//------------------------------// // Hide And Seek // Story: Fallout Equestria: Operation Flankorage // by Kashin //------------------------------// Fallout Equestria: Operation Flankorage Chapter Six: Hide And Seek “I’m almost as big as her, how is she going to gobble me up?” I surged back into my own body with a start.  I wasn’t on the train anymore.  I was on my back somewhere dark... Before I could take in my shadowy environment a black hoof covered my muzzle. “Shhhh,”  Echo whispered in my ear, barley visible in my murky environment.  With her face as close as it was I could actually see small lines of green text and numbers running across her deep blue eyes, making them slightly luminous.  “We’re being hunted.” HUNTED?!  DID GELLWIN FIND US ALREADY?!  HOW MANY SLAVERS ARE THERE?!  HOW MANY GRIFFINS?!  HOW MANY SCRAPPERS?!  TWO HUNDRED?!  THREE HUNDRED?!… Oh crap!  I can visualize larger numbers now!  No, no, calm down.  We have done quite enough panicking for one day; at least I thought it was the same day.  Observe your environment, assess the problem and figure out how to resolve it.  Yeah, that should work.  Observe, assess, resolve.  Observe, assess, resolve. I let my eyes adjust to the darkness around me.  We were in a murky chamber made from packed earth and wooden joists.  Two exits were cut straight into the walls, barely large enough for a grown stallion to pass through.  Simple wooden tables and chairs were sprinkled about and a half dozen cots lined one wall; the one I was on was decidedly hard and uncomfortable.  The air was moist and musty, reeking of decay and frightened ponies and a soft howling echoed down the halls.  Echo was sitting next to my bed and Scoop had fallen asleep on the other side.  Rock Salt and Maple were each guarding one of the entrances, tensely scanning the halls with their battle saddles.  The others were clustered around Cave’s unconscious form three cots away. I seemed more or less intact.  I had a bit of a headache, but I had probably landed on my face when I blacked out so no surprise there.  I actually seemed to be cleaner than when I had gone under; some pony seemed to have taken the time to remove some of the debris and locust gunk from my coat.  The only thing I could honestly complain about was that I seemed to be missing my ‘Boxxy Brown Moving Co.‘ fuzzy hat.  I really liked that hat, it was warm. Magically pushing Echo’s hoof away, I rolled to my rump.  “What happened?”  I whispered. “After you triggered the memory orb I pulled you back into the engine car and had Rock Salt take your place,”  Echo replied quietly, rubbing her hoof where I had telekinetically touched it. “Hold up,”  I stopped her, holding up my hoof, careful not to touch her.  “Memory orb?  What‘s a memory orb?” “You’re a Stable pony and you don’t know what a memory orb is?”  the soldier pony asked, cocking her ears and knocking her hat askew at a rakish angle.  To be honest the look worked for her; at the very least it helped to offset her dower demeanor.  “I suppose ignorance is a better reason for your actions than incompetence or thoughtlessness.”  the black pegasus shrugged her wings.  “Memory orbs are recording devices.  They allow unicorns, or other ponies with a device called a relacorder, to record and view other ponies’ memories.” So that award ceremony actually happened over two hundred years ago.  I really was a buffalo heifer… and I really talked to Rainbow Dash.  Oh my gosh.  Oh my gosh.  Oh my gosh.  Oh my gosh!  I needed to find more of these things!  Maybe I could find one of Fluttershy from her modeling days; now that was one lovely mare.  Or I could find of Applejack so I could get business tips straight from the horse’s mouth.  I might even manage to find one that would let me see the god-princesses. Wait, I was in there for more than an hour, what happened during that time?  “Echo, what happened to my body?”  I asked.  “How long was I out?” “I can’t say I’m an expert,”  she replied, fixing her hat.  “But from what I’ve read they are real time experiences.  As for you, it has been an hour and a half since you found it.  There weren‘t any problems unti-”  Echo stopped and silently pulled out a pair of her blades. I floated up my beam rifle. Somepony had been kind enough to place it by my cot.  Echo must have spotted something on her PipHat, as her E.F.S. seemed to have a longer range than mine.  My own radar was showing no contacts beyond our company, hostile or otherwise.  Wait a minute, my mini map was almost coated with signals on the train and there was no way we had made it out of the woods in an hour and a half.  So either we were in another lead lined building or there actually were no living things other than the nine ponies in this room. “We need to leave,”  the tensed pegasus whispered.  “They found us again.” “How do you know?”  I asked.  “my E.F.S. isn‘t r-” “Hush,”  the Enclave pony cut me off.  “I’ll explain later.  