Author's note: wow, over two months without an update. sorry guys, I've been busy with exams and real life issues, and plus this whole GSC drama recently... well, anyway, here's the fifth chapter, a bit bigger that the other ones (Wow... 24k+ words? it was only 62 pages on word, just a bit more than the double of the last chapters lengths, perhaps there's something wrong with the word counter...), I intended it to be even bigger, but I decided against it and will add it to the next one. well, enjoy.
CP. V – The Harmony of Anarchy
“Friends from around the Zone, why not join the Freedom faction? The only faction where you will be finding true friends, who will never gonna give you up. Where else would you be liked for just being yourself? Join us and help Freedom on its quest to free the Zone”
The road led us toward a guarded checkpoint. Among the guards, the green scheme was dominant on their clothes; also, the same color was sprayed all over the structures’ wall around the checkpoint.
The Freedomers bunkered themselves behind construction props, blocking the road and setting guard around the sturdy iron gate which led to Hoofstok
One of said guards, an earth pony who was clad onto one of those fancy exoskeletons (but, unlike Duty’s, his was flecktarn colored with yellow plates), and a scoped SG-5k installed along the external frame of the armor. He was waving his hoof, signalizing for us to approach.
I faced Lielle and she shrugged
I drew near to the stalker, who promptly shook my hoof as soon as I came into his reach.
A euphoric feminine voice sounded from inside that armor, greeting us.
“Sup bro, whaddya two doin’? Looking to crash at our turf?”
“Something around those lines…”
“Well, make yourself at home, Stalker! At Freedom, we have – almost - no kind of prejudice. Just come in and knock yourself out!”
“Thanks… we could dig some rest….” I said while moving over
She held her hoof, holding our passage.
“Just a second. Keep your hooves and horns to yourselves, right? Start blasting your guns around, and, as much as I’d regret it, I am afraid we’ll have to “pacify” you in that case. You understand what I mean by that, right?”
I nodded
“Good pony. Now, while you’re around, why not join us?”
To which I promptly switched my gaze to Lielle, and before she could open her mouth, I answered
“We… shall consider it.”
“Take your time then… look around and know the gang”
She turned in to a much more humbly dressed Freedomer unicorn that stood by the gate, and nodded to him
In response to the gesture, he used his telekinesis to turn the handle, and by doing so, ascending the gate, allowing passage.
“Keep following the road, Stalker. The base is just a short trot ahead, but keep on your hooves. There are a few anomalies around…”
“Thanks for the advice. Hey, by any chance… do you guys have a technician around your ranks?”
“Technician? Oh, you mean a tinkerer! I guess that’s fitting for Dom, Dominic Silverwrench. The dude can treat your shooter real good, peak out it’s stats and all, if you’re into that and have the money”
Everything that I didn’t possessed… however, if he was willing to accept some of my goods in exchange…
“I’ll be seeing him, then.”
“Hey, if you do, tell him that I send my…”
The unicorn holding the gate grunted his displeasure. The poor fellow was holding it up since then…
“Oh, right… nevermind. Just go”
We trotted through it, and when we were at the other side, the gate dropped with a loud thud
Then, remembering what had been told, I started flinging the bolts around the road. They hit a whirlgig and two springboards right off the bat.
By now, using the bolts and circumventing anomalies has been assimilated as a second nature. In the Zone, you had to learn fast, or else you’d end as a mutant’s next meal…
“Well… would you look at that!”
The azure mare glared at me with her mocking silvery eyes.
“What now?”
She narrowed her eyes, while muffling a laugh
“I saw how you looked at that mare… you were totally checking her out”
“I wasn’t !”
“Was too!”
“Was not!”
“Was too!”
“Wasn’t!”
“The more you keep denying, the more you are affirming it!”
“How does that leaves me any chance to contradict you?”
“It doesn’t”
Seriously… now, I had the impression that she enjoyed embarrassing or pissing me off, if just for my reaction…
“She was under three layers of combat-designed power armor! I am pretty sure there wasn’t much eye candy to “check out!”
Her grin just grew bigger, and she lowered her voice, whispering at me.
“You have a fetish for mares in armor, don’t you?”
I steeled my glare and looked at her, overly serious.
“For the last time… I am not that kind of stallion. Now, cut it out.”
She dismissed my statement with a hoof and shook herself with a few more giggles
The road led us to a descent. What once had been luxurious, well kept gardens, filled with all kinds of exotic and exquisite flowers, now laid before us in decadence. Rotting from abandonment, the pavement was cracking, giving space to the savage, sprawling flora, which was taking over and growing like a plague against the few withered and pyrrhic flowers that struggled to survive. The road was the only relatively untouched landmark, albeit marred by dry blood. On the right of the “garden”, a huge pile of dirt, the result of a recent excavation onto it. Why some stalker bothered digging around it, was beyond me.
On the far end, after a plank bridge over a stake-filled pit, a compound of discolored, slate-grey, tightly closed structures. Possibly, what was Hoofstok.
I was crossing the “bridge”, when something caught the attention of my friend.
She was glaring at one of the sharp stakes, one which had a blind dog head over the tip.
“Something wrong?”
“Give a look at it…”
It was a dried disgusting body part, coming from an equally disgusting mutant. By the looks of it, the head was sitting there for quite some time (not that it had a choice…) A red crosshair was tattooed onto the forehead.
“That’s the – other – big faction, right? Duty?”
“Yep. It was their kill. From what I’ve heard, they always had trouble with dogs raiding Hoofstok. And yet, now that Freedom has moved in…” She looked around “There Isn’t any dog corpse around, or for that matter, not any signs of recent conflict…”
I shook my head.
“They are probably better at keeping the mutants at bay…”
“So it seems…”
At the entrance of Hoofstok, more Freedomers. They stood around the makeshift barricades, loafing around and playing guard with their TRs-301.
They simply nodded at us, nothing more, and gave passage
Among the scavenged barrier, a big metal plate sign particularly stood out. It was an ancient frayed sign, showing a purple-haired and white-furred unicorn mare, wearing a top hat and a warm smile, pointing to a message below:
Carrousel textiles & Co
Going by the only opened path, it funneled onto a tight passage. The buildings towered high above, and a multitude of awnings obstructed the afternoon sun. Inside those cramped corridors, it was dark as night. Also, they barely allowed two ponies to walk aside. To complete the set, they were littered with all kinds of trash: bolts, metal scraps, discarded food packages, torn rags, you name it. Nevertheless, we went in.
We didn’t trotted much, until we hit an “T” intersection. Thankfully, the wall in front of us was visible due to a purposely and conveniently placed hole on the awning above.
The wall had greed-painted messages all over, directions. They were painted over other messages, scarlet-colored messages.
Evidently, Duty’s, being obscured by Freedom’s own notes.
An arrow to the right informed: “Bar”, “Weapons”, “Rest”, “Mirror Lake”, “Wild Territory”
While the one to the left pointed: "Tinkerer”, “Chief”, “Medic”, “Wastes”
Nearly all of these locations were pretty obvious… except the two last at the first arrow and the last one at the second arrow. I suppose I should ask around about them later...
My immediate thought was to head straight to the “Tinkerer” and ask about the damn PDA already, but my rumbling tummy impelled me to the opposite direction, straight to the bar. Although I didn’t have – almost - any money, Toothpick had given me some canned food. It would be nice to know the atmosphere of Freedom while having it.
“So, we are heading to the tinkerer first, right?” My smirking companion asked
I thoughtfully gazed and answered her
“I was thinking about having lunch first. And while onto it, on the words of that mare… “know the gang” before making business”
She nodded in approval. “Seems like a good idea. I was always curious about how Freedom worked out anarchy and stood united…. Perhaps I can find somepony who can tell me more about it…”
I turned right and she happily followed
Hoofstok was a maze, literally. More dark and tight corridors, sometimes cutting through warehouses, catwalks, broken structures, offices… there were more paths, but most of them were blocked off by gates or huge piles of trash. Possibly a way to avoid being swarmed by mutants, or by hostile ponies… So, there was only one way through, leading us deeper. We spotted a few Freedomers setting guard here and there at the more spacious sections, and some loners as well, going on their business. Much to our relief, at every intersection there were more green arrows, pointing directions. They were easy enough to spot due to the pouring sunlight from the holes above that distinguished itself from the usual darkness. It was quite ingenious, really, although it wouldn’t work at night. They possibly had lights at strategic points, or something alike.
“Eck… so much trash. Couldn’t these ponies spare some time to clear a bit of it?”
I used my magic to help her shove the trash away from her path
“I mean, where does all of this stuff come from? Are they planning to turn Hoofstok into a junkyard or what?”
My mind popped at that question. I knew the answer… it came to me, as clear as water. It surfaced on my mind, my conscious quickly conjuring images to support an upcoming memory…
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“The industrial revolution. A myriad of technological advancements spearheaded by the Earth Pony species, so that they could perform their mundane tasks with ease, without recurring to magic.”
“Exactly. Now have a seat, child.”
I obeyed without hesitation. Mrs (miss, actually…) Brownleaf towered upon all of us. She had that kind of imposing aura which befitted very well her occupation as a teacher.
I always wondered what made us give so much respect to the cream-colored strict unicorn mare. Perhaps it was her pristine combed brown mane, with the first tones of gray appearing. Or it could be her cutie mark, a heavy yellow ruler. The exact duo of the actual ruler she carried at all times, and used to strike onto her desk on the rare occasions that the class got unruly.
“Now, who can tell me what advancements, as Mr. Hollowbane said, came from said industrial revolution?”
The voices of my fellow unicorn classmates soared with various answers
“Engine-powered vehicles”
“Improved medicines”
“Manufacture”
“Firearms”
“Factories”
And the class continued to come up with more answers until Mrs Bronwload rose up.
“Ok, that’s enough”
And she started to write some of the answers onto the blackboard while commenting on them.
“Each one of these are pretty important. Where to begin? Hmm… engine powered vehicles, they are faster than your average pony, can carry more weight, do not tire, some can even fly. Their practical use on the earth pony routine is evident. Examples are the pedalocopter, the Aerial barge and the BTR”
“Improved medicines, or like I’d would put it, pharmacological and hospital care improvements, which obviously allow for an even more extended life expectancy for our already long lives, also, a better resistance and treatment against diseases and harm”
“Manufacture… or mass production. the ability to use machinery to perform serial production of a determined product. It is the heart of our economic system.”
“Firearms… well… offensive machines sanctioned for royal guard use only, used mainly for protection or hunting.”
“And… factories. Where the “magic” happens, well, as much magic as the pegasi and the earth pony rabble can muster… factories are the buildings where said products take form and are produced, using the manufacture system, which technology, like everything else in technology, is loosely based on unicorn magic, but instead of drawing power from the ether, technology employs raw materials as fuel”
And she unrolled a chart with a few figures: a barrel, a black stone, a waterfall and a glowing stick.
“Which are each one of these. Petrol, the sediment remains of old animals covered by layer and layer of soil by numerous years. Coal, a stone formed by sediment as well, forged in the pressure deep within the earth. Waterfalls, which are dammed to direct their waters to move generators and provide electricity. And last, biomagical energy, generated through a complex process by collecting waste magical energy produced by one’s spell, isolating the components of such waste and recombining them to produce highly energetic compounds. Yep, that’s recycling.”
She gave a long glare to the class
“Any questions?”
Nopony raised his hoof whatsoever
“Good, good….” She said while sitting down. “Remember to turn in your 20 pages assignments explaining how rainbow factories work, by next week. Class dismissed.”
Great… I was released from that extremely boring class…
That damn industrial revolution was such a new fad among the Canterlot School. Lectures and more lectures about it and it’s implications in pony life… like we needed to learn about that… we are unicorns, for Faust’s sake! Our magic outclasses any mechanical trinket they can come up with…
I wonder what the teachers used to teach their students before the revolution… probably stuff that was common knowledge nowadays, such as Luna’s betrayal, How wingpower works, Discord’s evil machinations of ages past, the history of cutie marks and their utility…
Altough… I could use a class about the last one… if it could a…
“Boshan, Boshan…”
The image itself begun to tremble, my thoughts being relocated back to reality, a grim reality which stood on stark contrast of the innocence of before… if only I knew back then…
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“Are you there? Hello, talk to me!”
The earth pony mare, having pulled off most of the trash from her way by herself and reached me, now busied herself shaking me frantically.
The first thing I registered were her wide silvery eyes, eyeing me with keen curiosity
My head was aching… I moved a hoof to support it…
How many mental ailments I had to endure? Hallucinations, nightmares and now… a memory reflux! Something inside me was fucked up. What exactly had they done to my mind?
Reconciling a long forgotten past with the present wasn’t going to be and easy (or pleasant, for that matter…) task
“Are you alright?” she asked again “You seemed… lost in thoughts, paralyzed…”
I shoved away my thoughts and focused back onto her. “Yes… kind of it. It’s like… I am remembering”
“Remembering? You just stood there, without moving a muscle… you were starting to creep me out.” She remarked while resuming her trot
“The remembrance dates from before… before I was rescued from that… that place. The lab.” I said while keeping up with her pace
She nudged her head and told me back
“You mean, before you were rescued by stalkers and everything? What importance really does that have? Not much you can do about the past…”
I haven’t told her about Limpid Skies, having said that loners aided me and everything. Not that I didn’t trusted her, I was just being cautious about exposing the faction.
“But still so… I can’t help being at least curious about it. It is my only connection to my colthood… my past life… this… “ailment” and a few stray memories…”
“You should see a psychiatrist…”
“Ya think?” I rebuked with disdain
By that time, we already reached the entrance to the bar. An unappealing door-wide opening greeted us, with a name painted in green bold letters above.
“Brews n’ Blues”
The interior was much more spacious, it was some kind of underground storage warehouse or even a factory.
From the entrance, a metal stair led downstairs, while a broken catwalk led halfway in direction to the other side of the upper level. Peeking form above, we could see the lounge itself. Regarding cleanliness, it wasn’t much an improvement form the Drunken Hound, although they had proper benches , tables and a bar counter, instead of retooled props to serve as furniture. The place was bustling with activity, understandable, since, according from what I’ve heard, this freedom lot loved to lull around and indulge in the simple pleasures of life (boasting, eating, drinking…) during their free time.
We lowered to the base level and walked to the bar counter, in the hopes of finding free seats. The walls there were adorned with the freedom boar, anarchy emblems, the hippie symbol and other more exquisite charms as well, these mystical in nature, whose meaning was beyond my knowledge.
The wall near the bar counter had the enormous green-colored message “Freedom faction is best faction!” and around it, numerous sentences or notes form Freedom members, scrawled around the central one, in support of their faction.
