• Published 6th Apr 2014
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Fallout Equestria: Influx - Lex the Pikachu



A mare wakes up to discover she is in the Wasteland and not who she used to be. Determined to discover the truth she heads out into the wasteland. But the truth can be disturbing.

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Chapter 12: It's Where?

Author's Note:

Thank you all for staying with me and this story for so long and I hope you enjoy the new update.

This update was a big one as not only was it a new chapter but also Influx finally got its true coverart.

Enjoy :)

Fallout Equestria: Influx

Chapter 12: It’s Where?!

Hours before I-01 left the Marejave.

“Ok Lilly, everything checks out,” Dr Pear said with a relieved smile as she levitated her eye examiner back down to the nearby table and put it back in a rack with the rest of her equipment and tools. “I think it’s safe for you now that we reduce your visits to twice weekly. You have shown much improvement since you arrived,”

The blue alicorn with the silvery blue mane and tail let out a relieved sigh and smiled at the shorter unicorn mare. “Thank you doctor, you and the others here have been such a big help to me since I got here, I… I was so lost and my mind was in tatters. I must have been such a burden,”

Dr Pear smiled as she placed a forehoof on the larger mare’s foreleg. “It was no trouble Lilly, alicorns like you all suffer the same mental struggle when you lose your connection to this, um, Goddess, that your minds have to reconfigure and rebuild themselves,” She sighed as she looked down as some unsavoury memories surfaced. “Unfortunately, whatever this Goddess did to you and the others doesn’t always allow you to regain yourself, as you know there are a couple of patients here that are still two minds about everything, unable to decide if they one pony or the other or a mix of both. The constant splitting and jumble of personalities makes them mentally unstable. It is, however, good that most of you have recovered but we shall continue to have our meetings to ensure there are not relapses,”

Lilly nodded in thanks. “Yes of course, thank you doctor, I’ll see you in the next few days then,”

Dr Pear smiled and nodded. She watched as the blue alicorn turned and left the small lab she established in the lodge that sat on the mountain west of New Pegasus. “She must have not been in this Unity for long; she recovered her mentality faster than most of the other alicorns here. I hope I haven’t jumped the gun in reducing her meetings with me though,”

The beige coated and purple maned unicorn turned and approached her desk and quickly typed up her meeting on her terminal. While she was working, her horn glowed faintly and she sighed.

“Peach Bottom, how many times do I have to tell you to not sneak into my lab, its naughty,” Dr Pear sighed as she turned around to look at an empty space just behind her. As she stared a small pony shape shimmered before it and began to glow with purple light. When the light faded, a sheepish looking unicorn filly sharing similar colours to her sat staring up at her.

“Hehe, you caught me again great grandma, you’re good,” The young filly said with a blush of embarrassment at being caught.

“Ugh, those blue alicorns are a bad influence on you Peach,” Dr Pear said with a small smile as she gently hugged her great great granddaughter. “Why did you sneak in here this time?”

“Um, I was hoping to see your robot leg,” She squeaked.

The mare’s eyes widened but she then gave a fake chuckle as if what she heard was something funny. “Oh Peach, what a wild imagination you have,” She chuckled dryly.

Peach opened her mouth to protest but was cut off as another mare, in appearance looked a few years older than Dr Pear, walked into the lab. “There you are madam, I’ve been looking for you all over,” She sieved with slight anger.

Peach wilted under the mare’s gaze. “S-sorry mummy,”

The mare sighed. “I’m sorry grandmother; I hope she didn’t cause any trouble for you,”

Dr Pear smiled weakly; her heart ached as she was called grandmother by this mare. “Not at all, she’s getting very good at her magic these days Chestnut honey,”

Chestnut nodded before looking down at her daughter. “Go on Peach, back to our dorm, your father is waiting for you, hop to it,” She commanded with a stomp of her hoof to let her daughter know she wasn’t in any mood for games. Peach quickly scampered off after a quick good bye to her great great grandmother.

“I don’t know what I’m gonna do with her,” Chestnut sighed.

“Oh don’t be too hard on yourself dear, you’ve done a wonderful job so far and don’t be scared of asking for help. You’re surrounded by friends here who’d be willing to help you, including me,”

“Thank you grandma,” She smiled warmly before she tilted her head in curiosity. “What did she want this time by the way?”

Dr Pear looked around while at the same time igniting her horn, scanning the room just in case her great grandchild had snuck back in under the guise of her invisibility spell again. Once satisfied they were alone, she used her magic to shut the door. “She wanted to see this,” She said as she pulled up the sleeve of her labcoat on her left foreleg, exposing a large bite where a large chunk of flesh had been ripped away. The flesh surrounding the bite was all healed, but what lay exposed inside the bite should have been bone but instead was gleaming metal. What was supposed to be a knee joint and bones of her upper and lower leg were instead robotic.

“I fear she saw my exposed endoskeleton at some point in the past,” Dr Pear sighed sadly.

“She will understand when she’s old enough, we all did,” Chestnut smiled as she patted her great grandmother’s shoulder supportingly. “You did what you had to do to save yourself and my ancestor,”

“And cursed myself at the same time,” Dr Pear added quietly but grimly. Chestnut’s ears folded back as she frowned and looked down. “I’m over two hundred years old and I look just a few years younger than you… If only I had access to Mark 1 materials…” She shook her head to stop her mind from getting off course and going down a dark path. “However, I think my past is going to bite me in the flank now though Chestnut,”

“How do you mean?”

“When I was down in New Pegasus checking on Duchess, I sensed a power signature of a Mark 2 stroke B Mana-Core and when I turned to see what it was I saw something I didn’t expect to see. I don’t know for sure, but I highly believe that what I saw was my first Infiltration unit, I-01 or Crystal Éclair as I came to know her as during her development. If who I saw is indeed her, then Ironside will have detected her as well,”

The mare nodded with understanding. “But you disabled him though didn’t you, he shouldn’t be able to do anything, right?”

“Yes, but I have a feeling I missed something, I was rushing against a time limit at the time,” Dr Pear sighed as she turned to the dirty window overlooking the snowy scenery outside. “If it was Crystal out there, then he would have likely detected her,”

“Why is she so important?”

“I refused to give him what he wanted, without me, he would have to get what he needs from something else and that would now have to be her. She has a spell I developed woven into her flesh to keep it bound to her endoskeleton, it’s the last piece he needs for his Mark 2 Infiltrators,”

“Let’s hope he’s still helpless then,” Chestnut said as she turned and left the lab.

Dr Pear continued to stare out into the distance, her gaze towards the south east in the general direction of the Production Facility. Her mind was replaying everything she remembered from her time being held captive and what she did before and during her escape, hoping beyond hope she did leave him incapable of doing anything to pursue Crystal if he detected her.

Suddenly, her horn sparked and her eyes widen as she felt a faint energy spike in the direction she was looking.

“T-that was a Mark 7 stroke C Mana-Core, only… only one thing I know of was given one of those,” She gasped in fearful shock. With fearful wide eyes, she quickly bolted from her lab and ran to the lodge’s radio room and quickly seized a wire with a spike like plug on the end with a hoof. She sat down by a desk in the radio room and reached up with her free hoof and grasped her horn. She grit her teeth and held her non-existent breath as she twisted her horn until there was a metallic click and while gritting her teeth she pulled her horn off her forehead. She let out the breath she had been holding, gasping like she had been punched in the stomach from the simulated pain the removal of her horn simulated and quickly she pushed the plug into her forehead port to give herself access to the radio tower’s sensor array.

“Yes, I can clearly feel it, that is a definitely a Mark 7 stroke C, and it is coming from the Production Facility, he… he…” She trailed off as the full weight of what this meant crashed upon her. “Oh Celestia have mercy, he has access to the Vault, I, I was sure I disabled all access links for him, how, how could he have gotten access? How could he…” The answer came to her as she remembered what the 7 stroke C Mana-Core belonged to. “How could I have forgotten? Unit 1000 had its own capsule that needed a separate wiring loom. He must have found a way to gain access to it…” She began to shake as she began to panic since she knew that Ironside could unleash a horde of robots if he so wanted. Her eyes widened as she suddenly felt more energy signatures. “Oh no, two Mark 5 stroke E Mana-Core signatures, he’s, he’s activating more, oh no, oh no, oh no this is bad,” She whimpered fearfully.

Dr Pear stayed hooked up to the radio tower for another hour to see if any more would be activated, but to her surprise only the three she felt were activated but she did feel that the ones with the 5 stroke E Mana-Cores which she knew to be standard Mark 2 units had left the facility and were heading for Crystal while another was in pursuit, which she realised had been active for several weeks prior. The one she knew to be Unit 1000 was staying at the facility, she deduced that it was likely acting as a relay for long range transmissions between the other units.

“I must help her,” Dr Pear said, feeling responsible for the Mark 1.

She didn’t waste much time racing back down to Hayside to begin her search. Unfortunately, by the time she made it back to New Pegasus and Hayside, Crystal and two disguised Mark 2 units had left on a train to Manehattan. However, from asking the right ponies Dr Pear was able to find out what Crystal was doing and if she was indeed trying to get answers then she’ll be ready to offer her help.

XXXXX

I don’t know how much time had passed while I was unconscious but I couldn’t have been out for long because as feeling began to return to me, I found that I was still lying on the tarmac where I crashed. This also, thankfully, meant that my SDP didn’t engage. Xian was quick to come to the forefront of my waking mind as I feared for her safety but I quickly then remembered I tossed her to Fruity to keep safe when I began to go down.

