Fallout Equestria: Grim Prospects

by RadiationRed

Chapter 1

FALLOUT: EQUESTRIA
GRIM PROSPECTS

        Gee, that guy's fast! Euphoria thought as she slowed to a trot, having lost the violent stallion much faster than she anticipated. In her fit of pure rage, she hadn't even stopped to notice that she had bolted straight out into a dry, earthen wasteland. All around her, there were nothing for miles; only dead trees, and infinitely rolling hills of dry ground.

        As the imprints of the buck's hooves slowly faded into nothingness, Euphoria walked a short distance and stopped, then stumbled, feeling woozy all of a sudden. Her world spun around her, as her head pounded furiously and the Pip-Buck on her hoof clicked away in rabid beats. “Wha-what?” Euphoria mumbled and groaned as she fell to the ground, breathing in the hot air and dirt.

        Euphoria's lungs burned in agony as she coughed hoarsely, gagging on her own fluids as she strained to get back onto her hooves. If anything, the simulation had taught her to move onwards, even in pain. With her legs shaking, and blood pouring down the side of one of hindquarters, Euphoria lumbered forwards – ignoring the flashing warning on her E.F.S. Display.         

        In the distance, blotted against the stark sunlight; a wash of red, orange, and sickly green – stood a few buildings. At they way all of them were huddled together neatly, despite the very obvious collapsed nature of most of them, Euphoria noted that it had to be a town. Using her pip-buck, she marked the town on the on-board map, which seemed to have plucked out a few interesting spots on it own as well. “W-walk right,” Euphoria noted through gritted teeth.

        The wounded mare dragged herself forward, and pushed through her own want to just curl up on the ground and sleep for a while, but she knew it was a death-sentence, and she had a mission anyway. Gun-shots slashed through the air in the distance, and Euphoria perked her ears, trying to at least gauge the direction it was coming from.

        Looking up, Euphoria squinted her eyes, forcing her way through her headache as she saw two or three shapes dart through the sky – black against the red. The shapes themselves moved fast and erratic, as if they were doing aerial manoeuvres, much like those depicted in those magazines she had found in the Stable when she was only a foal. On the covers, those ponies seemed majestic, but as she watched the sky, a feeling of unease crept into the pit of Euphoria's stomach.

        A few more erratic motions, and an ear-shattering blast echoed against the hills as Euphoria flattened her ears against her head. One of the shapes stopped mid-flight, and dove towards the ground... no, not diving, the shape was falling. Euphoria coughed some more, and decided to keep her gaze level on the horizon.

        Blackened houses drew closer, as the fire in Euphoria's hoof seemed to wash away little by little, and she found that each step she took became easier. Crap.... Euphoria thought and picked up the pace. Maybe there's a hospital there. Euphoria brightened slightly at her own suggestion, and clung to that faint hope.

        Cracked roads slowly came into Euphoria's view as she edged herself up a slight hill, and skidded halfway down again, until her hooves hit the asphalt. Euphoria looked down and clip-clopped in the very spot she was standing in, and had to stifle her own giggle as she grinned wide. The simulation had seemed real, but no matter how good it was at echoing real life, this was better.

        Her joy was short, as rough laughter soon echoed in the air, and Euphoria immediately darted behind a nearby rock, curling her body as tight against the jagged material as she could. “F-fucking bastard!” a mare cried out, angrily stomping her hooves against the asphalt. “And now I'm all out of caps too? Fucking great!” Cursing was nothing new to Euphoria, as Stable 9 didn't have any sort of restriction on language, but even then, her head hurt.

        Euphoria peeked over the rock and watched through dried grass – a lone mare with a silver coat that had dried dirt clinging to most parts of it. She stood in the middle of a crossroads, with burned out husks of several buildings on either side. Euphoria's Pip-Buck noted the town on her map as: Noble. At least I know where I am, thought Euphoria, frowning a little before she tossed her eyes back towards the mare.

        Her mane was matted and looked almost pitch-black, and if it weren't for the few strands of sky-blue in-between, Euphoria would have been fooled to think it was her natural colour. The silver mare looked around but continued on her way, limping forwards. She's injured? Euphoria thought, and bit her lip as she slowly crept out of her cover.

        She gave the area a furtive look and followed along the cracked and worn asphalt as it swung around a bend. Galloping down the soft decline, Euphoria breathed heavily as she closed in on the mare and she almost bumped into her, but managed to slide to a stop just in front of the mare, so she stared into a set of angry red eyes. “What the fuck do you want? Here to rob a lonely mare? Go ahead! I have nothing left, anyway!”

        Euphoria took a few steps back at the accusations, and tilted her head at the mare as she stumbled over her words. “N-no... I-I....” Euphoria's voice caught in her throat, as she perked her ears at a low clicking close by, and she slowly watched how the mare's mouth curved into a sly grin.

        “Get her, boys!” The mare shouted loudly, and barely a second later, a group of stallions burst out of cover behind Euphoria, as her E.F.S., flooded with red lines. She cursed under her breath and swung her head around to get a look at the group that had appeared to her right. Tattered muck-brown barding clung to each of the three, and each of them held a knife clenched between their teeth as stained blood was smeared around their muzzles.

