//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Fallout Equestria: Grim Prospects // by RadiationRed //------------------------------// FALLOUT: EQUESTRIA GRIM PROSPECTS Chapter Four Choices and Consequences An MLP:FiM fanfic by Radiation Red “A mistake is always forgivable, rarely excusable and always unacceptable.” Wooden splinters cascaded onto Euphoria's ruffled mane and back, almost covering her in them. The bullets still tore through the railing in front of her, and popped fresh holes in the already damaged wood. Through all the mess, even as Euphoria had her hooves pressed firmly against her ears, she heard something. No matter how loud the cacophony of violence was, it couldn't hide the sound. Euphoria bit her lip hard enough to draw blood in an attempt to forget it, to just block it out; she needed to focus.         Her stomach churned violently, but it wasn't the meal she had eaten earlier that was on the way up. As Euphoria felt the taste of copper hit her tongue, like a searing piece of hot coal, her mind relented and she let the sound in. Hiding behind a wall inside the mess that could barely be called anything else than a rape-den, Night-Letter sat, whimpering. Each of her sobs, cut like a knife into Euphoria.         The sound of sadness in that low moaning, was overwhelming to Euphoria. It reminded her in a way that nothing else could, of why she was out here, and what she was really doing, but her mind was quickly drawn away from that thought as a searing pain pulsed from her left ear. Even before she had any time to process it, a bullet had pierced her ear, and Euphoria screamed.         How could anything hurt that much? For a moment, she felt as if she was back in the Stable having her left-hoof popped back into place, after a particular bad game of Baseball. Everything was blocked from her mind, and she could only focus in on the burning pain that locked up every muscle in her body, as she felt frail, weak.         She couldn't move, or do anything, and still she could hear Night Letter whimpering. It gnawed at her, and all the sadness she had felt just a moment was gone, rapidly being replaced by anger. Where the hell is he? Euphoria's mind shot at her. I told him to fucking wait, and he just leaves me here!? She didn't want to believe it, but at the same time, she was being shot at, so the truth was pretty clear.         What wasn't clear, was why. Every single thing had gone according to plan, and she hadn't angered any-pony – yet, so why where they here? And who were they? Euphoria felt uneasy and just wanted to roll over and never get up again. Sadly, the world wasn't fair, and just like in the Stable, she had to follow the world and its set of rules.         A shrill shout rang out in the room, and even a few glasses rattled as the sound blasted against them. It was, of course, a stallion's voice, Euphoria noted herself, and she wasn't even remotely surprised. “We know you're up there!” the stallion shot against her, but Euphoria sighed inwardly. “And we know that you didn't come alone, so where's your friend?”         Euphoria's eyes shot open at the news. Yiltse wasn't there. Had he openly abandoned her? Was his word simply a lie? If that was the truth, then why had he followed her for so long, even saved her in the first place?`She could barely handle it, but the shooting had stopped and that at least told her something.         “He's not here, just me!” Euphoria grinned as she said it with the sternest voice she could. “Go look some-place else,” she added after a small pause, apparently leaving her attackers baffled enough that they didn't respond. It left her feeling more victorious than full of anger and sadness; it left her, for lack of a better word – happy.                 Of course the peace didn't last long, so after a brief pause, the stallion spoke. “Listen, kid, we know he's around here, and we just want you two to leave.” Euphoria snorted, as the stallion's words rippled in her ears. Yeah, right. Why did you open fire immediately then? She thought, as she slowly pulled her hooves away from her ears and squinted through an open gash in the railing. “Come on out, and we'll let you leave.”         Standing in front of a group of heavily armoured cadre of stallions, dressed in an all blue armour with the insignia of a yellow sun on their chest-piece, was the shouting stallion. He himself was not dressed in the blue armour, but was instead dressed in the same crimson armour as the stallion guarding the door. Next to him, the honey-voiced mare from earlier stood, shaking, Euphoria noticed, but the stallions didn't spare her even as much as a glance.         “Fine, but before I go, tell me something.” Euphoria watched intently as the stallion standing at the front, jerked his head and pricked his ears. “Who in Equestria are you guys? You sure as hell aren't guards, and you don't look like the kind that would protect a place like this.” The stallion grinned, and finally cast a brief glance at the honey-voiced mare.         “Have they been so lazy?” The stallion nodded his head, and a guard slowly approached the staircase. He took short steps, so the tired wood didn't give away a sound, but Euphoria could see him. She smiled and ducked inside the room behind her, and quickly pulled a still sobbing Night Letter along; she motioned with her hoof and muffled her once, getting a nod in return. “Sending uneducated ponies into the world?”         As she moved along the railing, Euphoria peeked over the edge briefly, and saw that most of the downstairs area was vacant, and she still didn't notice Yiltse anywhere. “Trust me, I probably have more education than any of you!” she shouted over the railing, but quickly resumed pulling her new friend along.         The stallion sneered and stomped a hoof into the floor, as he shifted his weight. “Fleeing already?” A hearty laugh rang out in the room, but Euphoria just shook her head and continued, until she reached the centre of the second-floor area. She peeked to the left, and grinned as she saw swirling clouds through a thin slit running down the middle of two doors.         Long way down, but we can make... Euphoria thought as she turned back to Night Letter, and forced her best smile. “We have to go, but we have to go no-” She perked her ears, and heard wood creaking from the direction she had come from. “Now, we go now!” Euphoria reaffirmed and pulled her friend back onto her hooves. “Go!” she barked and nodded towards the two doors as the stallion stepped into full view, in front of the door to Night Letter's cell.         “You're insane!” a cracked voice chirped in as Night Letter darted for the door, and the stallion jerked as he saw the motion. Without hesitation, he slid into battle-stance. Euphoria followed him, and moved in-between him and Night Letter. A bright light, followed by the sudden thunder; she knew what it meant. Wobbling slightly, Euphoria looked towards her friend as she stood in front of the porch-railing.         She nodded as soon as she saw Euphoria, and the Stable mare didn't have to say anything more. Night Letter quickly turned away and bit her lip, as she jumped off the porch. As soon as she did, Euphoria turned her attention back to herself. Well... that's not so bad... She thought, as she inspected the gunshot wound; It had disregarded her leather-armour, and punched a hole straight through. Thankfully though, it was only a flesh-wound.         Before Euphoria could notice that she was almost glaring at her own butt, the snarling voice of the stallion in charge barked again. “You fucking idiot! You weren't supposed to shoot her! Get the other one!” The stallion in front of Euphoria looked dumbfounded at her for a second, but as soon as the orders hit him, he was back down on the first floor so fast, she could almost still see his shape in a puff of smoke.         Oh no! Her eyes went wide, as she looked towards the outside, then back over the railing. “Sorry, gotta go!” Euphoria grinned briefly, as the stallion simply snarled back. She galloped towards the door, and winced at the pain as she leapt into the air. Euphoria caught herself smiling as she soared gracefully through the cool air, not noticing just how quick the ground was approaching.         Screaming and kicking wildly, Euphoria was brought back to her senses. “Fucking hell that hurts!” she shouted into the air, as she looked up, seeing a cracked railing in her wake. “Huh? B-but I...?” She blinked her eyes in confusion for a few times, before she looked to her right, and she immediately gasped. “Where the hell were you!?”         “I was here,” Yiltse said back flatly as he was still trying to keep Night Letter from screaming, by holding a hoof around her mouth, as he kept her close to the ground with another free one. “You, galloped into that mess without a regard for anything. Don't you even think?” he raised his voice a little higher, but to Euphoria it still sounded as if he was bored the hell out of his mind.         “Will you let her go?” Euphoria looked at Yiltse, and he let go of Night Letter. Looking at the pink mare, as she gasped, Euphoria said, “Good, now just stand watch, they're probably...” Her voice trailed off into oblivion as four stallions in crimson armour galloped to a stop in front of the small group. “Yes...?” Euphoria asked the stallions as emotionless as she could.         “You're not leaving with her,” the head stallion said as he stepped in front of his small posse. As Euphoria watched each stallion, and took in their armour, she noticed something – each one had something different about them. For one, it was that the breast-plate was higher and had two sigils coated on each shoulder-pad; a white crescent moon.         Another stallion, had a long-sleeved shirt under his armour. The last two had somewhat, two connected items – one had the left shoulder-pad missing, and the other had his very breast-plate missing. Euphoria smirked, as she looked into the eyes of the head stallion, and briefly regarded his immaculate armour compared to the others. “And what if I am? You're not gonna stop me.”         A pregnant pause lingered in the cold wasteland air, as it hurtled between the houses and howled into the swiftly darkening day. “Are you so sure?” the stallion replied with a scowl, so Euphoria suspected he restrained himself. To her, that was actually good.         “Yes. I heard you in there, and you don't want to kill me, so...” Euphoria looked away for a moment, before she swung her head back and motioned with her hoof in the air. “Say hello to my little friend: the grenade!” As she grinned viciously, the cadre of ponies in front of them scattered into hiding. Quickly she turned back towards her two friends. “Let's run!”         Euphoria winced, but galloped after her other two friends as the head stallion in crimson armour stared at her back, as he peeked out from behind a wall. “Dammit, she tricked us!” The little group of stallions exchanged looks of confusion, and their leader growled. “After them, you stinkin' bags of vomit!” At the sound of his order, the group burst out of hiding and took up the pursuit of the newcomers.         “What's the plan now then?” Yiltse asked as he looked in Euphoria's direction, and she briefly glanced at him, quickly turning back to watching the road; she was already panting. In between them – lagging slightly behind – was Night Letter. Dried tears streaked her cheeks, as her lip wobbled and she fought back the urge to begin crying again; she didn't say anything, and left the talking to the other two ponies.         “Run away as fast as we can..?” Euphoria answered back in-between her heavy pants of laboured breathing. She could taste blood, as they rounded a corner and was met with a bustling street. “Um... scratch that...” Shit! There's no way we'll make it out of here, with this kind of traffic! Euphoria's mind was racing, but she came up blank, as she cast a look back towards the street they came from and saw the approaching gang of ponies trying to catch her? Euphoria shook her head before she got a headache. “Fine, bad plan, just don't say it,” she growled, but didn't turn to look at Yiltse.         He simply raised an eyebrow at Euphoria and looked across the street where the ponies milled about, kicking up grime in their wake. “Seeing as we have an innocent with us, I think I can fix this for once.” He coughed and reared up on his hind-legs, as he growled high and deeply enough, that he got the attention of every single pony there. “Leave!” he said sternly, as he locked eyes with a few ponies.         Of course, they scattered at that. Euphoria huffed in protest, but was quickly kicked in the gut as an angry voice jutted in from behind her. “On the ground, now!” Leaving! She grinned from ear to ear, as she almost had to drag the obnoxiously pink mare along on the trip. Not so surprisingly, the pony who had shouted that order didn't make good on his implied threat of firing, and Euphoria gritted her teeth in anger.         As she galloped down the street, Euphoria simply blocked out the angry voice screaming behind her. They could scream insults, but wouldn't fire? That was something that seriously bugged Euphoria, and she would have to inquire about it later.         