the bottle was actually plugged at the end, the soda hitting the plug and then sloshing around inside the bottle, constantly. I watched a mare and filly walk along side, their movements seeming normal at first glance, but I looked closer. They walked yes, normally no. Their posture was perfect, their movements almost clockwork.

I wanted to test a theory, so I pulled myself up, drew my left pistol and keeping my eyes on the filly and mother approaching me as I held up this buck, but none of them moved, they didn’t even stop. I fired and the shot easily passed through him and embedded itself in the sidewalk below, but he just moved the cola to his mouth.

Okay, freaky ville, that had to be the name, no doubt about it. I looked around and could see ponies still going about their business, not bothered by the firearm discharge. My eyes darted about, looking for anyone normal when I spied something on the mountain in the distance. I pulled out my binoculars and zoomed them the best they could to see what was on the hill. What I saw was a large radio tower looking device with a large object dangling from the top.

Why did the tower have a magical radiation warning on it?

It hit me like a ton of bricks and backing up slowly I holstered my pistol, turned on my hoof, dropped to all four and ran as fast I could towards my bike. Leaping onto the back of the bike and sliding my hooves into place, I revved the engine and spun the bike one eighty, letting the break go and surging forward. The same mare with glasses walked into view and stepped out in front of me. The bike slammed into her, crushing her beneath the wheels and nearly throwing the bike off balance. I hit the brakes and turned, the mare’s body just sitting there, the limbs still moving and her lips still moving, repeating the same statement, “This is Tsst tie 4.”

***

An hour after of getting as far from that place as I could, I found a sign saying that “WARNING, R.E.A property, restricted weapons proving grounds.”

I made a mental note to avoid this place like a plague and after awhile I found a small community just on the outskirts, who apparently, believed it was haunted with the spirits of the ponies from before the war. I knew they weren’t spirits, but I wasn’t interested in staying any more than I had, radioactive posters under the warning sign assured me that was the smart thing.

Creepy old world city aside though, I was able to find out where I was on the map and continue towards the military complex unhindered. The trip taking the majority of the afternoon though and I watched the light slowly beginning to fail as I rode across the plain, the motorcycle kicking up a dust cloud behind me.

The flat plains began to become much more uneven, eventually becoming hills and forcing me to find a road so that I could continue, the bike not designed for such terrain.

I found a road not too far out of the way, the light failing and telling me I needed to hurry up and find some place to retire for the evening. After some thought though, I was closer to the facility than any town, or so the map told me, having to take a few stops on the abandoned road way and double check my surroundings.

Stopping the bike for at least the fifth time, I brought down the kick stand and sat up, digging into a pocket and searching for my map and then laying it out in front of me. Using a hoof and tracing my path, I took out a pencil and began dotting the route I believed I had taken, hoping to follow it back when I was done.

The sunlight was nearly gone and I had no portable light except for what the bike generated but the faint aura from the gauge dials and such were useless to plot a course.

Hoof to my chin I began trying to figure my next best course when my ears began to twitch, trying to turn. I followed the direction they wanted to point towards and watched rocks falling onto the road way from in front of, a hill obscuring the turn ahead. I tried to focus on the area, a hoof moving to my holster, prepared to draw and fire.
I heard a whistle and racing around the corner were four massive dogs, patches of fur missing and their eyes glowing red, fangs barred and running straight for me.

I moved my hoof away from my holster to the handle and opening the throttle, the bike roaring to life and racing towards the dogs. I closed the distance within seconds, two dogs dead center and one on each flank. Hitting the brake I swerved the bike broadside into one of the central dogs, slamming against it and throwing it back, but the other strafed out of the way and now was behind me.

Letting go of the brake the bike leapt forward and straight into the side of the flanking dog, his reflexes good enough only to turn him just in time to see my front tire impact his face, the bike crushing him beneath it and nearly toppling me off the bike. Just in front of me was a embankment leading down to the plains, a good four meter fall.

The first dog leapt into view and latched onto my shoulder, the other missing and hitting the rear of the bike but recovering quickly. I turned and bit the dog’s muzzle with everything I had, blood filling my mouth as the dog began to cry out in pain and releasing me.

Gunning the engine and swerving the bike in the opposite direction of the attack I flew down the road and put some good distance between me and the dogs, screeching to a halt and looking to see what had happened.

The dog from the initial attack was struggling to stay up, but the dog’s drive to kill me was keeping it going, slowly, but it was still up. Bloody muzzle dog and his partner were sprinting towards me, their handlers finally coming out from the cover of the hill, sub machine guns blaring but missing me completely.

Bringing the bike facing towards my attackers I had only seconds before the dogs were on me again. I got low in the seat, my chest resting on the central portion of the bike and my chin resting on a perch just above the front wheel housing. My fore-hooves pulled back in their handle housings and revved the engine a few times, then my hind hooves released the brakes and the bike shot forward like a bullet, passing the dogs, their rancid breath faintly visible in the wind rushing towards me, but I kept my eyes on the prize.

The pony handlers were a pair of unicorn stallions in leather armor and both carrying levitating SMGs and firing them from their mouths. I didn’t focus on their colors or their manes. I concentrated on how far apart they were in relation to me as my bike quickly approached them, their bullets flying all around me.

The wounded dog in the road was the obstacle just before the handlers, I removed my right hoof from its place and let it hang out along the bike, the dog taking the bait and latching onto the metal cap on the end. The bike swerved from the action but with all my strength I dragged the dog down the road and as I passed the first handler, brought the dog up and slammed it into him, the dog squealing in pain and the buck having the wind knocked out of him. The second buck was in the process of reloading his spent magazines as I finally reached him, hitting the brakes suddenly and the rear wheel flying off the ground. I put all my strength into turning the bike right with brought the now airborne rear wheel flying across the face of the reloading buck, snapping his head back and throwing him away from me.

The bike dropped and I sat up, drawing both pistols and firing a shot into the pile, the shot piercing the dog and buck in one shot. Leveling the guns down the road I could see the dogs, slightly slower than before, were almost on me, but I was already aiming at them and fired a shot into each, the rounds penetrating through the left dog’s maw and exiting through his belly below, the other dog taking the shot in the body and dropping dead.

“I-I’m gonna skin you alive!” roared a male voice over my shoulder.

I rolled off the left side of the bike, pulling myself up and aiming, the buck struggling to his wobbly legs, a knife in his mouth. Some ponies just didn’t learn even with a swift hit to the head. Lowering my guns and shaking my head at him with a chuckle I strode up close to him, the raider’s tiny pupils following me and his bloody muzzle carrying a bloody carving knife, rusted and rather blunt looking. The raider lunged at me but I just stepped back, the pony falling to the ground and scrambling to stand up. I brought up a hind leg into his jaw, the metal cracking against his skull and throwing his head back, sending sprawling again.

Without any words I walked over to the other handler, seeing he had a set of rusted chains attached to his leather barding. I bent over to pick it up, finding one end went in the pony’s mouth and the other end was attached to the dog’s collars.

Pulling off a dog collar and walking over to the raider I had an idea of what I could do with this pony, his snarling face still sporting the knife, but he looked in a bad way, probably needed medical attention.

After attaching the collar to him I mounted the bike and took a deep breath, the air was getting cool and the sounds of the night were already starting early, gunfire and explosions resonating off the hills and becoming a part of the ambient sounds of the wastes. I looked at the map on last time and nodding as I saw this would lead me all the way to the facility. I revved the engine and opened the throttle and steadily the bike began cruising down the road, the screams from the raider being dragged behind the bike becoming louder and more pathetic as I went faster and faster.

( Based in the universe of Fallout Equestria By Kkat. Go read it if you haven’t already.)
http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/04/story-fallout-equestria.html

(Pre-reading/ general help done by: Horus_Ascended, Msvman)

Chapter 3

The night began set over the land of Equestria, the moon slowly creeping up to take the place of the sun, only to be hidden behind a thick cloud cover. Thunder began to boom in the distance while lightning danced across the sky.

A young stallion was lounging on the flatbed of an auto-wagon, his back resting up against a large gun turret, watching over the vehicles like a shepherd watches sheep… albeit a very bored shepherd.

He was the new guy so he was learning the hard way that the shit jobs roll down hill. If it wasn’t, “Go get the beer!”, or, “unclog the toilets!” Of course now it was guarding the vehicles in the rain.

The dull blue colored pony tried pulling a tarp over himself to keep him dry but it only managed to dump the pooling water on his head. Cursing and leaping down from the back of the wagon, he began stomping around. He felt like venting.

He had earned his right to be here. He was not some hand-me-down punk. He had been with a gang a whole month and he’d at least been given a gun. Now he was asked to do the humiliating stuff, chores that some, lesser member should handle. He wasn’t even allowed to do anything except guard the vehicles alone, a more experienced pony sat in the other vehicle with a big gun.

He wanted a big gun.

Stomping around some more and cursing the higher powers that be, he began imagining enemy combatants, trading and blocking the enemy’s blows and hitting the enemies with his excellent hoof swings. He was a badass, nopony wanted to fuck with him.

His hooves covered in mud and his mane and coat soaked. He felt the hostile specters had had enough of his awesomeness and returned to the truck. Shoulders drooping as he saw the tarp had fallen in the mud.

Muttering another curse at the evil tarp while picking it up, the pony began trying to shake the mud off, only managing to fling the crud onto him. The pony cursed again and began blaming the tarp for his boring job and miserable conditions.

He really wished there was someone he could beat up. All he’d have to do was imagine they were this tarp and they’d be sorry.

Lightning illuminated the area in a flash, a crack of thunder following and making him jump and hurl himself to the ground, getting a face full of muck.

This was just not poor Look Out’s night.

Sitting up and wiping the mud out of his eyes, he grabbed his tarp and wandered over to the other truck. Hoping to swap out tarps before the others came back and he was forced to keep the dirty one.

“Hey gramps you mind if-“ Look Out began, his eyes slowly meeting the area where poor Head Shot’s head had been… or at least it had been there a minute ago.

All that remained of poor Head shot’s head was a bloody stump. The rest of his body remained wedged in the turret of the dark blue auto-chariot.

Look Out began to shake. He turned frantically in place trying to see who was shooting. He hadn’t even heard a shot. Look Out had been assured no pony was foolish enough to attack them, and that they were a bad ass gang and no one messed with them.

Apparently some pony hadn’t gotten that memo.

Backing away slowly Look Out felt his rump back into something sturdy. Look out fought hard not to squeak in surprise. His head slowly turned, his whole body shaking furiously now.

Behind him stood a tall pony, he had never seen a pony that tall… Look Out did a double take and could see the pony wasn’t standing normally. The mysterious pony looked more like a zebra. Maybe he was a zebra, or she was a zebra, it sure was walking around in that weird way like they do.

Look Out had heard stories of zebra’s being sneaky, the stripped bastards showing up and killing rooms full of ponies while they slept and fighting on their hind legs. They were freaks, but freaks Look Out never wanted to have to fight hoof to hoof.

The mystery pony was cloaked in a dark coat that draped down nearly to his hind hooves. Metal caps encased each hoof and one of the fore-hooves had a device of some kind, a gun maybe because of it having a metal tube and being pointed at his head, but it was like no gun he had ever seen. Looking up the barrel he could see the pony’s face was concealed beneath the shadow of a large brimmed hat and was smirking at him.

“Feeling lucky punk?” the gruff, male zebra figure asked.

Look Out finally felt his tiny shred of courage leave him and he wasn’t sure what to say. He didn’t want to upset him. What should he do? What would a braver ganger do?

“Uhm...” he managed to squeak.

The figure just stood there, motionless for a few seconds. He then began to lower his gun, chuckling and walking away from Look Out.

Look Out took a moment to process what had just happened. The fact that The Figure hadn’t shot him and that he was still alive. He began telling himself it was because he was a badass. That The Figure didn’t want to fuck with him. Yeah, that had to be it.

His eyes began leading him towards the large turret he had been using as a bed just a minute ago and with his new found courage, he began slowly slinking towards it, just in case.

His hoof touched the bed of the auto-wagon when he heard an, “Ahem”, from behind.
Look Out slowly turned, feeling his badass status had finally run out.

He turned slowly around, not wanting to see it coming so that-

Look Out fell to his rump, his back hitting the wagon and telling him he could crawl away no further. His stomach told him it was time to vomit. His hard core ideals and bad ass mind set evaporated at the site of what was dangling before him.

The gnarled remains of the corpse had been torn apart, and all that remained was something that only vaguely resembled a pony with a collar wrapped around its neck.

“Here, hold this for me would you.” The Figure said, dropping the corpse into Look Out’s lap and causing the young stallion to grab it out of reflex, instantly regretting it and finally vomiting up his pathetic dinner.

The dull blue colored pony continued to wretch as the figure began walking into the bunker, chuckling.

Chapter 3:

♪ And you ain't no friend of mine. ♫

Damn it’s wet out there.

Stepping inside the bunker I started shaking the mud off my hooves. I looked at the old coat and knew it needed some care soon, the frayed and aged cloth having lost its oil layer and no longer repelled water as well. Still, the coat did its job and protected the saddle bags and other things inside its pockets.