Then, at last, we found two vacant benches by the counter. After laying down on them, I floated off my saddlebags and dug inside to serve myself of some canned dandelions. I offered one of the cans to Lielle, but she hastily refused.
“I have some cash on me… I want to try one of those dishes” She said while trying to get the barkeeper’s attention.
I shrugged and started eating my meal
In a few moments, her efforts were rewarded when a dusk-colored pegasus stallion neared us. He had an odd cutie mark, some wind of blue flower… probably form where the bar got its name.
“Hey, what ya be needin’…” He said only to stop mid-sentence and give us a good look. I could swear there was something wrong with those green eyes… they were twitching, looking at opposite directions, moving at an insanely fast pace… hell, those would have made the mole’s mad eye look natural in comparison.
“I never saw you two before… new friends?”
Lielle was quick to give her best smile and nod
And the pegasus opened in a twin smile
“Then bros, my smooth welcome to the spaceship we named Freedom. The place for your every cosmic needs , positive vibes and free love, dudes. Now, I can see you brought your own grub dude… that’s cool. And you, can I hassle your hunger up with some meal, sister?”
She seemed indecisive for a second, looking at the meal list attached at the wall, but then, she placed her order.
“One of those roasted potatoes filled with chilly beans”
“Groovy choice sister… now, what about a little something to get it down easier? A hard drink? Or grass… really good grass, if you get what I mean…”
That got me curious. “Grass? You mean spice?”
He just chuckled
“Food for the soul, brother” and he disappeared behind the counter, only to return with… a blue colored rolled joint.
“This stuff. It is cooler than cool, it brings laughter and velvet moonbeams, cotton candy clouds which rain chocolate milk , caramel rainbows and the sweet love of mother earth, flowing right from her warm nipple”
“What is that stuff exactly? Is that shit even legal?”
The pegasus chuckled some more. “100% natural unadulterated love. Coming from this sweet little flower” and he pointed to his own cutie mark.
“Blue hope is the name, I guess… Fo’ shizzle… this stuff is what kept me going swinging by, brotha. You see… before all this shit and the Zone, I really loved to fly, soar through the skies, swim into the big blue yonder… But then, someday… BANG! Some ungrovy negativeness showed by and we couldn’t fly anymore… I wandered around bro… yea, it was tough. No love in the zone dude, yeah… but then, I’ve found the best guys in the world… my guys, Freedom. True bros who know how to live the elbow. They shared everything with me… Fresh air, water, food, booze, love… they even told me about this miracle worker flower. And BOOM. Now I can fly high whenever I want without leaving the mother earth’s holy embrace. Even my body basked in the commune with Gaia, as my cutie mark changed into this miracle flower… yeah dude… that’s about it. Now I live to help others remove their strains from this oppressive reality… fight the equine! Care to try some?” and he offered his joint
There was something about his attitude… he seemed aside from this world, looking so distracted and everything… and the derped eyes… could it be the flower’s proprieties that caused it? in any case, I refused it.
“Maybe next time… we’ll just stick with the food”
“Whenever dude… anything else you need from… hey, what are your names?”
“Mine is Boshan Hollowbane”
“And mine is Lielle Crackgiggle, pleased to know you, mister…”
“Flower wave”
Flower ? That wasn’t a very usual name for stallions…
“I know what you two think, but I’m proud of it. I’ve downcast my old name when I learned the way of Freedom. Now, my name reflects my special connection with my brothers, a bond older than time, the bond of life. In result, I call everyone from their cosmic names. Which means, I’ll have to set you two with your own ones…”
Now this was officially weird… but hey, when in Hoofstok…
He put a hoof onto his chin and flipped eyes at us
“You, unicorn… I dig you. If you were a mare, or if I was higher, I’d totally do you, hot stuff.”
Great… an intoxicated pegasus stallion from Freedom was hitting on me. Now I had been thought everything. I could actually feel my dignity dwindling away… away… gone
“Which is why I should call ya… Sunshine Hotdog. Gratz for ya new name!”
Lielle was barely containing herself. She exploded into laughter and giggling, her eyes were even teary due to so much laughter
“And you… you are a pretty cool mare… too bad only unicorns are my type. Your cosmic name shall be Free Laugh”
“What? She has a much less ridiculous name… why is mine so much wor…”
“That’s how the cookie crumbles, bro. chill out, I just do mother nature’s bidding. You should take it on the lighter side of life, Hotdog”
“That’s exactly what I am always trying to make him do…” Lielle sighed “But no, he always keep this overly serious mysterious stallion act… just open a smile sometimes… it won't hurt.”
“Will that make you tone down your antics a bit?”
She took a moment to consider the deal…
“I promise to, if you try…”
My face ached in protest due to my current embarrassment, but I… smiled. I held it for some time, and then I dropped it.
“There. You happy now?”
“That’s… quite a good start. Keep training and you’ll get the hang of it”
“Ya looked pristine spit n’ shine, Sunshine. You should hear the mare more often”
Said mare beamed in pride while the pegasus left us to get her order.
“Sunshine…” She said while giving her mockingly amused glare
“Remember your promise”
To which she instantly shifted to a thoughtful expression
“That blue grass joint… can I try some later? He seemed really excited about it.”
“Not a chance. If it’s consumption causes half of the stuff that the pegasus said to appear, it will cause you a cardiac arrest from overexcitement or something like that…”
And as for me… my mind was already fucked up as it was without any external sources aiding it…
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“This is the place? It’s awfully huge for a workshop…”
“Haven’t you followed the signs? Then, obviously, IT IS the place, you silly colt.”
I sighed. Hoofstok was literally an enormous maze. Confound all those corridors, alleys and everything…Makes me wonder how this place was before the disaster… possibly full of pegasus and earth ponies down on their luck, trying to earn they everyday dough on one of those unicorn-held factories, enduring poor safety conditions, starvation and such… at least, they had better living standards than us, the Zone dwellers…
Anyways… we finally reached the indicated workshop after endless drifting on the dark. It was a big, 5-story construction site. Gray-slated like much of the other Hoofstok buildings, this one stood above most of the others. The green arrows furthermore pointed inside
I just hoped that the mechanic wasn’t like the barkeep…
So, we entered it. On the middle of the building, a few broken down BTRs, their hulls split open and power cables erupting from their engines to a generator at the side. Possibly the source of all electrical output produced by Freedom… the arrows pointed upside the stairs.
After crossing several floors, I noticed that most of them suited the purpose of storage. Rusted hulls, scrap metal, chains, school desks. It seemed odd why a mechanic would need that much metal… I mean, he wasn’t going to build vehicles or anything. You’d have to be way out of your mind to consider driving around the Zone. One anomaly, and blam!
As I predicted, the actual workshop was on the roofing. Cramped, like Hoofstok itself, a multitude of apparel lay scattered. Three workbenches, boxes and boxes atop shelves, filled to the top with scraps, wrenches and the like. Around a corner, some lockers, a few chests and a bookshelf. Some bolts lay scattered around the floor. On the walls, schematics and pictures of technology, including armor. A framed message was particularly insightful:
“In order to create a decent IL, one must recreate the universe first”
Also, a makeshift targeting range was set at the other side of the room. Some ragdolls dressed on Duty’s colors and a blue circle painted on the floor, at some distance from them, to mark the position where the shooter was supposed to stand.
The technician, an orange unicorn stallion with black goggles, was using one of the workbenches; he was using a blowtorch to mold a marekarov into shape. Near his station, a lit lamp with a red and a blue strings
I was unsure how to approach him, as the stallion seemed really involved with his work…
I crept nearer and got a better look at him. His cutie mark was shaped like a… frying pan, and how odd, a frying pan throwing noodles into the air. I guess he was either into the snack or into cooking….
I patted my hoof at his back, which immediately stiffened. He stopped his craft and faced us.
“Are you Dominic Silverwrench?”
“Depends of who is asking… what business have you?” He answered with an uninterested tone.
“Oh… I so want one of these…” An excited squeak came from behind me.
Lielle was pointing at one of the pictures at the wall, the one depicting a stalker with one of those frames designed to support weaponry
“Ah… an excellent choice. I wonder why you don’t have one already…” The mechanic said.
“I wish I had… But they never let me buy one… said it was “too dangerous” for me… excuses, excuses…”
“Nonsense… if you know how to properly use them, they are as good as your mouth, or telekinesis, for that matter…”
Now that he mentioned it, it was really numbing how the heck the earth ponies and pegasus stalkers used those things with such ease… I suppose it wouldn’t harm to ask…
“Dom… how do these things work?”
Lielle gave me a look of pure unbelief
“You mean, you don’t know how the frame works too? Gosh… have you been living under a rock locked inside a safe which key was buried, which upon a house was erected and never inhabited due to an astronomical rent cost?” She moved her head with both disdain and contempt.
“It is okay…” Dominic gave me a condescending look. “Most of unicorns don’t really bother finding out about the frame’s workings, since we can just use our TK at will. But fair enough, if you’re interested, a little lecturing isn’t going to harm you”
He crossed the room, reaching the pictures and stood by the first one.
“This is the ancestor of the frame.” They were two slim pieces of flexible metal slabs, holding a bolted SMG at one of the ends and the other edge supported at the pony’s body by a collar. “This model dates from before the… accident. Commissioned by none other than Celestia herself, it was thoroughly imbued with magic. Basically, two metal “arms” that followed each motion swiftly and precisely, paired by an ease of use and a practical design. You see… it was originally used by photographers. Heh… only some time later, it was repurposed to be used in conjunction with guns… nowadays, almost nopony uses them…”
“Wait a second… you got me there. If it was easy to use, practical and accurate as well… why you don’t use it anymore?”
The technician answered with a smile. He obviously was enjoying the subject, which was his expertise. “It was practical for cameras… Not so much for weapons. For instance, there is this one thing called recoil. This particular frame was too much soaked with magic. When magic is imbued to a designated object, the designated object wears much faster. This is the reason why everypony always enchant heavy-duty materials. Mithril, adamantite , titanium and such… as a mass produced item, the pre-frame was made of regular iron. It doesn’t hold up much long with the recoil kicks and overheating generated from a firearm. Additionally, you cannot possibly use it to wield any weapon bigger or heavier than an AK… a simple matter of center of mass.”
“Which is why it was ditched in favor of the actual one.” He pointed to the second picture, the one that Lielle was squeaking at. The usual frame used by stalkers everywhere.
“Nopony knows who came up with the actual design, but the guy was a fucking genius. No magic on this beauty, everything here is full old school technology craftspony. The Firearm Relay Aid on Maneuvering for Equines, F.R.A.M.E. for shorters, is a true standout. As you can see, the firearm is now attached to the side of the pony, the much-needed stability. Of course, accuracy suffered in the process, but hey, if this one was sturdy enough to last more than two gunfights and most ponies used wide-spread weaponry, such as assault rifles, SMGS, or shotties, why bother?”
“You said that it was crafted without using magic. But if that is true, then, how the heck can the user maneuver their weapons? They’ll be just strapping them.”
Dominic opened another smile, it seemed like he was waiting for that question. “Say, you have a weapon that originally was used on a frame?”
“Where that does relate to the subject at hoof?”
“You have one or not?”
“I have an AK which was looted from a raider”
“Can I borrow it? I won’t ruin it or anything….”
“I guess so…” I said while floating the AK to him. He picked it up mid air with his own TK.
“Here, have you seen carefully? Here, on the trigger.”
He was right. There was a small red blob on the side of the trigger. Somehow, I have failed to spot it before the moment… although, I really never held the weapon up close to my eye, the telekinesis allowed me the luxury to just operate it from a distance
“Now, see carefully, because I am only going to do this once…”
And he approached the red blob to the tip of his horn, holding it there for two minutes. After that amount of time, the trigger melted and fell off from the AK… but before hitting the ground, it solidified again.
“Thanks.” Dominic said while returning my AK. To my surprise, the trigger was intact. The only difference is that it no longer held the red blob. An exact copy of the trigger, but with the red blob included, was lying on the ground.
“This little thing.” Dominic said while floating the trigger. “An interesting piece of old world technology…a motion sensor. Conceptually, it allows limited telekinesis over an particular object. Technology mimicking magic, heh. It is used in conjunction with a motion receiver, which looks rather similarly, except it is a blue blob onto a metallic scrap, those are spread all over the frame.Back on the day, this technology was really popular, used all across Equestria by earth ponies and pegasus for work and leisure. Of all the spells, TK is by far, the most practical, although many of us take it for granted, we’d be desperate if we lost it, even for moments. And such usefulness reflected on the motion sensor, developed by compressing the device to perform limited patterns of action and reaction chains, in the form of a more limited and more sluggish version of TK, but hey, as long as it works.... It really isn’t that hard to find or to be produced either… even if you have only a box of scraps.
So, by properly calibration, when a pony does a certain predefined action or gesture, he will be able to move his weapon (evidently, constrained by being attached to him, but such is the price…) or fire it. Easy peasy.”
“And what about these others?” there were two more pictures left…
“The next one is the IMPREF. Improved Pre-Frame” The pony in the picture was carrying a similar frame to the 1st picture, but with two additional “arms”, and the structure covered in spikes, additional reinforcing plates, leather straps and such. It was attached to a Vintar. “This one is not as frail as the original pre-frame, thanks due to a reduced dosage of magic on it’s crafting. This model keeps the accuracy and handling of the pre-frame, but, thanks due to the reduced magic, it is the most sluggish of all the frames. This one is mainly used by snipers, since they require absolute precision and do their job with only a few shots”
“And the last one… the pride and glory of the Zone, the Exoskeleton and SEVA frames.” He pointed to the picture. Two ponies with overly huge weapons clad in those dreadnaught armors
“Heavy, heavy as fuck, I tell ya. But they can take one helluva beating, lug around a quarter of a ton, and hold up those badass weapons without a pinch. Missile launchers, flamethrowers, miniguns… you name it. If a pony can scrounge a not so small fortune, he can get on one of those and literally stomp on any opposition. It has a really fancy inbuilt targeting system, on which a visor inside the helmet gives a weapon-vision, giving surgeon-level accuracy!”
The unicorn glared at us with pride. To the looks of it, he didn’t get much opportunity to snub his specialized knowledge on others.
“So, about my frame…”
“Ah, right…” He opened a locker and pulled out a sunrise suit, exactly the same that Lielle wore, only that his had the frame. “I keep some of these ready, as not to submit my customer’s armor to the whole framing process… it can take quite long. So, I trade in these premades for the unframed one plus the price for the frame and a bit more for the integrity/condition difference between them”
“How much is going to be, then?”
