//------------------------------// // Chapter Two // Story: Fallout Equestria: Underdogs // by Thantos //------------------------------//         The scene before me was bloody and disturbing. Sprawled and spread across the ground laid the corpses of a few ponies, decorating the wreckage of a large cart. Sprawled at the front of the ruined vehicle, were two odd-looking creatures of the sort I'd never seen before. I call these creatures odd because both of them had two heads. Sharing the violence that the ponies had received, these creatures had a hole in each skull. This scene was not very recent; dried blood coated the ground, one of the ponies had their skull mostly cleaned away by the few scavengers that feasted upon the carrion.                  I had been wandering for about an hour before I discovered the gory scene. I began to search the cart for any evidence of what had happened, or why these unfortunate ponies met an untimely end. The cart had been picked through before, possibly by whoever had killed these ponies.         I noticed a large amount of dark colored, shattered glass near the cart, along with a few drops of blood. The blood didn’t appear to come from any of the victims. I cautiously sniffed the glass. My senses were assaulted by a strong, stinging odor. I backed away quickly from the glass, nose burning from the scent.         It was a scent I knew fairly well. Whisky. Blaze seemed to love the stuff almost as much as he loved guns, and that is a comparison that is not lightly made due to his general enthusiasm to weaponry in general. He would often drink the burning elixir and then start acting weirdly. I never consumed the stuff. Mostly because it offended my senses just by being near it, but partially due to the fact that the few times Blaze ever offered any of it to me, Gauze would quickly take it away from him and scold him, calling him an idiot and discussing how dangerous that would be.         The aroma overpowered the other smells around it. I shook my head to try to clear it of the burning sensation, but the smell remained strong in my nose. I took another few sniffs away from the broken bottle in an attempt to cleanse the scent, but I caught another whiff of the whiskey, with a faint hint of blood under it. The blood and whiskey mixed to create a copper trail that led away from the carnage. Survivors from the attack in need of assistance, maybe?         I flipped down the hood of my cloak and set off, following the trail my senses set before me. I wasn’t entirely sure why I was doing this; call it curiosity or a desire to help someone in need, but I honestly didn’t know where to go and following this trail was as good as anything. After about an hour of tracking the scent, I began to grow bored. I had almost ceased my pursuit until I had crested a hill. At the bottom of the hill stood a small makeshift camp centered around a large, old building.         The camp had a small amount of ponies within it. Raiders. I recognized their appearance; blood stained, with armor made from junk and scrap. Some raiders only killed to survive. Others? The wasteland had broken them. Shells, once full of life, now only inhabited by a desire to live and a need to kill.         I noticed a single pony within the camp that didn’t appear to be a raider. She was an electric blue unicorn with a silvery mane, a single acidic green streak running through her short, scruffy mane. She wore a white coat that partially concealed her face. She also wore a pair of goggles over her eyes. Even from this distance I could tell she was in danger.                  A few of the raiders began to circle her like predators ready to attack their prey. I quickly but silently crept closer. I was now within earshot of the ponies.         “-- get first turn with the bitch,” said one of the raiders that circled the mare, a unicorn stallion with a gash over his eye. The blue mare turned her head to follow the raider’s movement, but didn’t move any further.         “Fuck off, Guts,” shouted the other raider, an earth buck with an ear torn off at the base of his head. “You got the last one that wandered in here. I’m tired of only getting the sloppy seconds!”         The mare in between the two raiders interrupted their highly intellectual debate. “Gentlecolts, surely we can solve whatever it is that you are arguing about in a civilized and peaceful manner,” she said in a calm tone, blissfully ignorant of the immediate danger around her.         The two raiders stopped their circling , giving the mare between them a confused glance. They looked back at each other for a moment. “I say we cut her fucking tongue out,” said the unicorn. The earth pony gave a nod. The unicorn raider’s horn started glowing, as did the sheath on his leg. The knife floated out and levitated next to him.         “You don’t need to cut out my tongue,” said the mare, now beginning to realize the danger she was in. “If you did so, my communication skills would be greatly diminished. Plus it would a lot hurt!”         The earth pony raider tackled the mare and pinned her to the ground. The unicorn raider trotted up to her, the knife in the air next to him. “Open wide, bitch,” he said as he used a grimy hoof to pry open her mouth. The other raiders in the camp laughed as the knife was about to be forced into her mouth.         I stood at the top of the hill, letting loose a feral roar. The raiders ceased their assault of the odd looking mare and looked upwards in my direction. The unicorn raider panicked, dropping the knife and having it stick into the dirt inches away from the muzzle of the mare on the ground.         