Blackness was all Break could see in front of her. The light from the hole was gone. The wall was her only guide. Mirelurks haven’t torn her to shreds yet. That was certainly a good thing. The sewers smelled dank and like raw sewage. She wondered how she would ever find her way without any light. “This was a bad idea.” She thought and sighed. She continued on anyway trying to ignore the smell. She used the wall to guide her way.

Break sighed in relief as she saw a dim light in front of her in the far distance after making a left. She trotted towards it and as eventually able to see the sewer’s interior in proper light for the first time. It was mostly just a long tunnel with grey walls with rancid smelling water running between it. There was a walkway on either side of the tunnel. The light still wasn’t great however and she could see that many of the lights were broken or just out. She was surprised how well intact the tunnels were.

In the distance she could see a door and Break trotted towards it. It was one of those metal door you had to turn the latch to open. She kept her eyes out for any mirelurks that might be walking nearby. So far the coast seemed clear. She could see a branching path to her right, but decided ignored it. She reluctantly approached and opened the door with a hoof and peeked inside. Luckily death was not behind it. She went inside and closed the door behind her. In front of her looked like a metal walkway with lower area beneath. A door could be seen across the room. She could see a shelf full of tools and miscellaneous things to her right and large metal box of unknown use.

Break looked through the various tools and didn’t find much. She didn’t think a steam gauge assembly, a crutch, a pressure cooker, and other junk would be much use to her. She sighed and supposed it would be too much to ask for a weapon. It didn’t seem likely she would randomly stumble upon a gun and some ammo in a sewer of all places. Something white beneath her caught her eye and she looked down. Break’s eyes widened. There were hundreds of mirelurk eggs with each one in a small clutter in a pool of water. She could see mirelurks wandering around down there, but so far it looked like they hadn’t seen her.

Break’s mind raced and she did her best not to panic. Should she risk it and go into door across the room and possibly get discovered or go back the way she came? All it would take is one looking up to see her. She thought about it, but decided to take the seemingly safer route and go back the way she came. She hated taking risks, especially ones that could lead to her being skewered by pincers. Break was about to go through the door when it suddenly came open.

“There you are you whorse!” A very familiar voice said. “You really thought you could escape me that easily?”

Break stared in shock. Thug A actually came down here after her, and he just loudly announced his presence. “Oh crap.” She thought knowing that nothing good could come from this.

Break heard scuttling behind her. She slowly turned her head and saw some Mirelurks climbing stairs that lead up the walkway and were coming towards them.

Break felt herself being pulled by a hoof. The thug gave a small chuckle. “Heh, it looks like they heard us.” He floated his gun to her temple. “Come now, or you will get a bullet in the head.”

Break gulped and nodded. She let herself be dragged out the door. “Close it.” Break was commanded and did as she was told. “It’s not far. Robin will be waiting for us.”

They ran hard through the tunnel though the thug kept a hoof around Break’s leg making it a little awkward to run and he pulled at it painfully. The sound of a door being opened and it could be heard echoing through the tunnel. Break gaped in surprise. Mirelurks can open doors?

“Faster.” Thug A commanded and she did as she was told. She could see the light from hole now.

“Hey, Robin! I’ve got her. Get a ladder already! We’ve got mirelurks on our trail!” Thug A yelled, but no response came. “Hey!” There was no response again. “Darn it Robin! Get your flank down here now!”

Break tensed. She could hear the mirelurks splashing towards them very quickly. She wondered if Robin was just going to leave them down here to die. “Wait, what does it matter? Being rescued won’t help me!” Break thought cursing her luck. She was doomed either way. She could already hear the mirelurks getting dangerously close.

Thug A growled. “Robin! Now!” Break could see at least a dozen mirelurks coming towards them in the dim light. Their chittering echoed through the tunnels.

Break gritted her teeth. She knew there was no way that Thug A could take all these things on his own. She knew she had to do something drastic, dangerous, and stupid. The thug was not paying attention to her at the moment. Not surprising considering that death was coming towards them. She steeled her nerves and kicked him right between the legs. He howled in pain, fell to ground, and screamed obscenities. Break ran as fast as she could down the dark tunnel in front of them. She could see dimly that it curved to the right.

