• Published 6th Apr 2014
  • 8,201 Views, 554 Comments

Fallout Equestria: Influx - Lex the Pikachu



A mare wakes up to discover she is in the Wasteland and not who she used to be. Determined to discover the truth she heads out into the wasteland. But the truth can be disturbing.

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Chapter 5: A Painful Truth

Author's Note:

Well, later than intended but here it is, Chapter 5. I'm sorry it took so long, I was hoping for a Christmas Day release but my Editor had finals and family to deal with so it got delayed but better late than never eh?

Thank you all for being patient and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

As a Christmas gift for all your Influx readers the end of the chapter will have some image goodies.

Fallout Equestria
Influx

Chapter 5: A Painful Truth

Crash!

Bang!

Crunch!

Thuds and booms rocked the decaying corridors of the old run down MASA Headquarters as a lone figure walked its halls. The feral creatures known as ghouls would attack this figure with the desire to feed on its flesh, but before they could, it would swat them aside like flies with a flick of a boot covered hoof. The ghouls didn't know and couldn't process they were attacking a machine instead of a flesh and blood pony, for it wore the armour of a Desert Ranger so to them it was a pony like any other.

"Rawr!" A ghoul roared as it thundered down the roof access stairs at the approaching Ranger. The Ranger didn't flinch or slow down on its approach even as the ghoul pounced from the bottom step. With a swift stomp, the Ranger brought its hoof down on top of the attacking ghoul's head as it got in range and drove it into the floor with enough force to turn its head into mush, putting it out of its misery forever. Undeterred, the Ranger walked up the stairs until it came to a locked door at the top that blocked its path to the roof. The hidden robot swiftly spun around and delivered an applebuck to the door, the door flew off its hinges from the impact and fell over the side of the building with a mighty crash upon hitting ground. Silently, the machine stepped out onto the roof of the MASA HQ and walked up to the chest high wall surrounding the roof's perimeter and began to survey its surroundings in search of its target.

Through its red tinted vision plus the red lenses of the helmet, the machine slowly scanned the area around the building. Taking in all it could see until its gaze would face north in the direction of the Las Pegasus ruins as at least a mile away, the machine caught two ponies running. I-02 IS stepped up to the wall and activated his AM Rifle's scope system built into the helmet and zoomed in as far as it could go on the running pair.

"Target one.... Pegasus... Male... Armed... Unknown plasma weapon,"

The machine swept its gaze to the other figure running beside the pegasus stallion.

"Target two... Primary target identified, I-01."

The machine disengaged the scope and watched as the pegasus and the zebra disguised machine ran closer and closer to the ruins of the once great city.

"Incoming transmission from Production Facility."

The machine sat down as it watched the two ponies disappear into the ruins.

"Have you acquired your target? You have been at the facility for a good hour." Came the demanding voice of the computer over the transmission.

"Negative sir, the building's security had been tripped and I had to go through the security shutters and the sentry drones which slowed me down. However, upon emerging on the roof I saw two targets fleeing the area and one of them was I-01," I-02 IS replied as if he was replying to a superior officer.

"I-01's signal transmitter is still offline, I am unable to track its movements, where is it headed now?"

"I-01 has entered the ruins of Las Pegasus sir."

The machine stood up as it prepared to move out.

"With its signal transmitter offline, you will be limited in your ability to track it. You will know when you are close to I-01 as your scanners should be able to pick up its power cell's energy signature. Word of warning however, I-01 was designed with weak power cells to enforce the need to recharge so if the power signature is weak enough you may lose track of it until it recharges,"

"Affirmative."

It was then that the computer realised that I-02 wasn't talking to him in the electronic, emotionless voice it did before it left, which sparked some curiosity.

"What became of your voice?"

"There was a lot of open ground between here and the Production Facility. I needed to find cover and I happened upon a pony dressed in a full body suit of armour. I copied his voice so that while wearing the armour I could blend in and with I-01 now within the ruins of Las Pegasus, I am safe to say it was necessary,"

"Very good, I want regular updates on your progress, and remember, I-01 is to be brought back intact." The computer ordered and with that it ended the transmission.

The machine turned back to open door and found three of the undead monsters that it had been dealing with through the second floor standing there with their mouths open and grunting with hunger. I-02 IS lowered itself down into a combat stance and the three ghouls charged.

XXXXX

We galloped as fast as our legs could carry us away from the robot and ghoul infested building and toward my home city of Las Pegasus, or what was left of it. Our desire to run was being fuelled by the need to get as far away from whatever was able to break through those security shutters. Neither one of us would likely want to run into something strong enough to do that.

Again, I felt disturbed by how I wasn't feeling out of breath or tired as we ran. My heart was thundering in my chest, but my breath was coming as normally as if I was on a leisurely stroll. I would catch Fruity looking at me every now and then as we ran, I could tell he has noticed my lack of fatigue when he's puffing and panting. I doubt I would be able to keep up this charade much longer.

The city was drawing near and the ruins of its suburbs were fast approaching. Everything that I once knew had been rendered to nothing by rubble. As far as the eye could see, all I saw was destruction. My heart fell and my stomach felt like it was lead as the feeling of despair set in. No, I can't lose it here not now, I've done enough of that so far, I need to focus. I closed my eyes and took deep calming breaths to bring myself back under control but that was until I got a shiver down my spine.

I ground to a halt as we came to an intersection in the cracked road and hid myself behind the wall of what had once been a corner shop. All that remained of the shop was the actual corner wall I took cover behind.

"What's the... phew wee... matter?" Fruity asked as he panted for breath while also getting behind the wall.

"I think we are being watched," I replied quietly and peeked out from around the corner and looked down in the direction we had come, all the way back to the building all the way into the distance. "From the MASA Headquarters,"

"Then I think we should keep moving, you know, to put more distance between us and whatever the fuck is in there." Fruity said.

I nodded and we continued to move.

We walked pretty much in silence as we moved through the rubble strewn roads and streets as we made our way towards the intact city centre. Well, it looked intact from what we could see. We were pretty much lost as we cautiously moved through the streets of destroyed and ruined homes while we moved deeper into the ruins. I may have lived in Las Pegasus for twenty six years before all this but I didn't venture far from the central and eastern areas of the city so I had no knowledge of the road systems in southern Las Pegasus.

It hurt to see the city in the state it was in now considering what it was like back before the war. Before the war, Las Pegasus was Equestria's entertainment capital, boasting enough lights that the dead of night was as bright as day and able to make and break ponies with the many casinos in the famous Strip. It was a wondrous place to spend a vacation if you had the bits to spare and the many sights to see would leave you amazed. Now the city was a ruin and nothing like its former self, we may have been in the suburbs right now but it was clear that the life the city once held was long gone.

"Aww dude, the clear sky and bright sun paint a whole new light on the whole wasteland thing," Fruity muttered as he looked around at all the deserted houses as we walked along the ruined, cracked and over grown road.

"What do you mean?" I asked turning to look at my purple friend.

"Back around Manehattan with all the cloud cover, it was always dark so it hid a lot of..." He paused as he gestured with a hoof to a pile of bones on the cracked pavement. "This."

I could understand where Fruity was coming from with that. The bright Marejave sun was like a giant spot light in the sky compared to the bleak dark shade of the cloud cover from over central and eastern Equestria.

Fruity extended his wings and began to fan himself.

"Dear sweet Luna it’s hot," He complained. "How are you not sweating your ass off?"

I had lived in this heat all my life so I was used to it. "I'm used to it," I said absentmindedly. My eyes widened slightly as I realised what I said and Fruity raised an eyebrow as he looked towards me. I really wouldn't be able to keep this charade going if I kept slipping up like this. "The stable was always a bit stuffy." I quickly added. Celestia I hate lying to him like this.

"Well you're lucky, I'm sweating up a storm here." He whined while fanning himself with his wings.

We came to another intersection and directly ahead, I could see the road passed over a large carriageway. The carriageway was one of those multilane roads to deal with lots of traffic and usually encircled the city they were built around or connected to.

"Oh my gosh," I gasped as we stepped upon the bridge and looked down onto the carriageway. The eight lanes were practically clogged up with pony drawn or self propelled carriages and all of them were all going in one direction and that was away from the city. What was worse were the many skeletons all strewn about as they had abandoned their vehicles and died from whatever it was they were all running from.