Just get the others ready to go, quietly.” I rolled out of bed and trotted next to Scoop while Echo silently flapped over to Maple.  Placing my hoof over her mouth, I gently shook the sleeping reporter pony awake.  Her stunning, blue-gray eyes (Why hadn’t I noticed those gems before?) snapped open in surprise, darting around the room in a panic before settling on me.  She calmed considerably, but still seemed worried.  Nodding to me, she darted away to our assembled baggage.  I was a bit forlorn that we seemed to have less than a tenth of what we had pried out of the slaver base. The other three mares were also sleeping around Cave‘s cot.  I planted my hoof on Spruce’s salmon muzzle.  Her eyes opened immediately and she tried to scream around my leg  “No,”  I whispered as she struggled to unwedge my hoof from her mouth.  “No shrieking, no squealing or screaming ether…  Do you promise not to shriek?” “Umhm,”  the arboreal pony mumbled.  She stopped her struggling and just stared at me, shaking like a leaf.  Blast it all!  What would it take to convince these ponies that I wasn’t some sort of evil, lecherous hump?! “It might help if you didn’t drool over everything with a vagina,”  the icy voice taunted.   “Well that was charming,”  I grumbled back sardonically, causing Spruce to shrink away from me, as if she could sink into the floor through force of will alone. “Talking to yourself probably isn’t working wonders either.” I growled at the frigid bastard who I had the misfortune of sharing a brain with. “Look,”  I whispered tersely to the pink pony.  “Something has Echo worried.  Wake the others quietly and arm yourselves.”  With that I dislodged my hoof from her mouth and hustled over to Maple and Echo. “Is everypony ready to leave?”  the ebony flyer asked without even turning to me. “Spruce is on it,”  I spat with a considerable amount of spite.  “This way I don’t need to explain to each of them that I don’t want to molest them or whatever other bit of maliciousness they seem to think I’m planning.” “You?”  Maple asked seeming mildly amused.  “The only pony here that you could molest is Cave.” “Oh that makes me feel so much better,”  I mumbled back, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “Enough,”  Echo hissed at us.  “This is no time for your petty complaints or foolish mocking.”  She stopped and darted her eyes from side to side.  “They are close.” “For the love of Luna, who are ‘they’?”  I asked in an exasperated huff, throwing my hooves in the air.  “I can’t see anything on my E.F.S.” “I don’t know what they are,”  she replied irritably.  “They are fast, they are strong, there are a lot of them, they don’t show up on an E.F.S. and they are almost here.” *Bang!Bang!Bang!*  *Bang!Bang!Bang!*  *Bang!Bang!Bang!* Rock Salt’s assault rifle echoed throughout the cavern. I spun around, swung up my beam rifle and entered S.A.T.S.  I frantically tabbed between available targets:  Rock Salt was bringing his battle saddle around to fire on another one of the dozens of shaggy silhouettes that were charging down the pitch black corridor, each one had blood red corneas;  Echo, who had spun and hurtled a pair of knifes that were slowly gliding towards our attackers;  Maple was wrapping her mouth around her saddle’s firing bit;  Scoop hefted a Shrike hoof-cannon that was comically large compared to her small frame;  Cave had been slung over Rosalyn’s back while Spruce and Flights supported his head and rump respectively;  And back to Rock Salt.  Ah crap!  Not only were these things invisible to my E.F.S., but they also couldn’t be targeted with S.A.T.S.! “Dozens of blood red eyes were staring at us from the shadows, always staying just out of our lights.” “Demons,”  my delusion stated solemnly. *BLAM!* The scared buck discharged his single shotgun into one of the demons, illuminating a mass of deep blue fur and thick, yellowed talons as my targeting spell failed.  The creature staggered back and collapsed in a heap, only to be replaced by two others a moment later.  They were each slightly larger than a grown buck with three claws at the end of each foreleg.  Fortunately they were only able to fit down the corridor two at a time, but there seemed to be a sea of luminous, red eyes as far as I could see. “Get the civilians out of here!”  Rock Salt barked, all subservience vanishing instantly.  “I’ll keep them off your tail!” Another pair of Echo’s knifes found one of the demons’ eyes.  The beast collapsed with a scream that sounded eerily equine, rolling back and forth on the ground and clawing bloody gashes into its mangled face. “We can’t leave you here!”  I protested, charging a flare in my horn.  “We stand a better chance if we’re together!” “I stand a better chance if you get everypony out of here!”  The yellow stallion spun and bucked one of the creatures in the face.  “NOW!!” “Do as he says!”  Echo yelled, throwing her last two blades and crippling two more of the shaggy monsters. But I’m a hero, I’m supposed to save ponies.  How can I just abandon him like this? “It was ignoring his counsel that got you into this mess,”  the icy voice said.  “He obviously knows what he’s doing.  If you stay we may win, but ponies will still die and we will probably be one of them.  A corpse can‘t save anypony.” “Damn it all!”  I yelled.  “Fine, lets go!”  I ran to the other exit and motioned for the others to follow.  As soon as everypony else had gone I followed them down the earthen tunnel. “All right you feral fuckers,”  I picked up Rock Salt‘s voice at the edge of my hearing.  “The foal‘s shoes are off.” ***        ***        *** *Fizt!* My target was enveloped in a dazzling sheath of light before disintegrating into a pile of ash.  I blinked to clear the afterimage from my eyes.  I had just vaporized a tree root, if not an entire tree. I sighed and checked my rifle’s Microspark charge; ten shots left and only twenty more in my second battery.  With my E.F.S. being practically useless I had spent the last half hour lashing out at shadows and tricks of my own horn light as we navigated the twisted, subterranean tunnels looking for some way out.  Was this how most ponies up here lived?  Not knowing whether some horrible monster or deluded psychopath is going to jump out from behind every rock or be hiding behind every door.  My heart was hammering in my chest and my coat was sodden with sweat.  How could surface ponies possibly survive like this? “They seem to manage somehow,”  my brainmate said in an odd attempt to be reassuring.  “So will you.” “That’s a new tone for you,”  I grumbled at myself.  “Aren’t you going to tell me that you ‘told me so’?  Or make some snarky comment about how stupid I was for taking the train?  Huh?” “Because I didn‘t!”  my arctic advisor snapped back.  “I’m no more infallible than you are!”  I could almost swear I heard the fringed creature weeping with rage through its gritted its teeth.  “I agreed with you and now we might all die for that mistake!” “Ocher,”  Scoop said, nuzzling my neck.  “Why don’t you let Maple lead for a little while?”  She nodded to the security mare who was currently taking up the rear.  Maple was back peddling slowly, sweeping her clip light back and for the methodically. Our little band was clustered together between Maple and I; as we were the only ones with light sources and ranged weapons we were competent with.  Echo was floating along with us on her cloud, fiddling around with her PipHat using Maple‘s lock picking tools.  If our lives weren’t in immanent danger I would have found the her frazzled mess of hat mane hilarious next to her relatively tidy uniform and up tight demeanor. I rested my face on the top of her head, her soft hair doing wonders for my frayed nerves.  “No,”  I said resigned.  “I got us into this and I need to find some way out.” “Its not your fault,”  the sky blue pony said reasuringly.  “We all agreed to take the train and you had nothing to do with coming down to the zebra tunnels.” “But if I had the good sense not to grab some shiny thing...”  I perked up my ears and lifted my head.  “Zebra tunnels?” “Yeah,”  she replied.  “These are an old bunker system the zebras built during the war.  They run through the entire valley and even into the Flankorage sewers in some places.  There are even rumors of a tunnel that leads through Canterlot.”  The reporter pony stepped away from me and continued down another featureless, dirt passageway.  The moment her cheek left my neck I could feel my anxiety start building again.  “Most ponies avoid them though,”  the reporter mare continued sounding more chipper by the moment.  I got the distinct impression that this conversation was as much about making her feel better as it was about calming me down.  “Too many dangers.” “Such as?”  I prompted.  If this discussion could calm both of us and fill me in on what we might encounter I intended to keep it going as long as I could. “Well, aside from cave ins,”  she continued, causing me to eye the walls warily.  “The system connects to several fire ant nests,”  Those must have been the creatures I had seen eating the bramin.  “Locust swarms nest down here sometimes same with a few other predators…  Oh!  And the zombies.  Can‘t forget the zombies.” “You’re kidding,”  I replied in disbelief.  This mare had to be pulling my leg…  Oh Celestia, I hoped she was pulling my leg.  “You’re kidding right?  What else is down here?  Werewolves?” “Don’t tempt fate,”  the icy voice warned. “I’m not kidding,”  the diminutive pony replied with a half smile.  “Some poor souls don’t have the good fortune to die from massive doses of balefire radiation and most of them become mindless killers... Not all of them mind you,”  she amended quickly.  “Some of them, called ghouls, are just ponies trying to make the best of a bad situation.  But the zombies are kind of dumb and not all that dangerous unless they’re in large groups so they aren‘t what we really need to worry about.” “So… what is?”  I asked hesitantly.  I wasn’t sure whether I really wanted to know the answer.  