• Published 23rd May 2016
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Fallout Equestria: The Light Within - FireOfTheNorth



When Doc awakens in Stable 85 he has no memories. Soon he is thrust into the North Equestrian Wasteland, where danger waits to devour him at every turn. Can he find a path of light through the darkness, even when he learns the truth of his past?

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Chapter 11: New Gods

Chapter Eleven: New Gods

Part of the building where guards and the warden had lived in Burnside had been converted into a hotel. Taking Price Slasher’s advice, I purchased a room for the night (which cost me a sizable sum of caps) and took a bath. Clean, non-irradiated water was such a rarity in the Wasteland that it had been some time since I’d been able to cleanse myself of the blood, ichor, and grime in my coat and mane. I also tried to wash my clothes as best I could, since they were in no better shape than I was.

Feeling fresh, I headed to Price Slasher’s store first thing the next morning. The package I was to deliver to the Republic of Rose was a nondescript cardboard box small enough to fit in one of my saddlebags. Price Slasher wasn’t forthcoming about what I was delivering, but it rattled when I shook it later out of curiosity. Before I left, she marked the Republic of Rose on my PipBuck’s map for me. The town was far to the south, though Price Slasher claimed it would be easily reachable in a day, since I wouldn’t have to wind through city streets like I had in downtown Vanhoover.

The route was also supposed to be clear of any obstacles except for the occasional mutated animal, but I found that to be untrue the hard way. A band of raiders was holed up in an old fuel station along the way. Only through sheer luck did I spot them before they saw me. Near the fuel station was an old water tower barely balancing upright, and I caught a flash from its top that alerted me something was amiss. Using my binoculars, I spotted a lone raider atop the water tower with his own set of binoculars. A cable leading down to the fuel station drew my attention to the others. Traders’ wagons surrounded the raider camp, and it didn’t take me long to figure out what had happened to their previous owners. With a lookout atop the water tower giving them directions, the raiders could ambush a merchant before they had any idea they were walking into a trap.

Careful to stay out of sight of the water tower, I ducked into what was left of an old house and made my way upstairs. A large portion of the room had caved in, so I was easily able to make it onto the roof, letting the slope conceal my body from the raider lookout while I set up my sniper rifle. The water tower was still quite a ways away, and I didn’t trust myself to be able to hit the raider without alerting him with missed shots, so I let SATS take care of the work, slowing time and helping me line up two shots on the filthy pony’s head. He spun as my second bullet ploughed through his skull, and fell on the sloped side of the tower, beginning to slide off.

I quickly stowed my rifle and descended to street level before advancing on the raider nest. I slowed my pace as I approached and saw that the red dots on my EFS were already darting around. One of them must have realized that their lookout was dead, and that there was therefore somepony unfriendly nearby.



“I tell you, I ‘eard the shot come from this direction!” a burly unicorn stallion yelled as he waved a rumbling chainsaw in the direction I was approaching from.

He was the first to die as I fired my hunting rifle. The shot passed through his flank and didn’t kill him, but the shock of being shot unexpectedly caused him to release his telekinetic grip on the chainsaw, which fell on his back and neatly bisected him after a few agonizing seconds. While the unicorn was still screaming, I fired off another salvo of shots at a mare with a shotgun near the fuel pumps. She fell with an assortment of holes in her while I retreated behind a partially demolished trader’s wagon to avoid the return fire.

Shots rang all around me, and I kept a close eye on my EFS to make sure none of the raiders were preparing to get behind me. Shouting to stay out of the way accompanied one red dot’s rush around the wagon I was hiding behind. I had my rifle up to fire, but the raider knocked it away with the swing of a rusty sabre clutched in his teeth, and my shot went into the sky. I tried to use my rifle to deflect his strikes at first, but, worried that it would do damage to the weapon, I eventually dropped it and drew my machete. The blades rang against each other, but since neither of us were trained in sword-fighting, it was a clumsy dance as we repeatedly tried to strike at each other and deflect each other’s strikes. However, his weapon was in his mouth and mine had a wider range of motion in my magic, so eventually the inevitable happened and I got a strike in that sliced open his neck.

While I’d been fighting the sabre-wielding raider, two others had closed in on me. Only taking a glance behind me, I struck back with my hooves and knocked the first one down before shredding the one that unwisely charged me from the front with my submachine gun. Spinning around, I turned my SMG on the raider sprawled out on the concrete behind me and opened fire.

Without warning, the wagon next to me exploded into a hail of splinters, and I was thrown through the storefront across the street from the fuel station. Landing hard, I felt a bone in my hind leg snap, and my jumpsuit became soaked with blood. Dazed, I looked through the new hole in the wagon and saw a massive raider across the street lowering a still-smoking missile launcher. Next to him stood a mare with three ratty mohawks behind an odd-looking minigun. I had noticed that many of the wagons had holes burned through them and fire damage, and had wondered how that had happened; I wondered no more as beams of magical energy darted out toward the store from the spinning barrels of the minigun. I ducked down low, trying to cover myself with my doctor’s coat, while the shots darted all around me, sending up puffs of smoke as they vaporized the plastic paneling on the walls.

