Fallout Equestria: Treasure Hunting

by Hnetu

Chapter 5: The Buried Past

Chapter Five: The Buried Past
“She used to be prosperous, helping to push society to new heights. Now she’s a testament to the new ways the Wasteland can find to kill ponies.”

Prisoners?

How in the Goddesses’ names did we become prisoners? We were just getting the grand tour! Jazz had said they were expecting Gunbuck to come help them, and even confused me for him. So why were we going to be prisoners?

“What do you mean, prisoners? We were just getting a nice tour of the place,” my sister said, interrupting my thought loop.

“Wait, do tell me what is this word, ‘prisoners,’” Xeno requested, looking back and forth between the robed mare and Lost, a confused look in her eyes. “I know much of your language, but this word is not one I am familiar with.” The tone in her voice was eerily similar to when she had made that speech about not wanting to die. From context she seemed scared, even if she didn’t truly understand the meaning of the word. We needed to teach this girl how to speak our language. Given her constant misuse of words and apparently ignorance of contractions, I already wanted to fix it so we’d understand her better.

The older mare behind the desk leaned forward, tenting her hooves in front of her and explained, “It means that you are here, against your will, possibly guilty of a crime. It also means that there will be punishment for said crime, and after you have paid off your debt to the wonderful society that we now live in, we will release you back to the savage Wasteland that you call home.” She brushed her mane to the side with a hoof, and hopped down from her seat.

“Now, I know that Jazz here has given you a tour,” she continued, “and has done her best to be friendly, but that’s not why you’re here. We need ponies to do work for us because we’re all on guard from that...” She paused for a moment, walking around the table toward us. “...that ‘Wirepony’ annoyance that roams the ruined streets below.” She scowled. “So, I guess, conscription is a better word. And for you my little zebra, it means that we’re forcing you to do work for us, as ‘civilian contractors’ for the Steel Rangers.” Despite her age, she seemed rather spry, moving about in the embellished robe with grace and making air quotes with her hooves on what seemed to be every other sentence she spoke.

Okay, at least there was a name for this faction of ponies. Lost seemed to be following what was going on, but I was as confused as poor Xeno. She had the courage to ask, “And if we refuse?”

“I take anything you have on you that I feel is sufficiently advanced a technology, give it to my ponies, who can actually make good use of it, then turn you into a pile of pink ash,” Jazz answered, matter-of-factly. “Afterward, we’ll sweep the ash up and toss it in the dirt outside.”

“What! I thought you said you weren’t corrupt,” I shouted at the now obviously evil mares.

“I said we try not to be as corrupt as some of the other chapters around the Wasteland,” Jazz countered, smirking. “I never said we tried very hard. For that matter, we’re not exactly corrupt, per se. We are performing the task passed down to us through the generations of Steel Rangers, and from the moment Elder Scifresh took over, we have done nothing more than try to be the best Steel Rangers we can be. Personally though, I look up to Elder Blueberry Sabre. She makes it into an art form. There’s really something special about the way that mare handles her soldiers.” She aimed her gatling laser directly at me. The gun whirred quietly, ready to fire.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Scifresh said. “Jazz is going to take you down to the first floor and out the back. You’re going to go down the elevator to the foundry level, and into the mines below.” She walked over to one of the pictures plastered on the wall and pointed to it. “This factory has a Stable underneath, and you need to find it. There are other ponies down there, savages we’ve managed to ‘acquire.’ I just can’t spare my soldiers into that deathtrap of a mine. They are far too valuable to me. So just follow the lead of the others. Once we find the Stable, you will be free to go.”

“Liberated of the PipBuck and that plasma pistol you shot me with,” Jazz finished for her, her words coming through gritted teeth at the end.

Outrageous! This Steel Ranger welcomed us with open hooves, and then this? How dare she! Pretending to be friendly, preying on the good intentions of others... If she’d asked nicely, we’d have helped no matter what. Because that’s what good ponies do. But this... I took a deep breath. Mom was right, as always. Ponies look out for their own, and fuck anypony else in the Wasteland, be they friendly or not. As soon as I got something powerful enough to punch through her power armor, this bitch was going down.

Jazz ushered us out of the office, away from the elderly mare, who was slowly returning to her desk. Just before we got out of earshot, she yelled out, “Do mind the radiation...”

That definitely didn’t sound good.

* * *

Star Paladin Jazz led us down twisting hallways and spiral staircases. Even with the automap the PipBuck had, I’d lost track of where exactly we were in the building early on, though that was probably her intention. During the long, disorienting trek down the hallways, Jazz rambled on about the various guns, armor, and equipment they were going to liberate from us. She made sure to give excruciatingly boring, detailed examples for every item that classified as ‘sufficiently advanced technology.’ The worst part about her lecture was that it had bored my rage from sheer blind fury at the lies down to mere simmering bloodlust. Several times I’d simply zoned out, both to get away from the sound of her voice, and to try and shake the worry I had about what was going to happen next. I dealt with anxiety far differently than my sister. She had... her ways, and I pretended the situation was a game. It worked for making scavenging fun, so why not on the sheer terror caused by how badly these armored assholes were going to kill us?

Finally, Jazz brought us to a doorway identical to the dozens we’d passed through the seemingly endless hallways.

The room she shoved us into had the same rotten walls and rusted steel as every other room we’d seen or been to; I’d stopped paying attention to the smaller details. But this room was subtly different: it appeared to be a small armory for the soldiers. Dozens of rifles lined the walls, and a desk in one corner practically bent under the weight of various pistols and grenades, stacked to a teetering point. A helmet identical to the one worn by every soldier in the base sat on the edge of a second desk, near rows of open lockers stuffed stuffed to the brim with plasma and laser weapons. Behind the desk was another of the Steel Rangers, bent over the desk and more paperwork.

“Okay, you three,” Jazz barked. “Stand up against that wall next to Scribe Trifle.” The new Steel Ranger was a pale red earth pony mare who wore a robe like Scifresh, though not as detailed. She actually looked surprisingly nice, compared to the other Steel Rangers we’d met. She didn’t acknowledge our entrance, being too distracted by the paperwork she was staring intently at.

We stood there in silence a moment as the mare continued studying whatever she was looking at. From her expression, she seemed to be having a hard time with it.

“Scribe Trifle!” Jazz announced in an annoyed tone, startling the earth pony, but finally catching her attention.

Trifle started to sputter out an apology but Jazz cut her off. “I need you to strip these savages of any useful technology.” She then added in a warning tone, “Make sure you take everything, Trifle. I don’t want the Elder thinking you’ve done a slipshod job. Again. Do not fuck up, Scribe!” The Star Paladin glared for a moment, then stepped outside the room. “I’ll return to collect them once you’ve finished.” She slammed the door shut behind her.

Scribe Trifle began cleaning up whatever it was she was studying. “Bags. Down,” she ordered absently, not even looking up at us.

In an instant, all three of us dropped the saddlebags we were carrying. Xeno’s bag fell over on its side, which finally got the the Steel Ranger’s attention enough to pick it as her first target. She made her way over to it, hefted it onto the emptier of the two desks, and began picking through it.

“What are we going to do? She’s going to take everything we’ve got!” I whispered to my sister through the corner of my mouth. My eyes didn’t move from the red Ranger with her back to me. Oh Goddesses, I thought, please don’t let her hear...

“Okay, look,” Lost whispered back. “I'll take PipBuck off you and... hide it or something. She wasn’t there when Jazz mentioned it and, well, it looks like she not the sharpest pony around here. I’ll... I don’t know, I’ll get her to check my bags first, then we move it there. My plasma pistol too; since she doesn’t know I have it.” She lifted her gun from her bag as she spoke, at the same time I felt the clasp release on the pipbuck. It wasn’t much, but it was a better plan than anything I was going to come up with on short notice.

“What do we do with them after? We’re gonna get escorted underground, how do we hide them?” I asked while quickly shuffling the valuable piece of arcano-tech between my hooves until it was hidden behind my tail, against the wall behind me. I prayed she’d thought this through...

“Shhh! I’ll figure it out,” she whispered back.

Trifle finished digging through the zebra’s bag, and slowly turned around. Lost’s magical haze disappeared in an instant. Her gun fell behind us, landing amongst the other weapons lined against the walls.

“I’ll go next,” Lost offered. She lifted her bags with her magic and presented them to the mare. Hopefully it would come off as compliant enough to not arouse suspicion.

“It’s good that you’ve accepted your fate,” Trifle said, a distant tone in her voice. “Once we find what we need, you’ll be free to go, of course.”

Yeah, not trusting that. Trifle tossed Xeno’s bag to the ground in front of her and grabbed the saddlebags Lost was levitating to her. Turning her back once more, she set them upon the desk and started to dig through.

Xeno yelled something in her native tongue. She sounded happy. Well, maybe? Either that, or pissed off? Happy about being pissed off? I couldn’t tell because of the language barrier.

“Shut up, you didn’t have anything worth taking,” Trifle snapped, not bothering to look back. “If I had more room, I’d keep it all, but the Elder has ordered us to prioritize. Consider yourself lucky.”

I felt the PipBuck begin to move from behind me as Lost's horn began to glow. Ok so far, so good. Now we just needed to get it into-

“Oh good, more spark cells,” Trifle said, pulling the cells out and lying them on the desk. “You don’t have a gun for them though...” The robed mare turned her head to look at us, her orange eyes squinted. “Why are you carrying them?”

Oh no.

Lost's magic cut out the instant the mare turned. I just barely managed to catch the PipBuck from falling with one of my rear hooves. I didn’t dare breathe. If I dropped it, the gig would be up, and Trifle would take everything we needed to survive.

“The gun broke, so I tossed it. I kept the ammo to sell,” L.A. explained, not missing a beat. “Just because I can’t use it doesn’t mean it’s worthless.” She wore a calm expression, keeping eerily level-headed during the interrogation. At least it kept the attention from me, because I was fairly sure I’d have given it away at first glance.

“Reasonable enough. I’ll be keeping them,” Trifle snapped, scowling. “Our soldiers can make better use of them than a savage could.” She turned back around and placed the pilfered goods into a drawer on the desk.

Both my sister and I let out a sigh of relief simultaneously, careful to keep the volume down. Xeno finished digging through her bag, and watched the two of us. Lost raised a hoof, motioning her to keep quiet. She merely nodded, her deep blue eyes showing surprising understanding of what we were planning.

A second later, I felt the PipBuck floated off my back hoof. Risking a look back I watched as Lost moved it behind her tail through careful manipulation of her magic. Just as it drifted out of sight, Trifle turned back around and tossed L.A.’s bags onto the floor in front of her. Without a word, she took mine and resumed her search for our ‘technology.’

