Fallout Equestria: Pure Hearts

by DeerTrax

Chapter 6 - The Vanhoover Incident (Part 1)

The sky continued to empty its tears, dampening the ground beneath our hooves as we walked. It was miserable trudging through the mud and forcing our way through the gusts of wind. Every few seconds I was wiping rain water from my eyes in a futile attempt to see where I was going.

We had been making our path through the city as straightforward as possible, but it still felt like time had been crawling through the same muck we were. Lily’s leg had continued to bleed profusely despite being wrapped tightly in what remaining bandages we had left, and Gale was starting to wear down from carrying the wounded unicorn on her back. We were lucky that nopony – or no thing – decided to attack us along our way.

 I had been watching the towers slowly rise between the buildings as we made our way towards them. Fortunately, it had only been little more than an hour’s worth of gloomy travel before they finally stood tall before us. I stared up and up into the depths of the dark sky as rain drops sought to disrupt my vision. The shattered spires stretched to the very clouds above, scraping their delicate undersides. Far off the ground the various bridges and catwalks, made of wire and salvaged steel, traversed the rifts of space between the great metallic giants.

“Welcome to Underdog Town,” Gale said in response to my awe. “Though, we can’t dry our feathers just yet.”

A look of confusion found itself staring back at her. She was, after all, the only pegasus here and thus the only one who would be drying their feathers.

“Sorry,” she said, catching the question on my face, “it’s a pegasus thing. Anyway, navigating the building’s insides is nearly as treacherous as being out here in this storm.”

“How come?” I asked.

“The building is at least two hundred years old and has been blasted apart by a megaspell strike. Do you really expect it to be in a single, solid piece, Dove?”

The door we approached was made more of shattered glass than it was wood or metal, and it swung open with a terrible squeal. As we entered the cover the structure provided, I shook the rain water from my coat and cleared my eyes one last time. We took one more step up and into a large atrium that reached from the front of the building to the back. Either side of the entryway was lined with toppled desks, and the floor was covered in papers and dust. A tattered carpet in the middle of the floor ran the length from the doorway to the back wall. On the far side of the room another door stood. The still air was musty and dank, same as nearly everything else in the city.

Strewn amongst the first floor offices were two or three dozen equine skeletons. It looked as though they had all been pushed into various piles by somepony who merely wanted to get them out of the way but cared not to bury them properly.

This floor did not look too much worse for wear, but then I looked up to the ceiling above, and the next, and the next. A giant gaping hole was torn above us, and I realized that the floor we were standing on was not the one that was originally here. The step we had taken up when we first walked in had struck me as an odd design, and now I knew why. The floor two levels above us had fallen straight downward, crushing those below it into a concrete pancake. We were standing upon the third floor, yet we were still on the first.

“The building and those around it have weathered the same devastation that brought ruin to the rest of the city,” Gale explained, answering my question from before in more detail. “It may remain standing strong, but there are still parts of it that seek their rest.”

“It’s amazing,” I responded, “that such an old structure can continue to hold itself together after all this time.”

“A testament to the engineering feats of better days, I suppose. Come on, we mustn't linger too long, lest Lily suffer for it. We still have several flights of stairs to climb.”

I nodded and we made our way further into the building. The door at the end of the foyer opened up to another, much smaller hallway lined with more doorways; these ones made of metal. One of the sets was stuck open, creating a large gap I just had to stick my head into.

Instead of a normal room, I found myself twisting my neck to gaze up a long, vertical shaft. As it rose skyward, I could see a small metal plate suspended from which were a number of steel cables extending downward from its underside to the bottom of the shaft. Ever more inquisitive, I cautiously hoofed at one of the cables.

Snap!

Perhaps I wasn’t cautious enough.

The cable must have been rusted through somewhere along its line and the extra tension I put on it was the last straw of hay it could handle. The metallic rope flailed up the shaft, making a terrible racket as it went. A loud groan echoed from above me, and the metal panel the cable had been attached to began descending at an alarming rate. I found myself rooted in place, staring obtusely at the falling ceiling… which I only just began to realize was about to crush me flat.

I felt a tug on my tail and I fell to my haunches. The metal weight screamed by, inches from my face, before crashing to a stop at the base of its shaft. I must have had such a dumbfounded look on my face, one befitting the stupidity of what I had just done. I had not been a clever pony, and I’m lucky my head was still attached to my body; that thing had almost taken it clean off.

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“You’re lucky I was able to pull you out of there in time,” Gale snapped at me as we continued up the stairway. After all we had been through, my companion’s words of scorn made each step upwards just that much more agonizingly torturous.

“I’m sorry, Gale,” I replied meekly, “I didn’t know it was ready to break.”

Gale stopped in her tracks and a deep sigh filled the air. She lifted her hoof to her forehead and slowly dragged it down the side of her face. “It’s fine, Dovetail. Just... be more careful next time. I mean, how would I have explained to Lily that her best friend had become nothing more than a bloody paste due to you poking your head where it didn’t belong?”

I hadn’t honestly thought about it like that. 

My eyes shifted to the unconscious Lily, still draped over the pegasi’s back. The vision of her reaction to that news made me shudder. I didn’t even want to imagine her being out here, wandering the wastes alone. I then realized that by trying not to, I just had.

Damn it.

Gale must have taken my look of dread to mean I got the idea as she had resumed her ascent. I hung my head a bit as I followed after her, feeling even more dejected.

After a few more flights of stairs, we came to a stop again. According to a sign next to the doorway, we had reached the ninth floor. The door itself had been spraypainted with a crude silhouette of a hellhound, which was circled and crossed out. Below it were the words “Go back to Hell!”

Gale lifted a hoof and banged it softly upon the rusty metal door. A jury-rigged slot partway up opened to reveal the eyes of another pony on the opposite side.

A deep, gruff voice forced its way through the opening. “What’d ya want?”

“Rocky Scar, it’s Gale Storm.”

“Does ya have the package?”

“Unfortunately, it got lost.”

“Los’it‽ Yous ne’er los’ a package before, Gale. I’m disappoin’ed.” The slot slammed shut. “Don’ come back ‘till yous found it!”

Gale didn’t even bat an eye at Rocky’s rude send off and instead lifted her hoof to the door again. This time, she pounded on it with a force that created a sound which echoed through the stairwell. I almost thought something had exploded.

“You listen to me, Rocky!” Gale shouted blindly at the door. “I didn’t lose it accidentally. We were ambushed by Hellhounds; I had to use the emitter in order to get us out of there alive. If it were just me, I would have gone down fighting for it, but there were others with me, one of which is severely wounded. We need Rare Heart’s healing magic to fix her or she could damn well die!”

That sent a chill down my spine colder than the rain. Colder than anything I had felt before. I had tried to put the thought at the very back of my mind, but the pegasi’s words drug it mercilessly back to the front. Lily might not make it. I knew the magical bandages we already put on could only do so much. Sure, they would help slow the bleeding but they could not stop it. The gash was too serious and Lily would require another unicorn’s magic.

We’d seen pretty bad wounds back in the stable just from day to day things. It wasn’t like our underground home was completely hazardless. Especially near the generators and other machinery. There was also no shortage of stupid accidents, like falling on a sharp object. Our medical ward had been headed by a unicorn for a reason.

My heart felt a little lighter as the door gently slid open to reveal the pony who had been behind it. The staggeringly big earth pony who stood in the entrance nearly filled it with his girth; it was obvious why he had been the one slated with guard duty. He let out a sigh as he stepped aside to let us in.