Once they had passed back towards the locked gate, Euphoria snapped her attention back to the real world as they stopped in front of it. “Damn....” Was all that Euphoria was able to say, as she stared at the metal and gingerly poked it with a hoof, as she closed one eye. After a moment of almost complete silence, Euphoria opened her eye back up. “Worth a shot!”         Mere seconds later, two groups of armed ponies flanked them. On one side, was the stallions in crimson armour, and on the other were the ones in blue armour. The three groups shared looks, before the two discoloured-armoured ponies glared at each-other, and shouted insults towards one another. Euphoria raised an eyebrow and sighed heavily as she slumped back into the rusted gate.         “They broke into a saloon inside the town, that makes them ours!” A stallion in red armour shouted at the group in blue.         “But they never had good intentions when they entered this town, and that makes them outsiders!” A mare with a gorgeous purple mane, and clad in blue armour shouted back as she pointed her guns at the stallion that had argumented against her.         “You're still mad about last week aren't you?” the stallion almost screamed back at the mare, and she backed away a little.         “What? That doesn't even have anything to do with this, you brick-brain!” she snarled back at him, and reaffirmed herself as she stepped forth again.         “Enough!” the leader of the crimson-armoured ponies said, as he stepped into the middle of the three groups. “What's wrong with you two?`You sound like bickering foals! Grow up!” The quarrelling stallion and mare, took a step back at that. “Now...” the leader-stallion said as he turned his attention to Euphoria and her group. “What do you want?”         To leave,” Euphoria answered, putting on her best straight and calm face as the stallion scowled at her. It didn't take long before she scrunched up her nose and giggled heartily. “Mare, your face was just... dare I say, precious?” The stallion growled and stomped a hoof into the ground, so Euphoria stopped giggling.         “Be serious! Fucking tribals!” Yiltse took a step forward at that, and the leader-stallion glared at him. “What!? Look, just tell me why you were here? Are the Locusts planning on taking the city?” Locking eyes with the stallion, Euphoria shrugged.         “I wouldn't know. Heck, I don't even know who the fucking Locusts are!” she snapped back at the stallion, making a note of inquiring about it later with a certain enigmatic zebra. “I just came here, to get some more money, for rescuing a mare; that's all!” Night Letter sobbed quietly and wrenched her eyes away from Euphoria at that. “Just kick the fucking gate, Yiltse!”         Yiltse bucked out with his hind-legs, and the poorly made gate gave away. It thundered to the concrete bridge with a loud crash of twisted metal, and the low ringing of rippling steel-strings of metal followed, as Euphoria tugged at Night Letter and got her back onto her hooves. “We're leaving!” She faked a salute, as they continued down the concrete bridge they had entered less than an hour ago.         “Well... well... well....” the pony with an eye-patch said at Euphoria as she approached his rickety booth. “Come to claim your equipment?” She nodded. “Don't I even get as much as a goodbye fuck?” Euphoria growled low, as the stallion took a glance at Night Letter and smirked. “How about you, sweet flank?” She said nothing in return, and just whimpered as she turned away from him.         “Just give me my stuff,” Euphoria drawled, and quickly grabbed her guns, as the stallion passed them through the small open part of the window in his booth. “And...” She bit down on her bridle, and fired four bullets into the bottom part of the booth, grinning wide as blood poured out at the bottom. “There's your payment, you shitty excuse for a pony!”         “Oh...” Suddenly realizing that she was being watched by another group of armoured ponies, Euphoria flipped into full battle-stance and readied her .32 Hunting Rifle that had become something she cherished at this point, even though it had fallen into disrepair. “Grab a gun, Night Letter!” The pink mare jerked back at that, but her horn sparkled and she casually lifted out a small 10mm Pistol from Euphoria's loaded pack.         “Wait! Don't fucking shot!” the voice of the crimson-guards leader interjected and the stallion stopped halfway across the bridge. “Just... let them go!” He gave a nod towards Yiltse, and he nodded back; Euphoria just growled but conceded. “The deal is still on!” The stallion added as, he turned on the soles of his hooves.         “That didn't go so bad,” Euphoria added as she lifted her mouth from chomping on her bridle. *         The same cold wasteland winds gusted against the group as they stood less than a fifty yards away from Cale's field. “I'm not taking that same way back.” Euphoria shuddered as she said it. “No way in hell,” she added with a nod. Her memory of the tentacle-monsters dwelling within, were still fresh in her mind.         “We could take the route to the west.” She perked her ears, at the sound of Night Letter's voice; she had worked up her nerves, but her voice was still shaking slightly. “It'll take a bit longer, but we'll be safe for the most part.” Night Letter forced a smile, and even though it made Euphoria shudder, she forced a smile back at her new friend.         “To the west it is then,” Euphoria concluded as she turned on her hooves, and lead the group westward. “So, Night Letter, you don't strike me as a drug-dealer. What is it you exactly do?” she asked, but didn't turn.         “Well... I work....” Night Letter took a deep breath and exhaled. “Worked as a caravan guard,” she said slowly, shifting her weight around as they walked. “It doesn't matter any-more,” she added dejectedly.         “And you, my zebra companion?” Euphoria could vaguely hear Yiltse snort behind her. “You have never actually told me what you did, and why you where in that cage, or even why you begged me not to free you...”         “Focus on the road, pony. We're back in raider-territory, and we're in Whirlwind territory at that. A swift blow to the head, and an agonizing death is what awaits you if you get caught by them.” Both Euphoria and Night Letter winced at Yiltse's words, but he didn't seem to care. “Just about the only pegasi left here, are them.”         Wait, what!? Euphoria blinked her eyes in disbelief, before she stopped. “What? Aren't there any normal pegasi around here?” Yiltse trotted past her, and just shrugged; Night Letter followed quickly as Euphoria just stood there. “No, you're gonna explain this to me, right now!” she demanded as she caught back up with her companions.         “The Pegasus Enclave was a group of high and mighty pegasi that ruled this part of Equestria, a decade ago, but one day, they were suddenly called away, and we've never seen any of them after that, but because of what they did to us when they were here, pegasi aren't welcome. It doesn't matter if they were with the Enclave or not, people here don't care; they just want to act out their aggression towards the Enclave, “ Yiltse told Euphoria flatly.         “Oh...” Euphoria mulled it over, as a collective silence fell over the group again. More than anything, she wondered why an established power would just leave over-night. It seemed unlikely that a grand Enclave would just leave behind a large area that they controlled with supreme power. As usual, she was left to ponder these things for herself, as Yiltse kept being enigmatic about the whole thing.         Lifting up her hoof, she looked at her Pip-Buck's auto-map, and only now realized how large the entire region was. A frown soon descended on her face, as she found out just how little she had actually explored. It felt as if she had travelled much longer than she actually had, and even then, what she had covered occupied a small and dense area.         Euphoria flipped through the menu's until she found herself at the Radio-dial again, and to her delight, one of the broadcasts was glowing brightly. She clicked it, and a low static hum echoed into the air, before the voice of a stallion slowly cut in. “...and we shall cleanse the earth of the unbelievers, leaving the righteous to inherit Equestria.” With another hiss of static, the broadcast cut out again, so Euphoria groaned and shook her head, as she flipped it off again. *         A grim mood hoovered over the group, as the wind kept beating against them. Euphoria was already helping Night Letter with a hoof, and Yiltse was busy staying silent, and acting as head scout. For the first time in a long while however, there was virtually nothing surrounding them. Only a vast blanket of grime, and rocks stretched onwards forever.         For a dangerous area, I don't see much danger, Euphoria thought, as she scanned the area all around her, and perked her ears. The only sounds came from their own hooves, and the wind, as they kept moving forwards.         As they approached a cave hollowed out of a huge rock, Night Letter toppled over from exhaustion. “I... can't go on...” Frowning, Euphoria pulled her in towards the cave and laid her down in the shade, as she turned to face the zebra. Though, she found him to already be well in hoof with gathering up what nearby sticks there was for a small fire.         “We shouldn't stay long; the nights here are dangerous,” Yiltse said as he tossed the scrawny, crisp branches from his mouth, as he gave Euphoria a stern look. “More than you think,” he added in his usual grim voice, but Euphoria just rolled her eyes back at him. The zebra stallion snorted in turn, and kicked a few rocks into the shape of a small bonfire.         Looking over at the pink mare, Euphoria let out a heavy sigh and leaned back against the rocky wall. She bit her lip, as she rethought what she was going to say. Every time she looked at her, she saw the wounded face of her fellow Stable-mares, only two days earlier. She could see the same fear, the nightmares that she would probably have, and how she would never recover from the impact of those raiders, and what they had done to her; Night Letter's vacant eyes said more than her voice ever could.         The first thing that came to Euphoria's mind was the stupidest thing that she could think of: 'It's going to be all right.' It was, of course a blatant lie, because she knew it was never going to be okay. Even back in Stable nine, there had been reports of this kind of thing, but Euphoria had been lucky to never experience up close, since the Over-mare had quickly reacted and put the ponies in question into lock-down; fear can spread like fire, in a closed community.         After a heavy silent, Euphoria opened her mouth. “I can't lie to you.” Night Letter turned to look at Euphoria with bloodshot eyes. “It won't get better, but you can't just give up. Go out there, make them pay.” Euphoria gritted her teeth and grinned at her friend. “I'm kind of on a similar mission myself,” she added.         “I...I....” Night Letter's lip wobbled, and she tore her head away, as her entire body slumped, and she seemed to lose a little colour in her coat. Her one word hung in the air, but Euphoria decided not to bother with asking her any questions, and to let the mare say what she wanted, when she felt like she needed it.         Letting that slip, Euphoria turned her eyes back to Yiltse, and she watched as he put the stones down, before he sat down, and looked at the fire for a moment. Gently, he pulled a stick out of the stack of branches, and held it upright against another, before he started to rapidly roll it between in his hooves.         Soon, smoke billowed from the small pile, and fire followed quickly, as a few stray sparks sputtered into the air, and Euphoria thought she saw a small smile on the zebra, but it could have just been her imagination. “Want to tell me something, Yiltse?” He perked his ears, and glanced over at Euphoria with his grey eyes briefly, but turned back to staring at the fire. “Why were you out there?”         The question had been a loaded gun ever since Euphoria had met the zebra, but she wanted to know, and she felt like it was about time that she got to know. In all sincerity, she half-expected Yiltse to just disregard her as usual, but the zebra opened his mouth. “Good isn't a thing that's rewarded in the Wastes.         “Cruelty, and despair are the only law in Equestria, especially here. I got punished for trying to do a good thing for once, a single act to redeem myself for my past actions, but I got caught, and sentenced to die.” From what she had seen in the last two days, Euphoria agreed with the sentiment, but she still felt like he was hiding something more.         However, she didn't want to proceed any further down a hole that was obviously deep, and filled with mines. To Euphoria, she had already learned something vital, and that was enough.         Obviously trust came very slowly out here.         Once silence had descended on the camp, and the last remaining rays of daylight lingered on the horizon, Euphoria clicked onto her inventory of logs that she had stored in her Pip-Buck, a total of thirty-five messages, she counted; most of them were the personal logs of the over-mare, but some were simple things as the recipe to pancakes, which she had to keep on hoof, of course.         “Log 4. Had a chat with Integrity down in maintenance today, and she warned me that the food-chip is taking a heavy strain from all the new additions to the Stable. I'll have to cut down on the frequency of breaks, and increase work-hours. Nothing can interfere with our mission, and Stable-Tec have assured me that we'll be greeted with open-hooves once it's done.”         “Log 6. Two Bit has become a problem, so I'll have to dispose of him. Just as his name, he is a two-sided problem. Firstly, he goes around, cavorting with all the mares, even my own daughter – the bastard! Secondly, he's done some research into files that were supposed to be for my own eyes only. I can't be sure of what he knows, or how much, but I can't let it slide, so he'll have to have a little accident.”         “Log 12. Still no word from Stable-Tec, but I have to keep to the plan.”         “Log 17. Started sending out scouting-parties, just as instructed. In any case, this means that research can continue on the weapon, and we're moving forward with the plan again. Tomorrow, I'm meeting with a few influential others, so I can key them in on the plan, and have their support for the final push.”         As soon as Euphoria's hoof hit the next log-entry, the entire thing flashed red and all she could hear was garbled voices interlaced with heavy static. Frowning, she proceeded to push the next one, which would have only seemed to have been a few weeks before the attack, that were if the date-stamp was correct.         “Log 22. It's all set up. I contacted the raiders, and they've agreed to the attack, if they get to keep the ponies they capture. As long as my daughter isn't out there when they come, I don't care what happens to them. For months, they've been gobbling down the food and water as if it were candy. Food-levels are at a breaking point, so it's now or never.” She felt her stomach lurch, as the recording ended. Euphoria turned her head to the side, and drew in as much air as she could. She almost couldn't believe it. Euphoria felt a familiar anger build up inside of her, as she tossed and turned, suddenly feeling uncomfortable, no matter which way she sat.         Once she looked at her pip-buck again, Euphoria saw that the over-mare had made one final log entry: the day before the attack. Euphoria snorted and dismissed the menu, as she sat back against the stone-wall. It didn't matter what the over-mare had said in there, she didn't want to hear it.         As the anger boiled inside of Euphoria, her eyes dropped lower and lower, until exhaustion over-powered her, and she fell into a sleep full of nightmares. *         Euphoria awoke as a hoof shook her shoulder. Still blurry-eyed, she looked up at Yiltse as he nodded outwards into the darkness. She refocused her eyes, as she rubbed the last lingering flickers of sleep away from them, but Euphoria couldn't see anything past the darkness, at first. After a few minutes however, she saw a faint pink light shimmering.         She slowly got onto her hooves, and stepped out of the small cave towards the light, to only have the sharp voice of Night Letter stop her. “Don't come any closer!” she shouted, without a hint of hesitation in her voice. Euphoria stopped, and as her eyes fully adjusted, she could see the faint shape of her familiar .32 Hunting Rifle, but it wasn't pointed away from the pink mare. “Just stay back,” she added.         “What are you doing?” Euphoria asked, and tilted her head to one side, as she examined Night Letter, but the mare before her wasn't shaking, or whimpering. She was in fact, the exact opposite to the pony that Euphoria had tried to comfort earlier. “If you're going to shot yourself, that's going to hurt.”         “I can't go back!” Night Letter spat towards Euphoria, but didn't turn away from the rifle, that was pointed right at the base of her horn. “You have no idea what kind of an outcast, I'll be,” she commented, and Euphoria could faintly hear the mare sniffle. “I... have no other home to go to....”         “I'm sure I don't know that, but I do know one thing,” Euphoria said back as calmly as she could, and got a grunt in response. “I know that you are some pony's friend out there, and I know that they'll miss you.” At that, Night Letter shook a little, and Euphoria could hear the metal in the rifle jitter along with her.         “No...” The unicorn said and cocked the gun, as Euphoria stepped closer. “Stay the hell back!” Night Letter snarled at her, and pushed the muzzle of the rifle closer to her forehead. “No, I can't go back. Goodbye!” Her words rang out, along with the thundering sound and blinding flash, of a shot being fired.         Bone fragments disintegrated into the air, as both the rifle and Night Letter fell to the ground. Euphoria rushed over, and quickly pushed her hooves to cover the gaping wound in the young mare's skull. Where her horn used to be, Euphoria could now see straight through her skull into her brain, and watched as brain-matter leaked out between her hooves. “Give me a potion!” she screamed back at Yiltse, but the zebra didn't move.         Slowly, as her entire body shook violently, Night Letter's pink eyes rolled back into her skull, and her eyes were now just two large saucers of white. Holding out to some desperate hope, Euphoria held her hooves over her wound, even after the shaking had stopped, and Night Letter's chest didn't rise any-more.         It took Yiltse's hoof on her shoulder to snap out of it, and she tried to hit him as she pushed him away. “You son of a bitch!” she screamed, as she tried to hold back her tears, but she found it extremely hard to do, as she sat and stared at the lifeless corpse of the pony they were supposed to rescue. “We... we... failed...” Euphoria said, almost choking on her own words in the process.         Blood pooled on the ground near Night Letter's head, and mixed with Euphoria's tears, as she lowered her head and stared at her own blood-soaked hooves. Several yards away, the cracked horn lay on the ground, with bone-fragments scattered all around the area. “She wouldn't have made it, even with a potion, so it would have been a waste of resources,” Yiltse commented grimly, as he sat down next to Euphoria.                 “We could have tried...” the wounded voice of Euphoria muttered, as she still stared at her own hooves. She couldn't look up, and she didn't want to. It felt as if something important had been torn from her, and she remembered Stable Nine, and her friend. “I couldn't save her, just as I couldn't save Nightpick...”         