//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Burial // Story: Fallout Equestria: Reverence of the End // by NitoKa //------------------------------// Reverence of the End   Chapter 7 - Burial "You know what death sounds like?"   I grunted as I climbed over another pile of rubble. "I hate not being able to use my wings." I said as I sat down on top of them and checked my Pipbuck, telling me my goal was nearby. I smiled as I looked in the direction and saw it, the Hoofservice Hotel. I approached slowly, scouting out and noticing a lack in ghouls. The sun was slowly setting but there were lights from the inside of the hotel. I trotted slowly but closer towards Hoofservice. No sound around, which was odd even in a deserted city. I made my way to the front doors and looked in, not seeing anything, or anypony. I opened the doors and went inside, examining the hotel lobby for what it was. I noticed that the wall paper had been long since peeled off, bits of it laying on the carpeted floor. The carpet itself was a tiny of off brown, looking like it was soiled and filthy. I looked and saw elevators, not odd considering the height of the hotel, but I noticed something that was odd, the numbers for what would have been the 11th floor had been taken out and the slots smashed, like nopony wanted any one to go to that floor, ever. It was the same on the second elevator I saw. I looked behind the counter for anything helpful, and found a few caps and a cherry bomb. I took both once I saw the cherry bomb had no weight and a value of 10! I looked in the key area for the hotel counter and unsurprisingly found that they had all been taken. I moved to the staircase nearby, not wanting to go up in see the ghouls hear me. I looked up and down and again, saw nothing! I noticed there was a basement floor, perhaps I would go down there if I didn't find anything up above. As I traveled up from the lobby to the second floor, I instantly noticed a rancid stench that permeated my nostrils as I opened the door to the second floor. I almost threw up right there if I didn't back away. There was no way I could go in there without losing my lunch. I would need some way of not smelling it, maybe a nose plug or something. I moved up to the third floor and opened the door, no bad smells, so far so good. I looked down the halls, no one in sight again. Are they sure they gave me the right location? I go down the hall and hear a small shuffle. I ignored it, thinking it might just be a small rat or something, I mean not every sound I hear has to be related to enemy’s right? As I trotted slowly down the hallway, I scanned for any signs of enemies. There was hoof prints in the carpet ahead of me, which means that somepony came through here earlier, I couldn't tell how early however. I kept at it, looking around corners slowly. A couple times I thought I had seen shadows move but I didn't hear anything so I had decided to ignore it. I came to a door and opened it; it hadn't been locked so I figured it would have been raided before. What I found confused me. I was expecting a ruined down hotel room striped of anything useful. Not a room filled with what seemed to be someponies personal belongings! There were pictures on the walls of a light green mare with another tan mare with a colorful mane. They seemed happy; having fun in what I could only assume was prewar. There were a few pictures of them in a park, at a few festivals; even going through what I think was Canterlot! They were... Kissing in a few of them. I have nothing against filly foolers; I'm just not like that so it makes me a bit awkward. They seemed older in a few photos around the bed, as the scenery changed to a home and them living together. Then the pictures just stopped. The last one being a cute wedding picture of the two mares in wedding gowns, the unicorn lifting the earth pony. I stared at it for a whole until I heard something behind me. "Tell me why you're here. And why you're in my room." I turned slowly to meet the barrel of a revolver staring me in the face. A ghoul mare looked at me. "Well? You gonna stand there and look like a stump?" "I'm in here for the Steel Rangers. They need safe passage through this area." I say to her, hoping not get shot. I examine her and notice a grey mane, curled slightly in the front and the back being a pathetic few strands of hair. The mare lowered her gun. "Sounds fine. Now we need to talk, come to the 4th floor. We'll talk with our mayor." The mare says. "Hey what can I call you?" I ask "Bitter Chocolate. Bits for short." She says as she trots out of the room. I follow behind her and start to notice other ghouls coming out of several rooms. They had