Metal capped hooves clanking against the metal grated floor, I started walking over towards the terminal beside an open double door. The Keyboard folded down as I turned it on.

According the device, this was an Royal Equestrian Army research bunker, and apparently, I should leave if I was not authorized. The last part made me snicker a little.

Feeling I’d gotten all I could from the terminal I backed out and poked my head through the doorway. Nobody was home, so I walked inside. The first room was a landing that had a series of stairs leading down. Approaching the railing I could see down at the bottom were a few dead protectaponies, holes blasted in them about the size of my hooves.

I moved to the stairs and descended, tongue in cheek while thinking over what could shred a robot like that. It could have been anything really, the ponies outside had a couple of 50calibre machine guns on those autos, so who knows. What I had a hunch on was that they were dragging a heavy weapon with them, which seemed bit overkill, but if it dusted a robot in a few hits, maybe they had the right idea.

At the bottom of the stairs I could see close up that they had missed the first few shots and then hit the robots. Apparently they had aimed low and used the recoil to carry the barrel into the robot’s path.

I picked up a few of the robots spare parts and switching to a more cautious approach, walked beside the doorway, back against the wall and slowly peeking my head around the corner.

Looking left I could see it was a dead end. The opposite lead down a narrow hallway, only about two meters across. The hallway then made a right turn, an unopened doorway sat just before the turn, probably locked.

Sneaking up to the door, keeping low to the ground and taking great care to try and not let my hooves clang against the floor, but that was a feat in and of itself.

At the door, I reached into a pocket just beside my chin and rummaged for a bobby pin, finding one and grabbing my screw driver and getting to work on the lock if possible. Now of course I’m no pro locksmith, but after the first, second, third, and a bunch of other attempts, I finally got it open. The door parted and… bathroom.

My eye started twitching horrendously, was that blood I smelled? I think I was hemorrhaging.

I walked into the bathroom, my vision slightly messed up while my eye had its freak out moment and I began checking everything. The stalls were empty, the trash can had… trash, and the single suitcase in the corner had nothing interesting. Finally I spied a medical box mounted on the corner, the faded yellow box still sporting it’s three butterfly motif. Who thought that butterflies were a proper sign for a medical box? When I was shot the first thing that hit me wasn’t butterflies…the old world confused me.

My rant lasted long enough for me to unlock the box and find… a dose of med-x pain killer. How lovely.

Pocketing the syringe I walked back into the hallway and nonchalantly looked down the next branch of the corridor, nothing. Trotting down the hallway and walking past what looked like offices. I could see that most were work areas, blue prints of assorted kinds taped to the walls or drawn on chalk boards. Feeling curious, I poked my head into the third office, just for a look.

The office was filled with assorted mechanical bits and schematics for what looked like simple locomotion for something. A model of the device sat on the table and I began moving it back in forth in my hooves while looking around the room, the device looking more like something that would go in a robot’s legs or in a hydraulic piece of machinery. The room told me nothing about the primary purpose of the device though, just that it had the possibility of lifting a lot. Probably just an over paid elevator project.

Boredom pulled me out of the room and told me to continue down the hallway, passing a couple more rooms with similar small projects in each.

At the end of the hallway I could see it made a left turn and I poked my head around, having assumed that the ponies in here weren’t anywhere near the entrance from the lack of noise.

The next hallway from what I could see ended at a door with a terminal beside it. Above the door frame, a sparking turret base, sparking every few seconds. I took a few steps and took a whiff of the air, was something burning? I looked down to see a pile of ashes under a hoof. Apparently someone had got cocky and had missed an energy turret, turning the poor bastard to ashes. Hopefully it was the heavy weapons pony, but I couldn’t be that lucky.

Adventuring through the doorway I entered into a big room. Pausing and doubling back, I stepped back into the hallway and logged into the terminal to see what it did. As I scrolled through the prompts and such, the terminal told me that it had controlled the turret above the door (great place for a terminal that controlled a device that could go nuts and shoot its creators, right below it) and the door lock. The terminal told me nothing else and I pulled out and stepped back into the room.

Looking around I found multiple docking stations, robots still inside and ready to serve. I went up to the first robot and looked at what the terminal said. The terminal explained that this was a protectapony, model V, it was ready to serve. Rolling my eyes at how useless some of these terminals were, I moved to the next and was given the same song and dance.

Ignoring old world stupidity, I walked along the railing and looked below. More docking stations with robots awaited me. Turning my head ahead, more interested in finishing my exploration of this level before headed down.

Ahead, an unopened door sat in front of me. Accessing the terminal to the door and clopping my hooves together, I bit down on my tongue and went to work hacking the door. The lines of previously used words or phrases the computer felt the need to show me, lead to me trying to find a common set of words or themes to the words. Finally feeling I had the right one (hopefully not), I poked the execute button and heard the terminal beep and explain that the password was indeed…Secret.

Seriously, that’s the password?

The door opened and I found it was another hallway, so I casually began strolling and seeing where it would take me.

Approaching the first corner, I stuck my head out slowly, seeing that the hallway continued for another three or so meters before entering a larger room, a turret hanging from the ceiling just in front of the doorway.

The turret however, wasn’t offline. Sensing my presence, it began to open fire on my corner and forcing me back as the bullets pinged and panged against the metallic walls. Finally, something to entertain me, woo!

Reaching into my pockets, I pulled out a hoof full of spare parts and flung them into the room, the turret immediately taking shots at them. Lifting myself up and turning around the corner, drawing both guns at the same time, I leveled, aimed, and fired. Both shots flying straight and true straight through the gun housing but no dice, the turret was heartier then that. The turret was finished with the distraction and moved its barrel towards me. I fired another pair of shots into it and one struck home, impacting the lifting mechanism and the gun drooped, but wasn’t dead. The machine gun turret began firing away at the ground, the bullets impacting the ground and some actually ricocheting elsewhere in the room, one nearly grazing me so I threw myself back into cover, waiting for the turret to run out of ammo.

After about a minute, the gun finally stopped firing and I began entering the room, holstering my guns and moving closer towards it. The automated turret gun tried firing at me when I was right under it, but instead of a bang, there were only a series of rapid clicks.

Letting out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding, I grinned slyly at the turret and trotted up to the terminal beside the doors.

A few taps of the ol’ hooves on the keyboard and the terminal chirped. I face hoofed rather hard and wandered inside, the terminal telling me the right password of course, was password.

Seriously, whoever developed this security must have been shot for incompetence.

The doors opened and revealed a room with a large set of terminal banks and desks. Walking through the place I spied some paper work and moved towards them, swiping aside some dust then giving them a read.

The paper work suggested this place was a security station, apparently they found that security should be placed far away from the offices below. That didn’t exactly say anything new about the old world, everything they did seemed to be nothing less than dangerous, but I guess when you’re desperate to win at any cost you’ll do anything. I could understand that logic and moved on to the nearest terminal.

I walked along the outer wall, looking at the terminals lined up along the wall, all the desks with different old world paraphernalia and objects that ponies would put at their stations in an attempt to individualize their area. From the moment I entered the room I could see most of the screens were black and most were broken or too rusted to use. Some even had had their screens blown out, puking their machine guts all over the place.

Finally finding one in only a mild condition of disrepair, I pulled up a chair and pushed the power button, seeing the screen flicker on and grinned at the tough little terminal. When the prompt requested an order, I went to work, rapping away on the keyboard and navigating menus.

The options before me said that I could look through security or find out about security hazards. I felt knowing my enemy was the best thing right now, so I tried using the security hazards bit. No dice. The hazards tab told me I needed to reconnect to the primary server and some nonsense.

Blocked from knowing what was down here I decided to work on security feeds. I opened the first one on the list, nothing, second camera, nothing. This went on all the way till about camera twelve, which was pointed at the ceiling, so useful.

Feeling this was a lost cause I was on the verge of giving up, seeing nothing worth my time and feeling that the longer I waited the more of a chance the gangers would clear out the bunker. I tapped the next button and watched the screen flash to life, the immediate area glowing from the light from the real time view that had popped up on the terminal. I checked the number for the camera, number thirty (which somehow was still working) and began watching the scene of a slowly deteriorating fire fight.

The initial scene was straight out of a action movie. A single pony from what I could see stood in each of the three rooms in the camera’s view, each crouched cautiously at the corner and awaiting from the sporadic gunfire from down the hallway to subside. One was armed with a large caliber rifle that was fed into a saddle bag. My first instinct from seeing the gun was to dodge for cover, it was huge! A pony down the hall turned into its room and ushered a pony into the hallway. The mare raced from her doorway towards a forward piece of cover further up. Big Gun pony took a step into the hallway as soon as Runner Mare took fire from something sitting inside of a cloud of smoke, firing some sort of semi-automatic gun. Big Gun pony stepped out and braced himself, planting each hoof wide and once he felt secure, bit down on the control bit and the gun began to fire, the barrel recoiling into the gun, resetting and then flying back again as another bullet flew out. The rate of fire on Big Gun pony was freaky, a constant, boom, boom, boom, boom. No more than a second between each shot.

Whatever was inside of the smoke must have been vaporized, there’s-

A shot flew out of the smoke and hit Running Mare in the side of the face, dropping her instantly.

Big Gun Pony took cover and said something, his face scrunched and contorted in an angry snarl. I watched Next Wave pony looking toward big gun pony, a hoof gesturing and waving about… clearly a pony in charge. Next Wave pony was dressed in what looked to be a suit of refurbished combat armor, metal plates pounded out and standing in for the missing parts. Big Gun wore mostly nothing. I did a double take and saw Running Mare was the same way, sparsely equipped except for a descent looking firearm strapped to her back.

They were well equipped, so that meant they were city gangers. Combat armor pony had to be a lone merc attached to the ganger forces, meaning he probably knew what he was doing… sort of, getting stuck in a hallway was a shitty situation no matter how you split it.

I knew Next Wave had to die, without him the gangers could be talked or killed without even a second thought. Tapping a hoof on the screen where Next Wave stood turned into the room again and most likely grabbing another ‘volunteer’.

Returning to the list of video feeds, I began flipping through each, trying to find a camera inside of the room with Next Wave pony and his volunteers. I’m sure that even pre-war ponies were dumb enough to spread out camera feeds and would keep them in some sort of order, hopefully descending the hallway.

Hitting the execute button for camera thirty-eight and was rewarded with the picture of a room, filled with about six ponies and… Next Wave, living up to the title I’d assigned him and already in the process of marshalling out another pony into the line of fire.

I looked at the assets for the room, scrolling down the tiny list and grinning near the bottom of the list. Hitting the execute button I stretched out a bit and sat watching the carnage unfold.

I watched as the security turret descended silently, not a soul in the room noticed it… at first. The first series of shots impacted into the closest pony, a mare standing to the side, oblivious of how I had just snuffed her out of this world with the push of a button.

Lifting my fore hooves up and gesturing at the screen like the gun fire was somehow controlled by my hooves, I began to gun down the ponies, each taking a burst or small stream of bullets into the back, most likely severing it and nearly killing them instantly. Some took their shots in the head and some, unfortunately, were shot in the ass and forced to run into the hallway where they lost the other end of them with a bullet to the side of the head.

Next Wave was quick on the draw to respond and pulled out a pistol, a revolver with a scope, and began to fire shots at the turret. I felt my job here was done and blew off the imaginary gun smoke from my hooves and went back to the menu, finding the, ‘call security’ button, and smiling. I loved how easy it was sometimes.

Tapping the button, I leaned back a bit and watched my second wave of handy work go into effect.

I watched on camera thirty, the hallway begin to swarm with robot security, the full docking stations coming to mind and the level of security and ferocity they were attacking the gangers with seemed to tell me that whatever had been here, had been important enough to make sure that nothing got out of here alive.

The robot security attacked the ponies in the hallway from behind, cutting them to ribbons and then giving chase to whatever was at the end of the hallway.

Feeling more confident about going down, I deactivated security after a minute and trotted out of the room, a song coming to me and giving me a bit of a spring in my step. Love it when a night is as easy as a button push.

As I exited the office I noticed a set of stairs hidden behind a pillar to my right and smiled.

“After you sir. No, No, after you you good sir.” I joked with myself. I took a bow and skipped down the stairs. The music becoming more like an infection and bringing a smile to my muzzle while I imagined how nice Gun Pony’s battle saddle would sell… I hoped being with a rocket didn’t hurt it but knowing my luck… yeah, it was probably beyond any repair… damn.

Stepping off the final steps, I trotted towards the hallway and began navigating it, finding security bots standing still and awaiting orders again, patting the first protectapony on the head and smiling.

I went room to room and began searching high and low for any traces of bullets again, while ignoring the gory mess that had been about ten ponies about three minutes ago.

Once I hit the main hallway which had bared the brunt of the fighting, I began finding fresh bodies or piles of ash, looting the former and trotting past the latter.

The ponies that hadn’t been disintegrated were carrying assault weapons with lots of bullets, but this wasn’t anything special. Any pony gang from the city was usually armed like this.