"I'm sorry Crystal, but you'll see many more horrible sights like this in the wasteland." Fruity sighed as he wrapped his wing around me for comfort.

I sighed and steeled my nerves as I looked back up and followed the road north with my eyes. It would take us all the way through the suburbs and industrial areas of the city and past the city centre, pretty much giving us an easy access route.

"Let's follow this carriageway, it'll take us where we need to go." I said and begun to walk along the raised embankment of the carriageway. I wasn't going to walk down on the road itself with all those skeletons there, I was more than enough disturbed as it was.

As we walked onwards, the buildings beside the carriageway were more damaged than I would have thought being this deep in the city. We were walking through what had once been a number of office blocks beside the carriageway and not one of them had any intact floors or windows; they were pretty much shells with piles of rubble in the middle of them. Just what the hell happened to my home?

"Um, how are you doing Crystal?" Fruity asked as we weaved around a corner of a crumbling office building.

"I'll be ok, how about you?" I asked, thankful for the break in the silence we had fallen under.

"Heh, I'm perfectly fine," He said puffing out his chest. I knew that was a lie because he was still sweating under the sun but it just made me giggle. Fruity smiled. "You know, um, you do look rather attractive in that get up," He said softly with a hint of a blush colouring his cheeks.

I blinked in surprise and blushed myself. "You really think so?" I asked bashfully.

Fruity smiled and nodded as he turned his head to fully look at me. "Hmm, yes you really...whoa!" Fruity was cut off as he fell into a huge hole since he wasn't looking where he was going.

"Oh my gosh Fruity!" I cried as I rushed up to the raised rim of the hole. As I crested the rim of the hole I took notice of the circular shape of the bowl like hole. A message flashed into my vision as I took in the details of the hole.

"Impact crater."

I gasped at the realisation that my friend had just fallen into a crater created by a bomb impact. I suppose the state of those offices was a result of their proximity to the blast.

"Are you alright?" I called down into the crater.

"Ugh, yeah, I'm good." Fruity groaned as he pulled himself up off the dirt, flapping his wings to fly out of the hole and land on the pavement beside me.

When he landed I walked up to him and gently nuzzled his cheek. "I'm glad you are ok and, um, thank you for the compliment Fruity." I cooed softly. There was an audible pomf as his wings shot open and became ridged.

"Hehe, you're welcome." Fruity said with a goofy smile.

We continued onwards in slightly better spirits after our little display of affection, and as the sun began to move on its downward ark in the sky for the afternoon we came to a giant wall of cobbled together junk that looked to surround the entirety of the city centre. I couldn't see a way through the wall and flying me over would be a bad idea, simply because Fruity wouldn't be able to lift me and something was telling me that with the height of the wall they wanted to keep everything out and would probably have something in place to deal with unauthorised pegasi trying to fly in.

As we stared at the wall, we also saw the iconic large welcome sign to the city still standing, but for me, it was a heart breaking scene to see the state of the once beautiful sign. The once bright and welcoming "Welcome to Fabulous Las Pegasus" was now rusty, full of holes, the entire bottom half of the sign was missing, half of the lights looked to be broken and the welcome sign now read as. "Welcome to Fabulous New Pegasus" with the word "New" made out of what looked like old lettering from other signs as the three letters were all mismatched in font styles.

"You know, I saw pictures in old history books about this place as a colt, this place used to be beautiful and full of wonders. I wish I could have seen it back then." Fruity said idly as he looked up at the rusty sign. Oh Fruity, I wish you could have too, it was beautiful back then.

I didn't know how long we stood staring at the old sign for but we were brought back to our senses by the sound of clip clopping hooves coming from behind us. We both turned around, Fruity shaking his Q-Modulator off his back so it hung under his right wing, until we were looking back down the road we had walked up to get here. Our ears were swivelling around as we tried to pin point where the clopping hooves were coming from. It wasn't long before we discovered the sound coming from behind a ruined motel next to the offices we passed earlier.

"Get ready Crystal, they could be raiders," Fruity warned.

"No, my EFS is showing two non-hostile tags slowly approaching." I said looking to my compass on my EFS.

We waited with baited breath, Fruity looked ready to swing his plasma rifle fully around if he needed to use it. My sensitive audio receptors in my ears began to pick up idle banter that didn't sound like it belonged to raiders or of any other type of pony we were aware of.

"You know mate, patrolling in the Marejave almost makes you wish for a Baleful Winter," One voice said that sounded like it belonged to a mare.

"No kidding, I've been here a year and I'm still not used to this heat." The other voice replied in a masculine tone.

It was only a few seconds later after that when we saw two Earth ponies dressed in Equestrian army desert camo battle armour and metal rimmed combat helmets walk out from behind the motel talking to each other. They turned in our direction and I was able to see that they were both armed with a battlesaddle mounted with a Colt-Army AR15 Service Rifle on each saddle. The weapon they had were a semi-automatic, 5.56mm ammunition firing anti-infantry and light armour weapon. The mare of the group was a cream colour with a white mane and tail and the stallion was a light blue with a dark green mane and tail. The mare looked towards us and her gaze settled on me and her eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed.

"ZEBRA!" She shouted and before we knew what was going on the two armoured ponies ran up to us and had their weapons pointed at me.

"Whoa, hey, where's the fire?" Fruity cried out.

"You got a lot of nerve coming this far into the city zebra," The stallion growled.

"You Illustrious Moon zebras are a real headache," The mare complained.

I blinked in confusion, they must have me mistaken for somepony else. "The what?" I asked.

The two soldier ponies looked at each other with raised brows before looking back to us.

"Take off your hat." The stallion demanded.

I nodded and reached up and pushed my hat back so it sat on the back of my head, giving the troopers a clear look at my face. Their eyes widened and their hostile attitude evaporated.

"Oh, we're sorry miss, we thought you were part of the Illustrious Moon Tribe," The stallion said apologetically.

"It's ok, no harm done," I said with a soft smile as the two ponies lowered their service rifles.

"Who are you and what is this tribe you are talking about?" Fruity asked as he stepped closer to me.

"We are part of the Rangers," Noticing our confused expressions the mare soldier elaborated more. "Uh, Desert Rangers, we’re a growing group of ponies dedicated in protecting ponies in and around New Pegasus while also trying to strive for a more pre-war like society with the principles of democracy," Well, that sounded good for this world right now. It would be good for at least some ponies to try and bring it back from the dead unlawful wasteland it is right now.

"As for the tribe," The stallion began with a hint of venom in his voice. "We don't have a problem with zebras ourselves in general, in fact we've incorporated several zebra tribes into the Desert Rangers and they have helped us a great deal but this tribe. However, we have never met a darker bunch in our time in the Rangers. They call themselves the Illustrious Moon Tribe and are local to the Marejave region but unlike most zebra tribes who fear the moon and stars due to a superstition about Nightmare Moon or as they call her, the Maiden of the Stars, this tribe worships the moon and practices in some rather dark arts,"

"That's right, normally we would have left this tribe alone if they didn't want anything to do with us, but they raided and attacked several of our caravans," The mare continued after her teammate. "Which caused us to take action against them. Normally we would try for a peaceful solution but none of our messengers would make it to their camp that was at Bonbon Springs without getting attacked so we had to send in our troops to drive them out," The mare sighed, looking quite sad at this point.

"There was a miscommunication when the tribe tried to evacuate their young and elderly out of a back passage that we had also covered and they got slaughtered. We let the tribe leave peacefully after that, but they said they would make us pay one day," The stallion continued. "While we began to dismantle their old camp we began to find items and manuscript segments detailing an ancient and outlawed magic,"

I was suddenly getting an icy chill running down my spine at this when both of them stopped talking looking very uncomfortable about what it was they had found.

"What was it?" Fruity asked looking as disturbed as I was.

"They were looking into Necromancy." The stallion finished.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Fruity cried out. "They were trying to raise the dead?"

"That is what we believe so far, there wasn't enough to actually perform anything like that but what was left behind was enough though to make us believe they were looking into it."

"Eh, no wonder you jumped at me like that," I said while pushing my Stetson back up.

"We are sorry for that, but we are glad to see you are not one of them,"

"How can you tell that so easily?" Fruity asked looking to me.

"It's rather simple really, she’s a grey striped zebra, the Illustrious Moon zebras are black striped,"

"Oh, that is simple."