When the hail of energy beams stopped, I painfully crawled behind a table before setting my leg and drinking down two healing potions to mend the flesh. The raider with the missile launcher fired again and the front of the building collapsed, pieces of the ceiling sliding back the table I was hiding behind. I could hear the raider with the magical energy minigun firing again, but thankfully there were few holes for the beams to fly through, and the makeshift barrier was holding up well against the shots.

When the sounds of the minigun stopped, I jumped to my hooves, my magically healed leg nearly collapsing under me, and ran for the stairs. A shockwave came from below as I ascended to the second floor, and the building shook unsteadily. Apparently, the raider with the missile launcher intended to kill me, even if it meant completely demolishing the building. Almost half of the second floor had collapsed, giving me a clear shot at the two raiders across the street. Before I could line up any shots, though, the mare on the minigun spotted me.

I ducked down as the minigun fired, magical beams flying over me. I pulled a metal apple from my saddlebags and removed the stem before throwing it in the general direction of the surviving raiders. Not waiting for it to detonate, I grabbed another and threw it as well. First explosion; no change; too short. The second explosion was followed by silence, and I cautiously crept up to the ragged edge of the floor to get a look at the situation. The raider with the missile launcher was no more, and the mare previously behind the minigun was now lying on the ground a few paces away holding the stump of her hind leg. She tried to pull herself over to the undamaged minigun as I climbed down, but she only managed to get one hoof on it before I closed the distance and fired my submachinegun into her side.

With my weapon hovering before me, I turned around a few times to make sure that my EFS was well and truly clear and no more raiders were waiting to jump out at me. I then saw to digging through the raiders’ meager possessions and taking anything of value (very little apart from ammunition and caps). I tried the pumps at the fuel station, but all had been drained dry, which was probably for the best since I had nothing to carry the petrol in anyway, nor did I know if the Republic of Rose purchased it; if no, I’d have to carry it all the way back to Burnside. Upon examination, the magical minigun was completely unharmed. There was no way I could leave it here for other raiders to find, but neither could I carry it with me, and it seemed a waste to destroy it. I eyed the remains of the merchant caravans scattered on the road, an idea coming to me.

***

As I crested yet another hill, the Republic of Rose came in sight. So far, this area to the south of Burnside had been much like Majikland, a field of houses with clusters of stores, but now things became more spread out. Mansions and their ruins dotted the landscape, and the grandest of all was the Republic of Rose. A large manor house was set atop a hill, surrounded by several smaller buildings in various states of disrepair. Around them was a large open area surrounded by a wall and fence at the base of the hill, used in the past to keep commoners out, and now to keep out raiders. Among the buildings at the top of the hill and spreading out across the knoll’s crown were the small, shabby dwellings that seemed to exist in every settlement in the Wasteland.

I caused quite a commotion at the front gate when the town guards saw what I was pulling in the wagon behind me. They summoned the militia captain at once, who agreed to pay a princely sum for the magical energy minigun before I even entered the town. My load was quickly lightened by one heavy weapon and increased by a heavy sack of bottle caps. It was far short of being to pay off my own bounty if somepony wanted to turn me in to the Steel Rangers, but still enough that I wouldn’t need to worry about affording supplies for a while.

The market of the Republic of Rose was just as lively as Sundale’s, but paled in comparison to Burnside, which had really been just one big market. I eyed goods as I trotted past, but didn’t stop at any of the stalls to buy anything. Before I began spending caps on myself, I had a package that needed delivering. It was supposed to go to Rose, the leader of the town, herself, so I headed straight to the mansion at the center of the town.

A few helpful ponies in the mansion’s foyer gave me directions on how to reach the area of the mansion Rose had claimed for herself. As I walked away, I noticed them speaking with each other in hushed tones, and grew paranoid. Price Slasher had warned me that ponies in Burnside might want to turn me in to the Steel Rangers but had said nothing about this place. Still, the less ponies knew I had a PipBuck, the better, and I ducked into the first bathroom I saw to disguise my PipBuck and remove my doctor’s coat.

“Can I help you?” a bored-looking mare behind a desk asked laconically as I approached Rose’s office.

“I have a package for Rose,” I said, reaching into my saddlebags and producing said package.

“Rose is busy at the moment,” the mare said, leaning forward, “You can leave the package with me.”

I handed the cardboard box over to the mare, who shoved it into one of the desk’s drawers, and awaited my payment.

“Are you still here?” the mare asked after a few seconds.

“I believe I was supposed to be paid for this job,” I said, and the mare moaned and spun around to face the terminal on her desk.

“Name?” she asked brusquely, giving me a frown that I didn’t feel I deserved.

“Doc, but I’m delivering the package on behalf of Price Slasher. Of Burnside.”

“Two hundred caps up front, two hundred on delivery,” the mare said after tapping on the terminal’s keyboard for a few minutes, “Sound right to you?”

I nodded, assuming the amount was correct since Price Slasher had only told me that I would be paid, not how much. The mare left her desk, leaving me alone for several minutes, until she returned with a bag of caps. I thanked her and left, but I don’t know what seemed to please her more: my thanks, or the fact that I was leaving.

