Fallout Equestria: Brotherhood

CHAPTER 7: GROUND LEVEL

The city was bustling with activity as ponies of all kinds went about their lives, strolling the skytop streets. It was a rather brownish morning, a cool breeze brushed by every other second past the sky city. The four ponies exited Lucy’s shack all geared up and ready for a hard days work, more or less. Lucy locked her door with a key she kept in her pocket, her sniper rifle hanging at her side.

“Gee, I’m stuffed, I haven’t had a meal that good since we left Maneton.” Neo said satisfyingly, rubbing his stomach merrily.

“I hope you ate well, you consumed half of the fucking food.” Lucy said negatively, moving away from the shack door she had just locked.

“Yeah brother, you need to start eating less... and a little more slowly.”

“We at least he was kind enough to leave some for the rest of us.” Allie said, fixing her saddle bag.

Lucy moved up to the group standing just outside her shack, “You kids done yapping. Cause we’re burning cloud light.” She said, starting to walk off without them, a grumpy, pissed off look spread on her face.

She stopped for a moment and looked back to the group to see if they were even moving. It didn’t surprise her that they were still standing at the door. She sighed with frustration as she walked back to the group. “It’s this way? You can see that, can’t you?” she snickered at them.

“Oh yeah, we know, its just that, brother is trying to help Allie with her bag.” Adam said cautiously.

Lucy looked at the two for a second, “Meh.” She grunted as she waited for them.

Neo finished attaching the last strap to Allie. “There, all done,” Neo said patting her bags down gently.

“Thanks for helping me Neo,” Allie said giving him a cute smile.

Neo blushed a bit at her. “Its no problem, really I like to help, heh.” He said shyly.

“Can we get going now?” Lucy complained rolling her eyes at the two, and then walking back to her original route.

“Yeah brother, we should really start moving.” Adam said, starting to trot towards Lucy.

“Okay, we’re coming!” Neo and Allie shouted at them as they dashed to catch up with Lucy and Adam.

The city was not as pretty as it was the night before, the lights were still on but the increased brightness made them harder to see. There was also a significantly low amount of ponyfolk in the resident district, but that soon changed the farther they moved into the city.

They were taking a different route then the one they had taken entering the city, rather the bridge they crossed this time descended to a lower building. The building they were approaching was much, much larger than the trade or residential district, it looked to be at least five times the size of both together.

As they walked along the metal sheeted bridge to this new district, a huge glowing sign welcomed them to the new area, “Welcome to the Commons District” It displayed in orange lettering.

The Commons District was huge, small shops and tents were everywhere selling an assortment of items.

“Fresh metal! Straight from the Quantum mines!”

“Free relief slaves, you get an hour with them, if you don’t like’um then try another! Now selling colts and fillies at discount price!”

Neo went up to Lucy to talk with her. “They sell slaves here?” He asked quietly as they passed the slave trader tent.

“Eeyup.” She said plainly as if it were nothing. “Welcome to the city.”

“That's, not even right. How come other ponies treat each other like that? Throughout history not once have ponies enslaved ponies before, and-” He was interrupted by a smack to the back of his head. “Ow! What was that for?” He said rubbing his head were she had hit him.

“Shut it. This district is crawling with slavers, and they don’t get to happy when a punk smart ass kid gives them crap about their business.” She scolded at him quietly.

“And what the heck is a relief slave?” Neo whispered to Lucy putting his hoof down.

She lifted her hoof up preparing to strike, “Please, not again!” Neo said as he flinched at her gesture.

“Listen kid, have you ever wanted somepony to do anything for you before?” She asked him.

“Uhm, no not really.” Neo said hesitantly.

“Well, those slaves in their are for those colts and fillies who like to fuck a lot.”

Neo cringed a bit, “That's sick! Making somepony do that against their will, that's basically rape!” Neo said stopping his hoof down in anger.

“It’s a messed up world kid, it’s a messed up world.” She said returning to her trotting.

Adam didn’t pay attention to the slaver tents, rather he was just taken by the many booths and tents selling old, prewar tech. Tech from Equestria, some local tech, and even some new technology they had created. You name it, the place had it.
Out of all the things in the district one thing made Adam squee, it was a little disc levitating a rock. He thought that if he slipped away from the group for just a moment to check it out that nopony would notice. He stepped away from the group for just a moment as he ran over to the tent to talk to the large unicorn running the stand.

Neo noticed that Adam hadn’t really spoken for a while, so like any good big brother he slowed down so he could talk to him. To his surprise when he stopped and looked behind him Adam wasn’t there. Instantly a thousand scenarios went racing through his mind, “Adam got taken by slavers! Or he was taken by thugs, or maybe he got lost in the crowd... Or maybe he.” He stopped panicking for a moment as he sighed with relief, he found Adam just barely sticking out of the crowd looking for them.

“Hey guys wait up a sec for Adam.” Neo said to the group before running towards his formally lost brother.