somehow known I was looking around and stayed silent, not letting me hear them. It makes me wonder how Bitter Chocolate got behind me in the first place... perhaps she was in the bathroom while I was looking at her photos or something. “So then, Bits, what exactly is going on?” I ask her and seemed to get shrugged off as she answered with a shrug. “I don’t know, you’re working for a group that takes pleasure in killing our friends and family. Or at least they sure seem like it.” She said bitterly. “S-sorry... They only told me that their patrols come through and get attacked. They said they didn’t want to send any of their rangers to handle it and sent me instead... apparently I'm disposable.” I said a little depressed just by being near this ghoul. Her voice wasn’t as raspy as some of the ghouls talking around us, they seems curious of me, wondering if I was an intruder or not. I would probably tell them that I was, mainly because I had intruded upon their ground and should be treated as such, that’s how the enclave treated any ground born pegasi when they flew up past the cloud layer. We slowly made our way to the next floor. Many of the walls had been torn down it seems to make space for what looked like a mayoral office. I was stopped by Bitter Chocolate just soon after, being halted by her hoof being held out. Bitter Chocolate seemed to be wearing some sort of barding to cover her chest and flank, blocking her cutie mark from very, but I noticed her tail was very similar to her hair, at least the bit in the front. “Mayor Hop, We found somepony that says she’s from the Steel Rangers, hoping to negotiate our teams defending themselves from the rangers actions.” Bits said. “Oh?” A chair turned in front of me and I saw what looked like another ghoul, except he looked.... handsome? Or at least he had a faint show of what he used to look like, some sort of handsome pony. If I thought hard I could probably close my eyes and imagine him, sitting in front of me still in his normal form, though his voice made it hard to keep that image in my head. I opened my eyes and looked him in the face, hit blue eyes staring back at my red ones. “So then, you’re the one that was around our small community for a while?” he asks smiling lightly. “Y-yeah.” I started to talk a little nervous about all of this. “T-the rangers wanted me to come and check and see if you would please stop attacking their patrols that come through here. I’m pretty sure they don’t want to waste ammo and would prefer not to have soldiers lost or injured.” I say looking at them. “Could we come to a peaceful agreement with all of this?” I smile gently to show that I mean no harm, even if I do have a weapon with me. “Well, from what we’ve seen, while we are scavenging in the immediate area, we have been attacked by these rangers that seem to think that we’re the ones attacking them. Perhaps they think we’re feral and are just not well educated upon that fact. Right now, we do not trust you with these negotiations. Perhaps if you could do us a favor?” He smirks slightly as I sigh. “What do you need me to do for you?” I ask, knowing that it would be dangerous. “We want you to clear out the 13th floor for us. It’s full of feral and while we have tried our best to trap them in there, they seem to escape and come looking for innocent normal ponies that live with our group here.” He explains. “We would go after them but we dont have many ponies to spare and you are.... expendable.” He shrugs. “So? Will you do it?” “So you’re telling me I get no help with this at all?” I ask worriedly. “Well... there is one of us that we could spare.” He says. “She’s the only resident on the 2nd floor.” He says as I get a terrible imagery of the smells coming from that floor again. “W-What?! How does she survive with that smell?!” I say surprised. “Oh she’s used to it. We can give you a small special bottle of perfume we have. It’ll eliminate the smells around you for a while. She has the rest of them so I recommend you take them all with you.” Hop says. “Now go on, I recommend you can get it done fast so we can get this all over with. The sooner the better.” He says and waves his hoof as Bits gives me a small bottle. “Go on, we dont have all day.” She says as she walks away, presumably downstairs to her room where I had been. I personally go down the stairway to the 2nd floor. Before I get too close I spray some of the perfume on me, taking a deep breath as I go into the main hallways of the floor. I let out the deep breath and cautiously breath in, smelling.... nothing! It worked brilliantly enough apparently. “ Hello?” I call out not exactly expecting a response, thus I was surprised when I heard a