“No! You are not getting away!” The thug yelled.

Break heard a gunshot. She felt something fly past her head. Break didn’t think her heart could beat any faster, but it did. She was almost shot and she involuntarily shook a little. She tried her best to ignore this and made a right turn then another right. She could hear gunshots in the distance, cursing, screaming, and then silence. The thug was dead.

Break’s heart went out for him, but what else could she do? All three of those ponies that she met in the diner were dead because of her. She didn’t pull the trigger, but she might as well of done it. She felt tears trickle down her eyes. She didn’t want this. She didn't want anypony to die. But she ran on and on until her legs hurt. She took a random different direction whenever she met a crossroad. She wanted to survive. She had to survive.

“I’m sorry.” She thought unable to control her tears. She fell into the dirty water beneath her exhausted. Not really caring about the smell of the water at the moment. She crawled up to a nearby wall and just sat there recuperating her strength.

She croaked a laugh. She didn’t know why she did this, but continued on laughing anyway . It was hard to believe a few hours ago she was worrying about getting enough bits in tips to pay the land tax at the end of the month for the alley and buy a much needed part to fix that old pinsetter. That felt so long ago. She just sat there for minutes, maybe hours, Break couldn’t be sure. Eventually she pulled herself together enough to get herself moving. She couldn’t stay here.

She trotted quietly trying not be heard. She peaked around every corner to see if the coast was clear. She made sure to stay clear of any mirelurks she saw or heard walking around. She backtracked and took a different path to avoid any trouble. These sewers were a maze and Break had little idea where she was or how to get out. What she needed to find was a terminal. It might have a map she could use. She found a few doors, but most of them were either broken or had a mirelurk or two behind them.

She eventually came across one door that Break could hear faint music behind. Break immediately recognized as Sapphire Shores’s ‘Get Your Pony On’. The upbeat music lifted Break’s spirits a little. She adored music and this was something she desperately needed right now. Break slowly opened the door. Behind it was a small stairway that went up. She carefully closed the door behind her and slowly and quietly walked up the stairs and went down the hallway. She came into what looked like a break room. It was empty and Break sighed in relief. The break room had a few metal shelves full of books that were destroyed and rotten. Break could see a small table that had a radio that was playing the old prewar music and had few darts on it, a green surprisingly intact couch, a fridge, and on one of the walls was a dart board. Strangely it had a caricature of Cosa Nostra on it. A few darts were piercing it. She could also see a door across the room.

“So does this mean that somepony might live down here?” Break thought. It seemed crazy, but it might be true. Celestia Almighty she wished it to be true. They might know a way out of here. She looked through the fridge. It had a few boxes of InstaMash, canned apples, water that was probably dirty and irradiated, and a bottle of whiskey. Break grabbed the whiskey and a box of canned apples and sat on the couch. She was relieved to finally be off her hooves and the couch was comfortable. She quickly opened the canned apples and chowed down. They were still good and she already felt stronger and rejuvenated. She laid back, closed her eyes, and enjoyed the music. She just sat there for a few minutes and was about the opening the bottle of whiskey with her teeth when her eyes widened. Three mirelurks just walked in. She was too enthralled with the relaxing and enjoying the music to notice. The one in the front pointed at her and started running towards her.

Break dropped the bottle, stumbled over the couch, and fell face first into the ground. She rubbed her throbbing muzzle with a hoof and made a dash for the back door. It opened up to a stairwell that led up. She took it and it ended with a short hallway with a door. She increased her speed as she heard the mirelurks gaining on her.

The second door was a metal one with a button to open it. Praying to Celestia it still worked, she pressed the button and it opened with a whoosh. Behind it was a large room separated by cubicles. It looked like an office building. She turned around and was about to close it when she noticed the mirelurks standing still behind the first door. Break blinked. The crab-like creatures looked reluctant to go in here. Break got a chill down her spine. She gulped and closed the door. She got the feeling that coming in here was a big mistake.