“Fine, yous can come’n,” he said. “But I swears t’ Celestia, if any of those damned dogs followed ya, Imma give ya hell when I’m done with them.”

No sooner had he spoken when I finally followed Gale into the room and my jaw hit the floor. Barred up inside the room was a vast arsenal of weapons probably ten times the size of what was locked away in Stable 61. Pistols, rifles, shotguns, snipers, rocket launchers, and just about any other type of death machine you could think of lined the caged walls all the way to the large bank of shattered glass which overlooked the city below. There was even a small selection of magical energy weapons scattered amongst the arsenal, although, the vast majority of them appeared to be in various states of disrepair.

I marveled most at the rare magical firearms. I’d never actually seen one up close, but I did recall a small section of my security training manual going over them in some detail. While most of it was the standard maintenance and operating procedures, there was one bit that had really stood out to me – and not only because it was bright yellow with a giant “Warning!” written above it: a very cartoony, yet very graphic, illustration of a poor pony being turned into a smoldering pile of ash by a stray bolt of energy. Below that was a block of text warning against misuse and about the bad burns one can get, as well as something about being turned to goo.

Nested in strategic positions behind sandbags, a pair of heavy machine guns were facing the door, silently awaiting the moment when they could open up and scream again. As powerful as they were, I doubted that they would hamper the Hellhounds once they got smart enough. If they wanted to, there wasn’t much to stop them tearing through the walls instead of funnelling through the narrow choke point that the doorway created. And with those claws of theirs, I imagined they’d be able to climb right up the sides of the building without much trouble either.

Three or four other ponies had been lingering about in the room, tending to the weaponry. One, I noticed, lay prone apart from the rest as he had his back turned to us, staring out the large window through the scope on his sniper rifle. He didn’t seem to notice our arrival, and even if he did, he was doing his best not to acknowledge us.

“Thanks, Rocky,” Gale said behind me.

“Sures thing, Gale.” The gruff stallion closed the door before moving to the nearby table. He had an energy rifle torn apart atop a workbench; the pieces were scattered across its surface. Swiftly and carefully, he began to reassemble the armament.

Gale stepped up beside me and motioned toward a couple of metal doors identical to those on the first floor. “Let’s head the rest of the way up.”

“The… the rest of the way?” I asked, getting back on my hooves. “I just sat down!”

“Yeah. You didn’t honestly think this was all there was to the town, did you? This is just the entrance – a security checkpoint to make sure no unwanted visitors get in. The stairs are blocked from this floor on; this is the only method of getting to the main part of the settlement.”

“But isn’t this like that thing that nearly crushed me?” I must have sounded like a little filly to her, but I suppose in a stable some knowledge gets lost throughout the generations.

Gale moved closer to the doors and pressed a button beside it. The button had an upwards pointing arrow etched into it, though it looked to be well worn. A few moments later, a muted and horribly off tune “ding!” sounded. A dull light above the doors flickered to life; it, too, depicted the same arrow as the one on the button. The pair of doors then slid themselves apart to reveal a small room opposite us. We stepped in.

The room was simple and plain. There was no furniture and no recognizable decoration. The only decor was the deteriorating wallpaper and dim overhead lights. It was really cramped, but at least it wasn’t a long drop down a shaft into Tartarus. What I found the most odd, though, was the panel of buttons next to the doors as they closed themselves in our wake.

Just before the gap in the metal drew closed, I could hear the pony watching the city through his scope yell back to his comrades. “Looks like those damn Raiders and Slavers are at it again.”

The doorway sealed shut and my attention went back to the strange controls before me. The little round buttons with numbers on them were faded from years of service and decay, though the patterned paper on the walls hadn’t fared much better either.

The questions that my mind had conjured for Gale were answered when she hoofed one of the buttons. The little round circle filled with light and the room we were in lurched skyward. A strange feeling rose in my stomach that rivaled the rumbling of our ascension.

“Did you seriously not have any elevators in your stable?” Gale questioned.

I cocked my head to the side. “Elevators? Is that what this contraption is called?”

Gale just rolled her eyes.

I noticed her shift uncomfortably underneath the weight of the still unconscious Lily. She had been carrying her for a good number of hours now, and I felt bad for her having to carry my friend alone. I slipped under Lily’s body from the side and took what weight I could off of Gale’s back. The pegasus gave me a questioning look at first, but when she saw what I was trying to accomplish she smiled.

“Thanks,” was all she said and I simply nodded in understanding.

The rest of the ride up was quiet, but it also wasn’t very long either. The elevator moved quickly to scale the distance between the floors in less than a minute.

Ding!

I wasn’t sure if it was the sound that startled me more or the sudden jerking of the elevator, but I nearly leaped out of my skin with a frightened “Eep!” If it hadn’t been for Lily’s body holding me down, I wouldn’t have doubted my ability to jump through the ceiling. Gale tried to contain herself but failed to restrain the amusement that manifested itself in the form of uncontrolled laughter. The speaker of Lilybloom’s pipbuck erupted into life as Spring Blossom joined the pegasus with her own fit of electronic chuckles.

I felt my cheeks flush with a warm red as the embarrassment I felt revealed itself visually. I noticed now that above the floor-selections, a faded and slightly scrambled digital number was displayed. I made it out to read the same as the floor Gale had selected from amongst the buttons. The doors then slowly separated to reveal a completely different sight from what we had previously been on the other side of them.

The vast weapon stores and armed guards had been replaced by a bunch of busy ponies scrambling about the room amongst a bunch of scrap and technical equipment.

Gale turned her head to Lily’s pipbuck before moving forward. “Spring Blossom, nothing against you, but it's best if you put your speakers on mute while we’re here. If these ponies were to hear you talk, they wouldn’t hesitate to tear you apart and figure out what makes you tick.”

Those same ponies seemed as if they hadn’t even noticed our arrival, at least not until the pegasus next to me stepped out of the elevator. No sooner had her hoof stepped onto the floor before us when all of the ponies in that room fell dead silent. Every pair of eyes locked onto us, staring. Gale stepped the rest of the way out of the elevator and I quickly followed suit. The ponies then went straight back to work as if nothing had happened; all save for one who approached us with a smile.

“Glad to see ya here, Gale!” the earth pony mare exclaimed as she drew up next to us. Her coat was muddied with so much dirt and grease that I wasn’t sure what colour the fur was supposed to be, but I think the clean parts I could see were brown. Either way, it was a stark contrast to her bright smile and her brilliant blue eyes. “What brings ya all the way out to good ol’ Underdog?”

“Hey there, Sprocket,” Gale responded. “Business as usual, though, if you couldn’t tell by the bleeding unicorn on my back I have a bit higher of a priority at the moment. Where’s Rare Heart at?”

“Oh, right. She’s up in the infirmary as always.”

“Thanks. I’ll catch up with you again after we get our friend here squared away.”

“Okie dokie, Gale. I’ll hold you to that.”

Sprocket turned and returned to her work, allowing us to proceed further into what I now realized was not just a room but an entire complex. The initial area we entered rose up another three stories, ringed by railed off walkways at each of those floors. At different locations around those walkways hallways led off further into the compound. I couldn’t see far down them given that the height difference and the walkways blocked most of my view, and that mystery of where they led piqued my curiosity. I would have to check them out later if time allowed. For now, our trek took us down a single such hallway on this base floor.

