//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 First blood and bone and everything else // Story: Fallout Equestria: Shattered Armour // by willm111 //------------------------------// Chapter 2: First blood and bone and everything else You starting to get what I meant about questions? I had a bunch at that stage, but they had to take a back seat to not dying. I went along with what Scarlet proposed because it was clear it meant something to her that I pay this “debt” and because I wanted to do something meaningful. Getting paid for it was just survival. That was all I ever wanted: to do something that made a difference to at least one pony’s life. I never did that in the war. ... Yeah I was part of the royal guard, but in the later stages of the war, after the regular army was established, they didn’t really DO anything. Just guard the palace and Canterlot, which never came under direct attack. They were too outdated. Not enough guns, and too much old fashioned thinking. Just a bunch of pretty ponies in shiny armour. ... Sigh. I joined because they had a great history of training battlemages, and magic was my special talent. And they did teach me well. I just didn’t do anything with that training. That’s why I started working directly for Celestia. ... No spoilers! The answer to that is part of the story. Something to look forward to no? NO? Then shut up and listen things are about to get interesting. And by interesting I mean dark, violent, and downright creepy. Yay Stables. ... No you won’t need a bucket but let’s just say I didn’t need a spell to conceal the colour of my mane when we were done. ... Okay maybe YOU need that bucket. Anyway we were walking down the road to the Stable when... <----------------------------------------------------> “And then he said 'That's not a ghoul that’s a cactus!' Bwhahahaha!” Scarlet cackled as she finished the joke. “Okay so what’s a ghoul?” I asked. If she was going to bombard me with inane stories and jokes I should at least try to understand them. As she explained what ghouls were, it only increased my level of despair and the belief that I had died and this was some sort of purgatory. So now I have to deal with undead ponies that feed on radiation whose minds decay until they're blood thirsty monsters. Wonderful, as if being an aberration of nature myself wasn’t enough, there were rotting zombies that may or may not be completely insane to deal with as well. There was one thing about them that was extremely interesting to me. “They’re immortal?” I asked. “Well they die if you shoot them of course, but they don’t age. There are some ghouls who were alive before the Great War still running around.” Still alive after 200 hundred years. It was a long shot but Maripony would have been a big target for bombs. If Twilight Sparkle had survived... I signed and surveyed the blasted landscape for the hundredth time. How could anypony... anyone, considering the griffin by my side, survive in this? There was nothing but rolling hills covered in dry withered grass, interspaced with the remains of sky chariots and houses. I even saw one or two skeletons just lying by the side of the road. “We’re here!” Scarlet announced. My eyes snapped forward. We were in front of a Pony Joe’s! I might have felt sad seeing this once bustling diner reduced to such a sorry state. Every window was broken, the paint was chipped and peeling, and the sign had been torn off entirely by some enterprising scavenger. I should have felt sad seeing a symbol of old Equestria like this, but I always hated donuts. “Really? This is a Stable? It looks extremely comfortable, except for the complete lack of radiation shielding.” She punched me in the shoulder, or tried to, I was a bit too tall for that so she hit my upper leg instead and rolled her eyes. “You rookie, all Stable entrances were concealed above ground! They were Equestria’s worst kept secret.” I nodded, that made sense. I had heard a lot about Stables but had never actually seen one. “Okay where’s the entrance?” I asked, I wanted to get started! I could feel my blood pumping, we were going to do this! Descend into a piece of Tartarus itself and return with a priceless treasure! SO! AWESOME! “Dunno. Inside, I guess? The guy I spoke to said it was inside the Pony Joe’s at the end of the highway.” Well, that was a mood killer. Did we even have the right place? I surveyed the surrounding again. Sure enough the road did seem to tail off right here. Was it covered in sand or dirt over time, or did they really stop building the road here? “Lets get inside.” I saw that Scarlet had pulled out her gun, so I did the same with my shotgun. Shotguns work well in confined spaces right? And you don’t have to aim much, so that would work for me. I really wasn’t very good with guns. The inside of the diner was in even worse shape. Drifts of litter filled every corner and most of the seat covers had rotted into something squishy. My wings scraped the ceiling and walls, giving me an unpleasant tingle. Why were they even up? How long had they even been up like that? I pulled them to my sides as tightly as I could while keeping my eyes forward. “Did you hear that?” Scarlet spoke suddenly. I hadn’t heard anything. Curse you stupid wings! I didn’t mind being bigger than any other pony but what was the point of extra limbs