Chapter 13: The Undying
Chapter 13: The Undying
“The Future. Survival anywhere. We surpass the norm.”
Manehattan.
I still remember the first time May and I came to the big city, only about a week or so after the megaspells had destroyed Equestria. Back then, the only thing standing had been the former hub of the Ministry of Arcane Science. That name had been lost to time, and I had since learned that the building had come to be known as 'Tenpony Tower'. Now, like back then, ghouls were disallowed from entering the tower. Whether this was based on a long standing safety protocol or just a dislike of our kind I wasn't sure. I tended to suspect the latter, considering that the place seemed to have become the new home of hoity-toity-ness in the Equestrian Wasteland.
Still, it wasn't all bad. In the more than a century since the apocalypse, the radiation had faded enough to allow ponies to start living in the city again. The exception was the areas closest to the impact crater, although there were rumours that ghouls liked to live there. Unfortunately, most of the settlements in the Manehattan ruins were slums. The ponies subsist off of dirty water, scavenged hundred and twenty year old food and, more often than I'd approve of, meat from the mutated animals. It wasn't a great life, but really, where in the wasteland was?
Presently, May and I were returning to the city for the first time since that venture here more than a hundred years prior. For Rottingtail, this was his first time ever coming to the city. He claimed he'd never come in the days before the war because he didn't care for the clamour of the big city. Not much in the way of clamour here anymore. Although, frankly, there really much wasn't Rottingtail cared for anymore, except perhaps May and I.
“Ah still don't see why we had t'come all the way back to Manehattan,” Rottingtail griped as we walked.
“I told you,” retorted May, “Manehattan is likely the best place to find a colony of civilized ghouls.”
Even though she never really stopped searching, May's hope of finding a cure for ghouls had died off significantly since the destruction of Trottingham. She wanted to return to the very place that she became a ghoul, in order to try and divine some kind of solution. I felt for her, and for all the other suffering ghouls out there, but at this point I would have been satisfied with finding a cure for the mental degradation by itself. Tragedies like that of Snips needed to be prevented.
Then again, was being a ghoul really so bad? The smell can be gotten used to. There's no need for food, drink or sleep. You'd be surprised how much you can get done when you don't spend all your time trying to scrounging for the basic necessities of survival. Of course, I'm not really fooling anypony. I would give just about anything to feel like a proper equine again.
Of course that brings up the question of what makes a proper equine. What makes one pony better than another? It's a difficult question, and there's no definite answer. I like to think that the truest essence of a pony is their heart and soul. I still had those of course, but lacking so much else, I never really felt... whole.
After a while, I couldn't stand May and Rottingtail's bickering anymore, so I landed between them and tried to strike up a new topic of conversation. “So, where are we heading first?” I asked, looking to May.
She responded by stopping a moment to lift her Pipbuck; “There are a lot of small communities that cropped up inside the city limits. We just need to find the nearest one to ask for directions.”
“T'where?” interjected Rottingtail. “Frankly Ah wouldn't mind just headin' straight to the megaspell crater. Ah could use a nice rad-soak.”
May sighs; “I could too, but we're not here just for our own sake.”
I nod my agreement; “We're here to try and help other ghouls, but it won't be any good to them if we don't also help out the regular ponies and set a better example.”
“Ah don't see why not,” snorts Rottingtail. “Don't matter how nice we are, any smoothcoat out there is just as likely to shoot us, sane or not.”
As much as I hated to admit it, Rottingtail was kind of right. Even with good ponies like DJ P0N-3 trying to set other ponies straight on our behalf, there were far too many who just couldn't be bothered to differentiate between us and our insane kin. If only there were a way to make them see what it was like for us. To make them understand our plight. Of course, the only real way to do that is to become a ghoul, and I wouldn't wish that on anypony.
***
Without anything else to talk about as we walked, I prompted May to switch on the radio. The voice of the current DJ P0N-3, a middle aged sounding stallion, greeted us. This stallion, whose name I hadn't learned, was the successor to Bonus Track. The albino mare from Stalliongrad had become the latest to bear the mantle shortly after bringing in the story of the abductions. Unfortunately she had passed away two years prior from heart failure. May had been right about her weaker constitution eventually being her downfall.
“Once again that was Sweetie Belle singing the one great truth of the wasteland. Now it's time for a DJ P0N-3 survival tip. Remember that as summer gets closer, so does bloodwing mating season. When that time comes, you do NOT want to be caught outside at night. Make sure you got someplace to stay with four walls and a roof, preferably free of any holes. A lone bloodwing may not be tough, but they always travel in ridiculously large swarms.”
Of course, bloodwings didn't care much for ghouls. They prefer fresher food. May gave me a look that told me she was thinking exactly the same thing. Still, they're a hassle when riled up anyways, so we knew to take care regardless.
“While we're on the subject of survival, I want to remind everypony out there about the dangers of radiation. This is a common problem everywhere in the wasteland. The worst pockets of it are the places where megaspells detonated, like the Manehattan City Center or the Fillydelphia crater, but don't think that you're safe just because the ground ain't glowing underneath your feet. A radiation detector is the only way to be sure, so if you don't have one, play it safe.
“Worse still is that magical radiation is all too readily absorbed by food and water, and then passes into the body of whoever eats or drinks it. Always drink clean water whenever you can. Best way to get it is gathering a supply when it rains or using a condensation cleaner. If you take these precautions, you can avoid some ugly fates: deformities, death, and worst of all, depending on who you ask, ghoulification. This is DJ P0N-3 wishing all you ponies out there good luck.”
I stopped, feeling the need to do a double take. Normally the line of DJ P0N-3's was a lot more supportive of ghouls. That was downright insulting. Then again, hadn't I just been bemoaning my fate as a ghoul? Maybe I was reading too much into it. I looked to May as another song begins to play, but she was wearing an expression of mild shock as well.
“Did that DJ just say what Ah think he said?” asked Rottingtail, giving voice to our collective thoughts. “And here ah was thinkin' he was one of the last good smoothcoats out there.”
