Fallout Equestria: Treasure Hunting

by Hnetu

Chapter 4: Monster

There is a trigger warning for this chapter, please see the notes at the bottom of the page for more details.

Chapter Four: Monster
“According to the radio broadcasts, Gunbuck is supposed to be male. Any explanation on that one?”

“Lost?”

I pushed the door open as I called for her. “We need to talk, okay?”

The walk back to town had been uneventful, which was a blessing from the Goddesses, considering my gun had blown itself up. I had made it back to the inn and found out which room my sister was in after a somewhat awkward exchange with the innkeeper. After a slow walk up the stairs, I’d just stumbled inside. As worn out and dirty as it was, just four walls, a roof that mostly didn’t leak, a bed and a desk, it beat sleeping in the woods.

Lost Art paced back and forth as I stood in the doorway, stopping at the desk and then turning to walk back toward the bed. Her head hung low and she muttered to herself, breathing heaving and looking back and forth. She stopped halfway through the room for only a second, before shaking her head and starting to pace again.

“Uhh, Lost?” I asked, stepping inside and closing the door slowly. I dropped my saddlebags onto the floor next to the desk and walked over toward her.

She stopped short and stared at me. With a deep breath she finally said something I could actually understand. “What if it’d been worse?” she asked, her eyes wide. “What if... Oh Goddesses so many things.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, placing a hoof on her shoulder and pushing to get her to sit.

Her hind hooves went out from under her and she fell to the floor with a quiet thud. “Today! Yesterday. What if it'd been worse? We don't know what we're doing, so many ponies have died around us!” she announced after a moment. Slowly, she looked me up and down. Reaching her forehooves out, she grabbed onto my shoulders and pulled me close. “What if I’d lost you?”

“Lost, take a deep breath, please?” I begged, wrapping my good hoof around her and gently squeezing.

“I am!” she said, breathing in sharply. “Stables, strangers, and then those raiders. And then again this morning. Plus the radiation, and that poor pegasus, and those zebras,” she muttered, burying her face against my neck. “We’re not cut out for this, Hidden. We’re not. I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing. Every pony that's died, every time, it could have been you."

“You know better than me,” I said in my most reassuring voice. Pulling back, I tried to wrench myself free of her grip, but she wouldn’t let go. “We did fine, you’re worrying about stuff that didn’t happen.” I was not good at being the reasonable one. Lost was supposed to be the pony who had everything together, she was the smart one.

Releasing me finally, she pushed me back and stared straight into my eyes. “Do you think mom would be proud?” she asked.

“Proud of what?” I asked, blinking in confusion. I felt like I’d stumbled across two ponies talking and missed the first half of the conversation. “You mean coming into town and helping these townsponies?”

She nodded in response and gulped.

“I think,” I whispered, trying to come up with an answer. Knowing mom, she’d... Well. “She’d probably have yelled at you for letting me drag you along.” I smiled, laughing a little. “Then she’d have patted you on the head and said it was okay, because you were watching out for me and I didn’t know any better.”

My sister stared at me blankly. After a few seconds she laughed. “Probably,” she agreed. “Mom never did give you enough credit.”

Well, given she spent all her time bonding with Lost over cheater magic...

“Honestly, you handled yourself a lot better than I did,” I admitted. Then again, the Buck had made everything so much easier, I didn’t do all that badly. “I think she’d be proud of that, at least.”

“I wish she were still around,” Lost said, barely above a whisper. She turned and walked away, hopping up onto the bed. Curling against the wall, she stared at me. “She’d have handled this a lot better than we ever could.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, looking down at the floor.

“It’s... just how the Wasteland is,” she answered. “You don’t need to be sorry, it’s nopony’s fault.”

That wasn’t true, at all. If I’d just... I sighed. The memory was still fresh, after reliving it again. Mom should be here with us, and she could’ve handled anything the town or the raiders threw at her without breaking a sweat. Sure she might end up with a scar over it, but she’d have done it and protected both of us at the same time. “Can’t go back though,” I muttered to myself.

“They deserved it though...” Lost said, staring at the stained sheet on the mattress. “The raiders were, well, raiders. The zebras attacked us. We just did what we had to. It’s just too much for me. I’m scared I might lose you, too.”

“You won’t get me killed. We’ve got a heads up now,” I said, motioning to the PipBuck, “and we work together as a team. Always. We watch each other’s backs; that’s how we got this far... Right? We can keep it up, no problem. Even if we don’t have mom here.” There was still one other thing I needed to talk to her about. “Where do we go from here?” I asked.

“I think we should go back home,” Lost said, hesitating. “Anything more than what we did today would be biting off more than we can chew. The Wasteland’s a big place, and there’s a lot of ponies out there that shoot first and ask questions later.” She sat up, looking a lot better than she had been when I walked in. She wasn’t frantically looking around or breathing heavily anymore, which was a great sign.

“Well, I still want to find out more about Gunbuck after-”

“Who?” she interrupted.

“I heard a radio broadcast,” I explained. “Apparently the stallion I killed in the Stable was called Gunbuck, or the Gunbuck. I’m not sure if that was his name or a nickname, but it’s better than referring to him as a severed head all the time.” I stood up as I talked, and walked over toward my saddlebags. Once there, I grabbed the Sparkle~Cola I found in the Stable. It felt like I’d picked it up forever ago, but it was still cool. “Here, you deserve it after today.”

“You sneaky little...” she said with a laugh, and snatched the bottle from my hoof with her magic. She popped the cap off and added to our reserves for later, and then downed the entire bottle with a grin.

“We were supposed to share that!” I yelled, tackling her on the bed. The bottle went flying, and we wrestled around a bit as I tried to punish her for drinking the entirety of my soda, again. Eventually we both collapsed, breathing heavily, the reason for our fight forgotten. It almost felt like we were fillies again, and aside from the pain in my back, it was a nice break from the stress we’d both been under for the past couple of days.

As I lay on the bed, staring at the slightly sagging ceiling, I couldn’t help but think about everything we’d been through. Lost was right in feeling overwhelmed. We’d gone through more in the past two days than we had since before we lost mom. So many bad decisions, and... Then there was Rainfall. He’d died because he was acting as our guide. If we hadn’t been there, he probably wouldn’t be dead. I couldn’t forget that, but if I just sat and blamed myself... I took a deep breath. Wasteland ponies died, that’s just how it happened. Still, I’d have to make sure we didn’t get anypony else killed that didn’t deserve it.

I shifted around to lay on my side facing Lost. “Umm... What are we gonna do about sleeping?” I asked.

“We’ll sleep together. Nopony has to keep watch here, so...” She blushed a little, tapping her forehooves together. “Just like when we were little.”

I nodded. For once we’d have a good night where neither of us had to be on edge, and she could finally get the sleep she really needed. I looked up at her and smiled. She was always there for me, watching out to make sure I didn’t rush into something stupid. She did far too much, worrying about me all the time. It was justified, though, given all the times she’d kept me safe and saved my haunches...

“Is that why you never sleep, because you’re always watching after me?” I asked, hoping it wasn’t a touchy subject.

Lost sighed and looked at me. “I just worry something might happen while I’m asleep,” she answered, sliding her glasses off and floating them over to rest on the desk. “You’re all I have.” She wrapped her hooves around me and pulled me close, a tear sliding down her cheek. “I miss mom and I miss dad. I don’t want you to die too.”

“I’m not going to die, not without a fight. We’re going through this together, until the end. We both succeed or we both fail. No matter how much it,” I winced, a sharp pain lancing through my back. “It hurts.”

“Did the doctor not do a good job patching you up?” she asked, a concerned look flashing over her face. “I... I can try to fix it. That book you gave me was on how to use healing magic.” She smiled hopefully, her horn glowing blue.

“Of course. It’d be a big help,” I answered, smiling back. I moved over and sat up, turning so she could get at the gunshot wound on my back. I felt the bandage being pulled off, and then a pleasant warm, slightly tingly sensation where the skin was shredded. I didn’t want to think about what was going on though, so I changed the subject. “L.A.? What was dad like?” It was the hundredth time I’d asked that same question, but I could never hear enough of it. While she healed, I closed my eyes and tried to remember him. I couldn’t picture a stallion I never really knew, but I was going to try. I wished I could remember him...

“He was the best dad ever... He cared a lot about you, more than me,” she explained. “But you were just a foal then, so it was because you were so little. He was a farmer, in the Stable.” As she spoke she worked on my back, knitting the skin and muscle back together. “He could grow damn near anything, even in the steel underground. His cutie mark was a flower with steel petals, after all. It was a real gift, and his carrots always tasted the best!”

“I wish he had gotten out with us,” I said quietly. I wanted to be sad, but it was hard to cry over a stallion I never really knew. That hurt almost as bad as losing him.

“I do too, but I think Mom did the most. Give me your hoof,” she ordered, moving to my side. Grabbing my forehoof in her magic, she enveloped it in a blue haze. “She always said he’d have been better raising us out here. That he was so much stronger than her. I think she did a great job. After all, we’ve made it this far.” She let out a pleased sigh when she finished.

“Before we leave, I want to get some more supplies,” I said. The pain in my back and the scabs on my hoof were all but gone. What I felt now was just a shadow of what it had been before. Cheater magic or not, no matter how inexperienced or weak, it got the job done. “I think I need to be more like you, to stop and think instead of just running blindly into things. After all the trouble I’ve gotten us into the past two days..”

Lost smiled at me, saying, “That’s a big step in being more responsi-”

“I went and talked to Gunbuck,” I added.

Lost’s expression twisted from one of pride to one of confusion, disgust, and near-horror.

Gulping, I pointed over toward my saddlebags to change the subject... “Plus my gun exploded whil-”

“What!” L.A. yelled, scrambling to sit up and stare at me. The shocked look she had when I admitted to talking to a severed head completely replaced by worry. “Are you okay? Did it hurt you at all? Why did you need your gun out there? Did you get attacked? Whe-”

I shut her up with a hoof stuffed against her mouth. It worked, but she made a face and pulled back. “I’m fine,” I said. “The barrel split open when I fired it. I just wanted to give him a send-off, because I’m not going back to him again.” I lowered my hoof and stared back at the ceiling. “The DJ said he was a hero... So, you worried if we made it worse?” I sighed and closed my eyes. “We probably did. In the end, we might have found a solution, but we probably set them back a lot. Its really a wonder we didn’t get more ponies killed.”

“I doubt a hero would shoot first and ask questions later,” she snapped, raising her hoof to touch the spot on her neck where he’d shot her. She rolled over onto her back and stared at the ceiling. “The townsponies here are nice, though. They gave us discounted weapons and a room here tonight to stay since we helped.” After a pause, she looked over at me and forced a smile. “I’ll just be glad to get back home.”

“I know,” I said, “me too.” Really, I wasn’t thinking about going back to a hide away or to home, I had gears turning about what to do. “We killed a hero Lost, don’t you think we should make up for that? So that we didn’t make everything worse? I took something good out of the Wasteland, and leaving nothing it its place, that’s not much better than being a raider or a ganger.”

Lost just yawned. “That’s a bunch of shit,” she said, holding her hoof over her mouth to cover another yawn. “We’re not raiders or gangers, we’re just... ponies trying...”

Looked like it was time for bed...

I frowned, but knew better than to argue with her. She was probably too far gone to talk about it anyway. Still, I might be able to get one more thing out of her. “Lost... Why did you make the PipBuck amber?” I asked.

The only response was light snoring.

“Night...”

* * *

I couldn’t sleep.

The flow of time didn’t really matter, since there wasn’t a clock or anything else to use to keep track of it. No, wait, the PipBuck had a clock on it. It... well, it’d only been half an hour. It still felt like forever since L.A. had fallen asleep, and it got too dark to see. For a while, I’d played with the PipBuck to keep busy, but that got boring shortly after I found a button to turn the screen on as a light. The eerie green glow cast some fun shadows, but they weren’t really a long-term solution for my restlessness.

I lay there thinking about how the past few days had been so odd. Everything suddenly shifted when we found the Stables. It was supposed to be routine, same as always. Go in, find something neat or useful, get out. No fuss, no muss. Why did it have to turn into a mystery? I was sure if there had just been some fun stuff to plunder and then get out, none of this would have happened.