I didn’t know how to use? ... What about my fifth leg? What do you mean fif... Ooh. Anyway I heard the noise the second time the thing moved, a scuttling noise that made my hide crawl. It came from around the where a door labelled "staff only" was sitting ajar. Scarlet glanced sideways and nodded towards the door. I returned the nod. She glanced at me again and nodded her head twice towards the door. I returned with two nods as well. Yes I had heard the noise. What are we supposed to do now. Scarlet groaned quietly and broke her silence. “Well go check it out, you fool.” What?! She wanted me to go first?! What if she was setting me up to shoot me in the back? But why wouldn’t she have just done that back at the cave? Why bring me this far? Maybe she just thought I could deal with it better than her? My musings were rendered obsolete as the creature lurking around the corner of the bar decided to break our stalemate. I didn’t see it clearly, but I was feeling too highly strung to take any risks. I fired my shotgun, but all it did was create a small crater in the floor to the right of the thing. Now that it was out in the open I could see it was a quite small but I didn’t see it clearly, I was too caught up levitating my shotgun around. I fired again this time hitting the floor to the left of the creature. It was running in some crazy zigzag pattern straight towards me! Was it intelligent? Whatever it was, I now faced it with an empty gun. Good thing I brought a spare! I dropped the shotgun and tore the SMG out of its holster and thrust it forward. Let’s see it dodge this a point blank range! To my amazement I hit the thing. Not with a bullet but with the gun barrel, immobilizing the thing by squeezing it between floor and gun. It was a roach bigger than my hoof. I had been blazing away fighting with very nearly all I had against an oversized BUG! Scarlet collapsed laughing. “Oh you better watch out! Those things will kill you! AHAHAHAHA!” “Shut. Up.” I lifted the gun away from the creature and glared at it. It waved its antenna at me, as if it observed me with similar disdain then scuttled past me out the diner door. “C’mon, enough fucking around, let’s find the entrance.” Scarlet took the lead through the staff door to the back. Now if I was a pre-war scientist hiding a giant bunker where would I put it? Behind the door there was a storeroom, kitchen, and an office. I started going through every room. None of the doors were locked. Mostly they were devoid of everything but a few cardboard boxes. I looked for switches, trap doors, maybe even a sign saying this way to the Stable, but found nothing of interest. Scarlet riffled through every box and container she could find. I thought she was just messing around until I realized that she was doing the smart thing and scavenging. After a few minutes I broke our mutual silence. “You find anything?” I asked when we finished searching the office. “Naw, this place has been picked clean.” So others had been here before us. That worried me. How long ago had they been here? I sighed and went back to the hallway. There was one last door to try. Feeling frustrated, I turned and bucked the door down. It hurtled into the room and smashed into the far wall. Oohh that felt good. How long had it been since I really hit something? '200 years,' a nastier part of me replied. I muttered under my breath as I went into the room. It was a garage, I think, or rather a loading port for trucks delivering supplies for the diner. That was suspicious. Why would a small diner need such a large space. I smiled. I knew we had found it now. “It’s here. Look for switches, doors, the Stabletec logo anything...” Click. Scarlet had slipped through the door behind me flipped a large lever. I didn’t even know she was there. Incredibly sneaky and little impulse control, why was she starting to worry me? I was about say something along the lines of ‘The burned hoof teaches the best’ but the floor went out from under me, literally. The entire floor dropped a half a meter and started sliding to the left revealing a staircase wide enough for five ponies to walk abreast. I had great view of this as I was floating in the air lightly flapping my wings. I was flying! It just felt so natural, so easy. I had done it by reflex without even realising. As if I had done it a thousand times before. Nothing should feel so good and so wrong at the same time. I snapped my wings back to my sides and dropped heavily onto the stairs. I turned and glared at my wings. I wonder if I could just cut them off with the machete? It would save me a lot of trouble. Wait did I really just think that? Was I seriously considering mutilating myself just because I found flying too strange? But I’m a unicorn! I’m not supposed to fly! No I’m an Alicorn. I can fly. I can use magic. I can do whatever I want! Put like that, it didn’t seem so bad. So I had wings. So I was bigger than other ponies. These are improvements, not a curse. What sort of pony doesn’t want more power? I grinned, savagely satisfied with the conclusion my internal dialogue had reached. “Well, are you coming?” Scarlet called from the bottom of the stairs. She had slipped past without me noticing again. She grinned up at me “It’s about to get interesting!” “Hay yeah!” I returned and galloped down the stairs. ... Yes, I say