“I'm sure he didn't mean it like that,” I protested.
May seemed inclined to take the middle ground; “I suppose not every DJ is going to think about things exactly the same way.”
Rottingtail snorted in response; “Or he's just takin' up the popular opinion of us. He is an entertainer after all; can't be seen as unpopular.”
I sighed; here we go again. I really hated having to step between my best friend and my... bedfellow to break up their little squabbles. “Listen, if anything he's probably being pressured to downplay ghouls by the other ponies in the tower. It's not like he said we were crazy or evil or anything.”
***
Night was falling, and we still hadn't had any luck finding a settlement. Though May prided herself on knowledge of the city's layout, that really didn't help when most of the streets were empty and the buildings vacant or demolished. Her Pipbuck's auto-map was equally unhelpful for the same reasons. In short... we were lost. The settlements that had cropped up in the Manehattan ruins were few and far between, punctuated by the occasional nest of raiders of beasts that we took care to avoid. The best we had been able to manage was to continue in the general direction of the megaspell crater.
In the end, the three of us decided to hole up in the lobby of an old apartment building for the night. While we didn't actually need to sleep, we were somewhat achy from wandering through the city all day, and could use some time off our hooves. Considering that any settlement we did find would be asleep at this time anyways, we figured it was as good a time as any.
Rather than sleeping though, Rottingtail and I decided to make use of this down time to briefly indulge ourselves. We made use of one of the first floor hotel rooms, while May opted to stay in the lobby and keep watch. It wasn't exactly restful, but it was enjoyable and helped to take the edge off Rottingtail's demeanour. Once we had finished, we just laid there, keeping close and trying to relax a bit. Naturally, the ever awful wasteland wasn't about to just let us.
A scream from somewhere outside the hotel jolted the two of us to attention. Hoofsteps coming down the hall were followed by the door swinging open to admit May, who looked panicked. “Trouble outside, come on!”
Without hesitating, Rottingtail and I got out of the bed and scrambled for our gear. All I had to do was slip Stronghoof's Legacy over my back, after which I deigned to help Rottingtail back into his armour and battle saddle. As I moved out of the room, he stopped to grab his sheriff's badge and stetson. He had never given those up, keeping them as reminders of his perceived failings back at Trottingham even forty years after the fact.
Outside, the screaming and yelling had been joined by the sound of gunfire and the unmistakable screech of a swarm of bloodwings. As soon as I was out the door I took to the air and whipped my rifle off my back. After a quick flight, I found the struggle two blocks over. At least a dozen bloodwings were frantically scurrying through the air around a small wagon. I raised the scope of Stronghoof's Legacy for a closer look, and saw two desiccated husks. One was a brahmin that had been pulling the cart, the other was a pony that was unrecognizable for having been drained dry by the mutated bat.
Without waiting for my companions, I trained the scope of my rifle on the nearest bloodwing. Damn things were all over the place, so even if one got out of the way, another would take the hit. I tongued the trigger. Pfft. Though not as strong as my old rifle, Stronghoof's Legacy still packed enough punch to drop one of the leathery monstrosities with one shot. I was glad for that, as I only have five shots before I would need to reload, and any time I wasn't shooting was time that somepony else in that group down there might have become a meal.
Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft.
Four shots, four dead bloodwings. Best of all, the suppressor on the rifle combined with the natural quietness of flight allowed me to go entirely unnoticed by the swarm, particularly when the much louder gunfire of those being attacked was thrown into the mix. Said gunfire had managed to drop another three of the swarm, leaving six more that I could make out clearly. Sadly the wasteland loves its cruel ironies, and those shooting below had to stop and reload at the exact same moment I did.
I hurried to eject the magazine from the sniper rifle and quickly slot in a fresh one, not bothering to catch the emptied one as it fell. Just as I was bringing the scope to my eye, a scream of torment told me that another bloodwing had found its mark. My next shot rang out just as fresh ones joined the fray. My gaze was pulled down to the street as Rottingtail galloped forward, his mouth clamped down hard on the bit of his battle saddle. May followed behind him at a distance. She had lost Gizmo's old pistol back in Trottingham, and hadn't deigned to pick up another weapon since.
Rottingtail's rifles tore the feeding bloodwing from its victim forcibly as the creature's leathery hide was pulped. Between his arrival, my sharpshooting and the freshly reloaded gunner on the ground, we made short work of the remaining members of the swarm. Without bothering to reload, I slipped my rifle away and landed next to Rottingtail. I head his battle saddle clicking as it reloaded, while May ran past us, floating medical supplies out to aid the wounded caravan ponies. The sound of a shotgun blast and May's scream followed.
“Hey!” roared Rottingtail, stepping forward and placing himself between May and the shooter. “We just fuckin' saved yer asses!”
I hurriedly trotted over to May. She was hunched forward, her left front leg peppered with buckshot. Black, ichorous blood oozed from the numerous small wounds. I quickly grabbed one of the potions she had floated out and forced it down her throat; “It's alright!” I called to the caravan, “we're here to help.”
To my dismay, two armed and armoured ponies stepped forward. One was an earth pony with two assault rifles mounted on a saddle, and the other was a unicorn floating a pump-action twelve-gauge. “Stay the fuck back!” called the earth pony. He looked to his companion; “Fuck, if it ain't bloodwings trying to eat us, it's Celestia damned zombies.”
“Fuck you,” snorted Rottingtail. “Is this the thanks we get fer keepin' ya'll from gettin' fed on?”
The unicorn guard stepped up and cocked his shotgun. “Yeah, so you could have what was left as a meal for yourselves.” He levelled the weapon right at Rottingtail's head.
I was tempted to draw my rifle to even the field, but it wasn't loaded and I'd probably get shot for the effort; “We're not zombies,” I protested. “We came here to help when we heard screaming.”
