//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4: Dust In The Wind 
// Story: Fallout Equestria: Viva Las Pegasus 
// by S3rb4n 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 4: Dust in the Wind


“Good morning to all of you listening to New Pegasus Radio, I’m your host, Mister New Pegasus, bringing you all the news in the buzzing city of New Pegasus; as well as the sweetest tunes across the Wasteland. I woke up to find it was actually raining! When was the last time it rained in New Pegasus? Since I was a young colt, everything in this area has been dry and dusty. The books speak of a time when the pegasi took care of the weather. Where are they now? Who knows. Anyway, it seems today will be a rainy day, so come out and enjoy the water, everypony. It’s rad-free!

The city has woken up with some terrible news indeed. The heir to the Ferratura family, young colt Sandmound Ferratura, was found dead in a gutter close to his family’s casino hotel, The Clops. NPPD officer Brass Badge has been set in charge of the investigation and has refused to make any kind of statement in order to keep the safety of the research. However, many authorized voices of the entourage of the Ferraturas speak of a mob crime, most probably a score being settled. It’s sad to see that the relative peace New Pegasus was enjoying is crumbing down since the reopening of the Platinum Horseshoe. This humble announcer hopes, for the good of everypony, that things return back to normal; and that the culprit of this horrible crime is found and given fair trial.

On to international... if you can call it so, politics. After her faux-pas of some days ago, Ambassador Merry Fields of the NER has published and official manifesto with the true intentions of the Republican Council. According to this document, the NER wishes to gain control of the entirety of the Wasteland, bringing the light of law and civilization back to where it was lost. For the case of New Pegasus, the Republic devises a Statute of Independence according to which the New Pegasus City Board will be the fully competent authority inside the city walls, leaving the laws outside to the Republic. However, this still leaves some fields of conflict. First, what happens if the City Board and the NER clash about a certain law? And secondly, it’s still not clear what will happen to the township of Freedom Field. Strictly speaking, it’s not part of New Pegasus, but it’s not the open Wasteland either.

Anyway, this is still far from becoming true. There are no signs of NER armies closing in to our city, and the Equestrian Wasteland is still a free place. Dear listeners, what do you say if I play some music to you while we wait for things to unfold? Here’s something to make you move those flanks, the magic of Vinyl Scratch!”

It was a fool’s errand.

Every single minute I kept thinking that, over and over again. Metronome had tricked me to accept a deal that I had no way of fulfilling. All the research I had been able to do had told me almost nothing about Stables in Neighvada. At first, I took my task with high spirits, actively speaking with traders, caravaneers or Wasteland roamers that came to Freedom Field to rest and spend some caps. Every single time, the answer I received was the same: a polite smile, a shake of the head and some words of apology.

I was starting to feel angrier and angrier, but I couldn’t blame anypony but myself for having taken such a bad decision. I should have been smarter, damn it! I should have seen that Metronome’s true intention was to avoid me from talking with her boss. Yes, there were good reasons to want to recover a Water Talisman, no doubt about that. With the water supply of Freedom Field coming from a Water Talisman located inside the city walls instead of from a cistern in no pony’s land, the faction who controlled the Talisman would control the flow of water into town; and with the water in the Stringers’ hooves, the rest of the gangs would have no other choice than to fold to their demands.

However, controlling the water wasn’t a key factor to control the city. If that had been the case, Metronome would have set many of her goons to find a Stable. Instead, it was only me, and by myself, without the help of anypony else, who was desperately trying to pick up the slightest rumor about any finding.

Besides, this quest had cost me much already. Sunberry Grass didn’t speak to me anymore, and that was painful. It’s not that I loved her or anything like that, but I felt her appreciation towards me, and I remember her as the first pony that had shown genuine interest in myself. Because of that, having lost that friendship with her was painful. Every time we met in Trader Plaza, she would just look away with a sad face. I had let her down.

However, I was trying to sweep that pain off my mind. There was no turning back time, so there was no room for crying over spilt milk. Choices had been made, and now was the time to act consequently, no matter how hard it was. I had learned that this was a harsh world, and that I had to take care for myself, and myself only. The NER would have to take care of itself.


*** *** ***


Days went by and still, there was no trace of the lost Stables. I had been constantly looking for information, questioning the traders with less and less politeness, hacking through any network I could get close to in order to find anything, but all was pointless. There were records of abandoned Stables, but most of them were decades old, and I had been able to find newer entries speaking about what the scavengers had found in them. Of course, all Water Talismans had been found and sold. Stable 145, found and scavenged; Stable 164, found and looted; Stable 197, found and scavenged; Stable 122, inaccessible.

In the meantime, Metronome kept giving me petty tasks to fulfil. Escorting a caravan out of town, picking up potted goons from the bars, bringing peace to a rant between two rival traders... Nothing too fancy, just a meager pay and then back into the endless search of the lost Stable. Sometimes I felt like I was trapped in an endless loop I couldn’t get out of.

That day, however, proved to be different. I had been assigned to escort a caravaneer around town, a grizzled ochre earth pony with a face full of scars. I had picked him up at the main gate and driven him around town to the Trader Plaza. He was delivering a full stock of Pre-War clothing in quite a good shape, from which he expected to obtain a nice amount of caps. While he was bartering around with other traders and casual bystanders, I had used that time to walk around asking the same question. Once again, no luck.

Usually, the typical behaviour of caravaneers was simple. Since their success relied on being able to deliver as many goods as possible, they tended to arrive, sell, and leave without having a minute of rest. This one, however, had had a good day of business so he decided to indulge himself for the night and leave the next morning, so my working hours would have to extend. I mumbled a silent curse, since I wasn’t going to get paid any extra caps for watching over the happy salespony for the whole night.

We had lunch at a small shack that sold turnip stew. I insisted on going to Braeburn Jerky to have real food, not a smoking, tasteless gruel; but since he was the one paying, he had the privilege of choosing. With caps in his pouch and food in his stomach, he became quite talkative. He told me that the area around New Pegasus was still far from explored, as many buildings remained without having been scavenged or destroyed. The bad thing about exploring the open Wasteland was that, once you stepped out of the usual trails, there were many dangers looming about.

Before I could ask him about which dangers he talked about, he gulped the rest of the stew and left the place. I hurried to follow him, but I got the feeling that this caravaneer knew quite a lot of things... maybe he even knew about a Stable. I would have to keep close and try to question him. If things got rough between him and me, well, I could live without the pay for this job.

My protégé left the main streets and started walking deeper and deeper into the dark alleys of Freedom Field. This dead-end gutters surrounded by abandoned buildings were a place to keep away from with daylight, not to speak at night. When I asked him about why he was leaving the safe areas, he told me he had hired a couple of hookers for the night, and that he wanted to bang them out in the open. What an odd fellow... maybe the many years out in the open ended up turning anypony into something like the caravaneer?

We reached our destination in a narrow alley close to the city wall. Two young mares were waiting for us, almost naked. I noticed they were almost fillies, what made me wince in disgust. The caravaneer, however, was licking his lips in delight.

“C’mon, son!” he told me. “Let’s go ‘ave some fun. Y’take the one on the left, I’ll take the one on the right.”

“Sorry, sir.” I shook my head. “I’m here to provide security, and I can’t provide any security if I have my head stuck in a mare’s flank.”

“What’s wrong, son? You’re more into bucks or somethin’?”

“No, sir. Don’t worry about me, go have some fun.”

“‘Ave it your way.”

The caravaneer trotted up to the mares, who welcomed him with caresses and soft kisses. I decided not to look, since the moans of pleasure coming from the end of the alley were starting to get me... uncomfortable. I was starting to grow a fifth hoof, and that wasn’t what I really wanted at the moment.

Suddenly, apart from the chorus of moans and sighs from the caravaneer and the two hookers, another sound caught my attention. It was very subtle at the beginning, but it was starting to grow in intensity; but after a minute I recognized it was the sound of hoofsteps. It was a trap!

Come to think of it, it wasn’t too surprising. Wealthy caravaneer comes around boasting about the great catch of the day and hires two hookers to have a threesome in a back alley. It was only a matter of time that the hookers or their pimps took the risk of setting up a trap to have him robbed. The only thing they hadn’t counted on was me; or maybe they had, and I was in for a nasty surprise.

I decided to crouch behind a dumpster in one of the sides of the alley and readied my trusted Lead Lily. This would be the first real gunfight I was going to be involved in, since our retaliation against the rogue couriers in their place hadn’t been much of a gunfight; it had been an execution, nothing more and nothing less.

The hoofsteps were getting closer, so I cocked my rifle and activated the E.F.S. Two incoming points, not yet hostile. They didn’t count on me, it seems, because if they did, they would probably have brought more muscle and they’d be on guard already. These two, however, seemed to be strolling around the park. Suddenly they stopped and the dots turned red... now they were hostile.

“Okay, fella.” A voice that sounded like a battered radio spoke. “Give us all your money!”

“Wha-?” I looked at the caravaneer. He was still on top of one of the mares, but his face showed no pleasure. Instead, he looked puzzled.

“Didn’t you hear me? Your caps!”

The caravaneer didn’t move anymore, and the two hookers were looking at each other in true fear. It seems they weren’t counting on that either. I saw the two dots get closer as the two muggers walked towards the three victims. One second later, they had overcome my position and had walked past me without even looking behind the dumpster. It was clear they weren’t expecting anypony else in the meeting... too bad for them. I quickly got up and aimed Lead Lily at the closest pony, ready to see if my training had paid off. I took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.