hay instead of hell you got a problem with that? ... Yes I can swear, arse, fuck, shit, cunt, hell, bastard, I just choose not to, my parents raised me like that. ... I’d like to see you say that to their faces. You’d be picking splinters out of your plot for weeks. Anyway we got to what we had been looking for, the stable door... <----------------------------------------------------> “Sooo... these things usually left open?” “I dunno. Makes it easier, right?” Scarlet's lack of concern was starting to worry me. In the cave she had told me Stables were either full of paranoid ponies too scared to open the door and venture out into the wastes or full of whatever had killed them. Neither of these seemed the sort to leave the door open. The doorway was a massive cog shaped entrance; it was brightly lit from within revealing stairs leading up to a platform with a control panel and two doors with signs above them. One read "Atrium" and the other "Storage". As we advanced into the stable I saw that the cog shaped door had been pulled to the left by some device hanging from the ceiling. So the door had been left open, not forced, but why? The entrance itself seemed deserted; no pony was there to greet us. There was not much of anything actually, not even any dirt. A good change from the usual rubbish, muck, and rust that covered everything in the wasteland. Who maintained all this? Was Stable-Tec just that good? But why would they shut the hidden entrance but not this more secure door? Why... "Oi, you got a constipated look. You feeling alright?" Scarlet snapped me out of my contemplation. "Constipated!?" "Yeah, you know when you can't take a shit. You looked like that." She said plainly. "I was thinking," I growled. "Guess you don't know what that looks like." She shrugged "Spend too much time thinking and you're dead. Come on, we need to head downwards to the service levels. That's where we'll find the prize!" She reared back onto her hind legs and stalked forward holding her gun with both claws. She looked quite menacing. She was finally in her element, a mercenary, not a guide or a teacher. Maybe this could work out after all. I drew my SMG to accompany my shotgun and advanced with her up the stairs. A brief glance showed the storage room was a cul-de-sac filled with empty shelves, machines and consoles. Everything was free of rust, but there was a thin layer of dust over everything. 'Nothing too suspicious,' I thought. No pony would come here without reason, and there was no reason to come here. Except for the Stable door, why would they leave it open? I couldn't make any sense of it! I went back the lobby and inspected the control panel. It seemed straightforward, move lever, shut door. I just hoped it could be opened afterwards. "Come oooooonnn! Stopped dawdling! I don't know why I bothered bringing your lazy arse along," Scarlet whined from beyond the atrium door. She had opened it and gone through without making a sound. Her sneaking and haste were really beginning to get on my nerves. I grumbled silently and followed her down a hallway into a larger room. It was a courtyard reaching up to balconies on three sides. On the forth side directly opposite us there was a wall with a large round window set into it. Within the courtyard there was nothing but four doors leading to staircases, two up, two down. The two leading up were labelled "Overmare's Office" and "Cafeteria" respectively. The two leading down were labelled "Maintenance" and "Living quarters", I nodded towards the Maintenance door. "We need to head down yes?" "That thinking work out for you then?" Scarlet answered mockingly, "I'll take point, and you cover my back." She advanced towards the doorway but suddenly stopped dead. "You hear that?" "Hear what?" My patience was beginning to wear out, but then I heard it too. A sort of dull airy roar like a hoof drier. "Fuck, it's a robot." Scarlet muttered darkly. She flicked a tab on her gun, removed the clip, and replaced it with another from her vest. "What are they?" I asked. "Armour piecing rounds." I glanced down at my own weapons. "Don't suppose you got any armour piecing rounds for these?" I waved my weapons vaguely in her direction. She glanced at them briefly before returning her gaze to the doorway. "Ten mil? Yeah, same as my gun but different clips. There's no time to change them over." She was right, something had reached the top of the stairs and was advancing into the atrium. It was, as Scarlet said, a robot, a domestic model I think. It was composed of a large central sphere with several optical sensor orbs extending from it. It balanced on a jet of magic current blasting from below it, keeping its body a meter off the ground. Between these it had an array of arms ending in various tools including grabbing claws, a flame thrower, and a circular saw blade. The blade held my attention for a moment before I realised that, despite our expectations, the robot had not attacked. It only continued to advance towards me. "Hold up, I think it's friendly." Scarlet said lowering her weapon. "Try talking to it." "Why me? You're supposed to be the leader?" I protested, I really didn't like the look of that saw blade. "Right. So I'm giving you leadership. Anyway most of the stables were made for ponies not griffons. It might not respond to me." I couldn't