"Biting off more than you can chew is just what I'm afraid of."

I sat on my back, mulling over all that had happened. After I had told them my improvised name, they seemed somewhat satisfied and sat back to a wary eye on me, weapons close by their sides. I did the same, content to just lean up against the wall, listening to the tempest continue to rage outside. It was a pleasant change from the intense action and fighting that I had woken up to. My mind thought about getting out the documents on Project Icepony, but I still didn’t fully trust these ponies yet; if they would mean me harm down the road, I didn’t want them knowing anything about my true identity.

I had learned that the earth pony mare was called Star. Nothing else, just Star. She had a sandy brown coat and a burgundy mane; once again, not one who stood out much. Her cutie mark was simple, an outline of a five-pointed star that could mean anything and nothing. As I lay against the wall, I could see her looking over her weapons, checking to see if they were still in prime condition. She had quite a few, but the two she paid the most attention to was a fine quality shotgun and a pair of dueling pistols. The pistols were mounted together so that they could be fired at the same time or separately depending on the mouth movements she made. I let my gaze wander over to the pegasus, Turbulent Storm.

I could make him out better than I had initially had upon coming in. Along with the rifle at his hooves, he had a number of knives sheathed in a belt that criss-crossed his body in an x shape. It looked custom made out of a dark substance that I suspected was leather of some kind. There were numerous different shapes and sizes that I could see, ranging from interestingly shaped throwing knives such as stars and darts to a rather large meat cleaver. From what I could see from my relaxed position, they had nary a chip on their blade. Whoever had made the blades had brushed them over with a darker coat so that they didn’t reflect light and give the position away. While his arsenal brought on a few questions, they were miniscule and I pushed them aside and instead directed my attention at the last member of their little party.

Lost was doing the same thing I was, except for the fact that he actually seemed to be asleep. I could catch a glimpse of his cutie mark, a white heart that had an arrow slicing up through it vertically. It was a fairly specific mark, but the actual meaning of it escaped me. Likely something to do with healing, hence the heart, but I didn’t know what the significance of the arrow could be. I added it to the rapidly growing number of my questions that now resembled something close to the height of a tall mountain. Lying next to him were the heavy clothes he had worn to come out and search for me. Aside from that, I couldn’t see that he carried any weapons. While they could have been hidden in his saddlebags, also off to the side, I doubted it. He seemed like the kind of pony who wouldn’t carry a weapon. Or at least the kind of one who would rely upon the kind of weapon that was unseen.

Speaking of weapons, I gazed at mine longingly. I had made no effort to retrieve them and the trio had made no effort to return them, though they also left them where I dropped them. There was just something comforting about having the weight of the hoofblades and armor on, but I would ignore the feeling for now if I was able to make a few allies. Not to mention it kept me cozily warm and ready for most anything.

As the storm continued to rage outside, snow and ice pelting our shelter, I slowly drifted off to sleep, my body resting itself for the mayhem that would surely follow me.

“Firefly, time to return to the world of the living.” The voice that had rescued me from the snow now floated to me through sleep, cutting through my fragmented, but thankfully silent, dreams. I cracked open an eye to see Lost’s other two companions pulling on barding and readying weapons. It wasn’t anything special, but looked well taken care of and would protect them well in a fight. As my brain finally woke up, my ears registered that the constant noise of the storm outside had finally ceased.
“What are we doing?” I rolled to my hooves, struggling to shake away the last vestiges of sleep.

“While you slept, my friends and I discussed you. If you had been a raider, you would have already tried to kill us and would now lie dead. If you were Enclave, the same would be true. If you were a trader, you would have stolen our goods and vanished, not to mention you would lack this quality armor. And you’re obviously not Brethren or a ghoul. So we have decided to let you accompany us for the time being, provided you don’t stab us in the back.” Brethren? I let the question slide off my brain to fall amongst the others, it being little concern for me now.

“And you are going where?” I inquired, curious as to where this conversation was leading.