All about the place, ponies of different races worked in tandem to disassemble and reassemble all sorts of equipment. I saw more guns in various stages of disrepair – or repair as the case warranted. Some were being torn down and cleaned. Others were being built back up or upgraded with salvaged parts. I even spotted a few items that might compliment our own inventory. Perhaps we would even be able to get our hooves on them for the right price. I would have to check our funds against their market later on, assuming they would even offer them for sale.

A hoof in front of me blocked my path and brought my mind back around.

“You really need to start watching what you’re doing, Dove.” Gale put her hoof down, and I took a step back. “You are the most danger-prone pony I’ve ever met. Walking right out of a skyscraper window, that’s how a pony gets herself killed out here in the wastes. You know, if she doesn’t get shot first.”

I noticed now that the hallway we were in had ended as it intersected another hall that ran around the edge of the building. My straightforward path did not end where the hallway did, however. I had continued walking blindly and in my trance I had nearly trotted right out of the building. The glass walls that once separated inside from out had been completely shattered and now opened up to a dizzying vertical drop. Outside, the storm continued to dump rain passed the open windows. A strong gust of wind came rushing in through the breach and knocked me to my rump. The rainwater it drug along with it splashed my face with another harsh dose of reality.

Well, that was stupid move number two for the day. Note to self: don’t trust windows.

If I had ever been glad that Lily was unconscious, it was then. Though I was sure she would hear about it one way or another, and in that case I was doomed to get my ear chewed off later.

Once I pulled myself together again, Gale led me to another spot in the open wall. Here though, instead of being a deadly pitfall, the sudden drop had been spanned to an adjacent building. She stepped up to the bridge and I felt my heart fall out that broken window.

The construction of the walkway looked solid enough, if a bit questionable in its construction methods. The bridge was made almost entire of welded scraps of sheet metal and other riggings that were used to brace it to the building. The slick metal surface would have been much better on a sunny day but the rains had made it into a slippery death trap. The only thing between a pony and their perilous descent to the streets below was a small rebar railing which ran the length of the bridge on one side. A pony could grab it with their teeth should they require it but a slip up with the wetness would certainly make it useless.

“W-we have to cross t-that?” I quaked in my hooves.

Gale turned back. “Afraid of heights too now, are we?”

“O-only those that can kill me,” I squeaked in a fairly pathetic attempt to sound braver than I was.

“Haha, come on kid, it’s much more stable than it looks. The Scrappers might seem like a rag-tag people, but they could rebuild the old world out of scraps and salvage better than those that came before us did when it was all brand new.” The pegasus turned back to the bridge and I barely caught what slipped out under her breath. “Sadly, there just aren’t enough of them to take on that project.”

She stepped forward again, and even with the extra weight of Lily upon her back, the bridge didn’t shift. I moved up to the edge and looked straight out across the gap. I knew better than to look down, but still I fought the urge at every second. The distance between the buildings wasn’t great – despite the rain, Gale had cleared it by the time I even contemplated crossing – it just felt like it was farther away than it really was. And that perceptive separation grew as my nerves continued to push it even further.

I realized that Gale was likely used to exceedingly high altitudes and overly bad weather, what with being a pegasus and all, but I was an earth pony; the proof was in the pudding that I wasn’t built for it like she was. I knew, though, if I dwelt on it too long the uneasiness would make me unable to cross no matter what. So I swallowed the nervousness down, put my hoof out in front of me, and took a leap of faith.

I felt the salvaged materials beneath me and the structure felt sturdy; wet, but sturdy. I took another step and then another. The welds held strong and I felt more and more confident with every stride. I knew at this point I’d make it across if I could just avoid slipping or looking down. As much as I struggled not to do either of those things, it seemed nature had other plans for me.

The now strangely calm storm suddenly sprung to life with a tremendous burst of wind that, coupled with the slick metal, knocked my hooves out from beneath me. I reached for the guard rail with my muzzle, but my teeth slipped off of it as well. As soon as my legs went out, I fell to the metal beneath. Clambering for a grip before I slid headfirst off the structure, I prayed to Luna to catch me.

Whether it was good luck or just bad-luck-gone-right, my prayers were answered. My back leg snagged on a small bit of the bridge that had been pulled up. It was painful, but it caught me before the wind blew me off the edge. Not all of me stopped in time, though. My head draped over and my vision filled with the ground below. My nerves continued even further forward and took the plunge that I didn’t. Every muscle in my body seized up tight and I froze solid. I felt the air blow through my hair and time seemed to stop around me. The city street below seemed to sink away into a black abyss. My mind began to swim and I became lost inside a black void. There was no escape; I was done for.

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“Unnngnh…” I moaned as I began to stir.

When I finally came to, I jumped up in an attempt to push myself away from the looming drop. Instead, I ended up pushing myself too far back and I felt gravity take its hold on me. I panicked, my hooves flailing about wildly.

Thud!

My flank hit the floor hard, and my head hit harder. Fortunately it wasn’t enough to knock me back out. The pain in my skull was immense, but I kept enough awareness to realize what had happened.

I wracked my memory and I remembered looking down from the bridge before passing out from the fear. I looked at my surroundings and noticed that I had not tried to move backwards from the edge of the bridge but instead had only succeeded in propelling myself in reverse right off the side of a small cot. The room in which I now found myself was relatively clean compared to much of what we had found in the city so far. The walls had even been covered in a thin white coat of paint that tried to disguise what lay behind it. Underneath that dirty, pale colouring I could still see the old paint attempting to flake off despite being sealed over.

As I pulled myself back onto my hooves, I heard another groan from the other side of the bed. There was definitely somepony else in the room with me, and I instinctively dropped back to the floor. Cautiously, I poked my head over the top of the bed.

Beyond the hills in the sheets and on the far side of the mattress there was another cot. Atop of it I could make out the outline of another pony wrapped up underneath the sheets, though I couldn’t tell who it was or what they looked like. Aside the bed was a rolling cart that appeared to be full of what I made out to be medical supplies.

“So, I see you’re awake,” came a voice behind me. “Though, what exactly are you doing on the floor looking like a lost little filly?”.

I turned to see Gale standing in an open doorway that led out into another small hallway. I opened my mouth to answer her, but then chose to shut it again after I realized I still didn’t have the entire story. That, and the little bit I did have pieced together sounded utterly embarrassing without context.

“Actually, don’t answer that, kid. I’m not even gonna ask anymore.”

“W-what exactly happened?” I braved. “How did I end up here?”

“When you slipped on the brid—”

“I didn’t slip,” I corrected. “The wind gusts blew me over.”

“Uhuh, sure they did Dove. Anyway, when you… fell over, you caught your hoof on an offset piece of metal, which dug deep into your skin. You passed out, either from the shock or from the fright of seeing the ground below you.”

Just the mention of that image made me shiver, but I put it as far back in my mind as I could.

“I still had Lily on my back, so I couldn’t immediately rush out and rescue you – again.”

I flushed red with embarrassment. She was never gonna let me forget my foolishness.

“I knew that with your hoof caught like it was, you weren’t going to be going very far, so I galloped here to the infirmary as quickly as I could and left Lilybloom in the care of Rare Heart. Once she was in safe hooves, I came back and drug your sorry plot off that bridge too. The wound where the sheet metal grabbed you was bad, but you were still an easy fix compared to Lily.” She paused for a moment and looked me over. “I’m glad to see you up and about at least.”

“Thanks, Gale. I owe you one.”

“I think you owe me more than one at this point.”