I passed by the remains of Big Gun pony and sighed, such a waste. His mangled and horrendously disfigured body covered most of the gun and a bit of maneuvering I managed to separate the useless fuck from his awesome gun… or what was left. The primary bullet feed system had been damaged, the bullets in the feed had gone off and helped reduce Big Gun to nothing more than a meat chunk, wonderful. Tossing the useless weapon aside, I left Meat Chunk alone and ignoring his near empty room, I made my way towards Next Wave.

Next Wave, to my astonishment had survived the turret it seemed, the remains of the automated gun scattered across the floor and the hub it had been attached too sparking. Next Wave apparently had been killed by a bad case of lead poisoning… damn. It was a contagious disease in the wastes and if not careful, everyone could catch it. The body had taken a burst of fire from the single sentinel robot in the hallway, the large 5mm minigun still smoking on the robot. Sighing again at the bare state of Next Wave’s room, the bodies of the ponies inside ignored, there was nothing in there… damn it!

Aside from the rooms with the two interesting ponies, I had cleared every room up to this point, gathering quite a bit of goodies… but still no bullets. Still in need of ammo, I signed at being forced to continue my search, turning the corner at the end of the hall and…

Ping!

A shot caught me in the shoulder and impacted the plating there, but it was all the warning I needed and I tossed myself to the corner. Looks like someone managed to survive the attack, wonderful…

Slowly I moved my muzzle past the corner, trying to catch a view of the shooter, a bullet impacting the wall right next to my face, missing it just barely and forcing my head back behind cover. Of course, the one pony left in the group was the sharpshooter, figures.

Reaching into my pocket I rummaged a second and produced a small mirror. Cautiously I began easing it around the corner, keeping it in view and seeing the interior of the room.

From my position I could see a railing and a distant railing and walkway, it looked like a catwalk. Hidden behind a sentinel body, its head missing and smoking, sat a figure with a rifle hoof carried rifle pointed right down my hallway.

Envious of the shooter’s position, I began searching for a good spot of cover of my own, but the hallway was only filled with giant armored robots and dead bodies… I grabbed a roll of duct tape and went for a quick stroll to see if there was yet another ‘wave’ to send out.

***

A few minutes later, I was ready, and took my first steps into the hallway, the meaty thunk and pinging of metal on metal telling me the pony was hitting Next Wave’s lower half. Pushing the stallion’s head out of the way, I tried seeing through the eye pieces in the sentinel helmet I’d made. Slowly moving forward, a dead pony strapped to the front of me and a looted head section of a sentinel, I took aim at the shooter’s cover and began firing.

The shooter continued to fire, a single shot hitting my helmet and reverberate, the sound nearly tossing me off balance but caught myself and grabbed the helmet and waited for the noise to pass. The mare began to work the slide on her rifle and allowed me to fire a shot into the bot’s corpse, the round going inside but not exiting. Damn sentinel’s for being chunky on the inside.

The pony finally stopped shooting, lowering their rifle for a moment and from this distance it looked like the figure was gapping at me… or laughing, I wasn’t sure how sadistic they were so I assumed the former. The instance though was enough for me to hit them, firing a shot and the round flying through a weak point in the robot and blossoming out a shock wave and throwing the robot back into the figure and tossing both over the side of the railing.

That’s one way of doing it I guessed and began removing my makeshift body armor, making a mental note to try pitching sentinel plating for body armor to someone at some point.

Finishing discarding my armor, I knew it was time to get back to business.

With the shooter dispatched, I holstered the pistol and strolled into the room to see a lower level, the room at first glance looking more like a bottling plant of some kind, an assembly line that led metal to a series of machines that would fold the metal, and then fasten unto other metal shapes. It looked like it could be very…

“HELP!” someone cried.

Ears perking up just a bit, I strolled towards the railing and found myself taken back a bit.

I found my head dropping a bit, remembering how many bullets I had expended in hopes of killing the shooter (who I now knew was a mare). But I couldn’t be that lucky I supposed.

The mare was struggling to get the lifeless sentinel robot off of her, her face scrunched in great physical exertion, but to no avail.

My hooves began clanking against the stairs as I descended, and I could see her head crane in my direction, her ears searching for the source of the noise, and her hooves stopping and waving at me.

“Hey! Hey you! I… I need help!” she begged as her face darted between me and the bending machine.

Hopping down the last few steps and landing loudly on the concrete ground I continued towards the mare, my attention really not on her and more split between searching for anymore rooms and wondering if I had hid the bike well enough… was that kid a threat to my ride out of here?

Naaahhh!

The mare’s words became louder and drew my focus back towards her, my head snapping towards her and I realized I was almost in front of her. Sliding the last little bit towards the mare I came to rest nearly muzzle to muzzle with her, about a hoofs length between us. I stared down at her with a look that reflected my wavering interest in her peril and annoyance for her still being alive.

“Yo, common… don’t take that gunfight personal, I-I was just freaking out, those robots… it- it was crazy!” she explained frantically, her body slowly being pulled away from me down the conveyor belt.

Her pleading reminded me of something and urged me towards the controls of the machine.
Taking a good look at them and then rolling my head to the side to look at her, back to the controls, and then back to her.

“I REEAAALLLY wish I could remember why I walked over to the controls of this random machine!” I said, gesturing at it and then scratching the bottom of my chin, “So curious…”

“Oh common! You can’t be serious!”

I shrugged and strode up alongside her, the mare having a few minutes before the machine got her, plenty of time to talk fast.

“The fuck is wrong with you, stop this damn thing, please! This is no way for a pony to go!”

I shrugged at her, “Nothing’s wrong with me. You’re the one trapped on the conveyor belt. And you’d be surprised as heck the interesting ways I find gangers killing ponies these days.” I informed her with a nod.

“What?! Common, you- you can’t be serious. This thing will kill me!”

“Weeelll, technically, you should be dead, but you’re still here…. So let’s see if that luck holds out.” I said with a encouraging grin.

Her eyes left me, glancing over at the machine for a moment, her pupils shrinking, “Common, you gotta help. I can’t get this piece of shit off me!”

“Sounds like a personal problem to me.” I explained dead pan. Seriously, does this mare not catch a hint, geez?

Plopping down on the ground just across from the mare and slowly tracking her with my head, I began to suddenly remember a song but for the life of me I couldn’t remember the name… this is going to bug me all night.

The mare’s head shot back and forth between me and the machine, beads of sweat now rolling down her face as she began to grin at me, her fear not even hidden and blatantly written all over her face. I expected either she’d crack and tell me something or she’d forget and begin to studder… either way, I figured I’d better turn the machine off soon, it was getting awfully clo-

“I- I can pay you, I have loot!”

Bingo.

“Where?”

Both of her hooves began pointing anxiously towards a doorway tucked away in the corner on the second floor, “There, that’s where my loot is, good stuff, worth a lot of caps. Now, get me out of here!”

I smiled and tipped my hat, then dropped to all four and walked towards the stairs again.

“Wa- wait! You have to help me! Help!” she demanded, her voice on the verge of crying.

Not breaking stride I turned and smiled at her, shrugging again, “All I hear is, Help! I’m suffering from a case of imminent karmic justice.” I mocked.

“What!? What the fuck is wrong with you! You’d let a pony get crushed like this?”

Having just started back up the stairs, wanting to sweat the last bit of anything out of her, I rolled my head to the side and looked at her, putting on my best uninterested look.

“Well I thought my general lack of interest in your dilemma made that apparent.”

The mare just looked at the machine and I continued back up the stairs. Damn she was cutting it close, seriously… she just needs to spill it already, don’t need to have to deal with getting rid of yet another horribly mutilated corpse… but dropping it in that kid’s lap was priceless haha, priceless.

Turning away and putting my first hoof on the top of the stairs, I tried not to grin. I began to count down…
5…
4…
3…

“Wait! I- I can get you more loot! I know of a job!”

Damn I’m good. I should print a book. How to get a pony to spill their guts while threatening to spill theirs… title needs work.

Pausing mid stride and feigning interest finally, I began to turn towards the mare, rearing up and laying my hooves over the side of the railing and gesturing at the mare, “What job?”

The mare began to jab her head in the direction of the controls. I nodded and slowly cantered down the stairs.

As I approached the mare I began to notice how her fear had manifested into physically trembling and her tongue constantly licking her lips while she kept watching me take my sweet time getting to the controls. The sounds of the machine eating the last of the scrap caused the mare to jerk her head towards the machine’s scrap feed and watch it devour the metal. The machine’s began to bend the metal, the sheets of metal protested with a groaning sound while the machine roared, adding more hydraulic power and crushing its prey into… whatever the hell this thing turned scrap into. The pile at the end suggested nothing more interesting than parts of a terminal housing.

I reached the controls and stopped just in front of them. I stood up and leaned against the console. With a hoof, I began to touch the shut off handle, my hoof resting on the top and my head rolling just to the side and looking at her with a grin.

“I’m listening.”

She gulped and grinned nervously at me again, “We- Well w- we were supposed to do another j- job a- at ah stable.”

My hoof dragged the shut off switch to the off position and slammed into the console.

Turning on a hoof and stomping towards her. Slamming my fore-hooves against the side of the machine and leaning in close I was centimeters away from her. She blinked and was now looking at me, her eyes still filled with fear, but not of the machine I suspected.

“Go on.” I said, my voice low and dangerous as it was spoken through gritted teeth.

“Y- you- your e-

“SPEAK!”

The mare cringed away (as far as she could while pinned beneath the large bot), her mouth open, ready to say something, but she didn’t, her eyes fixed on mine for some reason and her hooves trembling against the metallic armor of the sentinel that she had been trying to both push away and was now trying to use as a shield from me.

“W- we… we wer-were supposed to go there, grab up the tech and anything worthwhile, then leave, easy thousand caps to kill some stable ponies and steal their shit. We even have a way inside.”She informed me anxiously, her stuttering starting to get rather aggravating, but… as long as she kept talking.

Changing tactics for a moment, I gave the appearance I was mellowing out a bit. Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath and leaning back a little, giving her the illusion of ‘breathing room. “That’s neat… But where, did you…” I asked, giving her a quaint smile and booping her nose, “Find the location of a stable and have a way inside?”

“We uh… we found this kid, wandering around in a town, asking any stallion or mare. Heck, he asked anything with a pulse if they would help him. So we head out and tell the boss, he says to us, get the kid and have him lead us to the stable. But when we get back there, kid’s gone.”

My pleasant appearing smile vanished. I pulled back slowly and turned away, sighing and feigning towards the controls again.

“Wa- wa- Wait! We know where he is now! After we couldn’t find him the first time, we started driving to nearby towns, but somehow, every time we get to a new town, he manages to get past us and makes it to a few more towns before we can even find out here isn’t there. S-so finally we track him to Son Tor. We find out that he managed to leave again, just before we arrive. Seems he headed out with a scavenger team headed to some other military base… We know the pony that set up his job and we were headed there after this job… until all this shit…” she trailed off while I continued towards the controls.

I heard a thump and the sound of hooves slamming into metal, “What the fuck do you want, tell me!” she screamed hoarsely. Her nerves probably frayed from all of the constant threats and thoughts of her eminent doom.

“Tell me the name of the pony giving out jobs and about the kid asking for help!” I said, whirling around and getting in close to her face again…

Wait… why did that seem so familiar?

“Scar… his name is Scar…” She explained, wiping away her tears and sniffling.

Oh no.

“… and the kid is ah… ah… oh shit I- I know this just give me a sec…”

“He’s a unicorn…” I finished. My eye began to twitch slightly.

“Yea… and he’s…”

“Tan… tan with a dirty blonde.”

“Yea, how’d you know?” she started but her voice began to trail off as I turned to her.

I just stared at her for a moment, the mare’s eyes still a little watery as she looked at me, an audible gulp coming from her throat. I stomped towards the console and threw the start-up handle, my coat noisily flapping behind me and then turned towards the stairs again, ready to grab the loot and head out.

“WAIT! You- you can’t just leave me here! You- I told you everything you wanted to know!”

“Yea you did thanks.” I replied calmly, having already made up my mind as to the fate of this mare as soon as she revealed her true intentions with the stable.

“Yea bu- but you… you can’t do this! Please! I- I have a foal! She needs the money I get from jobs!” she said trying to appeal the better pony inside of me.

“Then I’ll make sure to deduct my teaching fees from your loot. It’s a new course I’ve made called, “Crash course to learning the harsh nature of the wastes, a foal’s guide”, I’m told I’ll have copyright issues, but my lawyer assures me I have a chance.”

“What the fuck!” the mare screamed.

Her hooves began to bang against the sentinel as I reached the second floor. Chuckling, I looked down as the mare began flailing, thinking about how silly she’d feel in a moment.
While the mare screamed bloody murder, I was suddenly struck with the beat of a song… I couldn’t put a hoof on the name or many of the lyrics but the beat. I knew the beat and began to canter to it, stopping at some points and speeding up for others.

The mare’s screams stopped as I assumed she passed out from probably shock, but either way I was just happy she was finally done, her voice was starting to grate on the ears.

Metal began to crunch and then a loud roaring and puttering sound emanated from the machine. Just as I had presumed based on how the metal had been broken up preemptively before being fed into the machine, the sentinel draped across the mare acted as a shield, jamming the bender before it reached her and in the end only scaring the crap out of her.