Break’s eyes widened when she got a better look at the room. She could see dark brown stains everywhere. They were on the chairs, on the walls, on the ceiling, and on all over the cubicles. “Something really really bad happened here.” Break thought in dismay. Something about this place felt wrong, maybe even evil. She decided maybe it was better to try her luck back in the sewers but the door refused to open when she pressed the open door button.

“Well, perfect. What now Break? You somehow blundered into something even worse.” Break grumbled softly under her breath.

“You could start by not moving in inch.” A metallic voice said from a distance. “I have a gun pointed at your head. Move and well, let’s say your brains will become a rather fetching decoration for the room.” Break gulped and froze.

Something walked out from behind a cubicle. It hoofsteps hit the floor heavily. Break turned her head to look at it. It was a pony-like robot called a Protectron. From what Break had heard, they were designed for menial work, from gofering to bartending. It was a faded blue color and over its domed head that held its core processor, much to her horror, was the skull of a pony. A gun barrel was protruding from it back and it was pointing directly at Break’s head. Break couldn’t really tell what sort of weapon it was. It looked futuristic so maybe it was a energy weapon of some kind?

“Thank Celestia!” It cried. “You have no idea how long it has been since I’ve seen a pony!” It bobbed it head back and forth happily. It circled her several times. Break tried her hardest not to move a muscle.

“Not much.” It appraised. “But hey! You take what you can get! I’m going to have so much fun! I’m getting giddy just thinking about it!”

“What do you mean?” Break really didn’t want to ask this, but felt she had no choice.

“With your horrible death of course!” It seemed to prance around in glee. It‘s limbs creaked unpleasantly from the long years of not being oiled. Even though she had a good idea this was going to be the answer, she paled anyway.

“Well, what do you expect? I’m an obviously insane robot. It would be a crime if I didn’t kill you in the most gruesome ways possible! Come on! It’s what insane robots do!”

“I have just the thing to decide it!” The thing trotted over to a cubicle on the left. “Oh, it’s just been so long since I’ve used this thing.” It sounded absolutely giddy. It dragged out a giant prize wheel. On it were faded color spaces with text. Text that described horrible and gruesome fates to whatever pony landed on that spot. Lovely things like dismemberment, disembowelment, impalement, head smashing, and, Break’s least favorite of all, being skinned alive. There was also a small space that said ‘Spare’ that was half the size of the other ones.

“Oh, I thought it won’t be very fair if I didn’t give a small chance to be spared.” It said when it spotted her looking the ‘Spare’ space.

“And if I land on it you will let me go unharmed?” Break inquired, not really believing it.

The mechanical pony nodded its head vigorously. “I’ll open the door for you and lead you out myself like a true gentlecolt.”

Break gulped and nodded. She reluctantly grabbed the end of the prize wheel and spun it as hard as she could. It went around and around and Break got even more nervous as soon as it slowed down. The crazed robopony bounced around in glee. Finally it began to slow down. It was clearly on the final spin. Sweat gathered on Break’s forehead.

It slowed and slowed until it came to almost a complete dead stop and it landed on the ‘Spare’ space. It would have stopped there if the Protectron hadn’t suddenly grabbed the wheel and made it go to the next space.

“Oh goody! Burned alive! My personal favorite!” The robot cried in delight.

“You cheated! It was going to land on Spare!” Break said indignantly her fear momentarily forgotten. She actually got in the robo pony’s face.

“Oh, I never said that I would actually let it land on that spot!” The robot laughed mockingly. Break just stood there fuming.

“Don’t be such a poor sport.” The Protectron chastised. “Nopony likes a poor sport.”

“Poor sport? You cheated!” Break yelled. “This is bull!”

“Nopony said life was fair.” The mechanical pony said sagely. Suddenly flames escaped from a tube on its right front leg. Break’s anger was replaced with fear. She quickly recoiled from the flames. It wooshed loudly and lightly singed her coat. She backed away from the flamethrower’s line of sight.

Break took a quick look around the room as she backed away. She finally saw a door with a broken window and through it she saw a hallway. She dashed to the door, opened it, and ran into the hallway. She closed the door behind her with a hard thud.

“Too bad that leads to a dead end!” She heard the robot laugh.