The stallion perked his ears, but didn't inquire, he just made a simple gesture of saying something in zebrica, and Euphoria found the language, despite the macabre sight in front of her, to be soothing. He was right... she thought, for in a way he was; there had been danger, just not the kind of danger that Euphoria had imagined.         “What happened after the Enclave left...?” Yiltse looked over at Euphoria, as she had drawn him out of his trance. “Just tell me, I need something else to think about.”         “Well...” Yiltse began, but stopped for a brief pause, as he took in a deep breath. “What pegasi that were left, got killed or formed into raiding parties. After that, one group rose out of the ashes and dominated the Wastes, for a few years, and that would be our enemies over at Cale's Field. Soon after, as raiders decimated most of the area from Detrot and onwards, a new group formed in their wake, and cut a swath of destruction.” He shook his head, and added. “It's not much, but that's what I got.”         Only a single thought hovered in Euphoria's mind the entire time Yiltse had spoken, and she had only caught a few words that he had said. “We're going to bury her,” Euphoria said, but didn't look at Yiltse, as she wiped away the few remaining tears with a bloody hoof, and ended up leaving a streak of blood across her face. “Tomorrow, at dawn.” *         Dawn came, but Euphoria hadn't moved an inch during the night, and neither had Yiltse. Still, they weren't exhausted, not in the physical sense at least. Rays of light peeked through the cloud-cover above, and the full extend of the condition that Night Letter's body was in, came into light.         Much of it was as Euphoria expected, but she still grimaced at the sight of her friend's hornless head. Even as her entire body felt like sandpaper, Euphoria got up and picked up her rifle with her muzzle. She turned on the soles of her hooves, and headed back to the small cave, quickly putting the rifle back where it was supposed to be.         As she gently slipped her dear rifle back into place, Euphoria noticed the shimmering blackness of something sticking out of her saddlebags. Anger flowed through her, and she gripped the mangled rifle by the handle and swung her head, as she tossed it across the open area. “You fucking ass-holes!” she screamed, as the weapon impacted the ground with a heavy thud, followed by the rattle of metal.         Looking back down at her saddlebags, Euphoria pulled out her shovel, that Yiltse had apparently not sold; it probably didn't sell for much, anyway. She just frowned and let the thought go, as she moved for it, and gentle bit down. Tasting wood again, Euphoria rose back to her hooves fully, and moved slowly away from the small cave.                 As she stepped past the body, she barely noticed that she had stepped into the dried blood on the ground. Euphoria didn't look and only clenched her teeth together hard, as she moved out into the open, and very slowly began on her hole. It was hard work sure, and it would most probably eat up most of the day, but Euphoria needed to do it. It's the least I can do... she thought, digging so very slowly.         Her jaw ached already, and she had only made a few digs into the earthen ground. Her mane itched, and sweat ran down the side of her face as the beaming sun crested the horizon, outlining Euphoria in an orange-red hue of hotness. There wasn't the slightest break of the cold wind that had plagued them during the night, or the day before. Still, Euphoria went on with her monotonous work.         Continuing with her work, Euphoria started to think. Would she still be alive, if I had left her there...? she asked herself, but didn't stop with the digging. Her mind flooded with different answers to the question, but Euphoria didn't find the one answer she was seeking among the plethora of wrong ones. This...is all my fault, she finally managed to accuse herself with, just as another voice rose within her.         No, it isn't! It screamed at her, and Euphoria stopped, shaking. Sweat mixed with tears, as Euphoria clenched her eyes shut, and gripped the shovel harder. In some kind of sick irony, her mind connected the current event with her first day out of the Stable. Now you're burying one, but the first time you used this, you killed some-pony. On purpose! That angry voice inside of her yelled.         Are you truly a hero? Some-pony worthy of saving? No, you're not! The voice inside of Euphoria kept snapping at her, while the more gentle voice died down; the one that had asked the question that needed to be asked. It's a miracle that you haven't died yet! Or is it really? At the question, Euphoria dropped the shovel.         You're a bad pony, but you're alive! You never meant to save her, did you? Even though you knew how bad her mental state was, you were prepared to just give her over to the ghoul and be on your way. Did you really think, they would give her the help she needed? Euphoria whimpered, and quickly picked up her shovel, digging harder than before.         Hah! You're only burying her, because she reminds you of a friend! Something died inside of Euphoria at that moment, and as sad as it was, she gave a slight nod. She was bad, and up until now, she had simply shrugged it away, cast away the blame. She had never given any-pony the mercy they deserved, not even when they had asked for it.         She had lied, simply to get what she wanted. Euphoria had even gone to the lengths of desecrating the home of a dead family, just so she could wash away the blame, but in her hearth she knew – and now her conscious mind did as well. Are you better than a Raider? And there it was, the maddening question that had lurked behind every snapping from the voice.         In truth, Euphoria didn't want to answer. As usual, she wanted to just curl up in bed again and forget about the world. About Raiders, about slavers, about ghouls, about radiation, about the Over-Mare, but she couldn't. The more she thought about it, Euphoria found out that she knew something at least.         “I don't kill for fun,” she mumbled out between gritted teeth as she stopped. Looking to her side, Euphoria saw the nice mound of dirt that she had shovelled up, so she looked back at the hole. It wasn't deep, but it had to suffice.         Once she turned back to face Yiltse, Euphoria discovered that the angry voice had simply disappeared; for now, at least. *         Carefully, Yiltse dumped the body into the ground by tilting his entire body to the left. It slid off, and landed with a gentle thump, so Euphoria turned her face away to cough. As she turned back, Euphoria closed her eyes and stood silent. For a moment, amongst the total blackness, Euphoria thought she saw the mangled body of Yiltse, so she fluttered her eyes open. Euphoria shook her head, and closed her eyes again, but there were no body there this time.         