The two guards seemed unconvinced as they looked between us and the three ponies that had been guarding. One of them was attempting to treat the one that had been partially drained by the bloodwing Rottingtail had shot loose. The third stepped forward alongside the guards; “What are you waiting for?” he demanded, sounding to have the air of a Tenpony citizen. “Dispose of those foul cretins so we can be on our way.”
Rottingtail glared at the other two armed ponies. “Ya'll don't want our help, fine, but next time ya'll are gettin' eaten, Ah'm just gonna laugh.”
“I don't think so,” said the unicorn guard with the shotgun. “Last thing this city needs is a couple of well armed zombies causing shit.”
“Yeah well Ah'll drop muh guns when Ah'm good'n dead,” Rottingtail retorted without stepping back.
“That's the idea.”
“I wouldn't do that if I were you.” This new voice carried with it a preverberation that I had heard only once before. My lazy eye rolled around, drawn to the light of a glowing ghoul trotting slowly towards the rest of us. He was flanked by three other ghouls, two of which, like him, were earth ponies, while the last was a unicorn. They were all armed save the glowing one.
“Fuck,” called the earth pony guard, “they got backup.”
“No,” stated the glowing one calmly, “we just happened to be in the neighbourhood and didn't like the sound of our well meaning kin being shot up. If you've got any brains left, I suggest you leave. Radiation poisoning is not a pleasant death.”
The guards look between each other with worry before hurriedly loading the other ponies into the cart. I saw that the injured pony had stopped breathing. I felt a pang of regret mixed with pity, as May's medical skills surely could have saved her. The two guards dislodged the brahmin corpse from the wagon and hitched themselves in, turning the cart and running in the direction opposite the glowing ghoul.
With the regular ponies vacated, the glowing ghoul trotted towards May, Rottingtail and I along with his armed entourage. The wave of warmth that flowed from the radioactive ghoul was pleasant as it washed over me. May stood up, the radiation coupled with the healing potion I had fed her giving her the strength to stand again. The glowing ghoul stopped a few feet away and just stood there, smiling at us.
I smiled back, looking appreciative. “Thank you,” I said, nodding once. “That could have been really messy.”
“Think nothing of it,” replied the glowing ghoul in that strange, echoing voice. “I try my best to look out for those who, like me, have been marked by magical radiation. You may call me Apex.”
***
May, Rottingtail and I, grateful to Apex for coming to our aid, decided to follow him back to where he had come from. He knew the streets of the city as well as May and, better yet, knew where the newer settlements were. One in particular, had been founded by him along with a few other ghouls. He has established a small shanty town near the border of the Megaspell crater, where the radiation acted as a natural deterrent against unwanted company. As much as I didn't like the idea of ghouls having to cut themselves off from other ponies, the sad truth was made quite clear by that caravan.
“So,” continued Apex, who had spent much of our walk doing the talking, “I founded Craterside with the intention of creating something like what used to exist in Trottingham. A little slice of the Wasteland that ghouls could have all for themselves.”
I let out a sigh; Trottingham was still a painful memory, and a glance at Rottingtail told me he felt a pang of regret at its mention. He still very much considered it a personal failure. “How big is your little town now?”
“Four hundred or so,” replied Apex, looking back with a soft smile. The radiation coming off his body made us very comfortable around him, despite only having just met. “Most of our residents come from other parts of the city for a little security and the company of fellow ghouls. We actually had to do some expanding recently.”
Rottingtail trotted further forward with a question of his own; “How do ya'll know this little town of yers is proper safe? Ah used to think Trottingham was secure, till it got blown to hell by Steel Rangers.”
Apex seemed unfazed. “Aside from the natural barrier of radiation, we keep ourselves armed. However, out biggest defence is a low profile. We don't have anything that anypony else wants or needs, so they don't have any reason to come and take it from us.”
“But how do you trade with other ponies?” I ask. My old mercantile instincts thought that not having anything anypony wanted was just wrong.
Apex actually stopped and turned to look back at the three of us; “We don't.” He states simply. “To be honest, I wasn't expecting the three of you to be quite so naive, considering all you've been through.”
“What do you mean?” queried May.
Apex looks between the three of us, gesturing to each of us in turn as he spoke. “From what you've told me about yourselves, I thought you'd understand. Ghouls and regular ponies simply cannot co-exist.”
That was an unpleasant thought. “What do you mean?” I protested; “Ponies need each other. Friendship and co-operation are two of the last good things we still have.”
Apex just shakes his head; “The desire for companionship is something I understand; I spent a lot of time alone out in the wastes myself. However, our fellow ghouls are all the company we truly need. 'Normal' ponies don't want our company, nor do we need theirs.”
Despite his pleasant demeanour, I couldn't help but frown at Apex's words. As much as there was a lot of animosity towards ghouls, there were still a lot of good ponies out there who saw us as what we truly were: ponies like everyone else. Granted, our physical mutations set us apart, but on the inside, our hearts and souls, the things that truly mattered, were the same as they ever were. Apex's mindset, though perhaps beneficial to some and maybe all of the ghouls in his charge, would only serve to increase the friction between them and the rest of the pony population.
May raises the next objection; “Surely you can't get along entirely isolated, can you?”
Apex actually smirks at that; “I see no reason why not. We have the advantage of not needing many of the things that other ponies struggle and fight over. Food and water? We do not need them any more. A safe place to sleep? Safety we have, even if sleep is not among our needs. Medical supplies? Proximity to the crater and the presence of other glowing ones like myself is more than sufficient in all but the most severe cases.”
“What about yer ordinance?” questioned Rottingtail. “Bullets don't magically regenerate, even if we do.”
Apex shakes his head; “We have plenty of able scavengers, and of course there are always places to look. As I have said, we do not need any further contact with 'normal' ponies. As it is, we have surpassed them. We can live longer and on less, and many parts of the wasteland that are lethal to them, we can trot into with our heads held high. Unless by some miracle the land suddenly becomes fertile again, regular ponies are only prolonging the inevitable. We are the future, where they have none.”