“Oh crap. What if it’s right?” Break thought. She could see several doors in the hallway. She ignored them and focused on the ‘Exit’ sign at the end of the hallway. She could see stairs behind the sign. She rushed towards them and stopped mouth agape. The top of the stairs were collapsed. The top of the stairway was filled with nothing but rubble.

“Yep, like I said.” The accursed robo pony cried out. It had moved to a spot behind the door Break had entered in. She could see the pony skull through the broken glass window. “Oh, and by the way, there aren’t any convenient weapons around for you to kill me with. I’ve checked!” It barked in laughter.

Break looked around back and forth and dove into the closest door to her right. It was a storage closet and unfortunately didn’t have an instant robot killing death ray in it, just useless junk. So she ignored it and opened the door on the other side. This one was a bathroom. It appeared to be a stallion’s one. Break grumbled and realized that maybe she should have paid attention to the signs on the doors first. She could see the robot still standing where she last saw it and it was clearly getting enjoyment at her antics.

Break ignored him and found a door that led into an office. It was furnished simply. It had an aging decapitated wooden desk in the middle. It had peeling striped wallpaper that was seriously faded from age. It had a few odds and ends on it. The most noticeable one was a picture of a pegasus filly with an older earth pony stallion. There was a terminal on the left side of the desk. Behind the desk was an unopened safe. There didn’t seem to be anything else of much interest in the room.

“Are you almost done?” The wretched robo pony chimed in. “I don’t have all day!”

Break look at the rest of the hallway. The only door she hadn’t checked yet was the mare’s bathroom. Break had no idea what she was going to do. Suddenly the Protectron smashed the door it was standing behind and stalked towards Break. She shrieked and dove into the office barely avoiding the fire that was shot at her. She could feel the flames almost scorching her back leg. She closed the door and locked it even though it was rotted and won’t give her much time or protection. She could hear the robot’s loud laughter and it echoed through the building.

Break’s eyes scanned the room again for anything she could use. She could hear the robo pony knocking on the door.”Let me in. I promise not to hurt you!” She looked on the desk and found the one thing that might be able to save her. She ran towards it.

The Protectron’s head suddenly burst through the door. “Here’s…” The robot was interrupted when a terminal flew and smashed into its head. “Gah!”

Break didn’t waste a moment. She rushed forward and picked up the terminal and smashed it against the robot’s head. The robot’s body fell and smashed through the rotten door. Break didn’t stop and continued to whale on the Protectron’s head screaming like a mad pony.

The robot tried to plead for mercy, but Break couldn’t even hear it. She was too scared and frantic to listen. She smashed it again and again for several minutes. Eventually she stopped panting. She fell to the floor exhausted. The adrenaline that fueled her ended. The robot head was smashed to pieces. Bits of its skull helmet were scattered across the floor. It body was equally in ruins. Break sighed in relief and just sat there. She didn’t think she had ever felt as exhausted as she did now, but she was happy. She was safe, and that was all that mattered. Eventually she got herself back up.

She remembered the safe and thought it might be a good idea to see if there might be something useful in there. It had a simple keypad. She not idea what the code might be, but she did have an idea. She looked around the deck and eventually found what she was looking for. Carved on the side on the top drawer behind some junk was the number ‘2008302’. It was faded, but readable. She figured that the owner of the safe might be too lazy to remember the code and hid it somewhere for easy access.

Break entered the code and it worked and the safe opened with a click. In it were some papers that appeared to be ledgers, some prewar money, and an unopened package. It was addressed from the Stable-Tec.

Break felt a bit guilt open and taking a package that wasn’t hers, but they were long dead and she was desperate. She tore it open and gaped at its content. It was a PipBuck, a brand new PipBuck. It’s box boasted it features. “Completely customizable!” “Built in S.A.T.S.for easy targeting of Zebra scum!” “Lifetime warranty!” “Perfect for Stable life!” Next to it was a letter. It congratulated a Harvest Moon for winning their Stable-Tec PipBuck Giveaway Sweepstakes. Break guessed it was for some sort of promotion of the PipBuck to get ponies interested in them.

