I yelp and spin around on my hooves to face a dull yellow earth pony. He has little mane or tail to speak of, only strands of brown hair. His armor is covered in rough spikes and caked in blood and mud, the rifle on his battle saddle gleams in the darkness. He grins at me with his yellow and rotting teeth. I quickly draw my pistol out of the holster. Great, raiders… well at least I know what raiders are.

“Oh, and she’s a lively one!” the raider shouts. Two more come from around a corner behind him. Out of the corner of my eye I spot another or two between the buildings. I glare at the main one and hold my ground. I quickly glance at the manhole cover, too far away for me to get there before they do. He licks his lips. “I’m going to have so much fun with y-- AH!” He falls to the ground screaming in pain as a bolt of green plasma carves a groove into his head just above the eye then vaporizes his left ear.

“Yeah, fuck you too!” I shout around the grip. Quickly I aim the pistol at the other two behind him. Two gunshots ring out from my right, one of the bullets slams into my armored hood sending a wave a pain through my head and clouding my vision. I feel something hit my plasma pistol followed by the sound of something shattering.

I stumble backwards, panic starting to grip at my throat. I might have stood some chance before, but if my gun is busted… Once my vision refocuses I see that my fears are realized. The barrel of my plasma pistol is gone, only jagged and cracked metal and plastic left. Okay, my only weapon is busted, now what?

Before I can think of what to do one of the other raiders charges me. He tackles into, but I barely move an inch. I turn causing him to stumble forward, and I bring my hoof down hard onto his shoulder. I cringe at the loud snap that follows, but judging by the screaming raider it wasn’t my bone that snapped. More gunshots, this time from the direction of the main raider and the two others.

Most of the shots strike the ground near my hooves or just ricochet off my armor. I turn to face them only to find one of them far closer than what I would like. I don’t have time to dodge the baseball bat she swings at my head. I stumble backwards again and my vision starts to fade, but somehow I remain conscious.

I blindly swing at where the raider was, but the vain attempt at getting back at her only makes me lose my balance further. The baseball bat connects with the back of my head this time sending me to the ground. Slowly I start getting up, but the raider smashes the bat into the side of my head, plunging me into darkness.

I look around at the red stones that make the cliffs that surround me. Inwardly, I groan as I recognize the setting of my last dream. Holes dotting the landscape, small town on the horizon, and the same omnipresent buzzing as last time.

Great, just like the sewer all over again, no clue where I am or why I’m here. Well… I can go out into the middle of nowhere, or I can go toward the town… again. I look back over at the town, there’s something about, something that’s pulling me toward it. Not sure what it is, but there’s something there that I have to see. Deciding on my course of action, I head for the town, hopefully nothing’s going to jump out of the ground and kill me this time.

After a few minutes of walking I start noticing a few things I managed to overlook on my first ‘visit’. The most prominent one is that I’m not actually walking. There is no clopping of hooves or even the feeling of my hooves touching anything. I can’t even feel my hooves, actually I can’t see them either. Looking down there is nothing but the red sand and a small round shadow. I’m a floating head… great.

The second thing, is the buzzing. While I always hear it, it becomes louder or more quiet as I move or stop. Leaving me with a bit of a trade off, either I can try to get to the town as quickly as possible but have the buzzing throbbing in my ears. Or, I can move slowly and have it stay nice and quiet, but listen to it twice as long. I choose the first option.

Before long, I start seeing the figures moving along the cliffs once again. Great, surrounded for the third time. For a moment I think about trying to get into the town from another direction other than the road, but since they already know I’m here it would be rather pointless.

I stop and watch a few of the figures duck down behind a couple of rocks. They run along on four legs, though some of them are standing on their hindlegs. They’re twice my size, why are they hiding? “Come out and face me!” I shout at them with a metallic ring in my voice.

I pause trying to listen to my voice a little better. “Hello?” Again, there is a sort of metallic quality to my voice. Okay… I’m a floating, buzzing head that sounds like a robot… I know this, I think, I’m a… a bloatbot… no. That’s it, a Sprite-bot, I’m a Sprite-bot. Wait, why?

Before I can question it any further I spot a flash of red. I recognize it as a beam from a laser weapon, sadly that doesn’t stop it from disintegrating me.

I jolt awake with a scream, jumping back in the process. I hear the clanking of a chain a moment before something pulls down on my neck. The sudden force bring my face smashing back into the floor. I don’t bother moving, instead I just lie there and try to calm my nerves. I try to ignore the smell as I take a few deep breaths.

Just the smell of the place is horrible. It’s almost makes the sewer seem like a flowery field in comparison.