“Haha, yeah, you’re probably right. So, how is Lily?”

Gale gestured toward the other bed. “Why don’t ya see for yourself?”

I stood and made my way around toward the cot to which the pegasus had indicated. Pulling the sheets back, I could tell that Lily still remained unconscious. Her chest rose and fell smooth and steady. She was alive and breathing, and that fact alone brought a great sense of relief to me. I exhaled a breath that I didn’t even know I was holding and then moved around to check the wound in her leg.

As I pulled the sheet back, a deep gasp left my throat. The wound was unbandaged and the gashes had been completely replaced by heavy scars. It looked bad still, but the wound was closed up and healing. It was unbelievable that she had recovered this fast.

Wait, how fast is “this fast?” It occurred to me I didn’t actually know how long I had been out for.

“Gale, how long was I unconscious?” I asked.

“Hmm? Oh, a couple of hours.”

“A couple of hours?” My mind refused to accept that. “There’s no way that a wound as serious as hers would have healed in just a couple of hours, even with a healing potion.”

Gale just chuckled.

“You seriously underestimate me, my dear.”

I spun around to the door. I had expected an answer from Gale, not from another pony who had just trotted into the entryway. What I expected less – or rather, not at all – was the pony herself that I saw standing there; I wasn’t even sure she was a pony at first.

The pink unicorn’s coat was horribly mangy and the exposed flesh underneath was torn and rotted beyond belief. Where it was pulled taught, such as around her sunken yellow eyes, you could see the impression of her skeleton wrapped up inside. I even thought I could see spots where the skin broke enough to reveal the raw muscle and bone that lay below it. Her golden mane and tail were barely existent, consisting of little more than a few remaining locks.

Gale strode up next to her and placed a hoof on her back. “Dove, this is Rare Heart. She fixed up your hoof and saved Lily’s life.”

As taken aback as I was by Rare’s ghastly appearance, she must’ve been a very civil pony. She had patched us up, even as badly broken as Lily was, and she spoke with a soft and sophisticated voice. Most importantly though, Gale trusted her and that was good enough for me.

“Thanks a lot for fixing us up, Miss Rare Heart.” I bowed my head respectfully. “We owe you our lives.”

“Oh please, darling,” she smiled, “just call me Rare Heart. The ‘miss’ is just too formal for my tastes.” She trotted passed me and over to Lily’s bed. “Also, you don’t owe me diddly. Your wounds were child's play to fix up, and I’m glad to see they are fully healed. Your friend here was a different story though. I’m surprised she lasted long enough for you to get her here.”

“Lilybloom’s tougher than you might think. Definitely no iron pony, but her willpower outside of combat is that of a minotaur.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt that dear. Still, my magic and your proper treatment prior saved her life. Good job with the bandages by the way.”

I felt my cheeks turn pink a little at the compliment. To hear that I had done something to save my best friend, and to have done it correctly, was surprisingly flattering. I never really had more than rudimentary training as a security mare. Lily was the one who spent her time with her muzzle buried in medical treatment books, learning. But then again, what didn’t she take it upon herself to learn?

After checking up on Lilybloom, the unicorn turned back to us. “Oh, Gale, Ratchet asked to see you. I also believe Sprocket was looking for you a little bit ago.”

“Thanks, Rare,” Gale responded. “I already knew Sprocket wanted to talk. I’ll go find her after we go talk to Ratch.”

“Sounds good, dear. I’ll make sure your friend – Lilybloom was it? – continues to recover just fine. See you both later, then!”

Gale and I turned and left the room, closing the door behind us. As soon as we had moved far enough off that I felt confident the unicorn wouldn’t hear me, I struck up the question that had been on my mind the entire time.

“What… what happened to her?” I asked. “I mean, why is she so… you know?”

“Ghoulish?” Gale shot back.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“That’s because she’s a ghoul, kid.” Gale continued to explain as we walked. “I understand your reaction, though. Not like you would’ve met one back where you come from. You see, when the megaspells fell, not all of the ponies could find sanctuary in the stables. A large percentage of them were locked out of the shelters when those great doors sealed shut. Most of them perished from the initial blasts or the radioactive fallout; but some didn’t.

“While there were those select few who were lucky enough to be isolated far off the map and weather the storm unscathed, the majority of those who survived suffered a much worse experience. One that I can only imagine would be worse than dying.

“The radiation from the spells seeped into their bodies in quantities that, instead of killing them, mutated the inner workings of their bodies almost instantaneously. Over time they became ghoulish in appearance as their symptoms resembled that of normal radiation poisoning. However, they just didn’t seem to die from it, essentially resembling zombies.”

I remembered some of the old comics that Lily had read as a filly about a group of ponies caught up in a zombie apocalypse, and how Rare Heart had indeed mirrored one of the trotting dead. I also recalled making a remark to her about how silly it was to imagine such a thing, after all the world had already had its apocalypse.

I guess now we’ll have to deal with both, I thought to myself and chuckled. I’ll have to apologize to Lily when she comes to for making fun of her all those years ago.

“There was a difference though,” Gale continued, “between them and the mindless beasts of old horror stories. A lot of them retained their sanity. While some have gone feral after years upon years of living, most of them are still civil ponies seeking to make a life in this blasted wasteland.”

“I can’t even imagine what it must be like,” I stated in disbelief.

Gale hung her head. “I can’t either. You could try asking Rare Heart, but she doesn’t usually like to talk about it. You’d likely make better use of your time beating a stone wall with a wet noodle.”

I tried to imagine exactly what she meant by that, but all it did was make me want to try beating said wall with said wet noodle. Instead, I put my brain cells to use examining the rooms we passed on our way to Ratchet’s office. Fortunately, our destination was still in the same building as the medical ward, so I wouldn’t have to cross that harrowing bridge again; at least not right away. We climbed up a few flights of stairs and then proceeded down a single, long hallway at the end of which stood a door labeled “CEO Ratchet.” The Scrappers’ boss’s name was, of course, etched into the wood beneath the original CEO of this old building.

There was nothing of major interest on our way down that hallway, save for one room that caught my eye. The door was simple and plain and it appeared to only be accessible via a passcard terminal nearby. The sign on the wall next to it simply read “Black Research - Authorized Entry Only.” From the looks of it, it had not been entered in years. My guess was that the Scrappers had yet to find the keycard in order to gain entry, though why they hadn’t just forced their way in yet was beyond me.

I shuffled the thought to the back of my mind as we approached the door where the hallway ceased. Gale raised her hoof to knock on the wooden barrier when it swung violently open, knocking her to her haunches, and me along with her.

“Get the hell out of this office, you damned rat!”

A dark grey blue earth pony came stumbling out as if he had been thrown through the doors. Fear and anger were both present upon his muzzle, and he scrambled off down the hall, tail between his legs.

“Yeah, you better run. I hope the blasted dogs eat you alive!” A crimson-coated unicorn mare trotted out of the room as she continued to yell after the stallion. Once the stern look on her face faded away, she turned to us. “Oh, hey Gale. Sorry about that. Bastard tried to sell some of our best tech to those infernal raiders in the outer ruins. Anyway, come on in.”

The mare made her way back into the office acting as if nothing happened. Gale and I tailed after her, but Ratchet put up a hoof and stopped me at the door.

“Not you,” she stated bluntly. “This is Scrapper business. Nothing for your ears.”

I was a little shocked at how rude she was, even after the way she treated that stallion. That had been different though. She had a reason to treat him that way, but what had I done to deserve it?