        The last one had a rifle hovering beside him in an orange glow, and just then Euphoria noticed his blood-stained horn as well; a few scratch marks clearly visible. The rifle itself was badly rusted and Euphoria silently wondered if it would break after the first shot, but she didn't intend to stay long enough to find out.

        She couldn't get away quick enough, but Euphoria did her best and sprang into action, shoving the silver mare away. Even as a scream of agony tore into the air behind her, Euphoria didn't turn and just kept on galloping, trying to calm her breathing as her entire body twitched in response to the ear-numbing shot that rang out in the dry air. “You... fuckers!” the mare cursed hoarsely, but Euphoria kept her eyes straight as she darted between destroyed houses, desperately searching for one good house.

        Another shot rang out as the mare gave off a cry of agony with her dying breath, and Euphoria felt rage fill her mind again, but as a chorus of hoof-beats reverberated behind her, she found it best to stick to her idea.

        Euphoria darted past what had once been the sign to the town, but the original name had worn away long ago, and the pock-marked, rusted piece of metal that clung to two stilted, rotting wooden boards had to have been over-written several times, as vile graffiti covered the thing from top to bottom.

        “If you stop, I'll give you some chocolate, pretty mare!” one of the stallions following Euphoria called out. How dumb do they think I am? Thought Euphoria and laughed briefly, feeling adrenaline surge through her veins as she galloped past a store. A few moments later, Euphoria skidded to a stop, and took a double-take on the building to her left.

        There it stood, Euphoria's salvation from death, or worse. The outside of the brick-building was painted a garish yellow, and although most of it had been covered in dirt, and cracked bricks stuck out – it was intact. Rows of windows lined the top, just beneath the brown roof, and with only a few holes through them, Euphoria deemed it safe; though, in truth she didn't have much choice in the matter.

        She cast one look to her side, and swallowed hard as she saw three angry ponies heading towards her. Euphoria didn't wait, and kicked into overdrive as she galloped for the door and lowered her head as she knocked it open. Luckily, it had not been barred. As a wave of new pain flooded Euphoria's head, she kicked the door shut with one hind-leg, and tossed her head around the room.

        The indoors of the building had fared much worse than the outside. Anything that hadn't been bolted down, had been raided, and judging by the fuse-box next to the door that was covered with scratch-marks, the ponies that did this had tried to take everything. Directly opposite of the fuse-box, stood a dingy couch, and Euphoria grinned as she bit down on one side, and used her remaining strength to drag it in front of the door, just as a pony slammed against it, and cursed profanity.

        Quickly, Euphoria threw everything she found in the room – that she could lift – onto the couch. A few unmarked crates of alcohol, over a dozen empty bottles, some toys, and a rusted cart that clearly didn't belong to this tiny establishment. She inched away from the door slowly, as the stallions' attempts to simply bust through the door, died down. “Fine... but we will find a way inside, mare, and when we do, we're gonna party!” another stallion said, as a shot punched a hole through the door, and Euphoria screamed in surprise, and flattened herself against the tiled floor as she shivered.

        Outside they laughed, but their hoof-beats dimmed into oblivion as Euphoria slowly rose to her hooves again, and her heart slowed to a normal enough pace. Enjoying her safety, Euphoria took in account the rest of the main room. She poked her head into a few of the yellow-stained freezers dotted around the store, but none of them offered anything other than empty bottles that for some reason, had a value attached to them.

        Noting the value, Euphoria pocketed about a dozen into her saddlebags and shrugged as she ventured into a smaller room. The store consisted of two rooms: one large one that held the food, sellers-counter, and freezers; one smaller one was attached to that one, and held a table with a terminal on it, and a bed moist with mould. Both rooms had been painted in the same yellow as the outside, most likely some kind of branding.

        Euphoria fixed her eyes on the green glow flowing from the terminal and grinned as she plugged her pip-buck in, and downloaded three messages. Having nothing else to do at the moment, she clicked the first one and a light static filled the room, but was quickly silenced by a voice cutting through.

        “...Escaped Ponyville last night. A group of raiders followed me, but I left them bleeding in the dark, as they didn't have the foresight to watch for hidden traps. Couldn't find too much on them, so I continued on my way. I'm at least twenty clicks away from this town I've heard so much about...So... wish me luck....?” The sound-file died with another hiss of static, and Euphoria frowned.

        That voice... I recognize it. Euphoria mulled over it as she clicked the next one.

        It began immediately without a hint of static. “Caught up with a nice little group of wasteland wanderers – a family. The male, was stocked with weaponry and after last night, I can't say I didn't envy him. Under the cover of night, another gang hit us. I escaped with a laceration to my hoof, but that family....” On the recording, the mare was sniffling, trying to keep away her own crying. “.... I had to go... there was nothing I could do...”

        “I... can still hear the mare's scream as they dragged her, laughing into the darkness....” The mare on the recording interjected, but her voice seemed distant, almost emotionless this time.

        As soon as the audio clicked out, Euphoria ticked the last one on. “Found out where those fuckers are. Zebras and ponies working together... heh! I never thought I'd see the day, and now that I have... I hate it! At least, division kept the Raiders weak. Fuckers take foals, enslave them, and then train them to murder and rape their own parents.