BLAM!

The Magnum round of the rifle punched a big hole in the first thug’s face, spraying the second one with blood and brains. It had been a clean shot from just a couple of meters away, so there wasn’t much merit to it. The second thug, caught totally off guard, turned around aiming a revolver towards me. His armor, even if stained with blood, carried a symbol I quickly recognized: the head of a mare, meaning these were Buckmare thugs.

“You!” The second goon had recognized me. Metronome was right saying that I was a wanted pony.

I should have shot without thinking twice, but I didn’t. Instead, I smirked and played fancy;  moving in circles around him, while he tried to take aim. If I moved fast enough, he wouldn’t be able to get a clear shot. The only problem was that I couldn’t aim while moving either. Thus, instead of having ended the confrontation in a quick and easy way, I had driven myself into a stalemate. For being a smart pony, I could be a dumbass sometimes.

BANG!

A bullet whizzed close to my ears, stopping me dead in my tracks. One instant earlier, and that bullet would have punched a hole in my head. Playtime was over, so I quickly aimed at the Buckmare goon’s head and shot.

BLAM!

The shot went wide, and instead of blowing my foe’s brain, the bullet wounded the goon in the face, sending him to the floor with half of his muzzle turned into reddish mincemeat. He started wailing in pain and rolling over. I stepped close and aimed at his head, took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.

BLAM!

With the echoes of the shot, the alley returned to silence. Even if that pony had tried to kill me, he didn’t deserve to go down in agony, so I took him out of his suffering. I started reloading Lead Lily, and while I was doing that, I realized what had just happened. I looked around to see two dead bodies forming puddles of blood in the floor, one with two holes in his head, the first the size of a cap, the second the size of an apple; another one with half his face torn apart. Reality hit me like a sledgehammer. I had killed two ponies, all by myself. I felt the world tumble and I had to open my legs not to fall to the side. 

I had already seen death eye to eye in the gunfight with the couriers. I had already shot one pony down, but I was following orders. This time I had acted on my own, and I had ended two lives almost in the blink of an eye. Raising above the shock, my mind started clicking once again. Why was I feeling bad? Wasn’t I suppose to provide security to a pony? And wasn’t that pony being mugged at the moment? And most importantly, weren’t the muggers part of one of the gangs I wanted to take down? Hadn’t I put my life in the line?

The answer to all these questions was positive. I was acting according to my assignment, I had delivered a blow to those who almost killed me, and I had killed to avoid being killed myself. Therefore, I should shake off these feelings of guilt. In a world where a step in the wrong direction could have you shot down mercilessly, feeling bad for having shot an armed pony down was just nonsense.

Meanwhile, as I sunk in deep meditation about my actions, the caravaneer had returned to action and was already on top of one of the hookers. I paid him little attention and searched through the bodies of the dead thugs, looking for any orders that could have sent them here. I found some caps, a couple of magical bandages and some bullets for my rifle, but there was no trace of any document. Maybe they had acted on their own free will after all. Then I headed to the caravaneer. He had taken enough risks, and I was willing to drag him out of town, since I wasn’t going to get into another gunfight because of him. Something in his saddlebags caught my attention as I was going to end up his party: it was a blue and yellow canister, like the ones the workers in the Stable used to carry around with their fresh water. I remembered mine, probably still lying in the drawer of my office. It was like the one I saw in the saddlebag, blue and yellow with a big 188 printed on one of the sides. I lifted the one in the caravaneer’s bag to take a better look at it, and to my surprise, the number on the canister was 173. I quickly took a look at my PipBuck, where I had stored all the information about the existing Stables, and the Stable 173 was nowhere to be found. I smiled, my heart throbbing with glee. I had found the lost Stable, now I just needed to know where it was, and I knew who was going to tell me.

“Alright, pal. End of the party!” I said smugly.

“What?”

“I said it’s over.” I looked at the hookers with a cold glare. “You two, get lost.”

I floated Lead Lily close to me just in case, but the two mares quickly got the message and left in a gallop. The caravaneer was looking at me with anger in his face and his pants still on the ground.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, you idiot?” he yelled.

“My job didn’t involve keeping you safe while you were having a menage a trois. I could have forgotten about you and let those two scumbags punch some holes in your sorry hide. However, I didn’t, but I’m not getting paid for it. So you might as well give me that little extra.”

“I ain’t paying you, you lousy fuck!”

“Good, because I want no caps. I want information.” I kicked the canister towards him. “Where’s Stable 173?”

“What?” the caravaneer laughed. “If you think I’m telling you that, you’re a dumb foal.”

“Maybe,” I said calmly while cocking my rifle, “but I’m a dumb foal with a gun. I can shoot you and say you were attacked by muggers in a dark alley.”

“Idiot, if you kill me you will never know where the Stable is!”

“Who said I was going to kill you?” I smirked and lowered the rifle, aiming right between his hindlegs. “Tell me where the Stable is, or you won’t have any more fun.”

“N-no.” He kept trying to act strong, but I was in control now. His little friend was his weak spot.

BLAM!

The caravaneer wailed in anguish, even if the bullet went deliberately low. I hadn’t planned to blow his dick off in the first shot, since I wanted him to squirm in fear. A sound of flowing water filled the air, and I noticed he had lost control of his sphincter. He was broken.

“That was a warning shot.” I gave him my coldest, sternest look. “The next one won’t miss. Give me the coordinates to the Stable, or else.”

He didn’t even mutter a reply. He just nodded and handed me a piece of paper with a makeshift map of the area. I compared it to the area map of my PipBuck and established a marker in the place where the Stable should be; hoping that the place hadn’t been raided by the time I got there.

“Now get lost!” I said to the caravaneer. “If I find that the Stable has been scavenged or if I end up in a trap, I swear to Celestia that I’ll find you and I’ll kill you.”

The trembling sod nodded and grabbed his bags, then he left in a hasty gallop. I waited until I couldn’t hear his hooves running, then I let out a scream of pure joy. Things were finally starting to move forward.


*** *** ***


The day after I found the lost Stable I headed to the Trader Plaza to look for some good equipment. Inside the city walls, a suit was enough to walk around, since the chances of being attacked were very small, provided you stayed in the right places. Outside, however, that very suit would be useful against the claws of any wild beast, not to speak about the Raiders, who would simply shoot on sight, or so they said.

I had to spend almost all my caps to get myself equipped properly. Armors were expensive, as long as you wanted to buy something that wouldn’t fall apart with the first hit. Most of them were made out of leather or rubber, but some traders sold metal combat armors made out of pre-War scraps. However, I couldn’t afford any of those. Instead, I chose a black leather armor with saddlebags; and I tried it on me.

It was pretty heavy, but once I latched everything together, it turned out to be quite comfortable, and it felt pretty safe as well. Also, the saddlebags allowed me to carry many more things than the pockets of the suit. Come to think of it, the armor was almost as comfortable as a Stable jumpsuit, and it would give me a less singular look than a suit, so I would blend in better with the ponies of the Wasteland. In a few words, it was a perfect fit.

Then, I used the rest of my caps to buy ammunition and supplies, such as food and bandages. The medical apparel was a monopoly of the Followers, so that was a no-go for me, but I managed to barter some medical bandages from a caravaneer. He charged me an insane lot of caps for the bandages, as they were part of his private stack, but I couldn’t risk going out on the open without some medical aid on me, so I paid.

Equipped and eager, I left Trader Plaza. The black cloud ceiling looked even darker when I trod the main Avenue of Freedom Field heading for the gates. Finally, I was going to enter the Equestrian Wasteland looking for the Talisman Metronome had asked me to find. The gates opened and I crossed them, then they closed behind me. Things were about to get real. 


*** *** ***


The Wasteland was unforgiving and utterly deadly, but there was a natural elegance and charm to it. When I first saw the world that stretched beyond the City, I found myself staring at the horizon, set ablaze by the red sand of the Neighvada Desert. The crags and hills that popped out from behind the crumbling remains of what had been left outside the walls showed all the range of colours from golden yellow to blood red; and the thin line of horizon beneath the thick clouds shone with a transition from sky blue to bright pink.

There was something more. The silence was simply breathtaking; and I could hear the wind roar from the mountains up north as it passed by me, a scorching breeze from the desert around New Pegasus. Inside the city there was always some noise, either the sound of a conversation, somepony laughing and stomping, the music from a radio or the humming of some electronic device. Out here, it all went mute, allowing to hear the wind whistle, the raindrops (which had started falling not too long ago) tapping against the floor, the rustling of dry grass... Even If it all implied death and destruction, it was just beautiful.

Another difference was subtler, since I was the only pony that could perceive it; and it was the silence my Eyes-Forward Sparkle had sunken into. In Freedom Field, the E.F.S. was constantly reporting close activity, although it was mostly neutral or friendly. Out in the open, there was nothing apart from the faint arrow pointing towards my marker; the abandoned Stable the caravaneer had pointed me towards, and I wanted me to search. Beside that, nothing at all; just me in the middle of nowhere.

All that beauty was deceitful, though, as it hid countless dangers for the untrained traveller. After I left the walls of Freedom Field, I entered a world that was very similar to what I had left behind, but there were little differences. I kept treading through a ruined urban environment, traversing roads of crackled tarmac or walkways of broken concrete slabs, leaving ruined buildings left and right. However, the feeling was different. In Freedom Field, an empty building was empty, whereas out here, an empty building could harbor anything from a radroach to a gang of bloodthirsty raiders. I carried Lead Lily held tightly in my muzzle, locked and loaded, ready to fire against any possible threat.