The first thing I became aware of was that, yes, I was still on the floor and that it was still raining as I was soaked through, but as my mind slowly began to wake up, more feeling began to reach me and I let out a whimper as the most prominent feeling was pain. Pain began to flood my senses from my entire body, but mainly a great amount of hurt was coming from my head, neck, left wing and lower right foreleg. I soon realised I was lying on my right side and on my right wing but as I could feel it under me but I couldn’t feel the wing itself. A pang of panic rushed through me when I realised I couldn’t feel my wing when I shifted slightly in an attempt to stand, but felt the ball joint of my wing grind against my shoulder while also pulling on my flesh as I shifted. It seemed I have dislocated the wing but since it was mechanical and now unpowered due to being disconnected I must have lost feeling to it which explains why I couldn’t feel it when I woke up.

“Thank Celestia she’s alive, don’t move, that cunt is still out there!” I heard Fruity yell from somewhere above me before I heard a hard smack against concrete. “Shit that was close!”

I could only assume he meant the sniper that shot me down. I whimpered in pain and slight panic as I felt helpless. I heeded my coltfriend’s words and stayed still, even keeping my eyes closed in case the sniper looked over to me. Now fully awake and aware again, I was able to take note of my HUD still visible despite my eyes being closed. A damage report was being displayed and it showed like I suspected, a disconnected wing, a jammed left wing joint since it’s where I got shot, and a fractured right fetlock. I was surprised I didn’t show any damage to my upper foreleg, shoulder or chest since I smashed into the road there but I suppose the combat armour I’m wearing cushioned the blow.

“Hang on Crystal, we’re coming,”

“Where is he?” I heard a female voice I didn’t recognise shout.

“Tenth story, end window to the left,” Another unrecognisable male voice shouted in reply.

“Got him,” The female confirmed before there was a soft fomph.

“Missed, he moved,”

“Shit, now where is he?”

“GET DOWN!” There was a shout from a pony I did recognise as Slick, the guard we met on our first trip here and his shout was quickly followed by an impact into concrete.

“That fucking prick!” The female growled. “Where is he, I’m gonna fuck him up!”

“He’s moved to the floor above, middle,”

“I see him,”

“DOWN!” Slick shouted again and his warning was met by another impact to whatever cover they were using up there.

“Son of a bitch, he’s a fast little bugger,”

“He’s still there Slugger,”

“Right, he’s gonna eat a bullet,” The mare, Slugger, growled in annoyance before there was another fomph as she fired her weapon.

“Missed, your bullet impacted the windowsill,”

“FACK!” She growled. “Damn rain,”

“He’s moving again,”

“Fuck this shit, I’m getting ‘Mr Fuck You’” The mare growled angrily.

“C’mon Slug, the city doesn’t need any more demolishing, it’s already fucked up as it is,”

“I don’t give a fuck, that prick is gonna eat a shell even if I have to blow out of the top floor of that damn building,”

“What’s ‘Mr Fuck You’?” I heard Fruity ask.

“It is a zebra made Anti-Power Armour Rifle armed with 14mm armour piercing and explosive rounds,” Slick deadpanned.

“That sounds more like a bloody cannon rather than a rifle,”

“No kidding,”

“Alright you Raider twat, I got something just for you,” Slugger grunted while sounding slightly out of breath.

“Faust tonight that thing is huge,” Fruity gaped in amazement.

“You might want to cover your ears,”

“Top Floor, window under roof access,”

“Got him!” Slugger replied before there was an almighty bang from above. Even I was amazed by the sheer power behind the weapon as I felt the vibrations from the shot all the way down here through the tarmac.

“HOLY FUCK!”

The bang from the rifle was swiftly followed by an explosion somewhere in the distance which was accompanied by raining glass and masonry.

“Hehe yea, eat that you bastard,” Slugger cheered with glee.

“You missed,”

“Oh for fuck sake,” Slugger groaned.

“In the corridor, he’s moving; I can see him now that you’ve blown a hole in the wall, aim ten windows to the right,”

I could hear grunting and something shifting above me.

“Fire…………NOW!”

Another massive boom rung out, I’m sure I also heard a window or two shatter nearby, and then another explosion occurred in the distance followed by raining debris.

“You got him,” I could practically hear the cringe in the stallion’s voice. “And you redecorated the hotel’s corridor with him,”

“Haha yea, fuck you Raider,” Slugger cheered happily before grunting in pain.

“Ugh, you are going to run out 14mm rounds at this rate,” Slick sighed. “Not to mention break your shoulder again,”

A set of hooves clopped against the pavement next to me before I felt a muzzle gently nuzzle my cheek.

“Hey, it’s safe now,” Fruity gently whispered.

I groaned and opened my eyes. His duster covered forelegs came into view first before the rest of the Manehattan street and at the end of the ruined strewn street I saw the hotel building to which the Raider must have been hold up in as there were two gaping holes in the top floor that were aflame and spewing out smoke.

“Ugh, hi,” I greeted weakly as I tilted my head to look up at him.

He smiled and leaned down. His lips met mine, despite the rain and where we were I couldn’t help but kiss him back. “Hmmm, I was so worried about you,” He said when we broke the kiss.

It warmed my heart to know he cared so much but I still had a worry that needed to be put to rest. “Where’s Xian, is she safe?”

Fruity nodded as his gestured to the overhead rail line leading to Tenpony Station. “She’s safe in the tower, Slick and his crew was out on guard duty and saw to getting her safe before coming to help you,”

I sighed with relief to know the young filly was safe but still, she must be terrified. With a grunt of pain and effort I rolled onto my belly and began to push myself up. A warning flashed across my vision that my fractured fetlock wouldn’t be able to take my weight properly. I let out a painful cry as I quickly picked my damaged hoof off the floor to keep the weight off it.

“Are you ok?” Fruity asked in concern.

“I have a fractured fetlock and…,” I looked to my right side to see my wing limply hanging against my side. “My right wing has been dislocated, um, could you please reconnect it,” I asked when I stood on three legs.

“Sure, but if this is anything like a normal dislocation, it’s gonna hurt like buggery,” He warned.

I nodded; thankfully I wasn’t a stranger to a dislocation as with how fragile my body was before all this. If I didn’t break or fracture a bone, I usually dislocated it.

He moved to my right side and used his wings to grasp my limp out stretched wing by the tip and near the joint. He delicately moved his wings so he could lift and position my wing so the pins of the ball joint ground against my side until they slotted into the shoulder port from which they belonged.

“Well that wasn’t so bad,” I said as I began to regain some feeling in the wing.

“It’s still loose Crys, I guess it needs locking,” He gave an experimental twist and I cringed. “Ok, I’m gonna twist it nice and hard ok, in three, two….” He didn’t finish the count down before he gave a hard twist and with a metallic clunk, I let out a pained scream.

Right wing re-connected,” Flashed across my vision.

“Is everything ok down there?” Slick shouted down to us.

“We’re gonna need a hoist, Crystal dislocated her wing,” Fruited called back up.

“I guess flying will be out of the question until I’ve had time to repair,” I sighed and cringed with pain as I spread and retracted both wings. My left wing however, was very sluggish in its movements thanks to the hit on the joint.

A few minutes later, I was sat down on a stretcher lowered down from the overhead platform and being hefted up. I figured they wouldn’t be able to haul up my full robotic weight so I spread my wings with the intention to fly but without actually flying. Spreading my wings as if to fly seemed to trigger the levitation talismans embedded in my wings which would reduce or cancel out my weight so the ponies above could lift me without any problems. It’s the drain from these talismans that feeds from my secondary power core which also explains why it is also one of those self-replenishing ones I have too. Once back on the station platform we were greeted by Slick.

“Are you ok Crys…?” He trailed off midsentence as his eyes widened and tilted his head to the side slightly as if to look at my side. It didn’t take a genius to know he’d noticed my new appendages as I folded them back to my sides.

I couldn’t help the nervous wing shuffle as I stepped off the stretcher. “Hi Slick, yeah, I’m ok now, thank you,” I gulped nervously.

He shook his head and straightened himself out; the shock he wore a moment ago was gone as he nodded. “That’s good, ugh, DJ PON-3 has expressed an interest in meeting the ‘Heroine of the West’ but, um, I’d suggest getting yourself looked at by the tower’s physician before going to meet him, your face is kinda a mess,” He said.

“Hang on; back up, ‘Heroine of the West?’” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“You impressed the DJ by saving the Marejave from a Stable full of hallucinogenic gas,” He answered.

My eyes widened in shock and surprised that this DJ PON-3 was able to hear about that from across Equestria. “We just did what we thought was right,” I replied and looked to where I last seen Fruity only see he was missing. Where’d he go? Fruity soon reappeared by flying back onto the platform from below and he had my soaking stetson in his mouth. It was then that I realised it had fallen off my head. I smiled appreciatively to him and took the tattered wet hat with my hurting right wing and placed the it on my medical box and shotgun on my back.

“Wait, is your jaw made of metal?” Slick suddenly asked as he narrowed his eyes.

“Excuse me?”

“Bollocks!” Fruity sighed as he stepped closer. “I didn’t notice before because I was just happy that you were ok but yeah, the right side of your face is littered with cuts and you seem to have busted a blood vessel in your eye too. But like Slick said, a couple of your cuts are showing metal,”

“Oh…, err, should I?” I asked Fruity, not sure if I should reveal myself.

“No point in denying it now, he can clearly see it,” He groaned.

I gulped and sighed as I turned back to the cream armoured stallion. “I’m mostly robotic under my skin, that’s why you can see metal,”

“So, you’re some kind of cyber-pony?” He asked.