argue with that logic, as much as I wanted to. I went forward until I was within hooves reach of the thing, then tried to greet it. Tried to being the point. Scarlet was right, the robot did respond to me. It grabbed my neck with one of its claws. I gasped trying to catch my breath as my magical grip of my weapons failed and flailed at the arm with my forehooves. The machine just regarded me impassively, then it fired up the saw blade. Just before I could piss myself in terror, a hail of bullets tore into the robot from the right. I glanced to see that Scarlet had moved to flank the thing before firing. Nice to know she cared enough to not try shooting through me. The machine twitched, sparked, then exploded into pieces. I collapsed to the ground, the claw still gripping my neck. I grabbed it in my forehooves and hurtled it away in disgust. Why had it tried to kill me? No, why had it tried to kill me in THAT way? It had a flamethrower, why not just roast me? "We'll at least you make a good decoy." Scarlet chuckled. "Heads up, there's more on the way." I glared at her. "I'll show you what a trained guard can do. Stay right there." I moved past the doorway in time to see two more of the same kind of robot slowly advancing up the hallway from the stairs. I snatched up my guns and moved to the left side of the doorway as close to the wall as I could. Then, I waited. The first robot moved out into the atrium and turned to face me. Before it could, I lunged forward past it's outthrust arms and pressed my shotgun up against it central body. BLAM!BLAM! Both barrels fired, just to be sure. It exploded in a shower of sparks. Before it hit the ground I orbited my SMG around it to point at the second machine behind it. I squeezed the trigger and didn't stop until the gun clicked empty, the robot thrashed in a spectacular display of sparks before collapsing to the ground as its propulsion jet failed. I turned back to grin at Scarlet "So how does that rate?" I reloaded both of my guns simultaneously. "Nine out of ten for style three out of ten for ammo conservation. A full clip for one enemy? What a waste. I'm not going to give you any ammo now." She sounded bored. “Don’t you have any magic to use? I saw one Alicorn throw a bunch of magic arrows through some Steel Rangers once. Can’t you do that?” “Magic arrows? I know that spell!” We began moving down the hallway to the stairs. “Soaring Blade’s Silver Arrows. It’s one of the oldest combat’s spells in the world, it’s at least five hundred, I mean seven hundred years old.” I corrected. “So do it! Or is your horn not up to it?” She turned back to glance at my shortened horn. I signed. “That’s not why I’ve been holding back, my magic’s just felt uncontrollable since I woke up. It’s... it’s like using a gun that’s all rusted. You know it should work but you don’t want to risk it.” I explained. “Hmmm... alright so why is your horn like that then?” We had reached the bottom of the stairs. A long, slightly dusty corridor stretched before us, ending in another staircase. There was a door to our right in the wall and T-junction just past it. “Foalhood accident. A friend of mine and I were hiding in the hedges trying to learn magic to get our cutie marks. We were so focused on our horns I didn’t hear my dad start the chainsaw. It was one of these new special ones for unicorns, powered by the users magic. I had just fired up my horn when he carved right into it.” Scarlet winced, most people did when they heard this story. “Ouch, so your own farther cut your horn down? That’s harsh.” She shook her head, but then looked up accusingly. “Hang on, unicorn horns grow back, I know they do!” I smiled. It was common mistake. “Not really, it takes healing magic to grow back a horn entirely, but it wasn’t that simple. My magic and the chainsaw’s magic interfered with each other. My horn wasn’t cut. It exploded.” Scarlet’s beak dropped open in awe. At least I hoped it was awe, if she started thinking I was lying it would just get embarrassing. “How did you survive that?” Yay! She did believe me. I was in full story telling mode now, both of us had slowed to a crawl as we continued along the hall, homing in on the shut door. “Lots of expensive reconstructive surgery. My dad had some friends in the Ministry of Peace who tried a bunch of experimental procedures. They worked pretty well, but there were some side effects.” “It didn’t all grow back?” We stopped side by side in front of the door. “Yes, but that wasn’t the only change. You see I can...” While talking I had reached out my hoof and tapped the door switch next to the door opening it. The whole room was full of the same robots as before. In perfect sync they turned to face us. “Run.” Scarlet’s voice was full of dread. I tried to think of a plan but Scarlet had already run off back down the corridor. I had to follow, so I turned on my hooves and powered forward just in time. I felt the grabbing claw of the lead robot pluck a hair out of my mane. I fought the urge to look back and focused instead on keeping up with the griffon in front of me. For a moment I thought I had the wrong griffon, Scarlet had turned completely white! I don’t mean going very pale as most living things do when they get a shock. I mean that she was now white, from beak to tail, instead of black. How did she do that? I know