The rain started pouring more and more over me. Even if at first I had enjoyed the fresh drops of water hitting my back and wetting me, it was starting to be a bit too much. The armor was starting to gather water in the joints and its weight had increased, making it far tougher for me to carry on. Plus, the tarmac was broken in many places, leaving holes that had filled of water, turning the sand beneath into mud. So, trying not to get too tired I decided to find shelter in a still standing building, in what seemed to be a shop.

Light poured inside the small store through the broken showcase window, its frame open like a wide mouth in a silent, endless scream; while small sprites of dust fluttered up and down in the pale streams of daylight. The rest of the shop remained in a partial penumbra, but I was able to outline all of the small depot with a quick glance. The used layout didn’t differ much from the stores that still endured inside Freedom Field, and it was composed by shelves spanning along all the walls, a large cooler lying in the middle of the shop, and a counter close to the door.

Everything in the shop looked as if it had been left two or three days ago. Except for the fact that it was all covered in century-long dust. It was funny to see that nopony had decided to enter the place in all this time. There was going to be some loot to find if...

BEEP!

What in tarnation?

BEEP!

Uh, I didn’t like that feel...

BEEP!

Better leave before something goes...

BOOM!

I was hurled away by an explosion, feeling like something red hot had stuck to my flank. I landed back outside, in the rain, over a forming pool of my own blood. The pain drew small stars in my sight, and made it hard for me to breathe. I couldn’t get up, and my right flank was wet both from water and blood. I rolled over to see a piece of shrapnel piercing deeply into my flesh, right in the middle of my flank. Probably, right in the middle of my Cutie Mark.

“Bullseye...” I gasped.

This would hurt like hell, but I knew I had to take that shrapnel off my body, or it would get worse without a doubt. I concentrated on the metal spike, and the glow from my horn enveloped it in a faint blue light. My magic wasn’t too good with weights, but that I could do. I started to pull.

It was FAR worse than I had thought.

“Oh fuck, fuck, FUCK!” I yelled. If there were any raiders in the area, they already would know of my position.

Please, Celestia, make this quick. The jagged shred of metal had exited a little bit, around two centimeters, but it was still deeply stuck. I pulled again, but it wouldn’t budge. The pain was starting to make my body feel numb. Still, I had to go on; as the numbness was starting to climb upward and hitting my brain.

“Daaaaaaaamn! Come out, you steely bastard!” I roared in a mix of rage and pain.

And it came out in a fountain of blood. I never felt so good, until I noticed I had to do something about the open, bleeding wound or I’d never live to tell again. Quickly, I dragged a bandage out of the saddlebag and rolled it hastily around the wound. I felt the bleeding stop, but the wound would have to be stitched. At least the magical bandage would keep everything in place. Still, the pain wouldn’t leave unless I took something for it, and I happened to have no painkillers on me. With great effort, I got back on my hooves again and let the rain clean the blood off my fur.

No doubt nopony had entered the store, as it was a Celestia-damned death trap! Still, whatever laid inside could be interesting to loot. Funny, how my morality had quickly adjusted to the standards of this world. A year ago, I would have considered this stealing. Now, it was survival. I wondered if I could be classified as “bad”. Meh, who cared actually. I had a wounded flank, had been on the brink of dying and was the only living thing in a square kilometer. Fuck morality. Leave that for the Stables. If they had any.


*** *** ***


Using my telekinesis, I lifted a steel rebar from the debris on the street, and I used it to knock all the tiles in the shop, just to find if they were hiding any more death traps. I had been very lucky. Considering how deep the shrapnel had stuck in my flank, if I hadn’t backed away in time, even all my armor wouldn’t have stopped it from punching a hole in my body. Or worse, in my head, where I wore no armor at all; and once bitten, twice shy.

The store was clean of traps, what meant I was good to go once again; so I stumbled into the shop for the second time. The wound had closed and the bleeding was no more, but the pain remained. Every single step meant a titanic effort, but once here, I had to check the store; even if it was just to fill my pride.

Shelves full of dusty cleaning products looked at me in the penumbra of the small shop. Nothing of use to me here, as I had no knowledge of what I could do in the Wasteland with three boxes of Abraxo Cleaner or two bottles of turpentine. Still, behind the counter I could see a functioning terminal and what looked like a safe. Even if the safe could contain juicy stuff, I aimed for the terminal first, for two reasons. First, my lockpicking skills were absolutely pathetic; and second, I had no lock picking tools whatsoever. However, my upgraded PipBuck and my tech savvy would surely give me the edge on the terminal.

The terminal prompted for a password. I picked a cable from the PipBuck and jacked it into the terminal’s entry port, which welcomed the connection with a faint beep. The device on my hoof asked for some data from the terminal, such as the serial number or the model type, data which I had no trouble finding in the casing of the computer. Once entered, the PipBuck buzzed and numbers started flashing in both screens. The buzzing endured for ten seconds more or less, and then the terminal beeped again, letting me know the protection had been overridden.

The menu offered me the choice of reading a series of diary entries or opening the safe. For some reason, probably to feed my curiosity upon why the Wasteland was still so urban, I started off with the logs. The safe could wait a little longer.


*** *** ***


Entry 77: Everything is dead. No radio, no telephone, no power, no nothing. Still, the news keep coming, and the neighbors are very scared. Old Mr. Peachtree came yesterday and said Manehattan had been hit. Nopony knows anything for sure, but I’ve heard that over two million lives were reaped there. So horrible! Is it our fate as well? Miss Limestone said that the Neighliss base garrison hasn’t been deployed yet. Does that mean we’re safe, or they simply don’t know what to do?

Entry 80: I just heard about Canterlot... I’m still crying for our poor Princesses. Such horror... how did we end up this way? I used to know a zebra long ago. Nyssa. She was so sweet, with that funny way of speaking she had. I wonder what will have happened to her... Some soldiers from Neighliss came a while ago, giving instructions. It seems Las Pegasus will be safe. However, they said that some bombs did fall not too far away from here, so there is a certain radiation danger. We’re supposed to sell RadSafe and RadAway from now on. I pray to Celestia, wherever she may be, that we don’t have to sell too many.

Entry 88: It’s been a week we haven’t seen the sun. According to Miss Peachtree, the Zebra bombs hit Cloudsdale some days ago, killing everypony there. Since then, the pegasi have closed the skies and have hidden behind their cloud curtain. Those cowards, they have left us to rot here. I’m glad I don’t know many pegasi.

So that was what happened to the pegasi. It pretty much explained why there were none to be found anywhere, and why the New Pegasus walls had no anti-air defenses.

Entry 125: The wall around Las Pegasus center is finished. Now it’s called “New Pegasus”, and they’re letting nopony inside. They say only productive citizens can enter the new City. I’ve been paying my taxes to that city for years, they can’t leave me outside like that! I’m going to knock at their door and politely ask them to let me in.

Entry 127: They didn’t allow me into New Pegasus, but it was great to see so many ponies worried about what might happen to them out here. In the last few weeks, we’ve started to see so many strange ponies wandering around town, wearing spiked armors, all of them packing heat. I fear any of those “raiders” might enter my store and rob it. Or worse, they might kill me for my money! I have to do something.

Entry 141: Another wall is being built north of New Pegasus. It seems the folks worried for their future have decided to build themselves a new township. Mr. Branch told me that everypony will be free to enter and settle as long as they respect some rules of engagement. They’re going to call it “Freedom Field”. Sunflower says it’s a lousy name, but for me it’s as good as any other. What matters is that it will be a safe place to live. I hope we can move the store in there.

Entry 165: I knew this day could come, but that doesn’t make it any easier. We have managed to get ourselves a small shack in Freedom Field, but they don’t allow us to start a business in there. We’ll have to find a new living in there. However, the store is still mine, so I’ve decided to rig it all with mines, so that nopony can come in and rob what’s mine. I’ve bought a case of 20 mines from one of those “raiders”, and I’m going to arm them as we leave. Someday, I’ll come back to claim what’s mine.


*** *** ***


That was the last entry. Obviously, the former owner hadn’t come back, but I had read he had placed twenty mines, and the one I blew up was the last of them. No doubt nopony had entered the shop in all this time. I decided to open the safe using the terminal command. The safe buzzed and unlocked with a gentle click, and I used my magic to pull the door open. I didn’t know what I was trying to find, but what was there was definitely interesting.

A gun; a perfectly working, almost shiny pitch-black pistol that screamed “Awesome!” all over it. Smooth lines, well balanced both for mouth or magic, light weight and a small carving of a cloud with a thunderbolt on the hilt. It seemed like a great loot so I took it with me. It wouldn’t replace my repeater rifle, but still, it would make for a good secondary weapons, if my rifle decided it didn’t want to shoot anymore.

Packing everything into my saddlebags, I came out of the shop once again. This time, it had stopped raining, but the thick black cloud ceiling was still up in the sky. I trod down the street paying attention to everything around, trying to hear voices in the wind, trying to see shapes in the distance; but there was nothing, I was alone.