distinctly feminine ghoul voice answer. “Yeah? Somepony finally come to say hello to old Funeral?” The voice says as I turn the corner, looking face to face with a very very odd sight. The mare in question was defiantly a ghoul, but she had a small pattern to her once was coat that seemed like zebra stripes. As well as that she had a small horn right below her oddest feature, a large dark red, yellow spotted plant with a yellow pollen filled core atop her head. “What’s wrong kiddo? Never seen a ghoul with a plant growing outta their head?” she asks chuckling lightly. “Names Funeral.” She holds out her hoof as I shake it. “Spring Bell... and no I haven’t, that’s why it’s at least a little surprising to meet you.” I say happily. “I’ve come here because I need your help.” I start to brief her on what I was supposed to be doing up at the 13th floor and she seems to laugh. “Those feral can’t stand my smell.” She says. Wait, her smell? “It should be easy to keep them away from us for you to be safe enough to shoot them. There’s only I’d say about 16 of them left up there. As dumb and cliché as it sounds, you should aim for the head, takes them out easily. Heart shots dont do anything.” She explains. “Now then, let’s get up there quick, like Bellhop up there, I want this to be over with.” She says as she gallops towards the door. I noticed she had a small pistol on her hip in a holster, that was good, at least she had a weapon incase I ran out of ammo. As I move up the staircase with her, I continually cursed the fact that I had no wings to help me out in any way, by that I mean my wings were outta commission for a bit. We slowly approached the 13th floor and I noticed that they had indeed set up a flimsy blockade consisting of a few tables and the like, a dresser, a stove... You get my point. I looked to Funeral who simply shrugged and started to push them out of the way. We moved the items out of the way until we could slowly open the door and get in. I looked into the darkened hallway, barely being lit and only in a few areas where the windows bathed the carpeted floor in the orange light of the setting sun. I took out my rifle and aimed down the iron sights, spotting one of the ghouls lumbering down through the hallway, not yet having yet seen us, I looked to Funeral whom nodded as I took the shot, hitting the ghoul in his right eye, which at that point degraded into a fine bloody mist as the guts from his brain were plastered onto the wall behind him. I heard the sound of a few hooves moving toward the sound of the shot, not seeming to even notice their fallen companion as they sighted me, coming towards me. They seemed to back away slightly though as they got only a few yards from me. Funeral levitated out her pistol and smirked as she took aim at them, smirking as she fired and grassed one of their cheeks. She seemed to curse as she took another shot, killing the one she had previously grazed. I took aim at the one next to the newly dead ghoul. I lined up my shot before shooting, being shaken a bit as the ghoul howled at me, causing my shot to miss completely as it imbedded itself into the wall behind him. I silently cursed again as I reloaded, the ghoul overcoming the smell of who I could only assume was Funeral and slowly came up to us. I froze, in fear of being eaten alive, the gaping maw in front of me about to clamp down and tear my flesh from my bone. It was interrupted by a well-placed bullet going through the ghouls head. I turned and saw Funeral smiling at me, chuckling. “Next time, don’t freeze.” She said with a smug look on her face. I was a soldier, I was used to killing, but what I wasn’t used to was the idea of being eaten by my enemy. Most used guns, I had never been that close to a ghoul before, at most I had sniped them from far away, but when one was right in my face, I couldn’t help but feel hopeless, like prey. We got up and looked around, we couldn’t hear anymore hoof steps so nopony else had heard the shots, which seemed odd. Funeral peeked around the corners and turned to me, nodding to indicate that there were hostiles farther down the hall. I replaced where to set my rifle and aimed down, seeing the two ghouls seeming to smell each other in confusion. I took aim and smirked, I might be able to get two with one bullet! I waited until they were right beside each other and I took the shot. I knew it wasn’t going to go through both of the moment they heard the shot and turned toward us. The bullet hit one of them right in the back of their mouth as they opened it to let out their hideous screech. I took another deep breath as I reloaded the one I had just shot now laying in a ragdoll style fashion against the