***
May and I quickly decided that we did not like Apex. His dogma, while true in some respects, was grounded on ideas that we simply could not accept. May had dedicated her life to helping ponies both before and after the war, and the idea of estranging from them was abhorrent to her. Equally so to me, as the idea to only look after ourselves was quite simply unappealing. I wasn't going to give up on my hope that Equestria might yet return to a place where all ponies can live freely.
Rottingtail on the other hoof seemed to have a more neutral opinion of the glowing ghoul. He had grown continually less fond of normal ponies since the death of his nephew and the razing of Trottingham. However, the look in his eyes told me he was struggling not to be taken in by Apex's way of thinking. Like he still wanted to believe in the kind of hope that May and I had. However, in spite of our personal dislike, the fact of the matter remained that Apex had saved our lives and offered us shelter. We would take him up on that offer, at least for a little while.
Craterside itself was quite similar to what we had back in Trottingham. Scrap metal, single story shanties made up most of the town, forming homes for the ghouls living here. However, even as we trotted away from Apex, our proximity to the crater kept us feeling warm and irradiated. This close to the crater, the glow made it look like early morning, even though it was still the middle of the night. I also spotted at least two other glowing ones on the side of the town facing the crater. They always seemed to be rather popular amongst the ghoul folk.
Unlike back in Trottingham though, there were a few things missing from what you would normally see in a growing town like this. There was no 'Craterside Supplies' or the like, and the majority of ghouls here didn't even bother to carry bottle caps. Not much use for currency or a shop if you never trade. As well, there was no inn of any sort, adding to the feel of this place being inhospitable to anypony who wasn't a ghoul. Lastly, there was no constabulary or sheriff's office or the like. The only ponies who seemed to be armed at all times were Apex's entourage.
The three of us decided to get closer to the crater to bask in the radiation for a while. It was quite refreshing, much like basking in a steam room would be for a normal pony. While enjoyable, none of us stayed for too long. We did not want to end up as glowing ones ourselves, as we still wished to make good with regular ponies. The relaxing radiation bath was also a good way to settle our minds after the unfortunate discussion with Apex.
Satisfied with our soak, the three of us trotted away from the crater side and back into... Craterside. Though we knew the town was small and still growing, I couldn't help but shake the feeling that something else was off about it. Aside from the glowing ones near the crater, and Apex's entourage when we arrived, I hadn't seen anypony but the three of us. Considering Apex's talk about ghouls not needing sleep, it seemed somewhat ironic that night was when they chose to stay inside. Then again... bloodwings.
The three of us trotted back to a slightly larger shanty about halfway between the crater and the edge of town. I knocked on the door with a hoof, and was met with its opening a moment later. Another ghoul looked out at me through the partially opened door; “Yes?”
“I'm sorry to disturb you,” I said, nodding my head apologetically, “but the three of us are new in town, and we haven't a place of our own to stay.”
The ghoul looked inside, then back at us; “Sorry, but these shanties are only built for two or three, and we're full up in here. Apex typically has everypony put up their own place shortly after they get here.”
I nod once; “Is there a place we can stay?”
“Well,” noted the ghoul, “You could just start putting up your own place. If you really need to take a break before you do though, there's a common house about two streets over.”
“Thanks,” I said, offering the ghoul a smile. He didn't return it. He closed the door as I turned away and told May and Rottingtail what he had said. What I didn't tell them was that, in spite of the politeness of his tone, I had gotten that sense of something being off as he spoke. It was the same feeling that permeated the entire town, but I still couldn't put a hoof on what it was.
***
The Common House the ghoul had told us of was much larger than the rest of the shanties, although that stood to reason. However, upon entering, the place struck me as, much like the outside, empty. This was not entirely the case though, as a door off to the side opened, admitting a ghoul from an office-like room.
The ghoul, an earth pony mare, took notice of our arrival and trotted towards us. “Hey there,” she said cheerfully, eliciting a smile from me.
I stepped forward once again; “Hi, my name is Ditzy Doo. My companions are Rottingtail and May Cure,” I noted, gesturing to each of them in turn. They said their greetings as well.
“Name's Dusty,” replied the ghoul. “Haven't seen you around, which tells me you're new in town.”
I nodded; “We just arrived less than an hour ago. Apex got us out of a tight spot and brought us here. We took a bask in the crater for a bit, then a townspony directed us here.”
Dusty nods; “That tends to be the story for a lot of folks around here. Whether Apex leads them here or they wander in on their own, most ghouls here were looking to get away from the rest of the wasteland.”
“What about you?” I asked curiously.
“I came here through Apex,” she replied with a smile. “He and his entourage saved me from a swarm of bloodwings, although they were too late to save my companions. After that, I wanted to repay him, so I helped build this common house and offered to help acclimate newcomers to their new home.”
I felt the need to inform her; “Well, we haven't decided how long we're going to stay yet.”
Dusty looked perplexed; “Stay? You mean you didn't come to live here?” She seemed dumbfounded as I shook me head. “Why in Celestia's name would you want to leave? We got everything we could ever need, right here.”
My lazy rolled back to glance at May and Rottingtail. The former rolled her eyes, while the latter seemed curious. “Apex said something similar,” I noted, “although he was a bit more intense about it.”
Dusty chuckled at that; “Yeah, Apex doesn't really like normal ponies at all. Thinks they're beneath him. However, he does make a good case for this place. A nice, safe, secure little sanctuary for us ghoul kind. Granted, not all normal ponies are the way Apex says they are, but a good deal of them are, sadly.”
Rottingtail snorted bitterly; “That's the same reason I founded Trottingham, and look how that turned out.”
Dusty looked surprised; “You're from Trottingham? I thought that place was entirely wiped out by the Rangers forty years ago. Didn't hear of any survivors.”
May shook her head; “Wiped out yes, but there were survivors. All of them except the three of us departed Equestria along with Bright Light and her followers on the Renewal.”