        “B-but I got the upper-hoof! I know where they have a camp, and I got a way inside.” The mare on the recording laughed. “Underneath my bed, there's a secret sewer entrance. I don't know who built it, but who the fuck cares!” The mare giggled lightly, but it slowly built until she was laughing hysterically on the recording, muttering something in a hoarse voice so low, that Euphoria couldn't pick up on it.

        There was no doubt, that the mare on the recording had been the same as the one that had just tried to rob Euphoria, and had ended up paying with her own life. How had she gone from trying to save foals to trying to kill and rob ponies herself? It didn't add up, but Euphoria shunted it away into the back of her head for the moment – she had way more pressing concerns.

        Once she headed back into the confines of the bigger and relatively less creepy room, Euphoria narrowed her eyes on the broken windows and the faint golden light peeking through; with a few glimpses of the still dark sky above. For a moment, Euphoria smiled and inhaled, but she quickly snapped out of her reverie as she almost gagged on the smell of rotting food. “Great... just great,” she mumbled as her stomach decided to voice its opinion.

        Night had descended while Euphoria had been busy, and only now as her stomach growled terribly was she aware of how long it had been since her last meal, or drink for that matter. In her stupor, she had left without taking with her as much as a single apple, or a canteen of fresh water. “Shush, be quiet...” Euphoria grumbled and crouched low to the dirt-covered floor.

        Trying to stay as silent as a mouse, Euphoria inched towards the door and peeked through the hole from earlier. Outside, sitting on the opposite side of the destroyed tarmac, were the three stallions. They were huddled around a small camp-fire that licked into the darkness. From what Euphoria could see in the sparse light, two of them was asleep, with the last one standing watch, or sitting watch in this instance.

        Carefully, Euphoria watched the pony sitting guard but he didn't move, not a single inch – he just sat there. Right now, Euphoria cursed the pony who had made this store with only one way in and out. There was no way, she would survive a head-on assault against three fully grown stallions, not even on a good day.

        No weapons, no food, no water, no objective, no friends, wounded, and I'm probably irradiated – Yeah... thanks, Luna, Euphoria thought, still watching the dark-blue stallion with eyes that could have burned holes through that door. They have weapons... and maybe some supplies... As the thought formed fully in Euphoria's mind, her mouth twisted into a grin as she knew what she had to do.

        Over the course of several hours, Euphoria had pulled away each item blocking the door. She had done it calmly, and as silent as possible – peeking out the hole every once in a while to watch the stallion. Each time she had looked outside, his eyes had drooped more and more, and Euphoria grinned as she slowly watched the stallion succumb to sleep-deprivation.

        When his eyes finally closed fully, Euphoria waited a few seconds, and then hurtled out the door. In a flurry of motions, she was on the first stallion, and roughly pulled away his weapon as she gripped it in her mouth. She tasted rotting wood and almost gagged at the taste, but she perked her ears at a faint voice.

        W-what?” As her heart leapt into overdrive, Euphoria brought the weapon around and shook a lightly as it hit the slowly awakening stallion with a loud bang and a soft crack echoing into the night. He stared at her, and she stared back – frozen in place. Then, his eyes simply rolled into the back of his head and he hit the earthen ground hard with his limp body, as a pool of crimson slowly formed under his head.

        Shaking and sweating, Euphoria scrambled backwards and almost dropped her shovel. The adrenaline surged through her body, but Euphoria felt uneasy, and she wanted to vomit, but her stomach was empty. This attack felt somewhat different than when she had taken action against the ponies invading her stable.

        A moment before she had felt so sure that what she was doing was right, but now she simply wanted to run away. Maybe they would let her be, just maybe, she thought. Fear and trepidation washed away the surge that she had felt before, and she was left standing there – in the darkness, as the dying embers of a fire licked up into the sky; accenting her features.

        One of the other stallions groaned, and opened his eyes slowly as he tossed and turned, until he looked straight at Euphoria. It took him a second before the situation registered for him. “Fucking mare!” he shouted as he scrambled to his hooves, and levitated the rifle from before up next to him – the faint glow of his magic field illuminating his face in a sickly red, as Euphoria found her determination again.

        “Thought you could sneak up on us, did you?” the stallion retorted and chuckled, but his laughter caught in his throat as he backed up into a limp hoof. Slowly, he turned his head, and an angry scowl formed on his muzzle as he turned back.

        Just as the stallion turned back around, pain flared in his head and he hit the ground with a loud thud, as his magic-field imploded and the rifle clattered to the ground as well. Above him, panting, stood Euphoria, grasping the blood-smeared shovel in her muzzle.

        Closing her eyes, Euphoria brought the shovel down again, and hit the stallion's face with such force, that a loud crack echoed in the crisp night air. I'm just protecting myself... I'm just protecting myself... I'm... she kept repeating to herself, as she turned around and poised the shovel' s serrated blade against the last stallion's throat. “Mfwafe fuffh!” she grunted out between her gritted teeth.

        The stallion shifted uncomfortable, and let out a light yelp as he stared up at Euphoria. “W-what do you want?” he asked, his voice shaking. In an amazing turn of events, Euphoria found herself in a powerful position, with the raiders at her mercy now, instead of the other way around.