wall. Funeral was ready for the second one, swiping her pistol across the face of the ghoul, sending him stumbling down the ground as I took my shot. I missed and pierced the ghoul’s chest, a leak of blood running down his now nonexistent fur as he lets out another long, terrible scream, no doubt attracting the attention of other ghouls. Funeral sighed and head shot the poor thing, her looking around. “Well, We’re gonna be buried soon if we keep making all this noise.” She says with displeasure. “But hey, at least we don’t have to go looking for them; my old bones might not be able to take it!” She laughs as we heard the frantic sound of ghouls coming our way. I turn back to back with Funeral. “I’d prefer not to call it this, but let’s do this last stand style.” I said taking out the Dash I had and inhaling it. Suddenly, it felt as if every fiber of my being was fast, faster than anything else in the world. I smirked as I place the rifle down, lining up my shots with the 4 ghouls coming my way. I aimed carefully and fired, nailing one right in the nose and his head exploded! Just poof, gone! I smirked and reloaded quicker than I ever had before, taking another shot and head-shotting on of the ghouls, the bullet traveling and graving by the one behind him, making him stumble, stumble enough for me to take a shot at the ghoul behind him, before the shot had even landed I got up and picked up my rifle in my teeth, moving past the ghoul as he falls from my bullet. I quickly brought down the butt of my rifle on his head, crushing it with a satisfying crunch~ I looked behind me and saw the 6 ghouls that Funeral had to handle were already gone, laying in a pile as she smiled at me. “One left. Alright let’s go Dash-head.” She chuckles as I speedily move next to her, then past as I go and look ahead of us. I turn down the right hallway, leading towards the end of the hall, and then only stopping as I heard a small beeping noise from my Pipbuck. I looked down to it and noticed it had a warning on it. *RADIATION WARNING, +3 RADS PER SEC* I shrug it off until I heard another screech. I smile as I aim my rifle towards where the sound were coming from, but was surprised when the ghoul that came out was glowing, actually glowing! I took my shot, hitting him in the head but he didn’t go down! He seemed to keep going as it I had thrown a pebble at him. I backed up, more than a little scared. “F-Funeral! I-It’s glowing!!!” I say freaked out as I heard my response. “Fuck, get back here before you get yourself fried in radiation!” She yelled as I wondered what she meant. It was then that I noticed that the ghoul had stopped its advance, seeming to curl up into itself. I would have taken another shot but as soon as I looked back, the ghoul yelled and I was blasted back with a small scale explosion, my Pipbuck freaking out as the Radiation counter drastically increased. Funeral turned the corner and aimed down her pistol, taking relentless shots at the Glowing Ghoul in front of me. I shake off the injuries I just took and aimed down my sights, taking my own shots at him. One shot to the leg, two shots to the chest, and then after 4 shots to the head it went down with a dying squeal. I sighed and looked to Funeral. “We done here?” I asked tired. --------------- We trotted down the stairs after my Dash had worn off; it was a little tiring considering how fast I felt before. I’d need to see about getting more, that felt awesome to be that fast! I only wish I had had my wings available, and then I could have been faster than the fastest flier in the Enclave! I smiled as we went down the steps, Funeral going down even further to her floor. I waved good bye and she did the same, smiling as we did so. I went into the fourth floor and past several ponies, normal and ghoulified. I noticed none other than Bitter Chocolate waiting at the door for me. She smiled brightly. “So I see you made it back.” She chuckled. “Mayor Hop will see you now.” She opens the door and I went in, seeing Mayor Hop standing and smiling at me. “Congratulations! I honestly thought you would have been killed by them, even if with the help of Funeral.” He says smiling in a certain way that just made me terribly irked at him. “Now then, you wanted to speak about a negotiation?” He asked. “Yes, I just wanted to know if you would be willing to come to an agreement with the Rangers about the whole attacking their patrols and vice versa.” I asked hoping that he would be reasonable considering what I had just gone through to gain their trust. “Well, we need food, that’s a given considering we dont have any around and still have normal ponies living around here.” He says shrugging. “Protection