"Plus, you don't look like you're from around here are you, where are you from?"

"Err, well we came from Manehattan," I answered.

"Yeah, on the train that blew up the other day,"

"Glad to see you got out of that ok, we are sorry again for any inconvenience we may have caused you and is there anything we can do for you since we’re here?"

"Err, yes there is actually, we are trying to get into the city, there is a place we need to visit but we don't know where the entrance is."

"Ah, this wall was here long before we expanded into the region but there is a gate, if you follow the wall east, you'll come to a farm run by us, if you don't disturb the farmers you'll be fine, follow the wall past the farm and you'll find yourself in a little residential area, the wall will lead you to a building that specialises in the manufacture and sales of guns and just around the corner from that, you'll find a gate that'll let you into the city. Just so you know that you are in the right place there will be a partially collapsed ramp to an overpass facing the gate. Oh, be cautious after you pass the farm, raiders have been known to wander into that area from time to time." The mare soldier explained.

"Thank you so much,"

"No problem, look after yourselves." And with that the two troopers continued on their patrol and I let out a sigh of relief, for a minute there I thought they were gonna attack me. Actually, come to think about it, my threat warning never flashed when they showed up.

"Well, they were nice," Fruity said in a slightly sarcastic tone. "So, we should be wary of black striped zebras huh, well I'll be keeping my eyes open,"

"They were nice actually, they did apologise and they did tell us how to get to a way in," I chided.

"Alright, alright, you're right, I'm sorry."

I nodded with a smile as we turned to our right and began to follow the wall. The troopers weren't lying, within a few minutes of walking and after following the wall around a bend we came to a large open section of land with a chain link fence surrounding it with several lots of crops growing inside as well as several greenhouses, huts and guard towers.

"This must be the farm." I said, stating the blatantly obvious.

"Should we walk around, or should we cut through the farm?" Fruity asked as we came to a gap between the fence and the wall of junk.

"Hmm, the troopers said if we don't disturb the farmers we should be fine, plus it’s gonna be dark soon and I don't think we want another horde of geckos chasing us again,"

"Through the farm it is then; I really don't fancy being a mutant lizard's dinner." Fruity remarked with a touch of humour to his voice.

I chuckled at my friend's wording and squeezed through the gap in the fence with Fruity following close behind. We walked close to the wall to keep out of the way, but my mechanical vision had reticules popping up to highlight armed soldiers in the guard towers who had seen us and were watching us while my reticules were marking them as possible threats due to them being armed. We got about halfway through the farm before a trooper wearing a metal helmet with "MP" on it approached us in a similar get up to the other troopers and carried the same type of battlesaddle and weapon.

"Halt, state your business in the Sharecropper Farm," He demanded.

I quickly took my stetson off so we didn't have a hostile repeat of our first meeting with the Desert Rangers. The trooper's eyes widened slightly but then he seemed to relax as he saw I didn't belong to this tribe they were having problems with.

"We are only passing through sir," I said calmly. "We are just trying to get inside the city before it gets dark."

Fruity nodded in agreement.

The soldier stood there examining us for a moment longer before he nodded. "Very well, keep to the wall and please do not get in the way of these hard working farmers." He said authoritatively.

"No problem, we'll be out of here before you know it." Fruity said as he continued on.

The trooper nodded and turned around to return to his post while I hurried to catch up with my friend. We marvelled at the crops that had been grown here, last I remember about this area it was built up with I think a casino and hotel or was it an office block? I couldn't remember but anyway, the land was all concrete and what not before, but now it was open land. I suppose something had happened to destroy the buildings here and removed them to allow for this land. Fruity himself looked impressed as we passed a field of corn.

"Looks like the Marejave didn't get hit by a balefire missile or anything if there are crops growing here," He commented more to himself but with my ears I heard him clearly.

"What do you mean?" I asked confused.

"Huh, oh, well the bombs that rained down all over Equestria didn't just destroy everything, they also poisoned the land, and nothing good can grow out there, what does grow is harmful to us. If you are lucky enough to find a patch of land that isn't poisoned you can be a well made pony, but nine times out of ten somepony or something will find you and kill you to take that pure spot for themselves. These ponies are lucky to have these Desert Rangers looking out for them."

I was horrified to learn that, the world hadn't just been bombed to buggery but also poisoned. Just what the hell transpired the day the bombs fall, did we launch everything we had as well? No wonder this world was so messed up and thank Celestia that we have some ponies like these Desert Rangers doing something to actually help better the world. I’m sure there are bands of good ponies in the wastelands outside of the Marejave doing their bit too but it's been a hundred and ninety years since the war ended, at least something should have been done by now.

I shook my head to jar away the thoughts of the dead world just poisoning more ponies and the bad natured just ruling over it with nothing more than bloodlust and fear.

"I hope this world recovers." I muttered to myself as we squeezed out of the farm through another gap between the fence and wall.

The troopers had said the area past the farm was a residential area, and I had assumed it was an area ponies were actually still living in. My assumption was wrong. It was just like the suburb we entered the ruins in, all abandoned and destroyed houses and many of them were nothing but the four corners and the chimney stack. Unfortunately, as we walked along the cracked and ruined roads closest to the wall, we still saw the evidence of the death that befell the citizens who had tried to flee as their skeletons still lay where they fell all those years ago.

"I thought the stables were meant to save lives, why are there so many dead lying in the streets?" I asked in disbelief at the sheer number of skeletons I had seen since I woke up from stasis.

"Stables, there were only so many and only good for a few hundred each, they couldn't save everypony. The sad fact about the war's end was millions died in a matter of hours." Fruity sighed.

I felt horrible, the company I worked for before the end couldn't save as many ponies as I had hoped. They built over a hundred of those stables and... Yes, Fruity was right. Even with the hundred odd shelters built they could only save a few hundred each; even with all those stables together, they couldn't even save a million ponies, probably not even five hundred thousand. I couldn't even think about just how many ponies died that day, just the thought was actually making me feel queasy.

"Hey, is that the gun store that the troopers mentioned?" Fruity asked, pointing to a building that was surrounded by a fence that looked entirely intact and with what looked like a stall out in front of it and above that it a large sign that read. "Ironshod Firearms."

I was glad for Fruity interrupting my thoughts there and looked up to the building that he indicated as we began to walk past it. Our answer came as we began to pass the booth, it was a scratch built booth that sort of looked like something you'd see in a post office with the glass front with the holes in the glass so you could talk to whoever was behind the glass and a large enough slot at the bottom so that an item can be pushed through it. Inside, there was a familiar robot standing inside it, it was one of those Ponytrons, a robot made in the shape of a pony although its head looked like a large light bulb and this one appeared to be in a military green paint scheme. Behind it were a couple of weapon racks full of guns. I felt a pain in the back of my head as my brain became flooded with information regarding each gun on the rack.

"Multiple weapons detected...

Weapon 1: IF-9 Combat Shotgun, drum fed 12 gauge semi-automatic shotgun.
Weapon 2: IF-44 SMG, 10mm sub-machinegun.
Weapon 3: IF-64 Assault Rifle, 5.56mm automatic rifle.
Weapon 4: IF-80 Hunting Shotgun, pump-action 20 gauge shotgun.
Weapon 5: IF-84 Riot Shotgun, 12 gauge automatic shotgun.
Weapon 6: IF-100 Anti-Material Rifle, 50 calibre rifle, battlesaddle mountable."

I groaned, holding the back of my head as my brain was flooded with the weapons names and all their little details. This was far more information being shoved into my head than I'd ever had to deal with before. I really didn't want to know about all these guns and what they were.

"Crystal, are you ok?" Fruity asked in concern.

"Hmm, yeah, just a sudden headache, that's all, nothing to worry about, I'm ok now." I said reassuringly as the flood of knowledge subsided.

Fruity stared at me for a moment before he looked away. He isn't stupid, he must suspect something. I gotta tell him the truth, but how do I tell him that I'm a machine? I want to tell him but I can't see a way I can tell him without me hurting him and freaking him out. However way I looked at it, the result would be bad. I pushed my fears and desire to reveal the truth to the back of my mind for now, it wouldn't do any of us any good to be distracted right now or to make him worry even more about me.

We rounded a corner in the wall and came to a large gate that had a few ponies standing outside it as if standing guard in what looked like casual clothing.

