//------------------------------//
// Chp 3: Well It Couldn't Get Worse 
// Story: Fallout Equestria: Odd Jobs 
// by SumDankPony 
//------------------------------//

"Well shit, I was expecting it to be more barren, and scary."
I don't really know why I decided to make the joke, but something told me that we could both you a laugh.

Doll giggled at my response, she took out her earblooms and sat back down in her chair.
"Technically, we're not really on the outside."
Her smiled disappeared as she continued.
"When we opened the Stable door, we found ourselves in some sort of basement, and soon enough, we found out that it belonged to this building. We then sent out a few ponies, including Hush, to push upstairs and scout out the floor above us to see if it was safe."
He face grew sadder, as she took a deep breath.
"Turns out the building had a pretty brutal turret security system, about a forth of us were killed and a few were injured before Hush could get the system down. Twenty when up, only two were able to limp back downstairs."
She looked over at her bloody coat as she finished,
"After that we didn't know what to do with the bodies so we spent the night here moving most of them downstairs as we tended to you and the other ponies injured in the scouting party."

"Most?"
I asked, hoping I would get an understandable response

"Well, it turns out the radiation your body took in really did a number on your internal organs."
Doll declared, now in a much more general manner, trying my her hardest to ignore my question.
"One of your lungs needed to be transplanted, your bloodstream had taken a diver, and it's a miracle that your brain and Reproductive Track are somewhat unaffected.
You may have also lost just a little bit of hair."

I'm bald...
I thought as I placed a hoof on my head, crying a little bit on the inside.

The radiation caused most of my mane and tail to fall out,
somepony that operated on me shaved off what was left of my mane and my tail was rendered to a few strands of orange hair.
Patched of my silver coat were missing as well, what remained were spots of pink, puffy skin.
This is one of those times that consequences for your stupidity didn't exist.

"and the bodies?"
I asked halfheartedly her, not sure if she heard me or not.

She sighed before she continued,
"Well, I had to find a lung that was healthy and you know, I 'recycled'."

Who in the right mind gave her the right to be a surgeon and doctor?!
I looked back to the doctors coat hanging in the corner.
That explained the mess

There was a moment of silence that felt like forever
"Oh, and one more thing."
She waited till she had my full attention before she continued.
"When the the doctors and I were performing your surgery, there was something different about your heart."
She stood up again, and walked over to a shelf with a single video recorder.
Picking up the recorder, she then turned it on and walked over to me, showing me the screen.
There was a short video of a heart, my heart, and there was definitely wrong with it.

In the short video, every time the heart pumped, a bright green glow emanated from the veins.
I didn't know what to say, my mouth hung open.
I don't know if it was because my heart is now a beating glow-stick or the fact that Doll decided to record my heart in the middle of a surgery.
Why does she even have a recorder for surgeries?
I looked over at Doll to see she was biting her bottom lip and had eyes that shone with fascination.
Oh that's why. Everypony's boat floats differently I guess.
Hush has some marefriend...

Doll took a while to put the recorder away, even after the video ended.
She then walked over, put the recorder back on the self, patted it, and finally sat back down into her seat.
"Any other questions?"
She asked, her tone was completely different then how it was a minute ago...

"Um, yeah I do. Where is everypony?"
I was wondering since nopony else has entered the room in the time I've been awake.

"Dang, I nearly forgot to tell you!"
Doll said, she seemed a bit embarrassed.
"Paper Clips didn't want to stick around here too long so she left and the rest of the ponies followed, she told me and Hush to stay behind with you."
They're really loyal to her, even though she's the reason that most of the ponies in Stable 45 are dead right now.

I was pleased to hear that Hush decided to stick around as well
"Where is Hush by the way?"
I asked looking at the old wooden door of the room, it was almost falling off it's hinges!

"He got bored waiting for you to wake up, he's read all the magazines here and then he said he was of to do something with the terminals."
She said, rolling her eyes.
"You should be healthy enough to walk right now so you should be able to meet up with him."
Upon saying that, she put her earblooms back in, fiddled with her Pipbuck a bit and then picked up her magazine.
Where did she get a magazine from?

I took out the needle in my arm and lifted the blanket that were covering me, now realizing that it wasn't actually a proper blanket but a dusty carpet that I presumed was from the floor.
How considerate.
A sharp breeze down below reminded me to find some clothes.
I took a step off of the desk, my legs felt weird, like I haven't been able to use them in a decade.
Barely able to stand up, I looked around the area again to find my Stable jumpsuit.
The room's in pretty good conditions for being so old.
I found what I was looking for folded nicely in the back-right corner of the square room.
On top of the jumpsuit was my tool belt and a saddle bag, which had a small note on it saying 'for Speak Easy'.

That was rather nice of somepony to do that, what wasn't nice was the fact that they put it next to the blackened and old skeleton of a pegasus in and office chair, I presumed that this used to be their office.
It was strange that I wasn't even slightly taken aback by the bones, maybe it was because I've already seen enough dead ponies that one more really old one wasn't that bad.
I clumsily walked around the desk to the corner and grabbed my jumpsuit, trying to keep as far away as possible from the skeleton.
The bones was wearing a faded black suit and had a bottle of whiskey in one hoof, a faded picture of a unicorn mare holding a baby and a young colt to her right in the other, there was some faded writing on it as well that read: My darling Clover, Silver Jr., and little Spade.