No, scratch that; I defiantly didn’t want to know, but I couldn’t let my own ignorance get anypony else killed. “Dragons,”  Scoop said as if it where the most natural thing in Equestria. “DRAGONS?!”  I yelled.  My voice resounded through the corridors and earning me a nasty glare from Echo and a nearly imperceptible, nervous gulp from Maple. “Yep, dragons,”  the reporter mare went on, ignoring my outburst and sounding almost chipper.  “The Northern Legion still uses parts of the network and they let their younger dragons live down here.” “How the hell are we supposed to handle dragons?  Scold them until they…”  I let my voice trail off as we came to another open chamber. The first thing I noticed was the iron reek of blood, so thick in the air I could almost taste it.  The earthen walls were cross hatched with long gouges in groups of three.  All the cots where stained with blood and numerous other bodily fluids.  Piles of debris were scattered around the walls, consisting primarily of shredded clothing and splintered weapons.  A small fire was smoldering in the center of the room surrounded by piles of cracked, gnawed bones; one was a pony skull. “Looks like some unlucky explorers got caught by a yao guai,”  Scoop proposed, stepping forward. “No,”  I whispered, catching her shoulder.  I pointed to one of the weapon piles.  Sticking out of a small, aluminum plate was Echo’s wooden dagger from the train.  These weren’t just piles of garbage; they were trophies.  “Back up, slowly.  Its those things that attacked us earlier.”  The little, blue pony paled and quickly shuffled around behind me.  “I think I saw another fork a little ways back.  They might not know where we are yet.” I caught a hint of movement out of the corner of my eye.  I swung my light around to see a mass off grime smeared fur uncurl from an alcove in the wall.  A pair of blood red eyes snapped open and stared right at me.  I swing my gun up a split second too late; the monster pounced from  its hiding place and knocked me to the ground. In a panic I set off an uncharged flair as the beast dug its claws into my shoulders.  Celestia help me, I saw it. THE DEMON HAD BEEN A PONY! Standing about half a hoof taller than me the creature had roughly the proportions of a grown mare.  Under its layer of muck, the creature was coated in thick, powder blue fur, topped with a matted green mane.  Its front hooves were each warped into a trio of short, thick, pail yellow claws.  The monster’s mouth was filled with wide, serrated teeth and six long, saber shaped fangs.  It had bright green eyes with minute pupils and luminescent red whites.  A trio of diagonal, blood red marks resembling jagged slashes ran across its flanks where its cutie marks should have been. As I stared at the terribly twisted equine in horror and disgust it opened its maw wider than I would have thought possible.  Pain shot through my face as the monster clamped its jaws over my muzzle.  Its curved fangs punched through my cheeks and locked its mouth over mine. I flailed at my mutated assailant, kicking at every part of the creature I could reach.  The way I was being held prevented me from putting any of my strength, as meager as it was, behind my blows.  I quickly found myself out of breath…  I couldn’t breath!  The thing was smothering me with its mouth and drowning me in my own blood! My vision was began to blur.  I saw nearly a dozen others pull themselves out of concealed nooks in the chamber, if they hadn’t been moving I would never have noticed them. *BLAM!* I could hear Maple open fire on the horrors that where literally coming out of the walls as my consciousness started fading. NO!  I wasn’t going through this again!  I lurched myself forward, ripping long tears in my cheeks and bringing tears to my eyes.  Feeling something moist brush my muzzle, I opened my mouth and bit down hard.  My teeth sunk into the demon’s tongue, filling my mouth with thick, burning hot blood. The creature released my face and reared up with a muffled roar. The moment my head was free I yanked to the side, severing the demons tongue.  As it reeled from its injuries I rolled back to my hooves and spit out the still quivering chunk of meat and its revolting blood.  The searing pain in my wounds was oddly dulled, if anything it felt hot and tingly. Shaking itself off, the demon charged back at me.  It reared up and raked my back with its claws, tearing through my barding and digging into my hide. I leaped forward and embedded my horn under the monster’s ribs, tearing through its diaphragm.  I hoped I could do this without S.A.T.S.’s help.  I probed around in its chest with my magic, finally finding the demon‘s rapidly beating heart.  Squeezing as tightly as I could I forced the pumping muscle to slow to a crawl.  A flood of the monster’s burning blood poured over my face from the hole my horn had punched in its chest, stinging my eyes and nose. The demon let out a sharp gasp as it tried to suck in breath with its perforated diaphragm while its heart fought against my magic.  