I charged down the hill, the hood of my cloak flopped backwards, revealing my face. One of the bolder raiders returned my charge with one of her own, a shotgun attached to a saddle on her side. What she possessed in boldness, she lacked in intelligence.         She fired a single burst at me. Single, as that was all she could manage before one of my claws sunk into her neck, hooking on the base of the skull. I gave an upward yank and severed the connection between her head and her torso, leaving the neck scattered in the surrounding area.         Without losing any forward momentum, I continued my charge, deadset on the raider with the gash over his eye. As I neared him, I caught the end of the copper trail. Bits of glass had embedded themselves into his face, causing one of his eyes to become a bloody red. The wounds had started to heal, and the glass had been mostly removed. But the pungent odor of whiskey remained, surrounding him in a copper haze.         He tried to back away, a look of pure terror in his good eye. He picked the knife back up and waved it in my direction, but I only increased my speed. I leapt at him and connected with the raider, my claws sunk deep into his shoulders. He opened his mouth to scream, but I withdrew one of my claws from his shoulder and plunged it into his gaping mouth. His death screams were forever silenced when the tips of my claws emerged from the back of his neck, bits of the raider’s tongue stuck to them.         I turned to look at the earth pony raider and the mare, only to discover that the other raiders had fled the scene, leaving only the faint scent of urine. Only the mare remained, lying on the ground. She shakily rose to her hooves, dusting one of the sleeves of her coat off as she did so. “Well that was rude,” she grumbled, looking in the direction the raiders had ran off. She slowly turned to look at me. A gasp escaped her mouth when she saw me.         “Please don’t be frightened,” I said in as calm a tone as I could manage. I quickly noticed the fresh gore on my claws and scraped it off, hoping to not scare her anymore than I already had.         “Y-You’re...” she stammered. I prepared myself. A monster. A murderer. An abomination. “Incredible!” She cheered. What?         The small mare trotted closer to me, examining me with enthusiastic curiosity. “Simply amazing! The types of creatures that could be produced by the outside world. You don’t appear to be an equine of any sort, looking to be more closely derived from canines. Perhaps a highly evolved version of the domesticated dog? Oh, that reminds me how much you look like my old pet dog. Oh how I used to play with him until I-well, that isn’t important.” I sat down on my back legs as the mare continued to make observations. “And would you look at the keratinous structures growing from the phalanges on your forearms! They could tear somepony’s head off! Wait, they already did.” She paused a moment to look back at the raider I had killed. “Well, seeing as I am still talking, you likely don’t intend to attack me.” I noticed that despite her words, she took a cautionary few steps back.         “Uhm, miss?” I interrupted.         “Wow, you can talk! Wait, you spoke before. Simply astounding! A sentient organism! And they said I was a fool for going out here. Just imagine the amazing scientific discoveries that could result from such a marvelous place. Oh, how rude of me, going on without introducing myself.” She stopped for a moment and took a deep breath, only to resume her babble. “Hello creature of the wasteland!” she said slowly but loudly, as if she were talking to a foal. “My name is Catalyst, do you have a name?”         “I am called Underdog,” I responded. “And you do not need to speak to me like that,” I added, slightly annoyed.         “Oh, sorry,” she apologized, a cautious grin slowly formed. “And what exactly are you?” she asked, the grin grew even wider on her face.         I tilted my head at her question, confused by her lack of knowledge of my kind. “I am a hellhound. How is it that you do not know what I am?” I thought that hounds were well known across the wasteland, or at least widely feared.         “Ah, allow me to apologize for any confusion you might have. I come from a place called a Stable. Subterranean shelters designed in order to allow ponies to survive the oncoming apocalyptic destruction brought about by megaspell warfare. Though I guess I need to rethink my original hypothesis that all life outside of Stables ended when the megaspells hit. Those ponies that I was having a conversation with earlier did not appear to come from any Stable. That reminds me, why did you attack those ponies?” she concluded.         “They were raiders,” I responded, assuming it would be enough of an explanation, but her confused expression begged for me to clarify. “They are bad ponies who were going to attack you. Didn’t you hear them say they were going to cut out your tongue?”         “Yes, that did strike me as a bit aggressive,” she admitted. “But they were the first ponies I had met since I left my Stable, and I didn’t think they would be so...uncivilized. Actually, their actions were outright barbaric.” This poor fool was going to die a horrible death out here.         She turned her head to look at the pony that had almost amputated her tongue against her will. She watched as the blood slowly stirred in pools as it oozed from the corpse. The upper half of the head tentatively held to the rest only by a flap of skin. She shuddered as the harsh reality of everything hit her. It could have been her lying on the dirt, blood pouring from her mouth.         