Dusty blinked. “Oh!” she exclaimed; “I heard about that on the radio. That big black pre-war airship that flew off from Stalliongrad. Didn't know it was full of ghouls though.”
The three of us spent the rest of the night sharing stories of our wasteland experiences with Dusty. She had a fair share of her own tales to tell in return. It does kind of follow that, when you spend a hundred and twenty years wandering a blighted wasteland, you get up to quite a bit. However, I noticed that she tended to steer the conversation towards Apex fairly often. Did she have a crush, or was I just leaning into things too much? At least it was better than that niggling feeling I had been getting since we arrived.
***
Morning rolled around just as my friends and I were concluding the story of what had happened in Stalliongrad after the departure of Bright and her followers. Dusty had been enthralled the entire time, although I have to admit her story about the manticore was pretty amusing. However, as much as we were enjoying our time here so far, our intentions to depart had not yet been changed. Dusty seemed disappointed, but they was she spoke suggested she figured we'd be back.
“So, if you really want to try your lucky with normal ponies,” Dusty explained, “there's a settlement not too far from here called Hovelhoof. It's pretty small, a hundred ponies at most. It's a piss poor town, and they always seem to be low on everything. A bit of charity towards them might be just what the doctor ordered.”
I smiled at that. Our travels through the city the day before had yielded some scavenged food and medical supplies that we had been hoping to use for just that purpose. “Thanks,” I said earnestly, “I'm sorry we're leaving so soon, but we might be back.”
“Especially if this goes to shit,” snorts Rottingtail.
Ignoring him, May spoke up. “Who knows? If we do manage to establish a rapport with this settlement, it could mean good things for Craterside as well.”
Dusty actually grimaced, which looked odd on her. “Actually, I would appreciate it if you could leave Craterside out of this. Apex knows the value of a low profile, and I'd prefer to keep it that way until he says otherwise.”
I frowned, disappointed. Still, Dusty had a point. This was Apex's town, and it wasn't out place to go advertising it, even if it was naturally protected. “Alright, we won't,” I promised. “Now, which was was it to Hovelhoof?”
May held out her Pipbuck, bringing up her map of the local area. Dusty seemed impressed by the device, but it faded quickly as she scanned the map and marked the location of Hovelhoof on it. “One more thing,” she noted, looking back up at me. “I'd advise travelling over land to get there. The elevated tracks are covered with sleeping bloodwings, and the sewers are full of the forsaken.”
“The forsaken?” enquired May before I could raise the same question.
Dusty sighed and looked grim; “The ones who couldn't be saved.” With a look from the three of us, Dusty caught on that we didn't understand. “The ghouls who lost their minds.”
“Oh,” exclaimed May, “you mean the ferals.”
Dusty visibly winces at that title; “Yes, although I never really liked calling them that. Makes them sound like wild animals that need to be put down.”
May looked abashed; “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend. If it's any consolation, we've had the unfortunate task of putting down fer- forsaken in the past.” Even Rottingtail managed to look sympathetic this time.
I nodded solemnly; “Alright, so we'll stick to the ground. Thanks for the advice.”
Dusty perked up again; “No problem. Don't be strangers though; I'd love to see you again and swap some more stories.”
With that, the three of us departed from the Craterside Common House. Now that we finally knew where we were intending to go, getting underway was a bit of a relief. Whether or not we would actually return to Craterside was a question for later.
***
That question was answered as soon as we reached the settlement of Hovelhoof. It had taken us a little over an hour to reach the other shanty-town, but our arrival was met by... nothing. Even from a short distance away, I could see no movement between the shacks that comprised the town. May confirmed this when her EFS came up blank. May and I were instantly concerned, while Rottingtail suspected foul play.
“I don't understand,” said May, trotting into the edge of the settlement. “Why would Dusty send us here when the place is a ghost town?”
I pondered that for a moment; “Do we know how long she's been staying at Craterside? Maybe this place was abandoned since the last time she saw it.”
“Ain't neither o'that,” called out Rottingtail from a few shanties away, “C'mere.”
May and I quickly fell in with Rottingtail, and gasped at the sight he showed us. Stuck between two of the scrap metal shacks was the emaciated corpse of a pony. It's flesh was dried out and hollow looking, leaving only a husk of a cadaver. Bloodwings had attacked the town, or so it seemed. Looking around the town, we found another dozen corpses with exactly the same appearance, their shrivelled up forms painfully indicative of the cause of death.
However, once again I got the feeling of something being off. Dusty had claimed the town to have around a hundred ponies living in it, but there were nowhere near that number of dead. Not to mention the fact that there didn't seem to be a single dead bloodwing amongst the bodies, despite signs of a struggle. There were empty bullet casings and shotgun shells all over the place.
Before I could raise these concerns, May exclaimed; “I've got one! This way!”
Without waiting for us, or explaining what she meant, May ran off towards the far end of the town. Rottingtail and I quickly galloped after her. She stopped right at the edge of the line of shacks and stared intently at the last house on the row. It occurred to me then that she must have picked up a signal on her EFS that had either been faint or out of range before. She looked back to me, then rushed inside.
The inside of the shack was trashed, and looked like it had been the site of a fight. A table was overturned, a small chair had been broken and there were splinters of glass and wood everywhere. Something crunched under my hoof, which I lifted to see yet another empty bullet casing. I was beginning to suspect it had been raiders that had hit the town, rather than bloodwings.
May called us over when she found the source of her signal. It was a single stallion, laying on his back with a gaping wound through his shoulder. He was panting and sweating, struggling to breathe. “Hang on sir,” May called, trying to get his attention focused on her. She floated out some of the healing supplies she had handy.
The stallion seemed unable to focus properly, and began to shy away from May; “The tunnels,” he groaned, still sounding delirious, “c-came out of the tunnels.”
“Forget the tunnels,” Barked May, trying to get a healing potion to the pony's muzzle. The stallion was shuddering violently, and spilled half of the potion as May tried to force it down his throat.