I needed to grow up though. Something like this was bound to happen eventually. We just got lucky that neither of us had died. I knew I was repeating myself, but I had to make sure it stuck. I tossed and turned in the bed, trying to not wake Lost Art. The covers were too hot, then too cold. I couldn’t get comfortable, but eventually settled on distracting myself, thinking about Hydro and Rainfall.

What was it like to fall in love? Mom would have given up anything for dad to be alive again, aside from my sister and I... Was that really what love was about, the idea of sacrificing anything for one pony? Needs of the few?... I loved L.A. but if she... No, she wouldn’t ever not be there for me. We were sisters, and we weren’t going to abandon one another for anything. Though... if I’d known who that stallion was before I shot, would I have let Lost... Could I have lived with that?

What if it was better to go that way though? After what I’d done, if Lost and I were working together, we could probably do some good. That stupid stallion... Why’d he have to shoot Lost? We could just go home, sure, but maybe it was better to make up for taking that little bit of good from the Wasteland. After all, our life hadn’t changed much since mom died, and we weren’t doing anything more than just surviving. I could find out more about the hero, too.

“What would Mom have done?” I asked the ceiling. L.A. snored and rolled over in response. Honestly though, we never had time to focus on something bigger. There were dangers out there that we had to avoid so we could keep our own lives together. Countless times we’d had near misses with slavers and raiders and, ugh! That Manticore that one time... Memories flooded back of Manticores and zombie ponies in the dark when I really had to go...

Not thinking about that.

I dragged my mind out of those memories and focused on Mom, and what she would have done. Mom would have avoided the town and other groups of ponies like the plague, and probably wiped the PipBuck as soon as she found it. Well, that wouldn’t... “Wait,” I muttered to myself, looking at the little old world device. I pressed some buttons to see what was actually on it.

My eyes widened when I found a ‘notes’ section. “He’d kept notes!” I announced to myself. I clamped a hoof over my mouth and looked at Lost. She moaned and rolled over, mumbling my name, but didn’t wake. I skimmed over them.

Most were just short lists, things I guessed he’d done or planned to do. I opened the one named Pommel Falls and skimmed over it. A little list covered the screen with what looked like instructions: Go to Pommel Falls. Talk to whoever was in charge of the town. Find out what’s been poisoning their water. Head to Stable Twenty One.

Wait a minute, what? How old were these notes and how had he even known their water was in danger? Or was it the PipBuck that knew all by itself? I couldn’t see any way to type, PipBucks didn’t have any keyboard like a terminal did. I poked at the screen a few times, trying to make a change to the notes. One extra letter and I’d be happy. I tapped the screen, hard. “Come on, do words,” I ordered it. Finally giving up, I decided I’d just talk to Hydro about it later.

Actually, mysteries could wait until after we had some time with Broker to get some armor. I really didn’t want to get shot again. Mysteries got me shot and broke my bones and I wasn’t going into that unprepared.

I rolled over onto my side and looked back at the patched up wound. The healing magic had really done wonders. It was no healing potion, but the job done was amazing. The pain was only a dull ache, and I could ignore it so long as I wasn’t actively thinking about it.

My leg was almost completely healed as well, which meant no more limping. I still had little red spots all over my coat from where it had scabbed over, but at least the lead was out of me. With any luck there wouldn’t even be any scars now. With a sigh, I rolled back over and stared at the ceiling again. Thinking had only managed to keep me awake...

Couldn’t I just sleep? Plans, plans... I tapped my forehead with a hoof a few times, then looked back at the PipBuck. There was a list for something called Leathers too. I opened that file and checked what his notes for it had been. The only bullet point listed was to get to Leathers, there wasn’t anything else I could see to give any indication of exactly where Leathers was, or even what it was. I flicked over to the map and tried messing with it to get a better idea of whatever Leathers might be, but all I could do was zoom in the little green grid-like map. There were a few little squares dotting the map, but trying to get it to do anything I wanted wasn’t happening with only one tired hoof. Useless! I flailed mentally, glaring at the PipBuck. I’d need Lost to figure it out... I yawned.

Finally tired...

Okay, tomorrow: get gear, talk to Hydro...

~ ~ ~

I didn’t remember falling asleep, but I woke up. All I could remember was vague planning for tomorrow and something about a place called Leathers. I looked around and tried to move a hoof to wipe my eyes. Wait, what...? Something was wrong. Why was I tied up? I blinked a few times and tried to move. I couldn’t move any of my legs, and could barely manage to crane my neck down. Each of my rear hooves was strapped to the floor with a thick rope, and spread a good distance apart. My legs were pulled completely taut to reach the floor. I looked over and found that my forelegs were tied similarly to the ceiling, pulled almost painfully tight.

I tried to call out, only to find a muzzle wrapped around my mouth keeping me from opening it at all. The only response to my muffled plea was a quiet giggle and moan from somewhere in the distance. I started to panic, and looked around to try and figure out where I was. Hadn’t I been in a nice little room with my sister.

Where was Lost Art? Was she okay?

I was in a blank room, similar to the one I had fallen asleep in. But instead of a bed and a desk and my saddlebags and my safe sister, there was just the ropes holding me in place and a door in front of me. I tried to turn my head, but couldn’t make out anything else to give away where I was.

Time crawled and my heart raced. I struggled against my bonds. No matter what I did, none of the ropes budged. All I did was tighten them around me. Finally I gave up, hung my head, and waited. The panic didn’t stop when I gave up struggling. I breathed in ragged bursts, and felt my heartbeat pound through my legs and hooves, the tight ropes making every throb burn. Every so often I looked up, trying to spot something in the barren room that I could use to escape. Anything would help at this point. Anything.

No matter how many times I looked, nothing changed. I was all alone, tied up in an empty room. If only L.A. were here, she could help. Magic would be the saving grace.

I stopped myself. How dare I even consider that. I never wanted Lost to experience something like this, even if her magic would help. I’d just find a way to deal with it myself. Hadn’t I just been thinking that I would I give up everything to save her? If this was a test, then I’d just have to endure. Lost always had the hardest time in the Wasteland, and I wouldn’t inflict anything more on her. I just-

The door clicked, interrupting my frazzled thoughts. I looked up, eyes wide, hopeful that somepony had come to rescue me.

A tall orange unicorn stepped in, both his forelegs wrapped in pink bands. A wide smile crossed his face.

“So good to see you,” Seethe teased, “my... little filly.” He casually crossed the room, looking almost as if he were floating.

I gulped and shrunk down as much as I could against the ropes, hoping this would end. I didn’t know what happened, or why I was here. How had Seethe gotten into the town? How had he found us? Were all the others with him, too? I practically felt the blood drain from me, as my heart sank. I shook my head and tried to tell him to fuck off. All that came through the muzzle was muffled nonsense. I couldn’t even beg him to let me go.

Seethe’s expression changed as he reached me. “What’s wrong... little filly?” he asked. Pausing for only a second, he grinned wickedly at me. “No... as you said... you’re not a filly. I guess that makes you a mare now.” He wrapped a leg around my neck, leaned in close, and whispered into my ear. “You know what mares can do, don’t you?”

I froze in sheer terror, and broke out in a cold sweat. My heart sunk down to the pit of my stomach. My breathing got heavier, gasping, terrified breaths. I knew something was off about Seethe but... I struggled harder against the ropes that bound me. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t.

“Mares,” he whispered into my ear, “can fuck.”

Oh yes he would. I pulled my tail down in the vain hope that it would keep him at bay. I shoved back against him, as if I could force him off me while I was stuck like this.

He released me from his strangling grasp and paced around me a few times. “Oh, don’t worry. I’ll be... gentle,” he said. “After all, I want you to savor every stroke.” Stopping behind me, he slapped my flank right across my cutie mark.

I cried out, shifting myself away from his hoof. If not for the muzzle I would have screamed. I couldn’t get away. I was stuck. Powerless. About to be violated and, and Goddesses knew what else...

How was I going to get out of this? I kept looking around frantically, trying to ignore what he was doing. I tried not to think of it, of what he would do. Of where he would put hi- Another moan sounded in the air, that wasn’t me was it?! Luna, Celestia please save me. I can’t! Not like this! I’d never... I twisted and pulled at my bindings. Where was Lost? She had to get me out of this! I watched as the stallion turned and walked toward the door.

“Oh, did you want to leave?” he asked in a whisper, toying with me. “Well, here.” He opened the door and stepped back. “You can leave whenever you like.” Another moan echoed through the open door, louder than the previous one. He trotted back to my side, and raised a hoof as if offering me the open door. He pressed himself against me, making me flinch away. Pulling his hoof back, he slid it down my back slowly. “You know, it would be such a waste if you were to leave...” he said, leaning forward. “But I do like a mare who struggles.” He placed a kiss on my cheek, followed by another, moving toward my mouth with each.

I turned my head away, closing my eyes as if it would hide me from him. Another stinging slap on my already sore flank broke my concentration. My eyes snapped open, I let out a muffled cry, and pulled against the ropes. They bit into my hooves. I could feel a bruises forming on my legs and on my flank...

I began to cry. The tears streamed down my face. I struggled, my legs pulling and twisting to try and break me free. All I did was make the ropes pull tighter and dig into unpleasant places. I shook my head, leaning away, desperate to put even a little space between us, but all he did was push closer. I felt him put a hoof over me, pulling my neck toward him as he worked over me with his mouth. It was the foulest thing I had ever experienced, and from the way his leg was shifting, and the sound of his hooves on the floor moving. It sounded like he was heading for...

No!

~ ~ ~

I screamed so loud it could have woken the dead.

There was a moan, cut short by a loud shriek, followed by Lost Art falling out of the bed. She stared up at me from the floor, her face flush. “What happened?” she asked breathlessly. “Are you alright?”

I lay there hyperventilating for a moment, staring past her with a hoof over my heart. “I just had a nightmare. It was...” I muttered, pausing to take a deep breath. “It was very vivid. I...” Shaking my head, I tried to explain, “Seethe was there, and he was calling me a filly and got close.” I rolled over to face away from her and curled up. It was almost real. Why was I having nightmares about that? I mean- just- I screamed in frustration and punched the wall as hard as I could with a forehoof. It made me feel a little better at least...

“Are you okay?” Lost asked, between heavy pants. The bed shifted and she pulled herself up to sit next to me. After a short pause, she placed one hoof on my shoulder. “We can talk... about it if you want...?”

“No, I’d rather just forget it. It was just a nightmare, it wasn’t real. It can’t hurt me.” I said, more trying to convince myself than her. I rolled back over and flashed the fakest smile I could at her. “Is it morning yet? Can we head out now? I want to get moving as soon as we can go.” I slid off the edge of the bed. Taking a step, my hoof slid out from under me. I caught myself at the last second and lifted my hoof up. Confused, I looked to my sister. “Why is there a slick spot on the floor?”

Her face had been a light pink since I woke, but now it looked positively scarlet. Clearing her throat, she just backed away. “Must... be a leaky ceiling?” she offered. Without another word, she disappeared through the door.

I looked up at the ceiling and then back at my hoof. “But there isn’t...” I started. “Wait.” Remembering the moans from my dream and Lost’s blushing, I brought my hoof up to my face. “Oh Goddesses!” I could smell it. She’d been play- “Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew.” Fighting against the shudder, I hastily dried my hoof off on the already filthy bed. Not thinking about it, ever. Every pony dealt with stress a little differently, but I never wanted to know that’s how my sister did...

Moving away, I grabbed my saddlebags and tossed them onto my back, then checked the PipBuck to make sure all was accounted for. With one wary look back, I made my way down to the lobby. I nodded to the mare at the counter, feeling a twinge of guilt that I’d never learned her name, and started out.

L.A. stood out front, her face still a light shade of pink. She coughed as I walked out and we stood together for a moment in silence. “So... Broker’s?” she finally suggested, weakly smiling. Without waiting for my answer, she trotted across the roadway toward the little merchant shop.

Stifling a laugh, I followed her into the store.

Broker sat behind the counter, his face buried in a large metal box. While he was distracted with it, Lost and I browsed the items lined up on the wall. Sadly, the stallion didn’t list prices, but he had a few small guns in serviceable condition and lots of water. We eyed some basic leather barding, too. It wasn’t fancy or anything, but leather was better at stopping bullets than our hides. Honestly, browsing was boring compared to treasure hunting, but since we had the time, we leisurely collected what we needed.