“Well,” he began,” we’re what you’d call salvagers. We had intended on entering the Ministry of Peace hub and seeing what we could find, but we’re reconsidering that since the Ministry of Awesome hub so unexpectedly opened.”

His mouth was still open, as if he was going to continue talking about their plan, but I held up a hoof to stop him. “If you value your life, don’t go into that building. It has an enormous amount of those ghouls. And worst of all,” I shivered, remembering the voice that had called out to me and the dark shape in the broken window, “I think that there is someone in there who is able to control them. I barely got out alive.”

Lost’s eyebrow shot up and I silently cursed. I hadn’t meant to reveal that I had come from the building, but it had just slipped out. “So that’s what you were doing out in the tempest. A fellow scavenger, eh?”

I let out a weak chuckle, grasping at the line he had unknowingly thrown to me. “Right. But you wouldn’t be able to fight through them.”

“If that’s the case, then whatever is in there should be safe from other scavengers as well. Most ponies work in small groups or solo, aside from the Brethren that is.” There was that name again. It rose slightly higher on my priority list, but still not high enough to ask about it. “Suit up Firefly, we’ve got a job to do.”

I smiled, happy to be able to get back into my armor and weapons. I pulled on the barding and slipped on the hoofblades, pausing to reholster Loyalty and Lightning in their snug places. I was about to put on my helmet as well when a familiar voice sounded from my PipBuck.

“Well aren’t you going to introduce me?” And up came the guns. Luckily for me, Storm and Star pointed their weapons at the door and not me. I sighed, rolling my eyes. Lost was the only who noticed though, as he had figured out where the voice had actually come from.

“Lost, Storm, Star. Meet Core, my residential sarcastic AI.”

“Being sarcastic is so much more fun than just being serious all the time. Pleased to meet you all.” Storm and Star hesitantly lowered their weapons, but something must have clicked as they realized that a computer would pose little to no threat to them, at least in their current state without technology.

“Stable-Tec technology, I take it?” asked Lost. Stable-Tec rang a dim bell, so I nodded. “Figured, since it came from your PipBuck and all. You Stable ponies do have that slight advantage.” PipBuck, right. I really needed to read that manual.

I finished pulling on my helmet, the display lighting up all around me. As I was no longer being pursued by ghouls, I was actually able to take in all that was in my faceplate display. In the lower right corner was my E.F.S. which currently displayed only three green dots, while my ammo and compass direction were in the upper left and right corners of my helmet respectively. I was currently facing south with full ammo, it seemed. A little window popped up in the lower left side and a blue-ish circle with a simple smiling face appeared, his features drawn in darker blue lines. “So how are you finding things in the Wasteland so far Dash?” My eyes, widened, worried that the others had heard my real identity. The voice was Core’s and I didn’t think he was that stupid, but I wasn’t sure. He assuaged my fears quickly though. “Relax, with your helmet on, only you can hear me unless I decide to make use of your speaker system in your PipBuck or armor. Besides, it was a rhetorical question. You’ll look like an idiot talking to thin air anyways.” The face gave a grin, then vanished again. Core was full of surprises, as was my barding.

I looked over to meet Star’s gaze and nodded, signaling that I was ready to go. She opened the door and we filed out, leaving her to lock and bar it behind us. We were in the remains of an office building coming out of what was most likely the employee break room. To our right were four mostly intact glass doors, beyond which was a field of white. The doors themselves were covered in what looked to be a permanent coating of frost, obscuring any more details beyond them. It was to these doors that Star headed, taking point while Lost and Storm trotted a few feet behind on the left and right sides. I took position a few feet behind them and centered behind Star, watching my radar for any targets that might appear. We crossed the short distance quickly, anything that would have once blocked our way years ago shoved to the side. Star pushed open the doors and I trotted through to get my first clear view of Stalliongrad.