“No way, Ratchet.” Gale stepped forward. “You may be in charge here, but she’s with me come hell or high water.”

Ratchet spun round on her with the most vile look on her face. Magically floating out a revolver and pulling back the hammer, she pointed the weapon at my companion. “You’re right Gale, I am in charge here. And you aren’t part of my crew, which means that you would be wise to heed my words. I’m not afraid to waste somepony who disobeys me.”

Ch-chk.

“And I have no problems fighting our way out of here if need be,” Gale stated coldly as she loaded her battle saddle and aimed it at Ratchet.

I felt the tension in the air wrap around my heart and constrict it as it sunk at the pegasi’s words. Were we really about to fight our way out of this place, through all those armed guards at the entrance, along with a still-recovering Lilybloom?

For mere minutes the two stared at each other. Neither player in this cold war moved, focused intently on the other. Time crawled by like it had no place better to be. I didn’t want to fight, but I prepared to grab Demonslayer from its holster should things go sour. Then it happened.

Gale and Ratchet burst out laughing and put their weapons at ease. Unsure of what just happened, I felt strangely at ease and relaxed my body. The anxiety that filled the room shifted entirely.

“It’s good to see you here, Gale,” Ratchet said as she extended her hoof.

The pegasus pony bumped her hoof against the unicorn’s. “I’m just glad we avoided shooting each other… again.”

“I thought you worked alone these days, though?”

“Well, I had a bit of a complication on my way here.” Gale turned to show Ratchet her bandaged wing. “I had to pick up a bit of extra security. I didn’t expect them to be as good as they’ve proven themselves to be.”

I felt myself blush a little bit at that statement. I hadn’t done much during our few days together, or at least I didn’t think I had. At the very least I hadn’t died… yet.

“Well, seems they weren’t as good as you figure them to be if they lost our little package.”

“That wasn’t their fault! We were ambushed by Hellhounds and using that emitter was the only means of getting us all out of there alive. If I hadn’t we’d all be dead, and you’d be out the transmitter.”

“Then you better make your lives worth it and find us another one.”

“And where exactly do you expect us to do that? The initial one was hard enough to find in the first place.”

A twisted smile was the only response Ratchet gave to Gale’s question.

“Oh no,” Gale said, starting to look worried. “No, no, no. You can’t be serious.”

“I am quite serious, my old friend.”

“But you said even the hellhounds won’t go near that place. Why would you send us there? We have no idea what’s in there, and that alone makes it sound like a suicide mission.”

“Exactly. If the hellhounds haven’t even touched it, you can bet that it’s still yet to be looted. Its our best chance to find the equipment we need to build an emitter, and besides, I still need to punish you somehow for losing the first one.”

“And if we don’t go?”

“Well, then I’ll have to kill you. Maybe your friends would be more inclined to help then.” Ratchet paused for a moment, but not long enough to allow Gale to voice her retort. “Or perhaps I should give the order to have that lovely mint-coloured unicorn killed instead.”

“NO!” I burst out without hesitation.

Gale shot me a look that immediately put my tail between my legs. A sigh then left her as an air of defeat surrounded her.

“Fine. We’ll go check it out. I swear though, if we die, I will come back and haunt your ass.”

“Wonderful,” Ratchet approved. “I’ll make sure Rare Heart takes good care of your friend while you’re away. Oh, and since you’re down one member of your party, why don’ you take that old pal of yours, Sprocket, with you. I’m sure she’d love the chance to go check out the tech that’s hidden away in that place.”

“Hmmph,” Gale snorted as she turned away and led me back out of the room.

As we made our way through the doorway, I heard Ratchet snicker sadistically as she returned to the work that was piled high upon her desk. I didn’t like her one bit, but I didn’t have anything nice to say and thus I held my tongue; at least until we were out of earshot.

“What was that all about?” I asked my companion as we made our way back down the stairs that had led us up here earlier.

“The Scrappers and I go way back,” she said. “Ratchet’s been in charge since they were just a rag-tag group of salvagers trying to eke out a living amidst this war torn cityscape. Back then they had it rough, or at least a hell of a lot rougher than they do now. Attacks from the nearby groups of raiders, slavers, and of course, the hellhounds were all an inevitable threat on a near-daily basis.

“Their party had initially been a group that left from Crossroads Junction in an effort to seek riches in the destruction of the former great city. That was before the train between the two towns had been recovered. They had to loot weapons and ammo from the crumbling buildings they took temporary refuge in, but supplies were meager at best. Food and water had to be requisitioned by other means. A deal had been set up with a local Ironhoof associate at the time to bring those provisions in.”

“Was that you?” I asked, putting two and two together.

“You betchya, kid. They needed a pegasus to deliver the supplies as the aerial advantage gave us an edge over the grounded groups that would have shot or crippled a normal caravan on sight. It was also a big help in locating the nomadic group from above.”

“So how did they get to the point they are now?”

“Well, when they found the towers here, they knew they had something. One used to be an old computer company’s headquarters, which is the structure we entered through. Another used to be an old apartment building, now used to house the town’s population. And the third – the one we’re in now – was an old Ministry of Wartime Technology branch.”

“Ministry of Wartime Technology?” I interrupted, repeating Gale’s words back to her.

“Did history of the ministries really not get passed down through your stable?”

“Well, I’ve heard about them. Some part of Luna’s old government, right? I don’t really know much else about them though.”

“Ah, well at least you aren’t too uneducated,” Gale jested. “The MWT was responsible for developing a lot of the equipment used during the war. They often worked with the Ministry of Arcane Sciences to develop magically powered equipment such as the rare but powerful energy rifles. Very advanced stuff came out of their doors back then. All of the remnants of their tech that had been locked away in that building provided the Scrappers with the tactical edge they needed to secure their claim here.

“The skyscrapers were largely inaccessible from the streets below due to the low level structural damage they had sustained, as well as most of the working elevators being knocked out. Those that were still in working order weren’t functional due to power loss, but the Scrappers and their ingenuity fixed a few of them up while still limiting access to the upper floors they had decided to call home.

“After a few years of gaining a foothold here, they discovered the old train at a depot not far from here. We would have ended up there if we had followed the tracks into the city, but that would have taken us directly through hellhound territory. Fat lot of good going around did for us though,” she scoffed before taking a moment to catch her breath.

“Anyway, the train can make that trip now, connecting Crossroads and Underdog Town much quicker and more directly. However, the train has to have an extremely tight security force with heavy weapons always pointed down every street and alley way it passes in order to ensure it arrives without fault. I still fly in more sensitive materials, such as the sonic emitter, from time to time though. Airmail is still the safest way to get things here, but its no good when I’m already grounded.”

Gale took a moment to look disappointedly at her bad wing. Sensing the downtrodden mood this conversation was taking us, I decided to change the subject.

“So, where is it that we’re heading? And what’s so bad about it?”

As I asked the question, we came to the bridge that spanned between the MWT building and the old company’s hq. Fortunately for me, the rains had passed during my recovery and the cloud cover had returned to its normal, dull grey state and the bridge had dried up. The clearer weather lifted my spirits a bit.

“Make it across this time without passing out or falling to your death, and I’ll tell you,” the pegasus opposed.”

“Fair enough.” I laughed a little, but choked it down along with my nerves.