I stood in front of the bottles of water that lined one of the shelves. Given they’d explained this was one of the only places with clean water, they were probably our best place to get some. Over the past few days we’d used up the last of our food and water, and then somepony went and drank the only Sparkle~Cola we were supposed to share... I raked my hoof across the shelf and pushed several bottles into my saddlebags. The next shelf down held several dented tins of ancient food, so I grabbed those too. It felt almost like cheating to me. We were supposed to be treasure hunters, not shoppers. Having everything inside a safe building seemed too convenient.

Was that how ponies got things before the end of the world?

While Lost sorted through the rack of barding, I stepped back and sat down in front of his gun selection. There weren’t many, and while all looked capable of firing, I didn’t really see anything I wanted. However, after much picking through and examining, I found a rifle I could stand. The PipBuck called it a Varmint Rifle, and that was good enough for me. I looked over to Lost, who’d finished as well. We walked over to the counter and stacked what we’d collected in front of Broker.

Broker ignored us, still nose deep in his box of goodies. Ever so often his horn would light up magenta and a little odd or end would float out and find its way under the counter and into a display case. Despite looking up several times to place them, he didn’t seem to notice us.

I stomped a few times, trying politely to get his attention. When that didn’t work, I cleared my throat as loud as I possibly could. “Ahem!”

“Huh, what? Oh,” he said, collecting himself. Without raising his face from the box, he looked back and forth between the two of us, rolling his eyes. “Hello again, our ‘saviors...’ What can I do for you today? Waterwheel told me I’m to continue offering my discount, which I have no problem with what-so-ever. In fact, I would give it to you free, if it wouldn’t put me out of business.” He moved the box he had been digging into off the counter, and continued in a whiny tone. “But I do have a family to feed, so, of course, I won’t be able to do that. I will, however, offer my generous wares at a decent price.” The contempt he had for the word ‘decent’ in that sentence was obvious.

His rant finished, he looked down at the pile we’d collected. He dug through it with both his magic and his hooves. After a solid minute, he looked up at us and announced, “Five hundred caps.”

“Are you kidding me?” I snorted.

“That’s far too much!” L.A. said, her mouth hanging open. “We could find all of this same stuff in just a few hours of hunting!”

“It is not, and you could not,” he snapped. “I have a family, and I don’t need them going the way of Rainfall. Death by starvation is just as bad as being shot, maybe worse. It takes longer.” Being blamed for his death outright hurt, bad. “This is a good deal, considering what you have here.” He waved his hoof across the counter, pointing out just how much we’d grabbed. “It’s not like you brought anything to trade in an effort to lower the price, either. On top of that, I notice you haven’t picked up any ammunition for the gun.” He scowled and looked directly at me. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing? Any at all?”

I blushed a little and glared at him. Thinking a moment, I brought up the inventory system that the PipBuck used, and counted off what I had. “No I’ve got plenty of...” I said, before catching myself. I only had the few shotgun shells left. Motioning for Lost to follow, I took a few steps back and moved behind a shelf. “How much do you have?” I asked in a whisper when she got to the far side.

“I have a few spark cells left, a little bit of ammo for the pistol, and those bullets that you found last night,” L.A. answered as she dug into her bags. “Plus the pipe we snagged from the raiders is still in good condition for smashing things with. On the one hoof... The rifle you picked up? We don’t have anything for it. On the other hoof, if all of this is going to be too expensive for us, we might have to toss a few items.”

“All I have that might be worth anything is the big rifle... that’s broken... Dammit,” I said realizing it might be worthless. Pulling it from my saddlebags, I walked back to the counter with Lost in tow. Since the other one completely exploded, there wasn’t much point in keeping this one for spare parts. “What about this?” I passed it to Broker, to inspect and appraise.

He stared at it, looking at every angle before tossing it to the floor behind the counter. “10 caps is what it’s worth,” he finally announced.

Actually, considering it was broken, that wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t enough. I turned to my sister and whispered, “Any ideas?” We needed something to make a bigger dent in his price.

“He’s a stallion, we could sweet talk him,” Lost suggested, shrugging. “He said he has a family though so it’s not like either of us would be able to seduce him...” She blushed, and shuffled her hooves at the idea. “What about those bits you found at the Stable? They worked last time.”

I shuddered at the thought of seducing a stallion. After the nightmare I’d had last night, I wanted nothing to do with the idea of seduction. “I doubt that’d be enough, and I’m sure he’d rather have caps anyway,” I said. “Maybe we should go speak to Waterwheel or Hydro first? He seemed to change real fast when Hydro walked in last time...” Whatever trick they had to get his prices more reasonable, it only seemed to work when they were actually around. I didn’t think it was a bad idea, in fact it was very much what a thinky pony would do. They’d get backup if it would solve the problem.

“Okay, we’ll try that,” she agreed, then turned to the merchant stallion. “Broker would you do me a big favor? We left our caps back at the inn. Will you hold our purchases until we come back? It would mean a lot to me.” She flashed a hopeful smile.

“I’ll hold ‘em at the counter. But if somepony else comes in and needs them, I make no guarantee that I’ll hold onto anything for you. I’m trying to run a business here!” he snapped at her. With a glare, he moved the pile of armor, food, and weapons we’d gathered to a corner of the counter. Waving us away, he pulled out the metal box he’d been digging through. “Oh, and here’s the caps for the broken rifle. You’re not going to haggle any more out of me for a broken gun, so don’t even try.” He levitated several caps from behind the counter and dropped them atop it carelessly.

L.A. lifted them into my bags, and we left.

* * *

We walked up the slick stairs to the sawmill, passing by Doc Grinder’s office. A hastily written sign was stuck in the corner of the doorframe, with big letters reading ‘Do Not Disturb: I will Saw You.’ For a moment I wasn’t sure if it was a serious threat, but after last night and the sawblade he kept in the corner, I wasn’t so sure. He was a doctor though, so he wouldn’t really slice anypony up for interrupting his sleep.

I hoped...

Lost pushed open the door to the main office for me. She followed after I walked in, but Hydro wasn’t anywhere to be seen in the office. After what happened, it wasn’t surprising that she’d be out. Looking over some paperwork, Waterwheel sat at one of the desks.

“Oh, it’s you two,” Waterwheel said, looking up at the two of us. The stallion looked tired, and he didn’t have the same force behind his words that he’d had just a day ago. Judging from the way he slouched, he hadn’t slept. “I’m still extremely grateful for everything you’ve done. The water, and the Stable location. It all really helps, especially now that Rainfall’s gone...” He paused for a moment and gave a small salute to the air. “Need to move forward... that’s in the past. With him gone, we will need to spur up trade again, and that damn DJ on the radio let out earlier than our water has problems. I understand the need for news to travel the Wasteland to keep ponies up to date and safe, but I know for certain there wasn’t a need for bad news we’re sorting out already. What with stories of raider armies and all the monsters around, we don’t need more to stress about.”

“Will everything be okay?” L.A. asked. “Do you have ponies who know how to move things from the Stable and set it up to work here?” She walked over toward his desk as she talked, and took a look at the large diagram behind it. It was terribly worn, with the writing faded far beyond being readable. It looked technical, and if anything could help in repurposing this place, that was it. “What exactly does this sawmill do?”

The brown stallion grinned and pointed back at the diagram. “Well, originally it was a lumber mill. The saws were there to cut up timber and float it down the river. When the war hit, it was switched over to a power plant to assist with the Academy nearby. The wood wasn’t needed as much, what with rationing and change in necessity, but they needed the power and it was easier to use the mill than build a new facility. When Hydro, Rainfall, and I started the mill up again, it was in terrible condition. She’s a brilliant engineer and well... I’m good with my hooves.” He smiled contentedly. “Together, we managed it.”

“So, can you convert the waterwheel that are here now, and use them to purify the water?” I asked, extremely confused. All this talk of sciencey nonsense made my head hurt. I tried to figure out how that might work but just ended up confusing myself. I stood behind Lost, hiding a bit, and just waited for an answer like a good pony. They would know what they were doing.

“That really isn’t how a waterwheel works,” Waterwheel said with a laugh. “In theory we can make something that will transfer water to a place where it can be purified, but we’d need to make extensive modifications to do something like that. Like I said, Hydro knows what she’s doing when it comes to working with water and engineering. I trust her. I just don’t know how long it will take, she’s in a very bad way about Rainfall and everything that’s happened.” He paused a moment, adding under his breath, “I just don’t understand mares...” He sighed. “Look, you should really go talk to her instead. I’m pretty useless unless you need me making or maintaining something with directions already drawn up. Unless you need somepony set straight,” he said, smiling and puffing out his chest. “I can help with that.”

“Actually,” I started, shuffling a hoof against the floor. “We think Broker is overcharging us. I know you told him to give a discount for our help. And, I mean, we don’t really deserve it, but we’re in desperate need of some supplies...” I did my best to sound helpless. Given the circumstances it wasn’t difficult.

“He has a tendency to do that,” the stallion admitted. “You just gotta talk him down. Don’t let him scare ya, he’s harmless.” Waterwheel laughed a bit. “I’ll come with you if you really need. He knows better than to try and overcharge me, or Hydro. Or Rain...” The laugh faded, and he looked over and stared at the outside wall. “I just wish she’d waited. That stubborn mare...”

“Stubborn mare?” L.A. asked quietly. She looked over to me.

“Hydro,” answered the stallion. “We planned to wait until morning to put Rainfall in the ground, but she wouldn’t wait.” He looked back to us and sat at the desk. “There’s so much to do now, I had to prioritize. Live ponies need help as soon as possible, he’s... not going anywhere.” Slouching, he stared back at the paperwork in front of him.

I nudged Lost in the side.

She nodded. “We should go see her,” she said after a moment. “Sorry for interrupting your work. Good luck with the talismans.”

“I’ll talk to Broker as soon as I finish,” he replied. “Sorry for dragging you into our affairs.”

“Thank you. And...” I said, realizing I didn’t know how to respond. Really, it was all too much, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to talk to Hydro again. It had to be done, though.

Following Lost out the door, we walked away from the town and toward the far side of the lake.

The ground around the lake was so saturated with water from the falls it had turned to mud. We had to go the long way around, finding patches of ground that hadn’t turned into slippery mush. At the far end, past all the muck and mud, right before the treeline, Hydro stood looking back and forth between a covered body and a deep hole. A few homemade markers spotted the ground around her, the names of other ponies carved into them.

“What do you want?” she asked, glaring at us from the corner of her eye. Covered in mud and breathing heavily, she was a far cry from the same sobbing mare we’d seen last night. Now she looked pissed. “I’ve lost a lot lately, and I don’t have time to deal with forced or hollow apologies. Just leave me alone so I can bury him in peace.” Swinging the shovel back around, she stabbed it into the mud.

I started, “That’s no-”

“We’re leaving town today,” Lost Art interrupted. “We... nevermind. We just came to say goodbye.”

I took a deep breath. This wasn’t going to be easy. “Hydro, I wanted to ask you something,” I said, breaking the silence.

“Make it quick,” she snapped angrily, swinging the shovel up and throwing mud to the far side of the grave. Turning to face me, she stabbed it back into the ground beside her. With a hoof, she swiped her matted mane away from her face.

“Well, do you know why Gunbuck came to this town?” I asked, lifting my forehoof. I clicked a few things on the PipBuck, bringing up the notes I had been reading the night before.

“Who?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I- Oh, right,” I said, realizing she hadn’t learned his name. Time for a different approach. “He was the stallion who...” I bit my tongue, realizing how bad an idea it would be to mention her one night stand right as she buried the pony she’d cheated on. “Do you know why he was heading to Leathers?”

Hydro’s eye twitch. She raised a hoof to the covered boy next to her. “Does it look like I have time for something like that? I’m trying to bury a pony I loved. Fuck off and ask him yourself,” she snapped. She grabbed the shovel with her telekinesis and pulled it from the ground, grumbling under her breath, “Fucking Goddesses, the one time I fucked up. I should just go haul his ass back and... Wait...” She stopped and stared at me. “Just how do you know where he was going?”

Fuck.

The mare looked me over once, her eyes stopping on the little arcano-tech device strapped to my foreleg. “Where’d you say you got that PipBuck?” she demanded.

I took a few steps back, stammering, “Well, at the Stable there was-”

“The same Stables right near here? They were just lying around?” she pressed. “Why don’t you both have one then?”

I cleared my throat. If I told her that I killed him, and she had that damn shovel...