I got to the door and hoofed the handle down. The door opened, bathing me in light. Ignoring the symbolism attached to the light bouncing off the metal of the room and highlighting all the items inside, I moved into the room and found it was exactly what I was looking for.

The walls were adorned with schematics about a very familiar technology and from what I could see, assorted parts and bullets lie strewn across tables and work benches, each in either the process of being manufactured or already finished and just awaiting it’s purpose in life like a good soldier. I collected everything the mare had missed, schematics and everything possible that mine and her bags could fit.

Exiting the room the smell and sound of a broken pre-war machine greeted me. The machine had finally stopped, leaving the mare’s body a untouched and the sentinel beheaded.

Heading towards the exit I froze, turning in place towards the mare and remembering her friend outside. Chuckling to myself, I made the turn at the stair case and trotted down to her.

***

I exited the bunker to find the rain had stopped, awesome.

It was still dark outside but the rumbling vehicle engines and bright lights told me that nothing had changed in the good chunk of time I had been down there. The bunker’s front was still illuminated by the autos.

Walking towards the road I saw the headless stallion still in the gun turret, the body right where I had left it and turned to see the young teen still lying where I had confronted him before, his back up against the auto-wagon. He was covered in vomit and the corpse of the raider was just a little ways away, most likely he had tossed it and then emptied his stomach.

The young ganger looked up at me with an exhausted look that only came with puking your guts out multiple times. He squinted towards me, his eyes trying to adjust before they began to grow. His terror from earlier hitting him and his chest began to heave. I just smiled.

“Here, brought you another gift, mind holding onto this one better?” I asked, un-slinging the mare’s body and dropping it in the kid’s lap. I dropped the mare’s body into his lap… followed by the severely shot up corpse of Next Wave pony.

I left the young stallion with his new friends and trotted off to my bike that I’d left sitting just nearby. The pony began puking his guts out again at the sight of his boss.

I sat down in the seat and realized I still had that song in my head, my head bobbing to it without me even realizing it. So, with a sort of theme song to this whole ordeal, I started the engine and sped off back the way I had come, heading straight for Son Tor again.

***

My trip back to the main road was rather tame thankfully, no crazy raiders attacking or creepy towns filled with zombies. Hitting the main road made my trip back much more pleasant but I couldn’t enjoy it, the mare’s words bother me the whole way. The idea of her fellow gangers trying to seize that kid’s stable, all the hundreds of pony lives that have been put endanger because the Overmare decided to send that stupid kid out into the wastes for help instead of someone more competent. The fuck was she thinking?

Still on the main road for at least another few hours I turned the radio on, hoping the news had some news story or song to take my mind off the situation.

I fiddled with the dial and found the news already in progress.

“…and of course, we thank them for their efforts.

I welcome you all who are just tuning in tonight. Our top stories right now involve the mysterious foal napping occurring all over the coastal parts of Los Pegasus and news from the war front. Starting with the story closer to home and our hearts, I am told there are no leads right now but that house troops have been deployed to the coastal area in an attempt to track down who has captured over a dozen foals. Troops deployed are courtesy of The Drop club. We all thank you for helping. The other top story deals with a more distant but over all a more grievous problem, the war. The sudden rain from tonight has bogged down troop movements and forced troops into a more desperate battle than ever, fighting boredom. Our prayers go out to those on the front lines, good luck.

In other news, we have reports of gang actions being halted during the night by a sudden and bold attack by our enemies from the north. Every gang instantly turned their guns towards the sky, illuminating the night with tracer fire for over an hour. Once the enemy was defeated, all the gangs resumed their activities and began turning their guns on each other. Los Pegasus thanks you all for keeping your priorities in mind.

Well that is all I have for you for now. I will speak to you all when I have more to comment on. Until then, we have more music for you to keep those frowns turned upside down.”

The music began to play, a rather somber song about a stallion singing about maybe being remembered, so I turned it off. Annoyed at how short the news was tonight, but even more annoyed at the choice of music.

Who the hell plays music that can put people to sleep at night?

The roar of the engine giving some sound, I continued onwards. Just keeping that song I had in my head earlier, finding it hard to remember it now, of course, when I needed it… Figures.

***

I reached Son Tor, eventually, and relatively unscathed. Some morons had a fight on the road about who could pass, even though it was a four lane stretch of road, but who was I to question. The detour to miss the fight cost me about half an hour and accidently crushing a small radscorpion herd with the bike.

Pulling up to the gates, I reenacted the same song and dance as before and watched the gates open same as before. I pulled the bike into the same spot and threw down the kick stand, ditching the bike in a hurry and making my way back to the shit hole of a bar I had been at before.

Pushing and leaping over ponies, I raced up and down streets, some blocked or moving too slow for me. I passed by a pony pushing a cart filled with cabbages… and grenades (seriously?) His sign warned ponies to look before they eat… but I don’t want to think about how often that happened that it required a sign. Looking around the cart, I saw an average sized stallion pulling it and whistling a tune whine blindly trotting down the street.

“Hey, hey buddy! I gotta go, can you move your ass?”

The pony didn’t respond, so I took it to the next level.

Spinning around and leaning on my fore-hooves, I pulled back my hind legs and wound up for the pitch, letting them go and bucking the cart.

I heard a yelp and squeaky wheels heading away from me.

Turing back around and noticing no one blocking my path now, I broke back into a run, ignoring the cabbage pony screaming for help and ponies racing to help him the best they could while he hurtled into a building. There was a loud crash of wood versus rickety metal and the words, “My cabbages!” coming from behind me as I turned onto the street taking me straight towards my goal.

Bursting through the doors I found the bar very packed, all manner of life now swarming to the booze and food of this place. I could see assorted mares and stallions of the night plying their trades to the drunken patrons and some of the patrons accepting this. Some just puked and fell over.

Finding time was of the essence, I cast subtlety to the wind. Shoving and pushing people aside, I began to make my way towards the bartender who, more often than not, knew where someone like Scar would operate, and since I personally didn’t know much other then the obvious about this town, I only had this place as square one for finding him.

I watched the mare who had served me earlier trot by as I threw my hooves around a pony’s face and tossed him out of the seat he was holding for me. The pony fell to the floor and began to laugh hysterically at this, not even trying to right herself. The server mare looked wide eyed for a moment and then resumed her duties quickly.

Pulling myself up on the chair, I came face to face with the bartender. He looked at me confusedly and then leaned in towards me, “What can I get you?” he yelled.

“I want to know about the pony that beat my ass earlier! I was told his name was Scar. I need to know where he is!” I asked, the sounds of the bar patrons nearly canceling out my voice.

The bar pony just shrugged, “I’m not an info pamphlet, order something or leave!”

I sighed.

Knowing this was probably going to have to go the hard way, I reached into a pocket and found my pouch of caps. Undoing the leather tie around the top I opened it and grabbed a couple rolls of a hundred in my teeth. I dropped them onto the counter for the bartender to see and gestured at them.

He looked at me skeptically, then after a nod at the caps, he raked them behind the bar with a hoof and jabbed his head towards the service area. I tipped my hat to him and began walking towards the door, avoiding the assorted patrons who felt it prudent to get up from their seats just as I walked by.

I pushed these ponies aside and pushed open the doors when I got within hoofs reach of them, the smell of booze and rank pony fur being replaced with… about the same thing truthfully.

The kitchen was more or less just a series of refrigerators and raw meat with other food stuffs scattered about. The zebra operating the grill paid me no mind while I ventured towards the back, following the only route the kitchen presented.

Starting down the corridor, I followed it until I found myself in a small room with a door at the end. Two familiarly big ponies sat flanking the doorway, one reading a magazine while the other gnawed on a bone like some sort of hound, the former of the pair lowered his magazine and scowled at me. I held out my caps bag and rattled it, the very distinct clinking sound telling them why I was here.

The newspaper pony jerked his head towards the door and I walked over to it. En route towards the door, I could spy pipes and a bat lying against a filing cabinet just beside bone pony. I assumed they used melee not solely because of their looks, but because with a bar just down the corridor, I doubt guns were the best choice for keeping your deeds unknown to others.

Stepping up to the door and pulling the handle down, I pushed open the door and stepped through then closed it with a hind leg. Sitting at a rusted metal desk before me sat a very familiar white stallion, the same left eye scar and bolts for a mane, honestly in this light he looked more like a raider. Glancing at the interior of Scar’s office, I could see a mare sitting in a corner on a mattress, a few filing cabinets, and a terminal. The sparsely furnished room made me wonder if he really made all that many caps… or if he was smart and actually invested.

The stallion stopped his writing and looked up at me, a pencil still in his mouth while he looked me over then sneered, “You better have my money or so help me, I’ll have basher and smasher break your legs.” He threatened, spitting the pencil out into a drawer and then closing it.

I leaned to the side a little and tossed on a ‘god fuck yourself’ look. “Not here for that, I’m here for that job you offered.” I stated, ignoring his threat completely.

“Don’t need yah anymore, found some others to handle it. So you’re shit out of luck.” He explained snottily.

“Okay then…” figuring I’d have to do this the easy way, “Tell me where you sent them, or I’ll kill you.” I explained with a shrug.

Scar just stared at me for a moment, taking his time to process what I had just said, his cold expression slowly giving away to a smirk and then evolved into a smile. He started chuckling at me and then clopped his hoof on the table three times, “boy am I going to enjoy beating some respect into you, you cocky fuck.”

I just shrugged again, “I’m not joking. I’ll kill you, if you aren’t useful. Hell, I could just use your terminal to find out what I need. ”

My threat drifted in the room for a moment. I could feel the tension as I watched Scar shove himself back in the chair and drop to the floor, the difference in scale was immediate… he was shorter in the chair, awesome…

Grinning manically, Scar just stood there, waiting for me to make good on my promise and presenting a point blank target.

It was blatantly obvious he was trying to threaten me, so I did what anyone would do stuck in this situation… I smiled back.

Before I could finish blinking, he rammed his head into mine, pushing me back from just the sheer force of the blow, but I was fine. Scar however fell backwards, gripping his forehead with both hooves while he fell to his rump.

“What the- what the fuck!”

Fixing my hat, I looked up at him (even sitting down the bastard was tall), and rapped a hoof against my forehead, the sound of metal striking metal with a clank, clank was evident to all those present. Scar stared at me blankly for a moment, confused and holding his bruised head while I enjoyed the irony behind someone head butting a pony who uses the metal plate on his head to head butt people… usually.

I smirked at him, “That all you got?”

Scar’s confusion disappeared, his lips stretched back into a snarl and his eyes began to fill with an anger I’d seen in ponies before when their pride was wounded.

“I’m going to enjoy kicking you ass all over again to stupid fuck…” he said, clanking his hoof against the desk three times. I heard noises outside the door and the handle turning.

I pulled myself upright, turned on a hoof while drawing both guns. The minions opened the door just as I finished and both were greeted with a shot through the chest. Minion One was hit by the sonic boom from the shot, hurling him through the doorway. Minion Two caught only a part of the force which threw into the door frame, a meaty crack coming from Minion Two’s noggin as he impacted.

I turned back to see Scar just gapping at me, his pistol on the desk. Fully turning to face him, I fired a shot into his shoulder, the round punching through his thick arm and knocking him off balance against the wall.

“Wha- what the-“ he tried stammering but was cut short by both my hooves ramming into his shoulders. The barrel of my pistol slid into his wound and elicited a scream from him. Scar Tried to force my off of him with a hoof to the face. It hurt, but I just smiled and rammed my head into his muzzle again, and again.

A dazed look crossed the pony’s face and I removed the weapon and took a step to the side, letting his body collapse to the floor. Lifting his head and trying to focus on me, his mouth hanging slightly ajar, it took a moment for him to shake off the daze and to speak.

“Who... what the fuck? How did you do that? We- we kicked your ass so easily last time…”

I chuckled, “Yea, funny stuff huh?” replying casually while taking a seat on a corner of the desk and digging into a pocket.

“Bu… but you… what…” he began but immediately silenced as I raised the pistol towards his head, his eyes drifting from me towards the barrels and taking a loud gulp.

Hearing the familiar jingle, I lifted a bag of caps out of my pocket and opened it, fishing out the amount he said I owed and dropping it onto the desk.

“There’s a thousand, double what I owe you. Now, you tell me where you sent those scavengers for the job or I’ll end this as I said I would.”

The stallion just stared at me, “If... if you could’ve paid me, why didn’t you?”

“Had to pay my barber first, and now I’m here. So tell me. Where. Are. The. Scavengers.”

With a raised eyebrow, Scar slowly nodded, “I set them up with the same deal like everyone else. Ponies come to me looking for work, I charge a small fee and they go off and collect loot and I pay them. ”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why charge them if you’re going to give that money back to them anyway?”

“So if even if they don’t come back, I still make money. I win either way.” He replied confidently.

“Nice plan. Especially the part where you remove records at Salvage Brokers… a bit excessive, but a great way to make sure no one touched your claim.”

The stallion just tilted his head, raising an eyebrow, “What? No, no, we never touched their files. I pay real scavengers for locations they hit. Then find some part someone wants and send scavengers after it. If they get loot fine, if not, they can’t blame any pony but themselves.”