would be nice but we dont want to stretch what we’ve got. So bit of food would be nice in exchange for us not attacking them.” He says smiling at me. “Now, one last item on the agenda.” “Huh?” I ask confused. “Well, you’ve obviously seen Funeral, and you know she has that whole floor to herself, it’s mainly due to her flower on her head, and it gives off a terrible smell for a few weeks at a time. The perfume was made specifically for her.” He explains. “Since you’ve gotten back here with almost no injuries and you dont look sullen, you are either ruthless, which I doubt, or she’s still alive.” H continues. “Now, I would like to know if you would take her off our hooves. It would give us even more space after a bit of cleaning up, and I’m sure having such a talented pony in a group with you is an invaluable resource. You can have all the perfume we own, just spray it on her and it’ll eliminate any smell she gives off.” He explains. “So? Deal?” He asks hopefully. I think about it. Funeral seemed like a good pony, not to mention she had saved my flank at least 3 times just up there, so she might have other skills too. Perhaps it would be beneficial. She doesn’t need to eat, if I remember correctly, Ghouls dont need to eat. I nod my head to Hop. “Alright, I’ll go talk to her. It’s up to her now.” I say and turn around, heading out of the office. “Hey, Bell, wait.” I turn to see Bitter Chocolate has called me and trotted up to me. “I wanted to give you something as thanks.” She says, sounding oddly sweet. She pulls out a small necklace with a blue and yellow colored candy shaped pendant on it. “You’re brave. I just want you to have this, as a symbol that you’re always welcome to come back to Hoofservice, we’ll even let you stay in a room.” She chuckles.” Just not my room okay?” She asks as she puts the necklace around me. I smiled back as her and laughed. “Alright then Bit, I’ll be seeing you around then.” “Don’t be a stranger you hear? I need a few new drinking buddies.” Bits laughs. I returned her laughter and went into the staircase, heading downstairs to the 2nd floor and opening the door, the perfume slowly wearing off as I could start to smell the entire terrible stench that I had smelled before. Before I started to cough up whatever I had ate earlier in the day, for the second time today, I sprayed more perfume on me, breathing easily as the smell dissipated. “Funeral? You here? I needed to ask you something.” I called out as I heard a pony trot down the hallways. “Yeah?” It was Funeral alright. “What do you need?” “The ponies upstairs wanted to know if you wanted to come with me.” I said simply. “We made a pretty good team up there and I could use your skills out there.” I said smiling to her. “So what do you say?” I ask. Funeral looks at me and tilts her head. “Uhh, you do know I have this stinky flower on my head right kiddo?” She asks and I nod. “I don’t really care, they told me I can put the perfume on you around other ponies so you dont stink.” I say, still keeping a smile on my face. Funeral shrugs and sighs. “Alright Kid, I’ll come with you, let me just get ready.” She says, trotting to what I could only assume was her room and gathering her stuff. She came out a few minutes later, wearing a small leather ensemble that looks like it protected her pretty good. It comes to my mind to wonder why she didn’t put this on earlier when we were fighting the ghouls upstairs. I shrug it off and smile. “Ready?” I ask her and she smirks and nods. “As I’ll ever be, let’s ditch this dump.” She chuckles and takes lead, applying perfume and trotting out of the 2nd floor, down the staircase and out toward the wasteland I had been in not just 4 hours ago. --------- “Why exactly do we have to set up camp?” Funeral asked with an annoyed tone. “I could walk all night.” She added. “Well I can’t, if you forgot we were just in a fight a few hours ago and I prefer to rest up. If you want to stay up go ahead, stay on watch, we’ll light a campfire.” I said, trying to convince her that it’s a good idea to do this. She begrudgingly nodded to me, sighing and stopping. “Alright, well let’s get set up, do you at least have a blanket?” She asked me. “Or tinder?” She added. “Well, I’ve got some blankets from Hoofservice, and if you want to count all this wooden junk I’ve got.” I pulled out a few good wooden boards, also from Hoof Service. Funeral smiled and took the wooden planks from me. “I guess they do count.” I say smirking as she sets them up in a small fashion similar to old bonfires you see in books and old movies. “Just get yourself set up to sleep youngster, I’ll finish this.” She said, starting a small flame and spreading it to the rest of the