I looked over at my sister, her bandana and mane were soaked with sweat. Her horn was still glowing, holding the PipBuck just out of sight. Thank the Goddesses’ that the unobservant Ranger hadn’t seen the glow. Lost crammed both her gun and the PipBuck into her bag before Trifle could finish digging through mine.

Just as the glow faded from Lost’s horn, the Scribe turned around, my shotgun in her mouth. She glared at me. With a flick of her neck, she tossed the shotgun against the wall with the rifles. The gun landed perfectly in line with the others, getting lost in the mix. Then she turned to me and ordered, “Battle saddle. Lose it. Now.”

“W-what why? I made this thing myself!” I stammered. That was technically true, as Lost and I had rebuilt it together from some other ones when they were too damaged to use. But, she was my baby. On the other hoof... the stare I was getting made me rethink just how valuable a hunk of metal was. In short order, I stripped down and let her take it from me.

Feeling naked in a whole new way, we gathered our bags. Once Trifle had divested us of all but our concealed possessions, she marched us out of their makeshift armory and back into the rusty halls.

* * *

We walked in silence down the rusted, warped hallways. There wasn’t anything to say. I felt shell shocked, like my brain was trying to be somewhere else for all of this. I wanted to call it a betrayal, but we didn’t know these ponies. I ran in half-cocked and unsure what to expect. It could have been a trap, or they could have welcomed us as saviors. Had Gunbuck known? Was that why he hadn’t already been here. Maybe he’d been gearing up, searching for something to bargain with, or for bigger guns to shoot them with? He was supposed to be a hero, I’d wanted to follow that example... and... this was the choice I’d made?

I promised to try and be a thinky pony, to be more like my sister. To stop pushing all those thoughts away... I looked over to L.A. Why couldn’t I be more like her? I wasn’t her, but she was... Just... Everything I wasn’t. Twice so far today I’d fucked up. She hadn’t made those mistakes, and once again she’d saved me. I couldn’t keep talking about changing, I needed to actually do it. How was I supposed to be a smart pony when every four-legged person in the Wasteland ruined my plans! But... the ‘nice pony’ side of my brain insisted, they couldn't be ‘evil,’ just stuck in a bad situation, a situation where they were trying to get help in the only way they knew how. Right? That’s why Gunbuck was heading here. He wanted to help, because that’s what he did. That’s what heroes do. So, we were here. We weren’t heroes, but we could help them. That was all there was to it. In the end it’d make the Wasteland a better place if we made others happy... right?

Just as before, Jazz led us through a labyrinth of stairways, up, down, through dozens of hallways and corridors. I thought I’d been lost before, but between the circular track my thoughts had been chasing themselves down, and our mazelike path, I found myself actually beginning to get dizzy. Jazz led the three of us, her head held high and with the armored helmet reattached. Somewhere along the line, I didn’t know when, another one of the armored ponies had joined us. The soldier brought up the rear to keep us from slinking away. None of us would have tried anyway, not with that gatling laser trained on us. If the power armor had anything like the E.F.S. and S.A.T.S. that the PipBuck had, we’d be dead before we took two steps.

After a few more identically decorated hallways and staircases, good Goddesses, but did they ever need an interior decorator, we exited through a large bay door to the back of the factory, opposite where we had entered. In front of us sat the elevator the Elder had mentioned. It was fairly simple, a rusty platform with crossed bars to make up the walls on three sides. The door must have rusted and fallen off long ago, and it lay off to the side. Even here, a level above the foundry, the heat was sweltering. We walked on the tips of our hooves, trying to avoid the blistering ground we were walking over. Jazz and her subordinate herded us into the elevator, then stepped in as well. With a lurch, it began screeching down to the floor below. I really hoped it could support the weight of their armor.

“Alright, since we’re running low on ponies to do work for us, try and survive,” Jazz said as the elevator began its descent. “Do remind me, if you survive, to make sure Doc Plagueheart always checks for radiation in the future. Can’t have our little workers dying too terribly fast.” She poked my nose teasingly. ‘Poked’ was too light a term; the ‘poke’ felt more like I’d been smashed in the nose with a flying tank. It felt like she’d broken my nose!

Her steel helmet hid whatever expression she might have had, and it was near impossible to hear her over the sound of the metal grinding against metal, even with the amplification from her helmet, but the tone was obviously sarcastic. Putting her hoof down, she took a more serious turn. “We’ve hired some Talon mercenaries to act as overseers. Don’t cross them. The contract we have is to watch our workforce, and keep them at the job. There is nothing keeping them from killing you if you get out of line.”

This was sounding more and more pleasant by the moment. The minute we broke past the elevator shaft, a suffocating blast of heat nearly knocked me over. Two hundred years later, and the furnaces were still going at full blast? How... There must have been some cheater magic keeping the place together. Dark smoke filled the air and floated ominously across the ceiling. Even underground, there was no escaping the cloud cover.

I looked from side to side, trying not to cough. I could see no ponies, or anything living at all, for that matter, inside the furnace room. The only thing here was molten metal and fires that raged behind red hot gratings.

As the elevator hit the bottom, Jazz and the other Ranger shoved us out into the inferno before us. Lost shied away, positively horrified by the furnaces they forced us past. Every time the fires flourished, they cast a flash of red across her face that clashed with her blue eyes. She hesitated before each one, then skittishly ran in front of it, only to once again hesitate whenever she came to a gap between two. Xeno seemed calm, almost zen-like. Whatever was going through her mind, I would never know.

“The maps show the Stable at the far end of the mines. Unfortunately, two hundred years and twice that number of explosions have caused significant numbers of cave-ins. Follow the orders of the pit boss, and try not to die. I recommend working together,” Jazz lectured. “So far the worst we’ve come up against is the radiation and the bloodwings. Steer clear of both of those, and you might be okay. If you try to escape, the Talons will kill you, the guards up top will kill you, and then I personally will kill you some more.” She led us through a doorway cut through the stone, and into another large room with several wheelless, rusted mine carts. Two griffons guarded the room, one right inside the door, and another staring down one of the caverns. Both had laser rifles, and neither so much as looked at us as we entered. On top of their firepower and unwavering attention, they were heavily armored, both wearing reinforced leather with a claw-like symbol on the left breast.

“Kyrie escort these three to the furthest site,” Jazz ordered the far griffon. “Elder Scifresh wants this Stable found yesterday. That monster is bleeding us dry out there and I don’t pay you to sit around and lolligag!” The Star Paladin was screaming by the end of the sentence, more than a little miffed. Wow, she had a rage problem. Here I always thought that a guard’s job was to sit around and stare at things.

“Right ma’am,” answered Kyrie with a salute salute. She lowered her rifle and motioned us ahead. “C’mon let’s go.” We trudged at gunpoint down the hallway, following the remains of the rails on the ground.

As soon as we were out of the Steel Rangers’ earshot, I pleaded with the griffon. “Why are you helping them? Don’t you know she hates anypony from the Wasteland?” Hopefully it would get us out of the mess we were in.

“Contract,” Kyrie said dismissively. “Don’t care anyway, I’m not interested in pony politics. Worst she’ll do is take a few potshots. She turns on us and we’ll take her and every Steel Ranger in here down. Already have...” She stopped mid-sentence, stared me in the eye and yelled, “March!”

I didn’t need convincing. She said no more, but I was going to have to have a chat with my sister later about that last little bit...

“Is it normal for you ponies to do this to your own kind?” Xeno asked quietly. It seemed she’d finally decided to speak in a language we could more or less understand. “I have heard stories of the evil of your species, those past the mountain treating others so. I thought it to be tall tales left over from the war, meant to keep little zebra foals bereaving for their mothers and avoiding strangers.” She tilted her head to the side slightly. Every now and then she’d trip over her own hooves, but somehow always managed to catch herself.

“Well, that really depends on who you look at,” I started to explain. “Mom taught us that ponies couldn’t be trusted in groups, because they would always try and look after their own, that they didn’t care at all about outsiders.”

“Stop talking. Turn here,” Kyrie ordered, pointing the rifle down one of the mine hallways. She stopped and dug into her armor with a claw. “Take these, you’ll need ‘em.” She tossed out a bottle, which L.A. caught in mid-air with her magic. There was a slight rattling inside. “Take one each every few hours, unless you want to die. Now go, if you come back this way I’ll shoot first and let the radiation take care of whatever might be left.” With no other choice, we started walking.

Up until that point I hadn’t noticed the faint clicking coming from Lost’s saddlebags. The further away from the griffon guard we walked, the faster it went. Even unattached, it still picking up the ambient radiation. As if she were finally hearing it too, she carefully lifted the ancient device from its hiding place, and latched it onto her forehoof. Lucky for us, we were out of sight and earshot of the griffon. With that, we trudged through the cavern to the next open area, accompanied by the constant clicking.

The mine was surprising well lit for how far underground we were. Around us were dozens, if not hundreds, of multicolored gemstones inset into the walls and ceiling. They shone dully, giving off muted light from all directions. Every other gem I had ever seen in all the Equestrian Wasteland had been clear and brilliant, though that might have been because all the ones I’d ever seen were in spark cells, manufactured and full of magical energy to use as ammunition for the magical energy weapons L.A. prefered. These ones though, were clouded and matte, lacking the same glean. The sight of it made me sick to my stomach, though I couldn’t tell why.

“Eat this,” L.A. said, floating one of the pills toward me. She had stopped for a moment, and was staring at the PipBuck on her foreleg.

“I really don’t think Buck is going to help while we’re down here...” I snickered a little, she’s gonna get me addicted to those things. It might be nice though...

“It is not Buck, and you should not take that medicine anyway, it will hurt you,” Xeno chided. “This is a pony drug, it is called RadSafe. Do you not feel the radiation coming from all around?” She bit down on one of the three pills held by my sister’s levitation, and took a moment to swallow before she continued. “It will kill us, we were warned many times by the soldier in the steel armor. You need to pay attention, little pony.”

“Oh...”

I bit down on the second one held in my sister’s grasp, and tried to swallow, while Lost took the remaining one. The medicine tasted like a combination of mint and old chalk. I coughed half a dozen times trying to finish it, having to swallow repeatedly to get the disgusting chem from sticking as it went down my throat. If I had to eat more of that, I really wasn’t sure if it was worth surviving. Did we have a pouch of RadAway left? Or was that taken by the bitch Steel Ranger too? If so, I could just drink some of that if it got too bad.