The group paused for a second waiting for Neo to get Adam. Neo dashed up to Adam with worry in his eyes. “Adam!” He barked. As he looked down at his little brother. Adam knew he did something wrong, he backed up flattening his ears.

“I know, I strayed off... but I just wanted to look at the stuff and-” Neo interrupted him furiously, “I don’t care! You could have been taken, or hurt, or...” He stopped his worried rant for a moment and cooled off. “I thought I would loose you.” He said looking sorry.

Adam perked up a bit, “Its okay brother, I shouldn’t have wondered off without your approval first. I am fully aware of what I did was wrong, I am sorry.” He said seriously.

“Well, I just don’t want to have to beat up a hundred guys today.” He said with a small smile on his face.

“My lie worked!” Adam thought to himself going along with Neo. “Now I have a good present for him when his birthday comes, oh and isn’t he going to be surprised!” He had a maniacal laugh ringing through his head like he was some kind of mad scientist pony.

“Now lets get back to Lucy before she hits me in the head again.” Neo chuckled facing the group again before trotting off with Adam to catch up.

They were half way into the district when they started to see a significantly large amount of guards, spritebots, and posters. The posters themselves were well drawn pictures that were displayed on tents, walls, and windows. Large guards saluting a green hoof with a star in the middle where displayed on each poster stating:

The Legion Needs You!
Join now and restart the future, today!

One of the odd things, besides the large amount of guards, was the graffiti that was painted on several posters. Every other poster bared giant blue X’s painted on them, some of the words where replaced with, "The legion lies!" It was apparent that Lucy knew what was going on with all the guards, as for the rest of the group they were clueless as to what was happening.

Neo looked around at the guards and tiny orb robots that hovered through the air broadcasting messages of peace, love, and progress. “My little ponies, this is me, your Emperor. I hope I do not need to repeat myself when I say that irrational behavior will not be tolerated. If we are to build a better tomorrow for our ponies, than we must be willing to obey law. For, you see, law is order, and order is progress. Just remember the laws of 10, and you shall live freely without worry, and now, our nations national anthem.” The powerful voice changed to patriotic music as the little machine drifted away.

As they started to leave the center of the district, they approached large crowd standing in front of a stage. The stage had six or so green armor clad soldiers, with helmets connected to gas masks. They almost didn’t look like ponies with their dark visors, and clanky metal armor.

Behind the guards facing the wall was four ponies, two Earth ponies, and two Unicorn ponies. They each had blind folds on and stood perfectly still, except for a unicorn who was shaking violently with terror.

“What’s going on over there?” Adam asked stopping from a distance to see.

Lucy stopped to answer him, “Listen kid if you don’t want to vomit I suggest that we keep moving.”

Adam didn’t listen, instead he watched the whole thing unfold. Allie and Neo noticed it as well as they joined Adam in watching.

A guard moved up on the stage and moved to the middle, displaying himself more than the other five. He spoke in a loud booming voice so that the whole crowed could hear. “These four have been accused of slander, and irrational behavior against his majesty High Lord Vladimir. The evidence is that these four were found with blue paint stolen from the trade district. They are also accused of disgracing his majesties recruitment centers and posters.” He stopped for a second as turned to a unicorn guard and nodded at him. The other guard then began removing the blindfolds from each pony.

He then started to continue his speech. “The blindfolds of disbelief have been removed. The laws and punishment will be listed, the accused shall be given their last words after the trial.” He pulled out a piece of paper and levitated it in front of his face so he could read.

“The accused have broken three of the laws of ten of the Ironhoof Legion. You have broken law three, never disgrace the legion, you have broken law six, resisting legion arrest, and law 9, speaking for rights. In correlation with this you have been sentenced to death by firing squad. May Celestia guide you to the afterlife.” He stepped back and nodded to the rest of the soldiers.

“No Travis!” An earth pony filly screamed in the crowed. Tears ran down from her eyes as she watch the firing squad line up with the criminals. She started struggling trying to get up on stage to help him, “Travis, don’t die! Please! No! Please!” She cried out as she was being held back by two guards.

She coughed on her sorrow as she saw her loved one stand ready to meet his death.

“No, please Travis!” She called once more.

One of the guards shoved her back into the crowd. “Shut up or you’ll join him,” he threatened.

“The accused will now speak their last words. Each one shall step forward state their will and step back.” The guard with the paper shouted. He motioned his head to the first criminal.

The first one was an Earth pony colt, he was violently shaking in fear. He stumbled forward and shouted to the crowed. “I’m innocent! I didn’t do anything! Please, I’m not one of them!” His face was terrified and ragged, tears ran down his eyes as he begged for help.

“Step back!” a guard near him barked.

He stepped back mumbling his innocence.

The guard pointed to Travis, Travis took one step forward. In his eyes he knew what he had done, and he was ready to embrace death. With a deep breath he shouted proudly into the audience. “I am Travis! I am a Captain in the Steelhoof Coalition! I die for freedom! Honor! And everything these tyrants stand against! Let me not be forgotten! Let freedom be brought to the Province!” He stopped and looked down for a second, a dark loom hovering over his face. “I’m sorry Bella...” He muttered softly, stepping back with a gentle tear rolling down his face.