May grunted in irritation as she floated out another healing potion to try and give to the buck. His shuddering was only growing more violent, and he was casting his eyes around in a paranoid panic. With a single, violent shudder he flipped himself over and forcibly expelled what had to be the entire contents of his stomach. His eyes rolled back and he heaved on last time before falling still. May screamed in frustration and threw the potion bottle against the wall.
I placed a hoof on May's shoulder, intending to provide some comfort, but she shoved me aside and flared up her horn, wrapping the stallion in a magical glow. She stared at him intensely, then backed away, a look of disgust apparent on her face. “That wound didn't kill him,” she snorted angrily. “He was in the advanced stages of acute radiation poisoning.”
I cringed; that was not a pleasant way to go. “What happened?” I asked.
May just shook her head; “I don't know, but he said something came out of the sewers...”
I scrunched up my face trying to think through this; “Dusty warned us that the sewers were fully of ferals; do you think it could have been a glowing one with them?”
“That don't explain all the fightin' an' bloodwing corpses,” interjected Rottingtail. “Somethin' else is goin' on here; this just doesn't add up.”
“Well we're going to find out what,” barked May, turning and storming out of shack. Rottingtail and I hastily followed her. That niggling sensation was back, worse than it was before.
***
The sewer entrance near Hovelhoof was easy to find, given that there were a bunch of tracks in the ash leading back there. Along with them were the trails of what looked like ponies being dragged off. Feral ghouls was starting to look like the answer, although if that was the case their behaviour was somewhat unusual. I'd never known a feral to drag a meal off somewhere else for later, and the lack of ghoul corpses back in Hovelhoof was also bizarre.
The entrance itself was different from the ponyhole covers we had gone through in Trottingham to reach its sewer system. This looked like an access hatched designed specifically to allow maintenance workers inside. A wrought iron gate hung mangled and off its hinges, looking like it had been smashed through by a stampede. May's pipbuck was reacting to trace amounts of radiation.
Inside the entrance way, right next to a ladder leading down into the tunnels, was an old, worn map of the sewer systems. May hastily downloaded it into her Pipbuck, although most of it was beyond recognition. “Shit,” exclaimed May, “these tunnels lead right back to Craterside.” She looked back to the two of us; “We need to nip this problem in the bud. If this is the work of unnaturally aggressive ferals, then we need to make sure they don't hurt anypony else.”
I nodded firmly and slipped Stronghoof's legacy off my back, loading and priming it. Rottingtail kicked his saddle, which started loading, while he plucked out his revolver and tossed it to May; “I know it ain't as fancy as that gun you used t'have,” Rottingtail noted, “but she should do fine with that fancy Pipbuck aiming spell thingy.” He also tossed her a case of bullets to reload with.
May caught the gun and bullets in her telekinesis and nodded firmly; “Right, let's go.”
Our descent into the Manehattan sewers brought up memories of Trottingham, nearly eighty years prior. As it was, the expansive sewer tunnels were almost identical to those of the other city. I couldn't help but wonder if they were designed by the same pony. Unlike the Trottingam sewers however, there was no light left on down here. Possibly because whatever backups provided power after the megaspells had burnt out since. Mercifully, we had May's horn and Pipbuck available to shed some light in the pitch-black tunnel.
The trip through the tunnel was quiet save for the trickling of dirty, radioactive water beneath our hooves. The going was painfully slow, both due to lack of light and May's need to keep stopping and checking her Pipbuck when we came across an intersection in the pipes. I was at least glad there was enough room for me to get off the ground, since it would keep me out of reach of any ferals. While May and Rottingtail were still grounded, I could at least cover them better this way.
My concerns about covering my friends turned out to be eerily unnecessary; the dark, dank sewer tunnels were completely empty. At least of anything save for a few radroaches. Not wanting to draw any attention we weren't prepared for, we had avoided shooting at them or even stamping on them. They seemed just as content to leave us alone. The emptiness of the tunnels was just making my anxiety worse; what if the ferals we suspected to be responsible for this were out there ransacking another town?
The answer that came was something I had dreaded, but had refused to even consider until I saw it. The first thing we found in the tunnel that wasn't a radroach was a ghoul, but it was not a feral one. In fact, it was one I recognized immediately as one of the ones that had been accompanying Apex when he scared off the ponies who we had saved from bloodwings.
Said ghoul was armed, and was bringing up the rear of a caged in wagon. The wagon was being drawn through the sewer tunnels by another pair of ghouls I was unfamiliar with. They were both armed as well. However, what set me off was the contents of the wagon itself: Ponies. There was at least a dozen frightened looking, non-ghoul ponies huddled together in the caged wagon, including a pair of foals who were huddling against a mare I assumed to be their mother.
“What the fuck!?” shouted May, charging forward. Rottingtail followed after her as quickly as he could, but was again slowed by his bad leg.
I was tempted to follow them, but May was a much better speaker than I was. Plus, I hadn't been seen yet, and if things got ugly, I would be able to cover them better from where I was. I really hoped it didn't come to that though. My hopes were dashed as the wagon stopped and all three of the ghouls pulling it drew their weapons. The two in front trotted around to the rear of the wagon to join the third that had been following them.
“That's close enough,” barked the ghoul who had been in the rear. “Who are y- wait, you two were there last night.”
May didn't take the derailment; “I said, what the fuck is going on here?” she demanded. “Who are those ponies and where are you taking them?”
The ghouls there didn't seem inclined to talk about it. “None of your concern,” replied the ghoul who had been with Apex. “These ponies-”
As the ghoul spoke, my lazy eye rolled aside, catching the other two. Both were priming their weapons while the other one held May and Rottingtail's attention. They weren't planning on just letting us leave. As much as I wanted to wait and find out what was really going on, I had to make a snap decision. I raised the scope to my good eye and tongued the trigger. The shot punched cleanly and quietly through the head of the ghoul to the left. As he fell, the surprise of the other two gave Rottingtail the opportunity to open fire, downing them quickly.