He glanced a but at her sunrise suit, evaluating it and searching for flaws, bullet holes and scratches, there were quite a few.
“Hmmm… you two seem like nice fellas… I suppose I can make it for 750 bits…”
The mare opened her widest smile.
“Deal.”
“Now, you can change there” He pointed to a curtain near the lockers
The mare grabbed the framed suit into her mouth and darted to the curtain, appearing again in a few moments with her new armor.
“All the motion receivers are already installed and in place, here.” He opened a chest and pulled a hunting rifle, then, he picked up the motion sensor from before and floated it into the trigger… it looked like the device “dematerialized” when in contact with the trigger, integrating itself into it.
“Go to that blue circle and use this dummy to calibrate and define the gestures, and to get some practice as well…” He said while strapping the rifle to her frame.
The mare proceeded to tinker around with it. She moved the gun up and down, sideways, and tried firing it, the rifle produced a thin squirt of water. Soon enough, she was trying to aim at the targets and getting the feel of the contraption. Although she was surely enthusiastic, she was having a hard time due to her lack of familiarity with it.
“Geez…” She said after missing another squirt by roughly 30 cm. “You unicorns surely got it easy… all you gotta do is focus a bit and float around your weapons…”
“Not really… telekinesis is much like strength, you see… it varies from individual to individual can be extenuated and you need to exercise it everyday in order to get it working correctly…” The technician said with expertise. Damn, he was even making me feel shameful for not knowing these specifics about the most peculiar spell of my own race.
“So, I won’t ever see one of you guys floating a rocket launcher or another big gun?”
The technician blinked. “No, you actually will. Although, excepted exceptional individuals aside, most unicorns won’t be able to properly handle them, due to the sheer size and weight… that is, if they aren’t aided…”
“Aided? You mean, there is a way to directly improve telekinetic potential?”
He answered me swiftly. “There is now. By tapping the power of particular artifacts, anything is possible…”
Artifacts, artifacts… they seemed to be the answer for everything. Crystallized trinkets originated from anomalies, bulging with unspeakable powers. Just the equally wonderful and deadly potentials of magic…
“Although, most of us just use the suits to bring out the heavy guns. Gravitational artifacts are hard to come by.” He glanced back to the mare “Yes, that’s it. Now you’re getting it.”
Indeed, she was improving, slowly but steady.
“Now Dom, could you work out some electronic gadget of mine?”
“Let’s see… can you show it to me?”
I grabbed the PDA and handed over to him, the mechanic began to hoof around it instantly.
“Looks like there is nothing wrong with this personal desktop…”
“Exactly… what is wrong is a recorded message onto it, it sounds just like gibberish. i was wondering if you are able to decode it, if it is.”
The unicorn floated ear plugs and hoofed the PDA until he found the recording, then played it.
After he listened carefully to it, he placed his verdict
“Indeed, it is encrypted. A very peculiar old-world encryption, named FFE”
“What does it stand for?”
“Fluttershy Frequency Encryption. A special encryption that configures the entire message to be played on sub-hearing levels, with only the possessor of a predetermined code being able to decode it. Named after an important peace-mongering mare or something,if i recall correctly…”
“Well, can you decode it? And if so, how much it is going to set me back?”
The unicorn gave a contemplative look. “The thing is, albeit the fact that I have software that is capable of decoding it, the whole process is going to take a while.”
Delays, setbacks, time-consuming matters. My life was hanging on an hourglass, grain and grain of sand peeling away, and the whole world seemed to conspire in order to delay me…
“How long? I don’t have much time left to spare…”
“Depends of the size of the message, but if I were to predict, I’d say around eighteen hours. Now, as for the matter of payment…”
“Yes, about it… I can’t spare much money, but I’ve got some tidbits and goods…”
The technician raised his hoof, cutting my speech. “Money doesn’t matter much for immaterial services that we on Freedom provide, as the cost is negligible. However, I can only help you if I get the approval of the fat cat… you see, this looks pretty important, and the boss’s stamp of approval is needed in these cases”
“But I’ve heard that all you guys are anarchists! Anarchist societies don’t possess a hierarchical order, and by consequence, neither a supreme executive officer, meaning that you could do as you please without the need for approval.”
The unicorn let go a laugh “Heh heh… seems that your info on us is outdated, Stalker. Yes, we used to be anarchists. You should have seen it; a lot of guys wreaking havoc, chaos and bedlam… didn’t work out right, but was fun as hell. So, cutting short, we took a poll and came up with a new government system to fit our needs, we call it “anarcho-syndicalist commune”, in which a individual is elected as a temporary executive officer for three months, but all the decisions of that officer are ratified at special biweekly meetings by majority, in the case of internal affairs, and by a two-thirds majority in the case of external affa…”
I coughed loudly
“But well, I digress. Thing is, you need to raise your rep with us, thus getting into the boss’ graces, to get me working into it.”
I sighed… sometimes; there is no way out of certain situations. “Any ideas how to aid Freedom’s cause?”
“You’ve met Wavey, right? Pegasus, green eyes, barkeep, always pulling a crazy-ass mental blowout with his joints. Isn’t exactly the most subtle pony around”
“We were properly… er… acquainted, as to say.”
“Yes, yes… I know what you’ve gone through. I had to shake that crackpot off my tail way too many times, has a thing for unicorns, the bastard.” He drew a long breath. “Some things can’t be helped. If you want to prove yourself, he’s been looking for volunteers to undergo a very special task, ordered directly down from the boss. If you think you’re up to the game, seek him out…”
“Can you start the process while I’m working into the task?”
The unicorn considered it for a minute. “I suppose so… that’s nice loophole on the rules, by the way.” He said while giving me an accomplice’s blink.
“Hey hornbags, check this out, I’m good now!”
Splash! Splash! Splash!
Amazing… she grew from a disaster on the range from a sharp-eyed marksmare in no time… I’d be delighted, if she weren’t using it to soak me to the bone at the time.
Dominic gave a sharp look to her while still under “fire”. He focused his magic onto the red string at his lamp and pulled it.
In response, the ceiling right above Lielle opened and several water-filled balloons fell over her, soaking the now deadpan mare.
“Never start a war you cannot win.” The unicorn said while stifling his laughter.
At the moment, I felt a revengeful smile crept around my face.
“I think that’s enough messing around with the dummy.” Dominic said while strapping it off from her frame. “Which gun are you going to use into your frame?”
The redhead mare went to her saddlebag and pulled out the throat needler. The poor thing has seen better days, being a makeshift weapon, it was barely holding together, giving the impression that it was going to fall apart at any moment. Lielle “solved” the most critical issues by performing repairs to it, which amounted only to adding rather copious amounts of… duct tape, all over the infrastructure.
“Er… are you sure? Does that thing even have a trigger?”
Good question… I didn’t questioned Peppermint about the most basic of things about the gift… an excusable oversight, I guess.
But nevertheless, the mare pointed to the trigger, right under the ammunition storage on the weapon.
Dominic floated the dummy rifle to me.
“Your turn to remove the sensor receiver, friend. Remember, just do as I did.”
I approached the blob on the trigger to the tip of my own horn, and focused magical energy onto it. It felt like a channeling process, that if I stopped it, the action would fail.
After the two minutes, the trigger itself dematerialized and fell on the ground, solid again.
“Why magic? I mean, why a technological apparatus used only by pegasus and earth ponies requires magic to be repurposed onto another object?”
The dusk unicorn just shrugged. “Dunno, I suppose it was a design flaw, a way to avoid including a possibly costly improvement, or if you are with the conspiracy lot, Celestia wanted to keep the pegasai and the earth ponies in check or dependant of unicorns… either way, only unicorns can repurpose motion sensors… would be amazingly effective in combat, if weren’t for the fact it takes two uninterrupted minutes with your horn touching it…”
I floated the device and pushed it into the throat needler’s trigger. The device soon absorbed the trigger into it. Then, Dominic took hold of the gun and strapped it onto Lielle’s frame.
“Alright, there’s it. Now, the bits, if you please…”
The azure mare pulled off the amount from her bag and tossed her old sunrise suit to the stallion as well.
As the technician was counting his money, I floated the PDA to him, so he could get started with it.
“Then, good luck with the job… er… I never really asked your names, did I ?”
I shook my head negatively. “No problems pal. Mine is Boshan and the “mermare” over there is called Lielle” I said while holding my own laughter… the poor mare was still trying to dry herself.
“I see… Pleasured to meet both of you. Now if you excuse me, I’d better finish working into this” And he pointed to the marekarov pistol he was tinkering with before we came.
We waved goodbyes (Lielle’s was half-hearted, since she still resented at being caught on her own game) and went down back to the Hoofstok alleyways
“That Dominic is sure a nice guy, don’t you think? He knows a lot and such and even took the time to explain me the minutiae about the frames…”
“If by nice you mean somepony who’d trigger out an intentional trap onto an innocent customer…”
“It was all in good fun, Lielle. Besides, you had it coming. Plus, the trap wasn’t specifically meant for you.”
Which made me wonder how many times he got soaked by unruly clients before setting it up…
In response, she just grumbled something about how laying traps told much about somepony’s shady and paranoid personality, to which I dismissed as overreacting.
============================== [><]=============================
“Ah, my newest friends again! To what do I owe this pleasure, guys? Found our smooth city pleasing?”
At that time, the bar was nearly empty. Must have been around 3 or 4 o’clock by the time we entered it for the second time that day
“Hey Wavey! The pony I wanted to see. I’ve been talking to Dominic and…”
His eyes grew a fearful expression and his voice showed a hint of panic:
“He is a bloody liar! Doesn’t matter what he said, I totally didn’t do it, it was like that before I touched it, seriously!” He was nearly yelling at the top of his lungs
I glanced confusedly at the mad pegasus, and said “No, it is not about that, wherever it is… he mentioned that you have some kind of task, coming down directly from your boss…”
To which, after hearing my reply, he looked immensely relieved
“Ah, phew. Sorry about the outburst bro. it is just that my little screwhead is rather temperamental about his works… by any chance, you wouldn’t mention anything about my attitude to him, will you? pleaseplease”
I take it back. Sunshine Hotdog isn’t such a bad name; after all, Dominic had it far worse and lived on with his.
“What happens at the Bar, stays at the Bar, I suppose…”
“Thanks a lot bro, I respect ya now. About the mission… we had been having some mutant trouble out of late…”
“Well, fear no longer! I have hunted so many of them… striders, pseudos, blind dogs, boars…” The mare started to list down the creatures. “What kind are we going to face?”
The pegasus gave us a deep look and answered gravely.
“Bloodsuckers”
The fire on Lielle’s eyes quickly died out, only to be replaced by sheen fear. Nevertheless, she did her best to look calm.
“Bloodsuckers? How much are we talking about?” I inquired
“From seven to eleven, I guess… maybe more. They mostly stayed onto their den, we certified of that, but a recent event has stirred them.”
“And you want us to slaughter them off? Two lone stalkers against hooffulls of mutants?”
The pegasus shook his head a few times. “No, no, no… why such negativity? Nopony said nothing about killing, bro. Peace and love all the way. The bloodsuckers were fine, we were fine, everything was in place into the cosmic line before… until loners came into the equation. You see, much of the negative emotions on this planet make me sad, but the worst is greed. They were so intended on raiding the lair for treasures, that we couldn’t talk them out of it. And so they went there, looking for fame and fortune… most of them were wiped out, their mangled limbs remaining as a warning for other foolhardy fellows. But one of them, with quick hooves and short-lived compassion to their “friends” was able to crawl out of the lair. And not empty-hoofed.”
And he pulled something from under the counter. A box
“Peek inside brother, and bask into peace.”
I moved my head to peek inside the box and I’ve saw it on it’s interior: an oblong golden object, resembling an dragon egg in size and shape. It produced a soft luminescence… oddly, it was somewhat enticing… an artifact, undoubtedly.”
“They’ve brought an artifact. So what ?”
“So what that the Zone is angry at us. This artifact was given as a tribute to the mother earth. By taking it out of its place, the fools managed to incur onto her wrath. As a result of their defilement, the bloodsuckers are now popping out of their den every now and then.”
“So, what do exactly you require us to do about it?”
“Return the artifact to it’s righteous resting place, only then will balance be restored. You will be rewarded handsomely if you pull this out, bro. the suckers are giving us a hard time.”
“Wait, wait… if I get this right, you expect us to cut a swath around a bloodsucker infested lair, and wander aimlessly in the dark until, by blind luck, we stumble upon whenever place the loner found it?”
“We have the exact dropzone location, somewhere around the 2nd underground floor, pinpointed. If you accept it, we’ll provide it along with updated maps for the region. As for cutting a swath, that’s ungroovy bro. You must not kill a single bloodsucker. It will further enrage mother earth and she will spawn another, only more savage, in due time. Yes, I know that they are bloodthirsty savage abominations, but in the end, they do not differ much from animals, they only protect their own, go hunting only when they need. They’ve been only acting weird because of this problem.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind? How the hell we’re supposed to deal with them? Befriend the bloodsuckers? Or serve myself on a silver platter for them, invite them for a romantic dinner or even bring them flowers, yes, that’s ought to solve the issue…”
“I find your need for sarcasm as a sign of a deep internal sorrow, sunshine. If you want suggestions, just try to avoid them. If you cannot, you can hurt them. Hurt, but do not kill. Hurt them until they flee. As much as I dislike them, we must respect their home.”
Fuck this… accepting this job would be suicide.
“Isn’t there anything else we can do?”
“I feel for you bro, but there isn’t really nothing else. Look on the brighter side…” He opened a moronic smile “Since there are almost no takers for this job, we are granting a juicy pay for it… and besides, doing it will definitively put up a good word for your relation to the boss”
Goddamn it… why it always amounted to the same thing? I having no choice other than comply… well, if I was going to die anyway, I’d much as better die trying to find a way out of it instead of waiting a month (less…) to drop dead.
“Okay… we’ll do it. But the pay must be worth it, and the reputation as well… and look here, if by any chance I die out there and rise after three days as a blood-sucking monster, I will come for you blood, understood?”
The stallion swallowed a gulp. “That’s fair enough, I guess… now, hoof over your PDA so I can update it with the info…”
I hoofed over the gadget to the pegasus, he drew his own PDA and a cable, then connected both devices and fiddled around his.
“There ya go, bro.” He had marked two locations at the map. “This one here marks the trader. Be sure to visit him before ya go into the lair, he has critical equipment for your mission. Just show him the marker on your PDA and he’ll provide the gear.”