From the sounds the storm must still be raging on, even worst than before. Thunder and lightning still crack the sky overhead, but now they’re accompanied by the sound of rain hitting the roof. There is even a hole in the ceiling which the rain pours in through.

This time, the room isn’t quite as nice as the last one I woke up in. Quite frankly, I’m not sure if I prefer here or the desert from my nightmares. The walls are covered in crude graffiti of murder, rape, and death. Long cracks run along the wall itself, with a rather large hole about halfway up. The wall to my left has a boarded-up window with more graffiti covering it.

Strapped tightly around my neck is a collar, attached to it is a chain that runs to a bolt in the floor. At my hooves is an old dirty mattress, cover in blood, urine, and feces. I quickly back away from it, only to trip over my hooves, or rather the shackles that chain my forehooves together. I jump back onto my hooves.

I hear the shifting or chains over to my right. A young unicorn mare, chained to the floor as well shuffles further into a corner away from me. Her dark blue coat is covered in blood and dirt. Her cutie mark is an image of a purple flame. She has a long vibrant red mane with a long streak of purple running down the back. I stare at her for a minute, mainly trying to figure out what to say rather than anything else.

“Uh… hello?” Ah yes, a greeting is always a good place to start, but I think there are slightly more pressing issues at the moment. “Who are you?” I ask.

She comes a little closer, not by much but enough for me to see the bruises on her thigh. I also notice her hooves aren’t shackled together. After a few minutes of staring at each other she eventually answers. “I’m... Aether Blitz,” she replies. “Are you okay? You were unconscious when they dragged you in.”

“I’m fine, just a little headache.” I give the chain a quick tug, the board it’s attached to creaks and bends slightly but holds firm. “Where exactly are we?”

“We’re in Ponyville. They ambushed a slaver caravan, that’s--” She stops when we hear something moving around downstairs. We wait a few moments and don’t hear anything else. “That’s how I got here. I heard the fighting outside yesterday just before they dragged you in,” she continues in a more hushed tone. She arches one of her eyebrows. “Actually, why did you come here, and who are you?”

I freeze in place once again coming to terms with the fact I have no name. I don’t know her, for all I know she’s the one that got me into this mess. There’s no reason for me to tell her anything… yet. “Uh, t-that’s not important right now.”

Aether snorts and rolls her eyes. “Well, you were the one who asked first, and I already told you mine.” There is another clatter downstairs followed by a muffled conversation. We wait a few minutes then we hear the door open. “Besides, it doesn’t look like we’re going anywhere any time soon.”

“We’ll see about that,” I mutter and turn my attention to the chain around my neck. I start backing up until the chain goes taut, out of the corner of my eye I spot Aether watching me curiously. Once the chain is as taut as it will go I pant my hooves firmly on the ground and keep trying to back up.

“It won’t break.”

“Not trying to break the chain,” I say through gritted teeth. Quickly I rear back onto my hindlegs. The chain tugs back with equal force, but fails to bring me back down. I open my eyes a sliver to see the board the chain is bolted to warping and bending in ways that threaten to snap it. Soon there is a snap and the chain around my neck slackens a bit. I land back down onto my hooves and take a little breather.

A crack runs along the top of the board. Didn’t snap it right off, a few screws still hold it into the floor, but at least it’s missing the top few.

“The fuck is going on up there?!” someone shouts from downstairs. From the sounds of someone running to the stairs, I guess she doesn’t really care for an answer. I quickly glance at Aether to find her trying to hide in the corner again. The door to the room bursts open and dull yellow earth mare walks in. She quickly aims her pistol at us. “The hell are you two doing?”

“We’re uh… trying to redecorate?” I try to shrink back from the glare she gives me clearly not fooled.

“You think you’re funny?” she growls at me and takes a few steps forward. I try to back up a bit further, but the chain stops me. “How ‘bout I decorate this room with your blood, would you like that?” She stomps her hoof down onto the chain forcing me down the ground. She stands a few inches away from my face aiming her gun straight between my eyes. “You know, after what you did I’m sure Skull would love to have a minute with you alone. That is, once I’m done--”

I lunge forward, to headbutt the mare, but I slam into the barrel of her pistol. The impact forces the gun to slide further into her mouth. She reels back hacking and coughing as she tries to dislodge the gun from her throat. With a final cough the pistol falls to the floor and she gasps for air. Her relief is short lived though as the sound of clattering chains draws her attention back to me as I rear back onto my hindlegs. Her eyes go wide and she tries to get out of the way, but my hooves crack down onto her head.