Despite its failing systems the beast continued to tear into my back.  One of its wild swipes scraped across my spine, causing my legs to give out on me. I couldn’t feel anything behind my stomach! “Just die already!”  I growled at the monster as I shifted my magic target, clamping its arteries shut. The demon let out one final, strangled howl of defiance before it finally stopped struggling and collapsed in a shaggy heap.  Without its body as a support I crumpled under my own weight. I rolled onto my back, still unable to feel my legs.  The dirt floor ground into my wounds and the skin on my face felt like it was boiling.  I was only dully aware of my surroundings.  Maple was reducing several demons to pulp with swarms of bullets.  Echo was dancing between the monsters, slicing them to ribbons with her sky blue blades.  Spruce had collapsed against a wall and wasn’t moving.  I couldn’t see the others from where I was lying. Another abomination loomed over me.  This one looked like it had been a orange, unicorn buck.  Its horn was thick and curved, looking more like a rhinoceros horn than a pony’s.  It had the same three slash cutie mark as the green one had.  The creature’s warped horn lit up with a hellish, red light, coating its claws in crimson sheaths that tripled their length.  It reared up on its hind legs and pointed all six of its sword sized claws at my face. I had to move.  Move Ocher!  MOVE DAMN YOU!  MOVE OR YOU WILL DIE! *BANG!*  *BANG!*  *BANG!*  *BANG!* The monster’s horn exploded in a sanguine burst of light, blood and splintered bone as two more holes blew open in its throat, nearly severing its head.  It dropped almost immediately, its spike filled jaws still snapping wildly at some invisible prey. I sluggishly turned my head towards the source of the sound.  Scoop was standing on the body of a pink demon with a still smoking, Shrike hoof-cannon clenched between her teeth.  I think I was starting to love that little, blue mare. ***        ***        *** “Game over man!”  Flights yelled, waving her hooves in the air hysterically.  “Game over!” Scoop had managed to get our last healing potion down my throat seconds after killing the unicorn demon.  The green demon’s claw had scratched my nerve stem and according to the Canterlot Medical Journal, if she had taken even one more minute and it would have taken considerably stronger magic to heal me, if it was possible at all.  My flesh still felt like it was writhing where I had gotten the monster’s blood on me, but otherwise I was no worse for wear. Spruce had not been as fortunate.  The pink mare’s throat had been torn out while I was still trying to dislodge the first demon from my face.  It was my fault she was dead, same with Rock Salt.  There was no other way to see it.  I chose to lead them into danger.  I chose to fool around with odd magic items.  I chose to continue leading the group when I obviously was no longer fit to do so.  And when we were ambushed I managed to make myself almost useless.  Some hero I turned out to be.  I wasn’t sure what depressed me more, that I had failed or that two ponies dying only bothered me because of their circumstance. “What the fuck are we gona do now?!”  the panicking green unicorn continued.  “What are we gona do?!” “I know what I’m gona do if you keep screaming like a schoolfilly,”  Maple barked at the frantic, blond pony.  “Just calm down.  Ocher and Echo are clever ponies.”  The security mare put her front leg over my shoulders and gave me a reassuring smile.  “They’ll figure something out and I’ll keep everypony safe till they do.” I flushed at her display of confidence.  “Well we know they hide in the walls so I will know what to look for now,”  I said as I stood and trotted over to one of the demon’s trophy piles.  “I should be able to help us avoid being surrounded again.”  I started digging around, partially for any useful bits of equipment I might be able to drudge up and partially to give me something to analyze other than our bleak situation.  Broken rifle, trash.  Wheelchair, useless.  Two hundred year old milk, disgusting… “Got it!”  Echo exclaimed from the back of the chamber. “Huh?”  I pulled my head out of the trash pile and perked up my ears. “I have altered my scanner so it might be able to detect these things,”  the black pegasus continued, pressing invisible buttons.  “They have some sort of inherent magic that is jamming our targeting spells so I have gone back to basics.”  The mini map in my radial E.F.S. vanished and was replaced with a series of numbered rings.  “This set up can’t tell friend from foe, but it should be able to pick up motion from anything bigger than a mouse.”  a little, white ring radiated out from the center of my new tracker, outlining six blobs in roughly the same spots as my companions. “What about S.A.T.S.?”  I asked hopefully.  