White

White was everywhere, adorning the buildings, the ground, even the sky above. White dominated the landscape, anything that had once been color bleached from long exposure to the blasting wings and weather. What little color did remain was greatly faded, barely piercing the white. Though the vicious whipping winds had ceased, powdery snow still softly drifted down. It landed on my armor and bare legs, but, being a pegasus, I barely felt the cold. My hooves crunched in the several inches thick snow, my light weight causing me to sink in slightly but not quite reaching the pavement below. Lost sunk in even less, looking almost as if he was standing peacefully atop the snow. His horn glowed softly, suggesting a spell was the case. Star just kept walking, a furrow spawning behind her.

Looking around, I saw a ring of buildings in front of me, making a shape slightly large than a semicircle. They were the only things that still retained their color, looking as bold and fresh as the day they were painted. Magic against the snow, no doubt. They were separated from each other and other office buildings by a few feet, allowing each to stand proud in their own right. The somewhat familiar black and blue of the Ministry of Awesome building was in the middle, flanked by the orangey Wartime Technology and lavender Arcane Science buildings. The yellow Ministry of Peace building, our target, was on the far left. The Ministry of Awesome was easily the biggest, though not quite the tallest. The last building, the Ministry of Morale’s hub, stood out the most, an island of happy pink in the landscape.

As we crept through the snow, everything was silent apart from the snow crunching under our hooves. Not another sound could be heard and everything was still as we trudged across the remains of a park. No birds tweeted, and no grass rustled, anything living long ago killed by frost and ice. I pictured what we would look like from a distance, a diamond of dark travelers emerging through the precipitation. I stuck out my tongue, catching a few snowflakes on it. I scrunched up my face at its slightly bitter taste, though the cold was soothing to my mouth. I glanced around again, seeing no shapes on my radar or in the snow. Even looking up at the MoA building and its shattered window, I could see no sign of the dark shape that had been there when I left, nor the shapes of any of the ghouls. We skirted around a mostly intact frozen fountain of stone that would have once depicted two massive alicorns and entered into the shadow of the Ministry of Peace.

“Alright, Storm will do the usual and scout ahead for ghouls and other nasties as well as any locked boxes left behind. I’ll follow up a bit back with Lost behind me. We’ll do the majority of the salvage, but feel free to pick up anything you see that could be useful Firefly. You’ll be in charge of watching our rear in case anything slips by me. Keep an eye on your E.F.S., it’s an advantage that can mean the difference between life and death sometimes. We’ll be doing this as silently as possible, so use knives or silenced weapons. Clear?”

Storm huffed and rolled his eyes, his breath sending small visible puffs in the chilly air. “Of course we’re clear, it’s the same procedure every time.”

“I was saying it for Firefly, but it never hurts to review. Now be sure to maintain radio contact at all times and we’ll be set.” She paused to insert a small earbud attached to a microphone before turning some sort of dial on it. “Firefly, we’ll be on frequency 120, so be sure to turn to that. Other than that, we’re set.”

A little message popped up in the corner of my vision.

>Radio frequency set to 120

Thank you Core. Ahead of me, Storm slipped inside the building and vanished into the darkness beyond. I was surprised that he would be the one for stealth missions, but you learn something new every day. Pegasi had a tendency to be fairly quiet. Star waited a few more moments before opening the door herself and Lost and I followed her in. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye as a red bar popped up in my radar, but before I could do anything Star had drawn one of her silenced dueling pistols and shot it once, the bullet killing it instantly. The fact that Storm hadn’t set it on him was a testament to his ability. Looking back, I saw that the doors were tinted, probably to prevent snow blindness. In any case, it cast the inside atrium in shadow. I glanced around for any more threats as Lost moved to where Star had dispatched the enemy and checked its corpse for anything of use. He shook his head and the three of us moved on in silence.

“I’ve got a locked door to the second level up here, over.”