        She glared at the stallion, and pushed the shovel against the whimpering stallion's throat. “Where is he?” Euphoria asked, and raised an eyebrow as she pushed the shovel a bit further, causing the stallion to choke and flail against her. “Tell me!”

        “I don't know what you're talking about!” the stallion cried out, as Euphoria's eyes glared at him, and she pulled back the shovel and swung her head – hitting the stallion across his face with the serrated blade, as he screamed in agony. Over a dozen cuts on his face oozed blood, as Euphoria brought the shovel to bare once again, hitting him across the face again, and thus silenced his screams.

        Panting and sweating, Euphoria dropped the shovel from her mouth as she pulled back, and sat down, hanging her head. “I was just... defending myself... yeah...” She nodded deftly to herself and looked back up, squinting her eyes at the horizon just beyond the front of the store she had occupied a few moments earlier.

        Lost in the moment, Euphoria smiled and closed her eyes as a slow chuckle rose behind her. “I see you,” the last stallion singsonged in a grim voice and tackled Euphoria to the ground hard. Euphoria gasped and yelped loudly, and locked eyes with the stallion as he loomed over her, grinning madly. “Kill my friends...? I'll kill you!” he shouted and pressed a hoof against Euphoria's throat and she thrashed wildly, grasping at the stallion's scarred hoof with her own two forelegs.

        “You fucking Stable-ponies...” He grinned menacingly as tears welled up in Euphoria's eyes, and she wheezed desperately for air. “Think you own everything, don't you? Newsflash: you don't!” Chuckling, the stallion leaned in so close to Euphoria that she could smell the dank odour of caked on filth. “Once you're dead, I'll have a bit of fun with your corpse, because I own you now!”

        Euphoria's field of vision darkened, as she found it harder to breath, but as she looked at the stallion, something dawned on her. Still gasping for some air, Euphoria kicked up with her hind-legs and mentally vomited, as she impacted with something squishy and the stallion's eyes went wide for a second, before he toppled over on the ground, groaning.

        Using her free moment, Euphoria inhaled sharply and coughed as she gagged on the dirt that had gotten stuck in her throat. With her vision still pulsing and her body screaming in pain, Euphoria scrambled over to her shovel, and promptly swung it around as the stallion came careening for her.

        It impacted the stallion with a satisfying crunch, as he fell over and cracked his skull open on a jagged rock, as blood pooled under his ragged body. Euphoria backed away from the corpse and spit out the shovel again, and just sat down, panting.

        Euphoria spent the next hour or so, simply watching the sun crest over the horizon – dead trees outlined against the stark orange ball. She went over the events of the last day in her head several times, always coming to the same conclusion – she had to find the pony responsible for the death of her friends, no matter the cost.

        Having worked up enough courage, and spurred on by the notion that she would die alone in the wasteland, Euphoria took everything she could carry from the highway-bandits. No matter how she felt about it, she needed the equipment. Immediately, Euphoria's Pip-Buck clicked away in glee and tagged each item she had slid into her new, rugged saddlebags; old-new saddlebags was more apt.

        Luck be have it, the rifle – which the Pip-Buck detected to be a .32 Hunting Rifle with a damage of 13 – slid into the saddlebags as a bit clicked out in front of her muzzle, so she could bite down on it with ease. “Battle-saddle,” Euphoria muttered with a smile and looked back at the blue screen of her Pip-Buck.

        Two sets of Merc' Adventure outfits also glowed in the list, but Euphoria smiled as she looked at the level of decay and saw the 'R' off to the side. A repair icon was clearly visible next to the little image of a mare decked out in the armour, but Euphoria couldn't highlight it – for now. Above that, was Euphoria's Vault 9 Vest. It was clearly labelled as having 6 DR, with only the last armour on the list being higher in armour quality.

        A set of Leather Armour was the prize of Euphoria's short inventory list. It proclaimed a DR of 12, being clearly superior to anything, but Euphoria felt a pang of guilt as she looked at the numbers and considered swapping. It was the very reason she was out here, and in some way gave her comfort. With a sigh Euphoria swapped into the armour, favouring the protection over her own nostalgia.

        Having raided the ponies for anything of value, she trotted into the building again and walked through the large room, into the smaller one. “Guess I have to follow your trail then... Silver,” Euphoria said dourly, and pulled away the cover for the hidden passage in the floor. She flopped her ears back and grimaced as the sound of the metal grating against the floor pierced her ears.

        With a loud thud, and a slowly echoing clang, the rusted cover dropped to the floor fully. Euphoria winced and walked over to the hole in the floor, and whistled as she looked down into the darkness. “Long way down....” With a click of her tongue, she added in a happier tone of her voice, “At least the ladder is still intact.” A second later, the flaking ladder groaned horribly. “Oh, come on!”

        Euphoria took one look back at the smoking remains of the camp-fire and the bodies, before she descended the ladder into the darkness. Once down, she blinked her eyes and with a frown, and turned on her Pip-Buck light, so she illuminated the room in a faint blue glow. “Ugh... what a smell,” Euphoria said and coughed as she held a hoof in front of her nose, as she recoiled at the smell of mould and some other foul stench she couldn't quite recognize.        