As I kept advancing towards the mysterious Stable, the buildings started to disappear from my surroundings. Many of the standing houses weren’t more than jagged pillars of stone, brick and metal, standing defiant to the will of the Wasteland. There were many scorch marks on the walls, bullet holes and pieces of shrapnel around, what made me believe this had been used as a shooting range for raiders and such, and this was what made the owner of the shop want to leave it and head for Freedom Field.

Slowly, the last houses of old Las Pegasus’ suburbs were left behind me, and the urban landscape was substituted by a dry plain. Everywhere I looked, everything was full of yellow and ochre tones, instead of the brick red, cinder block gray or asphalt black. Still, a few small shacks remained here and there, scattered over the desert. I checked on the map once again. I’d have to turn left soon in order to head towards the Stable I was looking for. I would have done that, if a gunshot hadn’t broken the silence.

Common sense told me to leave. Logic told me to avoid any confrontation, since I wasn’t ready to fight anypony; because my flank still hurt like hell and I couldn’t walk properly, let alone run. Even if I was rather confident with my rifle, I wasn’t trained in hoof-to-hoof combat, and my current condition wasn’t the best to make a run for it. Still, something inside me made me start lifting my rifle in combat stance and slowly walk towards the noise.

My E.F.S. beeped, showing four points: three marked in red and one in green. Three hostiles and one friendly, dead ahead. Whatever it was, it was located behind a small grassy knoll. I crept upward, my rifle before me, trying not to make a single noise. Almost crawling, I reached the top of the knoll and looked beyond. What I witnessed almost made me throw up once again. Three hostiles, indeed; three bucks clad in armors made of rubber, scrap metal, black leather, iron spikes and what looked like bones were firing at the upper floor of a two-storey building in ruins, where the friendly pony was hiding. On the floor below I saw two ponies, a stallion and a mare, both dead and horribly mutilated. Their limbs had been torn apart, their guts were spilled all over the floor and their blood formed gruesome crimson pools on the sand. Plus, one of the raiders had severed the patch of hide with the Cutie Mark of each of them, and wore the Marks as a mockery trophy. Even if I already had seen my share of violence and evil in Freedom Field, this was just deranged.

“Come on! We promise we won’t harm you!” one of the raiders groaned. 

“That’s right!” another followed, “we only want to play with you!”

“Yeah right, Frisco!” the first crackled, “you’ll be the only one playing. After that, you’ll leave her so used up we won’t be able to have any more fun.”

“Shut up, Bosco!” Frisco scowled. “You banged up her mommy pretty well. She was almost dead by the time I got to grab her. Also, I don’t think your small friend can work anymore today.”

I felt bile climb up my throat. Fucking degenerates. They had raped and killed the mare, and most probably killed the stallion while she watched; and there was another one left.

“Leave me alone! Just go, please!” a voice cried out desperately.

A filly. A damn FILLY! How could they? Celestia, why? This was the Wasteland? Well, something, somewhere, had to have gone terribly wrong. Rage was clouding my mind, and I had to do something about it, so I aimed my rifle and activated S.A.T.S. Suddenly, the world changed. My perception became sharp, almost Celestia-tier. Time itself slowed down, giving me the edge to calmly aim at the raiders and take clear shots. I aimed Lead Lily towards the raider called Bosco.

“Take that, you motherfucking rapist!” I mumbled and pulled the trigger.

BLAM!

The shot went wide and ended up punching a hole in the brick wall of the building. Naturally, this alerted the raiders of my presence, so I had lost most of my tactical advantage. Still, I aimed again, this time laying the rifle in the floor and sticking it between my head and foreleg.

BLAM!

Lead Lily bucked me in the face with the strength of a piston, numbing me for a second, but this time the bullet reached its target. Bosco’s head exploded like a watermelon, spraying blood, bone and brain fragments all over the place. One down, next one was Frisco. I aimed at his head again, held my breath and tried to keep the rifle steady as I fired.

BLAM!

Frisco fell to the floor, but he wasn’t dead. Gut shot, most probably. It would kill him after having to endure hours of pain. One left to go, but sadly for me, S.A.T.S. had already worn off. I was having real trouble holding Lily in place, and the bullets buzzing around me wouldn’t help me aim calmly either.

BLAM!

Close, very fucking close. The bullet flashed past the raider’s face, wounding him in the process. Blood came out of a gash in his muzzle. A nasty scar, but that wouldn’t kill him, nor stop him from firing my way. However, when he moved I could see that he was wearing a big saddlebag full of what looked like metal apples with small rings attached. Somehow, something in my mind clicked, making me think that had to be some sort of explosive device. Well, it was bigger than his head and I lost nothing by trying a shot there. A buzz of my PipBuck let me know that S.A.T.S. was already back online; so I let myself slip into the focus of the targeting system, breathed deep, aimed at the saddlebag and fired.

BOOM!

Fireworks followed, since a bunch of explosive apples triggered themselves in a sort of chain reaction. The silent raider was reduced to mincemeat, which landed everywhere in a ten meter radius. It made look as if both Bosco and Frisco had been gunned down in a hail of bullets, since they were all caked in the third raider’s blood. I stepped out of my cover, heading towards the building. The filly hadn’t said anything since the firefight started.

“Hey, little one!” I called out, “it’s okay. Come out, the raiders are no more, and I mean no harm, honest.”

“...You bastard,” a voice gurgled. That wasn’t the filly, and I suddenly realized that Frisco wasn’t dead yet! I quickly aimed Lily at him and fired.

BANG! BLAM!

Two shots, but I only fired one. I felt as if a spear of fire punched me from below, setting my whole body in flames. Frisco was dead on the floor, but I...

THUD.


*** *** ***


Oh good Luna, my whole body was in pain. Breathing was a painstaking effort, and my body felt all numb. I didn’t know if I was lying down on sand or stone, and I couldn’t feel my hooves either; but surprisingly enough, I was alive. Alive and rather well, I might add. Something made me feel calm, in peace. Something was soothing me; and that very feeling made me think something was off.

I opened my eyes, and the first thing I saw was Frisco’s dead body, still lying in the floor. Flies had started to gather around the corpse, getting ready for a feast. Nothing had changed from the moment before Frisco shot me down, but something felt different, soothing, calm. I tried to move my head to see what could it be, but a sting of pain forced me to keep it in the original position. I grumbled in pain.

“Oh, you’re awake!” the voice of the filly came cleanly from behind.

Suddenly, an unicorn filly appeared before me, with a broad smile on her face. She was of a faint pink color, with a fiery red mane with white strands. She was still a blank flank, so she had to be very young, but she was healing me all by herself!

“You’re getting along pretty well, and that’s good! I took the bullet out and stitched the wounds, both the gunshot and the ugly one on your flank. You really should carry more healing potions when travelling in the wasteland.” she said sternly. “I can’t thank you enough for saving me. I’m Desert Rose, pleased to meet you!”

“Hi.” I tried to grin. “I’m Farsight, pleasure’s all mine.”

“Hi, Farsight! I think I’m done!” She left me on the floor. I fought with my body to get back on my hooves. It was very painful, but I’d have to cope with it.

“Thank you.” I smiled. “What happened here? Were these your parents?”

“No, my parents died a long time ago." She answered with a streak of sadness gracing her face. "These were Mister and Mrs. Pewter. We pretended to be a family, and they always said how nice it was to be my uncle and auntie. They argued a lot about money. Uncle Pewter had gambled too much on the Four Little Diamonds, so we had to leave Freedom Field. That was a week ago.."

Rose looked down and away, hiding newly formed tears as the present came rolling back in her mind. "These ponies, they woke us up in the middle of the night. They killed uncle Pewter.. Then they.. They."

I offered my shoulder and patted her on the back. There we stood in somber silence, as Rose hopefully came to grips with what had transpired. I wondered if the Buckmares had been cruel enough to send these degenerates to claim such a debt, or was it all just random chance?

"Listen, Rose." My voice echoed in the silence, and I looked down on this one foal. It was selfish of me, but considering the alternatives I hoped she would not refuse. "I know this is very sudden, but we can’t stay here for much longer. I made a lot of noise, and I’d rather not stay for whatever comes looking. Even if they weren’t your real uncle and aunt. You probably have time to say goodbye."

"We?" Rose looked up to me with reddened eyes and a quivering lip. "You’re taking me with you?" It was almost as if she was accusing me of taking her away from something, but here there were only dead ponies and desert. "I can’t fight like you did."

"No, but you did a good job on my wounds, much better than I could have done all by myself, and I could use the company."

While Rose said goodbye to the dead, I checked out Frisco’s pockets. It wasn’t much. Some caps, bullets for his pistol, and a package of inhalants wrapped inside a paper bag. Written on the paper bag in hasty, big letters was the word DASH. I stored it in my bags, but didn’t like the way they looked. Bosco carried a badge of sorts. Two unicorn heads, crossed. NER, it seemed like a soldier tag. Could this be the unicorns Goldie had talked about?

You’re robbing them?" I looked up and saw Rose looking at me from afar. "Isn't this bad?"

I stopped searching, puzzled by her question. Desert Rose had morality? I couldn't help but smile at the thought. Considering that she had lived her entire life in the wastes and still knew right from wrong gave me hope, but this sense of morals had to be wiped out of her before they killed her.

"Rose. They are dead, it's not bad to steal from the dead"

Rose mumbled something I couldn't make out what it was. She had already been through a lot in very short time, so I didn’t ask what. There would be a time for talking later.