She looked back at me, that slight grin replaced with a fearful grimace. “Those ponies wanted to kill me. Or even worse!” she exclaimed. “Oh, this was a terrible idea. I never should have left the Stable.” She began to pace as she continued to think out loud. “Maybe I should just go back. No, they would never take me back after what happened to those six...and the Overmare’s son too... Oh, I’m stuck out here!” The pony continued panicking for a while longer before she turned to look at me. I could tell that her eyes, despite being concealed by the dark lenses of her goggles, were on the verge of tears. A dim reflection of myself flashed on the black lens.         Lost in the wasteland, rejected by her home. But we were different, she had yet to find someone to help her. Something twinged inside of me as I looked at the helpless mare. I pitied her, I wanted to help her somehow.         “I can take you to a town, someplace safe,” I responded to her pleading expression. Her eyes lit up, at least I imagined them to. It was impossible to tell with their impenetrable shields. She gave an attempt at a smile in return.         “Th-thank you,” she stuttered, giving a nod of appreciation.         I stood back up on all fours and started towards the raider camp, the mare followed close behind. I had a small pack full of potions and food, but the ma-Catalyst only had her lab coat. She claimed she had a saddlebag, but had lost it due to an encounter with a ‘flying ball of tumorous growths that expelled spinelike projectiles’. I didn’t learn the specifics, as she evaded further questioning. But we needed to gather any supplies we could, and the raiders had likely stockpiled some before they fled for their lives, and they surely wouldn’t miss any of them.         As we neared the (hopefully) abandoned raider camp, I put up my paw in front of Catalyst. She stopped and looked at me, confusion apparent in her expression. “There might be a few of them left inside,” I whispered as I flipped my hood up. I reasoned that it would be better to have the element of surprise if they were raiders, or to not frighten anyone else inside. I crept closer towards the doorway, Catalyst stayed back a few feet as I approached. I placed my ear near the door, listening for any movement inside. My ear twitched as I picked up a faint muffled voice, though I couldn’t understand it. My ears twitched and turned in an attempt to pinpoint the source of the sound, and also its meaning. The building was a partially destroyed store if the exterior was any indication. The outer facade of the structure had been the victim of hundreds of years of wear, with recent additions of bullet holes and blood splatters, the oldest of which couldn’t be more than a few weeks old.         I cautiously pushed open the door as silently as I could. My attempt at sneaking did nothing to muffle the very audible ‘squeak’ that resounded from the door. The pungent odor of decaying flesh assaulted my senses. My nose burned with the scent, my eyes began to water. I could even taste the decay in the air. The initial room of the building was decorated with the corpses of various ponies, as if some sort of sadistic decor. Hanging from the ceiling from a chain was a partially decomposed unicorn, or at least what was left of it. The lower half had fallen off from the decay, while the remaining part was suspended from a large hook stabbed through the eye and out the side of the skull. I briefly wondered if they were alive before this mutilation had taken place.         My ears twitched as they picked up a whirring noise. Quiet at first, but becoming more intense by the second. I twisted my head away from the carnage just in time to witness a large birdlike creature menace me with a large minigun. The visage of the creature, decorated with scars and cuts, twisted into a grimace as it stared at me. I didn’t know that beaks could frown like that.         “So you’re the reason for all that screaming going on,” it growled. I remembered that the creature was called a griffin. The few I had met before were often guards that followed the caravans. “First you come into my camp and scare off my crew, and now you sneak in here to try to steal my stuff?” One of the creatures claws came to rest on a handle attached to the large weapon. The whirring of the gun continued as the barrels kept spinning. “Not cool.”         “Your crew attacks innocent ponies for their own amusement. That is not ‘cool’ either,” I retorted.         "Oh, another hero," he sneered. "Why don't you go back to whatever hole you crawled out of before I paint the walls with your guts?"         “I wish I could,” I replied solemnly. “Perhaps just digging a hole for your corpse will suffice.”  “That’s it, get ready to die, asshole!” he suddenly screeched as the gun roared to life, spewing forth lead.         I managed to duck into one of the side rooms before the majority of the bullets connected. Some of the bullets had managed to pierce through my thick hide, but the overall injury was minor. The room I was in appeared to be another section of the store, littered with debris and fallen shelves. A few shelves remained upright, but had been picked clean of anything of value. One of the walls behind me exploded in a shower of splinters as the gun roared to life again, shredding the barrier between the raider and myself.         “Quit running you coward,” he shouted as he stepped through the rubble. “What are you, sca-” his remark was cut short as he stared at me for a moment. I realized that my hood had fallen in my brief display of acrobatics. “You’re one of those fucking devil mutts!” He gripped the handle of the minigun again and the hail of bullets resumed. I sprinted behind one of the shelves as the spot where I was moments ago became bathed in lead.         My options were limited. My only means of attack would mean getting very close to him, something that the weapon he wielded did not allow. So for the moment, I was only able to run. I took solace in the fact that the shelves appeared to hold up better against the sustained fire than the walls did.         “I thought you hounds were supposed to be tough shit!” he shouted, barely audible over the roar of the weapon. The firing sound became closer as the shelf I was behind continued to be chipped away by the hail of bullets.         A spark ignited an idea inside my mind. I placed my paws on both sides of the shelf and pushed it forward, sliding the barrier along the ground at the griffin. The firing ceased as he attempted to flee, but the shelf collided with him and tipped over with a heavy thud, trapping him underneath. The raider griffin fell silent with the crash of the shelf, and remained deathly still.         I breathed a sigh of relief at the defeated foe. I took a moment to search in my pack for a healing potion. It took an entire bottle in order for the wounds I had sustained from the encounter to heal. Perhaps it was the difference in physiology, or due to my size compared to a pony, but the effects of the potion seemed to have been greatly diminished.         My brief respite was interrupted by a gasp coming from the initial room. I quickly entered the room to find Catalyst staring at the hanging corpse. The look on her face was a mix of disgust, fear, and curiosity.         “I heard gunfire and I thought you might be in trouble,” she stammered, not taking her eyes off of the partially empty sockets of the once unicorn. “I guess I got a little startled.”         “There was another raider, their leader I believe. A griffin,” I replied. Her head snapped away from the corpse and stared at me, a slight smile forming on her face.         “A griffin?” she asked. I gave a slight nod. “A real griffin! I had only heard about them in stories as a foal, and in some old research papers. Never did I imagine I would see one. Well, I never imagined I would be on the surface either.” Her tone had changed quickly, going from timid to almost excited. It was a bit disturbing. “Oh, I simply must get blood samples! And feathers! Did you tear off any limbs? I may need to gather bone samples as well. I can’t wait to get those samples back to my lab and-” she cut herself off mid sentence. “Oh right, my lab was destroyed and I was exiled.” The smile on her face drooped. “Had almost forgot in all the excitement of today,” she said with a halfhearted attempt at a laugh. “No matter,” she said after a moment. “Labs can be rebuilt.”         “I will take you somewhere that you will be able to build your own lab,” I replied in an attempt to cheer her up. I gave a smile, though I believe I only succeeded in revealing my fangs. Regardless, she appeared to feel a bit better. “Now come along, these raiders must have kept something stored away.”         Catalyst trotted slowly behind me as we delved further into the building. The shelves stood either empty, or filled with clutter. Cans and bottles clinked and clanked as we kicked them with our movement. On the other side of the room was a large counter that created a small barrier. Spread along it was spare ammo, and the occasional bottle cap. I had no use for the ammo, but I took the caps. Catalyst seemed to value the bullets, as she levitated them into her pack. Did she even have a gun?         I leapt over the counter while Catalyst climbed over some of the clutter. This appeared to be the storage area for the bandits. Metal boxes sat behind the counter, shelves contained various foods and other supplies, and a few weapons of different types lied on small tables. A small box was hanging from the wall, familiar faded pink butterflies decorated the exterior.         Catalyst diverted her attention to the metal boxes beneath the counter while I focused on the medical supplies. I was not very gentle in my methods, instead opting to tear the box off of the wall rather than attempt to pick the lock open. I pried the lid of the locked box off of its hinges, revealing my prize. My haphazard approach to opening the container had rewarded me with some bandages, a few doses of RadAway, a broken syringe of Med-X along with a broken healing potion, and one intact potion.         I let out a soft grumble at the destroyed medical supplies. Behind me I heard a soft clicking noise. I turned to see that Catalyst had opened the containers and was filling her bags with the contents. The contents being more ammunition. She also floated a few metallic spheres into her pack with a grin. Did a single pony need that many grenades?         