“Um, sure, let’s go with that,” I said, not entirely sure if I was considered something like that or something else but it was the best thing I’ve heard of so far that I could be related to for now.

“Huh, well aren’t you full of surprises. Anyway, the DJ is expecting you, oh and try to keep your cybernetic side hidden from the populace. They may tolerate you a bit more now since the DJ gave you praise for your actions out west, but they are still iffy about zebras and knowing you’re a cyber-pony will rile them up even more,”

“And you are not at all surprised by this?” Fruity asked.

“Of course I am. She was covered head to hoof in skin and fur, how was I supposed to have any inkling that she was a tin can? But anyway, it’s not uncommon for a cyber-pony to be out here. We’ve met and dealt with our own fair share so we are no strangers to them. And you having wings makes a whole lot more sense now,” Slick replied.

“Well, I’m happy you’re so understanding,” I smiled, completely ignoring the ‘tin can’ comment.

“No problem,” He replied dismissively as he walked over to a wooden guard post.

The other two guards were already in their positions on the station to guard the entrance to the tower. I decided to go to each of them and give them my thanks. They both said they were glad to have helped, the one known as Slugger seemed very happy to have helped as she got to use her monster of a rifle. My electronic brain didn’t recognise it so the giant anti-power armour rifle must have appeared after it was installed into my head. Once all thanks were given we made our way into the tower. As soon as we pushed through the double doors, we were immediately assaulted by a black and white striped missile that aimed right for me.

You’re alive and ok!” Xian cried in zebrican with tears running down her cheeks as she crashed into my forelegs and hugged them pretty tightly and began to cry anew. I sat on my haunches and held the weeping filly, gently stroking her mane reassuringly with my free forehoof.

“Yes Xian, I’m ok, a little banged up but I’m fine, it’s ok now,” I gently cooed to help sooth her.

Fruity sat down beside me, wrapping a wing around my back while also gently rubbing a hoof on filly’s back as well. I smiled at him, happy to see how much he’d bonded with the filly during the train journey.

“Don’t worry kidda, Crystal is a tough mare, it’s gonna take a lot to put her down,” He assured her.

I nodded in agreement. “Don’t worry now, we are all together again,” I smiled before standing up and noticing a bathroom just up ahead. “Oh, would you excuse me for a moment while I clean my face,”

“Sure, take your time,” Fruity smiled, giving me a quick nuzzle on the cheek before I quickly made my way to the toilets and entered the mares restroom.

Unlike the tower from what I could remember of our first visit, the toilets between the station and the tower itself were disgusting, like nopony had maintained them since the world came to an end. The walls were grimy, a couple of the sinks were broken or cracked, the same went for the wall of mirrors above the sinks and the stalls were either missing doors or the toilet that was supposed to be inside. However the worst thing of all was the smell. Oh sweet Celestia the smell. I’ve smelt some awful things, especially since I’ve been in and out of hospitals all my life and they liked to use a load of chemicals and some of them were horrible on the nose. This though, this was truly decay and it was foul beyond words.

After a minute of being stunned at the door I scrunched up my nose, wiped my eyes with the tip each wing because the foul odour was making my eyes water and walked over to an intact sink which thankfully sat beneath an intact mirror. The mirror was coated in a thick layer of grime and barely reflected anything. With a sigh, I looked around for anything I could use to wipe it with and found a medical box next to a paper towel dispenser. A quick trot over to them sadly revealed that the paper towels had long since turned to pulp. The medical box however had something I could use, a roll of bandages but nothing to wipe the mirror with. With a sigh, I resigned myself to checking the stalls.

“Is everything ok in there, you haven’t fallen down the loo or anything have you?” Fruity called in.

I snorted in amusement. “Heh, no, it just filthy in here,” I called back.

“I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, welcome to the wasteland,”

I nodded, wasteland, that term was getting more and more familiar with me as the days went by. I still find it hard to believe but I’ve gradually accepted I’m not in the same chaotic world I was in before I ‘died’ but it would seem I’m in an even worse and deadly one.

I pulled open a stall door and let out a high pitched scream as a skeleton of a long dead pony collapsed in front of me. It would have landed on me if I didn’t backpedal as soon as I seen it. I held a hoof to my chest, feeling my heart hammer inside my chest from the fright while I tried to calm myself back down.

“Are you alright?!” Fruity asked as he slid on the tiled floor after running into the room.

“F-fine, just… startled,” I panted.

“Ah, sorry but you’re gonna have to get used to seeing shit like that in a city like this,” Fruity said when he noticed the freshly fallen skeleton now scattered on the floor.

I nodded before I glared at him. “What are you doing in here, this is the fillies room, get out,” I shooed him with a flap of a wing.

He left the room snickering and saying something about pre-war mares but I didn’t hear him. Instead, I again focused on the fallen skeleton and noticed that it was wearing what used to be a shirt of some kind and the fabric had mostly survived. I gulped down my trepidation as I approached the long dead pony. I began to lean down as if to grab the shirt with my teeth but stopped; as much as I wanted to I just couldn’t bring myself to touch it with my mouth. With a pathetic whine I instead resorted to using my nano-fiber tail to grasp the cloth and pick it up. I turned around to put my back to the skeleton as I lifted the shirt so I didn’t have to see the bones shifted and closed my ears against my skull to try and block the movement of the bones as they clattered to the floor. Once all the bones were free from the shirt, I looked back at the bones.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered quietly before using the old shirt to wipe the grime from the mirror.

It took a few good wipes with the rag to clear away a good portion of the built up grime but eventually I cleared away a big enough area so I could clearly see myself. Slick and Fruity were right; the right side of my face was a mess though the damage was mostly on the far right side from my chin up along the side of my head towards my ear. I had a few small scratches that weren’t of any problem but I did have some rather deepish looking gouges, all but one of them revealing metal. The bottom of my chin, the bottom of my jaw line and on my cheekbone was where I had gouges that revealed hints of metal. It made sense that those areas revealed my endoskeletal skull, really since those points had the thinnest layer of skin. My right eye was also very red, just like they had said about a burst blood vessel in it. I reached out with a hoof for one of the taps on the sink and as I twisted it, the pipes rattled and grumbled before a muddy sludge like substance was spat out of the tap before it began to sputter water out. I was surprised that this ruined bathroom still had running water and when the flow stabilised, I was even more surprised to find out that the water was clean since running my hoof under the cool water didn’t send my PipBuck ticking. I guess it was from the same water main as the rest of the tower which is why it’s still clean water.

I spent a couple of minutes using my wings as improvised brushes as the soft feathers felt good against my sore skin and rather soothing. After cleaning the cuts and wiping away the blood, I used the bandages I had found and wrapped them around my head to hide the exposed sections. I chuckled once I was finished; I kinda looked like one of those cartoon characters after going to a dentist because of the bandages going around my head. After a quick once over to be sure I hadn’t missed anything I put my damp hat back onto my head and re-joined Fruity and Xian so we could continue into the tower.

The moment all of us entered the tower’s main floor, everypony noticed us and the noise of chatter and local banter immediately went silent as everypony stared at us. Nervousness began to creep back into me as I felt the eyes of everypony on me and Xian also felt the pressure as she squeezed herself between my legs to hide under me. The only pony nonplussed by the sudden silence was Fruity. The purple pegasus smiled as he stepped forward to stand at the guard rail surrounding the walkway and looked down into the core of the tower.

“It’s good to be back,” He said.

Gradually, the ponies of the tower began to continue their business while giving us a wide berth. I couldn’t help but look at some of those closest to use and see the looks of disgust as they looked at me. Even here zebras are treated with great prejudice.

“Oh great somepony let a Stripe in again,”

“The guards are getting soft if they let gutter filth like that in here,”

“What a barbarian, no clothes, just guns and armour,”

Those were just some of the comments I could pick up as ponies walked along around us. It hurt to think that society had fallen so far, sure we had a racial problem back before the bombs fell, but before everypony actively hated each other like this, we actually lived and worked together well. Hell, there were even some zebra and pony couples that were doing quite well before the war happened.

“I’m tempted to get some fish’n’chips,” Fruity said as he looked down to the group of eateries on the lower floor.

“Maybe later, aren’t we expected by DJ-PON3?” I asked.

“Oh good, you’re the ponies I’ve come to find,” A friendly voice said from behind us.

I quickly turned around, startled by the sudden new voice and as we turned to face the speaker we found a unicorn stallion that appeared to be in his senior years but it would seem age had been kind to him or he wasn’t that old. The stallion was still an average build and size for an old pony, though his brown coat looked slightly faded and his mane and tail was now a pure silvery colour from age, any trace of an original colour had been lost. His eyes however were a deep blue and seemed to portray years of wisdom and strength that didn’t seem to fit his current appearance.

“You were looking for us?” Fruity asked.

“Yes, DJ-PON3 had asked me to come and collect you,” He answered with a friendly smile. “My name is Silver Disc, I’m his assistance,”

“Aren’t you a little old to be an assistant?” Fruity asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Ha, I may no longer be any spring chicken anymore, I think that’s how the old saying went, but I’m still hoofticapable,” He said with a good natured laugh.

I smiled; glad to meet somepony who was friendly at least. “Nice to meet you Silver, my name is Crystal and this is Xian,” I introduced myself and the young filly that was peeking up at him from under my chest piece. “I don’t think I need to introduce Fruity since he’s been here before multiple times,”

Silver let out a soft laugh. “And nopony could forget the infamous drunk sex machine,” He said with a good natured chuckle. “You should really watch what those mares put in your drinks,”

“Huh?” Fruity asked confused.