Am I going insane? “What's this?” Euphoria wrenched her head away from the shallow grave to look back towards the cave. In front of, two stallions clad in long black capes now stood and watched them. “Look over there, Remus. They're burying one,” the stallion with a dark-green mane, and emerald eyes said to the other, standing right next to him.         “How odd, indeed,” the other stallion – whom Euphoria now assumed was Remus – replied flatly. “Archaic for sure, and out here it's lost its meaning years ago, yet they are doing it. What do you think, Romulus? Should we inquire further, or just continue our journey?” Romulus, nodded in return to Remus.         Both of the stallions trotted towards Euphoria and Yiltse. Before now, they had both had bland faces, void of any emotion, but now as they walked extremely slowly towards her, they smiled. Their accents seemed somewhat odd as well, since they talked in a more refined way than any other pony or zebra she had met until now.         As they came closer, Euphoria realized that these two stallions had more than just their attitude, and clothing in common. Besides their outward expression, their faces were the same physically. If it hadn't been for their manes and eyes, Euphoria couldn't be sure how to tell them apart.         Beneath their long capes – that seemed perfect – the two stallions wore yellow metal armour, that even left their hooves almost completely shielded from harm, but she didn't notice any weapon. Of course, they could still have some, since Euphoria couldn't exactly see what they were hiding under the rest of their capes; under the armour, Euphoria noticed that one of the stallions had a shirt, and it had a sign stencilled onto its collar. Though she tried, she couldn't see what the sign was, it was just too small.         Stepping up next to the grave, the stallions took a look at Night Letter's corpse. “Raiders don't bury their kill, yet these two have,” Romulus said, as he looked back up at Yiltse and Euphoria. “An unlikely pairing, indeed, as well. A mare from a Stable, and a former prisoner, but not all is well, in this mangled group.”         “You are correct, as always, brother,” Remus said with a smirk and tossed his head back, letting his mane swish, until it settled again. “You two have secrets, some that you keep from each-other, and some that you keep from everybody else.” He refocused, and tilted his head as he addressed Euphoria. “You've suffered, and you bear the scars on the inside. Though, there is more suffering to come.”         “Questions plague your mind, but do not worry, the answers are not far away. Equestria is home to more than you think, and the world bear the scars on the outside,” Romulus' silky smooth voice said, and he smirked. “We know you are on a trip of vengeance,” he added as a last remark, and Euphoria's mouth hung agape.         “How the hell do you know that?” Euphoria gulped once she realized that she had actually asked it, and not simply thought it.         “We know many things,” Remus said. “We are dead, yet alive, but not ghouls either. Does it matter, how we know? Truly, you just have to broaden your horizon, to know everything.” With a glow of his horn, Remus turned on Euphoria's pip-buck, but there wasn't any static this time; it was clear, and she could hear music.         A mare was singing. Euphoria didn't even know what station it was, but she didn't care, it was a gorgeous voice. “A voice from the past, perhaps?” Romulus asked, but Euphoria could barely hear him. She was busy listening to the song coming from her Pip-Buck. Her voice was soft and kind, but the song she was singing was a sad one.         “Sweet and sour – the owner was,” Remus added grimly as the audio shut off, and a soft click came from Euphoria's pip-buck. “Not far from here, there's a facility of Old World tech. Might answer a few questions, or it might not, but we have given you the means. All you have to do, is walk through the door.” Remus snickered and tapped his hoof in the dirt two times, glancing at Romulus.         His compatriot got the hint and nodded at Euphoria. “When the skies above burned, with the faintest hint of a spectrum of colours, feathers blanketed the land. Brother fought brother, sister stabbed sister – echoes of the past, forged anew in the blood of coming generations. Birds of prey some say; shadows of death, others say.” Through his entire speech, Romulus' face remained flat and devoid of any emotion.         Blinking her eyes, Euphoria tilted her head to one side. “Who the heck are you guys? And where did you come from?” There was a brief pause, before Euphoria's eyes narrowed into a glare and she stared at the two unicorns. “Have you two been following us?” She made her question even more serious, by pointing an accusing hoof at the pair.         “We do not need to follow you. Information flows on the winds of deeds; good or bad. And, we? We catch all the seeds of news. As regards to your question of from where we hail, we cannot say. For all eternity we have watched and waited – even walked the vast deserts. Came cross-country decades ago, when a giant beast slumbered in a cave somewhere.” Euphoria just frowned as Remus' spoke.         She felt as if the stallions were telling her all she needed to know, yet she didn't understand a word of what they were saying. Ever since she was a foal, riddles had never been her strong-suit. “What the hell are you fuckers talking about?” she screamed at them, stepping dangerously close to the pair. They didn't move an inch.         “Destiny,” Romulus said with a smirk. Perking her ears, Euphoria stared at him with a frown, as an awkward pause clung to the air. Soon after, Romulus chuckled slightly, ending the pause, as Euphoria shook her head lightly. “None of it matters to us.”         “We have shown you the road,” Remus said, as his horn flared up and the ground between them glowed briefly. Euphoria quickly looked down, and gasped as she saw that the hole had been filled in. At the front of the grave, engraved in a stone that had been dug into the ground as well, she saw Night Letter's name and an epitaph: 'For the Ages, we commend thee to the earth.' Even though she wanted to, Euphoria couldn't really attack them for the enigmatic epithet.         