At the far end of this tunnel stood a group of ponies and another griffon guard. The griffon here had on a much different outfit, a yellow suit with a thick visor over his face. Probably extra measures to keep the radiation out. I could hear the PipBuck on Lost’s forehoof clicking faster the deeper we got. The ponies were working in groups, with several unicorns using telekinesis to pull large stones away from the wall opposite us. They then moved it down to where dozens of earth ponies could roll them against another wall, and out of the way.

The griffon waved us over with one of his wings, barking a muffled order from behind the visor on his suit. Sheepishly, the three of us trotted over, looking to one of the other ponies who seemed to know what was going on.

“So... What are we supposed to be doing?” I asked one of the earth ponies who wasn’t pushing rocks around.

“Start pushin,’” he snapped back, before coughing a few times. “‘Less ya want the griffon shootin’ ya.” He motioned to several piles of pink ash in the far corner, which were being covered with the rock the other ponies were moving.

“Understood!” I said with a salute. As fast as I could, I looked for a rock to start pushing.

* * *

For what seemed like hours, the three of us went back and forth. The guard put L.A. on lifting detail, which meant she spent the entire time using every bit of strength to lift any rocks that were pulled away from the far wall into the air. After that, Xeno, myself, and several of the other earth ponies would push or roll it over into the main pile. It was explained by one of the more talkative ponies that there had been a cave-in, and we were clearing out to another path. The big problem with this was finding a way to make a pathway big enough for ponies, and griffons, to get through, without setting off another cave-in and burying us all alive.

The Med-X had begun to wear off, and the rolling of the rocks and boulders was particularly painful due to the burn on my back. I tried to get some looks at it between sets, but all I could see was burnt flesh, and blood seeping down my side. It had started to blister while we were working. I prayed I could get it fixed before my entire back became one giant scar.

With the way we were moving the rocks, I had to stand on my rear legs and roll them with my forelegs, and every time I flexed my back to hop up or down it burned, my skin stretching and the drying scabs ripping free. At first it was barely noticeable, easy to ignore, but without the Med-X, it felt as if the fire were still licking at my skin. I either needed a healing potion or... well... a better way to deal with pain.

I wasn’t the only one that was hurting. Several times we had to stop for breaks. Somepony was either vomiting, voiding themselves, or passing out. And ‘radiation vomit’ tasted far, far worse than ‘just had a bone reset vomit,’ which was something I wished I’d never had to learn. This was nowhere near enough radiation to kill us, not without being down here for days, but it was enough to hurt bad. The sickness weakened everypony, and the progress slowed to a crawl the longer we were down there. In the beginning, we’d moved dozens of rocks and boulders in the course of an hour, but the past hour of work had all been focusing on a single rock that wasn’t even half the size of the largest we’d been able to tackle. I was honestly starting to fear being shot by the guard. There were no standards that had been set, just ‘push or die,’ and we were hitting the tipping point. How much longer could we hold out with everypony constantly sick and growing weaker by the minute?

The griffon mumbled something from behind the thick visor of his suit.

“Alright everpony. Break time!” yelled an olive mare. She seemed to be the only one capable of understanding him. Everypony dropped their rocks and let out a collective sigh of relief.

“More RadAway, then back to work? Some break, Spade,” snapped a balding unicorn behind me. He stepped past me, joining the growing line of ponies in front of the olive mare who must have been Spade.

“Rather die of the radiation? I want to get out of here. So we listen to the griffon and finish. Then back to our Queen,” Spade spat back, a warm smile growing across her lips.

What? I blinked. Whatever she was on about, it wasn’t ominous, not ominous at all...

Lost and I joined the line for RadAway, something that wasn’t coming quite soon enough. Now that I didn’t have to focus on moving and working I got a look at the other ponies. Most looked like they felt as bad as I did. Several were dry-heaving and looked obviously uncomfortable; they were practically emaciated from the loss of fluids. A few had dark bruises clearly visible through their coats, mostly the earth ponies around their hooves from pushing boulders. Every so often I could spot one that was bloodied, though none looked anywhere near as bad as the unicorn who had lost almost all of his mane. The poor stallion couldn’t have been much older than me, but looked ancient. His lips were cracked and bloody, his skin hung from his bones, and he seemed incapable of not trembling.

How long had these ponies been down here?

I felt a gurgle inside me, not coming from my stomach, it came from lower... If I was feeling as sick as I did after a few hours, and we were getting RadAway, hopefully regularly, just how long could it take to get that bad. Had...

Had the griffon been performing mercy killings...?

To tear myself away from that thought, I looked to my sister and my friend. Xeno was the only one who didn’t seem to be getting sick with radiation poisoning. As soon as we were on break, she went directly to where her bag had been stashed. I didn’t care why, she was a zebra, and had proven to be exceptionally strange in the short time that I’d known her. It was more important to handle the radiation that was making me sick, right now. Deal with her mysteries later. I looked over to Lost...

“Is it getting to you too?” L.A. asked, furrowing her brow in worry. She didn’t look any better. Her eyes looked tired and unfocused, and she was practically covered in sweat. She looked just as nauseous as I felt, if not worse, and all I could do was lean over and press my head against her. She must be feeling worse than I was, I could feel her shaking occasionally, broken up between periods where she was obviously stiffening to keep me from noticing. I had to be strong for her, and not give her any more to worry about.

I lifted my head from her neck, missing the brief moment where only my sister and I mattered. I could only nod, trying to stand easy. Hopefully she wouldn’t notice how much pain I was in...

She looked and me with concern. “I’m worried about your back...”

Dammit, Lost, stop reading me so well...

“I didn’t get burned nearly as bad when Seethe shot me with the flamer, but I know how it feels,” Lost continued, pointing a hoof to the remains of her purple mane, still tied under the bandana. “Do you want me to heal it for you?” Without waiting for an answer, she closed her eyes, and her horn began to glow. She could heal flesh wounds by now, but I had no idea if she was able to repair a massive burn that covered half my back and one of my legs.

“You! With the bandana. No magic during break,” Spade yelled from the front of the line. She sounded pissed.

In an instant L.A. cut her magic, and slumped. “I’ll fix it later. I promise,” she whispered, forcing a little smile. Honestly, that helped the most.

We were the last two in line for the RadAway, but were able to get a pouch each to sip during the break.

“...got any Med-X?” I asked sheepishly after the griffon gave me the RadAway. My back was a blazing inferno again, the medication from earlier having completely worn off.

“Why?” Spade snapped.

“That fucking wire monster hit me with a grenade. Can’t you see my back?” I demanded, baring my teeth at her. It hurt, but I turned to the side so she could see the extent of the damage. The skin had scabbed over, mostly, but it was still obviously charred. Little blisters covered my haunch, oozing slightly from being torn by the work. It looked back, and all the radiation around was only adding to the problem. “Why do you think I asked for a painkiller? We’re here to help, and I can’t really do that if I’m on the verge of collapsing from the pain.” Sure, we were working against our will, but I left that part out. The nerve of some ponies...

Spade looked over to the griffon guard, who gave a nod and muffled something to her. The fact nopony could understand him but Spade was really starting to grate my nerves. Or maybe it was the pain I was in...

“Yeah sure, take it,” she said, as the griffon produced a needle. She snatched it in her fetlock and jabbed it into my back. The pain vanished. What a relief. “And take this too,” she added, tossing a bottle at me. it held the bare minimum amount of liquid in it to classify as a healing potion. “You die on me, and I’ll make those two you came in with suffer for it. I want out of this place as soon as I can.”

Lost scowled at the olive mare, but said nothing. We weren’t in a position to argue.

Prizes in hoof, we returned to the spot Xeno had retreated to. The entire time we had been in line, she had dug out several miniature jars of... stuff. She sat on her haunches against the wall, moving the jars back and forth, pulling out the stopper from one to pour into another, back and forth a few times. Finally, she reached for one with her hooves only to stop dead.

“It... I... one is missing,” she practically whispered, sounding hollow. Her face darkened, the lighter stripes on her face coat turning completely white. The zebra looked up directly at me, those deep blue eyes trembling in fear. “I am missing the extract. Without it I cannot...” She trailed off.

The griffon guard mumbled something, pointing the rifle he had at a group of ponies collecting around the pink piles of ash.

“Five minutes ponies! Five minutes!” Spade hollered out after him.

“What’re you missing?” Lost asked, ignoring the time warning. She ripped into the RadAway pouch and took a sip. Almost instantly her lips puckered around the little straw part, and she visibly flinched. Was it that bad?

While she was asking, I downed what little of the healing potion I had, and tossed the bottle away. It helped, if only a little. That itch like when my leg bones were regrowing came back. It felt like somepony gently tapping hundreds of little needles against my back, which was a good sign, I hoped. At least the burn wasn’t going to get any worse now. Relaxing into the soothing knitting feeling, I ripped open my own pouch of RadAway and hesitantly took myself a sip.

Bleh! Whatever this shit was, it tasted like rotten oranges left in an oven for two hundred years. But it... was supposed to be good for me. And even after that first sip I was starting to feel better. Biting down on the end of the little straw part, I sat next to Xeno. Siiiip.... Bleh.

“I need an extract for my... concoction,” she answered, eyes darting away from my sister and me. Frantically, she scooped up her jars, closing them up and tucking them back into her bag. The final one sat in front of her, with no plug for the top.

“Is that something normal for zebras?” I asked between sips. The pouch was small enough I could hold it with my fetlock when I wasn’t drinking. Reluctantly, I placed the end back in my mouth and drank more.

“Yes and no,” she whispered, turning to look at me. “It was a very common thing for my family. My mother taught me years ago, and I was the one who taught it to my brothers.”

“For that matter, what is normal for zebras?” Lost asked. “You’re the first zebra we’ve ever spoken to. Other than that, our knowledge comes from stories mom told us, and a few books from the war.” She sat down on the other side of Xeno.

“That depends on who you ask. From what my mother told me, I am not a normal zebra. She was very religious, and believed as the tribe we came from did.” What are zebra beliefs anyway? “I did not inherit that from her, which led me to become an outcast.” She went back to staring at the jar in front of her, then reached out with a hoof and passed it over the opening. When her hoof was past, the jar was empty of whatever was in it before. How... How did she do that?

My mind balked, even as it absorbed an uncomfortably familiar story. I took another sip of the disgusting RadAway, and my brain sorted itself back out into ‘listening’ and ‘bleh.’

“My mother is why we left. I was told... I should take my brothers and search out ponies. That I might learn more, to experience more than we could in the tribe,” Xeno continued. “It has been several years, and there has been nothing to convince me of her beliefs having any value.” She paused for a moment. “I was able to pick up on your pony language in my time traveling. My brothers refused to learn...” She chuckled nervously. “As you can tell, I am not very good at speaking your language! Not often is there time for practice.”