“Let’s just say the fountain incident was because of a little extra in your beer,”

Fruity groaned and hid his face in his wing as he muttered something about, “Oldest trick in the book,”

Silver Disc chuckled. “You don’t have to worry about that happening again as her ‘stock’ has been destroyed, anyway, back on the original subject, are you ready to meet the good DJ?”

“Yes actually, we were hoping to come see him as there is something we need help with,” I said.

He nodded as he turned around. “Well I’m sure he’ll be all ears to listen and to help you anyway he can,”

We followed Silver as he led us over a bridge that took us to the central shaft where a series of lifts were built into the shaft. The old pony pressed the call button for the centre lift and the doors opened immediately.

“After you,” Silver said as he stepped aside to let us on first.

“Thank you,” I smiled at his manners and boarded the lift which groaned ominously as it took my weight.

“I hope that’s not a sign that this needs servicing again,” The old stallion groaned as he boarded after us and pressed the button for the very top floor. “I’m sure Sparks said he had this thing purring like a kitten,”

The lift jerked and shuddered as it began to ascend higher into the tower, groaning loudly as it was pulled higher.

“Crystal, can you do something?” Fruity whispered to me discretely.

“I’ll try,” I replied quietly. I leaned down to whisper into Xian’s ear, asking her to sit beside me so I could drape a wing over her shoulders. While I did that, Fruity struck up a conversation with Silver Disc to keep him pre-occupied so he wouldn’t notice anything unusual about what I was doing. With my wing extended and around the filly’s shoulders, I concentrated and the power bar appeared in my HUD showing that the levitation talismans were starting to consume power. With one wing reducing my overall weight, the jerking motion and the heavy groaning of the lift soon stopped and the ride became much smoother.

“Hmm, just an off day I suppose,” Silver said as he looked up at the ceiling.

We gave a nervous chuckle at Silver’s remark before I let out a soft groan and lifted a hoof to the right side of my face and rubbed at the bandaged area. Shortly after putting the bandages on to hide the exposed metal an itchy sensation had been building and it had been getting difficult to ignore.

“You ok?” Fruity asked as he noticed.

“Just feeling a little itchy is all, it’s nothing,” I assured him.

The lift ride took another few minutes to reach the very top. To pass the time, we basically talked about everything and nothing, just general things happening around here and outside the tower. It was a little education for me to learn about some of what was out there as we passed the time but as those doors opened Xian and I couldn’t get out of that small cramped space fast enough. I’m not claustrophobic but being stuck in the lift for soooo long would be enough to make anypony go stir-crazy.

Silver led us down a short corridor from the lift which ended at a single door that was guarded by a large ceiling mounted laser turret. He opened the door and beckoned us through quickly. We were awestruck when entered the room through the door, it was actually a giant apartment at the top of the tower, um, the penthouse suite presume. Everything looked old and grand, large bookshelves and tables, a telescope, a bed and even a kitchen was up here. The floor in front of the door had a huge Ministry of Arcane Science mosaic built into the floor as well. Did this tower have some relation to the MoAS?

“So, where’s Mr DJ?” Fruity asked as he looked around trying to find the illusive pony.

The door clicked shut and Silver’s demeanour changed completely. As he turned to face us, his carefree smile was replaced with a confident smile and his posture was a lot stronger now. His eyes felt sharper and the years of wisdom they carried seemed to intensify.

“Now that we’re all here and alone let me truly introduce myself, I am, DJ-PON3, the jockey of holotapes, the teller of truths, lord and master of the greatest radio station to ever grace the Equestrian Wasteland, Celestial News Radio,” He proclaimed strongly with a confident, deep and charismatic voice.

“So you are Silver Disc and DJ-PON3?” I asked a little confused.

He laughed lightly. “That’s right, it’s been a tradition since the first DJ-PON3 who set up this radio station so that the populace never actually knows who the pony behind the voice really is. I took over from the last DJ over forty years ago,”

“Wow,” Was all I could say to that, it was amazing such a thing was still going.

“I actually wanted to have an interview with you two regarding your journey out west, everything I’ve heard and seen so far paint you two in a very positive light which is good as ponies like you are sorely needed in this world and come in short supply,” Silver said in his new stronger voice. “But you said you came looking for me specifically and you look like you don’t want to hang around, so, what can I do for you?”

“I’m sorry, maybe we can have our interview after we’ve been to where we need to go,” I said to which he nodded. I smiled at that. “Ok um, we were hoping you would be able to tell us where we could find a place in this city called “Paradigm Cybernetics”, it’s very important that we find this place,”

“Paradigm Cybernetics?” He asked. I nodded. Silver Disc shook his head sadly. “I’m sorry Crystal, but I do not know where that is,” I frowned and felt my heart sink. “However I have heard that name before and I should be able to find it,”

I brightened up at that. “Oh if you can find it that would mean a lot,”

“Hmm perhaps we could help each other out. Trade helps the wasteland after all,”

I nodded, that sounded reasonable. “Ok, what can we do for you?” I asked.

“Thank you, ok two weeks ago a salvage team was sent out to gather supplies for the tower in general, a salvage team is usually away for about a week but they didn’t come back after the expected time. Unfortunately, they never came back after giving them a few extra days so we believe them to be dead. They were last seen heading back towards the tower from Checkpoint Glimmer and you would be doing the tower a great favour if you could see if you can find any trace of the missing team and find out what may have happened to them,” He explained.

“Checkpoint Glimmer?” Fruity asked.

“Yes, there is an area around this tower that is generally a safe zone. At the perimeter of this safe zone we have a series of checkpoints that relay sightings of possible threats, like that sniper. He was spotted coming into the area from the east by Checkpoint Mall,”

“I see, so that’s why you had more guards and a sniper on the station,” Fruity clarified.

Silver nodded. “The Raiders have been getting a little bolder these days,” He sighed.

“Ok, so where is this checkpoint we need to go to?” I asked.

Silver chuckled as he walked over to one of the large windows lining the wall of the penthouse. “You can’t miss it, it practically tells you where it is,” He said while looking out the window.

We followed him over to the window and looked out and we both spotted it rather quickly. Just north of Tenpony was another sky scraper, this one shaped more triangular and looked to be one of those mostly steel and glass buildings. What caught our eye the most about the building was its top most area, it had a large balcony area as well as a large platform above the balcony which I assumed to be a landing pad and along the upper most wall it held a large neon sign which was still mostly working. In bright pinkish purple neon was the word “Glimmer”, and just before that it looked like there was a large circular piece but it appears to have long since fallen away.

“Wait a minute, I know that place,” I gasped in realisation.

“You do?” Both Fruity and Silver asked in unison.

“Um, yes, I remember seeing the news talking about its grand opening. That’s the head office of Starlight Industries,” I replied. “Um, I guess you’ll understand when we get back we can have our interview then,”

DJ-PON3 nodded.

I felt Xian brush up against my leg and I looked down. The poor filly was scared. She could understand equestrian well enough now to know that we were heading out and into that city even after I was shot down not long ago. I wouldn’t like to expose her to that just yet, not after the scare she’s just had.

“Err, Mr Disc, um or do you prefer DJ-PON3?” I asked unsure.

“Either one is fine,” He said with a friendly smile.

“If it’s ok with you, could you do us a favour and look after Xian until we get back please, I don’t want to risk her safety until we know this city better?”

He looked down at the young filly and gave a soft smile. “Sure, it’s good to see how much you care for her welfare,”

You don’t want me?” Xian cried in zebrican after hearing we were going to leave her here.

I sat on my haunches and gently held her shoulders and bend my head down so I could look her in the eye. Hearing that almost broke my heart. “Hey, no, it is not because I don’t want you at all, far from it. You are a sweet and innocent little filly and you have been just wonderful since you came with us and I’d be happy for you to stay with us. Really! But right now, this is unfamiliar territory and I could not forgive myself if something was to happen to you,” I swallowed down hard to keep my composure. “You, you know what I am, I can take things you can’t, until we know we can protect you out there, it’ll be safer for you if you wait for us here with Silver Disc where it is safe, ok?

You promise to come back for me?” She practically begged.

I stroked her mane with a forehoof and gently kissed her forehead. “Of course I promise, I would never do what your tribe did to you,” I replied honestly.

The young filly teared up and hugged me. I smiled and gently wrapped her up in a hug, wings included. After a long moment we broke the embrace.

“I didn’t know what you two said but I did hear my name,” Silver said. I gave Xian a reassuring kiss on the forehead before I let her go. The filly reluctantly walked over to him.

“I was just reassuring her that we’ll be back for her, that’s all,” I told him.

He nodded as Fruity and I made for the lift.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be back soon,” Fruity said, both to Silver and Xian as the lift doors closed.

XXXXX

In the late afternoon light the city was quite dark, especially with the stormy clouds up above us. Thankfully, it had stopped raining by the time we left the tower and climbed down to street level so we could make our way towards Starlight Tower where Checkpoint Glimmer was setup in its courtyard.

“Hey, are you ok?” Fruity asked as he gently bumped my flank while we cautiously walked up the street.

“Not really,” I answered honestly. “Besides feeling sore, I feel horrible about leaving her behind,”

“Hey, don’t beat yourself up over it; I’ve said it before that this isn’t really a place for a foal like her, you made the right choice in leaving her with somepony we can trust like DJ-PON3. Besides, once we do this we’ll be going back,”

I nodded and gave a weak smile before giving his cheek a kiss. “Hmm, you’re right,”

He draped a wing over my back and gave me a quick squeeze. “C’mon now, let’s focus on what we need to,”

I nodded. He’s right. I can’t dwell on these thoughts right now; they’ll pose as a distraction. I know Xian is somewhere safe right now and if I want to make it back to her I need to focus on what we’re doing.