There was a letter allowing access to Stable 45 and a holotape player in his pocket as well.
I ejected the holotape inside and decided I should give it a listen.

"Denarius that fucking swine!
I should have known he would pull something like this to get me out of your life.
'Don't worry, I'll make sure you all have tickets he said', should have never trusted the stallion
Using the Stable that I had built to separate us because he never liked me! The balls!"
(sound of something being thrown)
*annoyed exhale*
At least you and the kids made it into the Stable, that's all that matters.
Guess I broke my promise to the kids huh? The one where I said I would take them to Sparkle land?
Crap, now I'm crying and I don't even know if you'll ever hear this!
I think now is the time I open up the expensive whiskey I was saving for our anniversary.

When the recording ended, I found myself a lot sadder then I was a minute ago.
To be respectful, I put the holotape back into the player and slid it back into his pocket.

I dressed myself and headed for the door.
I was getting used to walking again pretty quickly. 
Doll looked like she was enjoying her magazine so I didn't bother asking her for directions.

I made my way into a hallway, definitely not the cleanest hallway.
Maybe it was how the building was a few centuries old, or maybe it how dried blood was trailed across the ground in front of me.
The blood of a Stable 45 pony that I saved, only to be murdered brutally minutes later.
I made my way to the stairs, which at the entrance to the stairwell was a sign saying Second Floor ->.
I began my search for my brother somewhere in the building.
The building was pretty small and easy to get around.
It looks like there were four floors, not including the basement, with five to nine private offices on each floor except for the first, which had a lobby and front desk.
There were also a lot of blood only a day or two old.
There were blood trails on the floor and staircase where the bodies of my fellow Stable 45 dwellers were dragged, not even allowed a proper burial. There were some shreds of jumpsuits here and there. There were even pools of blood and gore that were still left in the corners where their owners died.
It took a while to dismiss the thought, with it came a newfound hatred for a certain mare I used to be bossed around by in the Stable.

I finally found Hush in one of the offices on the forth floor, sitting at the computer.
I knocked on the open door to get his attention.
He smiled the instant he saw me and welcomed me with a hug.
'You had me worried there.'
He signaled to me after releasing my neck.

I just realized that he had bandages on his own.
"What happened to you?"
I asked, tilting my head.

'Oh this?'
He pointed at his neck like I couldn't already see it.
'A bullet from the security system tore up a bit of my neck, luckily it just grazed the left side and didn't actually go into anything important.'
His face looked slightly annoyed as he sat back down into the office chair.
'Doll uses it as an excuse to sleep close to me at night to make sure I don't "Sleep on that side".'
Aw! That's cute and strangely creepy and the same time!
Yet, now I know why he fells slightly uncomfortable sleeping with his marefriend of two years.
I thought, looking at the terminal he was working with, thinking about Doll's video recorder.

'Your not making fun of me'
He signaled, giving me a suspicious eye
'Usually you would make a joke about me being shy and shit'
He took a minute of looking me in the eyes before continuing,
'You found out what she's into didn't you?'
How the hell do I respond to that?
This is so fucking awkward!
He looked away from me, put his head in his hooves and shuttered a bit.
I think we both subconsciously agreed to let this conversation die there, even though I hadn't said anything. 


"Anyway, I'm curious about this place, judging by how you hacked most of the terminals and invaded the privacy of ponies that died ages ago, did you find out anything?"
I wondered, thinking back to the stallion's skeleton.

Hush lifted his head and spun around in the chair to a familiar duffel bag on the wall and pulled out a notebook.
'Well, from what I can piece together, This used to be an office building owned by a stallion named Silver Tongue that operated on passports and immigration before and during the war. they held most of their work in secret, to the point that most of the employees had no idea what was going on in the company.'
Flipping through the pages, he continued.
'This was the main office of Mr. Silver's company, "A New Start".'
He read from the notebook that he had now placed on the table.
'Mr. Silver happened to also be associated with a mafia run by another stallion that went by the name Denarius that was growing in power in this area from smuggling zebras into Equestria and ponies into the Zebra Lands.'
He paused to read over a page before continuing.
'The mafia had a deal with Stable-Tec to employ local ponies to build it, Mr. Silver offered his building as the site so he could marry Denarius' daughter, yadi yadi yada, Stable 45 was built.'
'That's all I have on Mr. Silver as of now'
Huh, it makes sense now
I thought abut the skeleton, now realizing that it used to be Silver Tongue.

Hush saw my puzzled gaze 
'What's the matter?'

"You remember the skeleton that was in the corner of the room that I what sleeping in?"
I asked
'Vaguely, Why?'
He signaled back to me, placing his notebook back into is bag

"I think that is Mr. Silver."