As I thought that, she swung it around in her magic. “Who had it before you?” she demanded.

“Well, a stallion,” I muttered, backing another step back. “I... heh... I didn’t get his name.”

Furrowing her brows, Hydro swung the shovel and pointed the bladed end at my face. “A stallion, in a Stable, who’s name you ‘didn’t get?’ Just how did you get the PipBuck off him, I hear those things don’t come off so easy. Especially if the owner doesn’t want them to come off.”

The deep blue haze of Hydro’s magic disappeared, replaced by the lighter blue of my sister’s. She twisted the shovel away and stepped between the two of us. For a moment the two stood with eyes locked, each holding a different end of the shovel, fighting to control it. “Don’t you fucking dare. That bastard put a bullet in my throat, but we got him one better,” she said, practically growling. “I understand you’ve been through a loss, but he was a one-night fuck you didn’t even get the name of. You have no right to threaten my sister.”

“A loss? A loss?” Hydro snapped, twisting the shovel free of my sister’s magic. “You bitches killed not one but two stallions I cared about. And you have the audacity to tell me you understand that I’ve lost something?” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, and lowered the shovel back into the open grave.

Lost and I shared a look, then turned back to the purple mare.

“I want you two. To get out of my town. Right now,” Hydro ordered calmly. Opening her eyes, she bared her teeth at me. “And if I ever. Ever. Ever see either of you again. I will personally show you the difference between accidents and murder.”

“Yes ma’am. Of course ma’am,” I muttered, motioning to L.A.

Once we were out of earshot, back in the town, Lost glared at me. “This is why we avoid towns.”

* * *

It was a beautiful day in the Wasteland. The cloud cover was gray and oppressive, like it was purpose built to suck the life out of every pony who’d managed to hang on this long. The air tasted like warm sulfur, there was dust in and on my everything, and ponies whose lives we’d just saved wanted us dead. What a wonderful day indeed.

L.A. and I stared down at the ruins of an old town. We had a good vantage point, a small flat spot up in the hills. Below, the view wasn't anything special, just another chunk of the city that had been nearly obliterated by the war hundreds of years ago. The buildings all leaned slightly, covered in so much rust and mold that it was visible even from where we were. According to the PipBuck, Leathers was ahead of us, past a long trek through the hollowed out remains of the town. It wasn’t very far, in all honesty. But, after the fiasco with Hydro, the idea of resupplying in town just went sour. The trip would be a lot longer while we hunted for treasure, but Lost was right that it would get us more and better supplies. It would just take us a lot longer.

Together, we winded our way down, taking it slow and careful. Faint red markers popped up and disappeared in the E.F.S. in the corner of my vision, but none stayed long enough to worry about just yet. With so many buildings left as rusted frames, we made a beeline for the nearest that still had actual walls. As we walked, I used the trick I’d seen Lost use, checking to the sides to make sure that there wasn’t anything waiting to ambush us when our backs were turned.

I loved any chance I got to get away from the Wasteland and into the zone of treasure hunting, but that didn’t stop it from being boring most of the time. Lost and I checked several buildings, most of them the remains of houses left empty by decades of other scavengers. Every time was the same, checking the kitchen first for important things like food, then up to bedrooms where ponies once kept their valuables. I kept an eye out for a gun case or something similar. With only the shotgun from the dead raiders, we needed some firepower. The pistol L.A. carried only had a few bullets left, and we’d be in trouble if anypony attacked us.

To speed things up, I checked the upstairs bedrooms of each house while Lost dug through the kitchens. Whoever dug through these homes first left little, with only a few tattered remains of clothing under beds or inside drawers and wardrobes. I did find a few magazines, though most were missing several pages. I put everything I could carry into my saddlebags, prioritizing the magazines more so than the hole-filled clothing. The one real treasure I managed to find was a nice, if tattered, sundress. I tucked that away for later, just in case. It would go nicely in my little collection of pre-War outfits that I never found time to wear.

After several houses and countless hours digging, we regrouped in the foyer of the last house we’d found that still had a roof over it. L.A. looked at the kitchen she’d walked in from and shook her head. “Slim pickings here,” she muttered. “They’ve got food, but it’s too far gone to actually eat. Let’s check the basement and get out.” When I nodded in agreement, she pried the basement door off its single remaining hinge and let it fall to the floor.

Trotting down the stairs, we found a single room with a working light. At the far end sat a terminal, with a mass of cables sticking out the back of it. They criss-crossed over the floor, their ends disappearing into the walls.

“Somepony must have really liked their terminal,” I joked nervously. Hesitantly, I walked up to it. Halfway across the room, the PipBuck beeped loudly, and both the terminal screen and PipBuck screen flashed several times. “What in the...?”

“They’re both supposedly made by Stable-Tec, so they can talk to each other,” L.A. explained. “Mom showed me once.” She walked over to the terminal, pressed a few buttons with her magic, and pulled up the main terminal password screen.

BEEP.

My ears swiveled forward in an instant and I felt my heart jump into my throat. “Oh shit, not again...” I whispered, throwing myself to the floor. I covered my head with my hooves.

BEEP.

The terminal exploded with an ear-splitting BOOM. Bits of glass and metal flew through the room, raining down on both of us. L.A. hit the ground next to me, cursing. A loud snap cut through the air. The wires lining the floor came alive and twisted up into the air. They writhed for a second, before disappearing into the walls.

“What in the Goddesses’ name was that?!” L.A. shrieked.

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. Barely lifting one hoof, I stared at the shattered frame of the terminal. “I hate... those... things...” I whispered. I could feel my face burning, the memory of the last terminal that exploded in my face brought right to the surface. “Can we just leave? Please?” I begged, my heart still trying to force its way out of my chest.

“Yeah, let’s get out of here,” Lost said. She helped me up and led me back up the stairs. Once we reached the first floor, we ran out of the house. Even if we hadn’t cleared the rest of it out, whatever the fuck that was, I was ready to put the entire Wasteland between us just in case..

I hated rigged terminals. It took a special kind of twisted to do that to another pony. Terminals weren’t supposed to have big wires like that, and while they were prone to exploding in my face, that wasn’t normal. The terminal had been on and ready for us, or somepony, to log in, and that should have been a big red flag. It was almost... waiting for us. I shivered.

“You okay, Hidden?” Lost asked.

“I hate terminals, Lost...” I answered. “Let’s just go. Please?”

Lost nodded and we left. After skipping a few buildings to put some distance between us and whatever that was, we split up again.

We went slower to watch for any more weirdness with wires or exploding terminals, but spent the majority of the morning digging through the same houses and buildings. It was much of the same old routine: get in, check, leave. Most of what we collected was food, with a few rounds of ammunition here and there. The process took ages, but with enough persistence, I always managed to find one last thing before we left each building. Despite every place we checked looking like it should be completely barren, there was always just enough to get by. Either every other scavenger and raider just wasn’t trying, or I was really good at finding things.

I headed for a building covered in wartime posters, with one featuring a pink and grey haired pony plastered on the wall repeatedly. Over and over I read the phrase ‘Pinkie Pie is Watching You FOREVER,’ all while being stared down by the mare. Her eyes seemed to follow me no matter where I stood.

I trotted inside the building and looked around. At the far end of the room was a counter running the length of the wall, with a small table in front of it. Atop the counter were dozens of boxes, all sagging and rotting from age, lined up and blocking my view. If there was anything worth finding, it’d most likely be in the boxes. Ponies always seemed to keep things in them.

Pushing one of the boxes to the side to make room, I hopped onto the counter for a bett-

My rear hoof clipped the counter, and I fell flat on my face. Several boxes toppled down next to me. “Ow...” I grumbled, picking myself up. “Mental note: Be more careful when exploring ruins.”

A little clatter from behind caught my attention.

Turning around, I looked at the floor under the counter. A little rifle lay there, with several faded flecks of tape attached to its underside. “Well, what are you doing here?” I asked the gun. “Fall from the counter?”

The gun didn’t answer.

Picking up the gun, I pulled the tape pieces off and examined my prize. The PipBuck classified it as a varmint rifle. The caliber it fired was smaller than my previous guns, but it had a full clip and a little scope. I stuck it in my bags and went back to hunting. In one of the boxes I’d knocked over was a half-empty box of ammunition for the varmint rifle, but nothing else worth while.

I left and headed up to meet with Lost. She had gone into a building with a giant BANK sign hanging from the front. When I found her, she was bent over a terminal, trying to force her way into it. For a few minutes while she worked, I watched in silence absent-mindedly, before realizing I could attach the new rifle to my battle saddle. I didn’t have any tools and without a horn to do the detail work, it took a while, but I got it in working order soon enough.

Once I finished, I looked up at Lost. “Any luck?” I asked.

“No,” she said. “Let me use this.” Without warning, she snatched the PipBuck in her magic and dragged me to the terminal.

“Hey, that’s attached!” I snapped. The grip made me twitch a little, but I forced myself not to recoil. The memory of being held against my will shot into the back of my mind, and for just a second I felt the pinch of a muzzle on my face. Its just Lost, I told myself, my sister wouldn’t hurt me. I pushed back against the memory of the nightmare. If I just didn’t think about it. Why was it even bothering me anyway? It was only a nightmare. I took a few deep breaths and forced myself to calm down.

“Uh huh,” she responded absent-mindedly, unaware of my little internal conflict. She went back and forth between the two screens for a few minutes, eliciting beeps here and there. A few minutes passed before she let go of my foreleg and went back to the terminal. “I don’t need luck.” She hit a button and series of clicks echoed down the hall from another room, followed by a rustling noise. “Let’s go see what our prizes are.”

We walked to the other room, and found row after row of lockboxes inside. Lost took the right and I took the left, where we went down each row, cleaning each out. The majority were empty, probably cleaned out right before the world’s end by ponies fearing the worst. Even more surprising was the fact that the backs of several lockers were gone... that didn’t seem very secure for a bank. There were a few treasures to be found though: a plasma pistol that L.A. squealed over, some old world bits and gems, and some cans of something called Cram locked in a box with some cigarettes. Somepony must have wanted to keep their vices a secret. The last treasure I found was a first aid kit. Finally. With how much I’d been getting shot recently, that was a gift from the Goddesses.

I chuckled. Here we were, two sisters robbing a bank two centuries after anypony would care about it. Shrugging, I went back to digging around in the lockboxes until Lost’s voice dragged me away.

“Hidden?” she said. “What do you suppose that is?”

I pulled my head out of a lockbox and looked where she was pointing. In the back far corner of the lockbox was a splotchy black pile of... something. Something weird. I could have sworn I saw it move. I rubbed my eyes. Nope. Stationary. “I don’t know,” I said. “Random spare electrical parts?”

Lost shook her head, answering, “I can’t tell what it is. It looks it’s coming through the wall from outside.” Her horn glowed and she magically lifted the black mass up out of the lock box for closer inspection. “Why would this be in a-”

The mass abruptly thrashed and struck out with wiry tendrils at Lost Art’s face.

Lost shrieked and dropped the bundle of wires.

The mass, still attached to the lockbox by a stalk of twisted wire, lashed out at Lost's legs. Backpedaling, she grabbed the lockbox door with her magic and slammed it against the blob of wires. Pushing with her magic, she forced the door halfway closed. The wires snapped at the air, reaching around the door toward her.

I slammed the lockbox shut with both hooves and held it closed with all my weight. Looking at her, I blurted out, “What the...!”

“Who cares! No treasure is worth that,” Lost said. “Run!” She bolted from the room and after making sure she was safely in the outside, I jumped away from the lockbox and ran after her. Behind me, the metal door slammed open again, echoing a shrill metallic clang through the building.

“Alright, heading straight for Leathers now?” I asked. After all that, I was ready to be done. It’d been half a day already and that was more than enough hunting. I wasn’t going to push my luck. Not waiting for a response, I turned toward where the PipBuck told me Leathers was an- Wait a minute. Something caught the corner of my eye. Was that a... I bit into L.A.’s mane and pulled her into an alley, where we ducked behind a shattered wall.

“Ow- Fuck! What was that for?” she snapped at me, rubbing her head with a hoof. “I just got this thing loaded! It’s a beaut isn’t it?” She held the pistol up, the gun encased in a blue glow. The wall next to her head exploded, filling the air with dust and grit. The bang of a rifle cut through the air. “Oh, we’re getting shot at again. Wonderful!”