Now that I’d fulfilled my reason for travelling to the Republic of Rose, I decided to take a look around in the city’s market. I finally sold the Equestrian Army helmet I’d picked up in Bunker 519, exchanging it for one that fit properly on a unicorn’s head. I also purchased a piece of armor for my left foreleg that would fit over my PipBuck and conceal it, but still allow me to access the computer’s controls through a hatch. The merchant selling the armor offered to weld the access hatch closed for a few more caps, and seemed puzzled when I turned him down. With it, I would no longer need to wrap my foreleg in bandages whenever I entered a settlement I was unsure of, and ponies weren’t likely to question it. They would probably assume that I’d always had it, since it still bore faded paint in the Stable-Tec colors of blue and yellow. So long as they didn’t ask why my jumpsuit had an 85 on the back and the armor had a 109 stenciled on it.

I was enjoying some fresh fried food purchased with my new supply of caps when I noticed something odd near one of the mansion’s outbuildings. Everywhere else in the town, homes and shops were packed in together as tight as possible while still allowing ponies to trot past in the makeshift streets, but there all the shacks were giving the outbuilding a wide berth. Figuring that it was probably some kind of town square, I trotted over to see if anything interesting was going on.

A group of stallions in green and gray robes very similar to the red and gold ones worn in Sundale by the Adherents of the Holy Light were clustered in front of the building. Only now did I notice that ragged banners dyed the same colors fluttered from the side of the building. Most of the robed ponies were lined up in neat rows, but one stallion was running around in front of an egg-shaped object half-buried in a crater, speaking animatedly. The “egg” was far larger than a pony, and appeared to be a composite of organic and synthetic materials. Multicolored lights danced around wildly under a semi-transparent surface crossed by knobby ridges. Out of the ridges jutted posts and railings, those near the ground badly twisted. Attached to the metal were handles, seats, and oxygen canisters, though most of the color had worn off over time, making it all look like a metallic mess.

“… That was merely the first Cleansing, our first test, to open our eyes to the truth!” the stallion in front of the egg shouted as I joined the small group of ponies watching his speech, “That great Cleansing left only we, the Fortunate, alive, untouched, untried, and able to repent! For the megaspells did not end the world, they saved it! The immorality of Equestria is apparent, as bad in the past as it is today! The Great Flames sent the War to punish us, and teach us to repent, to scour our nation’s flesh with the zebras’ whip in hope that we would return to them, but we were too stubborn and hardheaded! We did not repent, so the Great Flames allowed themselves to fall into the hooves of us stubborn, evil mortals! Do not be deceived; the ponies and zebras did not create the megaspells, they simply discovered them! And the Great Flames fulfilled their purpose, cleansing this world with the only thing that can purge sin and wickedness: fire! All whose hearts were hardened and shunned righteousness were burned away, or left to rot as their flesh sloughed off, but those who were pure and righteous lived on in transformed, immortal bodies as the ghouls that you all shun as being less than you, when they are really your superiors!

“But I will say it again, that was merely the first Cleansing, and the Second Cleansing is yet to come, but not until we have been given another chance! Little Flame!” the stallion continued, gesturing now to the egg behind him, which I was starting to realize was really a megaspell, “Little Flame took pity on us and taught us all this! Little Flame waits here, for us to repent of our sins, until he will erupt in fire and cleanse this world once more, in a fire that none but the Righteous can escape! He is patient, but he will not remain so forever! Repent! Repent of your wicked ways! Look to Little Flame for your deliverance! Join us! Join the Church of the Little Flame!”

The priest continued to go on, but I was no longer paying attention. In Stable 85, ponies believed that there were two Goddesses: Celestia to govern the day and Luna to govern the night. And, by and large, beliefs were the same in the Wasteland, except for the Acolytes of the Holy Light, who recognized only Celestia. The Church of the Little Flame went against all of that, not only denying the Goddesses, but going a step farther in declaring a new god. And not just that, but declaring a megaspell, the thing that had destroyed Equestria, to be their god. It was madness! Fortunately, it didn’t look like many ponies were paying the raving priest any mind. Still, they could be dangerous in other ways. The priest had said a second “Cleansing” was coming and “Little Flame” would explode, so could they be planning to detonate the megaspell? Surely not, otherwise the town would never tolerate them. Or, the megaspell couldn’t explode, which would explain how it had fallen during the War but never detonated. That had to be the case.

“Your first visit to the Republic of Rose?” a voice asked from behind me.

I turned around and tried to determine where it had come from. The crowd around me had thinned, so it wasn’t difficult to figure out which pony had called out to me, especially when he waved me over. The mystery pony turned out to be a slender stallion seated at a table in a fenced-in area outside of a food stand. He was mostly hidden in the shadow of the table’s umbrella, but I could still make out that he was wearing a black business suit, and a matching hat sat on the table before him.

“Yes, it is,” I admitted as I sat down across the table and stared at the stallion.

“Your look gave you away,” he said in a husky voice before I could say anything more, “You looked like you were viewing something incredibly repulsive and disturbing. Only newcomers get that look; those that live here have either given in to worshipping the megaspell or just ignore it.”

“So which one are you?” I asked cautiously, and the stallion laughed.

“Neither; I’m like you, though this isn’t my first time here,” he said, “I’ve been around enough that I know this isn’t this town’s only problem. However, in a way, it could be the solution to all the other problems.”

“Well, it can’t be so bad,” I said, not sure I liked this stallion’s tone, “If they want to worship a dead bomb, I suppose it’s their business.”

“Except that the bomb’s not dead,” the stallion said quietly, in a voice that made the hair on the back of my neck rise, “They don’t know how to detonate it … but I do.”