“And the other marker?”
“Marks the entrance of the den. Once there, when you reach the 2nd underground level, your PDA will flash a third marker, the place where you should put the artifact.”
He hoofed back my PDA and the box containing the artifact. I floated both things onto my saddlebag
“Don’t go flashing around this artifact bro, it’s one of those pretty rare, one-of-a-kind-like thingies”
“Point taken. Just as a matter of curiosity, how the hell you’ll know if we didn’t kill any bloodsucker down there?”
“You see… I’ll just know. Mother earth will whisper in my ear if you commit such a sin, I will notice the disturbance onto the cosmic lifeline, and I will peek into your aura to double-check it. Is there anything else you need to know?”
“I think that is enough for now…”
The barkeeper left us to attend a stray client
“Are you sure about this Boshan? I don’t feel like second-guessing your choices, but in this case…”
“What is in your mind? Spill the beans.”
She gave me her most serious and self-imposing glare.
“Have you ever seen a bloodsucker?”
The answer was obvious… I haven’t. All I knew was that they were equinoid mutants that had a thing for sucking others blood and were regarded as highly dangerous… but then, danger is always relative…
“Never…”
“I’m hardly surprised… sigh.” She drew a long breath before continuing. “They are terrible, horrible, damned and cursed creatures. Snarling, slouching decadent beings, exhaling the stench of pure corruption from their pores, coming from the very cursed depths of Equestria. Latching sharp claws and shredding teeth, lashing tentacles. All over your soft flesh, drawing away all of your blood while you still agonize through the whole process… murderous and disturbing white eyes, dancing in the darkness… they know, they watch you… they wait for a mistake… and before you can even do something, they leap at you. And then, you are lost. Forever lost… FOREVER!!!”
I listened through with a big dose of skepticism. “And let me guess… you never faced one, right?”
“Er… no. but the stories I’ve heard about…”
I raised a hoof
“Enough. Look here; are these bloodsucker thingies common on the Zone?”
“Somewhat… the further you get close to the center, the more often they and other dangerous mutants show up”
“So, sooner or later, we will have to face them. We could as well get over with it now.”
“You have a point there. But still… I am not fully convinced if this is a good idea…”
“Unless… the great mutant huntress is… afraid.”
She widened her eyes instantly.
“Say what?”
“Scared, a chicken… cock-a-doodle-doo…”
“Say that again to my face, stalker.” She haughtily raised her tone.
“Afraid of a little squid-face rotten pony… I suppose she isn’t such a great huntress after all… such a shame. I guess I’ll have to do it on my own…” I said while holding a look of disappointment. Of course it was a bluff, going alone was suicidal.
“Then it is decided. I’ll show you how a true mutant hunter rises to the challenge at hoof. You are taking me in, smartass.”
Heh, I knew that appealing to her pride would work…
“I suppose that I have no choice then…” I said while feigning innocence
I drew my last bottle of vodka from the saddlebag. When I get the reward (if I get it…) I’m going to restock myself of booze
On the Zone, everything was always “the last”… the last time I get some sleep, the last time I meet my friend, the last time I but some ammo, the last time I draw breath… every stalker was used to think like that, living their days on the assumption that it was their last, because in the Zone, more than somewhere else, it usually was the last if he made a mistake somewhere.
Such is life (or whenever they call it…) on the Zone…
Damn this vodka, making me all philosophical and shit…
It was at that moment that a voice soared through the freedomers’ megaphone system. It was a weird, fucked up voice. It sounded like a Chihuahua, and was at the same time, irritating and funny.
“Hey Dom, guess what I’ve got here.”
A familiar voice answered him.
“Geez Tinder… I can only think of what you haven’t got there… a pair, for instance. Heheheheh”
“Very funny, Mrs Wavey… anyways, the graveyard shift dropped by a few corpses’ loot on me, and guess what? five NVGS not accounted by the scavenging corps !You know what they say, right? Finders keepers!
“Wow, five? And they missed them all?”
“Quite hard to believe, eh buddy?”
“You are really quite the double-digger, Tinder. Hahahaha.”
“That’s what she said! Hahaha”
“Heh. So what about your stupid NVGs this has to do with me?
“I was wondering if you could attach them to some of mine sunrise suits, to increase their value. Since you know how to handle this crap and all…”
“Yep, I’ll take a look at them. Drop’ em and the suits at my shop, will ya?”
“You know that I cannot leave my shop unattended! You get your arse and toolbox over here!”
“Then, why don’t you use one of those damn NVGs right on your shop, to explore your favorite body cavity in the most unnatural way possible?”
“Hey, up yours, you shitty tarkfuckering basta…”
When a third voice thundered through the megaphone system, a ravishing, sharp and venom-filled, yet delicately feminine tone.
“Tinder, Dominic, if you two dimwitted retards are done with your bickering, CLAMP YOUR GODDAMN MOUTHS! DAY ON AND AFTER, THE SAME FUCKING SHIT FOR ALL THE BASE TO HEAR, ANYPONY VISITING THINKS WE RUN A WHOREHOUSE!, SERIOUSLY, IF YOU TWO CAN’T GIVE ME A BREAK, I’LL THROW BOTH OF YOUR SORRY ASSES ON THE FIRST PSEUDODOG DEN I CAN FIND!”
To which both stallions stopped their arguing. I raised my eyes to the barkeep.
“Is this usual?”
“Oh, more than you think, bro… but don’t judge the boss for what you’ve heard. She is a nice, level headed mare. It is only when that kind of situation appears that she loses her temper.”
“THAT was your boss?”
“Ah yeah. At least for two more months. Commander Carmelia… bro, she is quite the looker. A beautiful strong mare that don’t need no stallion.”
“She is a unicorn, isn’t she?”
To which panic arose in his eyes
“How did you know? Are you reading my mind? Are my thoughts leaking again? Oh no, it’s happening again… I need my tinfoil hat! Whereisitwhereisitwhereisit” and he started to frantically roam thought his stuff, searching for the head ornament.”
“Er, pipe down Wavey. It was just a lucky guess…”
Well, almost. Knowing that he had a thing for unicorns helped a bit.
“Dem bro… you almost scared me to death… you should totally like stop doing that… using logic to discern things… pfft… that’s w-e-i-r-d.”
And I’ve drew another sip from the bottle… the last?
============================== [><]=============================
That Chihuahua voice greeted us from beneath his counter
“Hey hey hey… exigent customers… I tell ya, I can see it by the look on your faces…”
Well, he had quite a store. Neatly stacked boxes, rifles in display, medkits carefully assembled onto shelves. Everything was categorically organized and clean… he probably didn’t left his shop very much…
Tinder himself was a tad smaller than an average pony (but still bigger than a colt), in that issue, the grey dual-toned earth pony somewhat resembled a Chihuahua… his face consisted of a light brown mane, huge and extremely disarming blue eyes, a small nose and an overly huge smile plastered onto his mouth.
“Yeah, about that… perhaps some other time, friend. We’re here to pick up some stuff…”
And I showed him Wavey’s note on my PDA
His face dropped to slight disappointment.
“Aw… I was hoping to keep these babies… but alright buddy, if the boss is tellin’ and if it is your own deathwish, then I’ll just do as I’m told.”
And he picked up a box, producing two weird green-tinted goggles from it.
“Alright, since that bloodsucker den goes underground, you two are to be issued two individual, 1st generation, night vision goggles.”
“Sweet!” Lielle picked up hers and wore it immediately. “Everything looks green and very bright! That is so cool… I only imagine how a rainbow would look if you were wearing one of these while looking at it!”
The trader held his head, contemplatively. And then, reassumed his outgoing posture.
“Hey, why not stock yourselves up before heading up onto the lair? How’ bout some medkits?”
And he rushed to one of the boxes and spilled all of it’s contents over the counter
“Naw, we still have a few, but thanks anyway.” Although the four or five meds we had were hardly plenty… well, rationing them would do the trick.
“And bullets? Got enough? You can never have enough bullets! That’s what my mama always said, Faust bless her…”
And he pulled off another box, turning it over the counter and spilling it’s contents over the already filled counter. Some of the bullets rolled to the floor.
“Tinder, we appreciate your offer, but we really got enough stuff. If you could just sto…”
“And what about a new shooter, Stalker? Why stick with those dog-pokers? Here, take a gander.” He said. It was mesmerizing how fast he was pulling merchandising from the shelves to the counter, making a terrible mess on both the shelves and boxes and the counter alike.
Then, among all that mess, something caught my eye… I floated that rifle closer to me. It was truly a piece of art. A black coated NATO professional rifle, full with an assault sight and carbon coating… it was something to behold, so pristine and light that GP37 was… the trader must have had a lot of trouble keeping it so presentable…
“Hmm… this is really nice. If I only had money right now…”
Tinder’s right eye twitched a few times. Then, he reached out and violently pulled the rifle from my magical grip, holding it tight against his body.
“Tinder, what are you d…”
He rose his hoof, pointing to the exit. His eyes now showed pure hostility
“Get out of here… Stalker.”
“But…”
“GET THE HELL OUT OF MY STORE!”
Whit that warning, me and my companion scrammed from the precinct. On the way out, I even caught his last yell.
“And don’t bother coming back until you HAVE some money to spend!”
Tinder looked at his rifle… it wasn’t today that we was going to sell it for a nice price.
“Fucking cheapskates, freeloaders or whenever…what the heck do they think this looks like, a goddamn charity giveaway?”
And he eyed through his store, the place left on a big mess due to his savvy businesspony sale strategy
“And now I have to clean up this mess again… my lovely store, left to pieces… don’t worry sweetie, I’ll fix you right up.”
And he started to whistle a happy tune while cleaning up, on his own careful, organizing manner.
============================== [><]=============================
Well, enough time preparing. It was time to go hunting. The updated maps on the PDA really helped traveling through Hoofstok, finding the correct path was now much easier.
We were about two blocks away from the entrance, when we stumbled upon a busy Freedomer, carrying a small wagon filled with pony bodies.
“Hey, watch where you are goi…” The mare raved, only to raise her eyes at us and cut her sentence short. “hey, it’s you two again! How are things going?”
It took me a few moments to recall her voice.
“You’re that mare that greeted us at the entrance! Didn’t recognized you without the armor… it’s your leisure time?”
The honey-colored and blonde earth pony chuckled. “No, actually I’m working right now. On Freedom, we can do whenever job we fell like, it helps balance morale.”
Lielle snorted her nose at the wagon. “And what in heavens is this work? Burying up the dead… you really feel like doing that?”
“While it Isn’t the most pleasurable job in Equestria, it is equally important as any on Hoofstok. Plus, we do not bury the dead; I am transporting them to the “organic recycling facility”, or as everypony name it, “The butchery”
My own eyes widened in both surprise and disgust.
“Butchery? You EAT your own dead? That’s got to be the sickest thing I’ve…”
She let go a big laugh, even rolled on the floor while holding her tummy.
“Of all the ideas, that is by far, the most ridiculous… Cannibals, in Freedom. Hahahaha.
No, we just store them, clean the bodies, dismember them and put the meaty tidbits into bottles, which we throw down the sewer into the bloodsucker lair. Keeps them both distracted and at bay.”
“You feed them mutants? This is bottomline insanity… the way I see it, you are encouraging them to lurk around Hoofstok!”
“That’s the idea. They will keep down there and won’t usually come topside to prey on the living, plus, by being fed, they won’t have to hunt for food, therefore, they grow lethargic and less dangerous… much like domestication, but on a smaller scale. What once was a mighty tiger, after generations of being fed and taken care of, bred onto just a harmless cat.”
“But still… not even Freedomers get buried? Their entire destiny is to become mutant meal?”
“Cremated” She corrected. “Burying a corpse is one of the worst things you can do in the Zone…”
“Why so? Let the dead rest, they earned it.”
“Let’em rest, but not when it becomes a burden for us, the living. And the burden are those dem’ dogs… four-pawed vultures, that’s what they are. The little shitheads can pick up the scent of a graveyard from a mile away… this is why you should never dig one near your base. All it takes is one dog. After he is successful in obtaining food, he warns the rest of the pack. And soon enough, they dig a lair near the graveyard. Soon enough, comes a point where the pack grows bigger than the number of the bodies on the graveyard. That’s when they start dogpiling on the living.”
That was quite explanative… that mound of dirt at the entrance, it was a dug up graveyard. Almost likely a Duty graveyard, dismantled by Freedom when they arrived. I’d bet that them Dutyers never bothered asking why the dogs were so numerous around their front entrance, instead, they probably just threw more and more lead at them while hoping for the best… a remedial solution.
“I still think that’s a rather morbid work…” Lielle said
“Well, that’s life on the Zone, Stalkers. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, vodka to piss, and in some cases, back to vodka again… you get used to the system”
Another Freedomer appeared at some distance, this one a stallion. He was yelling
“Angie, stop loafing around and bring those remains before they rot!”
She looked at us apologetically.
“Sorry, I must get on with this. See you two later on.”
And the mare strapped back her wagon and went her way, opposite to ours.
A bit of more trotting and we found the place indicated onto the marker. A broken wall onto a factory was the “entrance” of the den, flanked on the both sides by sacks of sands, metal crates, and any kind of sturdy crap that the Freedomers could put together for cover. All of them were facing the entrance, and a squad of Freedomers pointed their guns inside. Numerous scavenged “danger” and “stop” signs were around the broken wall, adorned by tied up ghost charms, presumably the work of superstitious Freedomers to “ward the place against evil spirits” or some other crap like that… Above the entrance, a lone wooden plank stood supreme, with an especially ominous statement written upon it:
“What the eyes fail to spot, the flesh shall soon feel…”
“The heck is this? Looks like another foolhardy stalker group…”
The Freedom squad leader, an stallion wearing a SEVA suit with the Freedom colors, left his position and approached us.
“Don’t you two know how to read? The signs aren’t exactly subtle…”
“We were issued a mission…” And I showed my PDA to him.
“Well… seems like they hadn’t given up hope yet. Such a futile effort…ok, you two may enter. Just don’t expect any rescue.”
And hoof after hoof, I stepped inside that building, my companion following my lead.
I felt something weird under my hooves...
Dried blood
============================== [><]=============================
I couldn’t see shit now… for the past ten or twenty minutes, we had enough sunlight to guide ourselves, but now, after a few rooms and corridors, everything was deep black.
I turned on my NVG. Suddenly, the interior become a bright green picture.
It was so quiet; I could almost hear my hoofsteps…
“So, since you know so much about the bloodsuckers, how long until we find one?”