        Clutching her nose, Euphoria slowly walked forwards. Her hooves echoed dimly in the room, as she made her way past small piles of rubble. The glow from Euphoria's Pip-Buck lit up very little of the room, and she could barely make out various doors on her sides, as she passed through one of them at the end of the room. Even if they had held something important, the E.F.S. Display noted that they were locked, and Euphoria just moved forwards; locked doors were not her forte.

        As she walked through the metal door that parted in the middle, and its two heavily reinforced sides shunted into the walls, Euphoria froze and perked her ears. With a groan, the door at the end of the room she was in opened slowly and revealed a cracked toilet, but Euphoria stood still and just swivelled her ears around. Somewhere, close by, she heard hissing, and what could have been sniffling, but she couldn't be sure.

        After a few moments, it was gone, and Euphoria let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in. Feeling just a bit more on edge, Euphoria walked forward, having now armed herself with the rifle she found earlier. The textures on the walls had changed from cracked concrete to rusted metal, along with new lights, although it only leant itself to making the room look more sinister than if it hadn't had it; it was a cruel red that shined around the little pony.

        Having little else to guide her, Euphoria followed the lights down into an interconnected corridor, and here some of the lights were cracked and shattered glass spewed on the metal floor, that was little more than a lettuce work of iron that moaned and complained, with each step she took. Euphoria winced at each one, and tried to be as quiet as possible as she ventured down yet another hallway, occasionally glancing at her Pip-Buck as she watched the on-board map slowly form.

        As she proceeded down the decayed hallway, Euphoria decided to head into a few of the connected rooms to see what she could get out of them, if anything. In the end, after having robbed a medical box stashed inside a bathroom, and a locker inside a small utility room, she ended up with one healing potion, and two cans of beans which from the smell, most likely were not so edible, but at this point, she would take any food.

        Not long after her small raid she found herself in front of a locked door, but this one had a terminal. Euphoria sat down in front of the terminal and connected her Pip-Buck to it, and watched as she got the call for a password on it, and she instantly fired up the on-board cracking-software that every Pip-Buck came pre-installed with. “Hmm... no, not that one... what about, firewalk...” With a loud electrical beep the Pip-Buck answered, and Euphoria frowned. “Guess not. Then, what about...”

        “...Yes!” Euphoria proclaimed and grinned from ear to ear, as the terminal accepted the password, which made her giggle lightly. “Snapple...Hah!” Eagerly, she rose to her hooves and opened the door, but before she could do anything else, some-pony lunged at her. Euphoria yelped loudly, and backed away frantically as tears welled up in her eyes, pain flaring from one of her hooves.

        Her Eyes-Forward-Sparkle flashed red with a danger warning, and through tear-filled eyes, Euphoria stared at the creature in front of her. Blood dripped from the thing's mouth along with saliva; its skin had torn, and rotted away in places, showing both the red flesh underneath as well as, chalk white bone in others. Euphoria scanned upwards, and looked into the creatures' hollow eyes, as she clutched her bleeding hoof close to her body.        

        As the creature growled menacingly and lunged forwards, Euphoria ducked, so the creature got a face full of metal as it stumbled a bit, but recovered rather quickly. Wincing at the flaming pain in her hoof, Euphoria bit down on her battle-saddle and fired a shot. “I got you now!” she shouted in victory, but her face deflated the second she saw the bullet ping into the metal wall behind the thing. “Really?!”

        The rotting hulk of a pony was unfazed by ricochet and made another lunge, so Euphoria stumbled backwards, back into the utility room, and her head pounded in agony as she hit one of the open locker-doors. “Ow!” Outside, the creature skittered forwards, howling in animalistic glee as it walked into the view of Euphoria. She bit back down on the battle-saddle, as muzzle fire flashed next to her.

        Even though the creature was already heavily wounded, flesh tore from its body as bullet after bullet pinged into it, with a meaty sound. Chunks of meat flew off it, as blood painted the opposite wall in gory details, as the creature fell onto the lettuce floor, and gave out a last, desperate sigh.

        Euphoria panted and swallowed hard, as she stared at the body a few feet away from herself. She shook her head, and fished out the healing potion, quickly unscrewing the cork and downing the bitter liquid that held a hint of carrots. Her vision blurred for a few seconds, and then cleared, as Euphoria felt reinvigorated, but she took a look at her hoof-computer to make sure she was right.

        It hummed as she passed a hoof over the screen, and saw the number flicker as it slowly passed up to fill the health bar completely. A sense of relief passed through Euphoria's body as she sat back and thumped her head against the metal bar behind her.

        With a groan, Euphoria got to her hooves and stumbled heavily out of the utility closet. Instead of going back from where she came, she hobbled forwards, still feeling the effects of the health potion. Her hooves clang against metal, as she stepped over the crossing and into the room the foul creature had defended so eagerly. She blinked in bafflement as her eyes scanned the walls.

        Made out of sheer metal, they fitted the rest of the hallways perfectly, but that was not what made Euphoria freeze – it was the decoration. On the walls hung ripped crimson fabric, that had the image of a pair of horns protruding from a skull embossed on them in charcoal; although the image had faded long ago, Euphoria gulped and tore her eyes from it.