Rather clever plan I admitted, making sure my expression portrayed this.

“Alright then, well, just show me where you sent your latest team and I’ll be on my way.” I said, fluttering my eyes and giving him a smile.

He nodded and tried reaching for a desk drawer. I saw this and apologized, pulling the desk back and letting him inside. He produced a sheet of paper.

I took it and the pistol still on the desk then walked towards the door. Before stepping out I turned to the mare still hiding the in corner, her body shaking and trying to use a book to shield herself. Rolling my eyes I turned back towards the doorway and walked out, stepping over the bodies and heading out towards the kitchen.

Entering the room again I found the cook still hard at work, having either chosen to ignore the gunfire or being completely oblivious. Neither matter to me as I watched him racing to and fro, preparing plates of old world food from a can, or cooking up skewers of meat and vegetables.

As I approached the swinging doors of the kitchen I found the server girls burst inside, forcing me to leap back in surprise, holding down my hat with a hoof. The door sat in front of me for just a moment before it began to swing back towards the doorway. The servers balanced plates on their heads and backs, one even grabbing a plate in her teeth and then both blitzing the door just as quickly as they had arrived, completely unaware or uncaring of my presence. I allowed myself a smile at how smoothly this was going and following the girls out through the doors, dropping to all four and trotting out.

The bar was packed, more so than it had been a few minutes ago. The loud noises and voices of dozens of people in a confined space filled the air. The stench of old beer, alcohol and roasted meat wafted through the place. I could see loose panels on the walls vibrated and shook from the commotion as ponies and zebra banged on the floor or impacted the walls of the shanty bar. I could see the radio above the bar was playing, the light on but with all the noise, I expected nobody could truly hear it.

Looking around and checking the faces of those closest to the kitchen and from just glancing at the glasses of beer and fairly happy looks, nobody seemed to care. Not a soul paid me any mind or even looked my way, Awesome.

Heading towards the exit with a push and a shove, I nudged open the door and headed into the dimly lit street. Looking over my shoulder to the right, then my left, confident no one at all was curious as to the shots. I dropped the casual act and made a dash for the bike. Moving through the streets and cutting through alleys, I reached the parking lot and leapt onto the bike.

Reving the engine and peeling out of Son Tor as fast as the bike would go, I reached the highway quickly and set myself on the course the paper told me to. The instructions said that the complex I was headed to was situated up north.

I sighed and cursed my luck… fuck. Telling myself I needed to go that way was the easy part, it was the sane part of me that screamed out telling me not to attempt this. I’m not usually intimidated by most things, but I’m also not stupid or crazy. Thinking back to radio broadcast and stories I had overheard… the north was not a place you wanted to take on. Northern territory is the contested territory of the Los Pegasus area, owned by the city and a shit ton of other groups. Entering that territory ran the risks of running into gangs who were not only fighting, some were on the war path. Hell, running into a gang would be a cake walk considering.

Trying not to think about it, I sucked it up andaccepted the risks, knowing full well that if it was in fact the same pony (to which I had no doubt), I had to act fast before that moron gets himself killed… or worse, captured by the group hunting for his stable.

Switching topics, I began to plan. Planning always helped focus my damn mind when it began to think. Using my little mental map, I dropped it onto a table and began to go through the route I’d planned (metaphorically of course… gotta keep myself entertained somehow, and acting as though I was in one of those old rooms you see ponies of the past planning in always helped.) Unrolling the map and sliding some nice paper weights over the corners (because I could never find a damn use for them otherwise), I began to dot out the route and to the best of my ability, outline known danger zones.

To get to the base, I have to cut across the plains, which, although were mostly flat, were still used by everyone else just for ease of transportation. Since the roads were a dinner bell to every gang and monster up north, I began to mark, dotting along the route I was taking more or less in real time. I had no real idea how long this would take, encounters aside, I wasn’t a wiz with geography, nor a mechanic, so I had no idea how many kilometers to the charge I’d get with this bike, but I looked at the power gauge. The meter hovered around the lower middle, so I doubted I’d run out anytime soon, but I needed to start looking for cells for the bike. Mental me grabbed a pen and a piece of paper, making a literal mental note to grab some damn cells.

By my guest-ah-ments, these ponies maybe had half a day ahead of me, but no more. It hadn’t been super long since I’d seen that stupid kid, so they either took an auto to the site, or ran the entire way. I had to think that the latter was the more logical, but in all honesty I imagined that these days, everyone has a freakin’ auto to spare.

Moving out of the planning room to a second and reasserting myself to my surroundings, I noticed the sign to turn off was coming up. The exit was the death trap, so I veered towards the side, hitting a slight bump as I drove off the road and into the dirt. The path ahead was flat, featureless landscape, the dry and lifeless ground blowing away in the light of the moon. In the distance the land began to elevate slowly and then jut up suddenly. These hills were as best as I could recollect were home to a mercenary group… or raiders. Always get those two mixed up, oh well.

Anyway, so with a route laid out I just continued to drive on, no need to sweat the small stuff. I had a plan and if needed I’d improvise. It’s what I’m good at.

Looking at how far I had to travel and how late it was, I flipped on the radio, figuring I’d use it as long as I could to stay awake, suddenly realizing that stupid me hadn’t slept in a while. Oh well.

The station was already in progress of a song, trumpets blaring with drums and trombones playing in the background. Yea, this will do nicely.

***

The sun began to peak over the horizon, the night’s hold over the land began to loosen, making spotting enemies much easier.

The morning consisted of dealing with a couple of Radscorpions, the little bastards thinking it was funny to pop out from behind a rock and try to take swipes at me. In retaliation I spun the bike around and ran them down. I thought it was pretty funny… but that was probably just the lack of sleep talking.

Lack of sleep and radscorpions aside, the trip was fairly tame. Having to only avoid a few areas that looked like raiders were holding them, or places with big “DO NOT ENTER” signs. Yea know, the usual things to avoid and keep on the lookout for.

Anyway, sometime during the morning I found the place I’d been looking for... I think?

Honestly all these damn military places look the same after awhile. It was a standard military installation built on a flat piece of land. No hills, no cover, just a broken chain link fence spanning the perimeter… how exciting.

So, ignoring the obvious stay out messages, the bike rumbled on past through a break in the fence. I tried to keep the speed to more of a crawl so I could see nice signs like, “Now entering a live mine field!”

Because however much I thought that “no, that’d be silly… who the hell puts a mine field in the middle of… oh right, we do.”

The bike continued on while I began to rant and rave internally over the intelligence of the old world. A sign on my left stated I was entering an R.E.A airfield, and that I should stay out. Damn, better pack up and go home I suppose.

Chuckling and returning to things I had just reminded myself not to do, like staying out of areas marked off limits, I began to make out multiple half cylindrical buildings. Hangars I believed from the looks of them, the doors facing me looked open and for the most part… yea, so did the other sides.

Just beyond the hangars I could see a observation tower of some kind. I figured it was the primary building and most likely my goal since none of the buildings seemed to have the needed pull or interest that was needed to attract looters.

Oh and of course besides the bike, there were no loud noises… so that’s a good start-

A loud burst of gunfire suddenly tossed me for the bike and onto my side.

Rolling onto my back, I watched the bike slowly begin to abandon me, the momentum carrying it away I supposed… and here I thought vehicles had measures to stop that… damn it.

Ignoring the cowardly bike fleeing the scene and began searching for the source of the gunshots…

Nothing.

So with no one to shoot at me… I began to think cover was the better- oh, no, none of that either… completely wide open. So… with no enemy and no place to hide, I didn’t even draw my guns, and instead began checking myself for damage. The coat itself was for nothing more than concealment, a few plates attached for minor protection, but overall I usually just relied on my speed, keeping my armor weight low and using cover. Pushing the sides of the coat away, I could see the thick steel chest plate I wore had blunted the bullets, lodging them slightly inside.

Ignoring the damage and returning to my primary problem, a nasty one at that, I still couldn’t see the shooter. Flipping myself over onto my belly, I tried to stand slowly, looking and seeing where the bike had finally fallen. Slowly I began to move towards-

Gunfire rattled off near me and forced me to ground, the burst last no more than a second and stopping when I hit the dirt. More confused than hurt I began to look around again and go figure, still nothing.

Crawling now and keeping very low to the ground, I made my way towards the bike, no gun shots. I moved around the bike, using the seat for cover in more or less the direction I was sure I was hit from.

A little closer now, I could make out the vague outline of… something. A shimmering outline perched behind a bush and slightly concealed behind a rock. Where oh where… wait… shimmering outline. I knew what this was, or at least I had a guess. Damn Stealth Buck cloaking devices.

With an idea of what I’m up against, now I can deal with it.

Reaching into a pocket I rummaged for a piece of scrap metal, finding damn near everything else and then- oh there we go. Scooping it up with a hoof, I took aim towards the side of the gun and hoping for a bit of skeet shooting.

With a toss I hurled the metal into the air and took aim, taking three shots in rapid succession. The first shot aimed just above the muzzle flash, but no dice. The second shot was aimed at the muzzle flash, the shot flying through the machine but it was still operational. My final shot was aimed just below the muzzle flash. The bullet flew through and impacted the dirt before I could blink, the final shot silencing the turret instantly.

The metal thumped to the ground.

Standing up, I walked over to the shard of metal, the turret only having hit it a little and why waste good scrap?

Looking one last time min the direction of the turret I found that it was still cloaked, the stealth buck or whatever concealed it was still active but clearly it was down for the count. Holstering and dropping to all four, I trotted alongside the motorcycle and began the tedious process of righting it.

With a grunt and a curse, I leaned against the seat and used my back to push the bike up, a hoof gripped onto the frame and the other keeping the front wheel straight.

The bike leaned into position and sat. Clanking my hooves together in a wiping action, I nodded and grinned at how easy that had been. Hell, I wasn’t even going to question why that worked so well, just as long as it works.

Mounting the bike, I started it up and slowly eased the bike forward, letting bit by bit off the clutch and then letting the bike roar forward, heading straight for the facility.

***

I reached the facility about twenty minutes later, no more surprise turrets or anything, just barren desert with a sky chariot facility at the center.

Cautiously riding into one of the open hangars I could easily see how barren this place really was, litter and crates cracked open were strewn all over the place. Clearly if there were things here they-

I could make out movement off to the right. I shut off the engine and dismounted, turning just in time to hear what was scuttling about.

A giant cockroach walked into view, clicking and hissing then charging. I waited until it was close and then brought a hoof down on top of it, the metal meeting the bug’s carapace and winning.

Pulling hoof back I noticed how… gooey it all was. Damn it.

Shaking my head in disgust I began to try to shake off the guts clinging to my hoof, flicking it away and dragging it across the papers that were just nearby.

With a series of clicks, a small group of Radroaches moved into view, rising up a little to signal their charge, and then took off straight towards me.

I sighed, having just cleaned off one hoof and sat leaning partially on my right side while the group charged. When they reached me I let my right hoof crush the head of the first, the second roach pushing past and trying to lunge at me, my left hoof moving and crushing it’s front two legs. The rear two continued and scuttled over their lead bug, trying to crawl up my leg. I pulled it back and brought a hoof down on each of their backs, cracking the carapace with a hearty crunch. The wounded roach had finally made it towards my back leg, trying to bite me through my duster and failing. I kicked him with a hind hoof and chucked it a few meters away.

Sprawled on its back, the bug began to scuttle for all it was worth, trying to right itself. I wasn’t in any reach danger so I walked towards it. The bug flapping it’s wings and launching itself back to its legs just as I got along side, a hoof already coming down on top of it and cracking it open.

With the fight over I began cleaning off my hooves again while heading towards the front of the hangar.

Honestly… how Radroaches are even a threat is beyond me. You’d have to be on your death bed to not be able to not beat one. Rolling my eyes and knowing I’d never get an answer, I realized I was just at the doorway so I took a look outside.

Just outside of the hangar was a barricade that was… well it wasn’t made of scrap for starters.

The barricade looked like it was an actual military barricade, shaped like a small bunker with four walls and a small stair case leading to a parapet on top. The whole thing was made from panels, so from just looked at it I immediately felt that someone put this here. The condition supported the theory with how new it looked. Just a glance around the area, it was blatantly obvious this base hasn’t had any tender love and care in… yea, long time.

The barricade bunker thingy however wasn’t my concern so I let it be and chalked it up to another wasteland event I’ll never understand. Directly ahead was another hangar, both doors open and the central building a straight ahead.

Running towards the hangar I made sure to poke my head inside the bunker thingy. Whoever had been here had cleaned it out already, a couple of outlines on the ground in the shape of something akin to a crate were scattered around inside.

Leaving the bunker alone finally and making my way towards the hangar I stopped at the doors, peeking around and looking side to side, nothing scuttled or clicked inside, so I ran towards the next set of doors.

At the next set of doors I repeated the cautious checking of my surroundings then bolting for more cover. Leapfrogging between each pile of crates or sky-chariot wreck, I made my way to the side of the building.

Looking left, then right, neither seemed any different than the other. So I chose left.