tinder. I chuckle and lay on the ground, keeping pressure off my wings by lying on my stomach, covering myself with the blanket lackluster. I close my eyes and fall into what I could only call a deep sleep. ------ I was in the dark dream world again, and the same filly showed up, Finder. She beamed her smile at me and jumped up and down. “You, you are so awesome! You actually listened to me!” She said as I looked at her confused. “Well, you found the stinky mare! She’s gonna help you out a lot in the future, for instance, she’s watching over you right now, making sure nopony hurts you or ambushes you while you sleep.” “Alright, so I listened to one of the things you told me about, what now?” I ask her and she smirks. “Well, I can’t tell you everything, but I’m gonna tell you that I was talking with one of my sisters, and soon you’ll meet another one of the chosen, or a chosen in training, like you!” She giggles. “You’ll find somepony that’ll help you become friends with her, or at least, know her.” She says, her fillyish smile never leaving her face for a moment. “Alright, when do I meet that pony?” I ask, still not understanding how all this really worked, or if I was in some sort of random dream thingy. Finder gave me this look of wonder and pure glee when I had asked her that, as if I had asked her what was the meaning of life (which I’m pretty sure she would know too). “Oh, super-duper soon! Like very very soon!” She says, continuing her hopping motions to me. I smiled at her, damn filly was adorable, how could I not? I mean, even if she was some sort of all-knowing and controlling super being, or even if she was just a figment of my previously comatose mind. “Alright, anything else to tell me Finder?” I asked happily. “Ummmmmmmm, nope. Well, just one warning. Don’t go to fast and don’t fly to high, or else you’ll fall harder than anything else.” She said, switching her gleeful expression for a more serious one. “Alright, then see you Springy!” She giggled again as I twitched my brow. “Hey! Don’t call me Th-” ------ “-at!” I awoke finishing a sentence I couldn’t remember. I looked to Funeral, or at least where she was now, sitting close to me. “You okay?” She asked. “Yeah, I’m good.” I yawned and looked around, it was still dark. I checked the Pipbuck time and it read 03:28 A.M. “Good, because we’ve got something coming for us. Well, at least somepony coming near us.” She said as I got up slowly. “What do you mean?” I looked out into the distance. All I saw was a small light seemingly moving and coming towards us, the light was similar to the light our campfire put out, so I didn’t know exactly was putting it off. “What is that? It’s like it’s on fire.” I said confused, because if it were a pony it would be moving much faster, as the pony should be panicked that they are indeed aflame. “So you see it too? If that really is a pony on fire, they should be dead by now.” She says and I nodded in agreement. “But the pony is still coming towards us, and has been for a bit, I spotted them about 10 minutes ago.” I widened my eyes in surprise. Yeah, that wasn’t any normal pony if they were indeed on fire. “Can you help me?” I heard a young filly’s voice call out. I looked and saw the strangest thing I have ever seen, the young filly that the voice belonged to was on fire. Literally. Her mane and tail were made of flames, not hair. “Please? I’m scared of the dark.” She says, her voice truly showing she was indeed afraid, maybe of the dark, maybe of something else. The filly had a bright red, almost orange coat (I am rather surprised that it didn’t burn away.) And her eyes had a jade coloration to them. She was small, petite, and as well she was an earth pony. I looked to Funeral and stopped her from saying anything. “Sure little filly, can you tell us your name though?” I ask as she comes closer, yup, she was on fire, I could feel the heat coming off of her. “My name is Flair. Flair like style.” She gives a weak smile. I nod to Funeral and she backs away, letting Flair come into our small camp. Flair came up to and sat down near the fire, her flames and the fires flames licking each other as she looked to us. “I’m sorry. I know I’m weirding you two out.” She says looking down. “Just a little.” Funeral says and I shot her a glare. “What? It’s true, it’s not every day you meet a filly who is a living flamethrower.” She says shrugging. Flair gives a little giggle. “That’s a new one! But yeah... I’m on fire.... and I can’t turn it off.” She says sadly. “Were you.... born like this?” I ask her and she replies by shaking her head. “Then what happened?” I ask. “I don’t know... to be honest, I don’t remember anything from before I was on