“Next criminal.” The guard barked, but the Earth pony just stood there looking out into the crowed with a hardened serious facial expression.

“And you?” He barked to the next criminal. He did the same as the previous pony.

“Very well,” He said while turning to the firing squad.

“Marksponies ready?” He commanded. The firing squad prepared their rifles.

“Aim!”

“Fire!”

Neo Adam turned away from the horrible scene. *BANG!*

They looked back to see all of the criminals on the ground, dead. Large gashing wounds pierced their bodies as blood seeped out of them. “The bodies will be kept here for display until tomorrow. Let this serve as a sign to any who appose the legion!” The guard shouted.

“All hail the legion!” all the guards chanted in unison.

The filly who’s loved one was part of the accused just lay there on the ground, mopping with sorrow. The whole crowd dissipated, with a gloomy aura hanging over them.

“That isn’t right...” Neo said turning back to Lucy slowly. “Law shouldn’t be handled like that...” He muttered grimly walking away from the scene, his head hung low in a mournful fashion.

Adam just stood their, looking down, thinking. He thought about who the legion was, and why they would sentence ponies to death for graffiti. To him, it didn’t make sense at all.

“Adam!” Neo called to him. “We’re going!” he barked angrily.

Adam snapped out of his thinking state returning to reality. He then turned his gaze to the group, and dashed towards them without saying a word.

Lucy stood in front of a large old wooden board covered in variety of colored paper. The board had a small iron rectangle at the top with the words "Work Board" engraved on it. There was four sections to the board, each one had a small label on it which categorized each form of work. One box was labeled food service, one was labeled military work, and the other two were for work in the under-city.

Lucy skimmed through each paper in the under-city section. Neo, Adam, and Allie managed to catch up to her and join her starring at the large board.

“What are you looking for?” Adam said staring at the tens of jobs available on the board.

“I’m looking for...” She paused for a moment narrowing her eyes to inspect one paper.

“There.” She announced, putting her left forehoof on top of the job.

The other three moved closer to her hoof to see what it was, “So, whats the job?” Allie asked.

Lucy removed her forehoof causing Adam and Neo to back away from the board. “This job is very, very important. If you screw this up, there will be hell to pay, and not only that but you'll probably get killed.” She said negatively.

The trio looked puzzled at the remark. “Whats so special about this job?” Neo stepped in.

Lucy sighed, “I can’t actually tell you, like I said before I’ll probably get hunted down if we fail. So please, just don’t ask questions, and just do what your told okay?”

“Fine.” Neo said stubbornly.

Together the four started trotting to a small metal box shaped building that was behind the board, it was exactly the same as the elevator that had brought them up to the city originally. Lucy pressed a large red button that stuck out on the left side of the entrance, then *Clank!* a large metal door slid open exposing another elevator. Lucy decided to move inside first, the others followed directly behind her.

She turned her head to the group with a smirk on her face. “Going down,” she said slamming the down button on the left hoof side of the elevator room.

*Clomk!* Went the metal doors sliding shut quickly, and before they knew it, they were starting to descend into the deep, dark depths of the city.

It was loud, and dark inside the elevator with only a small red light for illumination. The elevator bumped up and down as the elevator passed floor after floor, streaks of light passed by them as they continued their descent.

After about two minutes the elevator began to draw to a halt, and with a small cheerful ding the doors slid open exposing a long dark hallway. The hallway was made of dark iron, and lined up and down with pipes creaking and shuttering, by the pressure deep inside them. A loud echoing followed adding to the eerie feeling the hallway was giving off. Small lights lit up the path as the four emerged from the elevator into the corridor.

Adam was shivering with fright as the four moved down the hallway, Neo was shivering coldly noticing the temperature difference in the air. He could see his and everypony's breath in the faint glow of the tiny lights that lit up their way to the end.

Allie moved closer to Neo shaky slightly, she moved close enough to be brushing against him, before turning into a full snuggle.

“It’s to keep warm.” She said softly snuggling up to him.

Neo blushed as he felt a small surge of warmth race throughout his body. He was no longer aware of the grim place they were in, rather he was content. That was until the reached the end of the hallway.

Once there Lucy tapped on the huge metal door that stood before them. A small slit opened up near the middle of the door exposing only a colts eyes, a shy young voice came from the other side.

“What do you want?” The voice demanded.

“I am Province Guardian Lucy Luck, and this is my crew cupcake.” Lucy mocked him.

“I didn’t ask who you were, I asked what do you want.”

“Well cupcake, I just want to take up that mean little job that nopony in the city wants to do.”

“One sec, how many ponies do you have?”

“Four.”

“Okay, hold on.” He closed the slit in the door and went silent for a few seconds.

A few moments later and he reopened the slit exposing his dark eyes again. “You can come in, but make it fast or you’ll let out the heat.”