“You’ve gotten really good at being jaded L.A...” I said, biting the battle saddle’s bit to ready my gun. I peeked out past the edge of our little hiding spot to get a look at our attacker. A bullet tore through my ear, shredding half of it off and sending a jolt of pain down the side of my head. “Ow!” Then the distant bang that could’ve warned me sounded off. Blood trickled down the side of my face, but it wasn’t bad enough to waste any of the one health potion we’d found in the first aid kit on. Before our attacker could fire again, I peeked over the edge and snuck a look at whoever it was. The new gun might not be as powerful as my last, but at least it had a scope. Looking through, I could see several raiders and- Something flashed. I pulled back behind the wall, barely missing getting shot again. A chunk of the wall exploded when the bullet hit. “There’s a bunch of raiders down there... I’m gonna get all shot up again aren’t I?” Why isn’t the Wasteland ever fair?

“Just use S.A.T.S.,” Lost suggested.

I stuck my head out past the wall, barely missing getting shot in the face. “What's S.A.T.S. anyway?” I asked, all while looking at the PipBuck's indicators in the corner of my vision.

“It's a targeting spell in the PipBuck,” Lost explained. “Just cast it like you would any oth- Oh, right.”

I shot a glare at her. Turning back to the ponies shooting at me, I concentrated as hard as I could on... something. Mom never taught me how anything about magic, even if it was PipBuck magic. Frustrated, I shifted and aimed my new rifle at the pony that kept shooting at me. I didn't need any help from the PipBuck, I could shoot perfectly fine with or without S.A.T.S.

The E.F.S. in front of my eyes flashed white, then back to green. In an instant my vision filled with several little blinking markers in different colors. The shooting mare froze mid-shot, her head covered in a red haze. The other ponies were all covered similarly, with green, red, and amber circles dotting their bodies. Confused, I look- I twisted.

I couldn't move.

Oh Goddesses. I didn't need this. Not in the middle of a fight. I just needed to let go. Fuck the S.A.T.S. I didn't need it. I could fight without it. I tried desperately to shake my foreleg, to get rid of the frozen feeling. I couldn't feel my heartbeat or my breathing, I couldn’t even hear the sounds of the Wasteland in the distance. Did I get shot? What in the Goddesses name was going on?

Focus, I shouted in my own head. Nopony else is moving. It's not just me. The PipBuck's spell. Okay, that made sense. Well, I thought it made sense. S.A.T.S., targeting was better if everything was still. Of course. That's why nopony was moving, not even me. This... this wasn't so bad.

Calming, I tried to figure out what the colors were. Did red mean it was a kill shot, or did that mean I wouldn't hit at all? Why hadn't anypony explained how this worked? I'm sure somepony would have if I'd gotten one before we had to leave the Stable. Dammit. Only one way to learn. I'd just fire at one green one and one red one. I just needed to figure out how to-

Real time kicked back in and I fired two shots from the rifle. One of the rounds struck exactly where I had aimed, tearing a hole in the pony's hind leg. She dropped from the balcony. The second bullet missed, but she was already down, hitting hard enough to throw up a cloud of dust. That spell was terrifying and absolutely wonderful at the same time. I tried again, thinking S.A.T.S. the same way I had before. When that didn’t work, I tapped the PipBuck and yelled at it, “S.A.T.S.! Work!” Stupid PipBuck didn’t listen.

Bullets peppered the wall we were hiding behind, shattering chunks of wood and stone off. If we stayed here too long, we wouldn’t have a hiding place anymore.

“Why won’t it come back?” I demanded.

“It has to recharge. Trade places with me,” she said, hoisting up the plasma pistol. We swapped places and she stuck her head out past the corner. She fired, her pistol letting out a B-KEW sound, then ducked back behind the wall. Somepony in the distance screamed, and my sister smiled. Another pony down.

Peeking out to fire again, her smile disappeared. Ducked back behind the wall, she stared at me, her eyes wide with terror. “Hidden,” she whispered. “Run!” Hesitating only a second, she pushed me up onto my hooves and ran past me. “Come on!”

“What happened?” I shouted, chasing after her at full gallop. “Why are you spooked?” I was at full speed, but she ran like she’d just seen a bomb go off behind us. “Slow down! I can’t keep up!” She didn’t even look back, so I just tried to follow and not lose sight of her.

Both of us galloped as quickly as we could through the ruined buildings and streets. In the distance behind us, I heard the spattering of sporadic gunfire, followed by somepony screaming unnaturally. It echoed through the dead, and suddenly silent city. Whatever had just happened, that scream sent a chill down my spine, and for just a moment, I felt sorry for those raiders.

* * *

By the time L.A. finally stopped running, my lungs were burning and my legs felt shaky. We had actually made it further away from Leathers than when we started at the edge of the forest. She collapsed in front of me and I followed suit. “Why,” I rasped, gasping for air, “did we,” huff, puff... “run like that?”

“More wires,” she said, sounding horror-struck. The plasma pistol still floated beside her, and she frantically looked back and forth. “Check the E.F.S. Do you see anything at all?”

I looked back and forth, but saw nothing ahead, behind, or to either side. “Nothing at all,” I said between pants. “We’re alone.” Whatever those wires were, they kept the raiders from following us. I already knew they were trouble, but I wasn’t sure I’d take them over the raider, even if she did try to turn my head into a bloody stump. It was a blessing from the Goddesses they turned their attention, but that scream... Why hadn’t they run? More importantly, why’d the air suddenly smell like death?

A heavy thud shook the ground behind us. I turned around slowly, and saw... well, I wasn’t quite sure. It looked like a pony, but it was much bulkier, and made of metal. It trudged closer, and finally I realized it was a massive armored pony. The armor looked very sturdy, totally encasing the pony within and made of unpainted, dull steel with a yellow visor over the eyes and twin tubes leading from the faceplate down to the chest. I had heard rumors from traders about ponies encased in metal armor, but couldn’t remember their name. Slowly he walked up to us, each step of his blood-smeared hooves unnatural and stiff. He didn’t walk like any pony I’d ever seen, but every one of his stomps shook the ground under me. Goddesses, he smelled foul.

“Did you kill those raiders for us? Thank you so much!” I said in my most cheerful voice. I reached back to get L.A.’s attention, looking up at the pony. I knew I was a tough pony, but standing next to this massive armored stallion, I suddenly felt very small and very fragile. The closer he got, the worse it smelled. I realized where the smell came from. He was covered in blood, all down the front of his armor, from muzzle to hooves. Even the visor was splattered with it. It was fresh. I took a few steps back, still waving a forehoof toward Lost. Why wasn’t she answering me?

Lost Art turned around, and screamed. “That’s it!” she yelled, pointing her gun at the armored pony. A deafening B-KEW sounded beside my head as she began firing wildly. Little green bursts of plasma sparked across the armor of the pony, with no apparent effect.

“What do you mean that’s it? That’s what?!” I screamed over the sound of her firing. I looked back and forth between the two. Sister firing frantically, and an armored pony not reacting. None of this sat right. I backed toward her, and following her lead, I fired a few shots with the varmint rifle.

Whoever the armored pony was, he didn’t seem to be slowed at all by the barrage of plasma and lead against him. His armor either absorbed every hit or was repairing itself somehow faster than I could see. He stopped his advance and a compartment on his back opened up. A gun far bigger than any rifle I’d ever seen emerged, and that right there was enough to send me running. L.A. seemed to have the same idea, because we both hauled flank as fast as we could in the opposite direction.

A split-second later, a series of muffled reports echoed behind us. The sound confused me, since it wasn’t like any weapons fire I’d heard before. Even silencers sounded sharper than the coughing thuds from his gun, but I wasn’t gonna spend any time trying to figure out what made it different. The answer came soon enough though, as a few hunks of metal that looked suspiciously like apples flew through the air past us. They slammed into the walls of the alley we were in and erupted into flames. Both of us shrieked and turned the nearest corner onto a street.

The thudding followed, louder and faster, shaking the ground and the walls around us. Dust flilled the air, making it harder to see where we were running. None of that mattered, because grenades that turned everything to fire weren’t worth sticking around for.

“This way, this way!” I yelled, turning down another alleyway. L.A. followed me as we sped off as fast as our hooves would take us. “Okay here, here.” I twisted down another alleyway, praying my sister was still behind me. I could hear her heaving for breath still so she couldn’t have been that far away. We barrelled through trash and rubble, jumping through broken windows and over chunks of wall to continue. Nothing was going to stop us from outrunning whatever it was behind us.

The armored pony didn’t stop though, it just smashed through everything in its way. Walls shattered and collapsed as he pushed through them, still chasing after us. Slowly, the shaking ground and thudding hooffalls grew quieter, distant, before falling completely silent. The worst part about the monster pony in the blood-covered armor? He hadn’t shown up on the E.F.S., at all. No matter what direction I looked, the only marker in the corner of my vision was Lost’s green one. Not knowing where he’d disappeared to shook me to the bone.

“Stop, I can’t breathe,” L.A. shrieked, taking in shallow gasps of air. She skidded to a stop and I followed suit. “The wires. In- in the basement, and the bank. I don’t- It just. It grabbed those raiders.” Her breathing was slowly going back to normal as she spoke.

“Grabbed? Then what?” I asked, staring at her. I almost didn’t want to hear the answer.

“I don’t know!” she shouted. “I just saw wires wrap around her and the one on the ground, and then they got pulled away.” She reared up on her hind legs and grabbed at the air with her forehooves, as if she were dragging an invisible pony away. “Do you think I wanted to wait and find out!”

“Okay, okay. I got it,” I muttered, wrapping my hooves around her and hugging her tight. “Let’s just keep heading toward Leathers. When we get there it’ll be ok. There has to be somepony there that can help or else Gunbuck wouldn’t have been heading there, right?” I tried to convince myself just as much as I was trying to convince her.

When she’d calmed, we ran toward the compass marker. I kept one eye on the E.F.S. Whatever that armored monster had been, we hadn’t killed it, and I couldn’t trust that it would give up. It hadn’t shown up before, but I was freaked out and not paying attention. I just had to keep an eye on it and- A green marker flickered above the compass. Green meant they were somepony friendly, right?

“I see somepony,” I said.

“Good for them. We need to go!” L.A. snapped back. “We watch out for us first.” She pointed a hoof at herself and then at me. “We can’t hang around with that thing near.”

“But what if it goes after them?” I asked, not wanting another pony to die if I could stop it. “Look, the E.F.S. didn’t show the armored pony. This is showing up, it has to be safe. We can’t abandon somepony. Would Gunbuck have done that?”

"Gunbuck shot me at first sight!” L.A. snapped. She stared at me a moment and her ears drooped. “Why do I listen to you? I'm older...” Pulling a spark cell from her saddlebags with her magic, she reloaded the plasma pistol. “Just lead the way and keep an eye out for wires.”

I led Lost toward the marker on my E.F.S., keeping an eye out for anything moving. Rubble from the collapsed buildings filled the roads and alleys, making it hard to watch for the armored pony. I navigated solely on the magic in the PipBuck, using it to weave around buildings and into open alleyways. The map feature was amazing, we didn’t even have to slow down.

With no indicator how far away the marker was, I just kept searching. Ducking around a corner, I ran right into a white swirled design on a dark flank. L.A. subsequently rammed into my rear and we all toppled over. Loud yelps of surprise sounded both in front of and behind me. I recognized not only Lost’s, but the other one as well.

Struggling, I pulled back to untangle my hooves with whoever I’d run into, and looked up at them. The familiar deep blue eyes of Xeno stared back at me.

“Oh, they sent you after me then?” Xeno asked as she picked herself up off the ground. “I would still prefer if you were to let me to live. I have left completely, as I promised I would. Was that not enough for the ponies in that town? Their water supply is now untainted by my zebra curses.” She nearly smiled, but stopped at the last second to collect her bag.

“No, I... why are you here?” L.A. sputtered.

“I told you,” the zebra said, tossing the single bag over her head and onto her neck, “I have much I inspire to do in the Wasteland, I did not wish to be murdered, so I left. Where was I to go? I have nothing left, so I am to start a new life. This begins with wandering, does it not?” She tilted her head, blinking slowly.

Her rambling did make some sense, but, okay it made no sense at all. “Okay well. How about...” I said, trailing off as I stared at the mark on her flanks. It twisted in a circle, the whole spiral seeming to spin around her haunch. “How about...”