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked, leaning away.

“Because I have a proposition for you. I go by the name Mr. Bucke, and I’m a problem-solver,” the stallion said, leaning forward so he wouldn’t have to speak up, “This town is rotten to the core. You haven’t learned yet, and it’s better you never do, but I’ll give you an example. They call it a ‘Republic’, but the only pony with any power is Rose. The town council is worthless; she controls the militia, and uses them to enforce her will on the town. How is this allowed? She is in league with the Church of the Little Flame. She allows them to stay in the town because they are convenient. If she needs to make somepony disappear, they stir up trouble and she has an excuse to crack down with the militia. She’s done it before to traders and citizens. Ask about Roving Ribbon, and you’ll find out I’m telling the truth. This can’t be allowed to go on, which is why the Republic of Rose must be destroyed. What better way to do so than with a megaspell detonation that can easily be blamed on the Church of the Little Flame? I have the detonator and timer, and I’ll teach you how to set it up. Well, what do you say?”

“You want me to destroy an entire town?” I asked disbelievingly, and Mr. Bucke gave a nod and a slim smile, “You’re insane! There’s no way anypony in their right mind would go through with such a scheme!”

“So, you won’t do it, then?” Mr. Bucke asked, his smile fading.

“Of course not! What do you take me for! A mass murderer?”

“I thought, as an outsider, you could understand,” Mr. Bucke said with disappointment, “Very well, if that is your final decision, though I wish you would reconsider.”

“I’m sure that Rose would love to hear about your plot to destroy her town,” I said as I stood, “If she’s really as bad as you say, you won’t get away unscathed.”

“We’ll see,” Mr. Bucke said, the smile returning to his face.

***

“Can I help - oh, it’s you again,” the bored-looking mare outside Rose’s office said with annoyance as she recognized me from earlier.

“Yes, it’s me,” I said, unsure why she was so peeved with me when it was her job to help ponies trying to get in touch with Rose, “I need to speak with Rose right away.”

“She’s busy,” the mare replied, glaring at me.

“Please, can’t you just work me in?” I begged, “It’s a matter of life and death for the town!”

“She’s busy,” the mare said again, with the exact same intonation as before.

“There has to be somepony I can talk to,” I said desperately, “The town council, maybe?”

“Yeah, sure,” the mare said, and I thought I detected some humor in her voice, “Anything to get you out of here. Their office is down the hall, take a right, up the stairs, third door on the left.”

“Thanks,” I said, and took off a moment after making sure I remembered the directions.

I followed the mare’s instructions exactly, and found the office of the town council immediately. Nopony was stationed outside like the secretary by Rose’s office, so I just let myself in. A long wooden table dominated the office, and three ponies were seated at it around one corner. The first pony to look up was an earth pony stallion with an ugly trio of scars across his face and a coat of gray so dark it was nearly black; he was wearing a more elaborate version of the uniform the militia at the gate had been dressed in. The second pony to notice my entrance was an orange-coated unicorn mare dressed in a badly-faded Wartime suit, her hooves crossed in front of her on the table. The last pony of the trio was an earth pony mare with an aquamarine coat and sea-blue mane.

“What are you doing? We’re in the middle of something,” the mare in the suit said after I froze in the doorway.

Judging by the plates on the table, the only thing the town council was in the middle of was lunch.

“I apologize for interrupting, but I have important information that I need to tell somepony in charge,” I explained myself.

“Why not tell Rose?” the aquamarine mare snorted, and the other two shot a withering glance at her.

“We’re very much aware that Rose is unavailable at the moment,” the stallion said as he raised a hoof to cut me off before I could point that fact out, “If your information is so important, then you can bring it to us, the town council. I’m the Minister of Security; ponies call me Mad Dog.”

“Bright Silver, Minister of Trade,” the unicorn introduced herself as she smoothed out her suit.

“Mountain Spring, Minister of Agriculture,” the final member of the town council introduced herself.

“Pleased to meet you,” I said, a bit awkwardly since I wasn’t sure exactly how to address them, “The reason I came here is to tell you that somepony is planning to detonate the megaspell the Church of the Little Flame worships.”

“Impossible!” Mad Dog said, slamming his hoof down on the table, “It can’t be done!”

“He seems confident that it can. He approached me with his plan, hoping I’d go along with it since I’m an outsider, but I refused. Others might not be so hesitant to destroy a town as me, though, or he could bring his plan directly to the Church of the Little Flame. I’m sure they’d be thrilled to have a chance to ‘cleanse the world with fire.’ He needs to be stopped before any of that happens!” I pleaded.

“Who is this pony?” Bright Silver asked as she levitated a briefcase onto the table and pushed her food aside.

“His name is Mr. Bucke,” I explained, describing everything I knew about him, “He’s an earth pony stallion of middle age. White coat, brown mane, skinny, wire spectacles. I didn’t get a look at his cutie-mark. He was wearing a black suit and fedora when I met him at a table near the Church of the Little Flame.”

“I have no record of anypony matching that name or description arriving in the Republic from my agents,” Bright Silver said as she shuffled through a stack of papers, “What about you, Mad Dog?”

“No, I think I’d remember if my agents turned in a report on anypony like that,” the stallion said as he scratched his chin with a hoof.