She put her hoof onto her own mouth. “Shhh… quiet. You must not warn them. There will be plenty of time for chatting, once we are out of here.”
Too much for trying to cut up the tension a bit.
The corridor we were walking upon ended on a square room. Dusty floor, decaying walls, rotten furniture and paintings, pretty much basic. By the looks of it, looked like some kind of check-in room for the workers, mail receiving and general rest area. A broken elevator lay opened and eternally motionless by the west wall, the east wall had a passage that was blocked by debris. The only way was north, opposite from the south wall we came.
I walked to it, but then, something detained me.
“Do you smell… roast?”
She walked to my side and looked to the interior.
“Nothing there, but I smell something odd too.”
Then, a bright light flared on my field of vision.
FWOOOOOSHHH !!! FWOOOSH!!!
I took off the NVG and clearly saw it. A burner anomaly. The thing was actually… moving. It was rotating clockwise on the annex room. On the middle of the room that the anomaly was, a pony corpse wearing Duty colors, its bare skull charred by flames, which was licked by the burner every time it passed through it.
On the other side of that room, I spotted an exit, leading further deep into the factory.
“A rotating anomaly. C’mon, just time it out.”
And Lielle waited until the anomaly was at some distance and jumped into the room. She followed closely the anomaly without actually stepping onto it, and jumped out at the exit.
Then, she moved her hoof, calling me to go on.
If she did it, how hard could it be?
I fixated my eyes onto the anomaly; it was coming back to my front. Once it moved a bit, I jumped inside.
Hot, hot, hot!
The flood beneath my hooves was boiling, and the burner in front of me emitted so much heat! I steeled my will and set my gaze onto it, moving synchronously with it. In itself, it was a test of heat resistance and focus! And to think that the redhead made it look easy!
FWOOOOOSHHHHHH !!! FWOOOOOOOOSH!!!
Time to move aga…whoaaa!
The mare pulled me out of the room! I was so focused onto the anomaly, that I failed to notice that I’ve already reached the exit.
“Forgetting something?” she asked amusedly
“I got a bit carried… let’s move out.”
And on another dark corridor we went. On its end, a passage to further north, blocked by debris, and another corridor into the west. When we’ve reached the intersection, a spine-chilling roar has made us keep halt!
GRAWULLFLWULLLWULLL!!!
I aimed my AK down the corridor, nothing to be seen there.
“The heck was that?”
“I don’t know, didn’t sound like any mutant I know… if I were to guess, it is… one of them nearby. Just be very… very… careful.”
I nodded, and we both readied our guns. The western corridor ended in a much larger room. A machine with a conveyor belt took up much of the center of the room. Upon it, a number of mounds of old rags, the fabric or clothes that this particular factory was producing before being abandoned.
To think that poor earth ponies and pegasai were subjected to sixteen working hours on such places at the origins of the industrial revolution… it was probably suffocating and crowded when the machinery was on.
We started to move around the eastern wall, the room was huge. When I’ve noticed a particular room annexed to the big one.
From my viewpoint, a large number of lockers were located inside it. I trotted closer to inspect it, when something caught my eye.
There, standing in a corner, a stalker.
Covered in a brown (I assumed, since I had the NVG on and was seeing everything green…) long coat, he was… weeping over the body of another dead stalker. I couldn’t actually make it out his tears, since he was facing the wall…
A survivor! He probably has gone mad, or lost, or even brain-dead. The least I could do was try to help him.
“Hey Stalker, you must leave. It is not safe around these parts.”
No response.
I took a few steps closer to him.
“I’m sorry for your loss, but you can’t do anything more for your friend. Go home before you end up like him.”
Still no response from him.
I turned my face to Lielle, interrogatively
She shook her head, telling us to move on.
Dammit… just one more try.
I stepped even more closely to the stalker; I could hear him breathing over the body of his friend.
“I said that you should go. Are you trying to get killed by a bloodsucker?”
I put my hoof over his shoulder.
All of a sudden, he stopped his ritual, turned his face to me and I could see it.
I saw clearly all of those pestilent pores, snout nose, scaly skin, meaty tentacles and blank, hungry eyes devoid of life. Even if it was only for a split second, the close-up image of the face of a bloodsucker was forever imprinted on my mind.
And by my own stubbornness, I broke his feeding trance
Huarfw, Huarfw, Hisss!
And a sharp and swift hoof tore through my armor, pulling me onto one of those lockers, which crashed into the dusty floor.
The creature jumped to the side, dropping the rotting piece of fabric that someway ended up atop him. And he started to… regurgitate. Somehow he was exhaling some substance from his pores too, all over his body.
PLUCHT, PLUCHT, PLUCHT.
Three stakes hit the wall, the monster having vanished from thin air!
Huarfw, Huarfw, Huarfw…
I rose up and looked around the room, that fucker was close by. I could smell it, I could almost touch it, but he was moving around, too fast, unseen, and with a dangerous punch. It was desperate…
“SHIT, SHIT, SHIT…”
Huarfw, Huarfw… Hersss…
And two white eyes leaped from the corner, while the full weight of the invisible hooves came upon my flank; cracking a metal plate on my barding… they were unbelievably strong for a mutant that was about the same size as an average pony.
BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG…
The mare unloaded a full marekarov clip onto him, two shots hitting the mutant. He reappeared into vision after being shot.
It changed his focus from me.
The bloodsucker leaped out of the way and ran to her…
Huarfw, huarfw, huarfw….
He raised his roof in anticipation, but by the time, I was already up and with my AK ready.
RATTLERATTLE…
The shot hit the bloodsucker’s right shoulder. He fizzled a bit, a wound oozing into his shoulder.
He then disappeared into sight again and those pair of white eyes trotted away into the depths of darkness.
After all, just like Wavey said, they were just animals. Not willing to fight to the death, unless in special circumstances.
Mean, horrifically mutated, carnivorous and genetically augmented animals…
My flank and side had nasty claw wounds… shit. These bloodsuckers sure packed a mean punch. I had to use two medkits to tend my wounds…we were down to three left.
“That wasn’t so bad; that one didn’t put much of a long fight after all…”
“Are you mad? That fucker nearly torn me apart! From now on, we are laying extra-low profile while in here.”
“If you weren’t so impulsive…”
I shrugged… there was no point on keep arguing. Time could be better spent at completing the mission.
“Guard the doorway. I’m going to search around…”
She nodded.
I eyed through the room. A small locker room used by the workers, four scores of green-colored (Nightvision-wise) lockers. I opened one of them, hoping to find something usable or insightful about our surroundings.
Pretty much everything was unusable. Rotten food, balls of lint, broken bottles, rusted tools, punctured jumpsuits…
I drew a sigh after closing the fifth locker. It was worthless.
I took a moment to examine the corpse that the bloodsucker was feeding on… the poor sod was only a lifeless and withered husk now, with no clue about his identity, faction or gender, so disheveled it was…
Then, my gaze went to the walls. There were some ancient posters over them…
Not a single one deviated from the basic political message. I turned off the NVG and used the flashlight to see them better…
An enormous redheaded white alicorn looking down on thousand of black ponies charring in flames under her:
“Pony hell is a real place, and Faust sends insurgents to there.”
A black earth pony stallion in a mid-jump, wearing a red handkerchief around his neck that was covering his mouth, holding a cocktail Molotov in his right hoof:
“Insurgency is a crime. Do not let these dregs ruin our fair monarchy. Denounce any insurgency or suspicious behavior you may witness”
A shining and rich town atop a mountainside, Canterlot. And under it, a number of smaller towns that composed the equestrian landscape. There was also a point where a line showed where Celestia’s domains ended and some ruler else’s started, these ones were colored a dull gray in contrast to all the glory of the equestrian domains.
“Down with insurgency! May the monarchic regimen shine for another two thousand years!”
“My filly, an insurgent? I’d rather see her seven feet under!”
And the figure of a green-colored stallion with a cardboard crown, holding a small flag with the emblem of a sun and using his other hoof to amorously pat on his filly’s head.
“Join the Equestrian monarchic pride today! Ask your assigned supervisor for details”
Makes you think how much Celestia held an iron grip over her domain… but it was all over now. She was most definitely dead… and the insurgents possibly as well, If they stood in the Zone.
I pulled out my PDA to study the map.
That big room had four corridors deeper into the factory… one that we came from, then there were three to choose.
The stair down to the first underground level wasn’t so far away… only two corridors and one room, after the conveyor belt room, to get to it.
“Ok… I’ve had enough rest. Let’s move out.”
She nodded. I turned off the flashlight and turned on the NVG.
We trotted to the other side of the rusted machine, reaching the second door on the western wall.
An “L” shaped corridor led on, long fallen-off tiles adorned the ground, cracks and holes decorated the walls.
GRAWUUUU! Grawuf, grawu...
More bloodsuckers! I crouched down, and my friend quickly did the same. I moved ahead in a turtle pace, keeping my two eyes opened. When I ended up on the room after the corridor. It was a catwalk platform lying above the underground level. And the bloodsuckers were directly down below.
They probably haven’t spotted us yet. I’ve seen three of them. Two of them, one unicorn and an earth pony, were… cuddling? I had no clue of what they were doing… only that they were too close… they were perhaps a couple or something, which made me think, who was the female or the male? They looked all the same. I wondered how these abominations of nature reproduced, if they did it at all, on the biological sense of the word. The third bloodsucker was still, he stood there, breathing, but immobile. He was… sleeping? Seemed so. To the hell these wayward creatures…
“I take it back, they doesn’t look so bad…” The azure mare whispered.
No, I take it back… these mutants were way more trouble than it was worth, and now my flank ached in terrible pain because of them. If I were using only a coat, the bloodsucker’s punch would definitely be able to tear me in two. It wasn’t a very comforting thought…
After we carefully crawled toward the other side, another corridor. This was a straight one; it led to the set of stairs.
BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP!!!!BEEPBEEPBEEP!!
Almost stepped over onto an anomaly! It was directly below the stair, like, meant exactly to hurt the impatient stalker…
As I looked upon the ground, my NVG brightened up with the anomaly’s light, to which I turned it off.
The anomaly was very, very bright. It was a green bubbling puddle, lighted on like a Christmas tree in the middle of the underground lair.
A “forgotten” limb was onto it, slowly dissolving with a soft hiss, meaning that the anomaly was composed of acid of some kind…
“Fruit punch, a puddle of corrosive liquid of unknown origin, commonly found on underground locations” informed the ever-handy PDA.
“Hey, check these out, Boshie…”
And she was laying over the anomaly to look it better. I reached closer to see it…
Worms, tiny brown worms were squirming along the anomaly… they were over the limb too, looked like they lived and thrived onto the acid anomaly…such a weird thing.
The Zone, in the same level that created life-depriving environments, created life-supporting environments as well…
We cautiously moved past it, reaching the antechamber below.
I could hear those disgusting bloodsuckers from across the wall… Luckily, according to the PDA maps that Wavey gave me, the factory stretched in several corridors and rooms underground Hoofstok, being even connected to the sewers, below the 2nd underground level. This area was dark on the PDA, meaning that the explorer didn’t go toward them.
Thankfully, this layout probably gave a lot of room for the bloodsuckers to stretch their hooves, diminishing our chances to stumble upon one.
But even with that information in mind, I couldn’t help seeing a moving shadow at every corner we crossed, a creak of unknown origin at every room and I was almost sure I could hear hoofsteps nearby. Maybe it was my mind playing tricks at me...
“EEEEeeekkk!”
I snapped alert at the second, trotting close to her.
“What’s the matter? Another one of those things?”
“No, there is blood all over there…”
She was right. On the section nearby, an extensive pool of blood laid bare. It drew a straight line into a room. Almost like…
Almost like if a Stalker with deep bleeding wounds slouched or was dragged into the room…
Okay, I suppose it wasn’t a very bright idea to follow a trail like that, but I let my curiosity get the best of me.
And I instantly regretted that decision when I entered the room…
I’ve seen gore before, even killed another pony. But this…
This was a fucking bloodbath.
There were five corpses, two bloodsuckers and three Stalkers. One of the Stalkers, an earth pony, was at the corner, his body covered in several tourniquets and clothing dried with blood, this was the one which was dragged inside, his wounds suggested massive hemorrhagic trauma and his leather coat was thoroughly pierced. The poor pony had been a bloodsucker punching bag…
The other two Stalkers had less severe, but equally deadly wounds. One, another earth pony, had numerous small wounds into his face and a look of pure terror. One of the bloodsuckers, its hide punctured by numerous bullets and a hooffull of buckshot, laid on his lap. One of the tentacles of the beast was still glued to the Stalker’s face. I could only wonder what was the last thing the unfortunate victim saw… While the third Stalker, a unicorn, had two cracked hooves, and his cause of death was being shelled in the head at point-blank by a sawn-off shotgun, more precisely, the same sawn off he was holding with one of his undamaged hooves, while his PDA was glowing softly nearby his body. Tidbits of his head, brain and horn were scattered around the room, mixed with the rest of the gore. Judging by the state of things, they had been dead for two or three days.
The second bloodsucker… well, I was stepping on it. He had his neck gutted by SMG fire.
“Urgh… this is… I have no words, it is so revolting.”
Not looking “not-so-bad” now, don’t they? Damn, I was nearly throwing up my lunch…
The room was furnished with bunk-beds, footlockers and a wardrobe. An area for “permanent workers” to rest, I believe… now all of these were spattered in two or three layers of blood…
Hopefully, the Stalker’s PDA would shed some light into the situation…
I took it from the Loner’s dead hooves; there were only two entries of interest, the unicorn’s two last entries:
“I can’t… it is just so much… I’m going to write it down, so I can put some of it out of my mind…
It was all that bitch’s fault! Damned be Blueberry! I knew that mare wasn’t the brightest light bulb on the drawer! “I bet these Freedom boys aren’t guarding a ruined factory so heavily for nothing.” She said. “If you ask me, they must be keeping some really nice loot down there, and spread all these stories about bloodsuckers so that they can hoard all the swag for themselves!” Well, look at the result!
If I only didn’t let myself be fooled by her promises of first rate loot… but it is too late now…
After we snuck inside during a change of guards, everything seemed to go smooth. When we reached the 2nd level below the surface, we found that “golden egg” artifact, floating over a stalagmite with a weird halo across it. But that didn’t stopped us from grabbing it. That’s where everything went to shit. After somepony pocketed it and we started backtracking our way to the surface, these monsters attacked us! Several hooves went down on Morning Dew’s coat like it was tissue paper! Poor Morning Dew… there is nothing we can do for him now, but delay his death. He is now bleeding through holes I didn’t even knew he had… I tried to suffice his wounds with some fabric ripped straight from my own coat, but it is no use.