I squinted my eyes enough that they were practically closed, but I could still see where I was going. I placed a hoof on the metal bridge, took a deep breath, and took off like a bolt. I galloped as fast and straight as I could in an effort to make it across before another gust of wind had a chance to knock me down. Before I knew it, I passed into the hallway in the opposite building. I had neglected to remember the slight drop formed by the windowsill upon which the bridge was anchored. My forward momentum, coupled with the lack of floor when my hoof came down, caused me to tumble through the gaping window. I flew head over tail across the floor and finally into the wall that kindly decided to bring my body to an abrupt stop.

Gale came trotting across, laughing heavily. “Well, at least you made it across this time. Guess I owe you an explanation.”

A hoof helped me up from my awkward landing position, but it wasn’t Gale’s. The dirt that matted the fur around it was unmistakable, and the bright blue eyes that stood out against that coat were even more so. A fillyish giggle left the mare’s mouth before she turned to my companion.

“Seems you’ve got yourself quite the clutz, ‘eh Gale?”

“It would seem I do indeed, Sprocket. Hey, you got a moment?”

“Sure thing, what’s up?”

“Well, Dovetail and I have been asked by Ratchet to go find a suitable replacement for the sonic emitter that we lost. Care to join us? We could use another set of hooves with our other party member temporarily out of commission. That and your technical expertise would come in handy with anything of use we find.”

“Sure thing, Gale. I did have something I wanted to talk to you about, but we can discuss it on the way. Where are we heading to locate such a rare and beautiful piece of equipment?”

Well, guess I’ll get my answer now, too, I thought to myself. The answer she gave us nearly drove my jaw back down to the first floor as it dropped.

“Stable Forty-Four.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So, your telling me we’re actually going to go visit another Stable?” I asked as I checked the ammunition I was loading into my bag. “What’s so bad about another Stable? Shouldn’t that mean more ponies that could’ve survived the war?”

“Could be,” Gale answered. “Could also be irradiated all to hell inside. Thing is, we just don’t know.”

On our way out, Rocky had offered up the arsenal of weapons at the guard checkpoint to us. We were allowed to take what non-magical weapons and ammunition that we pleased, so long as we were reasonably conservative with what we grabbed. We had been making discussion about the mission as we loaded up.

I sniffled a little. Last time I was loading these bags, I was talking to Lily before we left our own stable. Seems only fitting to be stocking up again before heading back into one. I just wish Lily were able to come with us.

“So why is that?” I asked.

This time, Sprocket was the one to answer me. “I’m sure you’ve heard by now that even the hellhounds keep a wide berth around the stable. Raiders, slavers, even wild animals stick to routes that don’t take them by the place. It’s odd given the potential tech that could be pulled from inside. Usually a place like that would’ve been picked clean decades ago. Thing is, if the dogs stay away, so do you. Their senses can detect things where ours can’t, so they know something’s inside there that they don’t wanna mess with and we don’t know what. Nopony’s dared to find out either. Door’s always remained shut... until now, I guess.”

“That’s not very comforting…” I scoffed as I put the last bit of stock into my saddlebag.

I had been able to requisition a fair amount of ammunition for our weapon stores: a few boxes of ammo for the lever action, a vast stock of new shells for Demonslayer, and a few clips for my old security pistol. I was also able to locate a silencer amongst the arsenal which fit perfectly with the small handgun. If we needed stealth on this mission at any point in time, I knew that the pistol would be better than nothing should we require it. Our other weapons would be great if we got attacked on our way to the stable, but I knew that once we were inside, silenced weapons would be key. The metal walls would cause the sound of any large caliber weapon to reverberate at a near-deafening level.

Gale had fully reloaded her battle saddle, and took a fresh supply of grenades. The belts of ammunition she had draped around herself made her look a lot like somepony straight out of one of those cheesy pre-war action films.

When were fillies, Lily and I would always commandeer one of the stable’s classrooms and its projector once a night at week’s end to watch some old movie she had dug up on the archives. We would sometimes get caught by the janitor, Handy Hooves, only to have him join us in watching the flicks.

Things have really changed since we were fillies, completely oblivious to this outside world, I thought as I sighed loudly. Well, we weren’t entirely oblivious about it, I corrected myself, but we were certainly a heck of a lot more ignorant about it.

“Well, shall we go crack this metallic, over-sized nut?” Sprocket asked when she finished packing her supplies away.

Making sure my bags were all tied down, I nodded. “Ready as I’ll ever be. Gale?”

“Only if you are, kid.”

“Alright then, let’s go.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back on the streets, my thoughts were still far from clear. My whole mind was still trying to wrap itself around the idea of descending into another stable. My primary concern was what we would find when we stepped hoof beyond that big steel door. Would there be a welcoming party full of friendly faces? Would the residents be hostile or possibly driven mad from their years of isolation? Or would it be completely empty, devoid of life because the ponies who were meant to populate it never made it inside before the megaspell hit?

I looked to the two ponies who trotted along in front of me. Both of them seemed as if they knew the location of the vault despite never having been inside, so I let them lead. Sprocket had drummed up a conversation with the pegasus that I was having trouble following, so I had simply ignored their chatter.

My mind drifted back to other things as they continued. It crossed me that the area of the city we had entered roughly half an hour ago had begun to grow, not in size or population, but in its flora. It wasn’t necessarily overgrown with vegetation, but it certainly was the greenest place I had seen yet in the ruins. In fact it was a stark contrast to the rest of the dull grey that painted the rest of the city. Grass had started to return to life throughout the streets, filling in every little nook and cranny that it could. Bushes and trees that had obviously been scorched to death had taken on a small bit of new growth where their warscars were the lightest.

“Well, Dove, welcome to Stable Forty-Four.” Gale put a hoof over my back as we drew to a stop. “Or rather, the building that houses the entrance to be exact.”

In front of us rose a great dome of steel webbing. The surface of the structure was covered in dirty glass, most of which was either shattered or hanging on for dear life. Around the steel beams, vines stretched their leafy fingers while they tried unsuccessfully to constrict the rusting metal and crush it into dust. Inside, I could see what appeared to be a darkened forest. Like the rest of the trees and bushes on the way here, it appeared as if they had once died but had since somehow found new life. Surrounding the structure was a low concrete wall that had also grown over with plantlife. A nearby degraded sign designated the location as the Vanhoover Botanical Gardens.

“The stable door lies inside,” Sprocket announced. “Stay close, the foliage gets thicker the deeper you go and eventually almost all light is lost.”

Gale took the lead and we followed her passed the vine-strangled wall and the overgrown entranceway. We set hoof inside a small lobby that was separated from the forest beyond by another set of broken glass panes. The ticket counters and desks here were stripped bare of anything I could deem useful. Even the registers and terminals had been torn open and deprived of their mechanics.

“We’ve been through here before on a scouting mission.” Sprocket’s words perked my ears up and I listened intently as my eyes looked over the empty room. “The tech was meager, but we still were drawn to investigate the unusual plant growth. Our scans found the earth here to be unnaturally fertile, at least relative to the rest of the city’s ground. Before we could complete our survey though, it was unexpectedly soiled. A battle had flared up in the street outside between the local raider tribes, and in our attempts to not get caught in the crossfire, we were driven ever deeper inside the gardens. That’s when we found the stable.”

“Did you even try to open it?” I asked.

“No. We found the entrance and took a quick look, but that was all we got. The raiders had moved on and the all clear was given. We were ordered to return back to the towers, so the few of us in the scouting party merely marked it up to check it out later and then simply never found the time to make it back.”