Making my way cautiously along the wall, I kept close and low to the ground as I approached the corner of the building that would take me to the other side. Choosing not to let myself get caught off guard by some damn Raiders or-

Snapping immediately to the side of the building, I took stock of the large group of heavily armed auto-chariots and auto-wagons parked out front. Carefully, I leaned forward and tried to get a better look at how truly screwed I was.

There was a pair of sharply dressed individuals ordering and shoving ponies into position. The commanding pair consisted of a zebra and a gryphon, both dressed in white shirts and black trousers. The zebra in a black suit jacket and tie while the gryphon sported only a black vest with suspenders. The pair was really well equipped too, the gryphon holding a .45 caliber sub machine gun and the zebra with a baseball bat sitting in a sling across his back, and a .45 pistol in a leg holster. Neither were common, nor cheap guns to maintain.

The gryphon jumped down from a wagon bed and began gesturing for the ponies carrying crates to move forward and then helped them shove the crate into the back. The zebra just sat on the flat bed of an auto-wagon, an overseer’s stare on everyone coming and going from the front door.

These were city folk without a doubt, probably hired and put in charge of whatever gang this was. The vehicles were fairly common models except for a single auto-chariot, the red coloring was only slightly faded and not sporting any wasteland “improvements” to the auto’s body or frame.

These were professional city gangers and they were here stealing old world stuff… common thing to do nowadays.

I pulled my head back into cover and backed up until I was safely around the corner. I needed inside and those scum bags were using the front door… the only point I had left had to be the other side. Instantly I began to wonder about the status of the scavengers if a gang was putting this much power behind a old military base, must be something here they-

I stopped myself before I began to question the thought process of gangers. Fuck them, I’m not here for them, so who cares who they’re doing?

Anyway, I turned and headed the opposite way, heading towards the other side of the building closest towards the hangars and run way. Walking along the side of the building I noticed how few wrecks there were for what appeared to be an airfield, why did they have an airstrip if they didn't use aircraft? Pegasus don't need runways, did they? I snickered at the idea of it, but sadly I knew better, sigh, damn confusing old world ponies.

Thinking over the convoluted and confusing old world took up the time needed to trot to the other side of the building. I didn't see a entrance right away, just a pile of rubble obscuring a point around the corner ahead. Nearing the corner and taking a peek, I could see there was a fairly large hole in the building wall facing the airfield, far from the gangers.

On the ground snaking out of the hole was a line of rope. I followed it with my head towards a tree maybe fifteen meters away. Without a doubt this had to be those scavengers. rope and using the most difficult and direct way inside, classic scavengers.

I moved towards the hole, my mind beginning to conjure up a scenario for this whole thing.

From the looks of it, Scar hired the scavengers to grab stuff inside, the gangers hired to do the same thing, but faster and more direct. I'm thinking that the scavengers got here first, found the main door blocked and looked for another way inside, the hole meeting that requirement after a fashion. I glanced at the rubble for a moment while I proceeded inside. The rubble at first glance was just as it appeared, a pile of rubble.

On the ground I could make out hoof prints and indentations in the ground. Were they drag marks? Anyway, the scavengers cleared the entrance and used some rope to... mark their path?

I wasn't sure yet of the rope's purpose yet, but I was sure bid find out in a moment. The rope lead into a tiny room with a single door that had somehow remained fairly intact, the glass was cracked and the wood rotten but the door stood vigilant. The rope trailed underneath the door.

Welp… No guts no glory. I turned the handle, the mechanism squealed and the hinges creaked but the door opened. Inside was black, the lights inside behaving died long ago and the light outside was blocked by the remains of the roof.

I took a few steps, why didn't I- oh crap! Slowing down to a very drawn out walk, I turned and began to try to rummage for a flash light I thought I had. I chuckled at how stupid I must look, wandering into dark ass room with no-

Crap…
Yea know…
You’d have thought I’d have seen this coming. But nope, gravity wins again. I fell.

Not far, but far enough.

Belly flopping to the ground, I felt my chest plate take the brunt of the fall in my teeth, it was rough, but it didn't sound like anything broke, so I was thankful to whoever cut me that break.

Rising to my hooves, I looked up to see that nearly the entire first floor was missing. Apparently something had come screaming in through the broom closet and... disappeared apparently. There was, at first glance, nothing in the room.

I was seriously annoyed with myself, seriously, falling through a hole in the floor... lame. thankful no one was here, I tried again to find my flash light and discovering it hidden in my saddle bags, great place for it Fell Iron, brilliant.

Drawing the device with my teeth and flipping the switch with my tongue, the room instantly brightened.

Illuminating an area close to myself, i came nearly face to face with a recently deceased pony. the body of this earth pony stallion was just lying there. he looked fairly fresh, and after looking up and following a path from the door to him, he probably was the first to go through the door, and from the way his neck looked… he was quite dead.

"Sucks to be you pal." I said before looking away.

At first glance I got the impression this was some sort of dining area for base personnel. The assorted tables lying about on their sides were a big clue, but the large concentration of snack machines hiding in the corner was a dead giveaway.

The door above me that I had entered through slowly closed and removed the last bit of natural daylight, throwing the room into near pitch black, my flash light now was the only light source, cutting through the thick, dust ridden darkness like a knife through butter. I could see multiple doorways surrounding me, all were open and leading in opposite directions, but from quick glances at them, most were just small rooms, one lead into a kitchen area.

I looked through one doorway and immediately saw it lead down a hallway. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to deduce which way they had gone so I moved towards the door.

I tried the door handle and found it was unlocked, a few bobby pins sitting in bent wrecks just beside it. I opened the door, who picks a locked door then closes it? Whatever, I said and opened the door and getting a better look at the hallway. Ahead I could see that it turned left.

Creeping towards the corner I tipped back my hat a bit, trying to make sure that if anyone was ahead, I'd hear them before I could see them.

I approached the corner and slowed down. Pausing there for a moment I tried to take in the sounds of the area. There wasn't much down here apparently. No dripping of water, no clopping of hooves, or any footsteps for that matter. The only real sounds were made by me, the occasional breath being the loudest thing in here.

So, with no sounds ahead, I gave it a quick check, made sure the coast was clear and then headed straight, the new hallway leading me left again, but there was no deviations so it was easy to remember how to escape. I figured this place wouldn't stay quiet for long.

The hallways took me through multiple turns and corridors. I found signs of struggle dotted throughout the place, a scavenger’s body here or a place with crates or boxes opened and their contents looted. All the bodies from what I observed had been shot, or in some fashion dismembered, that didn’t bode well at all in my mind, but still no stupid kid sized unicorn body, so that was reassuring, but not much. I imagined that if the five I had passed by so far had fallen, how much longer till that dumbass perished?

That realization got the lead out of my ass. Quickening my pace and racing ahead, I began running through each hallway, poking my heading a room just long enough to check for bodies.

Taking a right turn, I found myself at an intersection, one path heading left, one going right.

I chose left and began running down the corridor.

I hadn’t based my decision on anything more than a quick glance, but both seemed to be the same... I hope.

Returning my attention to the task at hoof, I found myself near the end of the hallway, my mind thankfully stopping my before I just waltzed out. Once again I poked my head slowly and cautiously around the edge and took a look.

The only thing I could see at the end of the hallway was a large metal door, a terminal beside it, but nothing-

Wait, no. No there was something else, just beneath the terminal.

Rushing the door I could see the body of a pony on the ground and the area just in front of its head covered in blood and glass. I glanced up for just a moment then back to the-

I did a double take of the terminal. The screen from a distance had looked deactivated, black and lifeless like most are until you interface with it, but that wasn't the case here. I could see that the terminal had acted like a shrapnel bomb, the glass and internal parts… Yea, this mare was dead, and probably not in a quick way either with how her hooves were placed on her face, trying to shield her face from danger that had already done its damage.

I heard a hissing noise and a wave of light hit me, not blinding, but the sudden change in brightness was enough to make me shield my eyes. I looked underneath my hoof and could see an earth mare, her dark blue pastel coat covered by a red robe. She screamed something about a breach in the western corridor. Suddenly the little technicians in my brain went to work and… yea, she meant me, shit.
I dropped my raised leg and could see multiple pony shaped figures clad in very heavy looking metal armor, hell their whole bodies were encased in the stuff.

“Haha, wrong room.” I chuckled nervously while trying to hit the close door button, if there had been one… there wasn’t.

One of the metal figures began galloping at me at an impressive speed for being a metal pony.

Spinning around and racing down the hallway, I could hear the heavy clanking of metal on concrete just behind me.

I reached the first turn and grabbed onto the corner, using the momentum to swing me into the corridor taking me towards the intersection.

The second corner reached me quickly and without thinking I ran back the way I came. Swerving to the side, I slid slightly across the concrete, the metal on my hooves sparking against the ground but putting me in perfect positioning for heading straight.

The pursuing pony had to be no more than a few second behind me. About half way down the hallway now, I threw myself up onto my hind hooves and whirled around, my hooves already going for my holsters and by the time the were drawn I was facing back towards the intercection just as the metal pony ran into view.

“Can’t hide from me primitive!” the metal clad pony boomed down the hallway just as her head turned towards me.

“Who’s hiding? I just needed your fat, metal ass away from your friends.”

Without stopping to let the pony retort, I fired a shot from each pistol.

The first shot was aimed at her front hoof, the second going for center of mass, but the pony’s mid section was concealed behind a massive minigun battle-saddle, shit...

Shot one flew straight at the hoof in the blink of an eye, penetrating the armor with no problem and impacting the concrete on the other side. The second shot impacted the gun, the shot flying through the gun, I’m not sure it penetrated the armor too, but I wasn’t going to let off the pressure and raced forward.

The pony thing screamed at an impressively high volume and then lost its footing, tripping over the wounded limb and falling to the ground. Hearing this I hoped that a simple hit to the leg wasn’t enough to drop metal pony before I could question it, then the bastard could explode for all I cared.

Reaching the pony thing’s head, I put a gun to the pony’s head , “Drop the guns and I won’t blow you away. I don’t have time to deal with your dumb-“

The metal pony swung a hoof at my leg, the metal clanging against the metal brace on the side of the lower limb but the power behind the swing took me off my hooves easily.

I fell with a thump on my side. Bringing my head up I saw I was directly in front of a multi barreled weapon that was beginning to spin rather fast. Pushing off with a fore hoof, I catapulted myself to my hind hooves, just as the minigun roared to life.

The pony stood up just as fast, the armor around its wound beginning to… huh, that’s a new one.

I watched the armor knit itself back together just before me. Well shit, that’s not very fair…

The pony didn’t think so and wasn’t paused by internal debate. It swung the still firing minigun towards me and immediately drew me out of my mental conflict.

Spinning to the left, I found myself alongside the metal pony, the gun still firing but quickly correcting its angle on me, but not fast enough.

Taking a quick look at the armor at close range, I noticed a very interesting set of wording on a hind quarter side panel, the words warning printed in nice yellow letters.

“This looks important!” I grinned,

The shot flew into the metal pony’s hind quarters where a regular pony’s cutie mark would be. The shot sailed through the armor but only clanking against the other side. Glaring angrily at the fat ass suit of armor, I fired again… and Still nothing. I fired again, and again.

The pony armored thingy screamed with each shot, then, after the sixth shot, it stopped mid scream, its body freezing in place.

A familiar smell began to fill the air as metal pony began to bleed through the small holes in the armor. Not a lot, but enough to at least show me that I had hurt it.
Holstering my guns, I began to walk towards the right path of the intersection, walking backwards and gesturing for the pony to halt.

“Alright just… stay there, and we won’t have any issues!” I stated, getting no reply, “Ok, good boy. Stay.”

I turned around and began running down the right hallway, and taking the left turn it offered.

Go figure the right hallway was the ‘right’ hallway.

I ran down this new hallway and glanced inside of the doorways it held, each just as before and empty of both loot and any sort of struggle. I wondered if maybe the scavengers had already finished, maybe they had pulled out when the gangers showed up or those crazy metal clad ponies. Each room assured me that they had been here for at least awhile, and that at some point… some had cut and run perhaps. Piles of loot or loot able items were still present, perhaps some cut and run and others went on, unable to carry everything, they prioritized, and left the scraps behind.

Turning back, I found myself almost at the end of the hallway. Ahead there was another left turn, which I figured might actually take me back to where the metal ponies had gathered. I needed to be careful, so at the corner I looked, nothing, so I made my way towards the right side of the hall, walking close to the wall.

My pace had slowed dramatically, from covering nearly a twenty meter hallway in a little more than a minute, to a careful and methodical walk, taking my time at each doorway and looking in. The loot pile in the first room was… pretty substantial, but nothing I could use and I didn’t need any extra weight slowing me… with a sigh and a bit of reluctance, I left the pile of beautiful loot behind and walked to the next room. My little mental pony self began to write one very familiar word, Whore.

Well, loot whore or not, I did tend to value very obscure things over other ponies, pretty much how it goes now a days, right? I checked the next room briefly, trying hard to resist even looking at the loot still sitting in place, and moved on.