griffons don’t have that sort of magic. My confusion over Scarlet's sudden change was replaced by the shock of seeing her outpace me. “Hey!” I called, “Where are we going!” If she heard me she didn’t respond. I lost sight of her as she reached the top of the stairs leading back to the atrium. I reached the top of the stairs and jerked to a halt. Scarlet was nowhere to be seen. Where had she gone? OUT! Of course, the robots wouldn’t follow us out of the stable... I hoped. In any case, in the wastes we would have more space to outrun them. I charged towards the exit flailing my wings, stupid things were getting all over the place. I pulled them tight. Maybe I should tie them down or something. That would be better than using the machete certainly. My inner musing was stopped dead by what I saw in the entrance room. The Stable door had been shut, and to top it all off, there was no sign of Scarlet anywhere. I groaned and went to the control panel. Please Luna and Celestia, don’t tell me Scarlet left me here to die! I couldn’t be certain, but was the panel just as I left it? It was clearly in the position labelled open, but the door was shut. I reached out with my magic and pulled the leaver into the closed position. It moved without any resistance at all, nothing happened. Suspicions growing, I bent over to look at the underside of the control panel, various cables twined around its supports leading into the floor. All of them had been cut, with a saw, I think. I stood upright comprehension dawning. This whole place was a trap! The door was controlled remotely and left open to bring fresh prey inside then shut behind, trapping them inside. But... where was Scarlet? I stuck my head into the store room and called out for her there was no reply. Where was she? Had she gotten out of the doorway before it shut? It didn’t matter, I needed to find away to deal with the robots. I returned to the entrance room. This was a good place to make a stand, one entrance I knew they would come through with plenty of space on my side. They could only come at me one at a time. Perfect. As I took up position in front of the doorway a grinding sound drew my attention to the left. A panel in the wall had slid aside revealing four robots! I screamed and turned my guns on them unleashing a hail of bullets and buckshot. Some struck the lead robot, but most hit the wall harmlessly. “Why? Why do I suck at this?!” I screamed as I dashed back down the corridor to the atrium. Once there, I could see that the other robots had reached the top of the stairs at last. They really moved slowly. Ten out of ten for menace, two out of ten for effectiveness. Good grief, Scarlet was rubbing off on me, still it gave me an idea. If I could outrun them and find out how to shut them down... I would live long enough to smack Scarlet’s flank for leaving me behind. I looked towards the Overmare’s office door. That seemed to be the right place for a control room. I ran through the door only to collide with another robot coming the opposite way. It was just as surprised as I was. Luckily I had the better footing. The robot unbalanced on it’s hover jet and fell onto it’s back. I wasted no time in rearing up on my hind legs and dropping back down with my forehooves together slamming them into the robot with my full weight behind it. The sphere crumpled and sparked, the robot flailing arms went still. Score one for Canterlot hoof-to-hoof combat training! My elation was short lived. There were three more robots coming the hallway. I turned back around to see the atrium was quickly filling up with more machines. They were spreading out in a line to surround me. I had only one place left to go. The Cafeteria doorway. Yet again, I surged forward. All this running around, but I wasn’t even short of breath. I had always been quite fit; you can’t go on patrol all day in full armour without developing some stamina. This time nothing blocked my way. The doorway led me down a hallway to a closed door. I pressed the door switch with my magic, dashed through it when it opened, pressed the button on the other side to close it, then blasted it with my horn just for good measure. The control panel sparked and something within the door went ‘clunk’ but it remained closed. Finally, respite! I turned to survey the room I found myself in. It was, as the sign had proclaimed, a cafeteria. Rows of tables with benches filled the room from one wall to another. On the far wall there was a serving counter, behind it a door which I presumed lead to the kitchens. Kitchens. Well it was about lunchtime, so why not grab a bite to eat? ... Killer robots, yes I hadn’t forgotten. It’s called distraction or denial. You find something mundane to distract yourself from whatever bad thing is happening to you. ... Oh give me a break, yes it was stupid but I was still new at this. So anyway the kitchen... Completely bare. Not a snack or tin of beans to been seen. Had somepony already been here? Had Scarlet? The usual bench tops, cookers and other cooking implements surrounded me. Disturbingly they were all in perfect order and stacked away tidily. Only machines could achieve such precision and order. Or Twilight Sparkle. Her OCD tendencies were the source of much gossip in Canterlot, but I didn’t honestly expect that she was hiding in an abandoned Stable filled