“Oh I noticed, you don’t use contractions at all,” Lost pointed out.

“What is that word, contraction?” The poor zebra had her brow furrowed now, looking back and forth between my sister and I in confusion. Her breathing was slowly getting shallower. After the last new word she learned, I really wasn’t all that surprised by her reaction.

“It means you say ‘I’m’ instead of ‘I am,’ or ‘We’re’ instead of ‘we are.’ Combine two words together to make a new one,” I explained to her. I wasn’t really the thinky pony, but I definitely knew how to speak. In the long run, this would make things a lot easier for Lost and I, without having to guess or wait for Xeno to say things the long way.

“One minute, ponies!” Spade shouted again. The griffon she was standing next to looked down at her, and gave her a pat on the head with one of his yellow suited wings.

Xeno’s breathing returned to normal after I explained just what the new word meant. “Iam...” Xeno said, moving her mouth far more than was necessary. “This word feels wired to say.” She broke into zebra again, speaking too fast for me to make out what any of it might be. “Iam not sure, but I will try to use this type of word again.”

Lost nudged her shoulder with a hoof, smiling. “You’ll get it.” She took another sip of the RadAway, and levitated the pouch over to Xeno. “Now drink some of this, you’ll feel better.”

The zebra nodded, and hesitantly took the pouch in one of her hooves, gulped down the remainder, and gave it back to my sister. She stared at the little pouch and said, “Your pony medicines are not trustworthy, but this seems to work well enough. It will have to do for now...”

Another sip, and my RadAway was gone as well. The aftertaste seemed worse than the actual taste, but at least I felt a lot better. Another one of those, and I’d be ready to take down the griffon and his little pet mare. I did have one in my bags still. Maybe... if he didn’t have that rifle.

“Back to work ponies! Take your RadSafe if you got it, otherwise you’ll be dead by the next break.” The olive bitch yelled again. I grunted. I really didn’t like her brown-nosing.

“Iam not sure that it will work out. Am I that difficult to understand?” Xeno asked, slowly rising to her rear hooves and pushing her back back against the wall.

Lost, meanwhile, produced a few more of the disgusting pills. Each of us took one from the blue haze of her telekinesis and ate.

I grimaced, forcing a smile and shutting my eyes tight. “Only sometimes,” I said smiling, and we got back to work.

* * *

“Heave!” we shouted in unison.

“Ho!” the unicorns shouted back.

The stone we’d been working on was far larger than the rest, and we had no tools to break it up with. Several of the unicorns were all working together to try and lift it, while us earth ponies, and one zebra, rocked it back and forth from underneath trying to dislodge it.

With a thundering crash, the boulder toppled, and began to fall. I backpedaled away from it, trying not to get crushed as it landed. The boulder landed a few feet from me, almost exactly where I’d been standing.. The impact knocked the unicorns’ magical grasp on it loose, and it began to roll toward us earth ponies.

“Scatter!” somepony yelled.

I bolted to the far right, running out of the path of the rolling ball of death. Xeno dashed up next to me in a heartbeat. Another two ponies flanked us, with several others fleeing the opposite direction. One of the unicorns wasn’t quite quick enough. The tumbling boulder rolled over her. With a sickening crunch, blood and gore spattered the walls.

The remaining unicorns, Lost included, did their best to grab the rock before it could hurt anypony else. Several colors of levitation wrapped around it, slowing the boulder to a more manageable speed. The earth ponies dived back in, risking their lives to grab the rock and bring it skidding to a stop.

I couldn’t. I couldn’t make myself move. I just stared at the smear of a pony left on the ground. The torso lay in an indistinct mass of blood and shattered bones, with a disgusting medley of fluids and crushed organs forced out to her sides by the fallen stone. Her head was the only thing not splattered onto the ground, and I could still see the look of surprise on her face.

That... that could have been me. That could have been Lost, or Xeno... Why hadn’t it been Spade? …no, no even she didn’t deserve an end like that. I tore myself away from the horror and found my eyes locked with Lost’s. She gave a troubled but knowing nod. I returned to helping the gang roll the rock away.

The muffled voice of the griffon supervisor stopped us, and as each pony turned to look, that bitchy olive mare from before hopped up next to him. After more muffled mumbling, Spade nodded a few times.

“There's an opening,” she said. “We need small ponies willing to go through. You can either volunteer or I'm going to start picking.”

Everypony stood still in an awkward silence.

I didn't blame them, since I didn't want to go in either, but... well, I was pretty small. A few other ponies shuffled around, moving behind others to try and blend into the background. Had this happened before, with other ponies going through holes in cave-ins and not returning? Maybe...

There was another muffled speechy-noise from the griffon.

“Alright,” Spade said. “Fine, nopony wants to choose? Sweet, you're up.” She pointed a hoof at a smallish earth pony with a ruddy coat and messy mane.

“No,” said a unicorn buck with fiery red eyes. “He can't go alone and you know it.”

From within the suit, the griffon muttered something that actually made Spade shiver. She looked at the unicorn. “Look I get it, and our Queen would understand. But... he's the weakest link here.”

“Bull,” the unicorn said, stomping, “shit! If he goes, I go with him.” He stepped in front of the other stallion, who looked rather hurt by what Spade had said.

The olive mare let out a sigh, but nodded. “Fine. We'll send a group. Anypony else going to choose or do I need to?” She asked, her eyes closed. She looked like she was fighting to stay calm.

“I'll go,” said a very familiar voice. I looked over at L.A., my eyes wide with terror. She wouldn’t- “As long as my sister and friend can go with me.”

Slowly, I opened and closed my mouth, searching for words. I trusted her though, and by the look on her face, she knew what she was doing. Xeno wasn't arguing, so why should I?

“Done,” said Spade.

My sister probably knew what she was doing, but still... I looked over at the cave-in. Where the boulder had been was now a decently-sized opening. Several smaller rocks jammed in the sides, forming an arch that was just barely large enough for us small ponies to fit through, let alone a normal-size pony or a Steel Ranger in their power armor. Lost and I weren’t as big as your average pony, more than likely because of the number of times my sister and I went hungry on a bad hunting day, but this looked like a tight squeeze even for me.

Spade tossed the unicorn a bottle, and he caught it in his telekinesis. “Don’t die in there, Night.”

“I'm more worried about him,” Night responded wearily, pointing his horn toward the earth pony stallion. He didn’t wait for a response, but stepped right into the new gap in the walls. He disappeared, his deep blue coat blending into the darkness of the tunnel.

While Spade passed the medicine bottle to the dour unicorn, I grabbed our bags. With everything we owned in tow, the grand total of one gun, one RadAway, and one PipBuck, I followed him in. I didn’t want to go through that passage, here there was at least a guard with a gun, not to mention the other ponies. Mom might have taught us that township groups were bad, with their cliques, but gathered together against their will? We could look out for each other against our captors... right? I sighed. I was probably deluding myself. I clenched my teeth, worrying about what might be on the other side, and stepped in.

Xeno entered behind me, with Lost right after her. Behind that I could hear the other earth pony, Sweet was his name, I supposed, but with the cramped space, I couldn’t look back to see what was going on behind me. About halfway through I almost fell to my knees, the rough ceiling threatened to gouge at my back and the jagged floor digging at my hooves. With ponies in front of and behind me in this narrow passage, I was completely in the dark. Up ahead, I saw a dull crystalline glow appear around the silhouette of the unicorn as he emerged out of the passage and into the cavern beyond.

“How much further?” Lost shouted.

“Not much, there’s light already,” I called back to her, barely ducking in time to miss a rock that jutted out from the ceiling. Past that bit, it got a little easier, with the passage walls widening just enough to stretch my legs. One last outcropping and one sidestep, and I finally reached the end. Once outside the passageway, I found myself in another cavern like the first. There were gems lining the walls, all glowing with the same dull light shone through clouded facets. “So what’s thi-”

I shut up as the unicorn stallion glared me into silence. He pointed a hoof toward the ceiling, which was even darker than the rest of the dim chamber. I stared for a moment, unmoving, before Xeno bumped into me. Down I toppled, face first into the ground below. Ow...

“I have reached the end, an-” She abruptly silenced herself as well, catching the same look from Night. She followed the direction his hoof was pointing, and her eyes went wide. She turned around, and stuck her head down the passageway through the cave-in. “There are bloodwings, you must be quiet, ponies,” she whispered.

Lost emerged afterward, moving on the tips of her hooves to stay silent. Behind her crawled the other earth pony, who seemed more distracted than cautious, given the circumstances. Just great. This meant we had a silent ‘weak link’ earth pony, and another bossy unicorn. But to my surprise, once he saw there were no guards or other ponies, Sweet embraced the unicorn stallion.

The scene left me feeling a bit awkward. To break the tension, I turned to my sister and Xeno. “What do they want us to do in here, anyway?” I asked in a whisper.

“I... I have no idea,” Lost answered under her breath. “It’s not as if I was given special instructions.”

Xeno merely shrugged.

How helpful. I looked back and forth between the two stallions.

The two broke their hug, with Night kissing Sweet's forehead. Once apart, the ruddy earth pony smiled, but shrugged. Night turned back to the cave-in and poked at the rocks with his hooves. “We either work here with the bloodwings, or we send somepony back to tell them,” the unicorn stallion answered. He looked at Sweet. “You good to go back through?” he asked.

Sweet nodded, closing his eyes slowly.

“Good,” answered Night. “You go first, then the-”

“Are you fucking kidding?” I demanded, fighting to keep my voice down. “You're just going to go right back into their hooves?”

Lost slid the plasma pistol we had snuck in out of her bag, and aimed it at the mutant bats. “What if they wake up now?” The gun bobbed up and down, moving back and forth slowly. Looked as if she was counting them.

Night stared at me for a moment, blinking as if he couldn't comprehend what I'd just said. He walked over to stand in front of me. “And go where?” he asked. “That way?” He pointed to the far end of the cavern, past where I could see in the dull light. “You know what’s that way? Because I'll take the sure thing of going back where there's RadSafe and RadAway and no bloodwings over the mystery cavern.”

He had a point. Our choices were to go back to a griffon who couldn't fit through the passage anyway, or into the darkness beyond. Either way we might drag the bloodwings with us, and going back without any progress might get us shot on sight.

Sweet and Xeno both watched silently, looking back and forth between Lost's counting and my argument.

“You're not even going to try rebelling against this?” I yelled, forgetting to keep my voice down. One of the bloodwings squeaked at my outburst, and something splattered on the cavern floor next to me. Slowly, I looked up. I clamped a hoof down over my mouth. Must remember to talk quietly. “We just had a break, and we have one RadAway we can share. It won't go far, but we'll have time to find another way out.”