I told Hush about the skeleton and the holotape that he recorded in his last hours.
He wrote all of it down into his notebook as I spoke.

When were where finished chatting about the history of the building we were in, Hush got back to gathering information from the terminals. 
On my way out he handed one of the Sparkle Colas he found in one of the offices.
I popped the cap with the edge of my Pipbuck and enjoyed.
It was warm, which was expected, and it had a weird aftertaste, probably from being centuries past expiration date.
Despite that, I enjoyed the carrot flavoring, bringing a sense of nostalgia that I couldn't remember from where.
Finishing the soda, I put the bottle and cap into my bag because I couldn't find a garbage bin.

I decided I should probably figure out what the plan was, 
Hush seemed busy so I decided to look for Doll.

As I made my way downstairs I began to wonder some things to myself.
Why did Denarius have Silver Tongue locked out of the Stable?
Mr. Silver and Denarius' daughter, I think clover was her name, seemed to have a happy relationship.
What was Stable-Tec doing having deals with a mafia?
Why Does This Entire Building Have No Windows?!

She wasn't in the room she was in last, her recorder and coat were gone as well.
I looked at the remains of Mr. Silver and though it would be respectful If I put him back to where he was.
I placed the skeleton back into his chair and put his things back onto his desk, Including a dusty nameplate that said Mr. S. Tongue.
I'm pretty sure that it would have been nice to not die with a bottle of whiskey in your hoof but when I went to put it away, I swear I heard the skeleton grumble. 
As a finishing touch, I put the photo of his family back into his hoof and left the room.
I like to think I made him smile one last time.

I made my way onto the first floor, Doll seemed to have relocated herself from the second floor to the lobby.
She gave me a smile and a wave as I entered, a new magazine in hand.

I signaled her to get her attention.
She took out one of her earblooms.
I could hear the faint sound of a mare singing coming from it.
"Yes?"

"Just a quick question Doll, when are we leaving exactly?"
A curiosity to find out what was outside has been growing inside me for a while.

She checked her Pipbuck before answering, music still playing.
"Well it's almost dark, I don't think it would be the greatest idea to wonder aimlessly into an outside world when who knows what is out there."
She has a great point
"I think we should spend another night here just in case and then head out in the morning."

I checked my own Pipbuck,
8:06pm
"Alright, thanks Doll."

The albino unicorn nodded and returned to her music and magazine.
I flopped down onto one of the padded seats nearby, they were definitely old, judging by how dust flew up and how the foam was stiff, making a weird sound when I sat down.
I grabbed an old magazine on the table nearby, and without even bothering to look at what it was about, I began to read.
Turns out the magazine was titled Guns & Bullets and as one would expect, it was about guns.

I remember that Taze used to really like these magazines, she had a ton of them and used to beg me to read them.
Her fascination with weapons concerned me.

The first article was pretty cool, talking about some new form of 'Plasma weapons', it was announcing how it could be "The New Energy".
The second and third page were pretty boring though, it was all about what certain people thought about it. Then the fourth page was about the science behind it. There were four or five pages going on about some company called 'Cobra Artillery' and how they only made guns with problems that could easily be fixed and there was a whole page about something called the 'Enforcement Destroyer' shotgun and how it flopped immediately because of the controversial name alone.
Woah, no shit!
The gun itself looked very strange, it had this huge 'feeding drum' that was slow and often didn't line up with the barrel and the gun itself was supposedly too heavy to be wielded properly. 
An annoyed reviewer made a funny comment saying "It's like a shotgun and a revolver made a baby, but then it was aborted and somehow survived."
Talk about controversial!
I thought to myself as I began to think who the audience of these magazines actually were like...
I decided to keep the magazine in my bag just for the reviews alone.

In the next two hours I have read almost every dusty magazine in the room.
I found two more Guns & Bullets magazines, one of them had a pretty long article an the common types of guns; something told me I was going to need them.
The fact that there was a popular magazine installment about guns during the war scared me though.

There were a few other magazines and even a children's book.
The magazines didn't grab my interest but I put them into my bag anyway for when I get bored again.
The children's book had the familiar title, Your SPECIAL!!
I flipped through the pages and memories began to rush back, it was the same as I remember it.
You could instantly tell it was made by Stable-Tec because their mascot, Stable mare, was the only character used and how this was the first book almost every pony born in a Stable, like myself, read. The word Charisma interested me because it was fun to say the word and it was what most ponies used to describe me.
Closing the book temporarily, I looked down to where my cutie mark usually is, the image of an exclamation point inside of a speech bubble was currently covered by the number 45.
I smiled to myself.
Thinking about it, I remembered all the good memories I had in the Stable.
Life was so much fun back then, but it was also difficult, having to drop out of school early to continue my father's job, who died from a heart attack.
As the saying goes: "You don't know what you have till it's gone"
Is that how it's used?