I remember once, coming across a dead merchant. I had moved fairly close to see what had happened, asking and calling out to whoever was there, no answer. So since no one seemed to be there, I trotted up and began looking through the stuff in the bags. All of a sudden I noticed a foal and her mother dead on the other side of the Brahmin. After finding nothing in the bags, I had gotten back on course and headed towards the trade post. Inside, I had overheard a group of bandits that were trying to sell off some loot he had ‘found’. The only item I really noticed was a foal bottle and other items needed to care for one. The guys said it had been a successful trip to a ruined supermarket, but I wasn’t convinced, so I asked them, away from the merchant. Apparently, the bandits had needed some caps, and sure enough, there was a merchant and some other ponies. The pony said he fired, looted, and ran.

Seeing that wasn’t something new, but the explanation was… eye opening, to say the least.
Moving past yet another doorway, I noticed that… this room was untouched.

I leaned to the left and tried to see into the room in front of me, the door was closed.

Knowing that either two things could have happened, I reared up and drew. My hooves clanked against the metal grating on the floor as I approached.

The door is a classic heavy metal door. At the center of said door, there was a button, almost camouflaged against all the other hydraulic and metal parts attached. I tapped a hoof against the button at the center, instantly the metal rods holding the door in place retracted and the door fell into the ground. Without pausing I whirled around with both guns aimed into the doorway, one low, one at an approximant height to a regular pony.

But there was nothing.

The light in the room flickered a little and the stagnant air inside told me this room had probably been closed for quite some time, unlike the rest of this place.

There was a work area in the corner and all the tools needed to construct bullets in the other corner. In the center of the room sat a primary table that seemed to hold a little bit of each station, a few bullets, a few unknown weapon parts (presuming weapons based off the theme), and a few schematics.

Backing away and holstering, I let out a rather loud and annoyed sounding groan. Seriously, where the hell is this-

Clink.

It wasn’t loud, but my head still whipped to the left. Something metal just fell, and after nearly two hundred years, if it hasn’t fallen yet…

Moving towards the end of the hallway I noticed the lights getting darker, their bulbs or something having failed long ago. My eyes were surveying the doors on the right, but I made sure to keep my eyes watching front.

As I moved closer, I could make out something ahead. It was hard to see, but from the looks of it, part of the roof had collapsed and caught something beneath it… I think. I wasn’t sure, but it looked like one of those metal-

“Hello?”A soft voice asked.

Without thinking my hooves flew to my sides and my hind hooves spun me towards where I believed the target was on my right, both guns trained at average pony… level.

The guns were trained about thirty centimeters above the speaker. I corrected this after a moment.
A fairly dirty and mangy looking pony sat before me, a unicorn to be precise.

He sat just inside the doorway, his muzzle pointed at the floor and his ears drooped. The kid looked up at me with the most pathetic stare he could manage. He started speaking but I was still examining him, then looking into the room behind him, the lights were off, so I didn’t see much. The kid’s stable jumpsuit was still okay, no bullets wounds, knife wounds, and no pieces of metal jutting out from any part of him, so he’s fine.

“…an- and sh- she just… I- I didn’t mean-“ he blubbered on, holding up his slightly bloody hooves for me to see.

“That’s nice kid, love in the wasteland is awesome, but we have bigger problems… like a room filled with heavily armed and armored ponies that are fucking nuts.”

The kid took a step back towards the doorway.

“Nope, we’re getting you out of here.”

The kid’s head began to raise and his ears perked up, “We are?”

“Well I mean… I’m not going to force you to leave your wasteland beauty you have stowed away in there, but yes, we’re leaving.”

His mouth suddenly went from happy to sad in the blink of an eye, his ears drooping again and his face starting to lower. I wasn’t going to stand for this sort of sadness, not after nearly being sawed in half by a damn minigun.

I holstered and dropped to all four then took a seat on the floor. Then, with all the inspiration I could muster, I cleared my throat, sat up straight, held up a hoof and took a deep breath. His head began to rise as if he expected me to say something.

After a moment to let his head level out and his expression to not be so sad, I slammed my hoof against the side of his head. The blow knocked him off balance and into the door frame. After grabbing the side of his face and looking back at me, eyes filled with a sort of ‘how could you do that?!’ look, I got to my hooves and turned towards the exit.

“Mope on your own time, not mine. Now, get your ass up and let’s go!” I said, breaking into a half run, half jog down the hall.

I looked back to see the kid think about this for a moment, only a second, and then get to his hooves and begin to follow. I turned my head straight and gave myself a mental pat on the back. I give the best inspirational speeches.

I didn’t enjoy myself long. A set of loud bangs echoed from just down the hallway where rubble metal pony sat. Seems the gangers found them.
Waiting for the kid to catch up, I began to urge him to greater strides with my hoof pushed him along. Eventually he hit a speed closer to what I can walk, but it would have to do.

Walking along side, we made our way through the hallway and back into the area with the still frozen metal pony. I ran past the pony until I heard only one set of hooves moving. Stopping and spinning around, I saw he was standing looking into the face of the metal pony, head tilted to the side.

“Common kid!” I urged. He only turned to me and gestured at the metal pony.

“What about her?”

I raised an eyebrow, “Her who?”

He gestured again at the metal pony and I shrugged, “Life’s tough all over. She’s a big girl, I’m sure she can slow them down for a second.”

The kid only pursed his lips and glared at me, “We can’t just leave her.”

“And I say we can. Now unless you want to argue this out hog tied to the back of a motorcycle, you’ll get you skinny ass over here.”

The kid continued to glare at me, his poor pitiful me routine completely gone. He plopped his rump on the floor, and crossed his fore-hooves.

Rubbing a hoof on the bridge of my nose I began to contemplate the ramiphications of beating him senseless, then dragging him out of here. I mean… why would he give a shit about this pony, when he had a stable to save. I bet she wouldn’t do the same.

“Why the fuck should we save her, huh? You think she would do the same?”

The words paused him for a moment and he lowered his head, his eyes searching for the answer on the ground for only a moment.

“Even if she wouldn’t, even if she isn’t a good enough person to help… Why should we be just as bad?”

Something snapped inside as how naïve he was acting in the face of gangers and metal armored killing machines. I ran up alongside the stallion and began shoving him in the direction of the exit before…

“Ahem, yes. I… I can’t move.”

I stopped, and slowly turned towards the suit of armor.

My head titled to the side, “Well… that’s tough shit, ain’t it. You can’t try to blow me away and then ask for a favor, not how that works.”

“Well you tried to hurt the scribe… I couldn’t let that happen… and we thought you were one of those primitives trying to get inside.” she explained. I shrugged.

“Well I’m not, and no one asked me, so tough shit.” I replied and turned back to the kid.

I again began pushing the kid towards the exit. The kid resisted, but he was a fairly young pony and hadn’t much weight on him.

Suddenly the leapt to the side, my hoof lost its purchase and I fell on my face, ow!

“I know, I know! I still need the thingy from inside the other room. We can go get it, and tell her friends that she needs help!” the kid said cheerfully.

I pushed myself to my hooves then turned to him, snarling and eye twitching.

“How bout nooo! We don’t need anything, except you, me, and to get the hell out of here.”

Looking at the kid I could see that smug, beaming smile on his stupid little face. Like he knew something I didn’t.

Standing and putting my hooves behind to push him again, he turned to look at me, still smiling.

“If you get the device, I can turn it in for money, which in turn, I can give to you for saving my life!” he said gleefully, smiling so wide now that his eyes were closed.

I stopped, pondering his offer for a moment.

My mental self began to photocopy a sheet of paper with the term, WHORE!, written on it… but I had to know how much that device was worth to Scar now… was my life worth a sack of caps?

“So this device, you know what it looks like, right?”

The kid nodded like a fool and began running back towards the room filled with giant metal clad ponies and ponicidal gangers.

“Thank you.” The metal pony added.

“Didn’t say I’d help you, just the kid.” I snarled at her, infuriated that I had sold myself to this kid for… well I don’t really know yet what I had sold myself for. Damn it.

“Alright kid, I’ll go inside, grab this thing, then we’re out of here. I’m here for you, nothing else.”

The kid looked at me as if wanting to ask something but stopped, instead he merely nodded.

Returning the nod, I continued towards the doorway again. The door as before opened, but this time there was no earth mare screaming about intruders. This time, there was a small war going on. Multiple metal ponies fought and dived for cover from the other doorway on the other side of the room. Bodies of gangers were lying in the doorway while multiple metal ponies fired heavy weapons like rocket launchers, grenade launchers, and miniguns into the hallway, at what I presumed were the gangers.

While the metal ponies watched the hallway though, they weren’t paying attention to me, more than likely confident one of them could take on a single regular pony. My attention was lost on the metal clad ponies as I turned towards the noise emanating from the back of the room. I could see ponies in red robes dumping paperwork and parts in their saddle bags while some planted explosives at the base of the heavy and immovable machines. Whoever these ponies were, no pony was getting this tech if they couldn’t have it.

Still looking around, I could see directly across from me, a pony about three meters away from my objective. It was a cylindrical device. It looked no more special than any other pump connection that I had seen before, but according to the kid, it was important. The pump device connected a pair of water tanks that stood at least nine meters high and looked embedded in the wall itself.

Just looking at the set up of the room, I couldn’t see any way to get past the guards and the robed ponies without setting off an alarm. My mental self got to work coming up with plans and mapping the room.

Before me was a square room, with a walk way surround the perimeter of a lower area. The lower area was accessible via four short staircases, one in front of me, across from me, and one on the left and right, each sitting from what I could tell, in the center of their respective walkways. The metal ponies had a small barricade set up to the left of me, about thirty meters away. They would lean to the side, fire a few rounds down the hallway and then duck back inside, they were stalling for time. Heading straight, I would go down a short flight of stairs, about six steps, and then cross the lower landing that was filled with desks and filing cabinets and work tables. After crossing this area that was mainly used by the metal ponies, I would ascend another flight of stairs and end just in front of my objective, simple.

The problem was, all it would take was a single pony to look my way, and the metal ponies would open fire, most likely killing me.

I looked at the fight to my left, the metal ponies put on a good show but there were only six of them against what I would presume are dozens from how many vehicles sat outside. I needed a plan that could get me across safely. Thinking back now, I didn’t exactly remember all of my plans, most were improv. I quickly tried to remember the few ‘snatch and grab’ schemes I could think of, none of them applied to something like this.

What does a pony do when they need to get somewhere, filled with ponies who are just itching to blast anything that looks hostile.

Hmm…

Without realizing it, I was sitting on my rump, actually tapping my chin trying to think of an answer. Honestly though, I had nothing. So without anything to go on, I’d wing it.

“What the hell…” I muttered and trotted towards the stairs, nonchalantly.

Keeping my movements no faster than anyone else, I trotted down the steps and towards the machine. I passed by one of the metal ponies, the pony’s head turning just slightly towards me. Quickly I turned to face it and said, “You’re doing a good job, thank you. We’re almost done.”

The metal pony nodded and turned back to the fight and I continued trotting.

Stiffing a chuckle, I turned back towards the machine, making my way up the stairs and walking the few steps till I was sitting just at the base of the large tanks. I looked to see a robed pony off to my right, the pony I’d noticed earlier, still hard at work on something.

I took a seat, rolled my shoulders and took a deep breath. I really hoped this guy was really wrapped up in his work.

“Pipe Wrench.” I said

Without thinking anything of it, he put his muzzle in the tool box beside him and brought out a wrench, his eyes staying fixed on the electronic device he was fiddling with while his neck craned towards me, offering the tool.

“Thank you.” I said courteously and got to work removing the bolts securing the device.

While I loosened the bolts, I found some wouldn’t move, so I asked for oil. The robed pony was far too interested in his work to care, so he’d lean over and oil a section. Then I needed a mallet to knock a bolt loose, he’d give it a few swings and pop it loose, all the while keeping his mind on the task at hoof, not paying me any attention to someone asking for a piece of technology to be removed. All the while, the fighting towards the hallway was growing fiercer.

From what I could hear, the metal ponies, who kept using dorky names like Knight, or Paladin, were running low on munitions, apparently having lost some when they fell back to this room and were forced to leave them in a room the ‘invaders’ could get to.

With the gunfire grew more frequent, suddenly a loud, boom, boom, boom, echoed through the place. I whirled around to see a metal pony slumped on the ground, it’s head obliterated and chunks of it’s body torn asunder. Whatever this heavy gun was, the damn gangers now had the edge they needed to push these dumb bastards out of here.

I began picking up the pace, loosening the bolts and such as fast as possible. Finally, the last bolt was knocked free by my friend and I grabbed the device and stowed it in my saddle bag.

“Thanks for the help buddy.”

“Uh huh…”

I turned and started towards the exit, a sudden chirp and buzzing noise forced me to stop. I knew the sound of a laser pistol when I heard it. The jig was up.

Slowly I turned towards the apparently now perceptive pony, and saw he had a laser pistol in his mouth… pointed at me of course.

“Phurm hurm guhrm hurm!” the stallion tried saying. But from my experience, having a pistol in your mouth makes orders hard to hear.

I began shrugging at him, gesturing towards my ears like I couldn’t hear him, slowly approaching him while I did so.