“Would it not be fastest to tell the griffon?” asked Xeno. “We have found something of much important in here, a change to go forward to the goal.” She sounded optimistic, but her way of speaking didn't do her any favors.

The earth pony nodded in agreement.

“It's not like he'll give us a gun to clear out the bloodwings, and they can fit through the tunnel too,” Night continued. “We're wasting time, let's go back now. The sooner we can get back to our Queen.” Why did they keep talking about a queen? I decided it was nothing I wanted to know anything more about. The only royalty I knew or wanted to know was Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, my Goddesses. “Sweet, you go through first.”

Sweet did as he was told, crouching down and heading back into the cave-in path.

Lost stepped up next to me, leaning in close. “I only have one spark cell left, and it’s half empty,” she whispered. “The Steel Ranger took all the rest. There’s more bloodwings here than I can even count. They just start to blend in together. If something happens to wak-”

“No!” Night yelled, in spite of the bloodwings.

It happened almost in slow motion. Sweet hit one of the rocks holding up the passage. A boulder fell free and smashed onto Sweet’s leg, crushing it between it and the rocky floor. A sickening crack filled the cavern, a sound which sent a shiver up my spine from the memory. His leg snapped to the side, shattered white bone spiking out as it tore the skin open. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out. But that meant it wouldn’t wake the blood-

After the rock rolled away, he weakly forced himself up on three hooves, but fell hard. With luck rivaling the kind Xeno always talked about, one rock collapsed from the passage wall. With that boulder missing, an avalanche of others followed.

Thud. Thud. THUD!

The entire passageway collapsed. Oh, no. Nonono. That one rock had been holding it up. Sweet must have bumped- I shook my head to clear that thought. Yes, ceiling crushing was better than slowly being eaten, but what if we’d still been in there? What if Lost had been crushed? The thought of being alone in the Wasteland shook me to my core. Dad was dead, mom was dead, if Lost had- But it didn’t happen. I took a deep breathe to calm myself. Focus on reality, not what could have been.

We were trapped now. I looked around at every wall, trying to find an opening. There had to be a passageway or a hall carved into the mine. There just had to be. Left had nothing. The claws in the back of my mind started to tear their way up through my subconscious again. Stuck in a room. With two stallions. One was wounded but that didn’t matter, stallions were bad when they were stuck in rooms with mares. I looked to the right. Nothing. I can’t be trapped again. There’s no chains this time, so it’s okay. Lost would protect me. She always did. She had to! Oh, and, and! If we couldn’t get out, that meant Seethe couldn’t get in! We may have been trapped, but at least we were safe... with all the bloodwings... I looked up.

Celestia save us...

Dozens of little red dots speckled the ceiling, with more appearing every second. I let out a loud ‘eep,’ and tore my eyes from the ceiling.

“No, no, no!” Night cried out, crouching down to the earth pony. “C’mon Sweet. No time for sleep, baby. Bloodwings are coming. And those aren’t the kind of dreams you want.” He was smiling again, his voice almost soothing. Night wrapped a hoof around Sweet’s good leg and helped him up. “Don’t leave me, please, we’re so close...”

The wounded pony didn’t respond at all. His head lolled to the side, eyes staring blankly straight ahead. There was no way he could have died from that, but given the amount of radiation within this cavern it was likely he was already past the point of saving. He was still breathing though, so there was hope. Shallow breathing was better than no breathing.

“We have to find another way out,” Lost said, trotting to the wall and starting to make a circle around the cavern room we were in. The light of the PipBuck came on, and coupled with the light from her horn, it was enough for her to see the walls.

The ceiling above us slowly came to life, the sound of dozens of wings flapping becoming almost overpowering. The red spots of eyes were everywhere now, accompanied by shrill squeaks as the bloodwings woke each other up. There wasn’t much time.

“Xeno help him,” Lost ordered. She stood near the corner of the cavern room, her face practically pressed against the walls.

The claws were still there, digging at my the dark parts of my mind. They reminded me I was trapped, even without the chains to hold me, or the muzzle to silence me. I was helpless. I had to keep calm, keep breathing, and not think about it. Lost was there with me, she would protect me. Like she always did, like she always would. Like she always would.

“Hidden, come help me over here,” she continued. When I didn’t run over, she yelled, “Hidden Fortune. Come here now.”

Yes, sister... I walked over to her, in a daze.

Xeno also did as she was ordered, though much quicker than I did. And with a precise and abrupt quick-fix, she did what she could. She pulled the torn flesh further apart and straightened his rubbery leg. Sweet’s eyes rolled up in his head. “Pony, you need to push his bone back where it belongs. Grab this pony’s hoof and slide it back inside.”

Night wordlessly took Sweet’s hoof in his and pulled down, guiding the sharp edge of bloody bone back down into the bleeding leg. A meaty squish from inside the leg set my teeth on edge. I’d had a broken leg only a few hours ago, but if it’d been that bad for me, well, I’d have asked for a bullet to the skull.

When Night was done, Xeno pulled a long cloth and wrapped Sweet’s leg tightly. It staunched some of the bleeding, but without a splint or cast, it was going to be far from effective. But at least the leg was pointing in the right direction now. She helped Night lift Sweet’s good leg and put it over the unicorn’s shoulder. He was just barely able to hobble Sweet to the corner where I had joined my sister.

“There’s a dark passageway here. Bigger than the one we came in. But there’s no light coming from the gems,” L.A. said, looking back at me. “It might be wide enough to get all three of them through, but I can’t tell.” She aimed her plasma pistol upward again, then levitated it over to me. “You take it so I can light the way, ok?”

I nodded and grabbed it with my fetlock. “You know I can’t fire these things right? I have no idea how it works.” I said, before stuffing what looked like the trigger part into my mouth. It didn’t feel right, not being a ‘real’ gun and all, but if it saved our lives, it saved our lives.

“It’s simple sis, you hold it like you’ve got it, and squeeze here.” She tapped a spot on the gun, giving me just enough instruction to position it properly. Point and shoot interface; simple. Lost turned and began walking. Following her lead, the four of us squeezed into the tunnel. My lungs struggled to draw breath again. Don’t think, I reminded myself. I wasn’t a thinky pony, so rather than think... Act.

“We have to get back and tell Spade what happened. The guard’ll kill us if he thinks we tried to escape,” Night whispered, trying his best to sound like he was yelling. “I need to get Sweet Dreams to Plagueheart. She’ll keep us alive... just to keep us digging.” His leg and hoof were covered in blood, and he’d left a trail from where Sweet Dreams was hit to where we were standing. The makeshift bandage was already stained red, and there was blood everywhere.

“We do not have time for that. The bloodwings will kill us in an instant if they finish waking. There will be another way back. Or a better way out. You need to stop letting them rule you. Be your own pony.” Xeno snapped at him, forcing her voice to an angry whisper. “Iam scared as well, but we cannot give up, that is the way to certain death.” She stared defiantly at him, her eyelid twitching slightly. It shut him up, and he nodded. Turning fear to resolve, that was a lesson we all needed to learn. The Wasteland might take and take, but a pony, or zebra, had to learn to overcome that.

The rational part of my mind agreed. Xeno was right. Why couldn’t I stop those claws of fear at the back of my skull, then? I looked back and forth between Lost ahead of me, and the two stallions to my side. Why wasn’t I up there with her? Why could I only follow... Even when I tried to lead, it was only when she agreed. I didn’t want to be left here, not with these ponies. They’d... Without her to save me...

A moment later, his own light spell activated, giving a fiery glow to the passageway Lost had found. We started through it right as the first bloodwing dropped to the ground. It opened its wings when it fell, gliding to the floor and making a beeline for the blood left there. Oh Luna, there was a trail leading right to us. The mutated bat let out a shrill screech, happy with its sanguine find, and began to drink it up.

Seconds later, the ceiling erupted into chaos. Bloodwings swooped down from every direction, all vying for the blood that had drained from Sweet’s leg. We picked up our pace, the blood leaving an imperfect trail for them to follow us. They were preoccupied for the moment by the free meal though, and hadn’t started giving chase.

The distraction didn’t last long, as the first of the bloodwings that had landed took off again, shrieking after us. The rest took flight too, searching for more. I took a potshot at the closest one in the air, but missed horribly. Not only did I barely know how to use this damn gun, but I didn’t have anything to help me with targeting! We kept moving forward, trying to stay ahead of that bloodthirsty horde.

Xeno’s luck struck, and Sweet tripped over something. Even hobbling mindlessly and being led by Night, he still toppled forward, dropping to the floor in a bloody heap. It had a domino effect. When Sweet fell, he pulled Night off-balance, and crashed to the side with him. Xeno rushed in, but was too late to catch either of them. The time it took the two to fall was just enough time for some of the bloodwings to catch up.

Two landed on the ruddy pony, going for the easier meal. Night jumped to his hooves, the fiery light of his horn glinting off the vicious fangs of the bloodwings. Ignoring the light, they attacked Sweet, digging their fangs into his flesh.

I aimed the plasma pistol, yelling in my mind for S.A.T.S. to buy me the time I needed to aim and fire. The targeting spell would give me enough time to save him. Nothing happened. Why wouldn’t S.A.T.S. coming up! Oh... My heart damn near stopped. L.A. had the PipBuck.

Night stomped down on one, splattering it into the ground before it could begin feeding. But it wasn’t enough. In what seemed like an instant, the blood that was dripping from the wounded pony’s leg dried up, and his flesh grew taut. All fluid was drained away just like that, leaving nothing but a dry shell remaining.

For a moment we all stood in shock. It had happened so fast. A split second could have been enough to save him, but even that much time was a blessing the Wasteland hadn’t been willing to give. No, that wasn’t the Wasteland’s fault, it was mine. My oversight killed this pony. A pony just... died, because I wasn’t fast enough to save him. I was too preoccupied with my stupid problems, my irrational problems, to do anything. Why couldn’t I just get over it? Nothing had happened. It was just a nightmare. I’d had hundreds of nightmares. My nights were full of nightmares, and every day in the Wasteland was a nightmare. So why did this get to me?!

Whatever had compelled those ponies, those zebras, all of them, to destroy their world so thoroughly, so heinously, that it left monsters like this hundreds of years later... Was it worth it?

Xeno moved first, attempting to kick the now-full bloodwing. She missed though. Finished with its meal, the bloodwing took to the air again, screeching to alert its brethren.

Fuck!

I fired a single shot. Xeno’s luck was with me this time. The B-KEW echoed off the walls of the passageway, and a burst of plasma smashed into the blood-sucking monster. It erupted in green energy, and turned into a sticky green goo that splattered over the dessicated pony corpse. If only that could bring the poor stallion back...