I gave a small jump at the sudden voice, but I could recognize it as Storm’s over the radio. Star’s voice responded a second or two after. “Copy that. I can’t see much salvageable down here. Headed your way, over.” Until she spoke, I hadn’t even been looking for anything salvageable. I didn’t even have the faintest idea of what might have been salvageable, so I just picked up a few things and added them to my ridiculously large bags.

Star looked back at me and I realized she was asking me which way Storm was. I found his dot close by on my E.F.S. and pointed with my hoof. She nodded and we continued on in silence, Lost and I pausing occasionally to pick up bits and pieces of salvageable scrap.

After a few minutes, and quite a few twists and turn through rubble and twisted metal, we came upon a staircase. Peering through the shadows, I saw the outline of a pony: Storm perched on the top step, nearly invisible due to his coloration in the low light. It was rather surprising that a stallion with little tact would be the best at stealth, but the Wasteland had already had so many surprises thrown at me that another almost didn’t matter. Lost made his way up, sliding past the pegasus, and looked at the door for a moment. His horn glowed slightly, revealing the two ponies on the step more clearly. There was a pause and I heard his voice over the radio. “It’s a complicated electronic lock, I can’t break it easily. Probably why it still is locked after all these years.”

“Allow me.” Core’s voice echoed across all our radios, causing Lost and Storm to jump; Star, on the other hand, remained steady as a rock, constantly vigilant by searching the area around us for threats.

There was a whirring and the door clicked, opening a fraction. Star now made her way up and slipped through. “Alright, this is utterly unexplored territory. As there is a very high chance that ghouls still remain up here Storm, stay twice as close as you usually do.”

“Copy that.”

He once again disappeared, Star following mere seconds later. I walked carefully, watching every step I made. There were patches where the floor had obviously weakened, the carpet gone and exposing crumbling concrete and out right holes in some parts. Lost’s bags were close to bulging by now with all the salvage he had collected. Still, there hadn’t been any threats other than the one we saw downstairs.

I spoke too soon.

A flash of movement to my left caught my eye and I whipped my head towards it, the red bar on my E.F.S. showing up at the same time. Even as I looked at it, four more red dots appeared, surrounding us. “Storm, be warned. Five hostiles converging on us. Get back here, but stay in the wings in case we need you.” Star gave me a questioning voice as she glanced at me, but drew her pistols and took a closer look in the shadows. We paused, Lost sliding his saddlebags to the floor. “Make the eight hostiles. And counting.” Then all hell broke loose.

A snarl to my right alerted me just in time for me to relax so that I rolled with the leaping figure as it bowled me over and separated me from Star and Lost. I looked up into the face of one of those zombie ponies, but that was all I saw before I rolled backwards and used my hind legs to flip it over my head and freeing my body from its weight. Core helped in his way as well, activating something in my PipBuck to make it look as bright as day in the room which also had the effect of momentarily blinded the ghouls.

Shooting a quick glance over, I saw Star engaged in hoof-to-hoof combat with no less than three of the ghouls, her pistols lying separated a few feet away. Lost fared better, dueling another of the beasts with a sword that seemed to be made of magical energy. It was obviously effective, as two of the creatures lay around him. More kept coming out of places where my light vanished, taking my attention away from my allies and on to my enemies.

The one I had kicked came charging back at me, but I simply held up a hoof blade and let it run onto it, the sharp steel stabbing directly into its throat. Not pausing to see if it was entirely dead or not, I launched into the air and plowed into one of the creatures headed for Lost. The force of my attack knocked off course and into a weakened patch of floor. The floor let out a crack and disintegrated, dropping the unfortunate ghoul to the floor below.

While my enemy was in front of me, I forgot the dangers of only focusing on a single enemy when many were attacking. I felt a sharp pain in my rear hoof as one of the ghouls leaped up and grabbed on to me. The sudden weight increase caught me unexpectedly and I fell back to the ground. The concrete below me gave an ominous creak and I rolled to the side as it too gave out. The ghoul still clung to my leg, but I took to the air again and knocked it against the side of the hole and sent it down to join its buddy below.