Manehattan is so much different to Las Pegasus as the city is more tightly built up with its tall buildings and everything looks more for business rather than entertainment. None of the buildings we passed were that intact either as most had holes in their walls or had entire sides missing and spilled their contents all over the street. We had to detour a couple of times because a building had completely collapsed and blocked off the road with a mountain of concrete and steel or there was a deep trench which would have made scaling the other side impossible.

The more we travelled the streets the more I figured Xian wouldn’t be happy out here. Yes, she would be positively terrified. The state of the city was one thing but the eerie silence from the lack of other ponies was unsettling. The howl of the wind as it blew through the streets or the buildings was creepy and the horrible groans and whines from the buildings made us think that they could fall at any moment was enough to strengthen our belief. Not to mention I was certain I saw a giant cockroach that was as big a Germane Shepard and had a balefire glow to it, though I might have been seeing things: there’s no way a cockroach could be that big… could there?

After about an hour and a half of picking our way through the rubble strewn streets, we stepped out onto the street in front of Starlight Tower, the once head office of Starlight Industries. The massive glass and steel tower stretched up into the sky and illuminated the heavens with its pinkish purple neon while groaning loudly as the wind made its ancient metal frame flex and rattled what intact glass planes still desperately clung to their frames.

“They must have had some serious money to build a place like that,” Fruity commented just before there was a gun shot from the checkpoint in the court yard. I dove to the ground with a startled eep while Fruity threw a wing up in front of his face as an instinctive reaction before folding it back up. “Woah hey, chill, we are from Tenpony!” He yelled. “Dipshit,” He added in a whisper.

A cream unicorn mare with a light yellow mane and tail wearing an old Robronco jumpsuit quickly ran up to us with a hunting rifle trailing behind in her yellow magic. “I’m so so sorry,”

“No harm done,” Fruity said while I pulled myself up from the floor.

“No harm done?” I cried in annoyance while I shot the mare a glare. “She nearly shot us…”

“I’m sorry, my mother is asleep and you just came out of nowhere,” She responded apologetically.

It was then I realised the pony before us was just a teenager. “Ok, ok, calm down kid, I’m sorry, I didn’t realise you were scared,”

“Like I said, we are from Tenpony and we are looking into the disappearance of the salvage team,” Fruity said.

“Oh well in that case you’ll need to talk to my mum, she was the one that last seen and reported them to the tower,” She said as she turned around. “Oh, my name is Custard Cream by the way,”

I smiled warmly at the young mare in attempt to help her relax. “It’s nice to meet you Miss Cream, my name is Crystal and this is Fruity,” The purple pegasus bowed his head at his introduction.

“It’s not often we see pegasi down here, I hope you aren’t with those Enclave lunatics,”

“Enclave has been down here?” Fruity asked with a hint of fear and curiosity.

“There have been a couple of sightings lately, not friendly to the locals either,” She sighed as we approached a tent. “Mum’s in here, I’ll go wake her,”

As she opened the tent flap we began to hear the low murmurs and moans of a pony during sex. Hearing this brought a blush to our cheeks and a war with our muscles to keep our wings under control. The moans suddenly stopped with a snort and a groan.

“Huh, what, Custard! I was in the middle of a lovely dream just then…,” The voice of an older mare tiredly said before trailing off. “Oh err; I wasn’t being loud was I?”

There was a moment of silence. I could only imagine Custard Cream’s face being a mirror of ours.

“Fuck, c’mon Chocolate Bourbon, you’re gonna freak everypony out with your vivid dreams,” The older mare said to herself out loud. “Anyway why did you wake me up?”

“There are a couple of ponies from Tenpony wanting to know about the missing salvage team,” Custard replied quickly.

“Oh,”

Thankfully, by the time a middle aged mare that had a brown coat and a dark brown mane and tail stepped out of the tent we had managed to get control of our wings and get rid of our blushes.

“So, how can I help you two?” Bourbon asked as she cocked her head, her eyes on me showing some suspicion. I am going to be getting the stink eye from most wastelanders out here?

“We know the salvage team passed by Checkpoint Glimmer on their way back to Tenpony Tower, anything you can tell us would greatly help us in our search for the missing team,” Fruity explained.

“Ok, well as they were carrying a trunk of collected supplies they would have had to head for Tenpony Tower’s south side rather than trying to lug it up to the station platform. The south side of the tower has a goods in loading bay which all salvage operations are collected from. To get to it from here you will need to go down that road there and down Saddle Row,” Bourbon said while pointing down the road. “They did go that way since we saw them go down there,”

“Thank you for your co-operation,” I said with a smile. “Have a pleasant afternoon,”

“Yeah, thanks, good bye,” Fruity added as we turned and began for Saddle Row as directed.

Shortly after we left the checkpoint, I groaned in annoyance and reached up to the bandages around my head and tugged them off. The itchiness had become unbearable and I was at my wits end on trying not to scratch. With the bandages off I felt blessed relief as the itchiness faded away.

“Oh that’s so much better,” I sighed.

“But everypony will be able to see the metal now,” Fruity pointed out.

I nodded with a sigh. “There is not much we can do about that now is there,” I gently ran my damaged hoof over the wounded area of my face. “Everypony is gonna know soon enough though right?”

“Maybe,” Fruity said but still concerned for me.

“We’ll deal with it as it happens like we have been doing since we started,”

Fruity nodded and gently gave me a slight squeeze with his wing to offer some comfort and support.

When we turned the corner onto the street the name of it finally hit me as I took in all of the boutiques lining the road on either side in various states of decay. I couldn’t believe it didn’t occur to me earlier. Saddle Row, the fashion capital of Equestria. I excitedly rushed up to the shops, briefly forgetting where I was and what I was doing as old desires rushed to the forefront of my mind. However as I ran from each boarded up door to the next my excitement turned to disappointment before I recollected myself and remembered it was hundred and ninety years since they were last open and that everything that was in there was now likely nothing but dust. I stopped my excited shop to shop dash outside a small store wedged between two larger ones called. “Rarity for You”

“Phew, ugh, what got into you, guh, you were like a mare possessed running around like that?” Fruity gasped as he panted, looking a little worn out after trying to keep up with me it seemed.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I… um, I just remembered an old dream of mine, one I’ve had when my mother promised me we’d come here for when…” I paused as I let out a sad sigh. “If I got better. Still just a dream,” I sat down and closed my eyes, fighting hard with my emotions to not let myself cry as the emotional force of that memory tried to overpower me.

Fruity sat beside me and wrapped his forelegs around me as well as his wings in a comforting hug. “Don’t worry, at least in your memory you can still remember her,” He said reassuringly.

He’s right; I can’t keep falling apart like this every time a memory of my past comes up. I need to fully get to grips with all this. “You’re right, thank you,” I said as I stood up but then winced and picked my right forehoof off the floor. “Ow,” I groaned in pain. My HUD warned me that the fracture was dangerously weak. Any attempt at putting my hoof down now made me wince with pain. I guess until it repairs I’m walking on three legs.

“You ok?” Fruity asked with concern.

“I am, just overdid it with the running,”

Fruity nodded. “Too bad a healing potion won’t help with that,” He said as he looked around Saddle Row and his face twisted into a scowl. “Does the fact that EVERY shop on this street apart from this one being boarded up strike you as odd?” He asked. “And that tower crane there wasn’t blocking the street the last time I was here,”

“Huh?” I said as I too looked around. Sure enough each store I had ran up to had had its door boarded up and every other store that we can see was also boarded up to prevent access. The only shop that wasn’t was Rarity for You.

“With that tower crane blocking the road the salvage team would have had to either back track past the checkpoint which Cream or Bourbon mentioned they didn’t do or they found a way through this still open shop,” Fruity suggested. “But with the fact that this is the only shop still open I’m a bit suspicious,”

“Um, I don’t think tower cranes use grappling hooks,” I said with narrowed eyes as I stared at the twisted rusty yellow painted metal frame of the downed crane spanning the width of the street.

“Wait what?”

I pointed to the frame nearest to the buildings on the right side of the street, opposite to where the crane had been standing and us. “Can you see them, there are two, three pronged hooks still hooked onto the framed with some rope dangling from them,” I said while pointing out the two grapple hooks.

“This looks like something Raiders would do,” Fruity said seriously.

I nodded and then faced the door to Rarity for You. “I guess the team went through here then,”

“We need to be cautious, if this was indeed Raiders there is no telling what could be in there,” Fruity said as he swung his modified Q-Modulator down from his back and held it under his wing. A shift from his wing triggered the weapon’s power button and it primed up ready to fire. I nodded and followed his example and used my nano-fibre tail to reach into the holster on my right foreleg and picked out Lucky 13.

I limped up to the door and gently pushed against it with my damaged foreleg. Thankfully, the door was open and didn’t apply too much pressure on it to cause pain while I opened the door.

The faded and cracked dark green painted door creaked opened to reveal a very murky and dark shop floor. It was hard to see because of how dark it was inside with how the windows were boarded up or had what remained of the curtains still hanging from the rails so only a minimal amount of light was getting in. The light from the door was the most we were getting. The middle of the shop floor was dominated by two U shaped counters back to back so they made an oval shape in the middle with a gap separating them. The counters had several cash registers dotted about; a couple of them were on their sides with their drawers open like they had been looted. The faded purple walls were dominated by shelves and racking while the alcoves in the corners had display cases (smashed to bits) and ponyequins with old tattered shreds of what used to be a top of the range outfits on them.