If I could get the targeting spell back we wouldn’t need to worry about ambushes of any kind. “Unfortunately your targeting spell won’t work at all in this mode,”  the Enclave pony replied with a look of genuine pity.  “You can still slow time, but you won’t be able to target anything.” “Just our luck,”  the icy voice scoffed.  “Look, I need to talk to you.” “Later ,”  I grumbled under my breath.  “Ahem.”  I shifted my attention back to Echo.  “I mean, can you get it working later?” The assassin raised her eyebrow skeptically.  “No,”  she responded after an uncomfortable pause.  “The enhanced targeting spell is tied into the same spell these creatures are jamming, so no amount of fiddling on my end can make it functional; you would need to reengineer the entire spell matrix to do that and I have neither the equipment or the bone structure,”  she indicated to my horn,  “to do that.” Damn it!  That was probably too much to hope for anyway.  At least we could see them coming now. “All right,”  I said, turning to address the other ponies.  “We will take a few moments to rest, salvage these piles and find some sort of way to carry Cave.” “WHAT?!”  Flights roared,  stomping up to me.  “We’re wasting time on him?!”  She slammed her hoof into my chest hard enough to make me stumble back.  “You have already gotten two ponies killed for him and now you want to risk the rest of us!  He’s a lost cause!” So much for ponies actually caring for one another.  “He is still alive!”  I snapped back.  “And I have no intention of leaving anypony behind!”  I stepped forward so I was horn to horn with the lime green unicorn.  “And that is final!  If you don’t like it you can go,”  I growled, baring my, still blood stained teeth, almost instinctively.  “I’m not forcing anypony to come with me.” The blond mare backed away from me quickly, stumbling over her dress.  She slinked back to Rosalyn while eyeing me nervously.  I probably had just killed any chance of making friends with anypony else, but I just didn’t care anymore.  If I couldn’t earn their trust or respect fear would work for the time being. “Now?”  my delusion asked, sounding almost apprehensive.  That was worrisome.  When your crazy is scared you know something is wrong. I turned my attention back to the trophy pile.  Scooter handlebars, trash.  An intricate, silver, full helmet with black trim and a small, black apple painted on the side; interesting.  I slipped it in my bag.  My PipBuck labeled it ‘Black Apple Ranger Helmet, Power Armor’.  Black Apple Rangers?  They were on the Unity’s buyer list.  No sympathy for this slaving bastard then.  More importantly, I had found power armor!  Granted, it was incomplete, damaged power armor, but power armor all the same.  Now if I only had some idea on how to use power armor. “Ocher!”  my arctic advisor snapped at me. “Okay, okay,”  I mumbled under my breath.  “What do you want?” “There is something seriously wrong with us,” the voice replied. “What are you talking about?”  I asked, digging through more of the trash in search of the rest of the power armor suit.  “I feel fine.” “What about that thing with Flights?” “You heard what she said,”  I retorted.  “Did you expect me to let that slide?” “She is confused, scared, and irrational,”  my crazy spat back.  “And you know it.” “She pissed me off.” “So you snarled at her like an animal?!” Had I?  I remembered growling at her, but was I acting that aggressively? I absent mindedly ran my tongue over my teeth to get the rest of the demon’s revolting blood off them. “Ouch,”  I exclaimed.  I had cut my self on my own teeth?!  Maybe there was something to what the voice was saying after all.  “What do you want me to do about it?”  I asked hesitantly. “I don’t know,”  my mental companion responded grimly.  “I just thought you needed to know.  I’ll try to figure something out, but in the meantime try to keep your temper in check.  I don’t think it would take much more to get Flights to draw a weapon on you.” “Right, right,”  I sighed, digging thru more trash.  “I’ll do what I can.” “We are gathered here,”  I heard Scoop’s voice from behind me.  “To bid farewell to Spruce Grove.” Dislodging myself from the pile of trash I had been rooting through, I turned back to the center of the room.  Everypony else had gathered around the central fire pit.  They had placed the pink pony’s body on one of the cots and placed it in the embers; the bottom had already begun to smolder.  Her jacket had been zipped up to cover her wound and if it weren’t for her unnaturally pale complexion I would have believed it if somepony had told me she was sleeping.  Scoop was standing on her hind legs at the dead pony’s head, reading something out of a small note pad. They were giving her a funeral.  Why hadn’t I thought of that?  I was supposed to be the civilized one here and I was digging through trash instead of sending a pony off properly.  Regardless of what Maple said, I was not being a good pony. “We only knew her a short while,”  the reporter pony continued as I made my way to the fire.  “But that doesn’t make her any less important.  