Break opened the box and held the device in wonder. She never owned one herself, but she had seen some of the older ponies from Stable 11 that still had one. She remembered that her father and mother had one as well. She was never given one because she and her family left Stable 11 when she only four years old. She briefly wondered whatever did happen to those PipBucks. She couldn’t remember. Maybe they were sold to keep Stars & Strikes a float in the early days? Anyway, they were a pretty useful device and was exactly something she needed to survive. It kept well after all these years and still looked brand new. She put the portable mini-terminal on her right leg and started it up. It hummed as it did this. It displayed the Stable-Tec logo. It greeted her and asked her for her name. She entered it with the knob on the left. It then asked her to read the End User License Agreement. She quickly scrolled through it and hit accept at the end. She doubted even anypony back during the war ever bothered reading it.

Break blinked as the next screen came up. It said it was going to quiz her on the EULA and she couldn’t continue unless she scored at least a 70 percent. She tried her best to guess the answers, but she failed and was forced back to the EULA screen. Break groaned and read through the stupid thing. After at least 40 pages of stuff she didn’t care about, she returned to the quiz screen. It took some time, but she was eventually able to pass the quiz. The stupid thing had very hard and specific questions and you had to read the EULA with a fine tooth comb to even answer them.

Finally Break defeated the dreaded quiz only to be faced with a final question. “I will use this PipBuck for the furtherment and survival of ponykind and will use it to preserve yourself and wipe the zelda filth from the face of the earth.” Under it was “A: Yes, B: Yes, C: Yes, and D: Yes.” Break stared at the screen and hesitated for a moment a bit shocked at the blatant racism, but finally answered A wanting to get this over with already and was greeted with a welcoming screen.

It greeted her by name and turned into a screen that showed her vitals. It was represented by a small picture of her in dotted lines. Her vitals appeared to be good and she had a very low magical radiation level. Break played around with it for a bit. She found many useful features like the ability to manage her inventory, store files from terminals, and a map system that automatically recorded her surroundings. Break figured the last one would be key to her survival. She hoped she could find a terminal with the sewer’s map on it. She looked at the terminal she smashed to save herself and sighed. It also had a spell called Eyes Forward Sparkle or E.F.S. that allowed her to see anything hostile. Break made sure to skim through the manual for anything useful.

Break smiled to herself. She found something that will probably save her life. Now she had to see if she could find a workable saddlebag. That would make things so much easier. Her apron had small pockets, but weren’t big enough to hold much of anything. She motioned to leave the office when her eyes landed on the destroyed Protectron. It was still in pieces and Break thanked Celestia for that. The body reminded her that she needed to discover where this thing came from too. She worried she might run into another one of this stupid things.

Break closely examined the Protectron. It looked like it had been heavily modified. She wondered if the pony that did this intended on it going crazy and killing everypony. She shuttered at the thought.

Break did a thorough search of the office building. Unfortunately, the destroyed staircase appeared to be the only way up. Eventually she would be forced to go back the way she came. Break found another terminal, but it contained nothing but spreadsheets and business memos. She was able to find some tools that could be used to modify a Protectron. It was in the desk of one the employees. It belonged to a pony named Daydream. She didn’t find any confession or diary recording his possible grudge of the other ponies that worked here. She shrugged. It didn’t seem like there were going to be anymore crazy robots and supposed her theory was the best she would ever get.

Break found the skeletons of the ponies that worked here. They were piled in a closet. She screamed bloody murder when they fell on her when she opened the door. It took some time to calm herself down after that little incident and she cursed the robot for pulling such a prank on her.

She did find some useful things including a useable spark battery that could fetch a nice price. She wasn’t able to a find a saddlebag. Break signed and left everything useful she found in a pile on one of the desks. She needed to focus on not scavengable goods, but the essentials like food and water. She needed to go back to the fridge back in the employee break room and take whatever she could.

Break was able to find the door control. It was hidden away on a wall close to where the Protectron first appeared. She decided to switched it back on as soon as she got some rest. Even though she didn’t really favor the idea and considered her grizzly surroundings, Break decided to get a little sleep. She was exhausted from her ordeals today and needed the energy to get through those sewers. She put some chair together in one of the small offices and tried to get as comfortable as she could. She fell asleep almost instantly.