        A makeshift bed made from rotting wood and skeletal remains had been shoved into a corner, Euphoria noted from the scuff-marks on the metal floor. The dour expression on her face lifted as she saw a terminal next to the bed give off a soft green glow, accentuating the poor condition of the table it was sitting on.

        She stepped briskly up to it, and connected her Pip-Buck to it, watching as a few messages was logged into the massive memory of her device. As it gave off a light chime, indicating that it was done, Euphoria swung her head around and tried to locate any boxes of ammunition that she could.

        Euphoria crouched low, and twitched her ears as she looked under the bed too, but she found nothing and frowned. Her supply was dangerously low, as the E.F.S. Indicated that she only had five bullets left. It didn't help either, that since the encounter, the condition of the rifle blinked, as it threatened to break at any moment.

        In some attempt at easing herself, Euphoria put on the first message as she stepped over the body of the odd creature, which at some point her E.F.S., had decided to label as: 'Ghoul.'

        “Hello?” the soft voice of a young stallion came, as the recording crackled onwards. “Whoever you are, I just want to warn you.” Euphoria perked her ears, and peered around the edge of her current endless corridor of steel, before she decided it was safe and walked out. “Clearwater is gone...” his voice broke, as Euphoria frowned at the sound of his sobbing, but she didn't turn off the recording.

        “A mega-spell hit last night, and I barely managed to get myself down in time enough to feel the tremors. Oh, Celestia!” The recording cut out suddenly, and Euphoria was plunged back into the silence of the underground.        

        With a flick of her hoof, Euphoria made the next message play without having to stop. “...It's been two months since the world ended, and I can't say I feel happy to be alive. My entire family is dead, we... we didn't have enough money to get into one of those Stables we heard so much about. I hope those bastards at Stable-Tec burn in acid!” Yet again, the recording cut out, and Euphoria was quick to turn on the next one as she stepped into another interconnected corridor, and she wondered briefly if this would be her life now.

        “Seven.... I've been locked in this room for seven months now. What meagre food-supplies I had, are long gone, but strangely enough I don't feel hungry or anything. Heh!” The stallion chuckled for a few seconds, before he continued. “Life goes on right?”

        Euphoria shivered as she switched on the next message. “Had my first contact with another live pony yesterday. Said his name was Shining Storm. What an odd name, right?” Euphoria frowned as the recording cut off so briefly, but she simply turned on the last one in the chain. “Fucking flank-hole! Storm and a couple of his buddies decided to attack me this morning, so I guess that goes to show that kindness no longer exists, huh?

        “Never-mind. He didn't get what he wanted though, as I locked the door, but not before one of his guys made his way inside. I guess I got a new bed now.... They spent hours on trying to get inside, but eventually they gave up and scurried away into the dark recesses of this tomb.”

        The stallion coughed violently, before he spoke hoarsely again. “I think it's a good thing that I got locked up here alone, at least. My mane keeps thinning, and bits of fur are vanishing from my coat.” Another violent coughing-fit hit the stallion, and a brief pause of static lingered.

        “How long has it been? I can't... I can't remember... This headache is making it so fucking hard to think! And I'm... hungry.... For once, I'm glad that I kept the body of this guy around for so long....M-maybe Iron Will was right...” The recording hissed and gave out, as Euphoria held a hoof to her mouth, before she stopped and threw up in a pile of junk.

        Piles of junk were exactly all that was left of what had once been the one thing that kept Equestria from flowing over with pony-waste. Euphoria tasted bile, as she mulled over the recording in her head. Another lost soul, and this one too had turned to cruel things, or had he? Euphoria couldn't be sure, and it made her shiver.

        For the moment, Euphoria shoved it to the back of her mind as she stopped dead in her tracks and squinted her eyes at the floor, as she saw a thin string run just above it until it reached a steel-bar roughly welded to the metal-flooring. Her eyes quickly jutted over to the other side and traced the string, as it ran up the side of the wall, and connected to a pin that held back a large piece of foul-smelling meat. All around the slab of flesh, large wooden spikes were impaled, and Euphoria had to back away as fresh blood dripped from a few of them.

        Spike death-trap? No thanks, Luna, Euphoria thought as she perked her ears, and stepped over the string, as she hugged the wall with one side and peered up the lettuce staircase as it led up, then banked to the right, and then to the right again as it connected to the next level. A chuckle rang out from atop the staircase, as Euphoria saw the shadow of a pony fall onto the rusted steps in front of her.

        “Twist!” The mare called out hoarsely, as her shadow twisted and she turned on the soles of her hooves. “Why the fuck do we have to guard this fucking shit-dump of a watershed, again?” Euphoria perked her ears in the pregnant pause, but there came no answer. “Nothing ever comes out of here, and when a pony happens to wander down into there, the ghouls kill' em, so indulge me will you, fuck-face?” Even though she couldn't see the pony, Euphoria knew that the mare had a wild grin on her face as she spoke.