Lost hadn’t stopped moving, probably unaware of what had happened. She stared forward at the darkness, occasionally looking at the PipBuck. With the focus she needed to keep the light it was understandable, but... A pony had just died. The pony who died wasn’t me though...

If we stayed, we were just going to die. Either the radiation or the bloodwings were going to get us. I spit the gun out into my hoof. “We have to keep moving!” I whispered, trying not to yell.

Xeno got the hint and sped up after my sister, muttering something in zebra that sounded suspiciously like an apology.

“I can’t just leave him!” Night whispered hoarsely, his eyes beginning to tear up.

“I know how you feel, I’ve been there before. But we need. To. Get. Moving!” I ordered. With my free hoof, I grabbed his leg and pulled, practically dragging him from the corpses. We couldn’t stay. All light from the far end of the passage was now blotted out by the hundreds of bloodwings flying back and forth, looking for where their prey had escaped to.

“But...” he pleaded. The resistance lasted only a second, before he gave in completely, and turned his back on the fallen pony.

* * *

My back was on fire. The Med-X hadn’t lasted nearly as long the second time. Every move I made was agony, but I couldn’t stop. The bloodwings had begun searching for us, darting down every side tunnel and hallway. For the moment the four of us were safe, hidden in a hallway off to the side of the main passage, behind a rocky outcropping that kept them from seeing us with... whatever it was they used to see us in the dark. The best part about it, without the gems to light the walls and ceiling, the ambient noise of the PipBuck had diminished to a mildly obnoxious click once every minute or so. Apparently the gems themselves had been radioactive. The dark may have been inconvenient, but at least it wasn’t lethal.

The shrieks of the bloodwings sounded further and further away. Enough so that from beside me, Lost spoke up in a whisper. “How long have you been down here?” she asked the stallion. At least one of us was trying to be civil while we waited for the bloodwings to lose interest.

“Too long,” he answered.

Attempting to stay pleasant, my sister continued, “Well, I’m Lost Art, my sister is Hidden Fortune. Our zebra friend over there is called Xeno.”

“Rough Night,” he said through gritted teeth. Part of me was curious if that was some sort of innuendo. Or maybe he just had bad luck when the sun went down. Though, considering his attitude, it wouldn’t surprise me if he brought it upon hims- No that wasn’t fair, not now. He’d just lost somepony close to him.

“What do we do now?” I snapped. Even if my eyes hadn’t been clenched shut in pain, I wouldn’t have been able to see the ponies I was speaking to. I wished we could have kept the lights on, but while we hid we couldn’t chance the bloodwings seeing it. At least L.A.’s presence next to me brought a tiny bit of comfort.

“I don’t know. Why would I know?” she snapped back.

“Spade says,” the stallion said. He paused, sniffling hard. “She said there’s a few more openings and sinkholes where rocks collapsed from the ceiling. If we find one on this end, we can get back to digging and lead the way. With the guard’s rifle we could...”

“Why do you wish to go back to them? He is a slaver at best, not a guard. Do you truly believe that you will be allowed to go safely in the end?” Xeno said from somewhere behind me. Whatever it was that she ‘inspired’ to do in life, that kept her so afraid of death, it must have been bordered on being divinely inspired. Her resolve to continue forward was something I was quickly coming to respect.

Another wave of nausea hit, coupled with pain flaring on my back. I nearly collapsed, suddenly grateful for the darkness in the side hallway that kept the others from seeing me falter. I just had to ignore it, and it would go away. I fought against the feeling in the back of my throat. With a hoof over my mouth, I forced myself to swallow. If I threw up... or worse... it might alert those damn mutated bats, and just when we seemed to have lost them, too. Then we’d all be fucked.

Forcing my eyes open, I moved on shaky hooves toward the main hall. It was brighter there, more dull light coming from gemstones in the wall. Only two explanations for the sections that were dark came to mind. Either the gems were added in after the mining was done, or whatever they were mining for had dried up and they began expanding main tunnels for more and found the gems. Given their ready source of light, leaving them seemed a smarter choice. At least trying to figure out more old world mysteries kept my mind off the pain. What had they been mining down here anyway? Mom had always told us the war started because there was little coal in Equestria, but what else could be so valuable down here?

“Lost, I...” I stopped mid-sentence to swallow. More nausea welled up, and I had to keep from throwing up. “I’m starting to...” Okay, here it comes. I skittered to the darker side of the dark hallway and threw up, dry heaving once there was nothing left. The force tore open the scabs over my back and leg. Suddenly even breathing hurt, every little movement under my skin sending little sparks of pain all over. These caves were going to be the death of me...

The blue glow of her levitation lit up the worried smile on her face. “Drink this,” she said, floating over the pouch of RadAway that had been in my bag. It was even opened for me.

“Thank you,” I forced, taking the pouch in my mouth. Siiiip. Bleh. Even when it was the only thing keeping me alive, it tasted terrible.

“Aren’t you going to share?” the stallion demanded.

Of course I was, I just... I passed the remaining bits of the pouch to him. As long he made sure my sister got some we’d be-

“We must go, now,” Xeno announced, pointing a hoof out past the outcropping that was shielding us. The sound of the bloodwings was quieter now, but if our current luck kept punching us in the muzzles like it had been, my wonderful rediscovery of what had been in my stomach was going to draw them back here. “If we do not, our chance will be going.” She ran as she finished, darting back into the lit hallway and through it in the direction we had been heading initially.

The three of us followed, L.A. in front, Night in the rear, with me weakly running between the two of them, favoring my scorched leg. Since none of us knew which way was the right direction to head, following Xeno seemed to be a fine way to navigate. The worst that would happen would be losing ourselves deeper in the mine.

Every step sent flames searing through my flesh. The charred skin split, with blood pooling in the shredded and burnt flesh to seep and drip down my side. There wasn’t time to complain, any second more of the bloodwings could fly through. If I had my battle saddle, I could take care of them. But with this little plasma pistol there wasn’t much we could do. Especially considering there was only one spark cell for it. Conservation of ammo and hiding was a far better survival tactic than running in, guns blazing.

Xeno’s special brand of luck wasn’t on our side though, or perhaps it was. I really couldn’t tell with her. There was a loud screech, and the thumping of wings echoed through the cavern. I didn’t want to look back, not that I needed to, I could hear that they were getting closer and closer.

“Faster, they’re-” I started, but my breath left me. Night had passed me already, and the others were gaining ground. I just couldn’t keep up when it hurt to move so badly. Why did I always have to be limping? Fuck the Wasteland for going for my legs every, single, Goddesses-damned time. I opened my mouth again, to call out for them, but nothing came out. I gasped, trying to get air into my lungs again. They were almost here. I had to go faster. The other three rounded a corner, going out of my sight. No. Don’t leave me...

One of the bloodwings landed on me, digging its claws into my side. “NO!” I could breathe again! I veered sideways, smashing the mutated monster between myself and the wall. It worked, stunning it for a moment. That was all the time I needed. I ran. The pain in my side and leg was gone, blown away by the burst of adrenaline. Up ahead I heard a strange whirring noise, different from the teeth of the wire monster.

More bloodwings were upon me. None had landed, or attempted to latch on. I didn’t know why. I wasn’t going to argue. They swarmed around me, as I rounded the corner. Suddenly the whirring made sense.

Gunfire erupted from the two turrets at the end of the hallway, spattering the swarm of bloodwings with small caliber fire. It was enough to kill them, and that brought a smile to my face. The mutated bats exploded all around me, blood flying through the air and coating me. I kept running toward the turrets, they hadn’t been aiming at me, so they mu- A bullet tore into my shoulder, arcing pain through my entire side.

“Shit!”

Why were they shooting at me? More shots tore through the bloodwings, with several bodies falling right in my path. I tripped over one, and skidded to a stop just past the turrets. I closed my eyes. Just needed to lay down for a few minutes and then I could go back to finding a way out.

When I finally opened my eyes, I saw a white hoof. Lost stood in front of me, ready to help me up. “Turrets?” I whispered, taking the offered hoof.

“Still up after two hundred years. Earth pony engineering,” she said, pulling me up. “Looks like we found the end of the mine.”

* * *

We’d hit a Goddesses-damned dead end.

Luna. Celestia. Why had you forsake me?

I looked around, hoping I’d missed something. This section of the mine was full of nothing but two century old tools and machinery that hadn’t been used in centuries. More dull gems lined the ceiling and wall, some partially covered where they hadn’t been dug out yet. Well, that was one mystery down. “Isn’t the Stable they’re looking for here? Did anypony else see something I missed?” I asked. It had to be...

“No. This is a different part of the mine. The Steel Ranger said the original owners dug for iron,” Night explained. “Eventually they tapped the mineshaft, so they expanded in a giant fan pattern to try and find more. Apparently the Stable could’ve been built at the end of any of the mine shafts. I just want to find it so I can get back to my Queen and...” He trailed off after that, staring at the floor and looking deep in thought. A moment later, he muttered under his breath, “not that it matters anymore...”

“You mean we have to go back out there?” I asked, terrified. This was the worst idea I’d ever had. Why hadn’t I done any research before coming here... I hadn’t even considered... Stupid.

“Yes. We... hold on,” L.A. started, but cut herself off. She ran to the back edge of the chamber we were in, and threw up again. Had she gotten any of the RadAway?

“Lost are you...” I asked, ignoring my pain. I slowly walked over to her. Bullets, burns. None of it mattered if she was hurt. “What’s wrong?”

She turned to face me, blood dripping from the corners of her mouth. “I’m fine. Let’s keep going,” she said, her voice barely a whisper.

“That is not fine. The radiation is doing serious damage to you, and to all of us. We have time now, with your pony guns to protect us,” Xeno said, getting up and tossing her bag down. “I will make something, I am missing things so it will not be the best, but it will help.” She dug a few things from her bag, more jars with mysterious contents.

The unicorn meanwhile, had started fiddling with the mining machinery that was piled up against the far wall. Much of it wasn’t particularly useful, not for anything we’d need it for. There were a few pickaxes and shovels that could be makeshift melee weapons, but the rest were drills or machines I didn’t recognize. “I found something,” he announced.

Oh.

He came back from the pile of tools with a large parchment, rolled into a tight spiral. The four of us opened it, then held it down with Xeno’s jars, and took the time to look over it. It was a map.

“Sis, you’re getting blood on it,” I said, wiping the blood from her mouth. “How’s... whatever you’re making going, Xeno?” I looked over to the zebra.

She didn’t answer, but continued with her brew.