“What is wrong with you? Why are you staring at me like that?” Xeno asked, shifting slightly.

“Spinny...” I muttered absently. That was all I could manage before she moved and the marking disappeared from sight. “What? Huh? Sorry.” I shook my head, snapping out of the swirl’s grasp. “Your cutie mark is hypnotic... What does it mean anyway?” Was this really the best time to be asking this? Internally I gave myself the worst facehoof ever.

“I do not have a cutie mark, that is a word made up by you ponies, it does not hold true for my kind. But I thank you for the compliment. I am proud of it,” she said nonchalantly, before she turned back to the pile of rubble she had been digging in. “I do have a life to rebuild though, there is much I am acquired to do.”

No longer distracted by her... whatever-it-was-called mark, I remembered why we’d run into her. “Okay, Xeno. It’s not safe here right now. There’s... a thing. I can’t really explain,” I tried to explain. I looked side to side, with the hopes that whatever the pony or wires were would give itself away before it attacked.

Lost Art had backed herself against the wall as tight as she could, looking back and forth repeatedly. Her gun moved erratically, following the frantic movements of her eyes. She finally joined the conversation, without so much as lowering her gun. “Can you just join up with us so we can get out of here?” she demanded, “That thing could be back at any moment!”

“What thing do you speak of?” Xeno asked, before pulling back from the rubble. In the corner of her mouth she held a steel rod with a chunk of stone on the end. She tossed it down and spat a few times before continuing, “There is nothing here. This place is empty of ponies and all else. I have been here since yesterday, and seen no one.”

“I beg to differ.” I argued. “Come on, please? I will tell you about our life and our goals in the Wasteland, you can tell us yours? We can be friends!” I noticed I was mimicking her speech patterns. “Look, it’s dangerous here.”

“Just come on already!” L.A. yelled, putting her gun away. She wrapped her magic around one of my ears, and around one of Xeno’s. She tugged and I yelped, following the feel of her telekinesis.

“Ow, don’t rip it off,” I cried. She’d grabbed the ear I’d gotten shot in. “Stop, please, I’ll follow.” It was no use though, and she dragged me off anyway.

“Sorry, I’ll fix it,” she said as she led us behind another building. Releasing the two of us, she switched her magic from levitation to healing. The blue glow around my ear slowly healed it, knitting the flesh back together like it’d never been shot. When Lost finished, she smiled. “There, let’s go.” Turning away, she cantered away.

I followed, but stopped when saw Xeno heading back to where we’d found her.

“I would rather not be a burden,” she said, looking back at me. “You ponies have already seen the trouble I cause to those close to me.”

I stared back at her, trying to find the words to convince her to come with us. The smell of rot filled the air, and the ground shook, crumbling a massive chunk of a nearby building. The blood-smeared muzzle of the armored pony emerged from an alleyway. The ground shook again as he stepped into view. With a stomp of his hoof, he turned to face the zebra mare.

Noticing the shadow around her, she spun around and stared almost straight up at the massive armor-encased pony.

My legs moved on their own, jumping me between Xeno and the blood-covered suit of armor. I pulled the shotgun from my saddlebags on instinct, not willing to let the zebra be hurt because we stupidly led whatever this thing was to her. Behind me, I heard. L.A. call something out, but I wasn’t sure what it was. I looked up into the face of the armor, staring at the glowing yellow visor. I bit down and fired the shotgun.

The buckshot ricocheted off the reinforced glass, managing only a miniscule crack. The visor glowed green, and the crack instantly sealed itself up before my eyes. I tried to reload the shotgun, but a massive hoof to my side threw me into one of the broken walls. For a second, everything faded to black, but the loud crack of my back brought me back to a world of pain. Dropping to the ground, it felt like every bone in my body had shattered, and I was fairly certain the gunshot wound was open again. I tried to get up, but my hooves wouldn’t move as fast as I needed them to.

Xeno stood still in front of it. She hadn’t moved when I jumped over her, yet managed to get out of the way when I was kicked back. She stared at the armored pony, her legs shaking. His armor cracked, a split forming at the muzzle. Slowly, where a mouth would have been on a normal pony, the armor itself opened, revealing rows of metallic teeth. The zebra mare shrieked as a chunk of bloody flesh spilled from the corner of its ‘mouth.’ One of the wires we’d seen in the bank slithered from between two teeth. It twitched and undulated, before wrapping around the fallen chunk of meat.

There was no way that thing was a living pony.

The now familiar B-KEW noise of Lost’s gun filled the air. Green bursts of magical energy erupted on the armor, a few going directly into its mouth. It squealed metallically and reeled, the back of its helmet smoking where the plasma melted through from the inside. Wires poured out from the openings in the armor, and twisted around in the air wildly. The armor itself began repairing, sealing up the holes around the flailing wires.

As Lost fired, Xeno turned and ran. Her hooves went out from under her, tripping her as one of the flailing wires passed where her head has just been. Mid-fall she caught herself, rolling and righting herself. She wove around the shots L.A. was firing. Crouching down, she shrunk away and hid behind my sister.

I managed to get myself right-side-up again and took aim. Before I could fire, a faint noise filled the air, the distant sound of music playing. Looking around, the only other thing I could see was a little hovering robot. Terror took over as it dawned on me that this wire... thing could have other not-pony friends that would help it in killing us. Then, after we were dead it could use those wires to... Goddesses.

On the E.F.S. though, I saw three little green markers, one of which was right under the hovering robot. Why did it show up, while the armored pony didn’t? A malfunction? The little robot floated closer, and the music coming from a large speaker behind its grill-like ‘mouth’ got louder. It stared forward blankly, two massive eyes reflecting the view of our fight back at us. Four large wings buzzed, holding it in the air. Friend or not, it looked disturbing.

I screamed into the grip of my shotgun and fired. The shot hurt me a lot more than it should have, and definitely more than the monster pony. The recoil shook me to my bones, making me ache to the core. Apparently getting thrown into a wall did a lot more damage than I thought. The floating robot joined the fight, shooting little pink beams of magic energy at the monster. I whimpered with relief around the gun, glad whatever it was was on our side.

I kept firing, but even with all three of us wasting our ammo, the armored pony seemed completely unfazed. He just stood there, wires undulating in the air. The armor repaired itself as fast as we were damaging it, but as long as we kept firing, the monster wasn’t moving.

I stopped firing, sidestepped toward Lost, and dropped the shotgun into my forehoof. “We need to get out of here,” I said. Stuffing the gun back into my mouth, I fired a few more shots. I aimed for the legs, hoping it would slow him down. Goddesses, I needed to put this gun on my battle saddle.

“I know, but if we stop shooting he’ll chase us again...” she said. Following my lead she fired at its other leg. “We can keep running, but he’s just going to keep following.

“If he has another target there will be no reason for him to follow us,” Xeno suggested.

I spat the gun down again. “But there’s nopony else here!” I said, looking, around with the E.F.S. “I just need a minute to stop and think.” A few seconds of free time, where I could just make a plan without my head full of the sound of gunfire and worry that if I stopped firing I’d be dead. Could I use S.A.T.S. again, to buy myself ti-

White flashed in my vision and everything went still. The little hazes of red, amber, and green appeared again, covering my vision. I focused on the armor, trying to ignore the nagging feeling, the claws digging at the back of my mind, reminding me that I couldn’t move anymore.

I looked at every detail, all the little chips and dents, and at the holes blown through the front of the armored pony’s legs where we’d focused our shots. A pool of blood surrounded the armors’ hooves. Inside the armor were more wires, intertwined with chewed hunks of meat and some poor pony’s jawbone. His mouth was still open, showing nothing past its ‘lips’ other than another black mass of wires that looked almost like they were supposed to be flesh, slick with whatever this monster used for blood. Its teeth glinted in the light, wicked sharp and terrifying. Definitely not a pony! What in the fuck was this thing? How could Celestia and Luna ever let it come to be?!

The worst part about it? S.A.T.S. couldn’t target it.

I looked back and forth between the armored pony and the floating bot, between the colored indicators and where they should have been. Okay, this was the part where I needed to be a thinky pony. With the extra time I had, I needed to come up with a plan.

The bot over in the distance attacked it, which meant that it could target it. There had to be some way, then. If we could get him to shift his attention over to that, we might be able to escape while he was distracted, just like Xeno said. I’d just... have to lure it over there and get Lost and Xeno to run in the other direction... It’d seemed more interested in me anyway because I attacked its face... Okay. It wasn’t a good plan, but it was the best I had. Now I just needed to figure out how to cancel the spell.

With everything frozen around me, I couldn’t tell how long it took me to get the spell to drop, or if it just ended on its own. Everything around me snapped back to life, and the air filled with the deafening sounds of battle. I screamed over the firefight, “You two need to run!”

“What about you?” Lost yelled back between shots.

“I have a plan,” I yelled. “You two need to run.” I could feel my voice getting hoarse from screaming.

“I’m not leaving you,” L.A. screamed back, her voice wavering.

“If she says that we need to, I think that we should trust her,” Xeno chipped in, her voice barely rising above the din of the gunfire. “She has survived much, despite the luck that I carry. I feel her suicidal attempt will not succeed.”

“Just go!” I said.

“I’ll be close by,” Lost said, finally relenting. She backed away, firing at the head of the armor.

While they retreated, I reloaded the shotgun. It wasn’t an easy feat for an earth pony without cheater magic. With the adrenaline pumping, I managed a few shells into the gun. Snapping it closed, I ran toward the wire-monster. The B-KEWs behind me went silent, leaving me the only living thing on the battlefield.

Wherever she was going, I hope she’d be okay. Xeno too. Without the constant gunfire, the armor repaired faster. In almost an instant, the holes and dents disappeared, leaving it looking as good as new. The wires slid back inside the armor, leaving what looked like an almost normal armored pony standing in the middle of an abandoned street. If only there wasn’t the blood or the giant gaping wire-filled mouth.

Two wires shot out and wrapped around my midsection. This was new. It lifted me into the air, and its face split clean in half. The visor separated, revealing more teeth and more rotting flesh. The wires around me tightened, digging into my coat and making it hard to breathe. Flailing did nothing, but I kept at it anyway. I had to get out of the grasp, being tied up, now. My heart pounded in my throat, and I fought against panicking. I needed to stay calm, even if it... even. Screaming, I kicked at the wires with my forehooves, desperate to break free. The nightmare played over in my head again, with little claws digging at the back of my mind, reminding me of all the terrible things that could happen. This wasn’t a real pony though, right? It couldn’t do that to me? Real ponies can fuck, this...

Stop! I screamed at myself internally. That was a nightmare, it wasn’t real. This wire pony wasn’t going to rape me. It didn’t even have a body inside the armor. There weren’t even parts for that. It’d probably just kill me. As sickly amusing as a thought as it was, I’d prefer being killed and eaten.

The rationalizing helped, and the claws of fear retracted ever so slowly. I tried to take a deep breath to calm down, but couldn’t draw breath. I gasped, adding ‘not being able to breathe’ to a little list of my favorite things to never do ever again. My lungs burned from the pressure. The edges of my vision started to go black. The wires tightening around my waist felt like they were ripping me in half. I fought to stay conscious. I looked around, desperately. I needed something, anything, I could use to get me free. Otherwise... I’d be crushed to death. Just like before, helpless... No, no, no! Do not think that, it’s not the same at all!

Behind the armor, the floating bot took potshots, all while blasting out upbeat music as loud as it could, as if it could cover the sound of the weapons blasts. The wire pony did a very good job of ignoring it. Its teeth began to move, not the jaw itself, but the teeth all slid back and forth along the jawline. The movement started with a high pitched whir, before the cacophony of grinding metal overtook it.

Oh Goddesses. I was going to get sliced into pieces and eaten! Where’s a ceiling when I need one? Quick and painless crushing was better than this torture.

Just wait, be patient. That’s all I had to do. I could breathe when I was done. Just another minute. As long as Lost got away... I aimed the shotgun down and fired a shot directly into the wire-filled gullet below. For a long moment, nothing happened, then the wires released me.

I slammed into the ground. A jolt of pain shot up my left hind leg, followed by a stomach-turning crack. I howled in agony as something wicked sharp and jagged dug into my leg from the inside. The E.F.S. flashed repeatedly, something about a crippled limb? I didn’t have time to worry about that, I needed to run.