        “Believe me, bitch, I don't like it either, but somebody has to guard the shithouse too, you know,” a stallion said grimly as he chuckled and another shadow joined the mare's. “Fucker up there will still get his.” Both of them laughed at that, when Euphoria got an idea and stepped forward as her hooves pinged against the cold metal, and it groaned back in response. “What the fuck was that?” The stallion called out, but Euphoria didn't stop and just kept climbing.

        She came to the bend and turned to look up at the two ponies. On top of the staircase a mare in cobbled-together, rusted armour covered in deadly spikes stood, next to a stallion in no armour. Both of them were covered in red paint from muzzle to flank. The paint swirled in different patterns on their hooves, but it ran in spikes on their heads and backs. “Hey!” Euphoria called out, and got their attention immediately, as their fierce bloodshot eyes stared at her. “Want me? Come and get me!” She grinned fiercely as she stood in the staircase.

        “Get over here, cunt!” the stallion shouted and galloped down the staircase as the mare pulled a rusty, jagged knife from her barding and followed the stallion. Euphoria twisted and galloped down the staircase, as the stallion followed her, and tried to grab her by the tail. “I'm gonna rip your tail off!” he screamed as Euphoria slid on the metal floor and caught the string with her hooves as she watched the heavy meat swing above her.

        “What the fu--” With a loud scream, the stallion choked on his own voice as several spikes tore into his side and he banged roughly against the wall, as foamy blood dripped from his muzzle. Euphoria lifted her head and grinned at the stallion as he looked back at her with fiery eyes. “F-fu-fucking....” Groaning, the stallion ripped free from the trap, and in the process caused a few of the wooden spikes to tear open his wounds further, as the rest broke and shattered inside.

        Deathly wounded, the stallion stumbled forward a few metres and fell to the floor in a pool of his own blood, and after a second, one of the red marks on Euphoria's E.F.S., winked out as she smiled in victory. “Fucking idiot,” the mare mumbled out as she still held the knife between her teeth, and stepped over the body of the stallion, so Euphoria backed away. “You still have to get through me, filly, and that's not going to happen.”

        Raider mare blinked her eyes as she looked at the dirty, yet very clear brown of Euphoria's fur beneath her scuffed armour, as she grinned wildly. “Want to know what we did to the last Stable-mare we caught? Oh, she was a barrel of laughs!” The mare chuckled grimly and took a step forward, as Euphoria took one backwards. “She didn't stop crying until she got a face full of shrapnel!”         

        Anger filled up Euphoria's eyes, as adrenaline fuelled her hooves and she leapt forwards, as the raider mare dodged her and delivered a knife-slice to Euphoria's hooves as she slid to a stop, and Euphoria swung deftly at the air with her jagged shovel; blood dribbling down her coat. “Do you like the sight of your own blood?”

        Charging forwards, the raider mare hit Euphoria, and stabbed at her wildly, and managed to land a few slashes across Euphoria's face, and she cried out loudly in pain as she thrashed against the raider mare, tossing the mare roughly against a wall, but she rose again as she chuckled grimly, seeming completely unharmed, as Euphoria fought back tears. “Just like a little filly!”

        “You... hurt innocents....” Euphoria panted as she cleared away her tears with a hoof and squared her gaze at the mare in rutted armour, with three pony ears tied on a blood-smeared string, tied around her throat. “Now... I'm going to hurt you!” she growled and brought her shovel to bare, but the raider dodged it deftly as she danced around the cramped hallway with an odd grace in her step. “Stand still!” Euphoria mumbled out as she was once again tasting wood.

        “First I'm over here,” Raider mare teased and leapt out of the way of danger as she delivered yet another slash with her knife, and Euphoria groaned in pain. “Then, I'm over here!” The mare giggled in glee, but forget herself and yelped loudly as the shovel hit her face with a sickening crunch, so she hit the floor hard, blinked for a second and screamed as she thrashed and held a hoof to her mouth.

        Holding the shovel in her mouth, Euphoria looked down at the mare, as she writhed and looked back up at her with fear in her eyes. “D-don...” Raider mare's voice gave out, as blood pooled in her mouth, and Euphoria turned her head, and brought the shovel back around, slashing the mare across the face, causing her to hit the floor hard again.

        “You don't... deserve it!” Euphoria called out grimly and brought the shovel down onto the mare's skull, and watched as it impacted and cracked her skull. Slowly, Euphoria backed away from Raider mare's twitching form and dropped the shovel as the mare kept screaming in agony, a hoof clutched against her own skull.

        Almost black blood flowed from at least half a dozen cuts all over Euphoria's body as she hobbled up the staircase again, leaving a thick strand of liquid in her wake. Pain pulsed from the open gashes, but Euphoria simply gritted her teeth together and winced at each step she took. The bitter taste of copper lingered in her mouth, as she turned on the staircase and found herself on the second floor.         

        She limped towards another set of stairs that had flickering red lights adorning in the front of each metal step, but she frowned as a large metal door blocked the opening. Quickly, Euphoria scanned around the floor, but it contained only piles of rubble and a rusty terminal with a dark screen, next to a pair of large tanks that were flaking badly. Euphoria groaned and leaned against the wall as the metal around her creaked in pain.