There is a sickening snap as her head smashes through the floorboards and her body goes limp. I sit back with my eyes closed as I nurse the headache that sprang up. Great idea, headbutt someone while you have a concussion. “Was that your plan?” Aether asks. I hear her moving closer. After a minute the dizziness subsides and I can once again focus, or as best I can.

“Uh, yeah, completely my plan.” I turn back to the dead raider. I kick the gun away from her then start searching through everything that was on her. All I find though are a few bullets, presumably for the pistol, four bottle caps, and an empty inhaler, but no keys. Out of frustration I stomp my hoof onto the floor. Right, going back to the original plan.

“No keys?” Aether asks.

I start walking backwards until the chain goes taut again. “What do you think?” I grumble. She deflates slightly, but still watches me. I plant my hooves into the floor again and throw my weight back as I rear up. The collar digs into the back of my neck, but I can hear the floorboard cracking and groaning. With a final push the board snaps out of the floor, it skips across the ground a few times before coming to a rest at my hooves.

Aether jumps to her hooves. “Right, your turn,” I say taking a half-step toward her, because it’s all the shackles allow.

She back up from me and shakes her head. “Don’t bother, you’d break my neck before you break the chain. Just go downstairs, get our stuff, get the key and come back for me.” I go to argue it would be faster to break the chain, but a look back at the raider quickly convinces me that she’s most likely right. I grab the gun off the floor and nod. “Oh, and if you try to leave without me I’ll scream so loud every raider in the area will hear,” she says as I head for the stairs.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. Eventually I make it to the stairs, tripping and stumbling over the shackles the entire way there. I look down the stairs taking a deep breath and start to walk down. Sadly, my shackles pulls my other leg out from under me, and I end up tumbling down.

I slam into the ground face first. I quickly scramble to get my pistol after it had been knocked out of my mouth, the blurry vision from the fall making all that much harder. “Are you okay?” Aether calls from above. I sit back and rub my head to clear my vision, or at least try to. Real stealthy, I bet no one noticed your very stealthy faceplant.

“Yeah, I’m fine, I think I hurt the stairs more than myself.” I blink a few times and I can take a clear look at the room I fell into. A bookcase stands next to the door, though it no longer holds any books, instead skulls and bloody rags fill the shelves. In the middle of the room is mattress with what looks to the torso of a stallion chained to it. Opposite to the stairs is a ruined couch and table.

I shuffle closer to the table hoping the keys might be somewhere in the mess that covers it. As I get closer I notice that my bags and armor are on the bottom shelf of the bookcase. On the table is the remains of a card game where they had been bidding with bottle caps, drugs, cigarettes and ammo. On the corner is an open first-aid box with its contents now presumably dumped across the table. There is a sawed-off shotgun on top of the box. I spot the glint of something metal on one of the chairs. Bingo!

I drop the gun onto the table and pick up the the keys and get to work unlocking the shackles. Soon, the chains are lying on the ground next to the table and I’m over by the bookcase putting my combat armor back on. I sigh as I put the last bracer on, finding an odd amount of comfort with the armor on. I shrug off the feeling and flip my bags onto my back. With that, I head back to the stairs, stopping for a moment to holster the pistol and put the shotgun in my bag.

Aether glares at me as I walk into the room. “So, you took the time to get dressed while I was stuck up here?” I look down at my armor and give her a nervous smile.

“Sorry, kinda figured I should get ready in case--”

She shifts impatiently and cuts me off. “I don’t care, just get this thing off of me.”

Oh yeah, no need to be thankful that I got the fucking key in the first place. I slide the key into the collar, with a quick twist there is a click and it falls to the floor. As soon as she’s free, Aether pushes her way past me, shoving me to the ground at the same time and bolts for the stairs. “Wait!” I shout as she disappears beyond the door. She’s just going to leave me here! She might know something about me, I can’t just let her leave, or risk her dying at the hooves of those raiders.

“Those fucking bastards!” Aether shouts, snapping me out of my slight panic. I jump to my hooves and run for the door. I get to the bottom floor, expecting a gang to ponies to be standing at the door, but instead I find Aether desperately looking through a pair of saddlebags. She lets out a frustrated roar and throws the bag against the wall. She walks over to the table and starts shifting through the mess. Her ears perk up for a moment and she picks up a Dash inhaler, but a moment later they fold back against her head and she smashes it into the table.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

She turns her anger filled glare at me. “No I’m not okay! They took it all, there’s none left!” She grabs another Dash inhaler in her hooves before shattering it against the wall. All this because of some Dash? Lovely, she’s a junky!