The slit slid closed as the door shook and clanked open. There on the other side was a unicorn colt wearing a dark green suit of some kind, with a large gray helmet on.

“Come in! Come in!” He barked at them motioning them to come in faster.
The four hurried in as they felt a blast of warm air bristle along their coats. Lucy only stopped for a moment to address the stallion, “Thank you cupcake,” she said tauntingly as she patted him on the cheek and continued on.

He started to mumble negative insults to himself as he pressed the button that closed the door.

“Cloudy! We have workers here!” He called out to a door to the right of the exit.

“One sec, I’m trying to get the suits together!” A mare called back from behind the door.

The stallion who had let them in removed his helmet with his magic, exposing his head, he looked no older than Neo, and no bigger either. He had a white mane, with a light green coat. “Well welcome to the entrance to the under-city, we’re UC entrance nine. My name is Deja, I’m the gate keeper.” He said proudly moving over to the next door.

He pressed another button opening what looked like a living quarters area made for them. Inside was a light brown unicorn mare wearing the same kind of suit. She was levitating three neatly folded suits, that looked just like the ones they were wearing, “One sec, I need to get the last one, and then I gotta find the helmets.” She said going through a footlocker next to a green bunk. “There we go!” She exclaimed levitating the fourth suits along with the four helmets that went with them.

She exited the living quarters and moved into the small room the other five were standing in, “I have your suits ready!” She said cheerfully as she rested each suit in front of each pony.

Adam looked down at the suit, he was curious as to why they needed them at all.

Lucy looked surprised, “Well your not as stupid as I thought, these suits are actually in decent condition, for once.”

Adam raised a hoof in the air trying to ask a question, “Yah, what is it?” The mare said looking toward him.

“Uhm, yeah, I was wondering as to why we need these in the first place.”

The brown filly looked to Lucy after his question with a odd look on her face. “Is this kid for real?” She asked Lucy.

“Mhm.” Lucy nodded to her.

“Great." She said rolling her eyes. "But before I go on, is there anypony else, who hasn’t been down here before?” She asked looking to the Allie and Neo.

In unison Allie and Neo said, “Yeah, pretty much.” The both looked embarrassed a bit at the situation.

“Okay, lets give you all a real quick lesson on radiation.” She grumbled.

She started to speak in a babyish tone “Radiation is bad, weally bad, and if you get to much of it you die. And out there, radiation is everywhere, so in owder to keep you wiving you need to keep deese wittle old suits on okay?” She ended her lesson with a forced grin on her face.

Lucy was smiling at the speech she had given, the other three however, didn’t find it as amusing as Lucy did.

With a strait face Neo spoke, “You know I’m twenty right?” He pointed out.

Her smile died as she sighed, “Just get the stupid suits on.” She grumbled angrily.

The other stallion had already moved to the door to the right of the room, waiting for them to finish getting their Rad suits on. The Deja and Cloudy giggled and chuckled at the sight, watching Neo and Adam struggle to get the dark suits on.

Neo had finally managed to get the suit on, with some help from Allie’s magic, within a few minutes all four of them had their suits and helmets on.

“Damn, these thing are really hard to put on.” Neo commented as he checked the suit to see if it was secured properly.

“Brother, it wasn’t that hard, or at least it wasn’t when you get your legs inside.”

“Yeah kid, its not that hard, you just gotta suck up your fat gut and it’ll squeeze right on.” Lucy taunted to Neo.

“Yeah, yeah, very funny.” Neo replied sarcastically.

The brown filly moved next to the colt and helped him pull a large copper leaver opening the door. Inside the door was a small dark room with a few shower heads attached to the ceiling.

“All right kiddies, into the shower you go.” The filly said moving her hoof in the air signaling them to enter.

The four moved into the small room awaiting further orders. The filly moved into the center of the entrance to speak. “Now, I need you to help bring back a special water talisman that can only be found in the central water system, roughly three miles from here.” She paused for a moment to nod at Deja his horn started to glow as a rim of blue magical energy gripped the leaver.

She started to speak again, “There are two rules you need to know before we let you go. Rule number one, Whisper, and talk through the short range radios in your suits. Rule number two, you must always keep your suit on at all times! If you don’t it won’t take you long to find out why you need it. But the one thing you gotta remember is that once it turns dark out there, we lock these doors till morning, and we open them for nopony.”

She gave them a strait look, “Celestia speed.” She said before the metal door slammed shut.

The closing of the door was followed by a loud alarm as the four were sprayed by hot steaming water. The suits managed to keep the water from physically touching them, but they could still feel it pound on them from outside their suits. *HONK!* Went the alarm again as the door on the opposite side opened. It creaked open slowly as dim blue rays of light beamed through the exit.

Within seconds they could see the outside and all of its horror. The exit was on top of hill giving them an over overview to what looked like the ground level to the city. Small rays of blue moon like light dotted the dark ground. The city floor itself was charred and melted. It was as if the sun itself had landed on the city torching everything, and to the sky was the hundreds of bridges that span from building to building not letting the light properly touch the surface.