I landed carefully, seeing numerous other holes appearing in the unstable floor. My E.F.S. alerted me to an enemy directly behind me, so I bucked out my legs and aimed to send it flying into the wall. Unfortunately for me, it was mid jump and crashed onto my back. Once again, the sudden substantial weight of the ghouls send me to the ground. Before I could get out from under my enemy, I saw another unicorn ghoul in front of me charge with his horn lowered in what was no doubt an attempt to skewer me. I closed my eyes and lowered my head, hoping that the seemingly indestructible flight goggles would be able to take the blow.

Whumph!

The strange noise caused me to look up, only to see a familiar meat cleaver embedded in the concrete in front of me as the head of the formerly charging ghoul fell off to one side. I felt the creature on top of me tense, then relax and slide off my back. I twisted and looked back at where my companions were fighting to see a shadowy shape, flying this time, was assisting them. Storm and his barrage of knives had arrived. Blades were flying from him, all thrown with precise aim. I let out a soft whoop and dived back into the fight. There was nothing like fighting for your life to get your blood pumping; it was intensely scary but one of the most addicting things ever at the same time.

My hoof blades got their use as I formed a back-to-back triangle with Star and Lost, Storm acting as our protector by flying above and taking out the biggest threats. We had to continually move, as the floor was growing more unstable by the second with the addition of new ghouls. The three of us, and Storm too I suspected, were splattered with black blood, but the onslaught showed no signs of stopping. It was almost as if they had no reason to fight other than to kill.

I saw a hole and took a moment to dive through it, slicing as my wings kept me in a tight spin to hit numerous ghouls. I landed and looked back, only to see that the ghouls who had been attacking Storm, Star, and Lost were now coming at me. It seemed eerily similar to what I had faced in the Ministry of Awesome building. Too similar.

“Core! Are any of these ghouls the same as the ones in the Ministry building?!” I shouted, becoming something akin to a whirlwind now as I struggled to keep the ghouls away from me. Little rectangles popped up over the ghouls' faces, including those already dead, red and green. They moved around rapidly, but were only there for a few seconds before a message popped up on my display.

>28% of enemies present were also present in the Ministry of Awesome

The message confirmed my suspicions and I spun even faster for a moment, clearing the area around me.

“Enough!” I roared. “Why in Equestria do you want to kill me?!”

While I have no doubt that my companions would be giving me strange looks if they could, my question worked. The ghouls stopped, almost as if they had all been put on pause. A voice echoed out of the darkness, a voice I had only heard once but would remember forever.

“Oh look, the pretty little pegasus thinks that I have a reason for killing her. Maybe she’s right. Maybe she’s wrong. Who knows?” The voice cackled, echoing off the empty building walls.

“I want answers mysterious voice. Why do you keep trying to kill me?” I set all four hooves on the ground, sensing that the fight itself was at least paused, possibly over. While that could change at any time, I doubted it would now that the voice knew it had my attention. Storm hovered nervously, his wings buzzing twice as fast as normal, but I shoved it aside for the time being. I needed answers.

“I can’t have you running around the Wasteland, especially now that I’m free.” The voice seemed closer, but I still couldn’t make out any details such as if the voice belonged to a stallion or mare.

“And just why is that?”

“Because you pose a threat.” The voice had a warning edge to it and I felt a small bit of nervousness worm itself into my gut. Before I could act on it, a new voice popped up that was filled with terror, still in the same direction as the other, “Run you fool! Escape now!”

I raised an eyebrow, but still shoved it into the pile of questions. Unlike others though, this one landed and stayed at the top of the mountain. The voice broke into indecipherable arguing and I hurriedly gestured for my companions to escape with me. We ran, Lost levitating his bags back onto his back while Star paused to scoop up her weapons. Storm became a blur as he collected his knives, but even as fast as he was going I wanted to escape faster. The voice that warned me to run had been filled with more fear than I had ever heard. The ghoul horde remained still and unblinking, looking off into blank space as we ran from the rapidly growing softer mysterious voice. We wasted no time escaping the building and its strange horrors.