“We don’t have the time for this, we have to get out of here before the others come back.” I head immediately for the bag she had been looking through, assuming it’s hers. I toss the bag over to her but she just ignores it. I watch her shuffle through the mess for a minute until I notice something peculiar. “Why don’t you use you magic for that?” I ask.

She completely freezes and stares off into space. She stays that way for a few minutes, then shakes her head and goes back to searching for drugs. “They drugged me, I can’t--” Before she can finish she gasps and grabs another inhaler. She stares at it for a moment then hugs it tightly. “Okay, there’s some left… some…” It falls down into her bag and she sighs. “That’s not going to help me much…”

“Forget about the drugs! Just get your stuff and let’s get out of here before somepony shows up!” She turns and glares at me, then she looks down at her bags then to the door. She turns back to the table and dumps a small pile of caps, ammo and cigarettes into her bag.

“How about you go search for some weapons so we don’t die the second we set hoof outside that door, and I’ll stay here and look for something useful.”

I set my bag on the ground and start digging through it. I quickly find the shotgun and take it out and toss it to her. “There, now let’s leave.”

She stares at the shotgun, after a moment she sigh and puts it into her bag. Before she picks up her bags she sweeps a pile from off the table into them. “Fine then, let’s get out of here.”

I pull out the pistol and take a position near the door. Finding a hole in the door I peek outside. The storm makes it impossible to see more than a few feet ahead of me. The only lights are those from spotlights dotted around the raider town, and the occasional crack of lightning that arcs through the clouds. “I don’t see anyone,” I say opening the door slightly. I look back to find Aether going through the junk on the table again. “Are you coming, or am I going to have to leave you here?”

That catches her attention and she looks over my way. She looks from me to the table and back again. With a groan she pulls the shotgun out of her bag and follows me out into the rain. I take a moment to close the door behind us, to make it seem like nothing is amiss.

“So, now where to?” Aether asks looking out into the darkness. She wipes some water away from her eyes to try and see better.

I look around blindly as well, though it wouldn’t do much since I no nothing about the area around Ponyville anyways. “Don’t know, but how about we focus on getting out of the town first,” I say lowering my voice so it’s barely louder than the rain.

“We should head south-west. I know a settlement down that way,” Aether says.

I start making my way along the wall until I get to the corner of the house. Peeking around, I see nothing. Right, pointless to be cautious when I can’t see anything. At least no one can see me. “Good plan, just tell me when you figure out which way that is,” I say taking a step out of cover.

She stops and looks up at the pitch black sky. “Fine then, we get out of here then we figure out which way it is,” she says following me again as we cross the clearing.

We continue in silence as we walk through the large puddles that cover the ground. For a moment I wonder if I should be worried about the water, seeing as to how the clouds are greenish-brown, but I push the thought to the back of my mind. A few lights move through the darkness, though it’s hard to tell how far away they are.

A quick flash of lightning lights up the area. I see a small line of houses further off in the distance. I think I see a few ponies walking near them, but before I can be certain the area in once again plunged into darkness.

I stop and start looking around for a different direction to take. “Something the matter?” Aether asks from off to my side. I barely manage to hear her over the storm.

“Thought I saw someone over that way,” I say motioning my head is the vague direction of the houses. There is another flash of lightning, I see basically only houses around us. Seems like we’re going through the middle of what once used to be a park. Damn, which way is the quickest way out?

“Hey, who’s out there?!” someone shouts from up ahead. Turns out, standing in the middle of the open is a rather bad plan.

“I think we should get out of here,” Aether says. I can hear her backing away slowly. I turn and start running away from the raider.

Three gunshots crack through the storm as we start running. The first one hits me, but just bounces off my armor while the other two shots miss. The raider shouts at us and a few other voices join in as they give chase. I hear a few ponies shouting up ahead.

“Stop right there!” a stallion shouts in front of us. I can make out the faint shape of two ponies, though not much more. Aether skids to a stop and, even though she’s a little further than ideal, she fires her shotgun. The pellets shred through the shoulder of one of them and peppers the wall of the house behind them.

The other raider fires off a volley at us, but I get between him and Aether. The bullets do little to no damage to my armor. I stand there and take the brunt of the volley as I wait for an opportunity to strike back. Eventually his clip runs dry giving me the opportunity I wanted. I charge at the area where the bullets had been coming from. I find him quickly enough as he tries to reload his gun. My hoof connect with his muzzle, and the force of my punch send his head snapping back.

Before I have time to bask in my victory, Aether jumps over me and curls into a ball. I give her a questioning glance and look back out toward the park to find a pack of raider lined up much like they would if they were a firing squad. The raiders open fire. I brace myself against the storm of bullets as my armor weathers the barrage. The bullets rip and tear through the wall of the house, and several bite into my flank and hips.