I opened the book again, this time to the page about intelligence, being reminded about Hush instantly.
Hush had a bit more schooling then I did before taking over our mother's job, despite only having a month or two more of schooling then I did, he was almost twice as intelligent as I was. 
However, what he had in intelligence, he lacked a lot of the common sense and cunning I had. 
Still, having intelligence is a great thing to be born with, Hush and his marefriend are very lucky to be gifted with it.
I closed the book and placed it back on the small table, thinking about how great to have intelligence is.

I looked over at Doll again, she was giggling at some doctor jokes in her magazine, not even good ones, they were the kind that only foals and senile old stallions would laugh at.

I like how fate has to poke fun at everything I say and make me wonder why I exist.
It's real fun...



We all sleeping on the second floor because it was cooler then the first.
I found myself laying on the floor of the meeting room, on some heavily aged couch pillows we grabbed from the entrance. 
I couldn't go to sleep.
Maybe it was because I just woke up from sleeping for a day or two only a few hours ago
or maybe it was because there were no blankets and I was freezing my ass off.

I got up and decided I should do something to pass the time before I can finally snooze off.
Grabbing my bag and headed out.
Hush and Doll were closer to the door so I had to be very quiet to get passed them without waking them up.
As I quietly stepped past, I got a good look at them.
Doll was casually cuddling Hush, she had a satisfied grin on her face
While Hush on the other hand, well, 
every nerve in his body looked on edge as hell, he was covering his stomach with both of his arms, and his body was halfway to rolling into a ball, other than that, he seemed pretty okay with the situation he was currently in. 

I quietly rooted for him as I left the room.
He's going to have to get used to it if he want's to progress his relationship with Doll
I thought to myself as I walked through the dark hallways, lit only by the small flashlight function on my Pipbuck.
I could only see five feet ahead of me so I followed the blood trail to find the stairwell.
This reminds me of the living quarters in the Stable late at night, but I couldn't actually see anything and I didn't have to be led by a stranger's blood trail to find the stairs back then
I thought to myself when I reached the stairwell.

As I descended, I began to think of what I should do, ultimately deciding to go to the basement.
I don't exactly know why, probably because I wanted to pay my respects to those ponies that were killed so we all could make it into the outside, and I was also a bit curious of what else is down there.

I made may way hastily down the stairs, which was likely a bad idea because I tripped and almost fell three times.

When I finally reached the door, my excitement hit a wall quite hard, killing it in it's tracks.
The putrid smell alone would make anybody turn back at this point, but my sense of curiosity was stronger then my sense of smell.
The stench made me instantly regret that idea.
If one were to describe the sent, it would be like this:
It was like somepony urinated and defecated into the rotting corpse of a roadkill skunk, let it sit in the baking sun for a day or too, and then forced your face it's open rib cage.
Or
Really Fucking Bad!

It took a few minutes to get past the wall of pure hell if it was a sent.
My eyes were watering but the smell eventually got more tolerable, meaning I either got used to it which is bad Or it has destroyed my sense of smell, which is also very bad.
When my mind was finally focused I got a good look of the room.
bu the entrance were at least fifteen bodies piled on top of each other, 
the smell was bad enough so I couldn't stand looking at IT for long. I just said a little prayer to whatever beings(s) that controlled the universe.

The room was pretty big, in the center was a line cue put together with rusted metal bars, hell everything made of metal in the room was at least a little bit rusted. On the wall at the end of the room had collapsed into a pile. To the right of the line cue was a shaky looking yellow platform leading to the huge door of Stable 45 and looking a bit closer at it, I could see it was poorly welded shut by some industrial blowtorches to keep the radiation in. 
Smart.
On the opposite side of the room was a small laboratory, I could tell it was a laboratory because it had the only window in the whole building, allowing me to see inside. 

Other then the freshly rotting bodies piled by the entrance, there were also quite a lot of skeletons. I could tell that some have been dead as long as ol' Mr. Silver upstairs because of how they were deteriorating and blackened like his. There were also some that had to be only a year old or younger, meaning that somepony else was here recently. 
Somepony from the outside...

I made my way to the door of the laboratory as quietly as I possibly could and tapped the control button slowly, it made a little click when I released  it and the door opened. As the door slid open, another blackened skeleton in a aged yellow lab coat greeted me, sitting right next to the door. I hate to admit it, but that really made me jump a bit, blowing my cover to any pony in the room. I let out a breath of relief, knowing that at least it wasn't somepony wanting to kill me.

I made my way into the room and came face to face with the killer, long dead thankfully.
The stallion's body was sat in an old folding chair in the corner of the room, facing the window, a surplus of supplies on one side and a 'Tommy Gun' possibly a M1928A1 on his other side. I was using the brief knowledge I gained from reading gun magazines in an attempt to impress nopony in particular, I guess myself. A small radio playing static was underneath his chair.
He was relatively new compared to the skeletons of his victims because he still had a good portion of his flesh still on his body, the reason for his death a I couldn't figure out however. It couldn't have been from a bullet, there wasn't any visible wounds on what's left of his body. So I ruled out that he probably choked on a piece of the now rotten can of food is his hoof as his killer. Pretty pathetic way to die, but that's karma for you.