“I see,” was all I said in return. I couldn’t imagine why they would pass up the opportunity to get their hands on all the tech and salvage a stable could provide, even if it were occupied. I put the thought aside though and focused my attention on navigating the ever-thickening vegetation.

A few times I nearly tripped over the tree roots that littered the ground, but I was able to catch myself before falling face first into Gale’s plot ahead of me. I was trying my best to actually pay attention to where I was going this time.

The trek was not terribly long, and eventually we found ourselves deep in the strange forest. Before us, the ground gradually dropped away, revealing an eerily familiar sight. A great steel door shaped vaguely like one of the sprockets upon our Scrapper companion's flanks stood vigilantly at the base of the earthly depression. Scribed clearly into its center was the number forty-four. In front of the door, a small control panel sat waiting for the command to open the entrance.

We descended the slope and as we approached the controls, Gale paused. “Dove,” she said, “I think you should be the one to do the honors.”

I nodded and stepped up to the panel. I raised my hoof and took a deep breath. This would be the first time in a number of days that I would find myself inside a stable, only this time it wouldn’t be my home. It was even stranger being here without Lilybloom. I’d have to be sure to tell her about any stories that came from this adventure.

The pads of my hoof pressed against the button and pushed it down until it stopped. However, where the loud noise of grinding gears and metal on metal would have normally started, our ears were met with hushed silence. For a moment I thought perhaps the console was dead or the wires had been cut, but then the mechanisms slowly began to screech to life.

There was a delay while the large arm inside the stable came down and mated with the door. Eventually, the great round slab slid loudly inward and began to roll to the side. Its movement was jerky and sluggish but the entranceway ultimately found itself fully open. The lights inside the first room attempted to flicker on before shorting out and giving up in the end. It was enough, though, to see for a second what had kept the door’s machinery at bay.

The entrance hall was completely overrun with wild plant growth, much like the grounds surrounding the stable. The leafy vines had wrapped themselves around the arm and worked their way into the inner workings. The StableTec gears were made to be tough and powerful though, and they proved to be more than a match for some simple vegetation to impede.

“Well, shall we?” Sprocket asked.

I took the first step inside. The metal beneath my hoof was strangely comforting. I knew full well that this was not my stable, but it still provided a sense of familiarity that I imagined was very much like coming across an old friend after many years; they’re different but somehow still very much the same.

My eyes began to adjust to the light and I could see just how bad the plant infestation really was. The steel walls were peeled back in places where new growth had broken through and turned the areas around the breaches mossy and green. Grass had begun to grow up through the grated metal floor and the doors had been forced open by the strength of the creeping vines. I was beginning to doubt the survival of the stable’s population more and more with each passing moment and each sight I took in.

Gale and Sprocket stepped into the room behind me and I heard Sprocket gasp a little in shock.

“Wow,” she said as she examined the scene. “Well, this isn’t what I expected at all, but it certainly is interesting. The plants have forced their way in from the soil outside the walls.”

“We aren’t here for the plants,” Gale stated bluntly. “Let’s just get what we came for and get out of here. I really don’t like the look of this place.”

I wasn’t so frightened, perhaps because I had grown up in a stable, but the fact that Gale was even getting creeped out by this place worried me. I was starting to get that bad feeling in my stomach that I couldn’t quite place my hoof on.

“Well, what exactly are we looking for?” I asked.

Sprocket answered me quickly. “Anything that can emit sound at a high frequency. We do have a working terminal back in town that we could use to play the sound, but we’d need some form of speakers. All the ones in the buildings above were shot when we found them, likely blown out by the shockwave that the megaspell generated.”

“So, essentially you need the stable’s intercom system?” Gale inquired.

“Yes, that should actually do nicely. There are a few other things I’ll need, but I’m sure I’ll be able to find them as we go.”

“What are they?” I asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” Sprocket replied. “They’re just some minor equipment. If I run across them, I’ll grab them. If not, its no big deal.”

“Sprocket, I grew up in a stable. If there’s something you need, I can help you find it.”

For a moment, she contemplated answering me, but in the end she held her tongue. “Don’t trouble yourself,” was all she said.

“Alright,” I relented. I was starting to not trust her, but I still felt I had to. She was Gale’s friend after all. “If you’re looking for the intercom system, that’d be in the Overmare’s office. Assuming this stable is laid out similarly to mine, that’ll be on the second story of the atrium, where she could easily oversee everything that happened inside her stable’s walls. The quickest way there is through this door here. Come on, I’ll lead.”

I flipped the light on my pipbuck on and made for the doorway I had indicated. The old metal hinges of the door creaked menacingly as I pushed it open the rest of the way. The sound echoed throughout the empty hallways and we made our way through to the atrium. All throughout the stable, the greenery continued to force its way into the aging shelter, growing denser and denser as we went. At one point, I even thought I had seen one of the vines shift, but when I examined it again it was absolutely static.

“This is weird,” Gale said in a hushed tone that was just loud enough for us to hear. “Plants have been known to grow towards the sunlight, but here… There is no light here, natural or otherwise. Why would they force their way inside here?”

When she mentioned it, I began to realize she was right. Even growing up in a stable, we knew that. Our artificial gardens were set up to mimic natural sunlight, but these lights had sat dormant for years.

“Perhaps they’ve developed some form of mutation that allows them to thrive down here?” Sprocket suggested.

“Perhaps,” Gale breathed.

“I would like to take a sample back to Underdog and have Rare Heart take a closer look at it.” Sprocket stopped and pulled out what looked to be a multitool. She flipped a knife out of the tool and began to saw away at one of the vines. When she started I could have sworn I heard a low growl come from the hallway ahead of us, but when I looked I saw nothing.

Must’ve just been the structure shifting, I concluded.

I decided to take advantage of the momentary pause in order to check our progress on my pipbuck. We still had to make our way around to the atrium and up to the second floor, but we were getting close.

I felt a hoof gently land on my shoulder from behind.

“Whatch’ya need, Gale?” I asked, spinning around, only to be struck down with fear.

“I didn’t need anythi—” Gale started to respond before her eyes landed on what I was now staring dreadfully at. “Uh, what the hell is that thing?”

“What are you two yapping abo—” Sprocket’s words too fell silent at the same sight.

Between the three of us stood a vine-like plant that rose to roughly thrice my height. Atop the stem, two menacingly jagged leaves sat open like a mouth, revealing the tantalizing blue pads inside. I had begun to question how we had missed it before now, but I realized that its black colour would have been hard to see in the dim light. The soft light from my pipbuck’s screen barely made it visible even now that we knew it was there.

For a time we simply stayed still, staring at it. In return, it remained motionless as well. It was a war of silence as we both awaited the other to make the first move.

“Okay,” Gale said, breaking the silence. “I think it’s just part of this rampant vegetation. Can we just get back to the task at hoof now?”

As if her words were magic, the plant began to move. I quickly became aware of what had actually touched my shoulder. Shadowy, black vines covered in light blue thorns started to envelop us from all sides and that threatening mouth began to slowly move closer to my own face.

“You just had to go and say that, didn’t you Gale?” Sprocket jested as she leapt towards us. Her reaction came just in time to avoid being entangled by the encroaching tendrils, and knocked Gale out of the way of those attempting to engulf her as well.

My mind, however, was still processing what was happening when I got swept off my feet. When it did finally catch up to the situation, it wasn’t very happy. I was hanging upsidedown by my hooves which had been wrapped up by the floral tentacles. If I were a unicorn, this predicament would be much less threatening, but as an earth pony I had been rendered completely helpless. Gale and Sprocket were struggling to untangle themselves from each other, so they were of no help currently, either.