It turned slowly, moving unnaturally. The ground shook with every step. Behind it, the floating bot fired its little magic zapper again and again, but it was barely a distraction at this point.

Forcing myself up, I ran as fast as I could. Every step hurt, the jagged edge inside me stabbing out. I limped, tears rolling down my cheeks. Ignore the pain. Just run. Just. Keep. Running. Get it away from your sister. Keep. Going! My brain screamed at me to keep going forward. My heart pounded begging me to stop. My lungs burned, barely able to keep up. Where was some Buck when I needed it? I could have taken this guy on easily if I had some of that.

It wasn’t chasing me. The ground didn’t shake. No thuds echoed in the air. I was going to get away.

A little fwump echoed in the alleway.

Fire erupted all around me, scorching my tail and searing my hide. I screamed, jumping away. Smashing into the ground, I rolled. Flames licked my back, my coat burning from just above my cutie mark to my shoulders. It hurt. I hurt. Inside and out, I burned. Weakly I rolled once, dust and grime coating me. It snuffed the fire, but... It was too late. I gave up, and cried. Going limp, I looked back at my killer.

The wire pony turned away from me. It’s split visor focused on the floating bot. What the...

Did it think I was dead? Thanking Celestia and Luna above for best luck I’d ever had, I watched. I couldn’t do anything else.

The bot dipped and ducked the wires lashing through the air. The wire pony didn’t fire another grenade. Was he out of ammo? No, my luck wasn’t that good. Too close? Maybe. Did it matter? No. He was distracted, and that was what mattered.

I crawled away, dragging myself with my forehooves. Moving slowly, I tried to look as still as possible. I didn’t dare grab the healing potion we’d found. I needed those precious seconds to move away. I didn’t trust it would stay busy. Watching the monster and the bot closely, I pulled myself around a corner. As soon as I was out of sight, I pulled myself to my good hooves and ran. I couldn’t look back. Struggling on my broken leg, I put as much distance between us as I could. The PipBuck kept flashing warnings, something about low health and other symbols I didn’t understand. Ignoring the warnings, I kept moving. Eventually they disappeared.

In the distance I heard a horrific crunch. The music went silent.

Goddesses, no.

Clenching my eyes shut, I forced myself to take another step. Just to get away from it, that was all I had to do. If I could run, I could get to Leathers. There’d be some kind of help there.

The wall next to me exploded. A mass of wires sped through the air and smashed right into me. They threw me into the air. Another wire wrapped around my throat before I could fall. A second wrapped around in the opposite direction. They both tightened, choking me. My lungs burned as I fought to draw in breath. Suffocating, everything started to go dark. The edges of my vision began closing in. I panicked, my heart racing. I felt my pulse in my head and ears. The throbbing slowly weakened. I tried to kick at the wires, in a feeble attempt to do... something, anything to get it to stop.

The whirring started again, sounding almost as if he were laughing. Laugh at me will you? You only got me, not my sister or my new friend. They’re away, I knew they were. Even if I had to live through being ripped piece by piece, she was safe. She’d better be safe. I’d come back and haunt her if she wasn’t safe. After all those times she saved me from near-certain death, I finally get to repay her. I’d better give it indigestion.

My little internal monologue didn’t help. I was terrified. This was going to hurt, and I wasn’t ever going to see my sister again. Please Celestia. Please Luna. Let Lost have gotten somewhere safe. That fear was back, clawing at the corners of my mind, the parts that were still going at least. Helpless... A stallion, what was once a stallion? It held me helpless, at its mercy... Goddesses, make it fast...

I closed my eyes. I couldn’t bear the encroaching blackness anymore. I resigned myself to my fate. Guess it was just my time. “Sorry, sis...” I rasped as best I could. My kicking hooves slowed. They felt heavy, cold, and numb...

A noise cut through the air, overpowering the grinding of the metal teeth. My eyes shot open again. Through the black haze a massive barrage of pink and green magical energy explosions erupted on the side of the monsterpony. The shots tore through the wires holding me in the air.

I fell to the ground with another sickening crunch. Jolts of pain shot up my legs and back. More health notices flashed against the blackness, but I ignored them. I still couldn’t breathe. The severed wires were still wrapped around my neck.

I dug at the wires. Why couldn’t I have been a unicorn? My heavy hooves wouldn’t work right. I couldn’t catch an edge to rip the wires free. I didn’t have enough... I felt light headed, and everything hurt. My lungs were on fire, burning through my chest and ready to implode. Finally I found purchase. Pulling as hard as I could, I ripped a wire away. Fighting with both hooves, I loosened the other. I collapsed back onto the ground, gasping. The wire still clung to my throat, but I could breathe again! I was saved.

With all the strength I had left, I turned to see who or what had opened fire on the wire monster. A small herd of similarly armored ponies off in the distance fired at the armored monster. Bursts of magical green plasma and pink lances of magical energy struck the wirepony’s side. One pony, standing in front of the others with a gigantic gatling laser on his back focused on the monster’s head.

They all looked the same, with the same armor as the blood-coated monster that tried to kill me. More of those things? Maybe I wasn’t saved... If those armored ponies were full of the same masses of wires and flesh, I would just roll over and let them eat me. One was tough enough; a group of them would be impossible. Maybe. If I could only get a few minutes to catch my breath, then we’d see.

I looked back at the wire monster. The concentrated fire steadily tore his armor into chunks, with pieces flying off into the ruins. The wires inside started to melt from the heat, but it didn’t seem fazed. It backed away from me and turned to them, the grenade launcher extending from its back.

I covered my face with my hooves and rolled over to shield myself from what was about to happen. A volley of fwumps sounded as it rained fire on my ‘saviors.’ Peeking one eye from behind my hooves, I stared at the carnage.

The grenades exploded all around the group of ponies, lighting the ground around them on fire. One armored pony wasn’t so lucky. The last two grenades slammed into him, exploding and coating him entirely in flame. He collapsed, the armor burning red hot and its seams bursting. Steam shot from inside, followed by a soul-haunting scream.

I’d been lit on fire too, I knew that pain. Whoever that pony was, they’d just been cooked alive.

The others didn’t miss a step. They ignored the fallen pony, instead continuing their advance. With a single motion from the pony in charge, they reformed their ranks in front of the collapsed armor.

The wire pony reared up on what was left of its hind legs. Hopelessly outmatched and outgunned, it finally turned to flee. Masses of rotten flesh and lengths of wire sloughed off as it moved. Its armor reformed as it fled, repairing with surprising speed under the onslaught. The thing galloped off, weaving through the road and out of sight down an alleyway. The others fired after it, reducing the ruins to little more than dust before they finally stopped.

Was it... really over? I relaxed, going limp. I tried to ignore the smell of rotten flesh and scorched electronics. But having survived, they smelled sweeter than I could have imagined.

“Hidden!” That was Lost’s voice... She’d made it.

“It looks as though luck did not fight against you this time. You are alive. This is good!” And that was Xeno’s voice... they’d both gotten free.

That made nearly dying worth it. My everything hurt, but at least it was worth it. I breathed deeply, glad to still be alive. I felt Lost’s magic wrap around my foreleg and pull at me. I didn’t want to stand, but I had to. It took a moment, but I forced myself onto my working hooves.

“Well, that was easy,” I said, forcing a smile and looking at the ponies surrounding me.

“You’re very boastful for somepony who should be dead,” the armored pony with the gatling laser said. Oh, she was a mare, a mare with a sweet, if stern, voice. “A ‘thank you’ is in order.”

“Sorry,” I said, looking down. “Thank you. You’re not another one of those... Whatever it was.” Lost and Xeno were alive with her, so she probably wasn’t. But if she was... Well, I was too fucked up right now to fight back anyway.

“You’re welcome. And no, we may share the armor but my soldiers and I are nothing like that thing,” she said, much to my relief. “On to business: your sister tells me you are here to assist us in the factory. I highly suggest you prove her right. Come with us, now. All three of you.” With that, she turned and motioned for her troops to pick up their fallen comrade.

“Umm... I can’t really... walk right now?” I protested. I was still having trouble breathing. I kept swallowing, fighting the urge to throw up from the pain.

“Hmm, yes,” the armored mare said. “I often forget that... others don’t automatically receive treatment when they sustain wounds in battle. Lost Art, you said your name was, correct? There is a compartment on my armor. Grab a Med-X from in there and assist her. We need to move before that monster comes back.” A small panel popped open on her flank, right where her cutie mark would be. Not much was visible, mostly more, ugh, wires. Inside was a vial and some tubes, maybe? She stood still for a moment, allowing L.A. to grab the medicine as suggested. “You two, collect the Knight’s armor.”

My sister floated a syringe back to me, then stabbed me in the flank with it. In an instant the shooting pains faded and I could think clearly again.

* * *

I spent the majority of the trip propped up between Lost and Xeno. While I didn’t feel the pain from the shattered bones, whenever I put any weight on the leg, I could feel the nagging little lancing sensation through the Med-X. Xeno didn’t have to help, but I was extremely happy that she did, because it made things a lot easier for me. Considering that the last time we’d seen each other, L.A. and I had each killed one of her brothers, she had a surprisingly relaxed attitude.

The mare with the gatling laser led the three of us to an enormous factory that seemed almost undamaged compared to the ruins of the city behind us. Through my stupor, I could make out a soldier posted at each corner of the roof, with extras watching here and there through windows on two sides of the building. We entered through what must have been the back before the War, as there wasn’t a sign or plaque or anything above the door denoting what the building was. I knew it was ‘Leathers’, but I didn’t know what Leathers was.

“Welcome back, Star Paladin,” said the armored pony guarding the door. He saluted as we walked by.

“Thank you,” she replied, before turning to her soldiers. “Take the Knight and his armor to decommissioning. As for the rest of you bucks, listen up! Get some rest, and be up for the change of watch in 5 hours. You all did well. It’s no piece of cake to drive that cannibalistic fucker off. You’ve earned your rest. Now get out of my sight.” The soldiers scattered before she could even finish her sentence. “Now, you three. As you may have gathered, I am the second in command at this forward outpost. My name is Jazz. You were in luck that we were on patrol. If we hadn’t been, you’d be dead at this point. I do suggest a ‘hello’ next time instead of shooting at me. I understand our organization has a history of not working well with... other ponies, but I do try to not be as...” She cleared her throat. “Corrupt as some of the chapters. I will fire back if I am shot at again. This is your only warning.” She grumbled something under her breath, but the only word I caught was ‘Sabre.’ It didn’t make sense, and probably wasn’t for our ears anyway.

“You have the same armor as that monster. How was I supposed to know? I thought you were with him!” Lost said, sounding one-third exasperated and two-thirds apologetic. She shuffled her hooves slightly, nearly dropping me to the floor. Luckily, she caught me in time.

“Understandable, I suppose,” the mare admitted. “Come with me. I’ll explain why we’re...” She paused. “...glad to have you here.” She turned and entered the building through the large door at the top of the ramp and motioned for us to follow. As we did, she took the helmet off, showing herself to be an off-white mare with a short cropped mane, two-toned in red and yellow.

“Can we stop and get my sister to a clinic or something first?” L.A. asked with a groan. “I’m really close with her normally, but holding her up like this isn’t what I had in mind.” While Lost asked for help, Xeno remained silent. Must have just been one of the differences between ponies and zebras.

“Mmm, yes, that would be a good place to start the, ugh, tour. Follow me,” she responded. She led us down a rusted steel hallway, with windows into a gigantic room full of machinery on one side and doors to offices on the other. Sounds of soldiers snoring came from the offices. “This building was originally a factory used to manufacture skywagons and train cars from the woods shipped here from the mountainside.” She marched in front of us, droning on as if we were wasting her time. “As you can see by the half finished armor on the assembly line, the factory was absorbed by the Ministry of Wartime Technology and used to produce armor for the Academy nearby...”

Uh huh. Why was she so snappy when she spoke? Was she pissed off or something? It hurt to think about it. Instead, I stared at the armor pieces on the various machines through the window, captivated by the glinting light coming off the metal. They were in really good condition for being so old. I tried to stop so I could stare longer, but couldn’t get a grip on the floor. Why couldn’t I stop? I wanted to stay and look at the armor.