"Are they ok?" Fruity asked as he stepped up to my side while staring at the ponies leaning against the gate.

I looked down at my EFS and nodded. "Yeah, my EFS is showing them with white tags so they are non-hostile," I was about to turn towards the gate when a red tag appeared on my compass on the opposite side. Whirling my head around to face the hostile target's direction, I saw a single raider approaching. Knowing that the only good raider is a dead raider I bent my head down to my right foreleg and pulled my revolver out of its holster. Fruity must have noticed the raider as well as he was now flapping his wings so he could use his forehooves to use his plasma rifle, but the three ponies by the gate rushed up to our sides with IF-44's clenched in their jaws and all ready to take this raider down. Overkill much?

The three ponies that had rushed to our sides were all Earth Pony mares of similar colours to each other. The closest pony to me nodded and then she and the other two began to fire their automatic weapons. Fruity fired off bolts from his plasma rifle and I closed my left eye to aim down the sight of my revolver and began to pull the trigger. I still don't like the idea of killing another pony but it was the way of the wasteland, Fruity made that clear and if I were to survive, even with his help out here I had to look past my pre-war morals.

This raider was on his own, so the hail of lead and plasma tore him apart, we all scored hits on him. The raider didn't even have a chance to get anywhere near us or mount a defence. The final blow was when one of Fruity's plasma bolts struck him in the chest and he horrifically dissolved into a pile of goo which was an instant reminder of the day I met him with his skeleton the last thing to fall apart.

"You gotta learn to conserve your ammo Crystal," Fruity said as he slung his rifle under his wing again.

"Huh?" I mumbled around the mouthgrip. I sat down on my haunches and spat the revolver out and into my forehooves and pushed the cylinder out to check my bullets and gasped in surprise as all the bullets were spent, nothing but empty shells lay in the cylinders. I didn't even realise I had fired off all six rounds. "You're right, I need to pay more attention to my ammo count."

The three ponies turned around to head back to the gate, not even bothering to say anything to us which I found a little rude. After reloading my revolver with one of the few speed loaders I had left, we followed after them. The way they took up position on either side of the gate told me they were guarding the gate, most likely from ponies like the one that got liquefied.

"Excuse me, may we enter please?" I asked politely.

The three of them looked at each other with tilted heads for a moment before looking back at us. Each one stared at us for a little while, which made me feel uncomfortable until the mare standing on her own opposite the other two banged on the large gate with her hind hoof a couple of times. For a minute, nothing seemed to happen at all, but then there was a teeth grating metallic screeching as the large gate began to slide open. The gate revealed a street that looked as run down as the outside, which confused me.

"Welcome to Hayside travellers," The guard who kicked the door greeted us.

"Thank you."

To be honest, I didn't know what to expect upon walking through the gate and into the area that the guard called Hayside. Side note, my Pipbuck also said we had discovered the location marked as Hayside, plus it also had logged finding the farm and Ironshod Firearms, I just hadn't noticed until now. I thought the intact portion of what remained of Las Pegaus was behind this wall, but this area didn't look that much better than outside the wall as all the buildings lining the street were run down and half destroyed. However, there was one key difference. Outside the wall, there were barely any ponies at all walking around but inside the wall, I was seeing as many ponies as I used to see walking the streets in the afternoon from my bedroom window.

The gate screeched closed as we stepped through the threshold and we noticed two more mares dressed the same as the other three outside standing on either side of the gate. Were they some sort of guard or something? There were also a couple of ponies in different kinds of armour standing near the gate and one of these armoured ponies, a large slate grey stallion dressed in a form of metal armour approached us.

"You two look new in Hayside, you may be interested in hiring me to escort you to where you need to go. Hayside isn't a friendly place, especially when the sun goes down and for a pretty little mare like yourself." He said with a confident smirk which to me only creeped me out. Fruity snorted angrily at that.

"Um, no thanks we're good," I said, moving to avoid the large stallion.

"I really must insist," He grumbled with a frown. Wow this guy wasn't taking no for an answer was he?

"She said we are good mate," Fruity frowned in annoyance as he stepped up to my side.

"This town is full of thugs, you'll be mugged before you can even turn the corner," He persisted while also moving one of his large forelegs to block us.

"Touch her and that hoof will never touch anything again." Fruity growled and swung his plasma rifle around so it was resting against his chest.

The large stallion took the hint and backed off, but he grumbled something under his breath. It was too muffled for me to hear him but it sounded bad and gave me a bad feeling. Once Fruity was sure we were out of earshot of him he let out a soft growl. "Creepy git,"

"Yeah." I agreed as we walked up the cracked road. Despite the run down look of this area it still looked to be a fully functional town with all the ponies wandering around and as we turned a corner we began to see market stalls selling this and that to cater to nearly everypony's needs.

As we began to move through the crowded market, my sensitive ears began to pick up the mutterings of ponies who were now staring at us or rather me. I sighed and threw my head back so that my stetson would slide down the back of my neck to keep my head in clear view as to show everypony that I wasn’t a member of this Illustrious Moon Tribe. As soon as my stetson slipped down my neck, the suspicious mummers turned to sighs of relief and returned to their normal banter. Was the difference between black and grey stripes that easy?

We had a surprise when we came to the end of the market street because after we pushed our way out of the crowd, we nearly fell over a stall being manned by a griffon of all things. I, being a right filly, let out a surprised squeal and hid behind Fruity. Memories of the attack on the train were still fresh in my mind, especially the unintentional barbeque.

"What's with her?" The griffon grunted sourly.

"Griffons attacked the train we travelled on," Fruity answered plainly.

"Ah, well not all of us are cunts like that," He said before gesturing to his stall that had a selection of meats, eww. "May I interest you in some fresh meat?" He asked, almost hopeful. "I know you ponies are Omnivorous."

I gagged at the red raw meat on the table and quickly made my way away from the stall. Just as well too as the smell of the sun baked meat had hit me too.

"Err, no thanks." Fruity said before he quickly flapped his wings and flew over to me.

Once I was sure we were out of eye sight I dry heaved a couple of times. The sight and smell of that stall knocked me sick, but the worst thing about that was once I recovered from the sickening feeling, I felt hungry. To make matters worse, my traitorous synthetic stomach decided to growl for nourishment. The icing on the cake was the flash of my power level reading, forty seven percent. Wow that was a fifty percent drop throughout our trip through the MASA.

Hayside was pretty big despite the wall that surrounds it and there were a fair few ponies living in what I must now have to call a slum. It looked so run down like the wasteland outside it, how could it be any better but there were more ponies here than out there. We walked for over an hour as we followed the roads that we thought would take us in the general direction of the city centre or the Strip as it was called back then, not sure if it still is now but we'll see. Our destination was the Fluttershy Hospital that was built within the central area of the city so the Strip is where we need to go before we can find the hospital. We emerged from our hour trek through the streets on a wide and long road. Looking left we could see that this long street seemed to curl to the right slightly and we could see another wall at the end and another gate but more importantly we could see the towers that still stood in the central portion of Las Pegasus, um, I mean New Pegasus. So this road will take us right to it, finally. Looking right we could see the road stretched on a little further down before ending at the wall of junk and another large gate guarded by more of those mares. While looking right my eyes fell upon a primary school across the road from us, a familiar primary school.

"Broadwalk Avenue Primary School." I said out loud to myself.

"Come again?" Fruity asked.

"Err, just reading the school's sign out loud." I quickly said while also making sure the sign was still on the metal pole beside the front gate, which thankfully it was. The feeling of guilt weighted heavily in my chest as yet again I lied to my friend. The more I lie to him the more it was going to hurt him when he finds out the truth. Oh yeah, it's not a matter of if, it's a when. There was no way in hell that I was going to be able to hide what I am to him forever, I think he was already getting suspicious.

Well, a good thing about where we are right now was that I knew exactly where we were. Broadwalk Avenue Primary School was where I went to school when I was just a filly. Looking back to our right and to the wall, I could just about see the roofs of houses beyond the wall. That would be the residential area that I lived in until my last days. It did feel good to finally be back on familiar ground.

"Ok Fruity, I know exactly where we need to go from here now," I said with confidence.

"Oh really?"

"Um yeah, I studied a map of Las Pegasus while in the stable." Ok that wasn't entirely a lie as I had studied a map before all this.