The sentient plant dangled me close to what I could only describe as its head. A cloud of gas emitted from its mouth and I nearly choked on the noxious effluvium. I did my best to hold my breath, but there were ways the evil thing found to break me of that effort. Let’s just say that there were places it touched with its tendrils that caused me to flush red and gasp involuntarily. Nopony had ever touched me there, and I was none too happy about some plant being my first.

I writhed about in its grip, shaking the vines off those unmentionable places as quickly as I could. I knew I had no chance of escape as the thorny tentacles continued to coil tighter and tighter around my hooves. The plant’s fetid emissions made my insides burn, but I kept fighting it in hopes that my companions would be able to free me before the thing could touch me again.

I looked to them, but though they had broken free of their self-imprisonment, they were now backing together in an attempt to fend off more of the vines that were now closing in on them. While I continued to keep the foul thing’s appendages away from me, something caught my eye as it shifted about next to my saddle bags. The clasp that kept Demonslayer safely in its holster had come undone and the gun was dangerously close to slipping free. An idea creeped into my mind that was crazy and would require a miracle to work, but I prayed to Luna and went for it; there would be only one chance at this.

I forced my body to struggle more against all the odds. By now my lungs felt as if a flame had been kindled inside them but the adrenaline that rushed through me forced the pain away and I just kept at it. Then my miracle came true. The shotgun broke loose, carried downward by gravity and the force of my strife. I closed my eyes, opened my mouth, contorted my frame in a way I didn’t think it could go, and then bit down as hard and fast as I could. My teeth found metal and my tongue wrapped gently around the trigger. I opened my eyes to see Demonslayer safely in my control. I had done the impossible.

I didn’t have time to revel in my success though, and quickly brought the weapon to bear. I didn’t even think about what I was doing. I simply lined the sights up on the blasted thing’s head and fired.

Blammmmmmmmm!

The shell burst from the barrel, breaking into its scattershot minions. Those pellets tore into the plant and, thanks to the magic of the gun, ignited its soft black flesh. The head of the creature exploded in a fantastical flash of fire. If that weed could scream, I couldn’t hear it though. The blast from Demonslayer had echoed throughout the metal halls and my ears were now ringing painfully. To make it worse, the vines around us all went limp, including the ones holding me aloft, and I fell headfirst to the hard floor below.

Thanks to the ringing and throbbing in my head, I could barely regain my bearings as I scrambled back to my hooves. That may have been a good thing, though, since I wasn’t given time to gather myself fully. We may have escaped the vicious vegetation that had snagged me, but the flickering light from its burning remains illuminated two more of the devilish plants as they approached.

I didn’t question which direction we had come in from or which way we had been going. I simply turned and ran as fast as I could in whatever direction I could that was away from those damned things. Gale and Sprocket had followed suite and were now close on my tail as we galloped along.

We broke through a doorway at the end of the hallway and burst out into a large, two story room. My mind was still cloudy and the thundering resonance in my ears continued to blind my hearing. The only reason recognized where we were, despite the low light, was due to the similarity to my own stable. We had fled directly into the atrium.

Unable to make out much in the darkness, I was now running on pure instinctual memory and made an immediate left, hoping that the rest of the place had been laid out the same as mine. By some goddess-influenced fortune, it was. My hooves beat against the rising metal of stairs and we climbed our way to the second floor. That fortune was short lived though as another of the plants swung in front of us at the top of the steps.

Thpp! Thpp!

Two shots from my newly-silenced ten millimeter security pistol smacked into the plant’s open maw. They did little damage, only causing the creature to flinch at best, but I knew that as effective as Demonslayer’s magical fire was against the plants, I couldn’t risk another deafening shot from it. My ears were still ringing from the last one and I didn’t want to blow out my ear drums permanently.

With haste, we maneuvered past the dazed threat and out onto the catwalks. My original shot with the shotgun, coupled with the clatter of our hooves, had begun to draw the sentient flora out of the metalwork. The pathway to the overmare’s office was crowded with the things, and without our heavy weapons we would never make it across. Instead, I took only a second to check my pipbuck’s scan of the stable’s layout.

Our pause could only be momentary, as the plants were slowly closing in on us, but I only needed that moment to locate what I was looking for. There was only one place I knew we would be safe enough that we could gather ourselves and figure out a plan. Once I laid eyes on it I wasted no time on telling my companions where we were going. I simply bolted off down the only only catwalk that still remained plant free. Gale and Sprocket took little time in deciding to follow me.

At the end of the catwalk I threw my momentum right and across another walkway that spanned the atrium. Where that path ended, a heavy door stood closed. I hoofed the button to open it, but nothing happened.

Of course, dummy, I thought to myself as I remembered a vital fact. This is a different stable and the door probably isn’t programmed to recognize my access.

“Cover me,” I yelled back, hoping they could hear me. “I need to get this door open.”

I heard muffled words through the ringing, but couldn’t make it out. I simply went to work.

Demonslayer may have been useless as a gun right now, but its stock made a perfect bludgeon for busting open the door switch. Once the panel’s internals were accessible, I pulled out the mess of wires and quickly realized I didn’t know what I was looking for. If only Lily had been there with us, she would have had the door open in a matter of seconds.

Sprocket trotted up next to me. I turned to her and before I could actually attempt to speak to her she went to work sorting through the bundle of cables as if she knew what I was trying to do. She seemed like a smart pony, if a bit distractible at times, and I suppose the issue would have been obvious to somepony who lived and breathed that sort of thing.

After a few seconds of digging around in the tangles, using nothing but my dim pipbuck light for illumination, she pulled out a single cable with a small box along its line. Her head disappeared inside her saddlebag and returned with a set of tools which she quickly broke open. Another brief moment later and she had forged a bypass around the little receiver that I knew picked up the clearance codes from my pipbuck.

“Cover your ears!” I barely heard over the ringing in my head. I quickly followed that order. Gale quickly tore two bundles of cotton out of her saddle bags and jammed them in her ears.

Ka-blam! Ka-blam! Ka-blam!

Gale’s battle saddle rung out with a fearsome wall of lead that tore through the encroaching plants. Even with my hooves over my ears, they began to ring with the concussion from her shots again, albeit significantly less.

My friend’s efforts barely even put a dent in the multiplying vegetation, and there were too many closing in on us now that we couldn’t fight them off without causing ourselves to go deaf. I hoofed the button on the hanging panel again. For a second the door didn’t budge, but I knew they could take a bit. Eventually, the steel groaned and the two slabs of metal pried apart; Sprocket’s bypass had worked.

The three of us retreated inside the shelter of the room and the door closed behind us just as one of the plants’ viney tentacles crossed its threshold. The thorny extremity held the door at bay temporarily before it sheared off and the gap slammed shut.

All of us took a deep breath. We knew now that we were between a hard place and another hard place on the other side of which giant pony-eating plants wanted to rip our guts out. The door would hold them out, but it would also hold us in. We had gotten ourselves trapped, but it was not without good reason. I knew our cage would be our salvation. There was one place a security mare should feel at home in any stable: the armoury.
 

Footnote: Level up!
New Perk: Shotgun Surgeon - When using shotguns, regardless of ammunition used, you are able to do more damage.
New Trait: Lucky Maverick - Your actions tend to be more reckless, but you are also lucky. The goddesses must be watching out for your foolhardy flank.