“Ok, this is very out of date, there have probably been several cave-ins since the miners were here,” Rough Night said. “But it can get us to the central hub... probably. We went the wrong way.” He pointed at a few spots on the map with his hoof. “We go back the way we came, avoid the tunnels on the side, and we should be able to find the Forepony’s office.” He sounded different, but not better. He wasn’t talking about going back and giving into the Rangers unconditionally, or like a pony looking for escape or revenge. Now he just sounded hollow and empty. Was it because he had nopony to save now, the rest didn’t matter... Was all that was left to just go through the motions?

“What about the bloodwings?” Lost asked.

“We must go through them, if they have not left the mine already. There is less radiation here, but it will kill us in time. We cannot stay forever,” Xeno responded, with surprising clarity. She finally finished mixing up a batch of something or other. It was in one of the larger jars, a combination of unmentionables from every other little ‘extract’ she had. She took a drink of it herself, then passed the remainder to my sister. “This is better than the RadAway you ponies make. It will make you feel much better.”

A noticeably paler blue glow enveloped the jar, and L.A. floated it toward her. I had to help get it to her mouth, but she was able to down it all. Almost immediately she looked better, her eyes focusing again. Even the glow of her magic seemed brighter. Whatever it was Xeno had mixed up, it was doing wonders.

While we examined the map, deciding on the best path to take, I felt an odd sensation. There was a familiar knitting sensation on my leg, just above my cutie mark. With a smile, I turned to Lost. Her horn was glowing brightly, but she just smiled back. For several minutes, she healed me. It wasn’t complete, but much better. The burn on my right leg was healed now, which meant I wouldn’t have to limp.

With a makeshift plan, we were ready.

* * *

“Why did we go this way?!” I screamed over the flapping of hundreds of bloodwings.

“Because it’s what the map says!” Night yelled back.

We galloped down the main hall. We’d left the safety of the turrets less than a minute ago, and the bloodwings were already chasing us again. The rusty pickaxes and dented shovels weren’t the best way to keep safe, but we were out of ‘good’ options.

Light from ahead. The map said the Forepony’s office would be safe, at least safer than the blood tunnels of death, and it was on the way to the Stable itself. If that was the pony who was in charge when the world ended, he was bound to have a few tools we could use to survive. And guns. At least, I hoped so.

A bloodwing shrieked and landed on me. I skewered the monster with the pointy end of the pickaxe I’d grabbed, and kept running. The flapping, shrieking bloodwing flailed, then died, still stuck on the improvised weapon. I ran.

WHANG.

Lost clobbered another bloodwing aside with a glowing blue swat from her shovel. They were gaining on us, and fast. I wasn’t limping, so I could keep up... but keeping up wasn’t fast enough to outrun the flying leathery death.

Each dose of Med-X lasted less and less time. The burn on my back was smaller, but not fully healed. Lost’s limited healing ability could only do so much. If this Forepony had a first aid kid...

Four bloodwings dove onto my back. One second of adrenaline lasted forever as I felt their wings and the pricking of their claws. Attack already! Bite me, fucker! Just end it if you’re going to end it! I cried out as one did, its fangs perforating my hide.

WHANG.

Lost smashed three of the bats aside, throwing them away with the shovel like dirt out of a hole. The fangs ripped two jagged lines across my back as they ripped free and tumbled back into the mass of mutated bats behind us.

One left. That one bit down.

It wasted no time in drinking.

Everything felt cold. My hooffalls slowed and I stumbled. I couldn’t feel my hooves. No blood pumping to the muscles. My vision hazed and darkened. I tried to scream. A splash of something splattered my back, coating me from my mane to my flanks.

Lost pulled her horn from the bloodwing’s corpse. Its blood, and probably some of mine, trickled down her horn and into the remains of her mane. She tossed her head, nickering, and the bloodwing splattered to the floor. “Hidden! Are you alright?”

“Nnn... ngh,” I grunted. My hooves felt dry and wooden, they looked gaunt, just stretched skin over muscle and bone with no life in it. I could only nod. When I did, I felt woozy and almost blacked out. But somehow, despite all odds, I was alive. Once again my sister saved me. We kept going.

“Up ahead!” Xeno shouted. “The building we are searching for!” Up ahead, where the tunnel widened into a cavern, a little shack sat nestled against the rocky walls. It wasn’t much, but there was a sturdy door and no visible windows. Perfect.

We ran across the cavern, making a beeline for the shack. The cavern was huge, and I wished I’d gotten a better look at it. A massive cave-in on the far side let gray daylight in from near the ceiling. Opposite the collapse, a half-dozen tunnels spread out, like on the map. Just like Night said, a giant fan pattern in every direction. Great. But for now, shack!

Night grabbed the door in fiery red telekinesis and flung it open. The four of us skittered inside, and he slammed it shut. Our hooves hit wood floor, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I jumped a foot in the air as dozens of thuds from abruptly stopping bloodwings pummeled against it.

The door held.

Finally, we were somewhere safe. All around us, walls and a ceiling and a floor. No gems slowly leaking radiation they’d absorbed hundreds of years ago. No monsters trying to drink my blood. Just a room with a terminal and some lockers. Oh dear, one of the lockers had a bullet hole through it. Oh, and there was a first aid kit attached to the wall. Perfect. A skeleton lay sprawled out the floor, with a hole in its head and a stained splatter of blood and gore from centuries past surrounding it. A gun lay on the floor nearby.

“Okay everypony, we don’t have much time,” Lost said. “This room might be safe, but we need to find another exit, or find the Stable. Night, check the lockers. Xeno, brew up more of that awesome RadAway. Hidden, check the first aid kit.” More thuds echoed through the walls around us.

Each of us got to work immediately. The first aid kit was mercifully unlocked, and provided us with two healing potions, several bandages, a shot of Med-X and some much-needed RadAway. With permission from the others, I downed the entirety of the first potion. In an instant, my back healed, the cracks and burns in the flesh stitching together to their pristine condition. It wouldn’t grow my coat back, but that wasn’t a big deal. The main thing was the pain was gone. Even better, I didn't feel lightheaded anymore. Did healing potions regrow lost blood? I wasn't going to question it. Healing magic was just one of those cheater magics that didn’t always make sense. I gave a RadAway to each pony, and placed one in my bags for myself.

“The terminal says the Stable was being built at the end of Tunnel 5. But there’s no map and no markings to show which tunnel is 5,” L.A. explained from her place at the terminal screen. The PipBuck’s screen was bright, obviously linked to the terminal before her. “Guess we just start counting.”

I walked over to her, picking up the 10mm pistol as I went. I peeked over her shoulder at the screen.

Daily Report:

Construction on the Stable has finished, which means Tunnel 5 is finally fit for mining again, though with all the equipment they rammed through I doubt there’s anything usable in that mine anymore. I’m glad to finally have those Stable-Tec bastards gone. First they took over our factory, and now my mine. Of all the nerve. I understand the war is escalating, but the idea that they can storm in and take whatever they want just boggles my mind.

I have half a mind to put my hoof down and go directly to the head of the company. Knowing her though, she’s been paid off. Oh well, so long as my miners can do their job. I still need to get paid!

Onto the report.

-The 15 day record since the last accident will need to be reset. I had to send out two condolence letters due to a collapse in Tunnel 4. I still don’t understand why we needed to use that branch tunnel. It’s been nothing but trouble since we started it.
-Iron supplies are dwindling, so I’ve decided to mine the remainder of Tunnels 1 and 2 for the gems that they contain. They might be worth far less than the iron, but we can still sell them for a small profit.
-The exit at the end of Tunnel 3 has been taken over by a local bear. Apparently finding a cave out in the woods is a sign that any old wild animal should take it as their home. I’ve warned my crew to only enter through the main entrance in the foundry. There is a note posted to all personnel at both entrances.
-Five radiation suits have been supplied and are kept my locker, under lock and key. The head of the company personally delivered them, saying they were to be used in case of an emergency. Really worried about the war lately...
-On that note, emergency provisions and small arms have been placed in the tool shed. These are for Emergency Use Only. Anypony caught tampering with company property without clearance will be punished.

In closing, the mine is as productive as ever, despite setbacks. We believe that Tunnel 7 will be provide enough iron for the next year’s supply of power armor. Any questions can be directed to myself, or the shift manager.

~Forepony Strata Shear

Okay, so the unfinished tunnel was Tunnel seven, which meant Tunnel five was two from that. Excellent. But how many unfinished tunnels were there? The report didn’t specify if there were multiple tunnels being worked at at the same time. Another downside was that our only exit was probably still teeming with radioactive wildlife. Great. I checked the map we had, but there was nothing marking anything about the Stable, and most of the tunnels drawn on the map tapered off into nothing, with no explanation about which was which.

“Bad news everypony,” Night said, finally managing to get into the locker. He pulled out several yellow suits that looked almost identical to the ones the griffon guard had been wearing before. “There’s five...” He shook his head upon tossing them out on the floor. Every single one had a bullet through the chest and out the back. “They’re all useless though.” It looked like the mare had shot herself, and had pierced through each one, rendering them all but useless. Goddesses. Damnit.

“There may be a way to repair them. Is there anything we could use for that?” Xeno asked. She had finished mixing concoctions, and was slowly sipping the largest jar. “Even I am beginning to feel the affects of the radiation, and it would be very good for me to not die a horrible death in a mine made by ponies hundreds of years ago.” She took the jar in her hooves and stared into it, then downed the rest and threw it into her bag.

“I... don’t know,” he said, looking back and forth between each suit. He gave a heavy sigh, shuffling a hoof. “Maybe we should just try to get back...” His voice had the same somber defeated tone from before, listless and hollow. “I just want to get back to Spade and go home.”

“We all do, but we can’t give up,” I said. “We’re already here. Let’s find the Stable. The Stable ponies might be nicer than the Steel Rangers. They might even help,” I offered, trying to cheer him up. “Look, there’s five suits and only four of-” I caught myself, and bit my lip. “S-Sorry. But we can use the parts from the fifth to fix the rest. See?” I grabbed L.A.’s shovel in my mouth and slammed it into one of the suits. The shovel dug into the floor and severed the leg of the suit clean off. There was plenty of extra material that could be used to seal the holes in the other four. We just needed something to create a seal.

“If it were a machine, I could fix it...” Lost muttered. “A repair spell might work if they weren’t missing huge holes. A little tear is easy, but...” She lifted one of the suits with her telekinesis and stared through the hole.

“What magic can you cast, unicorn?” Xeno asked, passing the stallion one of the jars. She gave one to my sister and one to me as well. We both downed them without question. On the bright side, whatever it was she made tasted much better than the RadAway. Though, the room did start to twist and turn a little. Spiraly...