with killer robots. If only I was that lucky. There was another door at the back of the kitchen. It lead to a hallway full of more doors. Storerooms, larders, and directly opposite the kitchen door one labelled freezer. I wasn’t particularly interested in frozen food, but the freezer door was open. Curious, I went inside. It was dimly lit, and, of course, very cold, but not painfully so. Several carcases were hung from the ceiling. It wasn’t a pretty sight, the one directly in front of me was still fresh, I could see blood had dripped onto the floor. Wait a minute... Where had these carcases come from? Pigs were the favourite choice for meat pre-war but I hadn’t seen any. And who would take care of them and butcher them? Who had butchered this one? Whoever had done it had made a poor decision; this pig wasn’t very big and kind of... lanky. It’s legs did seem kind of long. This was a pig right? I trotted closer. You know it looked kind of like... I never saw the robot coming, all I felt was its claw wrapping around my neck. I tried to turn but it’s grip cut into my neck choking me. I bucked and hit something that was torn away, but the robot remained upright and pushed me forward. I unbalanced on my forehooves and collapsed onto the floor. Then I heard the saw start up. “Ohshitohshitohshitohshit.” See I can swear, that was almost all I could do as I saw the blade out of the corner of my eye moving towards the back of my neck. “NO!” I gasped, I reached out with my magic and grabbed the blade pushing it away from me and parallel to my neck. Right up into the carcass above my nose. It was kind of a sppllkkk! Noise. Blood and other unmentionable fluids and bits rained down on me. It burned my eyes and I couldn’t see, I just focused on keeping my grip on the saw blade. It was hell! More blood rained and it felt like I was drowning but then I heard a sound that at the time was as sweet as Luna’s singing. Scarlet’s gun fire. The rain of blood stopped abruptly, and the grip on my neck loosened as well. I lay there stupefied, trying not to breathe. Then I felt someone pull the claw off from around my neck. “Are you alright?” Scarlet asked nervously. I can’t imagine how I looked to her, lying on the floor covered in blood. “Where. The buck. WERE YOU!” I screamed, then gasped trying fill my lungs with fresh air instead of blood. “Hey I thought you could keep up! Pegusi are faster fliers than griffons generally.” I coughed, despite my efforts something solid had been inhaled. “I’m not a Pegasus, I’m... me. I couldn’t see where you went and I didn’t see you at the exit. Where were you?” I finally got onto my hooves and wiped the bloody muck out of my eyes. Scarlet looked quite shocked. She also looked completely black again. “Why did you go to the exit? I just headed straight here, to put some distance between us and them.” I stared stunned at her. “Why... why the hay wouldn’t you go to the exit?! We would have had the entire wasteland to outrun them in!” I screamed, how could anyone be so stupid! So short-sighted! “Well, I suppose that is a good idea. So why didn’t you do it? Why are you here instead of outside?” She asked scornfully. “The door was shut, you lead us into a bucking trap!” I tried to wipe away the bloody gunk that covering me but only seemed to succeed in rubbing it into my coat. “I told you this is risky business! So stop complaining. We’re getting out of here. No talisman is worth this. We need to get to the Overmare’s office, there should be some sort of override for the door there.” She turned away from me and stalked towards the door. “Alright, fine.” I hauled myself forward trying to ignore the slick cold feeling of blood on my body. Goddesses I was going to stink when we got outside! I spared a glance for the robot Scarlet had destroyed. “You see any more of these things up here?” I asked. “No there was just that one. I was following it until it found you.” Wheels started turning in my head again. “But you didn’t see me?” I asked conversationally. “Nope just the robot. It seemed to know where it was going so I followed. Why?” Scarlet stoped to look back at me in the kitchen. “It’s just... these things seem to have no trouble finding me, but they seem to be ignoring you. Why? Does it have anything to do with how you changed colour back there?” Scarlet turned away from me “What are you talking about.” I walked around to look her in the face again. “You turned white. Completely white. As white as you are black now. How?” Again Scarlet turned away to avoid looking me in the eye. “You’re seeing things.” I reached out with my magic and grabbed Scarlet’s head and turned her to face me. “I know what I saw. Tell me what you're hiding!” “You let go of me you fucking punk!” Scarlet screamed, struggling in my grip. I fought back trying to pin her down but we both stopped when we heard the noise. A high pitched mechanical screaming. I dropped Scarlet, and we both dashed out of the kitchen. The door was still sealed shut, but there was a cut in the door in the shape of the upper and left side of a rectangle. In the middle of a top edge I could see the curve of a saw blade. They were cutting through the door. “Shit. Here they come. Do you know how many there are?” Scarlet asked rearing onto her hind legs. I didn’t answer. I was thinking. The robots didn’t attack