If I still had my backpack! It was stocked with medkits and bandages. I must have dropped it during the gunfight… it is no use now. There is no way I’m going down there again. We already danced with death by pulling Morning Dewl out of there, while Blueberry… she trotted away! She and Tripwire too! Coward bastards!
Now Morning Dew is moaning in the corner, while Scattershot and I are guarding the doorway… I can hear those monsters out there, they smell our fear, there is no hope, no way out. I should have never left the cordon. I hope one of those bastards get Blueberry… the bitch deserves to rot in pony hell…”
The last entry was even more insightful…
“Too much for expecting rescue… we were doomed from the start. There is only me left now. Two of those beasts found our hiding place… Scattershot and I were able to put down one of them before it reached us, but the other one…
Oh the horror! The horror. The horror, the horror, the horror…The bloodsucker broke through the gunfire, cracked my hooves, and then… he caught Scattershot! Faust have mercy on his soul! I saw the desperation onto his eyes when that, that… abomination gave him his “kiss of death”, it was eating him… ALIVE. I shot the monster down, but I couldn’t bring myself to act quickly enough. He is out cold now. Morning Dew has finally expired too…
If weren’t for my wounded hooves, I’d make a go for the surface, but with them, every step is a world of pain.
It is just a matter of time before another one of these beings eventually find me. I can’t take it anymore, I won’t let them make me suffer, I won’t let them take me, I won’t.”
A tragic end to their tale, but that was the price of foolishness on the Zone…
I pocketed the PDA, it could be useful for the Freedomers to know the details about that incident. Then, my gaze went to the corpses… normally, I wouldn’t consider looting any dead pony (bandits and other kind of homicidal scum weren’t accounted as such) but seeing how much trouble one bloodsucker had given me, and the probability that there were more below, I’d rather be prepared than wind up as dead meat…
“What are you doing? Don’t you think they suffered enough already?”
I stopped my rummaging and answered her
“Do you wish to keep them company? I do not like it either, but we should suit ourselves rather than ending up the same as them.”
Shit… that earth pony covered in tourniquets had an iron grip over his belongings… I had to knife out his hooves to get them. A sack containing a wad of bits.
The other two Stalkers had more bits, I collected around a thousand bits, the sawn-off shotguns and five shells, two marekarovs and 40 9x18 rounds and a viper-5 SMG with 75 FMJ rounds. No meds.
I tossed everything but the SMG onto my saddlebags.
“You should exchange your weapon for this one. That pile of junk has already lasted as much as it could… throw it away.”
“But… you gave me it…”
“Because I lacked anything else. Any weapon is better than none”
“Alright, but I want to keep it anyway.”
I sighed. “It is just going to hinder you.”
But she was too reluctant. I agreed then, just to get over with it. since the SMG was already fitted with a motion sensor, I just unstrapped her “weapon” and put the SMG on its place, then gave her all the FMJ ammunition.
“We should move out” She said. “This place is starting to smell really bad”
I couldn’t agree more.
And then, we went back to the net of emptied corridors and rooms. After a set of them, we came upon a bathroom. The stalls’ walls had been torn apart, and a huge gust of dust was spiraling into the point where it was broken. A Vortex. It did the same thing as a Whirlgig, but it was much bigger and more powerful than one.
I tossed a bolt right on the middle of the anomaly. It was caught on the rotary wind and spiraled down to the center at an incredible speed, being bent when it reached it. Thought this whole process, all the outline of the anomaly was visible. Of course, I could just see its dimensions by checking which part of the stalls stopped being damaged, but I liked seeing it light up.
And something else too… under one toilet bowl under the anomaly, a weird-shaped and sickly yellow-colored object… it was shaped like a hook at one end and at the other, some kind of blossoming flower… it resembled some kind of cocoon. Another artifact , one I’ve never seen before.
Well, I could just go there and pick it up, but by doing that, I’d end up in tiny little pieces thanks to the anomaly. I couldn’t use my magic either, since, when I’ve done with the burner, it fizzled. I needed to push the artifact outside of the field of its parent anomaly if I wanted to properly handle it with telekinesis.
I gave it some thought… and I decided on pushing the artifact by gunning it until it left the anomaly.
RATTLERATTLE…
Seemed to work… the artifact was pushed away from the middle of the field, and showed no signs of damage.
RATTLERATTLERATTLE…
And with that final “attack”, the artifact bobbed outside of the Vortex’s field. I quickly grabbed it.
“See? That’s how it is d…”
But then, the mare wasn’t there… she must have wandered off for some reason. What the hell! A place like this and she was trotting away from me.
I had to find her, quick. My hooves drove me outside of the bathroom, and I spotted a figure at the end of one of the three corridors that intersected at the point. It could only be her…
“Lielle, dammit… do not stray away from…”
In my shock, I dropped the artifact. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw…
HORSESHITE! One of those Bloodsuckers was feeding on her! The fucking monster crept behind her and now its tentacles were wrapped around the top of her head! The mare’s normally lively eyes were now blank, devoid of any emotion.
I forced my AK’s butt onto that beast’s head with all the strength I could muster, I wouldn’t risk shooting at it while it was still attached to my friend.
Whammo!
The beast was thrown away from the mare, which promptly fell to the ground. While the monster was probably confused from the attack; I still heard its nefarious breath on the darkness…
huarfw, huarfw, huarfw, huarfw…
I wasn’t going to take any chances, shit just got real.
RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE…
And I’ve heard nothing more of it… I fired blindly upon the darkness, not caring if I hit it or not… in my desperation, I wasted one entire clip. Perhaps it had run away… it didn’t mattered.
Only her health mattered now.
I took her hoof… she still had vitals, but was unconscious. I examinated her wounds. Numerous wounds on the head, but no bleeding…
“Pretty neat, right? My record is 63 times before fainting from blood loss.”
Of course… her artifact. Surprisingly, the mare’s own antics had probably saved her… For having screwed around with her Mica, her body grew resilient to blood loss, developing an unconscious state as a way to deplete less energy and conserve it.
But that wasn’t going to save her in the case of an infected wound…
I threw my AK back into the saddlebag and used my TK to push Lielle to the bathroom, picking up my artifact on the way. it was the nearest room and only had one entrance. Those bloodsuckers wouldn’t be able to surprise us in there…
And with great effort, I did so. Once there, I spent one medkit and numerous bandages tending to her wounds. It would do for now…
And what to do now? I still had a mission… this was my entire fault. If I didn’t convince her to come, no harm would have come to her…
I could give up, try to rush back to the surface and probably live… but this meant…
Leaving her down here, to these beasts. I would never forgive myself if I abandoned one of my friends… it meant forfeiting all the things that separated equines from simple animals…
I glanced at her face. Her eyelids were now down, she seemed so peaceful…
I wasn’t going to quit… I was so close…
Even if I had to… drag her over with me.
I wouldn’t be able to help her if I was dead…
Shit, mind, in whose side are you in? shut the hell up. I’m going down there and that’s final.
I brought the marekarov from my saddlebag and gripped it with my tongue, while I used my TK to put the mare on my back.
Ugh… it was heavy. I needed to be careful at the most… if one of those Bloodsuckers caught me by surprise while I still had that burden, I’d be a sitting duck.
The PDA showed that the stair to the final level was close by… for some reason; the 2nd underground level was much smaller than the other two… wait, no, it wasn’t. The whole level wasn’t explored. It liked in some parts to the sewer system that ran below Hoofstok and such…
And so, I carried over. My hooves were killing me, but the stairs were just by that corner…
Oh shit, shit…
Another bloodsucker was guarding the stairs! The monster didn’t saw me. What to do, what to do…
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
Upon hearing the sound of cracking glass, the beast quickly grew alert, trotting down the stairs at great speed. Something came to mind…
… Dismember them and put the meaty tidbits into bottles, which we throw down the sewer into the bloodsucker lair…
Having being fed on a daily basis, the bloodsuckers were, interestingly enough, conditioned to associate the noise to the food…but it was still unclear why the hell Freedom wished to keep them in the first place!
But anyways, I thanked that stroke of luck and went downstairs too, hoping that the mutant moved to a considerable distance away from us.
Now, if I could only get over a few more rooms…
The 2nd underground level, the least explored one, apparently was a maintenance area for the factory’ machines, as well as power generators, plumbing, sewage disposal and such.
Dripping water and blowing wind were constants down there. At some point, the level wasn’t sealed off from the outside. I moved very slowly, stopping to hear noises and to check out if one of those things weren’t lurking by.
How much time has elapsed since we entered? I couldn’t say. It was probably nighttime now.
And then, after a corridor, I’ve saw the destination pointed by the marker. A room filled with rotors, scrap metal, gears and tubes around the wall, the control room for one of the machines at the top level.
And there it was. The stalagmite mentioned by the PDA was the target. I just needed to put the artifact over there…
GRAWULLWULLLWULLLGRAWUUU!!!
Of all the worst things…
I laid the mare at one corner with her stuff and started to look around for some melee weapon to hold off the mutant…
Huarfw, huarfw, huarfw, huarfw…
His breath was drawing closer and closer from the corridor… but I’ve finally found a hefty metal stock lying around.
Too bad I couldn’t lift it in enough time…
PAWTHOOK!!!.... CRASHHHH!!!
That beast’s charge broke whenever ribs I still had left! Fuck, fuck, fuck… and there was liquid spilling from my back, greasy, dark liquid.
I drew a few of it to my nose and smelled it. Oil. That stupid fuel that the faulty earth pony technologies needed so much, power-hungry and unreliable crap which was the need for the construction of a goddamn nuclear power plant in the first place…
Huarfw, huarfw…
I couldn’t see the invisible fiend… Celestia’s incendiary wingboner! I was defenseless as fuck.
Huarfw, huarfw, HuArFw!!
Ouch… that fucking bloodsucker was going to attempt another charge, one that would be the end of me! I was sweating cold, trying to put my magic on the heaviest object nearby to put it between me and him. And through that desperation, I’ve pulled out something to put between the rushing beast and me.
CRASHHH !!! Huarfwhuarfw…
A new load of oil spilled over me. I pulled out a barrel of it… and though the beast was covered into it too, it was far too worse for me. Now, I couldn’t see it REGARDLESS if it was invisible or not, due to my NVG confounding the dark room and the now equally dark creature.
I wasn’t a very clever pony…
Huarfw, huarfw, huarfw…
If I wasn’t so desperate to get a lead to the pathway to the NPP… dammit, dammit… that warning couldn’t be truer…“What the eyes fail to spot, the flesh shall soon feel…”
Wait a minute… this is why I had been failing, I was letting my lack of vision deceive me. Now it was on me.
I picked up more barrels of oil while I still could and crashed them onto the floor. Oil spilled by the entirety of it, covering every inch. It was just a matter of reaction now…
Splish, splish, splish…
There it was! I picked up the metal stock and floated it inwards the monster’s neck, slamming it against the wall.
Huarfw, huarfw…
Wavey forbade me of killing these things, but he didn’t say anything about beating the crap out of them. It was time for a hooffull of payback.
Whack
Huarfw, huarfw, huarfw…
“Why…”
Whack
“Don’t...”
Whack
“You go…”
Whack
“Goddamn unconscious?”
GRAWULLWULLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!
Although highly satisfying, holding a murderous monster and pounding it had its dangers… the pissed-off beast broke off from the stock and put a really sharp hoof through my face. I felt my NVG being cracked to pieces and my own flesh being ripped to shreds.
Blood dripped profusely from my face, the bastard cut through it horizontally; it was a miracle I still breathed…
Cough, cough… more blood. And the shithead was only bruised. To think that the barkeeper worried about ME killing one of them… now, there wasn’t even the comfort of seeing anything, my NVG was broken and, unless I developed a sonar sense in fifteen seconds, the beast was now DEFINATEDLY invisible. Harmed as I was, I couldn’t draw a gun, or turn on the flashlight quickly enough.
Huarfw, huarfw…
Ripshhhh!!!!
Its hoof tore apart my saddlebag, personal contents and loot flailed to the ground, forming a small pile. On the middle of it, the box that contained the artifact. It was glowing like crazy…
Hisss! Hissaw… Huarfwaw…
The fuck was that? The beast was backing up from it!
Amassing whenever forces that still hadn’t left me, I rose up and floated the artifact outside of the box. It kept glowing, and the beast receded even more at the sight of it…
Hiss, Hissawawaw… Hissaw…
And I’ve floated near to the bloodsucker, which raised his two front hooves and hold his head with them, twitching and flipping his eyes wildly.
Something on that artifact was really, really disturbing the bloodsucker.
And by exploiting that curious weakness, I drew him off from the room. Away from us.
I floated the golden-egg artifact. What was that thing? Why it distressed the monster so much? And why, in eleven hells, nopony told me about that before?
Mentally annotating those questions, I floated the artifact to the middle of the stalagmite, putting it on the middle of the stony halo that floated above it.
A gust of warm wind flew by as I did so.
Somehow… everything seemed back in place. It wasn’t a feeling I was used to, it was like a feeling of belonging and freshly-attained equilibrium.
Some drops of blood flew off from my numerous wounds. I’d better patch up.
And speaking of it…
I turned on my flashlight and flashed it around the room, searching, searching… until…
An old pack, the one which was mentioned on the PDA. And its owner spoke the truth; he was probably tasked of carrying the team’s entire stock of meds. Eight medkits and fifteen bandages! It was reasonably intact (surprise, surprise… mutants didn’t cared about meds.), so I swapped it for my own ripped saddlebag
I’ve spent three of them and seven or eight bandages on my own wounds. Even with those, I still needed medical care, that swipe was definitely nasty. Hopefully, the medkits’ painkillers would help me drag myself and my friend out of that hole in one piece.
After gathering all of my belongings and the still unconscious mare on my back, I started the long trek back to the topside…
Weird… the place seemed so… empty, moreover. I didn’t hear any of those abominations roaming around anymore.
And then, we came upon the fruit punch along the stairs… I had to float the bags and Lielle separately, straining me telekinetically… good thing I’ve floated the mare first, because my magic grip broke mid-flight when floating the saddlebags… I needed a good night of rest. Lastly, I trotted aside the fruit punch, picking up the loot and the redhead.
This wasn’t good for my spine…
I further went on; coming by the same sets of rooms, and didn’t found any of those beasts anymore, no sign of them…
And so… the moving burner was at sight. The exit was near.
And so my breaking point. I stopped a bit to rest. I would need to make two trips round’ the anomaly… one with the gear, another with the mare.
I’d better start with the heavier… the mare, that is.