"Alright then, lead the way." Fruity smiled.

I was about to turn to begin down Broadwalk when new contacts appeared on my EFS and they were moving quickly. Curious to see what these none hostiles were I looked back over to the old school and two foals rushed out from behind a corner of the building and into the street looking around as if searching for something.

"Where is it Skippy?" The blank flank filly asked excitedly.

"I dunno, Chaz, he must be hiding again," The colt replied as he walked over to a bunch of tall grass. "Ah, found him."

There was a high pitched squeak and a hairless animal rushed out of the grass and into the street towards us. My eyes widened with horror as the closer the animal got the more I realised what it was. The long skinny tail, the large dish like ears and the large buck teeth. I let loose a high pitched scream of terror and tore down the road as fast as I could to get away from the mutant rodent.

"It's a fucking rat!" I screamed.

I didn't stop running until I nearly crashed into a huge robot that looked a lot like a Sentry Drone that was standing guard at the get to the inner city. I sat down hard panting hard after making sure the drone was non-hostile which thankfully it was. Oh Celestia I hate rats, they freak me out totally, rats.

"Holy fuck you can run," Fruity moaned as he landed behind me and panted for breath. "What the hell was that?"

"I... I'm scared of rats," I admitted.

"You're scared of rats, really, and the MASA HQ wasn't scary?"

"Having a phobia isn't the same thing Fruity." I chided with a huff.

The purple pegasus blinked. "What's a phobia?" He asked.

"I... what?" I balked, not expecting him to ask that.

He just stared, waiting for an answer.

"A phobia is a fear, it can be of anything, um, for example, a fear of spiders is called "Arachnophobia." I explained. Fruity's expression contorted with realisation. "Yea, I suffer from Musophobia, a fear of mice and rats. I could be the biggest and hardest bitch around and still scream like a little filly if I saw a mouse or a rat."

"Ah, ok, I'm sorry," Fruity apologised with his ears drooping.

"Oh, it's ok, you didn't know," I said gently nuzzling him which seemed to perk him up a bit. "C'mon, we are nearly there, just through this gate and it'll be like ten minutes until we find the hospital."

The purple stallion nodded and we approached the gate. We had to jump back as the large sentry blocked our path.

"Halt, submit to a credit check or present your passport before proceeding to the gate," It buzzed in a more stable and authoritative tone than the ones from the MASA did. "Trespassers will be shot." It then warned.

"Um, ok." I simply said, not knowing what else to do.

The machine rolled towards us, making me feel nervous as it towered over us. Its two red eyes on its head scanned over us both before it beeped in a low tone.

"Insufficient funds, please come back when you have enough caps to meet minimum entrance allowance." It droned.

We need a minimum amount, since when did we need a minimum amount of money to go to casinos or to even get into the city for that matter?

"What's the minimum amount?" Fruity asked.

The machine didn't respond for a moment before it then answered in the same monotone voice as before. "Minimum allowance required is three thousand caps."

We didn't even have a thousand left between us after we bought our clothes and supplies. Where the hell were we going to get three thousand caps from?

"OUT OF MY WAY!" A stallion yelled as he pushed passed me and ran for the gate.

"Exterminate." The large robot said as it turned around and unloaded its miniguns into the stallion before he could even make it to the gate.

"Oh shit!" Fruity cried out.

The robot wasn't kidding about shooting trespassers. That stallion must have thought he could get to the gate while we had it distracted. Well, we certainly aren't going to get through the gate with that robot there and something is telling me there is more inside.

"We're gonna have come back when we have enough bits, err, I mean caps." Shit, now I was just getting careless, Fruity was really going to suspect something if I kept slipping up like this.

"Well, we can go on a scavenging hunt and sell the shit we find, there are plenty of caps in salvage, it's pretty much how most ponies make a living these days. Trading shit for shit... hehe." Fruity suggested before he started chuckling.

"That's true I suppose, we just need to find a trader so we can sell some of the things we found from the MASA HQ."

Fruity nodded in agreement and we turned around and started to walk back down Boardwalk. In my panic to get away from the giant rat, yes, giant, it was a big as a dog, I didn't pay attention to all the buildings lining the road. Most of the buildings towards the gate to the Strip were more intact and maintained than the ones where we first entered the avenue on and both sides had small gambling houses, hotels and bars.

We could hear a commotion inside a building we were walking past. Curious, we stopped and looked through the window but it was no use as the window was so grimy we couldn't see anything. Looking up, I saw the building's sign which read "Sinful Wrangler, Casino and Hotel".

"Somepony doesn't sound happy in there." Fruity stated just as the window exploded outwards and a dead pony body flew out of it covered in lacerations.

"Holy balls!" I shrieked as we dropped to the floor to avoid the glass.

"What the hell?" Fruity exclaimed at the same time.

With the window broken, we could hear the shouts of some pony screaming about somepony being a backstabber and going back on a deal while whoever was being shouted at was replying in a cool calm voice and was saying things along the lines of the one shouting being a simple fool blinded by greed. There was then the sounds of breaking wood and glass before another body of a stallion came flying out the window. The body landed with a thud and then it groaned, which told us the stallion was still alive. We were frozen in place by the spectacle as we watched the hurt stallion get up. He noticed us almost immediately.

"You didn't see anything." He growled before he turned tail and ran with a limp down the road before disappearing around a street corner. His departure was signalled by the sound of a motor revving up along with a high pitched screech and a scream of agony. What the hell was going on in there? We were about to get up to make our escape when a third stallion sailed out the window and landed on the dead body of the first and groaned in pain from his trip. Our attempt to make our escape was again halted when we began to hear the clip clop of hooves when everything went silent. The sounds were a little odd, as we got the three normal clip clop of hooves and then, when it was the fourth hoof to fall, we heard a metallic clink. My curiosity was out weighing my fear and need to run, I wanted to see who this pony was who had defeated four stallions and not to mention thrown three of them out the window. I was half expecting the owner of the clip clopping hooves to jump out the window, but instead, he opened the door and calmly strode out. I wasn’t expecting the kind of pony who had just stepped out onto the street.

The pony was an Earth pony stallion, his fur was purple and his mane and tail were jet black and were well groomed and shined in the afternoon light. His mane and tail were long and straight as well. He wore a neutral expression on his handsome face, while his purple eyes were locked on the groaning pony that had flown out the window earlier. I was totally surprised to see the size of this stallion, he was huge. I had seen Princess Celestia in the flesh when I was a filly when she visited the hospital I was in one day and I could remember how she towered over everypony around her and that is exactly what I see with this purple stallion, he stood at least just as tall as she did. His cutie mark resembled two chainsaws formed into a cross that decorated his flanks. He wore a clean and well looked after suit with a long tail to cover his rump with a white shirt underneath and a red tie. Pinned to the collar of his suit, he had a gold pin that were the initials, P-K. The most striking thing about this giant pony, however, was the source of the clanking noise when he walked. His right foreleg from the knee down was mechanical. The limb looked like an advanced cybernetic prosthetic, similar to some that I saw being tested at the hospital before I supposedly died. The lower half of his leg seemed to have a seam that ran down the middle, even across his hoof which seemed to pretty much split the lower portion of his leg in half.

The huge stallion reached down with his organic forehoof and pulled up the injured stallion with great strength before turning around and pushed him up against the hotel wall between the door and window. His neutral and calm expression never changed as he did so which made him seem even more intimidating. He lifted the stallion higher and then positioned his hind legs as if to balance himself before he lifted his cybernetic leg off the floor and held it out, drawing the injured stallion's attention.

"Where is Tango Jack's safe house?" He asked calmly. Despite his voice being calm, it carried with it an edge that was threatening and it worked to scare the stallion as he began to tremble against the wall with his hoof holding him up, but he didn't answer.

The large stallion sighed with disappointment, and his robotic leg split down the middle. A chainsaw with teeth that looked like claws shot out in a similar fashion to the metal claws of some comic book hero I had read about.

"Where is he?" The stallion demanded with a little more force, and to punctuate his desire for the answer, the chainsaw revved and began to spin. The captive began to sweat as the tall stallion drew his chainsaw leg closer and closer.

"HE HAS A SAFE HOUSE IN THE HILLS EAST OF NEW PEGASUS." The captive stallion sung like a canary.