*** *** ***


The first hours of our common history went by in silence, as Rose was still recovering from the horrors she had been through and I was too busy scouting the area for possible dangers. The area that we were crossing right now was a sandy basin, a large extension of white and golden dunes, where the wind formed small vortexes of dust that danced before us in a sort of silent waltz. I found myself mesmerized by the wonders of nature; thinking about how ponykind could have wanted to destroy something so worthwhile. There were things I just couldn’t grasp.

“Farsight...” Rose poked me in the side.

“Err... what now?” I asked, shaking my head.

“Can I ask you something?” Rose smiled shyly, as we were still getting to know each other. In order to build some bridges between us, I was trying to be as friendly and welcoming as possible.

“Of course, go ahead.”

“What is your Cutie Mark?”

I grunted with astonishment, and told her what it was despite my loathing of Cutie Marks in general. "It’s an open and staring red eye. You’ll see it when we make camp."

Rose gasped in surprise. "A red eye? Really?"

I sighed, thinking myself the fool for letting a filly lead the conversation, and yet there was something in the way Rose now looked to my flank. "Alright, I’ll bite. What's with my Cutie Mark?"

“Uncle Pewter had fled from Equestria, and he told me about a bad pony called Red Eye, some sort of dictator that enslaved the population. You... you won’t have anything to do with him, won’t you?”

I laughed, fairly surprised at her reaction. I already knew the name Red Eye from the book of the Light Bringer; the power-crazy self-proclaimed Messiah of the Wastelands, who wanted to become a new God by means of some sort of mutagen. Of course, like any bad guy in an adventure novel, he died in the end; his plan stopped by the heroine. To be honest, until now I had believed that the whole Light Bringer story was a myth, but I was becoming more and more convinced about its veracity.

“Rose, it’s the first time I hear of the actual existence of a buck called Red Eye. Whoever he was, your Uncle came to Neighvada a long time ago, so he might be dead already. I have never been as far away from New Pegasus as I am now, which means that I have nothing to do with that Red Eye. It’s all a funny coincidence.”

“All right...” Rose seemed to have believed me, as she looked calmer now.

“And you, Rose? What’s your Mark?”

“I have none... I still haven’t found my talent.” She lowered her head in regret.

“And what is wrong with it?” I asked. “The way I see it, you have limitless potential to become what you want to become. You’ll get your Cutie Mark someday, but don’t get obsessed with it. Look at me, I have mine, but I don’t know what my special talent is.”

Rose gave me a kind smile, and we continued walking towards our target.

“So, what did you say you were looking for?” Rose asked.

“A Stable... somewhere close from here.” I replied.

“Yup. And what’s a Stable?” she asked with fillyish curiosity.

“Well, a Stable is...” Heh. I had to explain what a Stable was for the first time, and I couldn’t find the words to do so; even if I had lived in one for years. “You are aware that this place used to be something different than a Wasteland long ago, aren’t you?”

“Yeah. So they tell, but I think it’s all a fairy tale.”

“You might as well be right. However, it seems that before the War some ponies called Stable-Tec built a series of shelters to survive a hypothetical megaspell war.”

“What’s ‘hypothetical’?”

“Possible, not sure, theoretic. Whatever. In case of a war, some chosen ponies would move into the Stables, which would allow them to survive the holocaust. I was born and raised in one of them, but they kicked me out... I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Why not?” Rose whined.

“I... went through some rough times.” I felt sorrow clutch me once again. Just when I had thought I had finally banished my past from my soul, Rose’s innocent curiosity was bringing it back. “I was cast out because I spoke too much, because I wanted to do the right thing and that was uncomfortable to some ponies. Then, when they had the chance to free themselves of me, they didn’t think twice, and I ended up walking through this mad world. I could have lived peacefully if I had learned my place.”

“Do you regret having done what you did?” Rose asked. It was a surprisingly good question.

“No. I did what my mind told me was right.”

“Then don’t blame yourself.” Rose smiled. “I don’t know you, but I think that in the very deep, you think you’re the one at fault. I might be a filly, but I know that one must do what one thinks is the right thing. You can’t blame yourself for following your heart.”

I looked at the filly and smiled sadly, but not because of her. I felt sad for all the time I had spent dreaming of how my life would have been down in the Stable. Rose had opened my eyes, so to speak. Her words tore those thoughts apart and shone new light on my life. Now, Stable 188 was nothing more than a score I would try to settle sometime.

“Thanks, Rose.” I hugged her again. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome!” She grinned. “Why are you looking for a Stable, then?”

“I need to find something that’s only in a Stable.”

“Oh, and what’s on those Stables that we need to find?”

“A Water Talisman. Before you ask, it’s a magic device that creates water. It helps to keep the water supply of the Stable running.”

“But won’t the ponies that live in the Stable need it?” I was starting to like Rose, because she asked good questions, even for a small filly.

“It seems it’s abandoned. Something is off with that Stable business.”

“Should I be worried?”

“I don’t know; I honestly don’t know. Maybe you should have this.” I lifted the black handgun and hovered it towards Rose.

“A gun? I-I can’t.”

“Take it. Even if you don’t use it, it’s better than being unarmed. We don’t know what we might find.”

“I-I don’t know...” she stuttered. Poor Rose... I definitely understood what she was going through, since I had been through it not that long ago.

“Stop whining, Rose, and please take the gun. I hope you don’t have to use it, but please, please, pretty please with a cherry on top. I can’t be protecting you every single minute.”

“Okay...” Rose shrugged and took the gun and ammo. She seemed confused about it, looking it over once, twice, three times...

“Aim the cannon to the enemy and pull the trigger; and remember to hold the gun tightly. It’s that simple.”

“Uh-huh.” Rose nodded but kept silent.

*BLEEP!* The PipBuck came alive, telling me we had discovered a new location... Stable 173. I checked the map again, just to see we had made it to our destination. Now we had to find the entrance to the complex. After all, Stables had the nasty habit of being hidden underground, dressed up as sewers. This time it wasn’t that hard, as a lonely shack stood out in the middle of the desert.

The shack was nothing but the cover for another ponyhole, this one with the number 173 engraved on it. I lifted the ponyhole cover and entered the hole, lighting the pit with my PipBuck. It was a similar design to that of Stable 188, a single sewer tunnel leading directly to the massive cog-shaped gate with the number 173 painted on yellow paint on it.

“That’s a Stable?” Rose asked in amazement.

“The gate to it. The Stable lies behind.” I replied.

“And how do we enter?”

“There should be a terminal close to the door. I’ll try to override the gate controls to open it.”

I headed to the terminal and jacked my PipBuck into it. This one would be tricky, because it had been custom-built, so I would have to hack it manually. Luckily enough for me, I did know a thing or two about a Stable’s security protocols, so it didn’t become as difficult as it would have appeared to be at a first glance. The door screeched and glowy orange lights started flashing in warning. A clash of metal against metal filled the air, and the door to Stable 173 retracted and rolled aside, leaving us open room into it.


*** *** ***


Quiet; the place was too quiet. Everything seemed fine, oddly fine. The soft humming of the generators filled the air, but that was it. I would have expected to have at least a couple of Security guards pop up and ask us what we wanted here. Hell, I’d expected a hail of bullets as a fair welcome! Instead, there was nothing. 

The door hadn’t been operated in two hundred years, or that was what the terminal data said. Besides, the screeching of the door and the amount of dirt it moved was a hint in the same direction. Inside, a thick layer of dust had settled over every surface in the place; what led me to think that this Stable hadn’t been inhabited in quite a long time.

“Is it supposed to be this quiet?” Rose asked, “I don’t like it here. It gives me the creeps.”

“Yes, something is off here.” I scowled. “The caravaneer said it was abandoned, but this looks like nopony entered or exited the place, so it shouldn’t be ‘abandoned’; and still, I have the feeling we are alone.”

I started to walk past the security checkpoint and into the main complex, with Rose following me closely. We went down a staircase and arrived at the main Atrium, the sound of our hooves echoing grimly in the thick silence of the Stable. All lights were on, and I looked up expecting to see something in the Overmare’s office, but I was disappointed once again. Nothing in sight, this place was deserted.

“Don’t you hear something?” Rose asked.

“What?” I couldn’t hear anything out of the soft, background humming of the rebreathers.

“I don’t know, it’s something very faint, it comes and goes.”

“Could you track it?” I asked.

“I’ll try...” Rose started moving around in circles, as if she was trying to catch a scent. She stopped dead on her tracks and lifted a hoof towards a small room. “Try there.”

The room in question was a small utility room in the corner of the Atrium. I opened the door by pressing a button with my hoof, and I almost fell on my flanks. What sort of horror had happened in here?

“What’s wrong?” Rose came closer.

“Rose, don’t!” I tried to stop her.

“Wha-AAAAAAAAHHH!!!” Rose screamed and bolted away, crying.

“Rose, stop! Come back!” I ran after her, catching her before she could go any further. She was crying and shaking in fear. I tried to comfort her, but I was too scared myself to provide any safety to the poor filly.

What I had seen in the room went beyond the craziest, darkest of my nightmares. The back wall of the room, usually a gray concrete wall, had been painted with the face of a hellish mare. Her mane, totally flat, fell before her face, covering one half of it. The other half was giving a deadly glare, her eye contracted to a tiny dot, her muzzle forming a blood-freezing smile. All by itself, it would have been horrid; but it was even more disgusting when I had noticed it had been painted in blood! The rotting body of a young pony was lying on the floor. It couldn’t have been much older than a filly... Was this her doing?