Lost gingerly set me onto a gurney in one of the rooms with her telekinesis. The blue glow from her magic mixed with a silvery colored glow coming from a pony I couldn’t see. The two of them together shifted me so my broken leg was clear of anything it might catch on. It stuck into the air, twisted unnaturally halfway down. Something poked at my back and I tensed, a shiver of pain shooting up where I’d been burnt. It didn’t really hurt too much. Just a little ja- “Ow!” I yelped, before feeling another wave of numbness over my everything. “Med-X is amazing...”

“If you’re the help we’re supposed to be getting, color me surprised,” said the pony who had just injected me full of painkillers. “According to the radio broadcasts, Gunbuck is supposed to be male. Any explanation on that one?” She finished her prodding and trotted around in front of me. Apparently they hadn’t heard the radio broadcast... “Either way, I don’t appreciate being given extra work. I was supposed to be transcribing schematics all afternoon.” The doctor in front of me was a short mare, with her bright pink mane tied back severely with a white band. It even had a little red plus-thingy in the center. Her coat was the same color as the ferals’ I had crushed just a few days ago, making her look almost like a fresh ghoul herself. It was hard not to laugh. Laughter was definitely not the first thing I should be considering doing here.

“Sorry Doc, I hope it won’t be too hard to fix,” I said, laughing softly. I struggled to cope with all that had happened. I did see a horn though, which was a vast improvement over my last physician. To me this also meant no digging out shotgun pellets with her mouth, and that made her the Best. Doctor. Ever. “Also. Is my leg broken?” Absently I looked at the corner of my vision, where the little pony outline was blinking again. “Because my PipBuck keeps telling me that it’s broken and I would really like it to stop flashing warnings all over my vision.”

“Yes, in several places. We’re very lucky it didn’t break the skin...” she answered, twitching at the word ‘break.’ “I do have something that can fix that quickly, though.”

“Doc...” I started. I looked down at the twisted, bent part of my leg. While I stared, the ghoul-colored unicorn jabbed a need into my, “OW!”, leg... A new sensation took over. I felt... I couldn’t place it, but the bones started growing back and reconnecting. It was very odd, but didn’t hurt too much, it felt more like growing pains or a deep itch. I watched the show, as my leg twisted back around to a healthy direction and the bones adjusted into their proper places. The fragments even made audible clicks as they snapped back together.

“What was that stuff?” Lost asked, her horn glowing. She picked the needle the doctor used up with her telekinesis and hovered it in front of her eyes. Staring at it intently, she spin the little syringe around. “How’d it do that?”

“It is called Hydra. You do not want to know how it is made,” Xeno answered. “I would advice not using it again though. The problems it causes are worse than what it fixes. I would also advice not breaking bones in your legs.” She grabbed the syringe out of Lost’s magical grip and threw it into a sink nearby.

Wait, why was there a sink? I thought this was a factory. I rolled off of the bed, landing on all four hooves. Nothing broke when I landed, and that was good enough for me. The flashing warnings had disappeared, meaning the Hydra had done its job. I took a look around. I was actually laid on a table, and this was actually a break room. A busted fridge sat in the corner, with a counter next to it running to the wall. The sink Xeno put the syringe in was inset in the corner.

“Thanks, Doctor... uh...” I muttered, fumbling for a name.

“We call her Plagueheart,” Jazz said with a smirk, making the mare grimace. “It’s unimportant though, we need to meet the Elder and get you briefed on what we intend for you to do...” She looked me up and down once and shrugged. “Gunbuck?”

Lost started to explain, “No, she’s not Gun-”

“No matter,” interrupted the Star Paladin. “From your timing, I thought you or your sister was the one known as Gunbuck, but...” She paused for a moment, and looked over toward Doc ‘Plagueheart.’ The two shared look for a moment before Jazz continued, “I suspect that’s not the case.”

“If you would get back on the table, please? I need to make sure you’re alright,” ordered the doctor mare. Plagueheart tapped on the table and began to lift me back up with her magic.

“No no, that’s fine. I’m perfectly healthy now. A broken leg was my only wound, I promise. Just put me down,” I said as calmly as I could. Her holding me up wasn’t helping. I struggled, pulling my hooves back and forth to break the magic. I could only move an inch or so in any direction. “Put me down.” I whispered this time, trying to focus on something else. She was a doctor. Doctors helped. A trickle of sweat ran down my forehead. I needed to calm down. After the last time somepony messed with me on an operating table... Doctor or not. I wasn’t even going to think about the nightmare or the wires or the- okay, brain, Stop. Thinking!

“I’ve always been the one to make sure she’s safe,” Lost said. Thank the Goddesses. “There’s no need to go poking and prodding in her.” Lost’s magic wrapped around one of my legs and pulled, making me feel like a tug-of-war toy.

The sensation of being pulled back and forth made me sick to my stomach. My breathing sped up, coming faster than I thought myself possible. I could feel that familiar pounding coming from my chest, pulsing behind my eyes. I needed to be set down. If they were going to play tug-of-war with me, they could at least kill me first. Just eat me now. End it. My legs kicked on their own, pulling away from the telekinesis, I didn’t even realize until I found myself screaming, “Put me down N-”

Xeno cut me off at just the right moment. “I received a cut while I was digging in the ruins earlier,” the zebra mare offered calmly. “Do you believe it needs to be looked at?”

Hearing that, the doctor released her telekinetic grip on me and the color drained from her face. “You, you’re bleeding?” Thank you Xeno, for interrupting.

For a moment, the doctor pony stared. She swallowed, regaining her composure, then got to work. With a visible flurry, she grabbed poor Xeno and dropped her on the table. Shaking, she worked her over, searching for the wound. Lost and I watched in abject horror as the doctor went over every inch of her, muttering to herself. Jazz, meanwhile, bore a stoic, uninterested expression. The frantic searching gave me time to calm myself back down, until I could breathe normally again. Much of the doctor’s mumbling was lost to the din of her movement, until she found a miniscule cut. Gasping, she backed away, using her magic to patch it up from a distance.

Xeno was placed on the floor right after, with a look of confusion on her face that seemed far out of place on the normally calm zebra. She said something in her native tongue that I couldn’t quite understand, and then backed away from the doctor.

“Alright, alright. That’s been taken care of. Now I just need to clean the entire room...” She lifted a filthy rag from the sink and turned toward the wall.

“Mmm. Don’t mind her, she thinks any blood is going to contaminate her, make her sick, and turn her into one of the ghouls. Just keep blood away from her and she’s fine. Let’s continue,” Jazz said, and walked out the door. “Now.”

We followed her out, and into a large room on the next floor. The office was posh, especially by Wasteland standards. It was almost completely intact, with a beautiful carved desk in the center of it. All along the walls, between each of the blown-out windows, were pictures and schematics of the factory’s products. They didn’t make much sense to me, but it was something to focus on for the time being.

Behind the desk, an earth pony mare sat in a comfortable looking chair. If she were a century younger, she could have been the Star Paladin’s twin. Their manes shared colors, though the older pony’s was much longer and wasn’t matted down from wearing a helmet. She stared at a document in her hoof with the same intense green eyes as the armored mare beside me. Only their outfits were different, with the older mare wearing thick, embellished robes. She set the yellowed paper down onto the messy desk and looked up at us.

“I see you’ve brought me our new prisoners,” she said with a smile.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Footnote: Level Up!

Hidden Fortune:
New Perk: Tough Hide (Rank 1) – The brutal experiences of the Equestrian Wasteland have hardened you. You gain +3 to Damage Threshold for each level of this perk you take.

Lost Art:
New Perk: All Night Long – Given your history of insomnia, you have learned to cope with exhaustion and sleep deprivation very well. You gain a second wind almost at will and never get tired from either sleep loss or running from monsters!

“So, how come I didn’t get to be all cool and sacrifice myself?”
“It’s really hard for me to narrate how you feel to the readers, the pain the monsters and gunshots inflict.”
“Can’t I just tell you?”
“It’s not really the same.”
“I do not feel pain. It is weird. Is it because I am a secondary character?”
“.........”
“.........”

Author's Note:

(A massive thank you to Kkat for creating, and everyone else who has helped to flesh out the universe of Fallout Equestria. And to everyone who has/will help with with editing and making this more palatable... Big hearts to Dimestream, Sabsy, Heartshine, Moth, and everypony else. An additional, special!, thanks to Wirepony for letting me turn him into one of the most amazing monsters I have ever come up with. Enjoy your backstory, Wire! And of course everything is copyright their respective owners. ~Hnetu)

{{* Note from Dimestream: }}

{{Looks like Hnetu’s getting better at piecing this stuff together. I had to edit less than half of the fiddly bits I did in the last chapter, and aside from some things I’m going to keep poking at until she learns them, it seems like smooth sailing from here. Oh, and if she makes one more comment about me ‘making things less stupid,’ ignore her. I’m liking this story, even if sometimes the ideas are bigger than her experience in writing. She’s already improved by leaps and bounds, so thanks for sticking with us, dear readers, and I hope you enjoy the next batch of horrifying things she comes up with. Yeesh.}}

Disclaimer: A certain scene in this chapter draws direct inspiration from something that happened to me recently. I felt one of the best ways I could deal with it was to get those feelings out. So, this is a warning that there’s some unpleasantness here. It could have been worse, both in real life and here.
In short; Trigger Warning: Non Consensual bondage.
I’m putting a bookmark to skip it for those who might be reminded of their own trauma just in case. I do hope everypony is able to enjoy the chapter.

Comments

[Deathpony]

another good one also prisoners why would they be prisoners?

[Hnetu]

It'll make sense later.

[Yamaryu]

Liking it so far, though the Star Paladin was a bit off in speech or characterization.

[Hnetu]

Chapter 5 is currently in edit phase, and will hopefully be put out soon. It's up to my amazing editors and how much time they are able to dedicate to the project now. I'll have it out as soon as it's ready. On a side note, I'm getting a headstart on chapter 6 while I have creative juices flowing. So there, hopefully, won't be such a large gap between the next few chapters.

Thanks for being patient!

[InkSplash]

Wirepony really is best monster.

[reader238]

I just started reading this and I must say that I have to agree with Lost's opinion of gunbuck, I mean he had EFS which would not have shown her as hostile, which makes me think was that really the gunbuck that she killed? maybe it was somepony else who just happened to have killed the real gunbuck?

[S3rb4n]

Wireponies make me think of the endoskeletons from Terminator. Nice idea!

Otherwise cool, the Steel Rangers are always a nice addon.

[Need More Gore]

Damn wire pony you scary!!!

[Doctor Ham]

Remember when I said I probably wouldn't get any more reading done this weekend? I lied.

I suppose there was some small part of me hoping for a reconciliation between the sisters and the town, but it wasn't meant to be, and I knew that would be the case. But hey, Xeno's back! And we have some curiously helpful Steel Rangers! And the Wirepony! Good lord the wirepony. I'm actually really glad to see that they didn't come up with some crazy plan to kill it, because the whole time I'm trying to figure out what half-baked scheme Hidden and L.A. could use to take down a monster like this. Steel Ranger patrol totally does the job, and as an added bonus, leads into this "prisoners" deal.

But... there is an elephant in this room, and I'm torn on how to feel about it. On the one hand, it was effective at the mood it was trying to convey, and it did a good job unsettling Hidden for the events to follow. I almost skimmed past because I just wanted to know if she was gonna be okay. And to top it all off, you have a personal connection to these events, and I am completely sympathetic to the desire to vent those feelings like this. But I would be doing you a disservice if I did not say that, from a narrative perspective, I felt like it was too much detail, and went on too long. Part of my desire to skip past was born from my own discomfort at reading a scene like this, blindsiding me out of the blue. Make of that how you will, there are pros and cons to having the scene in its entirety vs glossing over it in summary, after she wakes up, and neither solution is perfect.

That said, the scene was just a little bump in an otherwise great chapter. I loved Hidden and L.A.'s conversation at the start of the chapter, and again that crazy wire pony was awesome. The quote at the top, plus the interaction with the Rangers... are they going to take up the mantle of Gunbuck? The way things are going, I wouldn't discount the possibility. Seeing Hidden show off her talent as she manages to find little hidden treasures is cool, but the poor mare needs some direction in her life. Or at the very least, some decent armor.

(Note to self: now that I'm invested in the story, I really need to start actively avoiding TH artwork until I catch up.)

[Dice Warwick]

finished chapter four... and... that was intense. Strangely enough, chapter four of my current story has a similar event, which made me glad I wrote it before I read this chapter. I hate to think I was copping another writer.

sleep well.