        A click echoed through the hallway, as an electrical buzz rang out and Euphoria jumped backwards, so she bumped into the railing on the staircase. The hulking metal-panel that blocked her way out, slid away and she glimpsed green wallpaper in the room above. With renewed vigour, Euphoria trotted forward and grinned as she saw the handle, connected to the power-box on the wall, but she shook her head slightly.

        Euphoria hobbled up the staircase and brushed past another dead terminal, sitting on a table that wanted to collapse at any minute. She stepped through a doorway, and stood in a small room, but grimaced as her Pip-Buck clicked away in glee, and her E.F.S., flashed red with hostility. The soft sounds of heightened voices, carried through the thin walls, so Euphoria leaned close to one.

        “Can't we just gut' em?” a grim voice said gruffly, and Euphoria looked at her screen as five red lines travelled back and forth, with one yellow one remaining stationary. “Damn it! I want some food!” the same pony said, and growled menacingly but shrieked as some-pony hit him.

        “Be quiet! Sludge wants us to keep this flank-hole out here, alive,” a different stallion shot back, and chuckled. “At least until a mutant or something rips his treacherous flank a new hole!” A cacophony of laugher rang out briefly, but died down almost as quickly.“Fucker doesn't deserve that! If I were Sludge, I would have burned him alive!” A mare giggled madly as she trotted around. “Or we could cut him up into little pieces, and feed him to those foals back in the pens!”

        “Shut up!” another mare called out. “We're stuck out here, and I have to listen to your fucking psychoshit? Be fucking quiet, or I'll rip out your fucking throats and let you bleed to death!” Euphoria grinned a bit at that and moved towards the flaking, blue door with a barely legible logo imprinted on it; Inside a white circle, a white lightning bolt shined inside the stencilled out insignia of a water droplet.

        She took one last look at the lines of red and, and checked her ammo supply as she breathed heavily. Five bullets... five bullets... I can't miss... Euphoria repeated to herself several times, before she burst through the door and slid to a halt in the dirt outside, as she bit on her battle-saddle and sent a bullet flying.

        A mare squealed in agony, as the bullet tore right through her windpipe and her throat spilled blood onto the dark ground, with the mare falling as well as she clutched her throat with a hoof. Hoarsely, through her bubbling voice she called out. “Get her! Get the bitch and impale her!” The four other raiders sprang into action, and leapt behind the makeshift cover of toppled over tables and lockers; whilst Euphoria leapt behind a rock, as semi-automatic fire rang out and pinged against the rock, chipping it in the process.

        Large, heavily rusted beams towered around Euphoria and the raiders. It ran behind the little, dented shed she had been in earlier, and all around the little settlement which was not large at all. Inside, there were only toppled over furniture, and a zebra-stallion sitting inside a makeshift cell, made from two metal-carts welded together.

        “I'm going to enjoy gutting you!” a stallion cried out in ecstasy, before he shrieked and leapt over his cover as he galloped for Euphoria. “Fucking mare!” he shouted as he screamed wildly, and Euphoria jumped up from behind her cover and fired a shot, so the stallion's head exploded in blood and guts, as her bullet tore straight through his eye-socket, and he fell limply onto the ground.

        Sliding into cover again, now behind one of the toppled over lockers, Euphoria winced, and saw the streak of blood that followed in her wake. The pain throbbed in her body, but she had to push through, as now was not the time to become faint and fall asleep. “I'm gonna cut you up!” A mare cackled, and Euphoria's ears perked as she cast a furtive glance towards the imprisoned zebra, before she crept up from her cover and fired a bullet towards the cackling mare, as she stepped out from cover.        

        “You're so dead!” the raider mare cried out hoarsely, but shrieked as the bullet hit her hoof, and she toppled over onto the locker she was using as cover as blood poured from her mouth, and her wounded hoof, but her weapon decided to take a flying trip. The SMG that had been latched onto the mare's armour took off, and slid into the muck on the ground – far away from the mare.

        Euphoria got to her shaking hooves and darted across the open area, as the beams cast long shadows across the ground and bullets pinged into the earth behind her. “Get your fucking flank back here!” the stallion shouted angrily after her, as he reloaded his hunting rifle as quickly as he could, but Euphoria didn't stop, and slid up to the zebra's cage.

        “Don't free me, and just let me die here,” the zebra male spoke softly, but Euphoria shook her head, and fired a bullet into the rusty lock, and it broke into two pieces with a satisfying crack. She cast him a soft smile, and leapt back behind a rock, as she looked at her dwindling ammo-counter with a frown.

        As Euphoria peeked over her rock, the buck was ready to fire and bit down on his rifle, but his look of victory deflated as his rifle gave out with a light ping, and then jammed itself. Euphoria herself, grinned as she jumped from her covered and fired a shot towards the buck, and watched his head twitch backwards as the bullet pierced through his nose and exited out the back of his flimsy mane.

        Everything went silent, as Euphoria stumbled forwards and pain flooded her mind when the adrenaline gave away. She screamed and thrashed, as she dropped onto the ground in a pool of her own blood, as it poured from a thousand little gashes around her body. Her vision dwindled, as she heard the mad cackling of another raider as he trotted up to her.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk: Little Leaguer – Years as the Stable's MVP has honed your hitting and throwing skills. You gain 5 points to Melee Weapons and Explosives; this increments with each rank of this perk.