I looted the body for anything useful, I didn't really need any food or water so I decided not to take any. I did take the .45 mil bullets, the two loaded drums, the three loaded magazines, and the Thompson he had. I don't know why, but I had a feeling I was really going to need it.
This guy was really prepared!
I had a sinking feeling that this wasn't going to go well, the only gun I've ever shot was an old bb rifle that Taze let me play with once , I was an average shot at best.
The fact that Taze had a bb rifle is questionable and very concerning, but I never bothered to ask.

When I was finished my search, I looked around the small area some more and found it to be more of a control room then a laboratory. There were large computers on every wall and there were three operating areas, all with their original operators still there. 

I made my way the the one by the window and I saw a holotape labeled Stable 45 Welcome that was in the player on the computer, the tape had been ejected from the computer but it hadn't been taken out.

I grabbed the holotape and placed it into the player on my pipbuck.
Upon closing the player, the message began.

"Wow, Stable 45?! how long did this thing take to build?
(Another mare mumbles in the background.)
What do you mean by Proof of Concept? Yes it does! It'll matter to them when they hear this."
"Whatever, let's just get this over with."
Hello future occupants of Stable 45! I'm talking to you currently as the vice-president of Stable-Tec,
Scootaloo, and as you may know, Omega-Level Threat Protocols have commenced meaning that
it is dangerous to go outside currently-"
(The mare in the background was mumbling again.)
"Alright, fine! There's no need to rush me!"
*Inhale*
"Mr. Silver Tongue and the "A New Start" company were kind enough to let us build this Stable under this building, so you should all thank him.
Your current appointed overseer is Mr. Denarius.
*The sound of papers being flipped*
Denarius, you'll find more details on your duties on the terminal in your office"
*Exhale* 
"There are you happ-"

The holotape ended there, it was a bit of a let down not being able to learn more about my Stable, but at least I learned a bit more about a different kind of shithole.
The backstabbing mob boss Denarius, now I know HOW he screwed Mr. Silver, but I'm yet to find out why. I severely doubt that he decided to separate Mr. Silver from his family and essentially murder him just because he 'didn't like him'

I was so focused on my thoughts that I almost didn't realize the strange clacking noise coming from the rubble of the fallen wall. 
Not knowing what it exactly was, I carefully walked over to the pile of rocks and began to lift off the different pieces of ruble gently. After I had a good amount of the rocks out of the way, I could figure out what was under the rocks, It was another pony skeleton in a Stable-Tec security uniform, but what was strange was how it was being pinned to the wall.
Another skeleton?
I moved a few more rocks to reveal yet another skeleton. but this one was larger,
and had horns.

I learnt about southern buffalo tribes from stories passed down for generations in the Stable, some describing them as horrifying monsters, in some they were traitors, and a few depicted them as nothing more then pest. That's how I learnt about The Buffalo Revolts and how because of it, the entirety of the buffalo race were denied access to every Stable in Equestria and were forced off most of their land. 
Still, an entire race doesn't just decide to revolt for no reason, and they were the ones who were effected by the Revolts the most
My heart sank as I stared down at the remains of a buffalo who had a last ditch effort to get into the Stable.

The larger skeleton that had multiple bullet wounds in the back of the skull and spine. On it's cracked leg bone loosely hung a purple and white cloth. On it's skull laid an almost completely deteriorated feather headdress which seemed to be the source of the noise. Upon further examination, I found a lock of brownish-blond hair made into a loop with two beads hanging in the loop, they were hitting each other to create the sound in the headdress. The sound continued with no visible source.
A chill went down my spine as i dared to reach for it.
When I picked up the charm, the two beads stopped for a few secnds, but then started up again, clacking the same pattern, stopping for a few seconds, and then looping all over again.

It took me a while to figure out that IT was trying to "talk" to me using Morse Code. 
Hush and I used to talk using the Morse Code we learnt from a book before somepony taught us how to use and understand Hoof Sign.
I think I still remember the alphabet.
I waited for the charm's loop to restart so I could understand it.

'H-E-L-L-O'
The charm repeated once again.

"Why hello there."
I responded, now realizing that I'm talking to a piece of hair with two beads dangling on it.
I began to wonder if it was that time at night when your so tired that you begin to hallucinate things.
Maybe it was the time rigt after that one that you realize that you need a drink...
Fuck it, I'll just go with it.
"What's your name?"
I dared, trying to grasp if I'm really seeing this.

'S-T-R-O-N-G-H-E-A-R-T'



The charm when limp and didn't speak again, so I decided it was about time I head back to the conference room and get some rest. 
There was no more space in my bag to put the charm, so I attached it to the barrel of the Thompson I just retrieved.
Strangely, the beads didn't make a sound like you would expect it would when I slung the gun over my back.
As I walked out of the room, I saw three or four other skeletons similar to the one pinning the security pony to the wall, almost all of them had bullet holes penetrating certain bones.
It wasn't just a single buffalo fending for himself, but perhaps he charged in, attacking the pony to the wall in order to cause a distraction?
Judging by how none of the buffalo made it inside, I would guess they didn't make it before the bombs dropped.
Whoever these buffalo were, they certainly weren't happy with Stable-Tec, or ponies in general.
I paid my respects by  nodding my head to every one I saw. 
Strongheart seemed to like my thoughtful manner and gave one last clack as I entered the stairwell.
Well at least I hope that's what it did.