And I dropped the saddlebags, and waited until the burner was at the doorway. When it moved, I did so too. My hooves feeling like molten lava, my eyes watering from the heat… but then, after a bit of trotting, it was over.
I laid her down along the wall, and backed again into the steaming pot. I’ve grabbed the saddlebags at the other side and repeated the operation, until I reached the exit doorway.
I finally picked up my companion and slouched toward the exit… I could feel the fresh air, at last…
“The hell… somepony is coming out of there!”
And fatigue overtake me, I dropped to the ground.
“Get them to the doctor, quick!”
============================== [><]=============================
Rumbling steps… and that old, distinct feeling. Pain. At least the aquamarine earth pony doctor was treating my injuries.
“You probably think that I am a butcher, don’t you, Cork ?”
And his visitor, the pegasus with the freedom SEVA armor, that squad leader that was guarding the lair’s entrance, answered him.
“Not at all Doc... butchers kill before they split open”
“Haha, very funny. If weren’t for me, this one would be worm food now. It surprises me how long he was able to pull along with these kind of injuries…he was drowned in either vodka or painkillers to last this long.”
“Alright, I’m going back to guard duty, see ya later on, Patcher.”
“Try not to get yourself shot; I’d hate to waste a bed on a lazy bastard like you, Cork.”
And the pegasus left the room, disregarding the insult.
“Ah… you’re awake, and still alive. That’s great.”
I tried to move around, only to be hindered by my own numbness…
“Hold it, easy there champ…take it easy… just let me run a final check on ya…”
And he eyed through my entire body, I was naked…where did they take my armor?
“Good, that’s good…” he said as he was eyeing each injury. “Good… good… good…”
And I opened my dry, dry mouth to ask him: “What do you mean by “good”, doc? Those… things… nearly torn me in two.”
“I mean it is good that I’m not you. Now, you seem okay enough to go, although I’d keep you for one or two days…”
“I can’t wait that long”
“Nopony ever does… well, suit yourself. Just a small thing... about your face.”
“What about it?”
“Er… look for yourself, stalker.”
And he handed me a mirror.
There, incrusted around my nose and right cheek, exactly where the bloodsucker striked, a big and ugly… scar!
“Are you shittin’ me doc? I look like some convicted rapist! What the hell you did to my beautiful face?”
“Dammit stalker, I am a doctor, not a fancy-schmancy plastic surgeon! Besides, you are lucky to have been wearing an NVG; otherwise you wouldn’t still have a face after all. Second, it isn’t the end of the world… I’ve heard about some female gryphons that really dig battle scars…”
Yeah, I’ve heard about them too. Some of the preschool stories I could remember pictured gryphons as nastier than certain monsters… brutal, fierce, unforgiving and battle-minded creatures
“To the hell with them…I’d rather be caught dead screwing one of those Bloodsuckers than enduring a creature that can shred me to tears if I crossed it… although the bloodsucker would do that too… oh well, at least it wouldn’t piss over my dead body afterwards.”
“Can’t say that’s what I’ve had chosen, but anyways…”
And he reached the corned, where my saddlebag was. And he drew something from it…
The NVG. It was at a sorry state, definitely scrap metal.
“It is damaged beyond repair, Dom told me. He’s working at your armor now; he asked me if you were stomped by pack of boars.”
“Would be a bliss compared to what I’ve been through….” I said while lifting up from the bed, the numbness was slowly draining away.
“Where is my friend? An azure mare with red hair…”
“Oh yes… she regained conscious a few hours back, we’ve recommended her some rest. You know, if you didn’t administered treatment right away, she’d…”
“Yes, yes… just another day in the Zone…”
The pegasus just silently nodded.
“How much do I owe ya, doc?”
“The boss has paid your tab, stalker. You’ve must have done some really important job to have caught her eye…she told me to send you to speak to her as soon as you rose from slumber. I told her how much you’d want to catch some Z’s after recovering from such wounds, but she asked anyway…”
“Okay, I’ll pay her a visit.”
“And try not to get chewed to death on your way out! I just cleaned the doormat.”
I picked up my pack and headed outside the clinic.
Finally, fresh, sweet air… not the suffocating underground tunnels.
So, the commander lady requested my presence… well, she’d have to wait. I needed, more than ever, to wet my whistle. With vodka.
As I’ve entered the peculiar bar, the equally peculiar bartender cracked:
“Sunshine? You actually made it alive? What the hell I am smoking?”
And then, he derisively looked to the blue join in his right hoof.
“Ah yeah… heheheh.”
And I took a seat in front of him.
“Ah, you’re actually there. Dude, that’s some really bad shit you got there in your face…”
“Thanks for noticing. Now, about the job…”
“The MotherZone just called me, she told me you acted… adequately. Here’s your reward, Carmelia said you deserve every bit”
And he handed me a big wad of bits…I’ve never saw that much cash before.
“How much is in here?” I asked while counting the money
“Ten thousand bits.” The pegasus answered distractedly.
Wow… working for Freedom really paid adequately, unlike my two last contractors…
Although, only half of that amount was mine, the rest was Lielle’s. after all, she helped out.
“So, what’ bout celebrating, dude? Gimme a high-hoof!”
And he raised his hoof, expecting me to tap that…
What the hell…I was grateful to be back upside, that was enough motive to cheer.
So I did his wish, and high-hoofed that.
“Now, Wavey, any idea where I can find the commander? Or my friend, for that matter…”
“Just follow the directions dude… da commander can be found by following the “boss” arrows, and your friend, if she is sleeping, probably can be found at the communal rest area, the “rest” arrow.”
“Ah… I forgot. Anyway, there is another thing I’d like…”
“And what would that be, bro?”
“I need four… no, five bottles of your best vodka.”
============================== [><]=============================
“Heya buddy! Welcome to the best…”
And Tinder looked in my direction with his comically expansive manners and big smile, which instantly broke once he gazed upon me.
“Ah, it is you… I hope you are planning to actually BUY something this time…”
“Surprisingly enough, I am.”
And in milliseconds he grew that overly big smile and outgoing mannerisms again…
“Just name it, buddy! I’ve got everything, and I mean, everything!”
“I’m looking for a scarf. Preferably a big one. And 5.45 rifle ammo too.”
“Hmm, ammo is easy enough” he said while spilling some of said ammo onto the counter. “And about your scarf… it is here somewhere…”
And he drew a few boxes aside, until he found what he was looking for.
“Pick your favorite, pal.” And he showed me. A box full of fabrics of several colors. Green, yellow, white, pink, orange… the only color that it lacked was red.
And I’ve picked up a blue scarf, and tried it out, covering the lower part of my face… good enough to hide that horrific scar…
“I’ll take this one.”
“That will be… two hundred bits. Plus the ammo, seven hundred
Two hundred bits for a piece of fabric? That trader was definitely getting back on me for that misunderstanding…
“Two hundred bits… for a scarf? Are you serious?”
“As a case of Ebola. Feel the texture, the size, the vibrant color! This scarf is one of a kind, buddy! Trust me; I am nearly giving it away.”
“I find it hard to trust someone whose opinion is evidently biased on the matter…”
“C’mon, if you can’t trust a Freedom trader, you can’t trust anypony at all…”
I drew a sigh. He wasn’t going to let it go. And the closest known trader aside from him was at the Cordon. To which I wasn’t going to return any sooner…”
“Okay, have your cash.”
And I’ve thrown seven hundred bits onto the counter, while pocketing a large amount of 5.45 ammo and tossing the scarf around my neck.
“Nice doing business with you… anything else, pal?”
“How much can you give me for these?” I showed to him the two marekarovs and the sawn-off shotgun I had taken from the dead stalkers.
“Way to offload your crap on me. For these ones, I can give you… one hundred bits, tops. These aren’t exactly quality equipment, I shouldn’t even be considering buying them, I’ll know better next time.”
And he separated exactly one hundred bits and gave it in exchange for the weapons.
Pocketing the alms, I’ve left the shop.
“If you need quality merchandise for a fair price again, I’m your stallion all the way! And coming from me, that’s a damn good complement!”
============================== [><]=============================
And there I stood, in front of a locked door and two of those exoskeleton-wearing Freedomers, these ones with shotguns.
One of them already called inside and warned Carmelia about me. I wonder what to expect about this…
“Let him in.” The mare’s voice, this time very calm, called from inside.
And both guards stepped aside, opening the door.
And as I’ve entered the room, it slammed shut.
That room was radically different from anything else I’ve seen. Everything was to a trim, not like Tinder’s shop, an overly organized but functional shop; this room was definitely ornamental, everything about it denounced the mare’s rich and refined taste. Landscape paintings, decorated plates, elaborate furniture… everything had its defined place and was spotless to a trim. It was like a world apart from the Zone, I assumed she must have had gone through immense efforts (or loads of cash) to salvage these things and renovate them to their former glory.
“So, you are the Stalker I’ve heard so much about… you’ve caused quite a stir around these parts.”
The sand-colored mare shook her impeccable cyan mane; there was no sign of emotion in her black eyes. The unicorn mare was probably used to speak about business.
“Will you please take off that dreadful scarf? I won’t speak to somepony that resembles a filthy bandit.”
Seeing my hesitation to take it off, she added:
“There is nothing to be ashamed off, Stalker. I was the one who directed you to the clinic, I saw the result of Patcher’s intervention, so I know what to expect.”
And I let it off, showing the lower half of my face along with that scar.
“Now, now… aren’t you quite the hero? I’ve heard that you were the one who busted out a group of Loners from the bandits rule at the garbage…”
“How do you know that? It was only yesterday that I’ve did that. Also, I’m no hero. My friends were the ones who did that, my role in it was minor”
“Well, I am the leader of Freedom. It is my job to know about things before other ponies do. Now, to the matter at hoof, I see that you were successful on the job. Good, good. My faction desperately needs stallions like you, who get things done.”
“I do not mean to be rude or anything, but how do you know if I even did the job? For all you know, I could just have gone onto that lair and refused to carry on.”
“Don’t be silly, Stalker. I know that you’ve carried it off exactly as I’ve told. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t survive. I know that I owe you more than a few answers about that particular job, so, ask ‘em”
Indeed, there was much that was left to be cleared.
“I’m not sure why you had me to have all the trouble to carry a useless artifact to the bottom of a lair that only contained a hooffull of bloodsuckers. Of course, they were more than a challenge for me and my friend, but one or two squads of Freedomers would have been more than able to wipe them out.”
“Oh, have you never considered that my intent was on keeping them alive?”
“Why? And don’t go on me with all that “cosmic-line” bullshit”
“Figures… that’s Wavey’s blabbermuzzling, isn’t it? That’s the problem with Freedom. Our philosophy tends to attract certain… simpleminded individuals. I’ve tried to explain to him why I wanted the mutants alive more than a dozen times, but he kept going on about that hogwash about “the MotherZone”… I guess that his mind decided that the simplest explanation was the truest. There was a seapony philosopher that wrote a principle about that… ah, I remember the name. Hippoccam’s razor. He isn’t exactly a bad pony; he just has that… special problem. I rue the day that somepony induced that debilitating thing to him, and he took the weed as a habit.”
“But about your question… the Zone isn’t much different from what Equestria was before, yes, the entire ecosystem has been replaced, but what most of the ponies do not get about it, is that it works the same as before.”
“Now, how I can explain this simple enough for you? Ok… imagine your regular bunch of douchebag, self-assuring army dropouts, that is, Duty. Take it that they had been having trouble with a bloodsucker lair nearby their base. So, they just go in and kill every last mutant. Afterwards, in their blindness, they celebrate, unaware that with the bloodsuckers out of the scene, there are less predators that hunt blind dogs. And so, after a week, ta-da, Duty is facing growing masses of blind dogs, raiding their base on a daily basis. So, guess what they do? Take up arms and slaughter them, leaving nothing but impaled canine limbs and rotting corpses under the sun in their wake. Which end up attracting packs of snorks to the area. Do you get the point? By their actions, they aren’t solving their issues, they are just remediating them. This is why we are against them. In their ignorance, they end up doing nothing but screwing the natural chain over and over. So far, the consequences of their actions have been limited, felt only by them. But I fear that someday they end up hitting jackpot and their meddling ends up affecting all the other factions, for the worst”
Insightful… I’ve never thought that way. It made sense. But yet…
“So, what do you do to keep the mutants at bay? They were deadly enough to slaughter… look at this.” And I drew the PDA I’ve found in the lair and gave it to her.
The mare read through it and a small smile crept around her face. “I suppose this explains some loose ends. I take it that you know about our “butchery”, don’t you?”
“I do. Angie mentioned about it.”
“Yes. She is one of the few around here that actually can think. Too bad she had such a bad taste choosing a coltfriend… The butchery exists to keep the bloodsuckers relatively happy and fed, so that, two issues are solved. One, they aren’t likely to get up here if they are getting meal for free down there. Second, in the case that an intervention is needed in their lair, the bloodsuckers would be least likely to retaliate, and if they did, they’d be rusty, due to the lack of use of their predating and hunting skills. Which is why this rag-tag group of Loners was able to kill two of them. If they were facing a regular bloodsucker, one of them would have the Loners butchered in instants. This is why you were not allowed to kill them; I intend to preserve that… “Lineage” of less dangerous bloodsuckers. This is what we do; we seek balance, equilibrium, harmony.”
“What about the artifact? And that stalagmite-thingy? What were them?”
“That artifact was an especially rare one; we only found one of such. It is called “Celestia’s tear” We only know that it creates some kind of “repulsion field” for bloodsuckers.”
“An artifact that affects only mutants? I never heard of that one before…”
“Quite a find, isn’t it? The problem with that artifact is that the repulsion field is extremely limited; it would only affect one bloodsucker. This is why the artifact’s proprieties wasn’t informed to you, if you were over-relying onto it and were attacked by two or more mutants, we’d have to send a mop squad to recover it. And that stalagmite, it is an altar. An anomalous formation that is known to react with other artifacts by amplifying their power. So, by putting the tear back onto it, you actually extended its power so that it affected the entire third underground floor and around, making every bloodsucker be repelled back into the sewers, where they shouldn’t have left in the first place.”
“Putting back the tear onto it…so, this means that you Freedomers have put it there before?”
“It does. When we first moved onto Hoofstok, the bloodsuckers were raving around the topside, stopping when we carried on that task. And it would be still good, if weren’t for that Loners. Fortunately, I was able to catch up with the sole survivor, the same that was carrying the artifact, after knowing about their intrusion. That mare quickly gave it back, submitting to our persuasion. Since, you know, five guns pointed at one’s body can be quite persuasive. The rest of the story is clear to you. Now that is cleared out, there is another subject…I know that you’ve asked my technician to decode some message on somepony’s else PDA. What I want to know is what interest do you take on it?”