A single door was on the back wall with a computer terminal next to it. The door was made of wood, and had clearly seen better times. I was surprised at how durable it actually was, taking three swipes before it finally granted me passage. The room behind the door was a small, dimly lit one. Catalyst trotted beside me, her horn glowing, providing illumination. A foul odor was present in the room. With the small amount of light given off by the unicorn mare, I could make out the forms of what I presumed to be corpses. The raiders had decided to decorate this room as well it see-         “Ugh,” groaned a voice from inside. I turned to look at Catalyst and she gave a nod. The glowing intensified, illuminating the entire room. Corpses lined the walls, suspended by shackles attached to their legs. They were in various stages of rotting. All except for one stallion, his coat bloodied and bruised. He was alive, but he was in very bad condition. Some of his ribs showed beneath the skin, indicating his malnourishment. One of his eyes was swollen shut. He rolled his other eye in my direction. “Come to finish the job?” he moaned, his defiance clear despite his condition.         “Oh goddesses,” Catalyst gasped as she saw the stallion. “Get him down,” she commanded me. I blinked for a moment, but then complied. The chains snapped effortlessly as a claw tore through them.         The stallion slumped to the ground, then strained to lift himself up. “You’re...You’re not raiders?” he asked as his eye darted between us. His eye widened as he noticed me in the light from the mare’s horn. It was at this moment that I realized my hood was still down.         “Do not be afraid, we are here to help you,” I quickly responded in an attempt to assuage any fear. The stallion merely shrugged in response.         “Son, I’ve traveled through the wastes many a time, hardly anything surprises me anymore,” he said in the mixture of a chuckle and a groan of pain. “Either of you got anything to help?”         I reached into my pack, careful not to tear or break anything, and pulled out a draught of healing potion. The pony quickly took the potion and downed the contents. Some color returned to his face, the bruising diminished, and the swelling around his eye reduced.         He was an older stallion, his mane a mix of aged gray and white hairs. His coat, muddied and bloodied as it was, was a deep bronze color. He was thin, but his limbs had some muscle to them. His eyes were a dim gray, both of them bloodshot.         “Ah,” he sighed. “That feels so much better.” His shaky legs became stiller, and he stretched his legs out. “The name’s Antiquity.”         “I am called-” I began.         “My name’s Catalyst and this is Underdog,” the mare said, cutting me off. “What happened to you?”         “Luna-damned raiders, that’s what,” he spat in response. “Attacked my caravan couple days ago. Maybe even a week. Hell, they’ve had me hanging here for who knows how long.”         “From what I understand, raiders do not usually take prisoners,” I responded. “And when they do, they do not keep them around very long. How did you survive?”         “Raiders may be crazy, but they aren’t stupid,” he replied. “Well...Actually most of them are as stupid as rocks. But that leader, that griffin bastard was at least sensible to listen to me. Told him my company would pay good caps in exchange for us. Doubt they would pay, but he fell for it. So I managed to keep myself and what was left of my group alive a few more days.” He paused for a moment then continued with a sigh. “Unfortunately, a few of those bastards got bored after a day or two. Tried to convince them they wouldn’t get the caps if we were injured, but they didn’t care.” He turned his head away from us. “Damn it, I can still hear Crystal’s cries from what they did to her.” He shook his head. “One by one they killed the rest of my friends until only I was left. Been a few days, big guy didn’t care what his crew did.” He turned back to us. “Guess I was lucky you two showed up, else I’d be dead.”         “Do not worry, I will take you someplace where you will be able to rejoin your company,” I said. I turned to lead them out. The old stallion slowly limped along. Catalyst walked beside him, allowing him to lean on her for support.         “Thank you kindly,” he groaned. “So, where ya leading us, hound?”         “Uhm...” It was at this moment that I realized I has no idea where I was going. I had no location to take them to, and I couldn’t return to Pleasant Springs. I also couldn’t just wander around the wasteland with the two of them. Antiquity was too injured to travel very far, and Catalyst appeared to be traumatized enough already.         “Heh heh heh,” chuckled Antiquity. “You’ve got good intentions, but no plan, eh?” I gave an embarrassed nod, to which he responded with another chuckle. “I know a little settlement to the North. Not the kinda place you want to stay in very long, but I may be able to get in touch with the Barlowe’s Bargain Caravans company there.”         I leapt back over the counter into the main area of the building. Catalyst used her magic to aid Antiquity in crossing over. We resumed our passage out of the store. I looked back at the unicorn mare and noticed her eyeing the corpses again. At least I believe she was. It was difficult to tell due to her goggles. Antiquity merely walked with his head lowered slightly. It was possible that some of these corpses were ponies that had been taken along side him.         I glanced into the side room that the raider leader had cornered me in. The shelf remained toppled over with red liquid and broken glass in the surrounding area. The fallen shelf was laying flat on the ground and-         “Wait,” I interjected, stopping in my tracks.         “What is it?” the earth pony asked.         “This was where I fought the griffin,” I began.         “And?” asked Catalyst.         “So where is the corpse?” I replied. The two of them looked at me in a mix of shock and fear. My ears twitched as they began to pick up a soft whirring noise, steadily growing in intensity, almost as if on cue. I turned to see the bloody visage of the griffin, a wicked grin on his face, and his claw resting on the handle of his minigun. “Outside, now!”         Catalyst ran ahead of me as I picked up Antiquity. He struggled some as I carried him outside, but he understood the severity of the situation. We burst through the door just as the wave of lead was released from the griffin’s weapon.         “You really didn’t think you killed me with that little trick, did you?” the creature laughed. “Round two, asshole!” He ran out of the store and leapt forward. His wings extended out and began to beat, forcing his entirety into the air. He rose higher then turned to look down at us. The raider floated in the air for a moment before he brought his weapon forward.         “He can’t fire that in the air, the recoil alone would make aiming almost impossible!” Catalyst observed as she backed away.         “He doesn’t need to aim, it’s a freaking minigun! He’ll keep shooting till he hits us!” Antiquity shouted as I sat him down.         “You two get out of here, I will try to draw his fire!” I growled. The barrels on the minigun started to spin slowly, gaining speed.         “Dog-” Catalyst began.         “Go!” I shouted. She hesitated, but trotted away with Antiquity following beside her. The weapon roared to life as a stream of bullets cut a line in front of them.         “What’s this?” the raider shouted. “Think you can get away? And with my prisoner no less. No, I think I’ll kill your little pet first, then have some fun with you, bitch.” I needed to draw his attention back to me. Nearby on the ground was an old bottle. “And the old geezer owes me a shit ton of caps, and I’m going to get them, one way or ano-GAH” the griffin gasped in pain as the bottle connected with his skull. The griffin’s feathers became bathed in fresh blood and glass shards.         “This is between you and me!” I shouted. I was at a serious disadvantage there. The griffin possessed a long range weapon plus the ability to fly. I was stuck with just my claws and whatever I could throw. I just needed to distract him long enough for Catalyst and Antiquity to make their escape.         A burst of rounds hailed down upon me. Most of them missed, as I was quick to dodge, but many of them sank into my hide. The griffin was hovering in mid air above the store, using his wings to stabilize himself against the recoil of the weapon. I ran to try to avoid as much of his fire as I could, but the raider was very good at tracking, being able to hit me too easily. Blood poured from the wounds, though most of them were not too deep.         CLICK CLICK CLICK.         “Shit!” shouted the griffin. His weapon stopped firing, and he began to fiddle with the underside of the barrel for a moment. He had run out of ammo. But he dropped the expended clip to the ground and was beginning to put a fresh one in. This was my chance.         I quickly turned back towards the building and sprinted towards it. Upon reaching it, I leapt forward and sank my claws into the wall and clambered up to the roof. The griffin was too preoccupied with his weapon to notice my ascent. I leaped into the air, claws extended.         “AH!” the griffin screeched as one of my claws grazed his back leg. He was just out of reach. He beat his wings harder to fly even further up. “You’ll pay for that!” he screamed as he brought the minigun around to face me.         But I was too fast. Two swipes of my claws tore through the roof, dropping me back into the store.  I fell back into the central room of the store, landing with a heavy, painful thud, but it was better than being torn apart by the lead wind.         The griffin didn’t follow me. Instead, he began to tear holes in the aged roof with his minigun. Chunks of debris began to fall upon me. I scrambled to my paws and ran to avoid the rubble. I made for the exit again. Better to be out in the open than crushed.         Once I was outside, I saw Catalyst standing next to the corpse of the raider I had partially decapitated, Antiquity a few feet behind her. Her face showed no fear, no emotion. I ran forward near her, the griffin following after me. A brief cease in the hail of bullets signaled his reloading.         “What are you doing, I told you to run!” I shouted as I approached her. She didn’t respond, she just began mumbling to herself as her horn started to glow.         “...factor in gravity...adjust for the wind...target speed as well” She continued mumbling as I saw what she was using her magic for. The knife that the dead raider once wielded against her was floating beside her, enveloped in a silvery aura. “...and then toss.” She swung her head forward, using her magic to send the knife flying ahead.         The griffin raider had been flying behind me, splitting his attention between reloading his weapon and focusing on me. He didn’t notice the small metal object flying towards him at high speed. He lifted his head up right before it connected with him at the base of one of his wings. The spasm of pain caused his wing to move erratically, sending the raider plummeting down to the ground, landing with a thud.         “Thank you, SATS,” she exhaled. “Get him before he can recover!” she shouted at me. I nodded and ran at the griffin. I stopped in front of him. One of his wings was bent at an awkward angle while the other had a knife stuck in the base of it. The minigun was also broken, having sustained heavy damage from him landing on it. The creature looked pitiful just laying there, blood pouring from the knife wound, while cuts on his face and body dripped their ichor as well. He looked up at me with one eye, the other preoccupied with a glass fragment. “I’m begging you, don’t kill me,” he pleaded. “Look at me, I can’t harm anyone now. I probably won’t last long anyway.” I hesitated. Moments ago, he was trying to kill the three of us. But as I was looking at his crippled form, I wasn’t sure I could kill an unarmed opponent. “I-I promise I will never be a raider again. I’ll help ponies from now on,” he continued. His eye and his mouth begged for sympathy, while the movements of his talons betrayed his deception. He unsheathed a knife and leapt at me with it, to which I responded by raising my paw to him. He skewered himself on my claws. I watched as the life drained from his one working eye. One that moments ago pleaded forgiveness and mercy. One that belonged to a treacherous murderer. The corpse slid off of my claws from the bloody wetness, and lifelessly slumped to the ground. I stared at the corpse for a moment, wondering what could drive someone to become so murderous and wicked. It was about this time the adrenaline from the encounter began to wear off, and I realized how much pain I was really in. *         “Quit struggling!” commanded Catalyst.         “Ow, that hurts!” I complained.         “Just take the damn shot already!” she threatened. She was on top of my arm, pinning it to the ground as she attempted to jab me with the syringe. “It’s just Med-X, you’ll feel much better.” She wasn’t helping matters by putting pressure onto my injuries. “Help me hold down his arm!” she commanded Antiquity, who was watching the spectacle from a safe distance.         “I’d rather not,” he replied, keeping his distance maintained.         “Ow,” I yelped as the syringe punched through my hide. Did I mention I didn’t like needles? Some of the pain was alleviated by the drug, but I was still in pain.         “Alright,” exhaled the mare. “That’s one of the doses. Now for the others.” The other two  syringes floated out of her pack.         The discomforting ordeal was over after a few minutes, but I still felt the numb but still present pain from the experience. But it wasn’t too bad that I would need, or want, another dose of the syringe-delivered drug.         He had been traveling for almost an hour before the pain had forced us to make camp. Catalyst had been...insistent that I take the medicine. Most of the supplies we had gathered from the raider camp were used to heal the wounds I had sustained at the raider camp.         A warming fire crackled in front of us, illuminating the area around it. Catalyst occupied herself by fiddling with some small device she was making from scrap electronics and metal she gathered from the store. Antiquity sat beside me, wolfing down a third box of an odd substance known as ‘Sugar Apple Bombs’. The stuff smelled sickeningly sweet, but it appeared to cause Antiquity’s hunger to subside.         “So what is this town we are going to?” asked Catalyst, not looking up from the bundle of wires and scrap at her hooves. She was still wearing her goggles, making me question how she was able to see what she was doing.         “Hmm? Oh. It’s a small town by the name of New Chevalin,” he responded between mouthfuls of the overly sugary substance. “Not the kinda place you should stay long in.”         “Raiders?” I asked.         “Nah, complete opposite really. They’re very justice driven up there, to fault even. I pass by there every couple weeks with my caravan. Almost every time I’ve been there, there would be someone in trouble with the law. My advice is to just keep your head down as best you can. They might not be very tolerant of your type,” he said nodding at me. Wouldn’t have been the first time I have been hated for what I am. “Probably best we sleep here for the night. Creeping into the town at night won’t end well,” he yawned. With that, the merchant slumped over and the sound of soft snoring rose from him a few minutes later. This was likely the first night in about a week that he would be able to sleep without the corpses of his allies staring at him.         I looked back over to Catalyst who was still tinkering with...whatever it was that she had. It looked like a lopsided metal orb with wires sticking out of places and a - Was that a grenade attached to it? She was floating a screwdriver over it, tilting her head to observe where it needed to be tightened.         “What are you doing?” I finally asked.         “I was bored so I wanted to see if I could improve upon the design of this grenade,” she replied with a hint of joy. “When I was a filly, I would always take apart my toys and improve them. My mother had to take away one of them when I modified it to have a small blowtorch.”         “It sounds like you were very mischievous as a foal,” I said.         “You don’t know the half of it. One time, I snuck into the science lab after everyone was asleep. Long story short, I accidentally set half of the lab on fire, and that whole level had to be evacuated and vented because of the toxic fumes. But that is how I got this,” she said, flipping back part of her white coat, though now smeared with blood and dirt, and revealed the image of a bubbling beaker with a green liquid inside of it.         “Impressive,” I responded.         “Hrnk...zubba apples,” mumbled Antiquity in his sleep. The two of us shared a small laugh at the sleeping pony.         