“That face...” Rose cried, “I’ve seen that face BEFORE!”

“Where? When?” I asked, startled at the revelation.

“I don’t know... when we entered the Stable. I started hearing a noise, and I looked at a hallway... and I saw her, I swear. I-I-I...” Rose started crying again.

“Listen, Rose. There must be an explanation to this. No matter how disgusting it may be, there is always an explanation. If that mare is real, we’ll find her, and she’ll pay.”

“O-okay...” Rose sniffed.

“Now, don’t get far from me, Rose. I don’t know what we can be facing.”

Rose nodded and gulped. She was going through hell, but we had to carry on. A mixture of curiosity and fear moved me once again, curiosity to learn about what had happened here, and fear of the looming threat that this Stable was. Besides, I somehow felt I owed something to the Dwellers here. At least, some closure, even if it wasn’t my Stable.

We went back into the room where the horrid painting was. On a second look, it was scary, but it wasn’t as terrible as before. After all, it was nothing but a mare’s face, even if it was terribly ugly... No, it wasn’t ugly, as she had her share of beauty, even in a wretched, warped way. It was more unsettling than ugly. Actually, what really scared me was the realization that something terrible had happened in this place.

A terminal was humming on the desk of the small utility room. I hadn’t noticed at first glance, but now it called me with its soft green glow. I felt that diving into computers gave me a moment of peace from the turmoil of the Wasteland. I readied the PipBuck to breach the security of the terminal, but I noticed it was unlocked; so I pressed a key and started reading.

Lavender. The word Lavender appeared all around, in every single file of the memory. Actually, it was the only word that appeared in the terminal... Lavender everywhere. Who or what was this Lavender? Only the last entry, which had been jotted down a month ago, was readable.

“Finally it’s complete... Lavender is here with me. Now I can rest.”

Did that mean that Lavender was the scary mare painted on the wall? That was the most logical guess. I turned back and saw Rose staring at the painting, as if she had lost all her fear and was mesmerized by Lavender’s (?) glare.

“Lavender...” she murmured.

“What did you just say?” I screamed. What was going on in here?

“Uh... what?” Rose seemed to pop out of a dream.

“Did you just say Lavender?”

“I didn’t say anything... well, not that I remember.”

Rose looked at me, and I noticed she was being honest. She DIDN’T remember. Which was, I might add, far more disturbing than the fact that she had said the word ‘Lavender’. I had clearly heard her say it. If she had said it consciously, she could have heard me mutter the name before, or she could have read it elsewhere; but she hadn’t said it on purpose... Something else was talking through her. Something that, seemingly, affected young ponies first, taking into account that I hadn’t felt anything out of the ordinary yet.

We walked past the Atrium and into the medical wing of the Stable. I feared we might be seeing true bloodshed here, taking into account that we had witnessed a truly hellish scene in a small room. However, the room was clean, too clean. No remains on the stretchers, no dirty tools on the trays. One could come to think nothing had happened here. Rose, however, detected something out of the ordinary as soon as we opened the door.

“It smells odd in here... like something sweet, sticky. I don’t like this smell.” Rose waved a hoof trying to sweep the smell off her face.

I didn’t like it either. It was sticky indeed, a madly sweet smell that made my gut churn. It was the smell of blood and death, I had smelled it in the Fort, when I was recovering. It was the smell of a ghoul, the smell of decay; but there was nothing my E.F.S. was detecting. Rose advanced towards what looked like the morgue of the medical wing.

“Stop, Rose.” I looked at her sternly. “Let me go first.”

I somehow knew what I’d find and I readied myself to see the image of dead bodies rotting in a pile, but still, what I saw went far beyond what I could have imagined. Somepony had taken the care of using the innards of the dead ponies to weave an inscription all over the morgue, the word LAVENDER written in guts and blood. I slammed the door shut before Rose could take a look inside, and crashed my hoof against the button.

“What was in there?” Rose asked.

“You don’t want to know.”

“But I...”

“NO.”

Rose nodded and glared at me in a way I didn’t like at all, as if she stared directly into my soul. She didn’t move at all, she only kept looking at me with that face... I felt chills run down my spine.

“Rose...?”

“Uh... what?” She snapped out of a trance of sorts.

“Nevermind.” There she was again. Something was definitely messing with her mind, and I was starting to feel worried about my own safety. Would I end up like the rest of the ponies in the Stable, gruesomely murdered as a sacrifice to whatever that Lavender was?

I spotted a terminal glowing close to the entrance of the Medical Wing. I unlocked it (no password, once again) and started reading through the entries. Most of them were routine entries, reporting colds or mild injuries, such as a sprained hoof. However, some time later entries started to become interesting.

Entry 1616: Cinnamon Twill started acting funny yesterday on her class. She said she could hear somepony calling her by her name, but nopony heard anything but her. Not that I want to doubt about her honesty, but all the tests I conducted went negative. She still keeps saying somepony is calling her. Just that. Calling her.

Entry 1688: Cinnamon keeps talking about this Lavender pony. Nopony knows who she is, but apparently she’s supposed to be a mare. She’s becoming obsessed with her, and the worst thing about it is that more colts and fillies have started mentioning Lavender. They speak about seeing her in dark hallways, hearing her on the ducts... I sometimes think Lavender is a ghost story the fillies invented to have fun. Still, there’s something... weird about it. I’m starting to be afraid of the colts and fillies around here.

Entry 1777: We found Cinnamon dead yesterday. She had slit her forelgs yesterday and written Lavender all around her room until she died of blood loss. It was a horrible sight to see. I haven’t been able to sleep all night, that image haunts me every time I close my eyes. What scared me even more is that the young ones didn’t even stir when we told them Cinnamon had died. It felt like they had seen it coming. And now all the Stable talks about Lavender. If we wanted to spread a horror story, we’ve made it.

Entry 1833: Raincloud attacked her parents last night with a knife. The father is okay, just some shallow cuts. Her mother, on the other hand, took a stab to the lung. My crew is working very hard to heal her, but I’m not too optimistic. The Overmare decided to confine Raincloud into a small utility room close to the Atrium. I’ve been hearing her mindless blabbering about Lavender all morning. I want to talk to her, but the Overmare won’t let me. Says it’s dangerous.

Entry 1861: We stopped hearing Raincloud yesterday. I immediately thought something was wrong, but the Overmare insisted on waiting. When she has finally decided to go check up on her, we’ve found her dead on a pool of her own blood. She had slit her throat with a makeshift blade. But the most horrid thing we found is the picture on the wall. She painted the face of a mare using her blood as paint. It’s horrible, I feel like the mare on the wall stares into my soul... Is this the dreaded Lavender?

Entry 1914: Attacks have increased in the last few days. Since the death of Raincloud, all the colts have gone nuts about Lavender. They speak about having to feed blood to the mare, having to offer sacrifice to the Almighty Lavender... What is this madness? Who is behind all this? I am afraid to walk the hallways alone.

Entry 1966: This will be my last entry, most probably. The colts have run amok, stabbing and killing everypony in the Stable, screaming ‘Lavender’ like a prayer to an evil god. I have locked myself with some other ponies in the Medical Wing. We have supplies and some weapons, so I think we can take for a while. However, we won’t last forever. At some point, we’ll have to open the door again to look for more supplies... What’s that? They’re already here... I can hear them slamming the door, and tinkering with the switch. I hope they can’t override the lock, or we’ll be cornered. Please, Celestia, help us...


*** *** ***


Such horror, such madness. I felt shivers from the very thought of what had happened in this place. We had only scraped the surface of the eldritch monstrosity that the Stable had been through. We... or only me, most probably. Rose kept acting weird, shifting between what seemed to be two planes of reality. There was the Rose I had met, firm in her resolve, silent yet fairly expressive; the Rose I was really starting to like. But then, without any kind of warning, another Rose came forward. She would stop like dead on her tracks, she would start humming discordantly... something was messing with her mind, and what freaked me out the most is that the second Rose was starting to gain control over the first Rose.

We left the Medical Wing and headed towards the main Quarters. Stains of blood were more and more frequent as we trod down the silent hallways of the Stable, and I could feel the air thickening as we advanced. It was probably a trick of my mind, a product of my fear, but I swear I started to have actual trouble breathing. Rose, on the other hoof, seemed to follow me without any difficulty.

The Quarters were the image anypony could have of hell. Caked blood covered the walls;  graffiti made of guts and body fluids had covered the gray concrete turning it into a cacophony of red, brown and black, and the word ‘Lavender’ appeared every few steps. One of the rooms was grimly decorated with bones from other ponies, their skeletons forming geometrical patterns of the most devious kind. And faces, faces everywhere, like the one we saw in the utility room. That one eye, piercing my soul with its hellish glare; that maniacal smile... Who was Lavender?

Room by room, I checked every single one looking for information that could clarify what had happened here. From what I saw laying in the floor, I assumed that every single pony had died in an orgy of blood and that we were the only ones alive in what had become a massive grave. In one of the last ones, I was lucky enough to find a working holotape, and played it after having closed the door behind me. I didn’t want Rose to hear anything, since she was acting very strangely.

“I don’t know what has happened to all the colts and fillies in the Stable. First Cinnamon Twill, then Raincloud, and now the rest are acting weird. They keep talking about this Lavender mare, they say she’s coming, they say she speaks to them, but in a way we can’t hear her. Only they can.