Quick mind, come up with a lie, one that won’t give away my motives…
“A friend of mine was ponynapped and his PDA is the only thing I found when I went looking for him. I want to crack the message to check if he had any dangerous involvement with bandits or…”
“Charming… do you that I was born yesterday, Stalker? Nopony would go to such heights for a friend; I’ve lived enough on the Zone to be realistic about it. If you want to stay in good terms with Freedom, I suggest you to spill the beans already.”
The chances that the Freedom leader would be a mare so versed in social skills… well, there was only one medicine.
“I am tracking a unicorn, one that knows a way into the center of the Zone. For what reason I want to go there, I’ll keep it to myself.”
“Oh, that’s better. Now I know that we have a common interest. One that would convince you to carry off another assignment.”
“Does it involve hoof-brawling bloodsuckers? I had enough of it.”
“No, for all that I’m concerned; you are free to use violence in this one.”
“Then, what is it about?”
“We moved onto Hoofstok to secure a foothold onto the Zone’s center. Truth is that we are currently… stalled. We are massing troops so that we can muscle through the bandits and mercs’ turf, the outlying compounds that do not belong to Hoofstok, the so called, wild territory. We intend to move our faction entirely to get a more advantageous position in the Zone, that position is an equestrian army’ base a few kilometers to the north. According to one of my informants, the grunts there have been requesting withdrawal for some time, no surprises. They are in a harsh land, with little food and surrounded by Stalkers that resent them and wouldn’t hesitate to shoot them dead. They were only able to withstand the Stalker’s attacks due to an automated security system, one that we are interested in reclaiming to our own purposes. I’ve came to known that the security system can be disabled, provided that one has a certain override code. What I want you to do is obtain such code.”
“Just this? Are you going to leave me on the dark again? I don’t have a clue where I can find that thing…”
“I have. There is an abandoned facility over a ghost village, a short trot east from Hoofstok, one that some of my scouts have definitely divined it as a military development facility. I want you to check if they have an all-purpose or master override code for security systems, like the one that the grunts are making use to since, none of the Freedom squads was able to fully explore the complex and get out alive.”
“What is in for me? I already did a “trust” task, so Dom will decode my PDA anyway.”
“Indeed he will, but I ask you to think a little about it. If we can get more ground closer to the center, we would indebt it to you. And as such, you’d be allowed safe passage. Think about it, you can’t possibly expect to make it to the center without befriending a faction. Also, your efforts won’t go materially unrewarded. As you’ve seen, I insist on paying a fair price according to the service, and I offer to do it so again, if you take the job.”
“I’ll… mull over it. I had a lot through this day. If you excuse me, I’ll take my leave to get some sleep, that is, if you do not have anything else to speak about with me.”
“Yes… how inconsiderate of me to hold you for so long, but it was needed, wasn’t it? Oh well, you may leave. I await your answer tomorrow, Stalker.”
And using her magic to open the door, the mare regally held her hoof high, pointing to the exit, while her eyes were shut and her nose held high.
============================== [><]=============================
Truth be told, I couldn’t be more relieved when I finally found the room where the “innkeeper” (because it was a free resting “establishment”, actually, just a huge building split into several rooms that that Freedom has fitted with any mattresses, pillows, beds and anything soft they could find, which they offered as a resting place for everypony that wasn’t part of the Freedom faction – they had their own private quarters, presumably – well, good ol’ Freedom hospitality.) has assigned Lielle. And just as he said, there was the mare, laying down on an old bed without her suit, with a blanket down onto the ground, her saddlebags by the corner.
I picked up the blanket and was going to cover her again, when I noted something…
Her cutie mark. I never took note of it before, because the sunrise armor was covering it. Now, it lay bare, and it was beautiful…
A Ferris wheel, all lighted up and painted in vibrant colors… that was it. It meant that she liked the circus, or, it had a metaphorical sense? Like a memory to one’s times of happiness and smiles… much like the ones I strived to recall…along with the rest of my past.
I dropped the blanket over her body and went to a second bed, directly opposed to hers.
As much as I’ve tried, I couldn’t sleep… much thing has happened… and still, not much was clear. I had to wait until tomorrow noon to get the decoded message, and the wait was killing me…
I picked my own PDA, the same that Ameara has showed me… at that occasion, I didn’t read all the data about the project mergequine, and I didn’t had the opportunity to fill myself in more about it.
I pressed the PDA’s buttons, looking for entries about it and skipping the ones I’ve had read already. I came upon an interesting one:
“Result report U-89z:
Subject 413: Non-consistent biological changes
Subject 256: Non-consistent biological changes
Subject 901: Non-consistent biological changes
Subject 761: Negligible biological changes
Subject 313: Non-consistent biological changes
Subject 440: Biological change recorded: growth of a fifth limb. No change in muscular structure or flying appendices generated.
Subject 711: Non-consistent biological changes
Subject 971: Biological change recorded: Muscular mass increased by 50%, growth of magical keratin antler has not been recorded. Partial success.
Relaying all the data to backup facility #4”
So, they had a storage facility for all the data… that was my target. Once I reach the NPP, I shall look for it…
And on another matter, what does it means by… “Partial success”?
I skimmed around more entries, looking for answers…
“*corrupted*…and by doing so, along with wiping their memories and imbuing them with knowledge that is useful for their tasks, we’d have the perfect army. Since alicorns are sterile, we are right now, playing Faust and experimenting until we reach the desired results, a pony combining both flight, magic and muscle, and totally under the monarchy’s command, incapable of regret, fear and mercy, fitted with the most advanced ballistic weaponry we can design, such as the big…*corrupted*…on a tight schedule, since our facility is way behind the other ones that share this project, Kieram has gotten an interesting lead experimenting with the gryphons and I’ve heard that Seaknot solved out some important issues by dealing with the…*corrupted*”
By Nightmare Moon’s whiskers… if any of this was serious…
The project intended to create alicorns… alicorns… create perfection, god-beings, and totally under the control of the monarchy. They must have been facing a tight opposition to even consider such thing… and I was dragged into it.
According to the first entry I’ve read when Ameara woke me up, it was Celestia’s own doing… even if really was, I didn’t hated her. No point on hating ones that met their deaths long ago, but this still had some loose ends…
Even more, there was more than one facility dedicated to the project, It must have been really important to require such an effort… they had been experimenting with gryphons and probably other creatures as well.
But something has pulled the project out of track, probably the accident. Of course, they haven’t succeeded in it, at least in the facility I was found (since, evidently, I was no alicorn.) but still, they have been working on me. The memory purge, although none as strong as they intended to place, was present, also, a small array of knowledge, such as strategy thought, combat tactics and the use or firearms (ironical that they spent millions of bits to implant the knowledge on how to use what was a technological advancement back then, but that nowadays, was a skill that even a filly had, since, on the Zone, they’d teach them how to wield a gun even before they teach ’em how to trot.) Typical military-ish crapload…
And on the other hoof, what they took. My colthood, my family… things I could only remember bits and pieces about.
My magic, without adequate training and conditioning, that I never had the time to undertake, my magical talents never surfaced… I only had the bread n’ butter magic of the unicorn kin: telekinesis, which we all take for granted, really, and detect magic, an almost useless spell that allows me to divine if a certain item or location or pony is imbued with magic or not.
My cutie mark. Without a proper colthood, I could never discover my talent. And now, in its place, laid a gas mask. I had a mark, not a cutie mark. It was just a mark. I didn’t know what it represented or its purpose. And I couldn’t stop believing that the project had its hoof on this too…
My mind, screwed by their training… I could just remember shreds, and even that, I didn’t knew what caused me to learn such things, but I had that skill. Like, for example, you all know how to trot, but you certainly do not remember WHEN or HOW you learned it, the knowledge has just been all along on your head, since you’ve learned it as a little filly or a colt. With me, it was the same thing, but with nearly everything. I could remember, but only isolated memories, with little or no context…
And I laid down the PDA, taking out the AK out of my saddlebag instead.
It could use some repairs…
I floated it close, such a strange thing… A small trigger, a long body… almost like it wasn’t made for pony use…
At first thought, I remembered another preschool memory, about one of the colts on my classroom. He had a real craze for those fiction books, one about mutant furless monkeys. He’d went on about how they had lived before ponykind, invented guns, used to speak a language that resembled gibberish, wore clown shoes and longed for an almost homoaffective kind of bonding around a campfire after a long day of adventures…
Then, I ditched that that idea completely. It was thoroughly stupid…
After a new inspection, I moved the gun around with ease to check its mags… then it hit me.
The guns were intended to be unusable by ponykind, all of it, but the ones who inherently knew telekinesis.
But why? Probably an indirect control measure placed by the princess herself into the design. Well, it was ineffective. Earth pony ingenuity found its way through, with the frames and motion technology....
ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz…
That was when Lielle started to snore, and I felt insanely tired… a nap wouldn’t hurt.
============================== [><]=============================
Books, so many books… and they were heavy too, about the most varied subjects… fishing, crafts, cooking, metalworking, zoology, physics… and several other subjects…
Well, if one of these could help me find my special talent, it would be worth the effort.
The Canterlot royal library had tons of those, thousands and thousands of books neatly disposed, free to be browsed at leisure by any citizen. Like that little, mark-less grey colt, me.
And as I’ve dropped the entire pile of books onto a table near the window, I’ve heard a commotion outside.
Princess Celestia, prancing again with a number of fillies… a new batch of “favorites”… sheesh… it was always like this, unicorn fillies were always favored, by having all the undivided attention of the princess herself. Who always trained them as mares of exceptional magical skill, while colts… were left to their own devices to learn at what they were good…
“What do you mean; I cannot have an audience with the princess? do you have any idea who I am?”
And I turned around, to see the source of that yelling.
Two bulky royal guards had been “escorting” an old coot, a sea blue stallion with a long white beard and purple mage’s attire, decorated with… bells?
And the guards tossed him into the ground, where the old one scrambled, having lost his hat on the confusion.
And it flew near me.
Such a nice hat… so soft and well-made, decorated with celestial bodies…
I took it and approached the old stallion, who still tried to make his whereabouts.
“…have no respect for their elders… Oh, thank you my boy…”
And he took the hat and set it onto his head again, with a concise motion.
“It’s ok. You should be more careful than to cross the royal guard, old timer…”
And he widened his eyes.
“You don’t know me too? Faust’s hooves! What had they been teaching the young at the schools? Never heard of me? The amazing Starswirl, the Bearded? The creator of the amniomorphic spell, the most important conjurer of the pre-classical era? The compiler of the “Baffling and Brilliant Bestiary for all Bickering Beasts”? The cover and main poster of the Neighvember edition of “Playbeard”? Do any of these feats seem familiar?”
“I’m sorry, but… none of these ring a bell… heh”
“Typical… no respect for history. In the old times, I’d have you turned into a newt.”
“That probably wouldn’t make things much worse for me…”
And a sympathetic look grew in his eyes.
“What is wrong, boy? You are still young and healthy; don’t see how things could be bad for you.”
“My flank, that’s what’s wrong!”
“Let me give a look at it”
So, he gazed a bit into it
“Hmm… nothing wrong with it, looks healthy enough and perfect… just a bit chubby, but it isn’t really an issue…”
“It is blank! That’s what is wrong with it. I have no talent whatsoever… Sigh… everything would be so much easier if I were a mare…”
“Why would you say such thing, boy? We stallions have our own importance too.”
“Oh yeah? Name one stallion that had a pivotal role in equestrian history.”
And as he opened his muzzle, I instantly added:
“Excluding yourself”
“Erm… there is…there was…no, he wasn’t… well, that is not the point. The point is that even if they didn’t made it to the books, they were just as hardworking as any mare. It is just that…mares outshined most of the important stallions, but that does not give an excuse for the younger generation to stop trying. If anything, it should make them strive harder.”
“Perhaps… although I have no idea in what I am good at.”
“Tell you what boy… I am not growing any younger, and I could really use an assistant, The last time I had one was over two thousand years back…if you are interested, I can teach you the ways of unicorn magic, so that you’d have some talent.”
“Wow… you really would teach me that? Why?”
“Well… you kind of remember myself when I was younger; of course, you don’t have the dazzling looks, or the sharp intellect, or quick wit that I had, but anyways…”
“If you are interested, come by my house at the blue district, number 38, this afternoon.”
“Thanks, old timer. I’ll be there.”
“I know that you will…So, if you excuse me, I’ll take my leave.”
And he stretched his hooves, causing a fireball to appear and burn down a shelf of books in instants, leaving only a big burnt match in its place.
The librarian stared daggers at the old mage.
“Sorry about that…I can’t control it sometimes.”
And he dignifiedly trotted outside, smiling excuses along the way.
Finally… a chance to know my destiny. I was happier than ever, a powerful mage considered taking me under his wing. I felt like I could float…
I packed all of the books I previously selected and checked them out, dropping them onto my school saddlebag and trotting back home. I was so happy…
That was the last time I saw that old mage, also, I never made it to home…
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PDA entry:
The zone encyclopedia
#/filefolder- bestiary
#/filenam – Bloodsucker
#/filedescript – Regarded as merely a legend in times before, now Stalkers everywhere recognize bloosuckers as very real and dangerous threats. The beast’s appearance, although resembling a regular pony (earth pony, pegasus or unicorn, there had been sightings of bloodsuckers of every kind) has tentacles where the muzzle should be and scales where the fur should be. The creature makes use of its hooves to maim the prey and it’s tentacles to paralyze unwary ones and suck them dry of blood. One of the most distinctive abilities of a bloodsucker is the production of a corrosive toxin that, when covering all the skin of the creature, renders the bloodsucker completely invisible. It is known that most of these creatures can be found either in underground lair or traversing marshes, if one is foolish enough to hunt them. Most Stalkers, even experienced ones, go through high efforts to avoid confronting a bloodsucker, because if they do, it usually means their death. If a confrontation is absolutely necessary, a fast-firing weapon (either an assault rifle or a machine gun) or a shotgun should be preferred, since spraying shots is the best chance that one Stalker has to hit them.
My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic Intellectual propriety belongs to Hasbro
All S.T.A.L.K.E.R. installments Intellectual propriety belongs to GSC game world
I do not own, neither lay claim to the intellectual properties that this fan-fiction is based on. This work was made entirely for entertainment and appreciation, and should not be distributed for profit
This is a My little pony : FiM fan fiction Made by Hoghound.