When she looked back up, the two mysterious stallions were gone, and Euphoria could only see the vast land of grime and dirt, outlined by distant mountains, and the ruined skyscrapers of a city. “That was...” her voice trailed off as she stopped herself, and stared into the sky, searching for the right word. “... odd?”         “Not really,” came Yiltse's voice, like an arrow from the sky. The zebra stallion turned on his hooves, and walked past her. “Those two have been appearing for the last decade all around this area. Usually to new ponies, but they rarely do anything of value. Can't be killed either.” Euphoria stared at the back of Yiltse's head at that last remark. “They aren't normal,” he added as he carefully nudged the rocks away from the charred remains of the camp-fire, from the night before.         Euphoria dead-panned at Yiltse. “Not normal?” she burst out, angrily shouting at the back of the Zebra's head. “Those two have been the most sane ponies I have met in the last few hellish days! You? You've only been trouble, and you've not helped me once!” She stomped her hooves in the dry ground, for effect; her nostrils flaring, as she fumed with rage.         She did what she could best – funnel all her hurt feelings into the one feeling she had been holding onto this entire time, anger. Pure, unsaturated, anger. Just as before, Euphoria simple shoved the memory of Night Letter to the back of her mind, and fixated on the cruelty she would inflict on the ponies of Cale's Field, when she got the chance.         In her eyes, none of them were truly innocent, not any more. Slowly, the haze of anger dissipated and Euphoria found herself staring into the grey eyes of her companion. “Yes, not normal. Get your head on straight, pony!” For the first time, Yiltse spoke the word clearly, and full of loathing. “Violence and cruelty has been standard for this region for over two hundred years, and trust me, nothing will ever change that.”         Having finished what he wanted to say, Yiltse rose to his hooves and walked past Euphoria. With a groan, Euphoria looked at her Pip-Buck and mapped up the location that the two stallions had given her, and she turned on her hooves, walking after the zebra in silence. *         Barely hidden in a rocky alcove, there was a door. Just a normal, rotting door with rusty hinges, and a knob. It was unmarked, but it was poorly hidden. Euphoria wondered why the door hadn't just been blasted open, and whatever treasures that was to be had within hadn't been looted already.         The more she examined the door, and the surrounding terrain, she noticed something. It was barren, but there were lots of craters all around the place, varying in shape. The wooden door in itself, looked as if it had been made from a broken fence in a hurry, but the location of it seemed as if it had been put there on purpose; it simply didn't add up.         Facility of Old World tech...” Euphoria mumbled, as she stared at the door, while Yiltse kept his distance. “All you have to do is walk through the door...” At that, she frowned but nodded slightly to herself, as she got to her hooves again, and took a few careful steps forward. “So... the answers I need are through there?” She glanced back towards Yiltse, but he said nothing.         Shrugging, Euphoria pranced up to the door, and nudged it with her hoof. Creaking, the door broke free from its hinges and fell inwards. A loud hollow thud echoed deeply, as Euphoria peered into the darkness of the cave. She blinked her eyes and coughed from the dust, before she turned on the soft light of her hoof-computer.         She inched into the cave, and descended the earthen ground until she found herself in front of an unmarked metal-door. Above the door, scratched into the metal, Euphoria could see two words: 'Live... Dead...' Arching an eyebrow, she nudged the door with her hoof, but it was much more sturdy than the outer piece of brittle wood had been, and wouldn't budge.         It gave off an echoing, dull metal ping, each time the edge of her hoof hit it, and after three hits, Euphoria frowned, stepping away from the door. Forcefully, she bit down onto her bridle and giggled at the sound of her Hunting Rifle, as it perforated the door. After she had fired a full clip into it, Euphoria let go of her bridle and licked her lips, tasting iron mixed with salt. “Fuck you, door!” she screamed and charged for it.         First the door collapsed into the room beyond, then Euphoria came in as well, collapsing against the rusty floor, as red-light illuminated her surroundings. “Damn... bad idea...” she groaned and rolled over onto her back, peering up at the ceiling, and the light swaying above her head.         As silence surrounded Euphoria, she could hear the faint rolling of wheels, and she jumped back onto her hooves, as a metal-monster rolled into the room from the far-side, through an opening that lead into a two-way hallway. In the grim lighting, Euphoria could see the orange armour, with two tubes sticking out from its side, and the glass-dome that was its head; cracked now.         It rolled on a pair of belt-wheels, that squeaked the entire time it moved, making Euphoria twitch her ears at the annoying sound. Slowly, the robot came to a stop in front of Euphoria, stopping at firing distance. “Prepare to die!” a tinny voice said, and before Euphoria could understand that the robot was speaking, she yelped, feeling her hide burn away.         “You know what? Fuck you too!” she angrily shouted, and darted away from the next salvo of red beams. The robot swivelled, as Euphoria kept low behind the only cover she could find – an overturned Sparkle Cola-machine. Counting the seconds until she had arrived at ten, Euphoria leapt from her cover and peppered the robot with bullets.         She emptied an entire clip, and the half of another one, before the robot backed up, then exploded, tossing shrapnel all over the room. Panting and wheezing, Euphoria looked up, just as Yiltse stepped into the room.         Immediately, a klaxon alarm blared loudly, as a much thicker door slid shut their exit, and an electrical voice came over the scratchy PA. “Glastinghouse Industries welcomes you, Zebra, but we have to be sorry, for we have just dispatched our internal security to take you into custody. We hope that you will not resists, for we do need our specimen to be alive.”         When the PA shut off, Euphoria could hear the faint chuckle of a stallion, and she looked at Yiltse. Looking at the zebra, only one thing came to Euphoria's mind. “Shit...!” Footnote: Level Up New Perk: Diamond Blood – You have the wily abilities of a thief within your veins. Having this perk, grants you a one time bonus of 10 skill points to your Sneak and Lock-pick skills. A well rounded thief is a live thief.