I made my way to the second floor again, and found the conference room by memory. 
Hush and Doll were still fast asleep.
Looking at them again, Doll was still pretty happy, and Hush had calmed down a bit.
By a bit, I mean his muscles were just slightly less tense then how they were when I left.

Smiling, I made my way back to my area of the room.
I placed my bag and the Thompson onto the wall next to my bed, I stared at Strongheart wondering what I'm to do with the fact I have a haunted hair thing currently attached to a submachine gun I found right in front of me.
Something about that whole picture seemed just a tad bit unbelievable, I couldn't be dreaming because I'm neither naked or in a shower.
Unless Mr. Pervert Ghost has decided to change things up.
I pinched myself just to make sure I definitely wasn't.
Ouch. Nope, wide awake and delusional.

My eyes felt heavy as I yawned, stretching my hooves out a bit.
Guess I go pay the Pervo-Ghost a visit again
I laid down on the stiff sofa pillow and drifted away into a dream.





I came to in a setting that was starting to get really bland.
The water temperature was the same as last time, and as usually, I was naked.
The only difference I could see was that Silver Tongue's skeleton was sitting on the closed toilet, he would be eyeballing me right now if he had any.

I don't really want to do this shit right now.
I thought to myself as I signaled 'let me talk' the best I could in hoof sign.
I think I'm still muted...

A annoyed grumble that I haven't heard in a while spoke up from the walls.
"What do you need?"

"Well,"
I said condescendingly as I sat down on the wet tile floor.

"This whole setting, hell this whole thing is kinda getting boring.
Whatever the fuck you do."

"I feed off your sanity."
The deep voice interrupted

"Fine, you feed off my whatever-the-fuck.
My point I'm trying to get to currently is, can at least change this weird pervy ass shit you have going on here?"
I continued, pointing at the shower scene around me.

The demon let out a sigh 
as the world around me melted.
"You know, It's not like I wanted to be trapped in your head."
Shit, there goes my plan for asking him to leave.
"Darkness forbid you ask me how I feel!"
"I've thrown shit that would traumatize a minotaur for life at you and yet your sanity hasn't budged since the day your Stable blew up!"
"I'm starving!"
I'm already starting to regret that I said anything. Can we just go back to the weird nightmare shit?

The world I was in transformed into a void of nothingness and when I blinked, I found myself in a large white room sitting at a black table with the demon on the other side. 
'He' kind of looked like a shadow shaped in the rough image of a pony, two red eyes shown through the mist. The shadow had it's arms crossed and was looking at me sternly.
I looked down, and became very grateful for the fact that I now had my Stable 45 jumpsuit on. 

The misty ghost continued.
"This is the best I could do for now.
Oh, and just for the record. I didn't the shower nightmare scene, your own brain did."
'His' voice was much clearer now, it was just like a stallion's just with a little bit of an echo.
"It's some weird metaphorical future bullshit."
He made a disappointed glare to his right and muttered,
"I could create better without even looking."

I made a sound with my throat to make sure he was finished before I began to talk.
"Okay, now that we've let a lot off our chests, I've been wanting to ask you some questions."

The red eyes focused back on me.
"Alright, fine.
My name is Cremvh.
I have no idea how I got in here, but it likely has to do with that bet I lost...
I can't leave, I've tried.
Yes, I've been inside the heads of other ponies in Stable 45.
Yes, I have also been around before the war.
No. 
No. 
No.
Oh, and Luna's a bitch."
"Anything else you wanted to know? You have one more question."

I wasn't even going to ask most of those questions...
Bet?
What was the outside world like before the Great War?
What the fuck is with all the No's?
Is he talking about Princess Luna?
I think his answers are just creating more questions.

I opened my mouth to speak when something prodded my head.
"That's not you poking my head right?"

The misty pony shrugged and looked up at a clock that just appeared on the wall,
"It's probably something from outside your head. It's morning already so you should probably deal with that."
He gave me a satisfied look,
"Good luck!"

"No Wait!"
I was cut short by my body going limp and everything turning black.





Should've known a demon would be an asshole
I was awake, but I decided I shouldn't open my eyes.
Whatever it was, it was still poking the left side of my head.

An unfamiliar male voice spoke from the source of the poking,
"You sure your friend's still livin'?" 
"I've been pokin' him for a good minute."

I could faintly remember where I put my gun on the wall.

"I'm gonna take his stuff if he don't wake up."

I rolled over to the wall, grabbed my gun and tried my hardest to imitate the stance ponies used in the issues of Guns & Bullets that I read yesterday.
I was still tired so it took me a second to aim the sights at the intruder's head.