After a few seconds of continuous fire they start depleting their guns as well. “Move!” I shout at Aether once it’s only a few of few of the raider that are shooting. I draw my gun and start firing blindly into the group as we start making our way down what used to be a road. We turn the corner of the house and start running again. A few shots whiz past us as a couple of raider try getting a few potshots on us.

I turn in a full hundred-eighty degrees and start firing back a the as I continue walking backwards. This is bad, if we don’t start putting some real distance between us and them, we’ll be swarmed by them. Over the firefight I can just make out Aether shouting, “Look out!”

Too late, I put my hindleg down, but it doesn’t connect with anything. I scream as I fall back and find myself in more darkness than before. I begin to wonder how painful it’ll be when I hit the ground, but I don’t get long to dwell on it as I plunge into water. It rushes past me in a powerful current, though it doesn’t quite carry me away. I come out of the water gasping for breath and find myself somewhere familiar.

Great, back in the sewers. I look down into the water to see if I can find my gun, but the black water conceals it. And, the gun’s gone… this just keeps-- Pain shoots through my shoulders and neck and I find myself back under the water as something lands on top of me. I see a shape moving above me, but I can’t make it out because of the water and darkness. I burst out of the water with a shout as I pin the pony to the wall.

Aether slips out of my grasp before I can pin her and she delivers a quick punch to the side of my face that does nearly nothing. “Watch it!” she shouts at me.

“The hell did you fall onto me for?!”

“Why didn’t you move?”

I go to retort, but a small round object splashes into the water behind her. It takes me a moment to recognize it, but once I do I grab her and pull her away. The grenade explodes sending a shockwave down the tunnel that sends me and Aether flying. My vision fades and my mind feels like water as pain surges through my body. We land in the water a few feet away, my ears ringing as if there’s a bell next next to me. I fight to stop myself as the current pushes me down the tunnel some ways. Eventually I manage to get a hoofhold and lift myself out of the water.

I spot Aether getting up further down the tunnel. She looks over at me and starts shouting something, but I can’t hear it over the ringing in my ears. She points behind me, I look just as a few raiders jump into the sewers with us. “Run!” I shout, though I doubt she actually hears me.

Completely forgetting about my gun I take off in a sprint, or at least as fast as I can go when I’m up to my knees in water. Me and Aether turn down at a junction so the raiders can’t shoot at us. It doesn’t take long before I notice Aether lagging behind slightly. I glance over, to see her struggling, each step sending a wave of pain through her. However, we don’t have the time to stop see how badly injured she is.

The group of raiders turn the corner and start firing again. I hear a scream of pain from Aether, but she keep pushing on. We turn as soon as we come to the next junction, but it won’t take long for the raiders to catch up with Aether in her condition. We get halfway down the tunnel before Aether collapses into the water. I skid to a stop and try helping her up, but I can see her back leg is broken. She tries standing, but she just collapses again with only enough energy to keep her head above the water. “We have to keep going,” I tell her.

“I-I can’t… the explosion.”

I frown and look down the tunnel at the way we came, I can hear the shouting of the raiders as they get closer. “Fine, we fight,” I say as I grab her shotgun. I pause for a moment as I catch a wiff of something odd, but I ignore it.

“We only have one bullet!”

Well, I sure as hell ain’t getting caught again. I aim the shotgun down the tunnel and wait for them. Luckily, I don’t have long to wait. They come rushing around the corner and skid to a stop when they see me. Bring it. Time seems to slow down as I pull the trigger. Flames spill out from the barrel as the pellets shoot out. The shot hits the water in front of them. Fuck. For a moment there is nothing but crushing hopelessness, but then I wonder why fire is still coming from the barrel of the shotgun, then I recognize the smell.

The gas that fills the tunnel ignites sending a wave of fire down the tunnel. I scream and jump into the water, also forcing Aether head under the water as well. The water trembles as the explosion blasts down the sewers. For a moment the air above the water becomes a blazing light, in stark contrast to the darkness we had been in. And, just as quickly as it came, it leaves. I burst out of the water, bring Aether back up with me.

A deep rumbling resonates through the stone floor followed by a loud cracking. As I know it, the sewers start crumbling around me as the ceiling above starts to fall in. A large section of the ceiling over at the junction falls away and a torrent of water start to pour in from the opening. The wave of water fills the sewer entirely and slams into me like a train. I tumble backward through the dark water until my head hits a rock or the wall and I’m plunged into complete darkness.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk Added: Horse Sense-- You are a swift learner. You gain an additional 10% whenever experience points are earned.