Hundreds of black scattered skeletons of dead ponies lay everywhere along the small broken roads. Metal carriages and wagons lay melted and broken throughout the city.

“Whoa.” Adam said, taken in awe by the grim sight.

“Remember what she said, no talking, not a single fucking word.” Lucy said stepping out of the chamber.

Everyone stepped outside the chamber and into the world of the past. They were all stopped by Lucy who took out two small metal chips from her bag.

“You two come here.” She whispered to them.

Neo and Adam came to her without saying a word. “Here.” She whispered, as she started to download something onto their Pipbucks.

“This’ll mark our objective on your maps.” She whispered putting the chips back into her bag.

Neo and Adam both looked at their Pipbucks, noting the download. On their E.F.S. a small orange blip was shown flashing slowly.

They both put their Pipbucks down, “How did you get that out of your bag without using you mouth?” Neo asked quietly.

“These suits have literally a million features. They have a small levitating spell built into them, its there so earth, and pegasus ponies can access their inventories easily.” She replied making her way down the hillside. The others took her lead and made their way in the direction of the yellow flashing blip.

The four moved quietly along the side of the old road stepping lightly as they went. The bridges overhead creaked as they continued on, each stepped seemed to echo faintly throughout the old buildings, only provoking the empty feeling the streets gave.

At this time, Adam took it into his interest to point out all the prewar posters he could make out on the sides of the buildings. The only problem with that was that most of them were badly burnt, or torn up by time. One poster he saw had a Yellow unicorn filly, standing proudly into the sky holding a shovel with bright yellow words at the bottom saying:

"Do your part for the nation! Join the Ironhoof Equestrian workforce today! Remember, Industry is our future!"

After covering seven blocks they arrived at a tall building, it was burnt like the others and didn’t have any real, significant differences to it. The small blip on Neo and Adam’s E.F.S. was flashing faster and faster the closer they got to the building.

They got to the entrance only to find it melted into the rest of the building, “Damn.” Lucy swore quietly.

The four started to look around for another way into the structure. Adam spotted a small collapsed bridge stuck between two buildings. He continued to follow the bridge and saw that it connected to the building next to them.

Adam nudged Lucy getting her attention. “What?” Lucy said looking to him.

Adam tried to be as quiet as he could, pointing out his plan as he spoke.“I think if we climb up that building there, and go across that bridge we could get into this building from that one over there.”

Lucy closely looked at the route he had mentioned, and to her it looked safe enough to try. “Fine, but we need to pick up the pace if we’re going to get out of here before dark.”

Lucy nudged Neo and Allie, “you got it.” They both nodded at her.

Together they crossed the street to the next building, it was pale and quiet with only the sounds of their hoofsteps to comfort them. The building they entered had destroyed glass doors, with a closed sign dangling from the edge of a broken piece of glass. The interior was just as scorched and destroyed as the outside, black perfectly preserved pony statues lay scattered throughout the room in terrified poses.

“They look scared.” Adam whispered to himself as he followed the rest of the group to a staircase in the corner of the room.

It was now that Adam realized that the building they were in was an old apartment complex, he could tell by the frayed posters on the walls advertising for their business. Neo accidentally nudged a metal stick on the ground that barely tapped on one of the horrified figures, and before he knew it the figure had dissipated into a pile of ash. He backed away from the former figure with surprise, “What in the world could have done this? What kind of power could cause such suffering and death.” He thought to himself sadly.

The four made their way up the dark stairway that towered up to the second floor of the building. The stairs ended at a hallway that continued into eternity, in front of them was a door which had been blasted off by a tremendous force. It was outside this room that the metal bridge from the city above had made itself lodged in between the apartment building and their objective.

“Warning, radiation detected. Threat level, high.” An artificial computerized voice said.

Neo and Adam jumped at the sound of the loud voices random statement. “What the heck was that?” Neo whispered loudly.

Lucy put a hoof to her helmet. “Sshhhhh, not so loud. That’s your suit, its tells you when there’s radiation around."

“Hmm,” Neo shrugged as he put his Pipbuck to his ear to listen for the radiation meter, and just like Lucy said there was the small ticking of his Pipbuck radiation meter.

“Now be quiet!” She quietly snapped at them.

Neo nodded back to her understandingly. Lucy was back to facing the bridge placing her hoof on it lightly and adding more pressure slowly.

“It looks safe, but we’re probably gonna have to cross it individually to make it to the other side.”

“Lucy.” Adam interrupted. “Why can’t you just fly over there?”

She pointed to her back showing him that her wings were inside the suit. “Oh, heh, I didn’t notice.” Adam said shyly.

She Ignored him and slowly started to make her way to the other side across the bridge. She stepped lightly, trying to make her way over to the other side as the bridge creaked and shook as she continued. Within a few minutes she had made it to the other side safely, she turned around to face back at the group on the other side waving at them to come across.