Would any pony like to say a few words?” Rosalyn stepped forward and bowed her head, letting her shaggy, blue mane fall across her face.  “Spruce and I were captured together,”  the green earth pony said forlornly.  “We were traveling south, through Glyphmark.  She ran a little tree farm further north with her brothers.  Some fancy pants noble from down south wanted a few saplings for a private garden.”  The mare raised her head and looked at me on the verge of tears.  “She was only supposed to be gone for two weeks.  None of this was supposed to happen.”  She sat down and stared at something shiny in her hooves sobbing softly. The bed ignited, filling the chamber with flickering orange light. “I don’t have much to say,”  Flights said, stepping forward.  “I know you were kinder than most ponies, you seemed like a good tipper and you deserved better than this.”  She shot me a glare that could have shattered steel. “She died well,”  Echo piped up from where she had been hovering.  “She faced her end with more dignity than most.” ”Anypony else?“  Scoop prompted after a pause.  “…No?  I’m afraid I can’t say much ether.  I’m sorry for stepping on you that one time.”  The reporter pony bowed her head and flipped to the next page of her notebook.  “May Celestia guide our fallen comrade into her loving hooves,”  Scoop continued, rising back to her hind legs,  “and Luna protect her on her final journey.” “I never meant for this to happen,”  I said approaching the burning body.  It was probably inappropriate to speak at this point, but I had to say something.  “I didn’t mean to scare anypony or get anypony hurt.  I…”  I sniffled.  “I was only trying to help.  I’m sorry I failed her.  I wasn’t taught how to do this…  I…  I…”  I was arrogant and stupid.  I was too preoccupied with my own run of good luck to pay attention.  I was wrong.  I failed as a hero. “I…“  I fell to my haunches and lost all composure.  “I just want to go home!” ***        ***        *** “Contact,”  Echo said from the front of the line.  “Sixty hooves ahead.” After my breakdown I had relocated myself to the end of the line.  Scoop and Maple had done an admirable job of trying to cheer me up over the past half hour, but it couldn’t change the fact that my stupid decision had gotten two ponies killed and continued to endanger the rest of us.  Echo took charge quickly and without any commentary on my collapse. “Fifty hooves and closing,”  the black pegasus continued.  “At least five signals.” Every pony brought their weapons up and pointed down the earthen hall.  I sent a flash of light down the corridor.  I may have been depressed, but I would be damned if I let my self fail anypony else. Nothing was there. “Forty hooves…”  the soldier pony said.  The tunnel was still empty.  “Thirty.” “That’s impossible,”  Maple grumbled tensely.  “That’s right on top of us.  You must be reading something from the surface.” “No,”  the militant flyer responded with a hint of worry creeping into her voice.  “This scanning mode can’t penetrate that much dirt.  Twenty hooves.” I narrowed my light and tried to follow one of the contacts on my E.F.S.  It pulled far to the left.  They weren’t in the tunnels.  “Get away from the walls!”  I yelled, leveling my beam rifle at where I guessed one of the horrors was burrowing. *Fizt!* A screech of pain reverberated from the wall.  A half dozen holes began to form from the sides of the tunnel in a flurry of yellowed claws. *BLAM!*  *RATATATATAT!*  *BLAM!* Two of the demons exploded under a hail of bullets from Maple.  The other four managed to free themselves from the dirt and pounce at our company.  Rosalyn managed to knock one out of the air with a well placed shot from her hoof cannon, but the other three landed in the middle of our group. A red, demon mare had pinned Flights and clamped its jaws over her face while it tore at her dress with its talons. I turned my beam rifle around and jammed the barrel into its crimson eye with an oddly satisfying squish. *Fizt*  *Fizt*  *Fizt!* The demon was enveloped in a brilliant, scarlet light as my magic weapon deconstructed the abomination.  The lime green unicorn had some nasty looking burns where the monster had been touching her, but seemed okay otherwise. Maple had bucked the second’s teeth in.  The two of them were rolling on the ground, trading kicks and slashes.  The last one, a purple buck, had knocked Rosalyn to the floor with a swipe of its claw, leaving a trio of nasty looking tears across her chest and was swiping at Scoop. *Fizt!* *puft* I fired off a shot, searing through the violet beast’s shoulder and depleting the last of the power in my weapon.  The monster turned to me and bared its dripping fangs.  I desperately fumbled to switch out my Microspark cell as the demon pounced at me. *BANG!* A searing pain shot through my shoulder as the purple demon’s collapsed on top of me with a smoldering hole in its neck.  