“I’m not making this up,” I said, “Are you going to do something about this?”

“All we can do is have our agents keep an eye out for him,” Mountain Spring said, giving me a look of hopelessness, “If we locate him, then Mad Dog can use his militia to arrest him.”

“But I can’t keep him imprisoned forever if he’s committed no crime,” Mad Dog added, “Not without authorization from Rose.”

“So, call Rose up and explain,” I said, “Surely keeping the town from being destroyed by a megaspell is worth it!”

“Slight problem with that,” Mad Dog said, “Rose isn’t in town at the moment.”

“She left for the settlement of Lamplight four days ago and hasn’t returned yet,” Bright Silver elaborated unemotionally, snapping her briefcase shut, “Raider activity in the area has increased, but they’ve left Lamplight alone. Rose hoped to speak with them and find out how they kept the raiders away, but it seems she may have fallen to an attack.”

“No, Rose is alive,” Mad Dog said firmly, staring at his fellow council members, “I would send my militia out to find her, but I’ve been outvoted.”

“With raider activity on the rise, we need your troops here,” Mountain Spring replied to his strike, “Protecting our citizens is our top priority. The Republic can go on, even without Rose.”

Arguing broke out among the three ponies, and I had difficulty following the conversation, especially since they spoke over each other and at length about matters specific to the town. It seemed that they had completely forgotten about me, so I let myself out of the office after several minutes. Could I do anything to help? I couldn’t in good conscience allow Mr. Bucke to try to destroy the town, but I wasn’t sure that reporting it to the town council would be enough to prevent it. They themselves had admitted that it wouldn’t be enough without Rose, but Rose wasn’t here. I’m sure there were other ponies in the town who knew how to get to Lamplight …

“Oh, good, you’re still here. I need to speak with you,” Mad Dog said as he exited the town council’s office, looking quite steamed, “Walk with me.”

I followed the stallion, trying to keep up with his strides as he trotted briskly down the hall of the mansion.

“I’m sure you’ve realized who we are,” he said to me once we had passed out of sight of the office, “The town council is Rose’s political opponents, neatly rounded up into her government to keep from causing her trouble. That, of course, leads to certain difficulties in cases like the one we’re facing now. I long to be President of the Republic as much as the other two, but they don’t realize how important Rose is. None of the three of us are strong enough to control the town alone, and none of us are willing to work together. Without Rose, the town falls into open warfare between the factions, something I will not see happen. For good or bad, this is the Republic of Rose, and so it shall stay for quite some time.”

“You want me to bring her back,” I said, more of a statement than a question.

“Yes, I do,” Mad Dog answered anyway, “I have been forbidden to send my militia, but if you go to Lamplight and find Rose, nopony could blame me. Hay, if you can find some ponies in the Republic to believe you and go with you, all the better.”

“No, I’ll do it alone,” I said, perhaps too curtly. I wasn’t going to endanger anypony else, not after what had happened in Sundale.

“You’ll be richly rewarded for your service to the Republic, I assure you,” Mad Dog said, choosing to ignore my outburst, “Rose will probably show her own gratitude, and I will provide you with payment for your services as well. Mine will be through several layers of intermediaries, of course, to divert attention from myself.”

“Of course,” I said, still a bit puzzled by the complex political machinations going on in such a small town, and I realized that we’d reached the end of the hall, “Can I ask you a question? What do you know about a pony named Roving Ribbon?”

“Roving Ribbon?” Mad Dog said, seemingly surprised by my question, “He was a traveler through the Republic who was arrested last year. He’s still in a holding cell.”

“What crime did he commit?”

“None as far as I’m concerned,” Mad Dog said, searching his memory, “Other than being in the wrong place when the Church of the Little Flame started stirring up trouble.”

***

The town of Lamplight had once been an auto-carriage dealership judging by the large number of the vehicles arranged into makeshift barricades. I had thought the town’s name had sounded familiar, and now I knew why. Towering above the town was a radio tower identical to the one in Timbervale that had been left to the ponies there by Lord Lamplight. Hopefully, the townsponies here would be as friendly as Timbervale’s and could help me find Rose. Mad Dog had seemed certain that she’d made it to Lamplight and hadn’t been attacked on the way, but I wasn’t so sure.

“Stop, traveler!” a guard atop the stack of auto-carriages yelled as I approached, “What business do you have here?”

“I’m looking for Rose!” I yelled back up at the guard, “Have you seen her?”

“Why are you looking for her?” the guard challenged me, wielding his weapon threateningly. I noticed with confusion that he was wearing a necklace of batteries and data-tapes.

“She’s needed back at the Republic of Rose,” I called back, and carefully unfastened my saddlebags to get quicker access to my weapons.

“He’s come to take the Goddess away!” the guard yelled frantically, and his pip on my EFS changed from green to red the same moment he started firing his rifle at me.

I jumped behind a mailbox and drew my magical energy rifle, but didn’t shoot back yet. I didn’t want to kill any of these townsponies if I didn’t have to, but their actions were making me doubt they weren’t raiders or some other group of degenerates claiming to be townsponies. They had at least stopped to ask me questions before opening fire, but their response had been disturbing. Rose, a goddess? I had to get to the bottom of this.

“Can’t we talk about this?” I asked as bullets whizzed past and bounced off the mailbox, “I just need to speak to her!”