“Phurm hurm guhrm hurm Nur!” he exclaimed, I just shrugged more and feigned ignorance.

Finally, like the smart nerdy pony he was, he raised a hoof, and put the pistol in it so he could speak, “I said-!”

I closed the distance in a flash, rushing him and swinging a hoof at his face and laying him out with a single blow. As the pony fell I made sure to grab the pistol as he hit the ground with a thud. No one looked around, the sound of simple thud paled in comparison to the firefight at the front and all the other noise caused by the other’s work.

I put the pistol in my bags and began running towards the exit.

As soon as I broke the normal stride and now my metal hooves clanking unceremoniously against the metal floor, the metal pony that observed me earlier turned immediately. I was already almost out the door when I heard the minigun spinning up, the whining of the motor was very particular, and so I threw myself to the nearest table just as the first hail of bullets flew past, impacting the metal floor and pinging off.

The minigun roared as it spat bullets in hoof full’s all around me. The table however was perfect cover, the base being secured to the floor and made of thick metal.

With bullets pinging off the table and pinning me, I needed to think of a way out of here… but what?! Think Fell Iron, think damn you!

I began to plot out a convoluted escape attempt using some rope and a mine, when luck proved to be on my side, answered my previous query a booming voice.

The minigun fire stopped and continued firing elsewhere. I poked my head over cover to see one the gunner had stopped and turned back towards the doorway. The booming bang, bang, bang, bang rang out from the hallway, each bang apparently fired a shot that either missed, or tore a chunk out of something else. I watched one of the pony’s armor take a hit and kept going, impress- oh wait never mind, that was shorted lived.

The first shot would impact, causing a metal pony to waver, then the next few rounds would do the same and the metal pony would either fall over with massive dents in the armor, or a chuck of the armor would give way and the heavy shots would tear the pony beneath to ribbons. Either way, these ponies were being ravaged by the heavy gun down the hallway.

I watched two ponies killed in just a matter of seconds, the others took up flanking positions near the door and began shouting orders towards the nerdy ponies for them to evacuate. This was a golden opportunity, so I took it. Running for the door with all my worth.

Racing up the stairs and reaching the doorway, I looked back out of sheer curiosity… and whoa had this place gone to hell quickly. Gangers flooded inside, leaping over and dog piling onto the metal ponies. Each metal pony blow hurled the gangers off, but they kept coming, where one fell, two rushed forward to grapple the ponies. I watched as the two unmolested metal ponies ran down into the center of the room, one with a large automatic grenade launcher and another with a laser gatling gun. They were going to unleash some serious…

A black gryphon flipped over the gun and landed in the primary area. The metal ponies turned to engage, but the gryphon was… holy hell he was gone. I searched for him like the metal ponies. There was a yell from below to flee and I turned just in time. On the ground sat a stick with what looked to be a-

Oh no, no, no, no.

I moved towards the door and hit the central button, the hydraulics opening and dropping the door. Just as the door reached the ground, the air filled with a sort of static electricity. I couldn’t step through the door fast enough. As I stepped through I quickly turned and drew a pistol, pointing it at the terminal on the now over run side and prepared to shoot. A black figure in the center of the room caught my eye and I looked for just a second.

The black gryphon looked at me with a cold and hate filled stare.

Him nor I moved for what seemed like an eternity, the action and combat around us seeming to slow to a crawl, however it all ended abruptly, the gryphon suddenly drawing and hurling a sheathed blade at me before I could even register the blade in flight. I fired my pistol and turned as quickly as I could, the whizzing of the blade coming close and impacting something with a thunk. The terminal destroyed, the door now had no way to realize it could open and began to seal. Hurling myself inside, I rolled into the familiar hallway with the dead unicorn hacker.

Getting up from from my prone position where I had landed, I ran on all four, galloping loudly down the hallway as I made my way for the the corner only to find the kind wasn't there, figures.

I continued on towards the metal pony, I'm sure that's where he would be, probably cowering behind it or something. Sure enough, the kid was sitting just in front of the immobile pony, a hoof up and waving about while his mouth jawed on about something. The closer I got the more anguish and emotion I could hear in the conversation, too bad we didn't have time for sappy conversations.

“...and that’s why I’m here.” He sighed, dropped his gaze towards the floor.

Skidding alongside himI found myself facing the metal pony, the kid just to my right.

“Alright, got your pump, let’s go, now.” I explained frantically, really hoping se gangers couldn't get in here with moremof those grenades they'd used on the metal ponies.

“Okay. What about Heavy Duty here?” he asked gesturing to the metal pony.

“Get her a name changed to something more feminine, I don’t know! We have to go!” I said, scooping him up and tossing him on my back.

“Wait! Please help! I’m trapped in here!” the metal clad pony screamed.

I turned and shrugged, “Not my problem!” and raced towards the exit.

The kid leaned close into my ear, “Bu… but we can’t leave her, she can’t move. She needs help. I was thinking we could-“

I turned a corner, slamming into the wall, the kid yelped I kept running.

“Kid, I don’t think you realize the concept of me being here for just you. No. One. Else.”

I didn't hear a reply, just a gasp and then a hoof beating on muffled metal.

"You're hurt! there's a-"

"Doesn't matter, hurt time is later, running time is now." I explained, my eyes fixed on the path ahead.

Once again he didn't reply. I heard a small grunt and a clanging from behind me, but I kept running. I didn't have time for defenseless metal clad mares, or time to even stop to see what the hell he was talking about. I was too busy trying to get this moron on track to save his stable.

This was all moot though. Carrying his ass out through the abandond hallways, then back into the cafeteria. Now, we have another problem.

I'm not really sure why the scavesngers had brought a rope, but that's the way it is.

Mirroring my concerned look, the kid turned back towards me and gestured, "How do we get out?"

"My thoughts exactly... how did you guys get in?"

The tan pony looked away, itching at his mane and then rolling his head to look back at me, his reluctance to answer was the same reason why I didn't share.

I nodded, "yea, same here."

He took it for what it was and put a hoof to his chin, tapping it. I began to look around the room. From my estimate the next floor was no more than a few meters off the ground... there had to be a way.

As if instantly catching on, the kid began looking around too. I doubted he knew what for, but hopefully a pocket elevator would appear, or a ladder... That's it!

I rushed over to the downed tables and got to work shoving them just below the ledge. The kid caught on quick and began to shove a table or chair.

After a minute of pushing, we had arrayed about eight tables and some chairs... which I wasn't even sure why they would own, but what the hell.

"Alright kid, take those three and line them up straight with the door above us. After that, we'll stack the tables-"

"…and make a stair case!" he exclaimed as his eyes met mine.

I nodded and got to work pushing tables into place. The kid pushed a table right behind the one I pushed into place, the stair case slowly began to take shape.

I caught the kid looking back the way we had came, the image of suddenly a few dozen gangers rushing us with that cannon did not inspire me, but we had to focus. I shoved the kid back into it and gestured for him to shove the table beside the others so I could lift.

One by one, tables began to go up, each new step taking us closer and allowing me to add a new step higher. Soon we used up the tables, and for our bottom step we used the chairs.

The sound of metal hitting a hard surface echoed loudly through the room. I turned towards the source of the noise, the kitchen. The kid wandered out with a pan on his head, shrugging and wincing when he looked at me.

"We're ready to go, get up here and let’s leave, before those damn gangers actually get in here."

He nodded and ran over towards me. I was already on the first step and began to climb towards the top.

I leapt for the third level, seeing the table wobble to the side didn't help, but with a grunt and some effort, I finally pulled myself over. Turning around to check on the kid's progress, I found him just attempting to reach the second level. With an anguished sigh, I returned to my own problems.

The fourth level was bound to be the most unstable and hardest to keep from wobbling, but if we kept clam and-

Suddenly the third level began to sway a little. I whipped around and saw the kid grabbing on for dear life.

"Help?" he muttered, his voice straining from the physical exertion of carrying himself.

I leaned closer to him, "I'm here to help a stable. Not help you with your weedy little problems, now get your ass up here and stop monkeying around."

Before he could answer I turned on a hoof and grabbed for the next table. If he wanted to save his stable, he needs to toughen the hell up, or he'd lose it.

Scrapping and grabbing for the other end of the table, I heard little gasps and squeaks from him, I glanced and saw he was...still stuck. With another sigh, I finally got my footing and pulled myself up onto the final stack of tables.

I let out a breath I didn’t I had been holding and turned confidently towards the... closed door.
I realized the folly in my plan when I hadn't taken into account the fact that the dam door also had to be opened and couldn't be pushed, shit. I wasn't tall enough and the kid sure as hell wasn't... damn it!

"You okay- whoa! You... you okay, what’s going- ahhh! What’s going on?” the kid asked in between his outbursts.

“Door’s closed and we can’t get high enough to open it… We don’t have anything left to stand on.” I explained. My voice trying to not sound as defeated as my words sounded but it was hard.

Clank, Clank.

I looked down to see the kid hitting the pan he had had on his head earlier against a table leg, looking up at me smiling. Damn smile.

Rolling my eyes at him I was ready to… oh, oh that’s good.
I didn’t say anything, just reaching down and catching the pot with my teeth and then lifting him up the stretch. He earned that final leg up with that stupid pan… who’d have thought it.

Lifting him up on my back, He stood on his hind legs and with his teeth, snagged the door handle with the pan and pulled. The lock opened with a click while the hinges squealed and whined at being opened.

I pushed him up onto the ledge and then threw myself up, squirming and wiggling my way through the doorframe and then rolling over onto my back. With a quick kick, the door slammed shut.

The back of my head hit the ground with a clank. I needed a moment to rest, just one second. After the peaceful second I rolled to the side and stood up. The kid was lying just a few steps away. He lie on his back while his chest heaved. I shook my head and snorted, “Rest is for suckers, get up. We still got gangers to out run.”

His breathing stooped and he threw himself onto his side and looked up at me, “Running?”

I chuckled, “Figure of speech. Now common, get your lazy ass up and let’s get going. We got a bounty to collect.”

I didn’t stop to listen for a response and began walking. The clip, clop of hooves galloping behind me told me he was up and right behind me, so I picked up the pace, practically sprinting nearly the whole way. I would look back and see the kid beginning to slow, or to faulter. I would turn around and sigh, only to hear his heavy breathing getting a little closer.

We made it to the bunker structure and I galloped inside to ready the bike, finding it exactly where I had left it.
With a leap, I slid into the seat. Quickly my hooves slid to the controls and began preparing the bike. With a turn of the ignition key, the bike roared, happily starting up with no problems, then idling proudly.

The engine’s rumbling concealed the kid’s approach. I turned to see him examining the bike and contemplating how to mount it.

His head tilted, “where do I sit?”

I gestured to the area of the seat just behind me.

He nodded then bit down on a portion of his tongue. Narrowing his eyes at the seat, he arched his back a little and then like a spring, leapt towards the bike, jumping over it and face planting on the other side. I face hoofed. All the minute amount of respect he had gained had vanished instantly.

Dropping my hoof away from my eyes, I found the kid now on the seat, but scrambling to face the right direction. I said nothing and just watched for a moment, my blank and unamused stare watching this useless pony lose a fight to a seat, it wasn’t even the whole motorcycle, just the seat.

“Wait, I got it now, lemme just-“

Fuck it.

I revved the engine, “Grab onto something!” I warned and let off the breaks and bolting towards the opened pair of hangar doors.

Just as we cleared the door I hooked around the hangar’s side and headed back the way I came, straight into the desert and away from this place, the kid grabbing on for dear life and screaming most the way... I’d have double face hoofed if it wouldn’t have killed us both.

***

The sun’s light illuminating the area fully now, it was easier to tell what lie ahead of us, so I found dodging anything remotely sketchy was easy. The problem with easy is it left time for the mind to wander… I didn’t like my mind wandering too much, but it happened whether or not I wanted it.

Taking my eyes off the road for a second, I let out a deep breath and then focused on the path ahead.

A lot had happened in that place. Metal armored ponies running around calling others, scribes. Said scribes were in the process of dismantling a military complex… Why did that sound familiar?

Then, on top of that brain teaser, why were gangs attacking ponies like that? Were they after the armor, The guns?

I sighed. None of it seemed to make any sense, and contray to what I tell people, shit like this bugs the heck out of me… I usually just find something else to take my mind off of it all. It’s not like it’s my problem after all, and if there’s one unwritten rule of the wastes, don’t go sticking your muzzle where it doesn’t belong, it’s bound to get hit if you do.

Shaking my head, I tried to remember what I should really be worrying about… I turned and saw the kid was finally turned around and grabbing ahole of me. He sat comfortably sleeping on me… was that drool? Never mind. Anyway, What I wanted to ask him when we got a chance is what the hell his stable needed so bad they descided he was their only option for asking for aid. Were they sick? Was there a fight and he was the only one to get out? Who knows… it’s all moot anyway. I need to stick with facts and things I could account for, I’d ask him for information later. I need to stick to what I know, and what I do know, is if this kid is the only pony they felt could save their stable… they’re must be super fucking desperate.

(Based in the universe of Fallout Equestria By Kkat. http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/04/story-fallout-equestria.html )