A few more minutes passed before Catalyst tired of messing with the jury rigged  explosive. She curled up and fell asleep while I kept guard. Blaze had warned me that when sleeping in the wasteland, it is best to keep someone on guard, in case of raiders, or hungry creatures, and to keep the fire going. I had to remain vigilant. *         I woke up feeling a hoof poke my skull repeatedly. I opened my eyes to see a goggled face looking down at me. Did she sleep with those things on?         “Wake up, sleepy,” she said, still poking me. I let out a low growl for her to stop. “Don’t give me that. I woke up in the middle of the night to find you asleep and the fire dead. You had plenty of sleep, so get up.” I grumbled, but rose to my paws.         Antiquity was sitting on the other side of the fire, or rather the remains of the fire. He was munching through another box of Sugar Apple Bombs. How many of those did we even swipe from the raiders?         “New Chevalin’s just a couple hours away,” he replied after he finished his meal. “Oh, and Dog, you may want to keep your hood down while we are there.” We soon gathered up our supplies and left the makeshift camp. It took about two hours worth of travel, a good deal of which I was forced to carry the old stallion, the silhouette of a few buildings appeared on the horizon. Antiquity hit my shoulder a few times and pointed off to the distance and let us know that this was our destination. I flipped my hood down and we pressed onward. A short amount of walking placed us at the entrance to the town. A sign above the gate declared ‘Welcome to New Chevalin’ with the name of the city spelled in large, multi-colored pieces of metal. The town was a loose collection of old buildings with many newer buildings around them. The post-war constructs were of a better quality than any I had previously seen. In the center of the town was some sort of wooden structure. It appeared to be two supporting boards holding up another board, from which a large piece of metal was suspended. A large group of ponies gathered around the structure. “I don’t like the looks of this,” said Antiquity as he slid off of my back. “Let’s check it out, but keep your hood down.” I nodded and we slowly approached the group. Near the wooden structure was a small stand and podium, at which stood a dark colored pony. He had a dim coat, grey but not black. His mane was jet black in color. Sitting atop his head was a beaten up top hat. Standing on both sides of him were two large griffins in dark colored armor with a single yellowish star on the chestplate. “Bring out the criminal,” the dark pony declared. The crowd moved to make a path from the wooden structure to one of the buildings. Out of the building came another griffin in similar style as those on the platform. Being pushed ahead by the griffin was an earth stallion with two pairs of shackles on his legs, his coat a dirty tan and his mane just a few shades darker. “Please, I didn’t do it!” he turned and begged to the griffin. The griffin responded by kicking his side. “Get going, criminal scum,” the griffin spat. “I’m not your judge.” The pony was brought in front of the pony on the podium whom I presumed to be the Judge. The Judge gave a slight smile as he eyed the pony in shackles, who was trembling in fear. “Masquerade,” the Judge addressed the pony before him. “Why am I not surprised that you would be brought before the court.” The stallion looked down at the podium for a moment. “You are charged with the following crimes: theft, attempting to evade justice, swearing at an officer of the law, assaulting at an officer of the law, and petty loitering. How do you plead?” “Please, I didn’t do anything wrong!” the pony grovelled. “The court finds you guilty on all counts,” the Judge declared. “For these crimes, the court sentences you to death by guillotine.” The Judge finished his speech and stepped down from the podium. The two griffins stepped down as well, only they went for the pony in shackles. “No, I only took a few boxes of food! I needed to feed my foals! Don’t kill me!” the pony pleaded, but the cries only fell upon the deaf ears of the Judge and the griffins. Masquerade scrambled to his hooves and attempted to flee the two griffins, but the third grabbed him by his mane and held him in place. Two of the griffins lifted him up as he struggled, while the other stood at the wooden structure in the center of the town. I was now able to view the structure easier, and saw that at the base of it was another two boards with a hole in the center. One of the griffins pried open the two boards while the other griffins slung the protesting pony’s head in between the boards. “They aren’t...” Catalyst gasped beside me. I now saw that the piece of metal suspended by the rope wasn’t just a piece of scrap, it was a sharpened blade. One of the griffins untied the rope that held the blade in place, but held onto it with his talons, preventing its decent. He looked over to the Judge, who gave a confirmatory nod. The griffin released his grip. SHUNK. Welcome to New Chevalin. Footnote: Level Up. New Follower: Catalyst S-5 P-5 E-2 C-5 A-6 I-10 L-7 Follower Perk: Hold Still!- You may not like needles, but Catalyst is forcing you to take medicine anyway. While Catalyst is your companion, healing items and chems have increased strength. Catalyst: Level Up Catalyst: New Perk: Heave Ho!- You may not be as strong as some ponies, but you know just how to arc something so that it’ll hit. And it will hurt.