I have studied Psychology, so I know what I’m talking about; and this really overwhelms me. There must be foul play behind all this. As a colt, me and my friends did make up horror stories to have fun. But this is not usual behaviour. This has become viral, like if they had become infected by something that makes them hear things, see things. And finally, become suicidal. Or what I’m starting to fear, ponycidal.

Tomorrow morning I’m going to speak to the Overmare. If somepony has the clearance to know if something out of the ordinary is happening here, that is her. I have the feeling that she’ll have to clarify some stuff.”

The holotape ended with a hollow click. Indeed, the Overmare should have known something about what happened here. That was the only hope. Either it was that way, or we could be facing a foe too big for us to confront. I opened the room to find Rose standing like a statue, looking at me eye-to-eye. That was creepy. So creepy I walked back a step or two.

“Ro-Rose?” I stuttered.

“Uh... What again, Farsight?” The first Rose, the one that didn’t freak me out, returned to the front.

“What were you doing, Rose?” I asked.

“Me? Nothing... hey, wait a minute. What am I doing here? I was waiting outside the Quarters!”

Now that sent chills running down my spine. She was having memory blackouts, which sounded like the issues the Stable fillies had been through, according to what I had found. Whatever this ‘infection’ was, it had affected Rose as well and was gaining control of her mind. I had to find out what was going on, and quickly, or I would regret having entered the Stable.

The Overmare’s office was right in front of me. Answers, at least! Or that was I hoping to find. I needed to get some information on what was going on. Since we left the Quarters, Rose had become silent, only to hum that horrible tune every now and then. Evil Rose was back on the saddle, and that was the worst case scenario for me. I stopped and turned around to see what she was up to. She was facing the corridor we had come from, totally silent. Then, she slowly turned her head to look at me... with the blood-freezing glare I had seen in the gruesome paintings all across the Stable!

“Lavender is hereeeeeee...” she sung, while giving me the scariest grin I had ever seen.

“Rose? Rose!! Snap out of it!!” I was desperate, but I immediately realized there was nothing to be done. Evil Rose had taken over.

At least she couldn’t hurt me... no, wait. I felt like thunderstruck. I had. Given. Rose. A. GUN. Rose had a gun! She knew that, since I saw the small black pistol float out of her small pouch, enveloped on a faint pink glow. I turned around and ran for my life. In other circumstances, I would have tried to fight back, but I couldn’t harm a filly, I simply could not. I sprinted towards the Overmare’s office. If I could lock myself up before she could...

BANG!

She could. The bullet hit my left hindleg, right on the knee. I could almost feel the joint blasting in a million shards, sending waves of burning pain through my body. I fell to the floor, hitting the metal with my belly and face; but I couldn’t give up, or I’d be dead. A surge of adrenalin let me crawl into the office and lock myself up. At least, I had gained some time.

I stumbled onto the Overmare’s desk, to find the rotting body of a mare behind it. A small pistol laid close to the corpse, which led me to think she had committed suicide. It did sound like there was some foul play indeed. Since the Overmare wouldn’t be able to tell me anything about the dark secrets of the Stable, I would have to dive into her terminal to find them.

“I’m coming for youuuuuu...” I heard Rose’s voice behind the door, and what was worse, I could see here through a security monitor. She had spotted the camera and was glaring at me with a soul-shattering smirk.

I’d have to work fast. Sooner or later, Rose would figure out how to break the lock of the office door, and then I would be cornered, which meant dead; since I was just unable to fight her. I jacked my PipBuck into the terminal, and started furiously clicking the controls of my reliable hoof-mounted device. My mind was in the middle of a fight between the excruciating pain of my knee and the flow of adrenalin that fought to keep me working.

The terminal proved to be a tough one, but I ended up hacking its security. Suddenly, a recording prompted itself to the front, asking me to open it. I did so, and the voice of a mare boomed through the speakers.


*** *** ***


“Hello there. My name is Scootaloo, president of Stable-Tec. You might know me for my amazing feats at the GALLoPS and... oh, I hate this. I hate all the formality in these recordings. How many Stables have we actually built?

Oh, well, whatever. Listen, if you are hearing this, it means that the Omega-level security protocols have been activated and that you have been appointed as the Overmare of your Stable, which, to put it short, means that things have gone really bad and that you’re responsible for the well-being of the ponies sheltered in there.

However, at Stable-Tec we believe that this crisis is an opportunity. A chance to learn from what we made wrong, a chance to be better. We have to be better. So, in order to be better, we ask you to conduct an experiment with the ponies living in your facility. There is no harm involved for the population, that I guarantee you. Still, if you don’t feel comfortable about it, you are more than welcome not to conduct the investigation.

In order to brief you of the details of the experiment, I leave you with the head developer of the program.”

The voice changed to that of another mare, higher pitched one.

“Hello there, I’m Mint Flake, main developer of the Lavender Fields program here at Stable-Tec. Your Stable has been designed to host the experiments of this research. Lavender Fields is a study on the subliminal mind conditioning of ponies at an early age. What we intend to achieve is the elimination of violent behavior in colts and fillies, which has greatly increased because of the downfall of the pony society of Equestria. We believe that if the new generations are free of violence, a new spring of love and tolerance will come to this land, you being the harbingers of this rebirth!

Let me explain the functioning of this project. Our investigation in the field of pony neurology has shed some surprising discoveries. The Lavender Fields experiment is aimed at ponies of a certain age, mostly colts and fillies close to obtaining their Cutie Mark. Statistic research shows that the violent behaviour in ponies isn’t present until that age, and that is why our staff psychiatrists think it is the best time to tackle the problem.

Many studies were conducted for years trying to eradicate violence from young ponies by using cognitive psychology, that is, speaking to them and making them understand why violence is wrong. However, the success rate of those experiments was low, close to the twenty percent of the subjects were able to reason away from violence. Therefore, in order to obtain greater results, we have developed a subliminal approach.

Our research in brain growth has shown that the brain of the younger ponies is especially receptive towards some frequencies close to the top and bottom frequencies of the hearing spectrum. By stimulating them with a stream of information coded into these frequencies, we expect to modify the colts’ and fillies’ behaviour, without altering their personality in any other way. The rest of the population will be immune to the sonic field.

If you desire to activate the Lavender Fields experiment, or if you desire to stop it, you can do so from your secure Terminal. Thank you for your cooperation, Overmare. And remember, the fate of a new Equestria is on your hooves.”

The recording ended there. Mind conditioning! That did explain everything. Only colts and fillies were affected, and the change in behavior was slow, gradual. They weren’t brainwashed, only substituted by another personality. However, the recording spoke of “elimination of violent behavior”. What had happened to make it all go wrong?

I returned to the terminal, and while I browsed the options I found the one I was looking for: “End Lavender Fields experiment”. I clicked it and took a look at the security monitor, to see that Rose had changed. She wasn’t slamming the door anymore; she just looked around, apparently confused.

“Farsight...?” she said, her voice trembling. She was in clear shock.

“Give me a minute, Rose.” I yelled, so she could hear me. I crawled back to the door and released the lock. Rose trotted into the room and saw my bullet wound in the knee.

“I did that?” she screamed, tears in her eyes. “I’m so sorry!!! Let me help you, please...” 

“It wasn’t you, Rose. Now I know it wasn’t you.”

Rose smiled faintly, and started lifting bandages from my saddlebag. She took some painkiller pills from a medical pouch she carried and made me swallow them. I felt pain drift away, and sighed. Now that all that darkness was gone, we could return to our duty, that is, to retrieve a water talisman; but before, I needed to check one thing, and returned to the terminal. There it was, a last memo from the Overmare, what looked like a suicide note.

“To anypony who might read this:

I’m sorry. I feel I’m the one to blame for the evil I’ve brought to this Stable. None of my predecessors wanted to conduct the experiment, they said it was evil and tyrannical, and that we had no guarantees of success, only a damn recording from before the War.

I, however, decided to do it. Don’t ask me why, I thought it had to be done. Maybe I believed that patriotic chatter of the recording, telling us we should be better and all that jazz. It was supposed to turn all our young ponies into happy, peaceful folk, and instead, we bred a monster named Lavender.

Some days after the first murder happened, I thought that something could be wrong on the recordings we played. Some data could have corrupted over time, due to the radiation, or because of some power outage, or whatever. So I asked Tinfoil Beam, our resident PipBuck technician, to take a look at the data files. He said everything was fine!

I could have stopped it then. But I didn’t. I had the hope that the cases of Cinnamon Twill and Raincloud were exceptions, and that the rest of the colts and fillies would react positively to the program. I was wrong, and now the whole Stable is soaking with blood. I’ve locked myself up in my Office, but I can see them through the camera. They’re coming for me. But they won’t take me alive.

Sorry, and goodbye.”

I cried in rage. I slammed the keyboard with my hooves and yelled profanities at the creators of such monstrosity. How could they have done this? We should be better? Really? We should have been wiped out entirely, that’s what should have happened!

“Farsight,” Rose whispered, “it’s not your fault. The ones that did this are already dead. There’s nothing more you can do; and as far as I’m involved, I’m ashamed and sorry.”

I looked at Rose, and felt a smile climb back to my face. I really appreciated her, even more now. The maturity she was showing, the way she actually cared about me, the firm principles that guided her. She was what I had failed to be, both in the Stable and out of it. Rose was pure gold, and I would have to keep her beside me, for my own sake.