Scoop’s hoof-cannon had blasted clean through the creature’s throat and punched into my shoulder. I shoved the corpse off just in time to see another hole appear in the ceiling, directly above me.  A unicorn demon dropped out with all six of its claws enveloped in crackling flames.  A black streak knocked the beast out of the air and sent it tumbling down the hall behind us.  Echo untangled herself from the creature’s corpse and yanked her knife out of its sternum. I wrapped my wounded leg in a magical cast and shakily got back to my hooves.  Despite numerous scratches and cuts, Maple had managed to unhinge her assailant’s jaw and was stomping it head into something resembling chunky salsa.  Flights and Rosalyn were leaning on each other for support.  Echo was making her way back to us, using her cloud like a scooter and cradling her left wing. “Ocher, are you okay?”  Scoop asked with a mixture of guilt and concern.  “I am so sorry.” “Its okay,”  I grunted, properly reloading my weapon; last twenty shots.  “You saved my life again so don’t worry about it.” “Contact,”  Echo groaned.  “Sixty hooves.” Again?!  Half of us were crippled and the rest were seriously injured.  There was no way we could survive another onslaught in our state. “Fifty hooves.” “Forty” A figure trotted around a corner up ahead.  I immediately shot out my light spell. The figure was a large, silver, pegasus mare with an ice blue mane and brown eyes.  She was completely encased in heavy metal armor that looked far more refined than the scrapper version.  Her headgear seemed to consist of a sparkscooter helmet with a large, silver dome coming out of the top and extending into, what looked like a robotic spinal column down her back.  She had a pare of oversized, metal shoes with complex machinery encasing them.  While her cutie mark was obscured there was a symbol painted on her hip plates, a black gear with a red medical cross in the middle. Flights, Rosalyn and Scoop  scampered back as if this one pony was as terrifying as a dozen demons.  Even Echo seemed nervous. “Who is that?”  I asked the reporter pony who was using me as a shield. “That’s B, B, Baron.”  she stammered out.  “It’s a legendary hunter.  It has been around for over a hundred and fifty years.” The armored mare turned and casually walked toward us. “What is the problem?”  I whispered, that helmet didn’t look particularly easy to hear out of but, it was better not to take chances.  “And how could one pony live for two hundred years?” “No pony knows how,”  the tiny, blue mare replied barely audibly.  “But it has destroyed entire settlements and slaughtered fully armed … squeak” Baron stopped a mere ten hooves away.  “You chose to brave feral territory?”  the armored mare asked in a booming, masculine bass that I would have thought incapable of coming from anything smaller than a scrapper.  “I don’t know whether to be impressed with your bravery or appalled at your stupidity.”  She looked us over calmly.  “I take it you know who I am?” I looked to Echo, but she had paled to a dark grey and, while not as blatant about it as the other surface ponies, she was clearly terrified.  I guessed I was in charge again.  Don’t screw this up Ocher.  “Baron?”  I asked as politely as possible. “Yes,”  she replied.  The silver mare stared at me intently for an uncomfortably long time.  “You are from a Stable.” “Oh no, no, no,”  I said shaking my head.  If I had learned anything it was that being a Stable pony was not good to advertise.  “I’m actually fr-” “That was not a question,”  Baron cut me off.  “It was a statement of fact.  I wish to enlist your aid.  Do not attempt to lie to me again.” “I’m sorry”  I said hesitantly.  “So you’re not going to kill us?” “Not unless you give me reason to.”  She said, cocking her head.  “I am willing to escort you and your companions out of these tunnels and then to any location you desire in the valley.  In exchange I will need the use of your SpikeBuck.” “And if I refuse?”  I was fairly sure I knew what the answer would be, but it couldn’t hurt to ask. “Then I will kill you and take it anyway.  I can not afford to delay.” I figured as much.  “Well,”  I said with resignation.  “It looks like we have an agreement.”  At least I would be able to figure out what the fool thing did. Footnote: Level Up New Perk:  -- .Body Augmenting Telekinesis 1: You have developed an advanced skill at manipulating the living body with telekinesis.  This allows you to continue holding objects while you maintain a magical cast and cast the heart attack spell at close range without S.A.T.S. assistance. New Quest Perk:  -- Once Bitten: Your encounter with the ferals has caused a fundamental change in your body.  You have grown a thicker coat and maintain a higher core temperature, making you more resilient to the cold. This is a story based off the magnificent work of Kkat (Fallout Equestria) (Special thanks to DiceArt, No One and Otherunicorn for helping me go over this and making it as good as it could be. And to all the good folks at Fallout: Equestria Side Stories Compilation)