“Anything?” Fruity asked as he tried to peer into the dark and murky shop.

“I can’t see anything out of the ordinary, although there is an open door in the back,” I replied, squinting my eyes to see better.

“We better tread lightly, for all we know Raiders or whoever pulled that damn crane down booby-trapped this place,”

I nodded in agreement as we entered the old abandoned shop. Fruity crept to the right to walk around the far side of the counter while I continued forward towards the door. While I was passing the counter, I noticed a large wooden sign hanging from the ceiling which spanned the width of the checkout counter and it read in big flashy script. “’Rarity for You’ under new ownership.” Next to the word “Ownership” there was faded photograph with a name. The photograph was still good enough to make out and it was of a light yellow earth pony mare with a short and straight cyan mane. This was a mare that many ponies got to know in the fashion industry before the war overshadowed everything, this was Coco Pommel, a shy but very talented seamstress for an earth pony. I knew she was made the manager here but to think she would become its owner, I didn’t see that coming.

We made it to the open door in the back without incident and we also discovered that there was another door that was open to our left that was hidden from view before as it was in an alcove.

“Should we check it out?” I asked while looking at the open door to our left, my tail holding my revolver over my head but pointing at the open side door.

Priming his rifle Fruity took the lead. “Might as well just in case we miss something from the salvage team,” He said as he walked in front of me, the green glow from his, well it’s basically a plasma assault rifle now, illuminated the hallway. The hallway was short, a darker shade of purple and had several doorways, two doorless frames on the right and a closed door on the left. The doorless ones were changing rooms and I saw a harrowing sight in the first one. There was a whole family lying dead inside the changing room, their skeletons huddled together in a tight embrace as if they could shield each other from the balefire with their embrace. The worst sight in this was the tiny skeleton in between the adult ones. A mere infant foal died in its parents hooves when Equestria burned. It made me think of Xian, how much I’ve grown to care for her and how much I don’t want to see her get hurt out here; I could never forgive myself otherwise if she did.

Fruity sighed deeply. “It’s worse when seeing the skeletons of kids,” He said solemnly. I just nodded, unable to say anything further.

The other changing room was empty beside an oddly out of place ammo box which thankfully gave me a dozen shells for my shotgun and the closed door opened into a small store room, but unfortunately there was no sign of the salvage team.

After a quick backtrack, we walked through the door in the back of the shop. Once through the threshold we found ourselves in another hallway with a backdoor at the end, a door to our right and stairs on the left near the backdoor. To speed things up we decided to split up, Fruity went up the rest of the hallway while I entered the room to our right, my gun still raised above my head in preparation to defend myself if necessary.

The room was dirty and old, obviously, and if I didn’t know any better I swear I could smell gas coming from somewhere. However, this room looked like it was the place where Coco or whoever else that once worked here used to make the clothing that was sold here as there were old sewing equipment sitting on tables and on cabinets as well as old utensils like needles and what remained of the spools of thread. The room also appeared to be arranged into separate work stations as there were dividing walls between each station. Walking between each one, I found nothing of interest other than more pulp and dirt of long decayed fabric and no signs of the salvage team but as I walked around the last dividing wall I found a skeleton of a pony slumped against its desk with a display case. Inside the case was a burgundy trench coat with a red belt and black buttons and buckle, it also had a set of knee high midnight purple hind leg boots with red highlights to go with it. Next to the case lying on the table close to the skeleton’s skull was the remains of a wide brimmed hat that was the same midnight purple, despite the decay and grime all over it, and there was also what looked like small shreds of a red ribbon that went around its base. A closer inspection revealed a small plaque that read. “Noir Belle, reproduction by Coco Pommel.”

I gasped in shock and surprise after I read the plaque and looked at the skeleton. For all I know it could belong to Coco Pommel, she could have died when the world ended while trying to put the finishing touches to her latest assemble. Or it could be just some random looter trying to make off with it. I stared at the skeleton for a short while, wondering whether or not if it was her or not before looking back at the coat and boats.

“If it is her, it would be a shame to leave these here to eventually rot and to go unappreciated,” I reasoned. “Plus I need a new coat after my duster got shredded,”

Making up my mind on the principal the outfit would be better off with me and that it’s no longer considered stealing when it’s no longer owned. I reached forward with my wings, I noticed the stiffness in my left wing had lessened a bit by now, and opened the display case door. With the coat and boats extracted, I carefully folded the coat around the boats and slipped them under my medical box to transport them safely. I couldn’t exactly try them on as we had more important things to do.

“Crystal, it is no good on this end,” Fruity called from in the hallway.

Keeping my gun raised I quickly made my way back out into the hall. “What’s up?” I asked while I limped up the hallway to join him.

“It’s all collapsed about halfway up the stairs and I’m sure there’s a busted gas pipe somewhere because this place reeks of it,”

I nodded. “I thought I could smell gas,” I confirmed.

“Ok, so unless you found anything we’ll have to continue on into the back alley,”

“No, nothing, but I did find a new coat,”

Fruity nodded and we then turned and headed for the back door. Again, Fruity went first and I began to follow after him. Just as my hindhoof was about to pass the threshold I felt it catch on something and paused.

“Crystal, very carefully, put your hoof back down,” Fruity cautioned very seriously.

I cringed but couldn’t help but look back behind me and to my despair I found that my hindhoof had caught onto a well concealed tripwire which Fruity had been lucky enough to have stepped over. I could feel my heartrate increase with panic when I looked up at the ceiling above the door in an attempt to find what the tripwire was connected to. Hidden inside a lampshade above the door were three apple shaped frag-grenades which I could only assume were what were connected to this tripwire. I whimpered with fear as I began to slowly push my hoof back to undo any tension I may have put onto the wire but my abysmal luck struck again as the wire snapped and those three grenades dropped to the floor with a clatter without their pins.

“Oh shit, run, RUN!” Fruity yelled. We both broke into a sprint as fast as we could go down the alley. “Run like the clappers!”

“I’m running,” I cried in pain. My vision alerting me to my fetlock fracture integrity decreasing.

There was then a large explosion as the three grenades went off at once and at the sound of the grenades going off we dove behind the wall of the nearest ginnel between two buildings we could find that could offer some form of shelter. Almost instantly after the grenades, there was then an immensely bigger explosion as the grenades ignited the gas and the resulting gas explosion then obliterated Rarity for You and the two stores that flanked it.

“Duck and cover!” Fruity yelled over the explosion and we both threw ourselves to the floor and used our wings to cover ourselves the best we could. Thankfully, the ginnel we had dove into protected us from the explosive shockwave of the gas explosion and since it was a narrow gap it also gave some protection from the raining debris which consisted mostly of bricks, burning pieces of wood and glass since the shockwave from the blast shattered all the windows in the area.

“First day back and we destroy a building,” I muttered to myself dejectedly.

“WHAT?!” Fruity yelled down my earhole.

“Geez, don’t yell, I’m only here,” I cried out as I jerked my head back and rubbed at my ear.

“CAN’T HEAR YOU TOO GOOD OVER ALL THIS DAMN RINGING!” Fruity yelled while he too rubbed at his ears. I blinked for a moment before I realised what was wrong with him. The explosion must have hurt his hearing so he was partially deaf because of the ringing in his ears. Odd my hearing is still ok, but I suppose my hearing would be fine considering what I am.

We waited for about ten minutes to be sure everything had stopped raining rubble before we stepped back out into the alleyway and surveyed the damaged. Rarity for You was completely gone and the two shops that were flanking it were half demolished and falling into themselves. We could see broken and pulverised masonry and wood scattered about everywhere but it was more prominent in the directions of the forces of the blast which, because of the buildings beside Rarity for You, were in front and behind it.

“Wow,” I breathed out in amazement.

“Shit, good job we don’t have to clean this up,” Fruity said although a little loudly.

“How are your ears?” I asked.

“I can hear again ok, just gonna be ringing for a while,” He said with a nostalgic smile. “Heh, reminds me of the first gig I went to back up in Nimbus Town when I was a teenager to see a rock band called the Shadow-Terrors,” He let out a light chuckle. “My ears were ringing for three days straight because they were so loud,” His smile soon faded and turned into a sad frown as he looked up to the rolling dark clouds above us. “I wonder if my family is doing ok up there?” He asked absentmindedly.

I frowned sadly for him and gently wrapped my right wing around him and held him while he reminisced. “I’m sure they are doing ok Fruity,”

He leaned against me and then nuzzled my cheek, being careful not to disturb the wounds. “Yes, I believe they are too and besides. If I didn’t get banished I’d probably be bad alcoholic right now and I wouldn’t have met you,” He said with a light kiss to my wounded cheek.

“Aww, that’s sweet of you to say,” I smiled warmly before looking down the alleyway that led towards the tower. “Ok, we should follow the alley for now; if the salvage team was ambushed we’ll find something somewhere,”

“Agreed and we should hurry, it’s starting to get dark,”

My eyes widened.

“You remember what happened the night we met?” Fruity asked as we began to walk down the alley, inspecting dead grassy tufts and piles of rubbish littering it for anything that could point us to the salvage team.

“I do, we got attacked by giant bats,” I said with a shiver.

We walked for about five minutes before Fruity shot a wing out in front of me to stop me. “Hold up,” He said in a warning tone.

“W-what is it?” I asked, looking around trying to find a hostile target despite my EFS being clear.