*** *** ***


The rest of the trip through the Stable was easy in comparison to what we had been through. We left the office to head for the Maintenance Wing, which was across the Atrium to the Medical Wing, the direct opposite from where we had been through. Unlike the Quarters or the rest of the Stable, the Maintenance Wing wasn’t soaking in blood and guts. It seemed like the killings had happened at night, when the ponies were sleeping. Every minute that passed we felt more and more uncomfortable in there.

It was easy to retrieve the talisman from its housing. A small hack to the water control terminal, one or two clicks, and the water flow to the rest of the Stable was cut. Another click, and the latches that held the terminal in place were unlocked. Carefully, both Rose and I lifted the shiny blue gemstone and placed it in one of my saddlebags. Then, as fast as we could, we left the place never to return again. I can’t even describe the relief I felt when I saw the massive steel door close again, sealing the horror inside.


*** *** ***


The sun was rising again as we left the shack that hid Stable 173. I had never been so happy to see the arid, unforgiving Wasteland. Under the morning light, it was even more beautiful. We started walking down towards Freedom Field. Now that I had the Water Talisman with me, Metronome would have to set up a meeting with Dee Cleff, where I would explain my plan to the pony on top. There were many chances that my plan got tossed away, but at least I would have a shot.

I had come out of the Stable alive, even if battered and in pain. The effect of the painkillers Rose had given me was starting to wear out, and my busted knee was giving me hell in every step. Rose noticed my suffering and got close to me, helping me stay upright. Since we left the Stable, I felt like something had changed in her. Something in her eyes looked darker, as if a bit of her innocence had been stolen.

“Rose...” I muttered. “When you shot me... You remember anything?”

“Well... I thought I remembered nothing...” Rose didn’t look me in the eyes. She was feeling really ashamed of what she had done to me, or so it seemed. “But the truth is some images are coming to my mind. I remember seeing you flee, but everything looked warped. I was seeing all red, as if I was wearing some odd sunglasses. Then I remember shooting you.”

“What were you thinking?”

“I remember hearing her voice in my head. Talking about how nice it was to be friends with me, and how you had to die so she could come see me..." Rose sobbed and looked away with shame. "So sorry that I couldn't stop myself.” She sobbed again.

“Hey, hey. I know you couldn’t, and I forgive you for everything. Don’t worry, OK?”

“Thanks...” She looked at me with tears in her eyes and a big smile in her face. I smiled at her, feeling warm inside. I liked her, and I wanted her to be happy, since it made me feel good inside.

We kept walking in silence for about an hour or two. I scouted forward with my E.F.S. on and the rifle ready, while Rose trotted close to me, watching our back. I knew that, in the event of a fight, Rose wouldn’t be too capable of defending herself, but at least I had the help of my PipBuck in order to anticipate any attack. We returned to the landscape of ruins and wrecked buildings as we got closer to civilization.

“Why did we go to the Stable?” Rose asked suddenly.

“I told you. I had to find a Water Talisman.”

“No, no, that’s not what I was asking. There is a reason why you would want to find a Water Talisman. If you were looking for food or medicine, I’d understand, but a Water Talisman isn’t something you can use right away.”

I stood still, surprised. Rose was proving to be a very smart filly, always pointing out the right questions.

“I want something in return. After all, everypony does. And to obtain what I want, I need the Water Talisman.”

“And what do you want eventually?”

“Me? I want a better life... far from the Wasteland. And overall, I want justice for what was done to me.”

“The justice you enact for yourself isn’t justice. It’s revenge.”

“Then, I want revenge.” I looked at her in the eyes. I could feel her judging me, probably feeling disappointed for having believed in a pony that only wanted to cause more pain.

“Okay.” She smiled, catching me off guard. I wasn’t expecting that. “You’ll have your reasons. I think you’re a good pony, and if you want revenge, you’ll have your point.”

“Thanks for believing in me.” I smiled back at her. “And what about you? What do you want in life?”

“I have no big plans. I just want to do the right thing.”

The right thing. What a noble goal, and also difficult. Doing the right thing had cost me my life in the Stable. Maybe I should have warned her about the risks of that goal, about the endless pain of the defeat, the void feeling of being disrespected, the fear of retaliation. However, I didn’t. I wanted Rose to fight for what she believed in, since that seemed to drive her through the days. She deserved to have one shot at life, and I was nopony to take it away from her.


*** *** ***


We arrived at Freedom Field with the break of day. Metronome seemed pretty surprised when she saw me cross the door to the Music School. She seemed even more surprised when she saw me unload a water talisman from my saddlebags. And she seemed totally astonished when she saw little Desert Rose with me. I took surprises one and two as a fair warning, I was starting to think that she didn’t like me at all. After all, she had sent me on a true fool’s errand; and even if she couldn’t know what was wrong with Stable 173, she wanted me out of the picture.

However, I wouldn’t go down that easily. I was back with her Water Talisman, so she would have to schedule a meeting with Dee Cleff, even if she didn’t want to. On other facts, I think that Rose felt the initial chill between Metronome and me and immediately positioned herself beside me.

“Well, you made it after all.” Metronome groaned, bored.

“It took me a while, but here I am.” I smiled triumphantly. “Now, we should speak about the meeting.”

“Not so fast, Farsight. I’ll let you know when the meeting is set. It will be soon, I give you my word. First, I have to check everything with Miss Cleff.”

“Okay.” I nodded. I was feeling rather impatient, but I knew the best was to leave things as they were... for now.

“Good. Now you should take a rest, you seem to have had a bad time outside. I’ll send Tender Cloud to heal you.”

“Thanks, Metronome.”

“LaRoche!” she called, and the black hulk I’d seen in the Tesla Bar appeared from a door on the side of the room. What the hell was going on here? “Would you please escort our guests to their rooms?”

“Oui, mademoiselle Metronome.” LaRoche’s voice was as I had pictured it, deep and dark. However, he spoke a funny Equestrian, which made him look less imposing. That’s why he kept silent, or so I thought. While he came towards us, Metronome had turned around and was leaving the room, staging that our chat was effectively over.

“Follow me, s’il vous plait.” LaRoche gently pointed towards the exit. For being a massive hulk, he seemed very polite and moderate. Life could be this surprising. But maybe I could use this to my advantage.

“LaRoche, weren’t you working at the Tesla Bar?” I asked.

“C’est vrai. However, Madame Cleff and Mademoiselle Ampera reached an agreement yesterday. Now we’re working together to ensure peace in Freedom Field.”

“Say what?”

“Madame Cleff came to us with an offer we couldn’t refuse: the guarantee of a monopoly in weapons and alcohol trade, plus a non-aggression pact for the future. My gang couldn’t say no to such a juicy offer. Now that I remember, you’re the one that came to us first, n’est-ce pas?”

“Yes, it was me.” I couldn’t help to smile softly. My plan, or at least part of it, was moving forward. Maybe my meeting with Dee could turn out useful. “Do you know if they spoke about something else?”

“No. Désolé. They didn’t tell me anything else.” LaRoche shrugged. “In fact, I don’t think I should be telling you any of this. Now, let me take you to your rooms.”

I wasn’t getting anything more from our soft-speaking black friend, so I decided not to carry on. For some reason, no matter how gentle he could appear, I had the feeling that LaRoche could be merciless if he wanted to. We followed him up the stairs to the second floor of the building, where he took us to two rooms that lied one in front of the other. I saw Rose squee when she saw the big, comfortable bed; what made me crack a smile. Probably she hadn’t seen such a bed in her entire life. Meanwhile, I opened the door and left my saddlebags on the floor. The loss of weight was a blessing for my injured knee, and the pain suddenly became much more bearable. I turned around and nodded to LaRoche, telling him to leave me alone, politely of course.

“Nurse Tender Cloud will be with you soon.” LaRoche closed the door and I heard him go away from our rooms.

I took the armor off carefully and looked at myself in the mirror. Half my body had been covered in magical bandages, and most of them were stained with dried blood. Then, my knee had become numb, as if I had a wooden leg. At least I could walk, even if I had to stumble around a bit. I laughed at my sight, broken and pathetic. I was amazed about how I had changed over the days, and realized that I had been in the verge of death so many times, that my former self would have fainted. I tried to have a peaceful life, but it seemed that peace evaded me. Suddenly, the door opened behind me.

“Mister Farsight, I’m here to... oh, my.”

I turned around, naked as I was, to see Tender Cloud, the small nurse mare that had healed me the first time, standing at the door, blushing. I smiled gently and looked at her with my eyes half closed.

“Don’t worry, honey; I won’t bite you. Come in.”

“Y-yes. Please, lie down...”

I obeyed, the gentle smile always in my face, even if my knee hurt. She started to go through my body, swiftly removing bandages and using her magic to heal the stitched wounds. He made me swallow a couple of healing potions while she worked on my knee. Her face of concentration was just lovely. After a couple of hours of hard work, my body was in an acceptable condition once again. She picked her things and turned around to leave, when I raised a hoof and touched her in the back.

“Don’t go yet, honey. Keep me warm.”

She turned around, blushing heavily. I raised from the bed and kissed her gently. She could have backed away, but she stayed and kissed me back. Then she giggled and got into bed. The fun had just been doubled.

#

Note: Quest Perk added.
Lavender Fields Forever: You have survived the horrors of Lavender. You gain 10% extra resistance to psychic conditioning. Also, your fears can’t beat you that easily.