The residents of Lamplight didn’t seem to care what I said. My EFS was becoming crowded with red dots, each corresponding to a pony pouring out from Lamplight yelling violence toward me from trying to take their goddess from them. I didn’t want to fight them, but they weren’t giving me much choice. If I didn’t act soon, I would be surrounded and they didn’t seem likely to show me mercy or capture me alive.

The time for peaceful discussion had passed. Casting SATS, I rolled out from behind the mailbox, a few bullets nicking me on the way, and opened fire. Beams of light lanced out from my magical energy rifle, almost guaranteed to find a target in the crowd rushing toward me. A few were turned to glowing ash, but it didn’t seem to faze the rest of the angry Lamplighters. I ran for more cover behind an auto-carriage that hadn’t been added to the walls, taking a few more hits along the way, and threw a metal apple at my attackers.

I drank down a healing potion to fix up the wounds I’d taken before checking what still faced me. The metal apple had killed or crippled a large number of the Lamplighters, leaving only four between me and the town and one on the auto-carriage barricade. Still, it hadn’t seemed to damper their enthusiasm for killing me much. They were still very angry that I’d come to take their goddess away and expressed it by shooting my way, now from behind cover.

Trading out my hunting rifle for my magical energy rifle, I crept around to the other side of the auto-carriage and opened fire on the guard atop the barricade. After he went down, I redirected my attention to the nearest Lamplighter at street level. My rifle rang out four times, cutting her down in seconds. Before the other three could open fire on me, I jumped through the broken window of a coffee shop and took cover.

The other Lamplighters were closing in on me, at least one firing at all times to keep me down. I drew my SMG and levitated it over the edge of my cover, firing blindly in a wide arc. Two of the lights on my EFS went out, and the third pony stopped firing. A few seconds after things went silent, a metal apple missing its stem sailed in through the window. I quickly vacated the coffee shop, nearly running into my attacker as I jumped out the window, and caught a bullet in the shoulder. My armored foreleg swung through the air, knocking the Lamplighter to the ground. A burst of my SMG finished her off.

With no more contacts on my EFS, I advanced toward the encirclement of auto-carriage wrecks, keeping my submachine gun levitated in case any residents were left to attack me. Not too far within the walls was a magical energy minigun like the one I’d taken from the fuel station earlier, and I was puzzled as to why the Lamplighters hadn’t used it. The weapon was pointed straight up at the sky, and scraps of other weapons and electrical components were draped over it in a sort of shrine. Now it made some sense to me, as did the bits of tech I’d seen the Lamplighters wearing. They were some sort of cult that worshipped technology, like the Church of the Little Flame, except that they didn’t exclusively worship a megaspell. It still didn’t explain why Rose was considered their goddess. Maybe I should have asked more questions about the President of the Republic.

“Rose! Rose!” I called out her name, hoping for a response, but received none.

Even given the practice of worshipping technology, Lamplight was an odd town. There were none of the ramshackle houses found in every other town in the Wasteland, apart from a single shack with weapons in it, probably serving as a sort of armory. The tower in the center of town was identical to the one in Timbervale, except for the fact that it had no microspark reactor beneath it. Instead, cables trailed from the tower to the squat building where auto-carriages had been sold during the War. Curious, I followed the cables, keeping an eye out for Lamplighters.

The cables led through the building and down a staircase, at the bottom of which was a very familiar sight. A thick, metal wall with a large gear-shaped hole in it marked the entrance to a Stable. I entered cautiously, keeping a close eye on my EFS. Nothing stirred except for thoughts in my mind. Were the Lamplighters the previous inhabitants of this Stable, or had they moved in later? Who had Lord Lamplight given the tower to? What Stable was this?

My last question was answered soon after entering by a fancy sign hanging from the ceiling that boldly declared “Welcome to Stable 109. Enjoy your stay.” Judging by the armor around my foreleg, this Stable had been open for quite some time, so anything was possible. I began to notice as I trotted down the empty hallways that this was not exactly like the other Stables I’d been in, even discarding the oddities they’d each had as part of Stable-Tec’s experiments. The hallways were roomier, the air didn’t smell like lubricant and sanitizer, and the furniture was plusher. Of course, I’d seen some pretty terrible Stables in my time, so maybe this is what they were supposed to be like.

My admiration for Stable 109’s amenities was interrupted when a bullet caught me in the flank, punching through my doctor’s coat and Stable jumpsuit in one go. I ducked into a room dominated by a bar and painfully removed the bullet before drinking one of my few remaining healing potions. Red lights began appearing on my EFS, and I waited for the numbers to settle before I ventured back out into the hallway.

I instantly spotted the pony who’d shot me, a mare wearing tech scraps all over her body with a sniper rifle. Her next shot barely missed me as I charged down the hallway. The sniper rifle’s barrel came up at me as I approached, but I swatted it away with my armored foreleg and swung my machete around into the back of the mare’s neck, sending bits of electronics flying as the blade splintered them.

Another pony covered in tech rushed at me from around the corner, wielding a slightly bent golf club. I deflected his first swing with my machete, but ignored his next swing. The golf club struck my shoulder hard, but the extra padding in the doctor’s coat’s shoulder protected me from serious harm. The club was still bouncing off my shoulder when my machete sliced into the Lamplighter’s neck, severing his carotid artery.