“Mines” He said simply as he began to flap his wings and hover a few feet off the ground.

“Mines?” I asked looking at the ground. I squinted, looking for the tell tail sign of the orange glow from the top of the explosive but I couldn’t see anything. I did see a lot of traffic cones dotted about the place and other miscellaneous junk though.

Fruity swung his rifle forward so he could grip it with his forelegs and took aim before firing a short burst of three small plasma bolts. I got to see how much more effective his weapon had become after his upgrades because before the upgrades the single plasma bolt was slow moving but these three smaller ones were at least twice as fast and the way the rifled kicked back further, it must pack quite a punch now. The burst of plasma fire hit one of the traffic cones which to my surprise suddenly exploded.

“What the?!” I exclaimed in confusion.

“Old Raider trick, and give away. They sometimes hide landmines under traffic cones. They use cones so THEY know where they put their own mines, the dumb shits,”

“If there are traps here then we must be on the right track,” I called up to him.

He nodded as he aimed at another cone and fired another burst which triggered another explosion and also set off another as it was close enough to trigger it.

I decided to help him out and lifted my revolver back up over my head and aimed at the cones he wasn’t. Firing Lucky 13 with my tail for the first time was new and I didn’t know how to handle the recoil so when the weapon discharged its .357 round the revolver flipped over one hundred and eighty degrees in my tail’s grip. Thankfully, my tail’s aim was good as the bullet hit the mine hidden in the base of the cone and exploded it.

We must have exploded about a dozen mines by the time we came to a waste collection point in the alley. It was wider than the alley by, like a lot and had street access for the waste disposal vehicles. Against the walls of the buildings around us in this area were large dumpsters but a large metal trunk caught our attention lying on its side in the middle of the waste disposal area.

“Is that it?” I asked.

“It could be,” Fruity nodded.

We quickly scanned the area to be sure there weren’t any unwanted surprises waiting for us and once we were satisfied, we cautiously walked up to the upturned trunk. It lay wide open and was empty apart from the items that would generally be useless by today’s standard. The trunk also had patches of dried blood on it which told us the salvage team had been ambushed and have likely been killed.

“Here’s the trunk…” Fruity began.

“But where are the ponies?” I finished.

We cautiously looked around until Fruity spotted blood splatters on the side of a closed dumpster. He lifted the lid and peered into the bin for a few seconds before jumping away, gagging.

“Found them,” He wheezed. “Damn they stunk so bad,”

“I guess that’s job done then, we head back to the tower?” I asked.

Fruity shook his head. “Not just yet, Raiders got in here unseen, we got to at least have a look and see how they managed it as well as killing a whole salvage crew without being heard from here. We can’t be too far from Checkpoint Glimmer, there is no way they wouldn’t be able to hear a gunshot from here,”

I nodded after a moment’s thought on the matter. He was right, we owe it to the next crew to at least give them some sort of advanced warning if we can find out how these Raiders snuck past a checkpoint and killed a whole team silently.

I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary besides the trunk and blood splatters on the dumpster on the ground and so, on a whim I looked up. Looking up at the gutters of the buildings around us I soon spotted something that looked to be the feathered end of an arrow sticking out of the gutter of the building behind us.

“Fruity, what’s that?” I asked as I pointed up at the item that caught my interest with a wing.

The purple pegasus looked up and spotted the odd looking stick. “I have no idea,” He said as he slung his rifle and took to the air, climbing up to the gutter to be level with the feather like end. “Its… it’s a metal arrow,” He called down to me sounding confused.

“Huh, a metal arrow?” I repeated, unsure of what to make of that.

“Hang on,” He said as he bit onto the metal arrow with his teeth and pulled. He strained while he flapped his wings hard to pull the offending item free.

“Maybe you should…”I began but was cut off as the arrow came free and Fruity nearly fell out of the air as the sudden release of tension made him lose control for a moment. “Never mind,”

He spat the metal arrow, which indeed it was, onto the ground as he landed. “Damn thing nearly made me go ass over tit and I think I chipped a tooth,” He whined as he ran his tongue over his teeth after spitting it out.

“You look ok to me,” I smiled before I looked down at the offending piece of metal. This was a metal arrow alright but not the kind of arrow you’d fire from a bow with a draw string, no, this was a crossbow bolt. “Fruity, this is a crossbow bolt, something fired from a standard pre-war Royal Guard Crossbow before they were replaced by the firearms we have now,” Since my electronic brain had fed me some information about the arrow and what fired it.

“A crossbow huh, I can see how that’ll be quiet,” He nodded. “So we now know what killed them, but where did the Raiders come from?” He asked.

“Hmm, good question, well, if earlier today was any indication they could have come from anywhere,”

“True but they would have had to get out with a good haul of crap from this,”

“Point taken, Raiders with a large stash of junk wouldn’t be hard to miss, so they must have found some way to sneak out,” I suggested.

“They couldn’t fly out as they’d be easily seen, sneaking out fully loaded would be too troublesome and would slow them down, so that leaves going underground,”

As Fruity said “Underground” we both turned our heads to look down the wide ginnel that acted as the street access road for the waste vehicles and in the middle of it was a ponyhole cover that was slightly out of place, just sticking up at one end, like it had recently been disturbed.

“I wonder,” I whispered to myself as I holstered Lucky 13 and approached the grid. With one foreleg out of commission and the other needed to support me I instead used my tail to grip the raised edge of the metal disc and flipped it over. Upon peering down into the sewer beneath us, I instantly regretted it.

“Oh mother of Celestia and Luna,” I gasped. “I found another member of the salvage team, looks like they landed on a Raider too but, oh goddesses, they are half eaten,”

Down at the bottom of the shaft the bodies of two ponies lay on top of each other in various states of decay but both of them looked like they had been mauled by something. The one on top was the worst, half its face was eaten down to the bone and its eye was missing.

“The sewers, no, wait yes, oh this is bigger than anything that could be monitored by the guards or the checkpoints,” Fruity exclaimed.

“What do you mean?” I asked as I turned to look at my coltfriend.

“If these Raiders are stupid and ballsy enough to use the sewers or the metro under the city then they could come up pretty much anywhere in the city. There is just no way the checkpoints would be able to guard against that,”

“Oh dear, you’re right, we better get back and tell Slick and Silver Disc about this,”

“And fast, we don’t want to be out here when those Bloodwings come out again,”

“I can’t run, anymore pressure and my fetlock is gonna shatter,” I whimpered.

“Hmm, open your wings and do that thing that makes you weightless,” Fruity instructed.

“Um, ok, but why?” I asked while I opened my wings and concentrated so the levitation talismans reduced my weight. Fruity smiled and winked before he lifted off the ground and flew over me and then wrapped his forelegs around my chest and his hind legs around my waist. I blushed slightly from the full body hug he was giving me, but then eeped as he pulled me off the ground and began to fly with me under him. I felt a little uncomfortable being the passenger like this but we were already flying fast and through the streets back towards the tower so I kept quiet.

We should be flying, not being somepony’s hoof luggage,” That voice I heard in my head before I crashed said with a scoff. Come to think of it, being unable to fly had been giving me a niggling feeling in the back of my head and if I wasn’t focused on the task of finding out what happened to the salvage team I think I would have been thinking about flying. Is this what it’s like to be a pegasus, to feel the need to fly at nearly every waking moment or is this something else, maybe to do with the voice I’m hearing now, or am I simply going mad?

I began to feel the air rushing over my out stretched wings and on instinct I angled my wings to reduce drag for Fruity as he carried me along. We were so close to the tower now but the darkness from the setting sun was a bad sign.

“Ah cock and bollocks!” Fruity shouted as the whole city seemed to shriek in unison and like someone opened the gates of Tartarus, streams of dark shapes began to fly up into the now night sky from all around us.

“Oh Celestia no,” I squeaked. “Bloodwings,”

Fruity pumped his wings harder and we rose higher and higher until we flew over and just above the high rise and put ourselves in a straight run to the tower. Tenpony Tower was like a shining beacon in the darkness as its floodlights lit up the surrounding area to keep away the mutant bats.

“CLOSE YOUR EYES!” We heard a guard shout through a megaphone from the platform and we saw movement. A pony had moved towards a switch on the back wall of the station platform. As soon as the guard flipped the switch, two extremely bright spot lights flicked on, their intense beams of light illuminating the high rise railway for a good few hundred feet and the lights were bright enough that any nearby Bloodwings shrieked in pain and flew away.

Fruity slowed to a hover and let me go. I landed softly on my three good hooves and sighed with relief that we were back in safe territory. Fruity landed beside me, panting tiredly. I smiled and hugged him.

“Thank you, you did wonderfully,” I cooed softly to him.

He just smiled in reply while taking in large lungful’s of air.

“You made it back, that’s good, DJ PON-3 is eager to hear about what you found out there,” The guard on duty stated.

“Thank you, um, where’s Slick?” Fruity asked when he got his breath back.

“He’s off duty; he works the day shift,”

We nodded our thanks and quickly hobbled into the tower. Fruity was courteous enough to open the doors for me while I limped on through. I was glad it was early evening because that meant there wasn’t as many ponies wandering the tower as before but there was still enough to stare at me as we made our way to the central elevators. I could feel their gazes on me while we waited for the lift to arrive. I knew discarding the bandages was a bad idea, but the itchiness would have driven me mad by now. I just hope they haven’t seen the metal under my skin. The wait for the lift felt like it took hours and I couldn’t get into it fast enough to get out of sight when it arrived, but sadly we had to wait again for the long ride up to the penthouse.