Allie stepped forward and started to make her way to the other side. Neo was watching nervously as she carefully made her way across. Soon, she too made it the other side to join Lucy. Adam stepped up and started to cross, about midway into his crossing the bridge slid down a bit jerking him slightly to the side.

Adam felt a jolt of panic race through him as he struggled to get a hold of his balance. Everyone else gasped as they held their breath, even Lucy panicked for a moment. Stabilizing himself, he managed to stand still for a moment and continued on crossing.

Adam was almost on the other side when Neo noticed a small working terminal in the corner of the room. It was just barely functioning, but it was still activated. He moved away for a brief moment to investigate. The first thing that appeared on the screen was the audio logs. There where about five logs from somepony named Tuesday. Knowing that he wouldn't have the time to listen to them all right now he decided to download them onto his Pipbuck for later.

Adam made it to the other side just as Neo finished up downloading each audio log. Using the short range radio Adam called to Neo from the other side. “Come on brother, we’re waiting for you.”

Neo stepped up to the old metal bridge with fear and excitement gripping him. He couldn’t help but think what chance he would have if the bridge fell, would he survive the fall? Or die a painful death? He shook his head trying to dismiss the thoughts, and just like the others before him he put one hoof in front of the other, and slowly inched his way to the other side.

I took him a few minutes before he joined the rest of the group on the other side of the bridge. He sighed with relief as he looked back to see how much ground he had actually covered.

“Whoa, that was scary... I just hope we don’t have to do that again.” He commented

Lucy ignored his comment. “Okay, listen, we’re in the building now. All we need to do now is get that talisman and get the hell out of here.” Lucy whispered pointing to the center of the building.

“Right,” everypony replied.

Footnote: Sneak increased by 2.

The tapping of their hooves echoed throughout the dark building as they descended a small stairwell into a large gray room. The large room had a tattered, burnt, red circular carpet, and an old metal desk, which was also melted into the floor. Large rusted letters dangled from the wall behind the desk spelling, “Iro h oo Wa er.” Some of the letters were missing making it look odd. Lucy pointed to a large metal door in the corner of the room with dusty copper letters above it. Adam looked down to his Pipbuck to check his E.F.S. which showed the small blip flashing towards it.

The four approached the door and inspected it to make sure it wasn’t welded into the door frame like the other doors. A large handle was in the middle of the door, Lucy assumed it was the door handle. She looked to Allie for help, hoping that she could use her magic to open it. “Allie, try and open the door with your magic.” She whispered.

Allie nodded and attempted to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge. It turns out it was locked from the other side and it either needed a key, or it need to be picked.

Adam kicked his hoof at the ground disappointed that they couldn’t reach their objective.

“Ah that’s just a load of bullshit right there. Anypony got any ideas?” Lucy swore looking to the group for answers.

Neo and Adam shrugged, they were just as stumped as Lucy was. Allie on the other hand was levitating a bobby pin and a screw driver that she had got from her bags. “You can pick locks?” Lucy said sounding surprised, Allie nodded back to her.

She started to pick the lock slowly, inching it across the key hole near the center trying not to break her bobby pin. Gently she moved the screw driver sideways making the lock click unlocked.

“Ta-da!” Allie cheered quietly putting her things away.

“Wow! Good work Allie,” Neo cheered softly for her.

“Yeah, way to go!” Adam followed.

“Yeah, yeah, whoopdy-doo you can pick locks.” Lucy cheered blandly.

Allie pouted at her cheer, “Thanks Lucy.” She muttered.

The four helped push open the large metal door, it ached and creaked loudly as it slowly opened. Finally, they managed to open it enough for them to slip into the other side. Behind the door was a hallway with glass windows along the side, rippling glowing water was being projected on the wall by the little light coming from the surface.

“Warning, Heavy radiation detected. Threat level, high. Rad’s outside +5 per second.”

The two brothers Pipbucks ticked faster and faster as they continued down the hallway until they eventually reached the end.

“Caution, radiation lost. Warning radiation source detected in the water, calculating... +15 rads per second if exposed, threat level medium.”

The room they entered on the other side was massive. A large humming sound came from the center of the room, it was the talisman. The talisman was nestled softly between two large orbs holding it in place in the center of the large circular room. The only thing standing between them and reaching the talisman was a large river of bright glowing blue water.

The whole room was lit buy the mysterious blue liquid, it was then the suits read the stats of the water.

“Warning, blue chemical water. The chemical used is highly radioactive and can severely damage organic matter if exposed for to long. Caution is advised when proceeding.”

“Damn, I thought this was going to be easy.” Lucy muttered angrily.

Everypony looked around the room for a way across, but it was Neo who spotted a few metal planks near the river.

“We can use those metal planks to get to the other side.” Neo pointed out.

“You sure kid?” Lucy insisted.

“Lets try and find out.” Neo said, dashing over to the planks.

He pushed them around, till they crossed the glowing river and touched the other side. “See, they do reach.” Neo called back to them.

“Great, now all we need to do is cross it.” Lucy said.