Scarlet. Why? She wasn’t a threat? No, it was more like they didn’t notice her. Well she was sneaky. They moved slowly, but only attacked in close combat. We didn’t have enough ammo, but they really weren’t that tough if I could break one with my bear hooves. I just had to stop them getting a hold of me. I could take them out with magic, but if they came at me more that two or three at a time I would be over whelmed. There were no weapons here, but the benches could be... “HEY! No time for being constipated now; we gotta fight!” Scarlet screamed in my ear but I ignored her. I had a plan. I stepped forward to the bare counter separating the kitchen from the cafeteria and fired up my horn. “Stay back and shut up.” To my surprise Scarlet did so. I grabbed the nearest table and turned it on it’s side, using it to sweep the benches out of the way, then left it on it’s side. I repeated this several times until I had created what I wanted. A corridor of tables leading from the door to counter right in front of me. I turned to Scarlet taking in her bemused look and started shoving my weapons and ammo into her arms. “Take up position behind the tables on the right side. When they reach halfway between here and the door, start taking out the ones just coming through the door, leave the rest to me.” For a moment she looked like she would start screaming again, but instead she nodded. “Got it.” Scarlet stuffed the ammo into her vest then, gripping her gun in one claw and my double barrel in the other, jumped over the counter to take up her position. I turned to face the door. I was almost ready for this. I just needed to make sure I could do what I was planning. I fired up my horn a shot a magic blast at the counter. It left a dent and a scorch mark about the size of my hoof in the metal, not nearly good enough. I poured more power into the spell and tried again. This shot tore through the counter out the other side and impacted with a bang in floor. That was more like it! Now we were ready. I glanced over to Scarlet at her position right by the door. She gave a claws up. A ringing endorsement. I couldn’t believe she had just done what I said. Maybe she just saw the sense in my plan? ... No I didn’t really think that. I was starting to get the feeling she was used to obeying orders rather than giving them. I turned back to the door. The saw blade had reached the first cut then withdrew. This was it. My first real battle in the wasteland. All I could think was don't throw up, don't throw up, don't throw up, don't throw up... The door fell in and I fired a blast blindly through the opening. The lead robot was pulverised and fell to the floor in the doorway, but two more robots floated over it unhindered. My magic flowed sluggishly, but it came. I fired two more shots each taking about a second. They fell too but it was long enough for the rest to pour through. They tried to spread out, but the heavy tables hemmed them in. They milled around in confusion but the ones in the lead broke away from the pack and continued heading towards me. I blasted them to pieces too. My plan was working perfectly! I continued to blaze away with my horn. The corridor of tables became littered with torn metal. At the rate I was going Scarlet wouldn't have to fire a shot. I became lost in the haze of battle. Every shot I fired ended with a sparkling explosion. Then suddenly it didn't. PING. I blinked, staring at the new type of machine that had come through the door. It stood on four legs ending in wheels that it rolled forward on. These supported a heavy torso and two grabbing arms. It had no head or neck to speak of, just a slight bump between it's shoulders that sheltered an optical sensor. "Well aren't you an ugly one." I was feeling cocky. It was just one more stupid robot to smash. I fired up my horn and unleashed an extra powerful blast just to make sure. PING. I stood there stunned, the shot had just left a small black mark in the center of the robots chest. It surged forward towards me with a claw out-stretched. I ducked down behind the work top just as the claw had punched through the air where I had been moments before. I rolled to the side as the arm bent at the elbow to scratch at the floor. I couldn't stay here; it's too penned in. I rolled to the left as far as I could, then vaulted over the bench. My graceful leap was interrupted by part of my table barrier smashing me out of the air. I landed badly. My legs went out from underneath me. I rolled onto my back in time to see the robot had broken through the barrier and was again charging at me. I was out of options. The one spell I could rely on couldn’t punch through that armour and I had no guns left. So I bucked it in the groin. From lying on my back it didn’t have much force, but it stopped it dead regardless, giving me time roll onto my belly. This time I gave it a full on buck to the chest that sent it reeling back. There was a sizeable hoof shaped dent in its chest. This was working! I followed up with another buck to the same spot. Unexpectedly the machine turned it torso to the left, my hooves glanced off its chest doing no more damage than a few scratches. The left arm reached around and grabbed my outstretched legs in a painful grip and started hoisting me up by them. I fell forward onto my face, my ears ringing. I needed to