I expected May to be upset about my hasty actions, but instead she trotted over to the front of the wagon. She used Rottingtail revolver to shoot the lock off the cage and pulled it open. She set the gun aside as she jumped up into the wagon. The ponies on board shied away from her, but she didn't get any closer. She simply repeated her question; “What is going on?”
The ponies seemed frightened of May. To be honest, I was a little too. She wasn't normally this aggressive. However, one of them eventually piped up; “They came into Hovelhoof through the sewers,” noted an earth pony stallion. “Rounded us up, threw us in here and brought us down here. The others were further ahead; we don't know what they were doing.”
May looked at them sternly; “Can you get back out on your own?” she asked. A few of them nodded weakly in response, although they seemed to just be trying to not anger the ghoul unicorn with the revolver further. “Good,” May said with a huff before jumping down from the wagon. She motioned for Rottingtail and I to follow her.
“What-” I began to say, but May cut me off.
“I am sick and tired of this shit,” she said forcibly. “Everywhere I go to try and help, somepony else is fucking shit up. I don't care what it is these ghouls were doing with those other ponies, we're ending it. Right. Now.”
***
May sped forward through the tunnels faster than I had ever seen her move before. She was like a mare possessed, and it was all Rottingtail could do to keep up with her. I could have done so more easily, but I didn't want to leave the old sheriff by himself, so I positioned myself midway between them. I was admittedly worried about May. This was not the way she normally acted. I strained my lazy eye so that I could keep both of them on her, just in case.
We eventually hit a dead end in the sewers, where the tunnel had collapsed so badly that there was no way to progress. However, we were close enough to the megaspell crater that I could feel the trace amounts of radiation that bled through the collapsed concrete and steel. May directed us to a room off to the side that looked like it was a maintenance access. She tried the door, only to find it locked. A terminal was hooked into the wall next to it.
While May attempted to work the terminal, I swooped in and landed in front of the door. There was a small, narrow window of tinted glass that I looked through, trying to see what was going on. Inside, the room looked more like a small bunker. Three more caged wagons took up most of the space therein, each filled with a number of ponies that had to be the rest of the population of Hovelhoof. Rolling around, my lazy eye caught a few more armed ghouls, two of whom I recognized as belonging to Apex's entourage. Worse still, the back corners of the room were occupied by a pair of glowing ones, filling the room with radiation that the caged ponies were desperately shying away from.
Then I looked to the front of the room and gasped. Apex himself was there, standing on a small raised platform. I could see his muzzle moving; he was obviously addressing the ponies in the room, but I couldn't hear what he was saying for the door. I heard a bleep from beside me as May cracked the terminal, and a hiss as the door started to open.
As the door opened, I caught some of Apex's words: “...living in a slum, fearing you may never see food or clean water again. I have brought you here to free you from that need. I am here to give you a future. I am here to grant you the gift of the undying!”
The door was sliding open painfully slowly, its tracks rusty and damaged. Before the door was even halfway open, I was forced to watch as he threw a lever, and the wall of the room behind him pulled back. I was nearly blinded as the glow of the crater flooded into the room from behind the wall. I was forced to look away, wincing painfully. That radiation, coupled with the trio of glowing ones, could kill the non-ghoul ponies in there within minutes.
I tried to rush into the room, but was immediately drawn up short by a pair of armed ghouls, both of whom had their weapons on me in a moment. Even with the radiation flooding the room, my regeneration wasn't going to help if I got my head blown off. I was forced to skid to a halt. Apex, his speech apparently over and done with, noticed my entrance. He gave an unsettling smirk and trotted around the cages towards me. The ponies inside were starting to scream.
“What the hell do you think you're doing?!” I screamed at Apex as he trotted towards me.
He maintained that smirk and spoke annoyingly calmly. “I am giving these ponies a gift. Is that not obvious?”
“You're going to get them killed!” I shouted, struggling against the urge to do something reckless.
“Perhaps,” says Apex, still annoyingly calm, “but those who do not survive the anointment are simply not worthy of the gift of the undying anyways.”
“Think about what you're doing!” I pleaded, but Apex shook his head.
“I have thought about it,” he said firmly, “and I even explained much of it to you and your friends already. There is no future for ponykind. By giving ponies the gift of the undying, I am creating a new future. A better future.”
“You're a monster!” I snarled, now actively looking for an opportunity to put a bullet in his head.
May took the opportunity first. A trio of shots rang out, all three of which impacted the glowing ghoul in the chest. Startled by the gunfire, the ghouls holding me in place scrambled to find the attacker. Rottingtail barrelled through, gunning two of them down while May fired her remaining three shots into the head of the third.
Just as I was bringing my rifle to bear, May shot past me to stand directly over the fallen Apex. As she reached him, he stood back up, the combination of his own glow and the intense crater radiation allowing him to recover amazingly fast from the trio of gunshots. As he stood up, May pointed her gun squarely between his eyes, glaring down at him with a stare that could have put Fluttershy to shame.
“All this time,” she growls, “all this time I've spent trying to help ghouls, trying to find a cure, a fix, a way to make things better. What in the fuck makes you think-”
Apex cut her off, still rather collected considering her had been shot and was staring down a gun barrel. “Why in Equestria would you want to fix us? We are not a disease, we are the future of pony kind. We can survive where no other ponies can. We don't need to struggle and fight and die pointlessly, we-”
Apex was silenced by May emptying Rottingtail's revolver into his head. Apex was no Canterlot ghoul; he would not be getting back up from that. He hit the floor hard, his blood oozing away from the pulp that used to be his head. Even the normally black and ichorous blood of a ghoul glowed with the radiation that saturated his every cell. Before anypony else could make a move, Rottingtail and I finished off the last of Apex's thugs.