We remained silently running until we reached the front doors of the Ministry building. Even then, we hurried out faster than we had come in, scarcely pausing to survey the room. Our pace slowed down as we crossed the snow-covered plain, but the fear was still evident in everypony’s breaths and posture. Our hoofprints from earlier were visible, but to my relief, no others had joined them. As we reentered the office and its break room, I took off my helmet to let my mane and head breathe, panting slightly. And then Star exploded in my face.

“What the buck was THAT Firefly?! Those ghouls definitely seemed after you, but they spared no pity in trying to kill us as well. I expected trouble, but I did not go prepared for an ONSLAUGHT of feral ghouls! Just what exactly are you involved in?!” Star roared.

I flinched back under her onslaught of words. I glanced to the side, but Lost and Storm were smart enough to stay out of it.

“Honestly, I haven’t the faintest idea why the ghoul wants to kill me,” I replied, my voice steady and even though I was saying what I knew to be a flat out lie.

“Well we’re not going to find out about it. Go. Now. I don’t care where, just leave. I just met you and I won’t have you endangering my friends, even if you just saved our lives in there.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but I saw Lost behind her draw a hoof across his throat. I got his message and shut my mouth again. Without a word, I turned on one hoof and walked out of the room. I jammed my helmet on my head, anger simmering inside, and walked out of the office building, kicking the doors open with a single hoof.

“So it looks like it’s just us now. Again. What should we do next?” Core’s voice was expressionless, sounding slightly different than his usual snarkiness.

“Well, we could try searching for civilization that won’t kill us. If they were salvagers, then there has to be someplace to trade somewhere. Let’s go this way.” I chuckled weakly at that. Looking ahead, I saw more of the snow covered town. Ruined buildings lined the street, but they were mostly collapsed and nowhere near the same state as the Ministry buildings. I kept walking until I felt I was a good distance away. I glanced back at the buildings from whence I came, but walking for several long minutes caused them to be just a speck in the distance. A solitary line through the snow showed where I had walked, too frustrated to bother flying. Now that it occurred to me, I started hovering and continued along my path.

“I have no idea where we’re going, but we’re going somewhere.” I kept flying on. It must have been ten minutes since I left my short-term friends behind, but the landscape remained bleak and expressionless aside from a slow incline that gradually was becoming steeper. I could see the top stretching a couple hundred feet in front of me. I kept flying on lazily, any drive to reach the top quickly gone. Even Core was silent, probably thinking over what we should do next.

My problem was solved for me. Coming over the rise, I looked down and was shocked to see the high wall marking the end of the city, a gate visible in the distance. But that wasn’t the most surprising bit. Stretched out below me, in between the bottom of the hill and the wall that marked the edge of the city, there was a massive, ramshackle town. I could tell it was occupied, as there was several large fires at certain points throughout, though I could also make out small pinpricks of light that signified small, one-pony fires. In the center of the town was a giant gathering of wood arrayed in the shape for a bonfire, though it was mostly ringed by small fires and not yet alight. It was similar to a large teepee, stretching almost as high as the tents around it.

Stretched in between these fires were tents of all shapes and sizes. On the outer parts of the miniature city where single tents, mostly a dull brown or grey. As they got closer and closer to the center the tents got bigger and more elaborate. Then, at the very center and ringed around the piled up bonfire, six massive and colorful tents dominated. They were in the same colors as the five Ministry buildings with the addition of a white tent.

Though from this distance I was unable to make out exact details, I thought I saw ponies going from tent to tent. They were just little shapes, but I was also able to make out other non-pony creatures such as griffons and a minotaur.

“Well Core, it looks like we found the place to go.”

Footnote: Level up
New Perk: Spinner: +50% dodge chance while spinning.