Lucy thought for a moment before stating her Idea, “I don't think Neo or I should go, we’re the heaviest in the group, and those planks don’t look to strong or steady. So the question is who wants to cross it, Adam or Allie.”

“I’ll go.” Allie said stepping up.

“Thanks for volunteering,” Adam said kindly.

She just nodded to him before making her way to Neo and the plank.

She approached the plank with caution as she gulp at the sight of the pulsing river. “Be careful, please.” Neo said worriedly.

“I’ll try, I can promise that much,” Allie replied.

Her heart was racing as she gently put her first hoof on the plank, and then the next, and then the next one till she was completely over the river. Neo was almost as worried as she was. He cared for her safety, and he did what he could to help, so he put is hooves at the end of the plank trying to stabilize it for her.

“No pressure Allie, no pressure, take it nice and slow.” She whispered to herself as she crossed the plank.

The plank shook a bit and bobbed up and down as she continued on. After a few feet she managed to reach the other side of the river, she sighed with relief as she took a big step off of the terrifying thing.

Lucy nudged Adam, “Now you go.”

Adam turned to her sharply, surprised at her remark. “What? Why me?”

“Cause your the next smallest, and a good mechanic. That talisman isn’t going to come off by just looking at it, your going to need to disable the magical field holding it there.”

Adam whimpered scared for his life. “Okay, I’ll do it.” He grumbled stumbling his way to his brother and the plank.

“Allie, Adams crossing, use your magic to hold the plank still.” Neo called to her with the radio on the suit.

Allie nodded back to him. She tilted her head down to the plank, a white glowing energy outlined the end of the plank.

Adam stepped up to the plank terrified, “brother, if I fall in will you get me?” He asked nervously.

“I won’t let you fall, I promise,” Neo said reassuringly.

Adam took a deep breath in and started to cross. Adams trip across was much smoother than Allies because of the extra stability, he had small drops of sweat build up in his helmet as he nudged his way onward. Before he knew it he was at the other side with Allie, “Congratulations you made it.” Allie congratulated him.

“Whew, that was scary,” Adam commented, looking back to his brother on the other side.

“You get the talisman, I’ll wait for you.” Allie said pointing to the talisman.

Adam went up to the big machine and opened the control panel on the bottom, a small green screen flashed up.

“Welcome to the Ironhoof Water Treatment plant, please insert commands below.”

Adam started to type in a command in the text box below.

“Do you wish to deactivate the levitation field? Press 1 for yes, and 2 for no.”

He typed in 1.

“Processing... field disabled, have a nice day.”

Adam smiled on how easy that was. And just like that, the talisman fell straight down to him. The faintly glowing cross was beautiful to hold, even just holding the blue glowing item was magical. Adam turned to the rest of the group and held it high in the air.

“Good work kid, now you and Allie get across and we’ll get the hell out of this freaky place.” Lucy told him on the radio.

Adam nodded back to her and placed the talisman safely is his bag. He passed by Allie as he stepped back onto the plank, he was nervous but not nearly as much as he was before. Step, by step he made it across in double the speed, “Whoa.” Adam sighed touching down at the other side.

“Good job Adam.” Neo said patting Adam on the back, “Now its your turn Allie.” Neo said on the radio.

Allie waved to him signaling she was crossing. Gently she moved across the plank carefully trying to keep her balance. Then with in a short second she lost her balance, and stumbled into the glowing river.

“Allie!” Neo cried loudly.

“Sshhhh!! Kid, you can’t get her, shes gone!” Lucy snapped at him.

“To hell with you!” Neo screamed as he jumped into the river after her.

“Brother no!” Adam shouted reaching out for before he leaped in, but it was to late he had already gone in after her.

“Stupid fucking kid.” Lucy yelled at him holding Adam back.

“He doesn't know how to swim! I need to help him!” Adam yelled struggling to get free from Lucy’s grasp.

“Let me go!” Adam yelled once more finally breaking free. He managed to knock Lucy back on her flank as he broke free, he then started to looked for something to throw in the river to his brother. He spotted on the wall an old fire-hose box. Quickly he dashed for the box and threw it open taking the end of the red hose in one hoof, and bolting off to the edge of the glowing liquid to help his brother.

There at the edge, him and Lucy waited for something to surface, but there was nothing, only silence.

“Come on brother, come up, please come up.” Adam chanted to himself nervously.

Then two dark figures took shape in the water as Neo breached the surface struggling for breath. Without hesitation Adam threw the hose into the river towards his brother, Neo in panic just barely felt the hose nozzle and gripped it tightly with his hooves. Then, with the combined force of Adam and Lucy they pulled Neo to safety with Allie on his back.

He started letting out hacking coughs as he took deep breaths in, “*Cough*... That was, to close*Cough*...”

“Brother are you okay?” Adam asked helping him up.

Once he was up he unlatched his helmet and let his head feel the air, quickly he went down to Allie, she was unconscious. He helped unlatch her helmet open so that he could put his ear to her mouth and listen for her breath, but the was nothing. Then he did the only thing he could think off, which was to start giving her air through her mouth.