***
By the time May managed to scrambled over to the controls and shut the thick door that sealed the room, half the ponies that had been in the caged wagons were dead. Acute radiation poisoning all of them, and the rapid rate of exposure had made saving them impossible. Those who hadn't died already were suffering one of two fates. They were fading fast, or they were showing the early signs of ghoulification. Not in the habit of carrying decent quantities of RadAway, May was forced to gamble on who to distribute them to. By the end of the day, all but a dozen of them had perished. Only three of those managed to avoid ghoulification.
May and I released the survivors, showing them the path back to Hovelhoof along with the other wagon we had managed to save. Unsurprisingly, those who had suffered ghoulification were bitter to us, even though we had done our best to save them. We were just more ghouls to them, and I found myself unable to blame them. They would never recover from this, and they needed somepony to blame. We were all too convenient.
May, Rottingtail were sitting at the edge of Craterside. Right now, we were the only armed ghouls in the town. All the rest had been a part of Apex's entourage. I had been saddened to learn after the dust had settled that Dusty was one of the ghouls I had shot. I couldn't help but wonder if she had sent us to Hovelhoof on purpose to see what Apex was doing, and whether or not she had played a part in it. I sighed painfully, knowing I would never get an answer.
As the three of us sat quietly on the outskirts of Craterside, May suddenly stood up and turned to face the two of us. “That's it,” she declared.
Having no idea what she was talking about, I had to ask; “What's it?”
May had exchanged her expressions of anger, frustration and sadness for one of brutal determination. “I've had it with being unable to do anything.”
“What are you talking about?” May was starting to scare me a little. She had been acting strange ever since Hovelhoof.
“I mean it's finally time to find the solution to the ghoul problem once and for all.” May was breathing heavily. “There's been too much suffering by ghouls, for ghouls and because of ghouls. It needs to end.”
Rottingtail and I exchanged looks; “May, what-”
“And I finally know how to do it too. I'm going to fix the ghoul problem the same way it started. With a Megaspell.”
Footnote: Status Update!
Current Status: Ghoul, Highly irradiated.
Lucidity: Low
Ghoul Tip: ...
Author's Note: I am really sorry it took so long to get this to you guys. There were a lot of extenuating circumstances. Hopefully I'll be able to get things back on track now.
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How do I add this to the read later list??
Ah... the lovely smell of !!SCIENCE!! in the morning...
Oh yesyesyesyes!
I'm so glad you're back!
684087
Go to the story overview and press the book icon on the left of the title.
>> Thunder Blast oh, okay, Thanks!
Fraking great to finally see an update. This definately shoud see the same amount of attention etc. Project Horizons.
God, I'm so hyped for the next chapter
Huh, considering how long I put off reading this from my favorites I'm surprised there aren't more comments...
Oh well.
I liked the little mystery, even though it was obvious to me that Apex was the one causing all the trouble from the moment I read that the town was empty. I was actually thinking that he had flat out murdered everypony at first though; It was only when they encountered the caged ponies being led to the megaspell detonation point that I realized what he was actually doing. The psychopath.
Looking forward to May's no doubt insane plan. Its to bad we already know that it will fail.
What time is it? Why, it's Adder1(R) Unconsolidated Review Time, that's what!
A certain quote from The Dark Knight comes to mind after reading this- "Either you die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." And ghouls live for a very long time. I had a nagging suspicion that Apex was up to no good with his ideology; I actually believed this to end up as another Arbu. What it all turned out to end it, though, was something that turned out all the more fitting and satisfying. I wish you could have explored the responses of the survivors of the Hovelhoof abduction, but I suppose this was satisfying enough for a chapter in any case. In the meantime, I'm seeing various signs of internal struggle among the group. Rottingtail started shared at least some aspects of Apex's views, while May is starting to turn into a downright radical right now. I'm eager to see where this is going, Ten.
Now for the naggy bits I saw...
-Between his arrival, my sharpshooting and he freshly reloaded gunner on the ground, we made short work of the remaining members of the swarm. [Should be "the freshly."]
-“Yeah well Ah'll drop muh guns when Ah'm good'n dead,” Rottingtail retorted without stepping back.\ [Might want to get rid of that slash]
-As much as there was a lot of animosity towards ghouls, there were still a lot of goof ponies out there who saw us as what we truly were: ponies like everyone else. [Should be "good."]
-Food and Water? [Unnecessary capitalization.]
-“What about yer ordinance?” [Should be "ordnance," if I'm not mistaken. There's a difference between the two.]
-I nodded firmly and slipped Stronghoof's legacy off my back, loading and priming it. ["legacy" should be capitalized, no?]
In addition to that, I noticed a lot of switching between past and present tense throughout the chapter. Just wish to bring that up.
Well, this has been another Adder1(R) Unconsolidated Review Time. Keep it up, Ten. This continues to be one of the best side-stories I've read.
Glad to see the update... Thanks for another great chapter.
May, you ain't no fluttershy or twilight, how you gona make a megaspell to heal ghouls?
Replace "new" with "knew" in the Craterside intro.
good chapter
Aw shit May, this won't end well.
I seriously don't know why this fic only has 77 thumbs, it deserves so many more.
This chapter was great, glad to see you're back
1016067
I don't really go out of my way to advertise this fic; I let people come to it on their own. I don't need a million views, I'm just satisfied that something I created is enjoyed by others.
Heh, started playing New Vegas recently, just found the Jason Bright reference
This is terrific, really. I eagerly await what happens next.
Is there any moar?
"Apex was silence by May emptying Rottingtail's revolver"
Bad things happen when ponies snap.
Hell yes! I like this attitude!
I mean, yeah, she's loosing herself and is probably going to do something stu-- ah screw it, I'm going to enjoy this.
MEGASPELLS!
691221 mate put that on you tube not in the comment's it prmots this fic better
Gotta love them sneaky references to Fallout 3...since Derpy's antics are heavily inspired by Moira Brown, the proprietor of Craterside Supplies.
Typo: “Now, which was was it to Hovelhoof?”
-
Also, May's new temperament: This is the last straw!
Great story, BTW! I'm really hooked!