"Thank you," The large stallion said before he stopped his chainsaw and retracted it back into his leg, stepping back. When he removed his forehoof from the pinned stallion, he fell to the floor and looked up at the tall pony in confusion. "Now get out of here, see this as a sign to do better in your life."

"Wha...?" The dropped stallion croaked out as the tall one turned his back to him.

"GO!" The tall stallion said calmly even though his voice was slightly more raised in volume as he turned to look back at him. "Before I change my mind." And with that, his leg opened again and the claw like teeth popped out from the open seam without the chainsaw fully deploying.

"Oh fuck no." The injured stallion cried and ran away the best he could.

The large purple stallion smiled as he watched the pony he spared run and retracted his chainsaw teeth again. He then looked around and then noticed us huddled together by the broken window.

"Oh, excuse me, I hope I didn't accidently hit you with one of those hunters," He said as he approached us.

"Um, no you, err, missed us... that was you?" I asked dumbfounded.

The large stallion simply nodded in his reply.

"What the hell was all that about away?" Fruity asked and gestured to the dead stallion laying in the middle of the road.

"The group of hunters I had hired got a little greedy and decided to push their luck by upping their prices after a few months of them working for me. I decided their new charges were unacceptable and decided to fire them earlier than I intended. They believed me to be going back on the deal we had set up when I hired them and so they attacked me. I simply defended myself,"

"Wow ok, then why did you let that one go?"

"He was new to the group and joined after I hired them. Because these hunters were bad natured ponies I made sure to keep an eye on them to be sure they didn't do anything I didn't like, and thankfully that stallion hadn't done anything wrong since he joined. I simply needed to scare him enough so he would reveal their boss's hideout location. Since his body isn't here I can safely assume he got away."

We nodded to confirm the large stallion's assumption.

"Oh how rude of me, my name is Motor Runner," He introduced himself with a slight bow.

"Um, I'm Crystal Eclair and this is..." I said introducing myself and then gestured with a foreleg to my pegasus friend.

"Tooty Fruity is the name but please call me Fruity." Fruity said with a smile and a tip of the hat.

I noticed the ever so gentle rise in Motor Runner's eyebrow upon hearing my name but other than that he showed no other reaction. This guy has some serious control of his emotions.

"Pleased to meet you both, I can safely assume you are both from out of town?"

"Are we that easy to notice?" Fruity asked.

"You are not, the Marejave seems to be a safe haven for Dashites such as yourself," Upon hearing the word Dashite, Fruity frowned and rolled his hips so that his duster fell over his flank completely. "Touchy subject, I apologise," He then looked down at me. "It is easy to tell with you considering the local zebras of this region are black striped."

"Are there seriously no grey stripes out here?" Fruity asked, not convinced.

"Locally no, the only grey stripes you'll see are travellers like yourselves," Motor Runner looked at us in thought for a moment. "You couldn't get into the Strip could you?" He asked as if he already knew the answer.

"No, that tin can said we had..." Fruity cleared his throat and in a mock robotic voice repeated what it said to us. "Insufficient funds, please come back when you have enough caps to meet minimum entrance allowance."

I sighed with disappointment. "Yeah, we’re about two thousand caps short,"

"Hmm, I might be able to help you out with that if you don't mind doing a little job for me,"

"What is it?" I asked with my ears perking up with hope rising in my heart.

"Tango Jack, the second pony I threw out of the window. If you track him down and kill him, I will pay you five thousand caps," Motor Runner paused for a moment. "He is a loose end that needs to be tied up."

"FIVE THOUSAND?" Fruity gasped out in amazed shock.

"Yes, his death will certainly be worth that little sum,"

"Little?!" Fruity gasped again.

"You want us to just murder him?" I asked, a little horrified that somepony was asking us to go out and kill somepony for money.

"Crystal, remember what I told you about the way of the wasteland?" Fruity whispered. I sighed and nodded, I was prepared to kill that lone raider as it was the way things went, so I suppose this was no different. But to just go and murder some random pony? I think I would need a reason to justify the need to have him killed. I wanted to keep some of my morals.

"You said these hunters you hired were bad ponies before, what has this Tango Jack done, the worst thing he's done?" I asked.

Motor Runner's calm demeanour faded, and he scowled with an angry look which made the tall handsome stallion look very intimidating. "He has sexually molested small fillies no older than five years old in the past." He said bluntly with an edge of anger.

My eyes widened in horror at his words. This Tango Jack was a paedophile. If there was one thing I couldn't stand in pre-war or post-war Equestria, it was ponies who abuse foals in such a way. I felt a righteous fire burn in my heart and I knew what I was going to do.

"I accept your offer." I said standing up.

Motor Runner's calmness returned as he smiled. "Excellent. Tango Jack has a safe house in the hills to the east of New Pegasus. Once you've taken care of him, retrieve the gold pendent he has around his neck as proof. You will find me in the Golden Oak's Hotel just up the road here. Good luck Crystal and Fruity, and thank you." He bowed slightly and turned to walk up the road to the hotel he mentioned.

"Wow Crystal, I wasn't expecting you to agree so quickly," Fruity said as we set off again down the road toward the eastern gate and the residential district beyond it.

"This Tango Jack is a paedophile Fruity, a true monster." I growled. "He abuses little foals! That’s a serious crime."

The pegasus frowned. "True, in the Enclave, ponies convicted of paedophilia were sentenced to life imprisonment or executed," He nodded. "Let's go bag ourselves a monster and a hefty reward."

I didn't like the idea of killing this pony for a reward. For me, just getting rid of him so he couldn't hurt another foal would be reward enough. I seriously couldn't understand how anypony could have sexual desires for little foals, it's sickening.

We started to pass the school again when I heard a squeak from a patch of brown grass from the school's yard, and that giant rat jumped out.

"It's the fucking rat again!" I screamed and sped off down the road to the gate while also repeating, "Gross!" over and over again. Celestia have mercy I hate rats. I blushed with embarrassment as I could hear Fruity laughing his head off as the mares manning the gate opened it to let us out.

The sky was starting to darken now as the sun began to dip lower in the sky as it headed towards the western hills. We were going to need to find a place to stay and... I froze when we came to a road sign.

"Welcome to Chadderton Residential District."

"Home." I said out loud to myself and began to follow the roads.

"Huh, what, Crystal, hey wait, where are you going?" Fruity asked as he quickly trotted after me.

I didn't respond, I was like in a trance as I retraced ancient steps from all those times coming home from school. The route still memorised in my brain as I followed the roads, turning this way and that when I needed to and going straight on when I didn't. Fruity continued to try and get my attention the entire time, but I was on autopilot as I followed my memorised route back to the house that I had lived in for the good part of twenty one years. I came to a stop as I beheld my old family home, still standing and looking in pretty good nick considering how long it had stood here rotting for.

"We, we will rest here for tonight." I said, my voice cracking as a flood of emotion began to well up inside me while I still looked at the house.

"Crystal, are you ok?" Fruity asked sounding very concerned as I began to approach the front door.

I didn't answer him as I tried the door knob, the door was locked. On either side of the front door, there were two flower pots that now held nothing but dead weeds. I gently pushed the left flower pot over and the spare key was still there. It was a surprise that in the hundred and ninety years I have been away, no one had moved the flower pot and found the key. I picked up the house key and inserted it into the lock and turned the key. The lock groaned in protest as it hadn't been used for nearly two centuries, but there was a satisfying click and the door opened.

"Ok, how did you know there was a key there?" Fruity asked confused.

"A hunch?" I simply said before I pushed the door open.

We entered my old family home. I was hit by the smell of decay, but thankfully, it wasn't the sort of decay that involved a rotting body. In front of us were the stairs leading upstairs, and next to them was the hall leading to the kitchen. On our left, a door hung on one hinge and was open and we could look into the spacious living room and to our right the door to the dining room had fallen free and lay on the floor. I walked through the door to the living room and skirted around the smelly old sofas and pushed open the door at the back of the room that opened into the kitchen.

"It's how I remember." I whispered as I walked up to the back door and tried it. The door knob turned but it wouldn't budge, so this door is locked too which means nopony had been in my house for nearly two hundred years.