“One, two, three, and breath,” he said, putting his mouth to hers feeding her air into her lungs.

“One, two, three, and breath,” he said once more giving her more breath, and just like that she started coughing up some of the blue water.

To her everything was blurry,“Ow, what happened.” She said trying to reclaim her vision. Soon her sight was focused again as she saw Neo over her, he was smiling slightly with a hopeful look in his eyes.

“Welcome back,” Neo said softly to her.

In her mind she remembered what Adam had said to her earlier, “If I die right now, then I want to be looking at him...” She thought to herself as she slowly drifted off into an unconscious state.

“Allie?” Neo asked gently

Allie just lay there with her eyes closed and a peaceful look on her face.

“Allie?” He asked again, only this time he was more worried.

She didn’t respond again before her body became fully numb.

Neo started to panic, “Is she dead?” He asked nervously.

Lucy shoved him to the side angrily, “Get out of the way! I need to help her.”

Then her suit levitated a small bag with a reddish-orange potion in it. “Drink this up cupcake.” She said putting the bag to her lips. She slowly drank the potion down to the last drop.

“There, that should save her.” Lucy said satisfyingly putting her helmet back on.

“And you!” She shouted angrily pointing to Neo.

He backed away at the angry mare. Quickly she swung her hoof into his head, knocking him on the ground.

“Ow!” He yelped in pain sitting up, rubbing his sore head. “What was that for!” He snapped.

“That's for being stupid,” Lucy said negatively.

“Here brother, let me help you.” Adam said coming to help his brother up again.

“Okay, now that I’ve got that out of my system, get your helmet back on and lets get the fuck out of here.” Lucy said resting her hoof down on the metal ground.

Adam helped Neo get his helmet back on and Lucy position Allie on his back so he could carry her back.

A few minutes later they were back in the bleak quiet streets of the old city. It was significantly darker than it was when they arrived. It was almost night time dark in the under-city. Swiftly they maneuvered their way through the streets and back the way they came.

Neo was just trotting normal when he felt something tug at his leg for a brief moment. “Huh?” He said looking down at the ground. It was a small wire that he had pulled in between two destroyed wagons. A loud swoosh followed as a large wagon attached to wire swooped down across the street and hit a huge metal water tank across the street making a loud booming noise.

*BBOOOOONNNNGGGGGMMMMMM!!!!*

Everyone paused in place for a brief moment, the noise echoed throughout the dark buildings.

“Who the fuck did that!” Lucy shouted quietly on the radio.

“Lucy, why do we have to be quiet anyway.” Adam whispered on the radio.

She grunted, “Its nothing, maybe they didn’t hear-” She was interrupted by a loud, deathly screeching howl.

“HHHWWWAAAARRRRR!” The group turned around to see one pony standing on top of a destroyed wagon, but this pony didn’t look normal. Rather, it had no mane and its skin was tattered and frayed. Small bits and pieces of the creature were missing from its legs and face. Then four more showed up around it, then ten, then twenty.

“Run.” Lucy whispered, but Neo and Adam just stood there as more and more joined the deathly looking creatures.

“Run!” She shouted, and at that moment, hundreds of the zombie ponies raced straight for them. It was at this time that Neo and Adam decided to run.

Hundreds howled as they chased them through the streets, Adams E.F.S. was completely full of red dots as more from everywhere behind them joined the frenzy. Some tripped and stumbled, some even got trampled by their own kind. The hill which lead to the entrance back into the city was just up the street only two hundred feet from their position. Adam and Neo ran side by side as the murderous creatures closed in on their position. They were so close they could hear their panting as they sprinted after them. They run up the hill trying to open the door to the city, the ghoulish creatures were now just a hundred feet away. Lucy manged to get the door open and started shoving Adam in, “Come on Neo! Jump!” She yelled to him as he leaped for his and Allies life through the metal door frame.

Using all of their mussel Adam and Lucy shut the door before the creatures could get to them. The door shut with a *CLANK* as they caught their breath.

“What the hell where those things!” Neo barked to Lucy.

“Yeah, what kind of monsters are they.” Adam asked panting heavily.

“Their ghouls, former ponies. They’re what happens when you get too comfortable with radiation.” Lucy said grimly while she removed her helmet.

“They eat ponies, they aren’t even-” She paused.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said putting her helmet down on the floor of the shower chamber laying against the metal door, with a hundred meaty hooves were pounding on the door behind her.

Footnote: Level up

New Perk: You should have given me the sweetroll: You gain +10 hp every time you eat food, and drink water. You also gain an additional +20 hp if you eat looted or stolen food.

Footnote: Level up

Would you like to level up Adam?

Yes-

No

New Perk: Brotherly bond: You gain +xp every time you are around Neo, and +AP in S.A.T.S. when he is close by.

Proofread by:

Myself

Dracoliat

Jakeboss

(Let me know about any mistakes we might have missed! Oh and chapter 8 is gonna be good!)