“Well, uhh... I can cast a fireball from my horn,” Night admitted.

“What!” I demanded, snapping back to reality. “You could shoot fire all this time? But why not use it against the bloodwings!”

He just stared at me, saying nothing. Okay, it was neither here nor there. If he could melt the material from one suit onto another, it might be able to make a seal. That’s what a thinky pony would do!

Lost sat next to him, spreading each suit out with her magic. She maneuvered each so the bullet holes were all visible and flat with no wrinkles. I spent the time using the shovel to cut smaller pieces from the severed suit leg. It took forever without cheater magic, but it worked. Rough Night used the weak fire spell he had to heat up the shovel once I’d cut the suit apart, and with it glowing red hot, we were melt patches over each of the holes in a relatively short amount of time.

Several minutes later, all four of us wore radiation suits, and were ready to go. With Xeno’s home brew RadAway, a dose each of RadSafe, and another gun, I felt pretty good. The thudding of bloodwings against the building’s wall had ceased long ago, so it was more than likely safe to go out again. I hoped.

First order of business: check the shed on the far end of the cavern room for the guns mentioned on the terminal, then go directly to the Stable. We were already here, so there was no sense in running without at least trying for more allies. It might have been naive, but I wanted to believe we could find help to deal with the Steel Rangers who had stolen our things.

Lost held the plasma pistol ready in her telekinesis, as she pushed open the door and we left the safety of the room. I had the 10mm strapped to my leg, but without an opening in the suit for my mouth, there was little I could do with it. We ran across the cavern to the far shed, and I smashed the door open with a fierce buck. We ducked in and found a wealth of small-caliber weapons, and even a few sets of armored barding. Finally, armor! If it weren’t for the suit keeping the radiation at bay, I would have slipped into the new barding that minute. We stuffed everything we could carry into each of our bags. Guns, ammo, armor, anything that wasn’t bolted down filled my saddlebags to the brim. These ponies had been ready for the end of the world, but luckily for us, they never needed the equipment.

With the knowledge from the terminal records, we looked at the tunnels before us. The unfinished one was Tunnel seven...There were only six tunnels! The Forepony’s records said one was an offshoot, but which one? Did we have to check every single branch, one at a time?

“The radiation’s still going up,” Lost said through the suit. “The PipBuck’s clicking is slower, but it’s still going up.” Surprisingly, I could make out everything she said, which raised questions about our griffon guard. Which reminded me...

“Sis, did you hear Kyrie saying that they’d attack the Steel Rangers if the ‘contract’ is broken?” I asked as we started down the tunnel immediately to the right of the one we’d come in through.

“Yeah, I just hope it won’t come to that,” she replied. “They could turn on us, too.”

Night snorted. “Those griffons have been here for months now. I don’t think the Steel Rangers are going to be reneging on the contract any time soon,” he said. He seemed to be in a slightly better mood, as if being integral to patching the suits had helped to him to put aside what had happened. I felt for him, but we could mourn later, once we were safe.

We hit another collapse in the second tunnel. Far above, I could see a giant gaping hole in the ceiling, which let in a significant amount of ambient light through the cloud cover. Was it really still day outside? I felt like we’d been in here for eons, like it should at least be the middle of the night. If it had really only been a few hours, well... That sent a shiver down my spine all the way to the tip of my tail.

Our collective ears drooped in defeat as Night made a mark on our map about the cave-in. We couldn’t even climb out, with how steep the rubble was. With nothing more to do at this dead end, we turned and headed back for the next tunnel.

This third tunnel was far larger than the other two, easily twice as tall and several times wider. I had a good feeling about it. This was the kind of tunnel they’d have needed to move massive amounts of machinery through to build a Stable. But... I knew better than to get too worked up. Even if this was a good sign, there was still a massive amount of radiation and possible wildlife if this was the wrong tunnel. The gems in the ceiling and walls were far bigger, as if the deeper they cut, the larger they became. The dull light they showed was a blessing from Celestia though, as it meant we could see any errant bloodwings long before they could see us.

We rounded one last corner, and found ourselves staring down by four more turrets.

Not good.

As quickly as we turned the corner, the turrets opened fire. I skidded to a stop, spun around, and dove back behind the corner, out of the line of fire. We crashed into a pile, safe from the hail of bullets. Miraculously not a single bullet had hit any of us. Another bit of luck that I blamed on Xeno. None the worse for wear, we gathered in a little circle.

“Do you think you can take those out, Sis?” I asked. “I can’t use any guns through this thing.”

“Of course,” she said, smiling. Her blue eyes twinkling behind the visor and her glasses. Oh, that’s right. She had the PipBuck, which meant she had S.A.T.S. A half second later, two shots popped off, echoing B-KEW off the walls. Two of the four turrets exploded in a shower of green energy and sparks.

“I’m pretty sure this is the right tunnel. Turrets would be guarding something, right?” Night asked, once again having pulled the map out to make notes.

“Probably,” Lost said, firing off two more shots. Both missed this time. “Shit. I’m out...”

Oh dear, and she couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with anything other than the plasma pistol. I gritted my teeth. This was going to suck, but we needed to get to the end of this tunnel. “Take off my helmet,” I said. “I’ll get the last two.” A few seconds without the helmet wouldn’t kill me. I hoped.

Hesitantly, Lost unsealed the helmet and lifted it from my head. The feel of the radiation was overwhelming and oppressive. Instantly I felt sick, my insides twisting and a warm wetness dripping from my lips. With a shake of my mane, trying to throw the sick feeling off, I reached down and pulled the pistol from its holster on my leg. It was hard to grip, the blood soaking the handle, but if I just moved fast enough... I peeked around the corner, and wearily fired off a few shots. The first few missed, but one finally struck home, knocking the turret out in a shower of sparks. The remaining turret fired back at me, several shots cutting through my mane, and grazing my cheeks. I’d been shot like that before, and didn’t even flinch. Grazing shots didn’t have the same umph that a bullet going into my flesh had, and were easy enough to ignore.. I was feeling woozy though, that wet burning coming from the back of my throat. Another flick of the trigger and the last turret exploded.

“Ok helmet back on now!” I yelled, before swallowing to keep back the tide of vomit. I dropped the gun to the ground just as the helmet slammed down over my head. I sat down in relief as Lost sealed the helmet back on. I no longer felt like I was being cooked from the inside out. I just hoped she wouldn’t see the blood...

With the helmet back on and a few seconds to rest, the oppressive feeling faded, leaving me feeling well enough to continue. I rounded the corner again, motioning with a hoof for the others to follow me. Up ahead, far beyond the turrets, was the treasure we’d been searching for.

Stable 60.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Footnote: Level Up!

Hidden Fortune:
New Perk: Finesse – Your attacks are smooth, graceful and precise. You have a higher chance to score a critical hit on an opponent in combat when using conventional firearms.

Lost Art:
New Perk: Buck Rodgers (Rank 1) – Zap guns are even more dangerous in your hooves. Every ranged attack with a Magical Energy Weapon does extra damage.

“What’s a ‘Scifresh’ anyway?”
“I’ve no idea.”
“A Scifresh is a cultivar of apple closely related to the Braeburn apple. It is an interesting fact that Jazz is a brand name that that type of apple is sold as.”
“How... How do you even know that?”
“Iam a zebra, I took the Tribal Knowledge perk.”
“Well now that’s just not fair.”

Author's Note:

(A massive thank you to Kkat for creating, and everyone else who has helped to flesh out the universe of Fallout Equestria. And to everyone who has/will help with with editing and making this more palatable... Big hearts to Dimestream, Sabsy, Heartshine, Wirepony, and everypony else who helped with ideas, editing, and brushies. And of course everything is copyright their respective owners. ~Hnetu)

Comments

[Deathpony]

another good chapter love it

[InkSplash]

Yay, good chapter.

[Hnetu]

I'm glad you're all enjoying it. If anyone has any feedback, I'd be happy to hear in a message.

Either way, chapter 6 should come out with a far FAR shorter gap than the previous one. Thanks again for reading, and your patience. You have no idea how much it means to me.

Edit: For those that may be wondering, a few minor edits to fix things I missed were made, hence the new dates. No major plot changes, just little tweaks to fix stuff.

[Hnetu]

Ok Chapter 5 has been re-uploaded after the reformatting of Fimfiction ate it. WOO!

[S3rb4n]

Very nice chapter! I really liked the oppressive feel of the tunnels.

[Doctor Ham]

PSA: Sickness is not conducive to reading.

I was actually a bit surprised to see that the Rangers really were taking Hidden, L.A., and Xeno prisoner.  I honestly had thought that these were some decent Rangers, and maybe the Elder was planning to stage some sort of trick.  But for asshole Rangers, their plan makes perfect sense.

Herein we see more of Hidden's fear setting in that you mentioned before.  During the instances where she was fighting back those mental claws (or failing to do so), I really felt how much this was getting to her, and I liked that she couldn't rationalize her way out of it.  The distress her fear caused was such that when Hidden tried activating SATS, forgetting that she didn't have the PipBuck anymore, it was completely natural. Well done with that, indeed.  The bloodwing chases were tense and exciting, and good gods poor Sweet's leg.  The mental image of a limb breaking so catastrophically as to have the bone sticking out of the flesh always makes me wince.

I think my only real complaint I've got is that I wasn't satisfied with how they managed to keep the PipBuck.  Naturally they've gotta hide it somehow, but... I dunno, I caught myself raising a dubious eyebrow that their plan worked as opposed to applauding the sleight of hand (sleight of hoof?  Sleight of magic?).  There's definitely a good chunk of my own bias in there, I suppose in part because PipBucks are rare, and I would think special attention would be given to retrieving it.  I place more of the blame on Paladin Jazz than on Trifle here.

When they found the radiation suits, I found myself asking why they didn't just use the material from the 5th suit to repair the others.  And then Hidden said what I was thinking and made me feel clever.  Huzzah!

On the one hand I'm thinking that they'll probably escape from the Steel Rangers via the tunnels, especially now that they've gotten some fresh supplies.  The only gear of any real value the Rangers still have is the battle saddle, and I don't think they were gonna get that one back even if the Rangers kept their word (dubious).  Jazz stating that he looked up to Blueberry Sabre pretty thoroughly destroyed any trust they might have had from me.  I imagine that is working as intended.

On the other hand, it seems like there might not be another exit, and I get the feeling Hidden is scheming up a scheme involving the griffins.

And on a mysterious third hand, I'm really hoping that Stable 60 is empty. I really, really hope it is an empty Stable, because the alternative is the Steel Rangers getting to gut the place.