Wiping off my machete and avoiding the pools of blood, I took off down the Stable’s corridors, my submachinegun floating in front of me. Aside from being more sumptuous than other Stables, Stable 109 has the same general layout. I knew where the living quarters were, and the clinic, and the cafeteria. Everything was where it should have been, just in better shape. A green dot appeared on my EFS exactly where I suspected it would, and I picked up the pace. Rose was being kept in the Overmare’s office.

Two cultists with flamethrowers appeared at the end of the hall, and I let them have it with my SMG, splattering the walls with them before I was in the effective range of their weapons. The downside of firing wildly was that I ruptured both flamethrower fuel tanks, and a conflagration quickly consumed the hallway. The area’s sprinkler system went off to douse the blaze, but it would take a while, so I turned back and found another way to the atrium.

A bullet bounced off my helmet, and I flattened my ears, hoping it would protect them somewhat. Three ponies were at the end of the hall, one of them wielding the rifle that had shot me. I noticed that the further I progressed in the Stable, the more tech was hanging from the cultists’ bodies. A priesthood, perhaps? It would make sense that the higher they were, the more ‘holy’ technology they would be allowed to wear and the deeper they’d be allowed to live in the Stable.

They were too far for my SMG, so I grabbed my magical energy rifle instead. Its accuracy wasn’t great, but with them clustered so close together it wouldn’t be a major problem. Bright beams of light shot down the hallway, striking one of the cultists in the leg and turning her to ash. The pony next to her jumped back in shock, and I took advantage of the situation to duck into a side room, the school. There was a projector in the room sitting on a wheeled cart, and I pushed it over to the door before shoving it down the hall. The cart did an admiral job as cover, allowing me to follow it and close the gap with the cultists so I could use my submachinegun again. The one who’d fired at me originally went down, and the other was struck by the cart, dying a second later as I trotted past her.

The atrium was straight ahead, and a mare practically wearing a blanket of tech scraps blocked my way. She was also wearing a sturdy security helmet with a visor, and a second glance revealed that she had heavy security armor on underneath the tech scraps. She didn’t have a battle saddle or any weapons in her mouth, but if she was armored up and ready for a fight, she probably had something up her sleeve.

I started firing before she saw me, hoping SATS would help me find the one exposed spot of her face not covered by armor. I was not so lucky, and all the bullets ricocheted off her armor or chipped pieces of tech off her outfit. The mare charged at me, taking bounding strides, and I realized that the armor on her hind legs were really bionic casings that increased her legs’ strength.

She was upon me before I knew it, and she knocked my SMG aside with a swing of her similarly augmented foreleg. I tried to back away and put some distance between us, but she struck out with her other foreleg and hit me in the chest. I felt three ribs crack as I went flying backwards and tumbled down the hall. She was on top of me again before my head stopped spinning, and I rolled clumsily aside as her hoof came powerfully down, leaving an indentation in the floor where my head had been.

The mare continued to try to stomp me to death, and I continued to roll to escape her, gritting my teeth as the motion aggravated my chest wound. One of my saddlebags had come unfastened and items were spilling out onto the floor as I dodged the mare’s attacks. As a bottle of Sparkle~Cola rolled past my face, I got an idea. Through my rolling, it was already pretty fizzy, but I gave it a few shakes anyway to be safe before popping the cap off with the edge of my foreleg armor. Soda sprayed into the mare’s face, getting under the visor and into her eyes, and the sticky beverage ran into the electronics of her foreleg augmentations.

She shook her head and tried to blink the Sparkle~Cola out of her eyes while still blindly stomping at me. The soda had done its work, though, and her foreleg motions were jerky, her armor no longer functioning properly. I’d closed my eyes to avoid being blinded too, and wasn’t able to dodge a hit to my hip. However, it didn’t have the same force as her previous strike and didn’t shatter the bone. I rolled out from under the mare and grabbed my machete. Just as she regained her vision, I thrust the blade through the gap in her armor and into her mouth. Blood coated the machete and the mare slid off it slowly, falling to the ground.

Other than the damage I’d done, the mare’s armor was still in fairly good condition, though the helmet wouldn’t work for me since it’d been designed for an earth pony. I was evaluating it when I began to hear a beeping. I realized with shock that there were explosives strapped to the armor underneath the blanket of tech scraps, likely set to go off if the mare died. I ran down the corridor as quickly as I could with my injuries and barely escaped the blast, my tail getting a bit singed.

After tending to my injuries, I trotted past the now destroyed bits of armor and pony and into the empty atrium. All that remained on my EFS was the single green dot in the Overmare’s office. The door to the office was locked, but there was a terminal next to the door that I quickly hacked. Despite the cultists’ reverence for technology, it seemed that they didn’t understand how most of it worked, or hadn’t bothered since the terminal’s contents were unchanged from before they had moved in. The door swished open and I stepped inside, nearly getting brained by a lampstand as soon as I walked through the door.

“Oh, my mistake; I thought you were one of those cultists,” a cream-coated earth pony mare with a white and pink striped mane apologized as she lowered her weapon, “You aren’t, are you?”

“No,” I said, a little warily, “Rose, I presume?”

“Yes, how did you know?” she said, setting down the lampstand.