fight back but I couldn’t focus! Magic was useless, unless I risked trying one of my stronger spells meant for punching through armour. I fired up my horn, time to risk it. The machine was lifting my hooves towards the ceiling, letting me hang like a gutted fish. I could see it clearly once my head was clear of the ground, it looked even more menacing upside down. I started to mould the energy in my horn into the required shape, compacting it down into a small red hot ball that would explode like a jet of water when I wished. But it hurt, Celestia help me it hurt. I was on the verge on burnout, I could feel it. My body just wasn’t ready for this magic. But better to burn out than die. I focused on the machines chest ready to unease magical destruction. The machine punched me in the chest with it’s spare claw. I felt at least one of my ribs pop and crack and something within my belly burst like rotten piece of fruit. My horn flickered and died, I just couldn’t handle the pain and shock. I had never been injured before. ... I kid you not. Other than my horn exploding I had never been hurt worse than cuts or bruises. ... Yeah. I did cry. ... Like a little filly yes. Big bad Alicorn stallion crying like a little child in his first real fight in the wastes. Laugh it up, like none of you have ever cried. I choked trying to keep the contents of my stomach from choking me and blinked away the tears blinding me. I didn’t want to die! I had my mission! I had so many questions! Why can’t this be a bad dream? I cringed as the robot drew back it’s claw for another strike. Suddenly a savage scream tore the air a black shape landed on the machines shoulders. It dropped me in untidy heap. I struggled to my hooves to see a shocking, but welcome, sight. Scarlet was attacking the machine with her bare claws! The machines arms flailed around but couldn’t bend enough upwards to reach between its shoulders where Scarlet was perched. She clawed at the machines optical sensor until she gained a purchasing and tore the plate covering the machine's top clean off. Good grief, the muscles on that bird! My only regret was I couldn’t see clearly through my tears. ... Oh come on! Like you never checked out a mare when she’s showing off her awesomeness rather than her flank! She followed by whipping out the shotgun and shoving it inside the machine through the hole. Both barrels fired and tore the machine apart from the inside. The machine twitched a bit, then fell down spewing sparks. Scarlet rode it down, balancing on top to land in front of me. “And that how we used to do it back home! Hey are you crying?” I turned away from her to hide my face. “No.” I said as levelly as I could. “You are! What happened? You were doing so great until the big guy showed up then...” I turned back around and tackled Scarlet to the floor. Couldn’t she take a hint the stupid chicken! Why couldn’t she just back off?! “I said I’m fine!” I screamed in her face. “Just shut up... arrrrgghhhhh!!!!” My ranting turned into actual screams as she poked a claw into my still sore ribs. I rolled of her groaning. “Broken ribs, I thought as much. No wonder you’re so cranky. Here, take this.” She reached into her jacket and produced a bottle filled with purple liquid. A healing potion. I glared back at her and took the potion in a magical grip and broke the seal. I chugged the potion down while trying to look at Scarlet without showing I was looking at her. She had an expression of what I think was concern on her face. The pain in my ribs and gut finally eased up, I passed the bottle back to Scarlet and mustered the courage to look her in the eye. “Thanks, I needed that.” “No problem partner.” She replied as she took the bottle in her claw. I noticed the skin where her talons met flesh was torn up. Did she get that fighting the robot? Ouch. “You got any more of those?” I asked. “No that was the last.” Scarlet reached into her jacket and pulled out the shotgun and SMG. “You want these back?” She asked. I shook my head and pushed them back into her arms with my hoof. “You’re the gunslinger, I’ll stick with magic for now.” It was for best really. “Eh I prefer my claws, guns are just like a spray can of bullets. I like to keep things quiet.” I glanced over the ruined robot she had mutilated. Yes very quiet and subtle. “Come on, you need to get cleaned up.” That would be nice but we needed information more than comfort. “We should head for the Overmare’s office. We need answers.” I got to my hooves and walked past the table barrier. The little path was littered with robot parts, there wasn’t a single moving machine to be seen. Scarlet and I had really cleaned up. “So, your first real fight. I remember my first battle.” Scarlet began chattering as we walked side by side out of the mess hall. “I was a real mess. I threw up everywhere when it was over. At least you didn’t do that. How are you feeling?” A good question really. The pain was gone, the panic too. All that was left was a strange feeling of peace. I opened my mouth to say as much. Then I threw up. Notes: Level up! Level 2 New perk: Black Stallion - You're one good looking stallion! You get +10% damage to the opposite sex, and unique dialogue choices with other-gender individuals (whose barn door swings that way). You are half covered in blood, what sort you don’t know. Eeewwww.