The ride to the top was frustrating but thankfully, I had Fruity to cuddle on the way up, if not for him the cramped space would likely have made me want to tear the doors off so I could get out. As the doors opened when we finally reached the top we found Silver Disc and another aged unicorn stallion sitting in the hallway waiting for us. I didn’t see Xian with them and immediately worry crept into my mind as we stepped out. The DJ opened his mouth to greet us but I cut him off first.

“Where’s Xian?” I asked quickly with worry.

He blinked for a moment but then gave a light smile as he replied. “Don’t worry, she’s ok, she’s just asleep, poor girl tired herself out worrying over you two and I suppose she had good reason. I believe that big explosion not long ago was your doing considering it was in the direction of Checkpoint Glimmer?”

“Not on purpose I swear,” Fruity quickly clarified.

Silver Disc nodded as he turned around and begun to walk back towards his home and we followed behind him along with the other unicorn. I wonder who he is but I suppose introductions will come when we are inside. Once back inside, he led us to a dining table and gestured for us to take a seat on the comfy looking dining room chairs.

“Ok, before we begin with your findings, let me introduce my old friend Quartermane, he was a seasoned explorer in his youth,” The DJ introduced the other dark grey unicorn with a charcoal mane and tail that look pretty wild with a pat on the shoulder. Quartermane kept quiet for the moment but he nodded his head in acknowledgement and to let Silver continue. “So, what did you find out?”

Taking a breath we explained everything we discovered, from the crane that was pulled down, the boarded up shops on Saddle Row, the booby-trapped shop and alleyway which had all been in an effort to herd the salvage team into a killzone, and then the discovery of the salvage team and how they were killed without anypony at the checkpoint hearing it. We also told him of our speculation of Raiders using the underground networks of sewers and metro tunnels to get in and around the safe zone undetected.

“Hmm, our checkpoints won’t be able to cover anywhere near as much ground if this also means having to check every ponyhole cover in the area. Tenpony Tower’s surveillance system can only do so much and all the buildings around it can easily block most of the street level areas of view,” Silver looked off to the side for a moment in thought before he sighed. “Thank you, I will send this information down to our heads of security and hopefully they’ll be able to come up with something else,”

“You’re welcome,” I said with a soft smile. I winced a little as my smile must have made one of my wounds more noticeable or something as Quartermane’s eyes looked right at me.

“Now then, you two wanted to know where Paradigm Cybernetics is correct?” Silver asked as he got up from his seat and walked over to a nearby cupboard and opened it.

“That’s right,” I nodded.

“Sadly, I myself couldn’t find it but luckily I knew somepony that had been places,” Silver said as he pulled out a roll of paper from the cupboard and then rolled it out onto the table. The roll of paper turned out to be a map of Manehattan with multiple coloured rings drawn on it around a certain point, with each ring moving away from the centre ring a different colour from the next.

“Quartermane here has been to Paradigm Cybernetics before and he’s agreed to show you where it is,”

“Wow really, oh thank you so much,” I said with genuine happiness in my voice.

“I don’t know why you young’uns even want to go out to a place like that, it’s nothing but trouble but mister Silver told me it was important to you so here it is,” The dark coloured stallion pointed out while tapping his hoof onto the map, inside the top must dotted ring on the other side of Manehattan from where we are currently sitting right now.

“Oh that’s not good,” Fruity sighed.

“Huh, why what’s wrong?” I asked confused by his reaction.

“Ah, I’m afraid Crystal, where you want to go is inside the Blast Zone, it may be inside the area of least effect but it is still inside the danger zone,” The Silver pointed out.

“Wait, are you telling me, where we need to go, is inside where the Balefire Bomb hit?”

Everypony around me nodded and I felt my heart drop like a lead weight into my stomach.

“What are we going to do now?” I whined as I looked up and out the window in the direction of the now very clear green glow on the horizon behind all the jagged and broken buildings where we know the bomb had to have hit.

“Well, if you still want to go, I might be able to point you to a pony that may have some hazmat suits you could buy,” Silver smiled.

“That would be great, thank you,” I said gratefully. “I still want to know who did this to me and why,”

“It’s my pleasure, and thank you Quartermane for your assistance tonight,” Silver Disc raised his eyebrow with intrigue after my last statement.

“Anytime, old friend,” The dark stallion said with a small smile as he left the table and then the room.

Silver waited for a good few seconds to be sure his friend was gone before the confident voice of the DJ returned. “Again I would like to sincerely thank you for finding the salvage team and finding out what happened to them. I’ll be able to let their families know the truth now.”

Fruity and I gave our thanks again as we leaned against each other.

“Anyway Miss Heroine of the West, would you allow me to interview you now?” He asked.

“Why did you give me that title and how do you even know I did anything worth it?” I demanded.

Silver smiled as he gestured to the room in the middle of his penthouse suite. “This tower is in fact the Ministry of Arcane Science Hub and in that room there is the MASEB System, it’s basically the Ministry of Arcane Science Emergency Broadcast System and it allows me to use the Single Pegasus Project as surveillance tools. It was through them that I was able to know about your exploits out west, even when the towers out there were either destroyed or not working entirely I still had some reliable contacts that were able to contact me through the nearest tower that could broadcast back,” He explained.

“Oh, I see, wow, so that’s how you get to see what goes on in the wasteland and offer the ponies the helpful snippets of news you do?” I asked.

He nodded with a proud smile of the things he’s done using his studio.

“Ok then, well what would you like to know about me now that I’m here?”

He smiled as he stood up. “Everything, it will help me tell the right story to the ponies of the wasteland,”

I looked at Fruity and then rubbed at my cheek softly with my hoof. “I don’t want to keep lying anymore, it nearly cost me my relationship, the best thing to do is to tell the truth,” I sighed before giving Fruity a light kiss on the forehead. His eyes were saying, “Are you sure about this?” To me and I nodded to him as I got up and joined the DJ who had moved over to the door for the MASEB room.

“Come and join us Fruity, this is as much as your story as it is hers,” DJ-PON3 said when he noticed that Fruity hadn’t moved.

“It’s ok, I was with her nearly every single step of the way, besides, somepony needs to check on Xian, can’t leave her all by herself if she wakes up while you’re in there,” He said.

I smiled at that.

“Very well, she’s up the stairs there and using my bed,” Silver pointed to some stairs next to wall beside the central room.

“Ok, see you in a bit,” Fruity said as he fluttered up to check on Xian and I entered the studio room.

“Now then, in your own time, tell me about yourself,” DJ-PON3 asked as he fired up his recording equipment.

Biting down my nervousness I began my story from the beginning, from before I became this.

XXXXX

Earlier.

“Hehe stupid fucking cunts can’t hit the broad side of a barn,” A pony wearing long johns and having an assortment of cobbled together pieces of metal and leather on his limbs laughed as he ran out of one hotel room and moved down the dirty and ruined corridor to the next.

“This is so much fun, can’t believe that zebra bitch made herself such an easy target,” He smiled with glee as his horn glowed with red magic and he levitated his custom made weapon. The weapon though was a common type among raiders, a block of wood with a metal pipe through the middle with a breach and then all the usual pieces necessary to make it a proper firearm like a stock, magazine, barrel and in the case of this one, a scope.

The Raider peered down his scope at the train station to Tenpony Tower, the place he has been terrorising for the last few minutes after shooting down the zebrasus thing and he could see that the sniper guard down there was getting very frustrated.

“Hehe stupid bitch, I’m right here, can’t you hit me?” He taunted despite knowing they wouldn’t be able to hear him from so far away. “Oh what’s this?” He asked when he saw the sniper guard storm off back into the tower but returned shortly after with what he could only describe as a “Big fuck off canon” and aimed it up at the window he was looking out of.

“Oh shit, ok, time to go,” He yelled with worry as he quickly turned and ran out of the room. Seconds after leaving the room, it exploded and was engulfed in fire from the shell impact from the large sniper weapon from the guard.

“WHAT FUCK IS THAT THING ARMED WITH?!” He screamed as he ran down the corridor, heading for the stairs.

Mere feet from the stairs and safety, the door was suddenly kicked open causing the Raider to skid to a halt. A large armoured stallion stood in the open doorway, his body was clad in black riot combat armour with the shoulders showing fire damage but the top half of his body was shrouded in dark shadow preventing the raider from seeing his face but he however could see two glowing red eyes staring back at him.

“What the fuck, who are you?!”

The shrouded stallion didn’t respond. The Raider’s ears swivelled at the whistle of an incoming shell. His eyes widened when there was the sound of a glass pane breaking and a bullet impacting the wall just behind him. He had a split second to see the stallion’s face as the fire of the explosive bullet lit up the hallway, as his body was being consumed by the explosion. He saw the robotic skeletal skull like head with those emotionless eyes staring back at him before he died. The explosive shell left nothing but a smear on the wall as well a fresh hole and more cracks in the wall and floor from the point of impact.

“I may no longer wish to follow my primary objective but I still feel obliged to follow the secondary objective in protecting her,” Nexus said to himself quietly as he began to walk back down the stairs.


(Added 22/09/2016 Forgot to add this when I uploaded)

Additional Author Notes:

The weapon 'Mr Fuck You' is based on the weapon mod for Fallout 4 Modular Simonov PTRS-41 Anti-Tank Rifle

Starlight Tower and Starlight Industries are parodies of Stark Industries and Stark Tower.

(Added 17/10/16)

Illustration of Crystal's jump scare.

Source: http://vector-brony.deviantart.com/art/Scared-Crystal-Eclaire-640669533