“I came from the Republic to find you.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Rose said, “I was beginning to think nopony was looking.”

“Well …” I said, beginning an explanation of events that had transpired since her imprisonment here.

***

On the way back to the Republic of Rose, I told the town’s President everything. Why I’d come to the Republic, my encounter with Mr. Bucke, the talk with the city council, and the request from Mad Dog. Then, after she’d pumped me for information, I thought it only fair that I could ask questions of her.

“The Lamplighters called you their goddess,” I said as we trekked through the barren Wasteland as dusk fell, “Why?”

“Because of this,” she said, showing me the PipBuck on her foreleg that I’d noticed but hadn’t mentioned, “It doesn’t even work at the moment - that’s what the parts you delivered for Price Slasher are for - but it was still enough for them to think me a deity. I see you have one as well. You’re keeping below the Steel Rangers’ notice, I hope.”

“I’ve been trying,” I admitted, “I don’t know how much longer I can keep it up, though.”

“They rarely venture this far south. Not anymore, anyway,” Rose said, “You should be safe here and in Burnside as long as you don’t advertise you have one.”

“You’re the only pony in the Wasteland I’ve seen with a PipBuck. Did you come from a Stable, too?”

“A long time ago. In fact, I once lived in Stable 109, the one we just came from,” Rose said, gesturing over her shoulder, “But, I moved out. It was long ago.”

“What happened to Stable 109?” I asked, referring both to the cultists and whatever Stable-Tec had done to the place.

“You’re not blind, so I’m sure you’ve noticed all the mansions and estates in the area and realized that this was a very wealthy community during the War. Stable 109 was a plush Stable for the rich, so everypony in it was used to acting superior to others, something that time never really bred out of the residents. When the Stable opened, all they found were ruins and uncivilized tribes, which only reinforced their belief in their superiority. They enslaved the ponies of the wastes to do their labor for them without a second thought. I left the Stable in protest, but they didn’t care. With a slave labor force, they thought for sure that they could rule the wastes, but they never went much farther than the Stable. A few years after I left, a collection of raider tribes attacked the Stable and slaughtered everyone within. The Lamplighters moved in much later, less than a year ago.”

“Is that where slavery in the Wasteland started?” I asked.

“Heavens, no! Ponies have been trying to enslave and take advantage of each other since right after the megaspells fell. Of course, most ponies see slavers as uncivilized degenerates. But there are exceptions, and not just with ponies like those from Stable 109. Burnside allows slavery, which is one of the reasons I refuse to do business with them,” Rose said with a frown, “Slavery will not be tolerated in my town under any circumstance. The laws of the Republic don’t explicitly bar slavers from entering the town to trade, but if any slaver thinks they can get away with it, they’re sadly mistaken. Last year, a slaver named Roving Ribbon came to the town and left all his slaves at the gate, but still thought he could trade the goods he’d stolen from his slaves in town. He’s still in prison, and will remain so until every slave he’s traded is free.”

“You said you don’t trade with Burnside. What about Price Slasher?”

“She’s the one exception. I trust her to never make any deal that involves slavery in any way.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because she was once a slave in Stable 109. For years she served one of its residents, until he sold her as an ‘indentured servant’ in Burnside,” Rose explained, “Fortunate for her in a way, because the raiders attacked Stable 109 not long after, and they didn’t spare the slaves either in their slaughter. After being traded around to different masters, Price Slasher managed to buy her own freedom. That’s why I trust her. She has even more of a reason to hate slavery than I do.”

“I wouldn’t doubt she has a stronger conviction than I do, especially since I’m about to breach mine a bit,” Rose said regretfully and looked at me, “I had hoped Lamplight would be a settlement I could trust and enter an alliance with against these raiders. They’re growing bolder, and I don’t know how long the Republic can stand against them alone, especially if they gang up together like they did years ago on Stable 109. I need an ally, and it appears the only one available is Burnside. You will be returning there after staying the night in the Republic, I assume?”

“Yes, I will,” I said. In truth, I hadn’t given much thought to the matter, not when my priority was to get somepony to act against Mr. Bucke’s plans, but I didn’t see why I shouldn’t return to Burnside. Given the tasks Price Slasher had had for me in the short time I’d known her, she would likely have plenty of paying work for me when I returned.

“I need you to bring a message to the Regulators that run Burnside, Regulator Mossy Oak in particular,” Rose told me, “Tell him that the Republic of Rose is willing to enter into a defensive alliance with Burnside, possibly even a trade alliance if they are willing to discuss trade restrictions. That will get their attention. If the settlements of the Wasteland don’t band together, they’ll all fall, even Burnside with their radioactive moat. This raider activity is beyond irregular. I have the feeling that something very bad is coming.”

Level Up
New Perk: Sharp Eyes – When sneaking, you have a greater chance of detecting booby traps. Also increases chance of finding rare loot.
Apparel added: Equestrian Army Helmet (Unicorn)
Apparel added: Stable 109 Security Armor (Left Foreleg)
New Quest: Together We Stand… – Deliver Rose’s alliance offer to Regulator Mossy Oak in Burnside.
Barter +2 (16)
Energy Weapons +4 (30)
Explosives +3 (29)
Medicine +3 (33)
Melee Weapons +2 (19)
Science +1 (62)
Small Guns +4 (65)
Speech +1 (30)

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