"Well I'll be damned. Hold your trigger there virgin."
The stallion had calm eyes yet a cocky look on his face, his coat was sickly brown which blended in with the dust on it and his dark blue mane was short, dirty, and mangled, and on top of his head was a red hoofball cap. He was wearing a dusty coat with enough pockets to hold a weekly supply of canned food and then some, which coincidentally, it was. On his back was a heavy looking and well-worn backpack. There was a stick in his hoof, probably for poking sleeping ponies to determine if he should loot their stuff or not

The fact that he looked familiar had went through my mind, but I was more interesting in what he just called me.
"What?"
My focus faltered for a second but I kept my gun aimed at his head.

"Oops, you really are new aren't you?"
The stallion said with a smile, 
"First, I ain't gonna hurt you, I'm just a scavenger, an' don't aim a gun at someone when the safety's on. You look stupid."
Crap, I didn't even realize that!
I looked over to see that that Doll and Hush were looking over at the scene as well. They were sitting down, enjoying the show, but practically unharmed.
I lowered my gun, I ruled out that if he meant any harm to us, he would have either already stolen our stuff while we were asleep or already have killed us.
The Stallion let out a breath of relief and continued.
"Virgin is a word we folks on the Walk to describe newcomers, but I think ya'll the first Virgins of The Waste I've met in a while, the first time in this area."
The Walk?
The stallion, said lifting one of the sleeves of the heavy coat.
"I would know."
On his arm was a standard issue Pipbuck.



About a minute later, I found myself walking next to stranger down the stairs, Hush and Doll where close behind.
He was an outsider that definitely knew more about the world then we did, so I was glad that he was okay with taking us to the nearest town, even after I pointed a gun into his face.

My curiosity forced me to start another conversation.
"So, what Stable did you come from?"

The stallion grinned and lifted his heavy jacket, revealing a surprisingly clean blue t-shirt with the number 14 printed in a large, yellow font.
The movement caused his backpack to shift as well, the objects inside shifted with it, causing a metallic and dusty noise.
I happened to get a good look at his cutie mark as well, it was an rough image of Equis with a hoofprint trail cutting through it.
"14 is far up North-East of here, there used to be griffon living there too."
He said with a chuckle.
"It also happens to be right at the border of Equestria an' another country like your's."
He must have been to the basement already, saw the remains of Stable 45 and everything else that I saw last night.
The stallion had a sad look as he muttered something under his breath about a Southern Buffalo or something similar.
I thought it would be best not to mention Strongheart even though I could feel the hair brushing against my neck in disapproval. 
Suddenly the stallion hoofplanted.
"Dang I almost forgot to tell ya'll my name. I'm Globe Trotter."
Trotter said, with an embarrassed grin.

I was opening my mouth to say something but the stallion cut me off before I could.
"Your friends already introduced you an' themselves."
He put a hoof on his chin, scratching the stubble on the bottom as he named us individually.
"Your Speak Easy, the one who can't talk is Hush, an' the unicorn ghost left in the oven too long is Joy Pill, or 'Doll'."

"Excuse me?"
said a certain mare behind me.

We made our way int the lobby and headed for the exit.

Trying to remove the topic before a fight broke out, I spoke up again.
"I saw some unusual things down there in the basement, can you explain the buffalo and the bandit in the folding chair?"

The earth pony looked like I would never ask, he had a face of foal-like glee.
"Well the squatter is the reason for comin' to The Long Walk two years ago, bastard robbed me in Baltimare and I've been chasing him since."
I felt a bit bad for Trotter, he seemed to have traveled so far only to find out that he wasn't able to get his justice.
and what the hell is The Long Walk?
"For the buffalo bones, well they're a long story, I'll tell you on the road.
Road?

"One more thing. What's The Long Walk?"
I asked

Trotting just chuckled at my statement like it was a bad joke and gestured to the doors.

We pushed through the double doors and all three of us were blinded by some strange light, while Trotter had a good laugh at our our first reaction to the world outside the Stable.
As my eyes settled to the brightness, I figured out what that bright light was:
The Sun.
I've read books giving details on what the sun looks like, but I never knew it would be that bright!
Woah, I guess that's the sky.
I stared up at the fast blueness, not completely sure why I was so entranced by it, guess it was because I never saw anything higher then a ceiling three feet above me. The clouds looked like cotton balls that were beginning to phase out of existence. 

I had to tear my eyes from the mind boggling sight to see the rest of the world.
I saw mostly plains, a few remnants of centuries dead society scattered around it.
To the far right was a beach followed by a huge mass of water, in the distance was a barely visible island with a large volcano on it.
To the left was a some jungle life that blocked vision of anything beyond. 
A long and wide road cut strait down the middle of the plains that stretched as far as the eye could see, separate roads and streets split off from the main one and buildings of many different sizes littered the main and side roads.

"This,"
started the stallion, making sure we could all hear him.
"This is The Long Walk."



I was amazed, overcome even.
I could never imagine a universe this big, let alone only a fraction of a whole country!
The vastness and the fact that Trotter himself has traveled from the top half of the country to here hit me like a bag of bricks.