fire. I woke like this maybe a month or two ago?” She says. “Not even raiders want to shoot at me, they’re all afraid of me. That’s why I’m really really happy that you two let me stay here and talk. It’s been a long time since I’ve just talked to somepony.” She smiles at us. “So what’re your names?” “I’m Spring Bell, and tha-” “I’m Funeral. I can introduce myself, kid.” She smirks at me and I sighed. “Oh those are nice names!” She beams at us. She seemed to remind me of somepony, but I couldn’t exactly place who I thought it was, maybe some filly from up above. I shrugged this feeling off as she looked at me. “Can I.... stay with you guys for a while?” She asks, giving these large pleading eyes that I couldn’t resist! But apparently Funeral had some sort of immunity to cute. “I don’t know kiddo, We dont have enough supplies to feed you, and Spring’s going back to these Rangers to report, I won’t be going in, and if you came, I’m afraid how they would act.” Funeral counters her eyes with common sense! It was pretty effective from what I saw. “Oh... well... What if I stayed back like reeeaaallllyyy far?” She smiled up to me and I shrugged. “If they don’t see you, they shouldn’t have a problem with you.” I say nodding. Funeral sighs and gives me this look that says something like ‘I can’t believe you succumbed to her cuteness, I thought you were better than that.’ “YAY!!!” Flair happily squees, her flames bursting suddenly. I fell back in surprise, though Funeral just stood there, looking at me like I was a dope. “Oops. Sorry.” Flair says embarrassed as the flames slowly died down. Flair that night slept bye the fire as Funeral kept watch over both of us. I didn’t dream again that night but somehow I felt like I had accomplished something. -------- We had woken up early so we could travel back fast. Along the way I explained more to my two new companions. Funeral didn’t really seem to be paying attention, she just seemed happy and curious with the sights and ruins around us. Flair on the other hoof was hanging off of every word I spoke, she loved that she had another two ponies to talk to! We approached what I could recognize as Steel Ranger Territory, mainly from the fact that my Pipbuck had told me so. “Alright, Funeral, Flair, stay back for a bit and hide in one of those buildings, I’ll talk to the Rangers.” I say smiling and nodding to them. They nodded back and abounded towards one of the buildings, hiding almost instantly. I trotted past some familiar landmarks and came up upon the base, nodding to the guards ponies and trotting in. I was almost instantly met with Bubblegum, him frowning at me. “Alright, glad you’re back but we have news. First tell me the negotiation went well.” He says to me, desperately. “Yeah, they just want some food every now and again and not to be attacked. They won’t attack either.” I nodded. “So then, what’s the news?” “Well... I think you should talk to Baster.” He starts taking me towards the familiar halls towards the Elder. As I get in there I notice the atmosphere seemed to be filled with dread. Elder Baster turned towards me and Bubblegum told him what I had just told Bubblegum. “Okay so then, our next matter.” Baster looks at me. “We need your help... you see... one of our soldiers, a rather important one, has been captured.” He said. “Captured? By who? Raiders?” I ask “No... Slavers.” Baster says, enunciating the word as if it were scum. “They capture anypony and trade them as slaves.” He growls in anger. “Now we need you to go to their reported location, Auction House.” He says as my Pipbuck beeps in recognition, showing me where to find Auction House when I would inevitably go there. “Now, the town will let anypony in, but we’d rather just you goes in, it’s less suspicious and they might just up and shoot at anypony in power armor.” He explains and I nod, understanding how threatening ponies in power armor are. “So, will you go and retrieve him for us?” “Any reason not to?” I answer with a smirk. ------- Level up! Perks gained: Speed Shot: You are one of the fastest in Equestria! You can reload your weapon 25% faster than most! Wow! Companions gained: Funeral Perk: Corpse Plant: With Funeral in your party, ponies won’t want to come near you! This can help in battle but remember to give her her perfume before you go near any friendly ponies! Flair Perk: Hot Filly: With Flair in your party, your CHA goes up by 1 as well as all melee damage you do has a small chance to light enemies on fire! Author Notes: Well, I finished it. Over about 3 days of work I got my new chapter! I’m happy with myself, considering I devoted my whole plane ride to Florida to this fanfic :P But yeah, I hope you enjoy it!