"Hot damn," Fruity whistled. I turned around and found him with his face buried in the large Smeg brand fridge freezer. "Got plenty of food in here that was packed full of those special preservatives so this stuff never goes off,"

"T-take what you want." I said feeling a deep sadness start to settle over me and left the kitchen, into the hall to the stairs and slowly climbed the stairs. The stairs groaned in protest with my extreme weight, but they held. From the top of the stairs my parents room was to my right, the bathroom in front of me and there were two doors to my left, one lead to the small spare room and the other to my bedroom.

My heart rate began to rise, and my breath began to come in quick breaths as I edged my way towards my bedroom door and gently nudged the grimy white door open with my nose and beheld my old room. The wall paper that decorated the room used to be a light pink with flower patterns but now it had lost much of its colour and in several areas, it was now peeling from the walls. The ceiling showed several damp patches and the paint was also peeling off where it had been damp.

I walked over to the steel framed bed I once slept in and sat down on the old dusty mattress. The bed groaned under my weight, but it held. My gaze then settled on my nightstand and on the small photo frame that still sat there. I reached over and picked it up. The picture frame was marred with grime and the picture below the glass couldn't be seen. My tail curled around and I used it like a brush and cleared away the decades of dust that had collected until the photo could be seen. I smiled despite myself at the memory of my mother buying a load of these enchanted picture frames that would preserve the picture inside forever while I gazed at the pink furred and yellow maned crystal pony in the photograph that was holding a smaller version of herself in her forelegs in a hug, but the smaller pony was all dull and lacked the crystal pony shine.

"Oh mother." I croaked before I began to sob openly.

"Hey Crystal, here you are, that fridge is full of good..." He stopped as he noticed my sobbing. "Stuff... Hey, what's the matter?" He asked in concern as he walked over to the bed.

"Oh Fruity," I cried with pain and grief heavy in my voice. "I've lost everypony, my mother, my father, my grandparents, everypony I ever knew." I wailed.

"Whoa, hey, that ain't true," He said softly as he climbed onto the bed beside me and wrapped his wings around me in a hug and gently pulled me close to him. "You still have me." Yeah for how much longer?

I was glad that whoever made me put tear ducts in my eyes as the tears were now flowing freely. I was crying my heart out now as the full level of my despair, hurt and anguish began to flow out of me. I couldn't control my emotions, I needed comfort. I wrapped my forelegs around Fruity and hugged him tight, also being careful not to crush him with my mechanical strength and wept on his shoulder.

"Hey, um, everything will be ok." Fruity said trying to comfort me as he also wrapped his forelegs around me, double hugging me with his wings as well.

I nuzzled into his neck as I sniffled and then looked up. Fruity looked down at me with his purple eyes and gave me a reassuring smile, the kind of smile that would tell you everything will be ok. I blinked tears out my eyes and leaned forward, surprising myself as I pressed my lips up against his, his slight goatee tickling me as I tilted my head slightly while I kissed him like I've seen so many mares do in those romance holotapes all those years ago.

I don't know what I was thinking when I kissed him, I half expected him to pull away but he didn't. He blinked in surprise with me pressed against his lips, but then he pressed his lips against mine as he returned my kiss. I felt a flutter in my heart at this, but I still felt low and miserable. I let out a soft moan as we kissed each other with more passion.

XXXXX

I woke up in my old bed early in the morning with the bright sun shining in through my grimy bedroom window. I turned my head so the blinding sun wasn't in my eyes but that resulted in my nose and mouth getting buried in a tuft of purple hair. I opened my eyes fully to see Fruity fast asleep in my single bed with me, his limbs gently wrapped around me in a gentle hold in what, if I remember the term correctly as a spoon with me being the little spoon. What did we do last night? I mentally asked myself as I gently pulled myself out of his hold and slipped out of bed. It was then that I felt a sticky sensation in my loins and my fur around my rump feeling matted.

Groaning softly with discomfort from the dried matted fur below my tail, I walked out my bedroom and into the bathroom to clean myself up while trying to remember what happened last night. I yawned as I turned the tap for the hot water, completely forgetting that there was no electricity, and that the boiler would likely not have worked for the last two centuries. I whined when nothing came out, so I then tried the cold tap, the tap shuddered and groaned before it started to spurt out some horrible looking muck before it then cleared and a steady stream of lukewarm water started to pour out. It was a pleasant surprise to know there was still water pressure. I used my nano-fibre tail to grab a wash cloth and soaked the cloth in the water before bringing it to my rear and started to clean the matted fur.

"Did I sit on something?" I asked groggily as my waking mind struggled to get through the cobwebs in my head.

Once I cleaned my rump, I felt my loins were still a bit sticky so I unconsciously brought the wet cloth to my bits and gave it a wipe with the cloth and it was then that my mind cleared when I felt the rush of sensitivity from my vulva. The rush also allowed my brain to remember the night's events.

I was feeling lower than I'd ever felt, lower than my illnesses had ever made me feel and Fruity tried to comfort me and I practically threw myself on him and kissed him. That was so unlike me. Fruity didn't push me away and he kissed me back. He said he wanted to help me and I, I dunno, I think I must have talked him into bedding me as we spent the rest of the night with me on my back and him on top of me. I never felt so good in my entire life but now I feel horrible. I practically manipulated him into having sex with me. Oh dear Luna, we had sex. No, that's the worst thing I could have let happen. I might have been able to salvage our relationship by owning up to him about what I am if we didn't but now that we have. I fear the revelation would drive him away. I couldn’t tell him now I... No, I have to. I've lied to him long enough and the fact we've had sex, it'll just make things so much worse.

This charade has gone on long enough. Telling my friend the mare he had sex with is in fact a bio-mechanism would likely break his heart and most definitely would freak him the hell out. I owe it to him now to be truthful, I can't keep this charade going any longer. For his sake and my guilt wouldn't let me lie to the pony I care about anymore. I took a deep breath to steel my nerves as I began to walk back to my bedroom. I could hear shuffling in the bedroom so I could assume he was awake now.

"Fruity, I... I got something I need to tell you." I said sombrely as I stepped onto the landing.

"*Yawn* Huh, what's up Crys?" He yawned as he appeared in the threshold to my bedroom.

"I..." I stopped and looked down as the floorboards began to creak and groan loudly before I started to hear the sound of splintering wood. I screamed as the floor suddenly disappeared below me and I fell through the hole. Broken and splintered floorboards tore at my flesh as my head collided with the broken floor. I cried out in agony as I felt a piece of wood stab into my left eye and cheek and rip back across my face. Half of my vision became purely red since the organic eye had been removed from my head as I looked down in time to see the kitchen table. I cried out again when my seven hundred and fifty pound body landed on the table and it exploded into splinters, one such splinter, a long sharp one ended up being driven through my abdomen.

I groaned and cried in pain while in the wreckage of the floor from above and the table but before I could recover, the floor beneath me collapsed again dropping me and the ruined table into the basement and I landed on a partially broken down dividing wall. My heavy weight and the brittleness of the old brick caused the brick to shatter when I landed on them, turning the brick into razor blades that sliced and cleaved through the flesh of my right hind leg. I cried with pain when I finally came to rest on the basement floor, my body cut to ribbons and buried under a pile of broken wood and brick.

"External flesh extensively damaged. Left facial area severely damaged and organic eye has been severed, multiple lacerations detected along entirety of the flesh cover. Right hind leg flesh has been severely damaged and torn from endoskeleton. Unable to regenerate in accelerated time due to low power..." It then flashed that my power level had dropped down to twenty nine percent since yesterday.

No, this was not what I wanted. This was not how I wanted Fruity to find out what I am. I wanted to tell him myself and not have him find out like this. I groaned under the rubble and shifted trying to push myself out.

"Oh fuck, Crystal, are you alright?" Fruity cried from above. There was the sound of an impact shortly after and something pushing against something else above me. I cried out, feeling the splinter lodged in my stomach push against my metal ribs as something above shifted and fell off me. I let out a cry, feeling the splinter dig deeper and I pushed up with all my strength.

"Holy shit!" Fruity cried as I burst out from the wreckage. I hid my right hind leg with my tail and kept my face turned away so he could only see the right side of my face. "Are you alright?" He asked in deep concern. His concern for me made me sigh with regret for not telling him the truth earlier. I wanted to tell him myself, not have him find out like this.

"I'm so sorry Fruity," I said, cringing as my voice held a slight electronic buzz. I could feel my many lacerations leaking blood slowly and I could feel my pulse rushing through several deep cuts on my neck. I suppose that explained the slight electronic sound to my voice right now.