I heard a sound in front of me that sounded like a quiet 'tch'
I looked over to see a creature I've never seen before, a griffon, eyeing me and my friends over.
The griffon was leaning against the fence of the property.
"Who're they? I told you that you shouldn't have gone alone."
Said a just slightly monotone female voice.
The griffon looked like a mix of a large lynx and a cardinal with grey eyes and a short beak that had a 'pissed off' curvature to it. 
On her chest was a heavy duty but dusty looking vest, a few magazines for the Tac-9 holstered over the vest.

"Relax Red. They ain't raiders, just some Virgins from the Stable in the basement of this place"
The stallion said in response with his signature grin, gesturing to the building behind us.

"Yeah? Well I'd love to relax with the 1250 caps I'm getting for this job, but that won't happen if you die going into some strange place without protection. Am I wrong?"
The griffon snapped back.
Are all griffons like her?

Trotter scoffed before responding.
"I know what I'm doing Red, I've been ding this for years,
and I thought I was hiring a body guard, not an overprotective sister."

Red looked quite upset with him.
She opened her beak to say something but closed it, looking down the road, defeated.
"We should head out now."
Was all she said before beginning her silent walk on the road, not looking back.

Trotter sighed and chased after her, signaling for us to follow, which we did without hesitation.

We began walking in a line, Red was leading us in the front, followed by Hush and Doll, then Trotter, and finally me at the rear.
I looked back at Silver Tongue's building as it slowly shrank in the distance.
There was a large sign on the side of the building reading
'A New Start co.'
The remains of Stable 45 and so much other history was yet to still be uncovered in there.
Maybe in a year or two, a different pony will dare to go inside and rediscover what we left behind.
The'll enter a festering pot of long dead emotions and memories,
almost all of them negative.
That pony will find that out soon enough.



We've been walking for a good mile and I was now realizing how a pony could hate the Sun.
It's very hot.
I was sweating already, this jumpsuit doesn't allow a lot of air flow.
I held a hoof over my eyes to help out with blocking out most of the sunlight from my eyes.
I can't imagine how hard this is for Doll right now. I read in a book somewhere that ponies with really pale skin often get these things simply called 'Sunburns' a lot easier and faster then ponies that aren't as pale or albino.
I looked in front of Trotter to see that Doll already had a few pinkish-red spots forming on the back of he neck, ears, etc..
There were only a few, but they were quite large red spots.
I hissed a bit, feeling really bad for her.

Traveling and exploring the surroundings with my eyes was interesting, but tedious as all hell. Sometimes I'll spot something weird or interesting, but then at other times, I could have sworn we passed the same barn sinking into the ground ten times.

I decided to make conversation with the pony in front of me, which happened to be Globe Trotter.
"Hey Trotter, you said that you knew something about those buffalo?"

"I did say that, didn't I?"
He responded, slowing down a bit so we could walk side to side.
"Those buffalo were actually part of a local tribe simply called the Southern Buffalo Tribe.
My main goal in life as of now is to write a second issue of my book 'History of The Waste', an' one of the chapters I was plannin' on writin' is about this tribe in particular, after all, they started the revolution."
He saw my look of confusion and explained.
"It was caused because Ponies are idiots and can't follow their own contracts."
Oh! Yep, that sounds like ponies alright.
"Anyway, I wanted to track down the remains of the Chief that started it, and well, it led me to the skeleton of Chief TrueSoul, or the skeleton in the wall."
No way!... Wait a minute.
"Did he have any affiliation with a female buffalo named Strongheart?"
I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head from a pair of beads hitting it,
and then clacking:
'J-E-R-K'
Now I don't understand mares well, females in general hurt my head,
but I'm pretty sure I didn't deserve that.
I think...

"Oh yeah. She was the leader of one of the Northern tribes and his secret w-"
Globe Trotter was cut off by a certain griffon yelling:
"We're here!"

In the distance was a massive red and white tent about the size of a Stable, a large blue flag at the top blew pridefully in the wind. Around the tent were multiple structures made out of carts, trailers, and whatever other scrap was around. The was also a large welcoming sign that said BIG Top (It also said 'circus', but the letters fell off). The whole sight was magical yet terrifying at the same time,
and we were walking towards it.




Perk Gained:
Guns & Bullets (x3)- You just read the critically acclaimed magazine series 'Guns and Bullets'! 
+5% extra critical damage with ballistic weapons. (x3), +Gun Skill Experience (x3), +New favorite magazine series.

Perk Gained:
See Through Friend- You now have a second pair of eyes and ears! Even though they are invisible, and not really eyes or ears. The point is you have a paranormal friend watching out for you! (StrongHeart)
+Haunted Object gun mod (+50% accuracy), +Someone to watch you back (Perception +2), +A Friend, +Chill down your spine

Perk Gained:
Pump It Up- Your heart has mutated from radiation, It is stronger and has a glow function now. Your chest cavity is like a night club!
+2 Endurance, +1 Agility, +A cool fact about yourself you can tell people that don't care

Perk Gained:
Virgin of The Waste- Your in a whole new world!
-Sense of Direction, +Not knowing that this is actually a insult