"Sorry, for what?" He asked confused.

I took a deep breath and turned to look at him with both my eyes. Fruity immediately took a step back in shock, his wings flaring out and he held the look of disbelief and confusion that any pony would have on their face after seeing what he had just seen.

"I wanted to tell you, I really did." I said sadly. There must have been a breeze flowing through the house or the basement as I could feel the cool air against my body but it was more noticeable around my face because I could feel this breeze getting into my mouth. Subconsciously, I pressed my tongue to my left cheek but found it was gone and my tongue touched the metal of my upper jaw. Fruity visibly paled at seeing my tongue poke out from the hole in my face.

"You're a robot, all this time, and you’ve lied to me and..." He paled so much he almost turned white. "We... we had, oh dear Luna I fucked a robot."

"Fruity, please, I can explain," I said, feeling my right eye tearing up at what I knew was going to come as I took a step closer to the freaking out pegasus.

"No, stay away from me." He shrieked, flapping his wings and before I could say anything else, he was gone. He flew up through the hole and I heard the front door get smashed open as he fled.

"Fruity!" I cried, feeling my heart breaking as he ran. I couldn't blame him could I, I've lied to him since we met and continued to lie to him whenever I slipped up. How would you react if you found out your friend was in fact a lying and cheating robot, especially after you had sex with them? I know I wouldn't want to be around them again. I brought this upon myself, but, but I wished he were still here.

I pulled myself out of the rubble and dragged myself to the stairs and climbed them back up to the main floor. I blinked tears of sadness and regret from my right eye as I stepped out into the hall and saw the front door had been broken in half.

"Oh Fruity, I'm so sorry." I whimpered quietly as I then began to ascend the stairs slowly. They groaned ominously with each step as I climbed. I eyed the hole next to the stairs where I had fallen through and could see little bits of skin stuck to some of the jagged pieces of floor board. "I might have had a chance at salvaging my relationship with him if it wasn't for you." I growled angrily at the hole before I quickly made my way back into the bathroom.

I spent around an hour cleaning all the cuts that now littered my body and, despite the pain it caused me, cut away the floppy strands of flesh that were no longer connected to my right hind leg. I had pretty much lost eighty percent of the flesh that covered my leg. The worst part though, was pulling that huge splinter out of my stomach. It hurt like buggery and if it were an inch further down it would have impaled my synthetic stomach so I was lucky in that regard.

I looked up at the mirror on the wall above the radiator and beheld my reflection. I was a mess and I looked positively horrifying with how parts of my flesh had been ripped off to reveal the machine beneath. I stared at my face, the endoskeleton had been made to resemble an equine skeleton and I could see that I had a huge eye socket which had once held my organic eye but with it gone I could see the optical unit that was set deeply inside the socket. Every little movement my eyes made I could see the aperture on the optical unit shrink or widen as it focused.

"Why has this been done to me?"

XXXXX

A purple pegasus panted heavily with tears threatening to roll down his cheeks as he landed on the roof of a block of flats down the road from where he had just escaped. The pegasus turned around and looked down at the old residential district as the Celestia's sun climbed higher into the sky and cast its bright light over the old houses. His gaze remained locked on a house that contained the cause for his trouble.

"She's a machine... always has been," He said to himself, still staring down at the house, his keen pegasus eyes allowing him to see the house clearly and into the bedroom he spent the night in with her.

"Shit, left my stuff behind," He grumbled as it began to pace back and forth on the roof of the flats while still staring down at the house.

While he paced, he saw movement in the bedroom and then he saw her, the machine hidden by flesh as she walked into the bedroom. He had a clear view of almost the whole of the bedroom as the window dominated most of the wall. He stopped in his pacing as he keen eyes were able to see the sadness in the undamaged side of her face and he felt a little twinge in his heart at seeing her sadness.

"Why am I feeling bad for a robot?" He questioned himself. "She’s lied to me, made me feel like such a fool."

Despite the anger he felt towards the mare's betrayal, he couldn't bring himself to actually be truly that angry with her. He sat down as he watched the damaged mare pull out a bag from her duster that had been dumped on the floor when they had had their night of passion. The robotic mare opened the bag and plugged out a ruby and then, to his surprise, ate it. She then pulled out another gem, an emerald and ate that as well.

"Why am I even here watching her?" He asked himself. "Because you have feelings for her despite what she's done and what she is." His mind returned as he watched the mare's ruined face start to patch itself back together, along with the beautiful baby blue eye regrowing.

"But she's a machine..." He argued with himself. "That didn't stop several ponies back east travelling with robots they considered friends."

"But they don't fuck those robots," He shivered at the thought of mating with a robot. "But a robot wouldn't make the sounds she made now would they, no amount of programming can accurately simulate the sounds of pure pleasure."

The purple stallion opened his mouth to argue further but what his mind had said struck a note that made him look deeper into the subject. Machines had advanced greatly during the war and even after the war machines had continued to advance in some areas and he was fully aware of machine that had been designed to show emotions. These programmed emotions always seemed a little hollow and didn't carry the weight the real ones would so they were easy to tell them apart from real felt emotion. The most advanced form of this was when a rich pegasus created a synthetic pony, an android. From appearance, it looked and acted just like any other pony and was very difficult to tell the difference between it and a real pony. Even its programmed emotions were nearly spot on, it was when the machine's emotions were driven to their absolute height that the weight of the emotions seemed to just drop off.

Looking back down at the mare who's face had now been restored, despite it being bald of fur, he remembered that night they shared on that creaky old bed. What he had heard were the sounds of a mare in total bliss. It confused him, how could a machine so accurately display such emotion? No amount of programming could ever replicate that, unless it wasn't programming.

"I... I could feel a heart beating in her chest." He said standing up. "She, has bled when she got injured before, machines don't have blood. But she does. What is she?"

He shook his head as he was unable to draw himself away. His mind filled with images of her, all the times he helped her, all the times she helped him and then the image of when he met her. Scared and helpless in the middle of that intersection about to be gang raped. A machine wouldn't have acted with such fear.

He sighed deeply as he sat down and closed his eyes as he began to think about the situation. About everything they have been through together so far and what he feels towards her.

He opened his eyes to see the mare was looking sadly at her right hind leg that had not healed like her face, the look of sadness made him sigh again as he felt another twinge tug at his heart.

"Ugh, I can't believe I'm doing this," He said as he spread his purple wings. "But, I must know the truth, I... I owe her that much at least." And with that he pushed off the roof and glided back down the street towards the house.

He tucked his wings to his sides as he flew through the front door and landed on the stairs. His heart began to hammer with anticipation of the meeting he was about to have with the bionic mare. He quietly pushed open the door to her bedroom and stepped inside. Upon closing the door, the mare turned around in shock surprise at his arrival.

"Fruity, you... you came back." She almost cried.

"Crystal," He began with a slight angry tone to his voice that made the robotic mare wilt. "Before I decide what to do, I want the full truth about you, no more lies, why hide this from me?" He demanded with a stomp of his hoof.

XXXXX

I-02 IS stood looking up at the old sign to what had once been Las Pegasus.

"The city is now surrounded by a wall... Interesting." It said to itself as it looked left and right to see how far this wall extended.

The machine's audio receptors soon picked up the sound of hooves coming up from behind it and it turned around to see two ponies in military looking armour.

"Oh shit, he's an Elite Ranger. Um, what can we do for you Ranger... err, I'm sorry, what's your name?"

The machine didn't know what to say to that and so it quickly began to scan the local area for a name that sounded remotely pony-ish. Thankfully, because I-02 was a machine, he could process what he could see much faster than a normal pony, and within a second, his eyes had seen a sign that held a name that he liked. The sign he saw was for a tool shop on the other side of the large carriageway called "Nexus Tools and Hardware".

"Ranger Nexus," I-02 replied as he turned slightly. "There is something you can do for me, have you seen by any chance a grey striped zebra mare recently?" He asked.

The two soldiers blinked and then nodded. "Yes sir, last we saw of them they were looking for a way into the city. We actually told them how to find the south gate."

I-02 or Nexus nodded. "Thank you," He said as he turned to head towards the south gate.

"Would you require any assistance sir?"

"No, this is my mission to complete." Nexus said as he began to walk away.