> Fallout Equestria: A Child's Hope
>  by RLYoshi
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“...

“...I’ve been sitting here for the past few minutes, trying to figure out what to say. I mean, this is the first time I’ve used this...um, I think this is supposed to be my...diary, I guess? I prefer the term ‘journal’...not like there’s a difference, though. Well, ‘journal’ has two extra letters and one less syllable, actually. Why is that, anyway? Why would a word with less letters have more syllables than a word with more letters?

“Oh! I’m getting off track now...not that there was any track to begin with. Anyway, to whoever’s listening to this: hi! I’m Cobalt Blue, but everypony calls me Coby. Dad got me this recording device for my tenth birthday...which was today, actually! But I’ll get to that later. I need to stay on topic. Sorry if I’m kind of easily distracted; I didn’t take my Bitalin today.

“Anyway, he got me this device for recording my voice, and said I could use it to keep an...what did he call it? Aw-dee-oh...audio diary. Yeah, that! Kinda like the one mom has...though I’m still upset at her over that.

“...I...I’ll get to that later...I don’t want to start off with something like that...

“A-Anyway! Um...so, this device. I managed to fool around with it and programmed it into my PipBuck, so I don’t have two separate machine things. I’m not supposed to have a PipBuck yet, really, so hopefully nopony’s listening to me record this.

“...nope, I’m safe!

“So my life’s been...well, compared to the lives of everypony else in Stable 14, pretty good! Mom is the Overmare, and dad...I don’t actually know what he does. I think he said he’s a doctor or something like that. He spends a lot of his spare time showing me machines and computers and stuff. He even said that I could grow up to be a technician! ...if I could get my freaking cutie mark already.

“Since I was born, I tried talking to other ponies my age, but they always just left me. A lot of times they said it was because I was too annoying, but I was on my Bitalin for at LEAST some of those times!

“Dad says that I’ll ‘make friends someday’. Friends...is that what you call somepony you talk to? I hadn’t really heard the term until a few weeks ago. Well, I might have heard it before then, but I wouldn’t have remembered. My memory isn’t that good. But that’s why I’m doing this; to keep a log of my life, so other ponies - or myself - can listen to it in the future!

“...of course, I doubt it’d be very interesting to listen to. It’s the same day-to-day stuff. For ten years it’s been like that. So let’s skip all the boring stuff and get right to where things got exciting!

“...

“S-Sorry...I’m...still having trouble thinking about what I heard...on mom’s audio diary...

“Okay, n-no more stalling! Let’s just get to it, okay? Yeah! Alright, so it was two days ago...
> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Since mom’s the Overmare, she’s usually busy doing Overmare stuff, so dad is the only one who really ever plays with me. But he has to work too, so I often spend at least a few hours a day on my own. And since there’s not a lot to do in my room at Stable 14 aside from re-read a bunch of comic books I’ve had since I was four, that gets pretty boring.

“Fortunately, about two years ago, I found a big crack in the wall behind my bookshelves, and I was able to crawl through it! Since then, I’ve been spending my time crawling through that hole and sneaking around Stable 14, getting into places where I’m not allowed and such. Sometimes I use parts of the ventilation system that have been disabled, sometimes I walk across pipes near the ceiling, and sometimes I just stick to hiding behind the walls themselves. Mom knows about this, but she doesn’t do anything about it. Says that it’s fine as long as it keeps me out of trouble...





There was a quiet creaking sound above the two doctors walking down the hall. They paused, looked at each other, and shrugged before they kept moving. Even in this sturdy Stable, the walls and pipes were prone to occasional creaks and squeaks. Worst case scenario, it just meant another Radroach that was somepony else’s problem.

After the doctors turned the corner, the source of the creaking breathed a silent sigh of relief before continuing to crawl along the pipes. Even when he was on his Bitalin, Cobalt couldn’t help a couple slip-ups during his little adventures.

The young colt continued to sneak around via the plumbing system, less than three feet from the ceiling. He silently thanked whoever he should thank for not making him a unicorn - all it would take is that extra inch or two a horn provided, and every step he took would make an obnoxious tapping on the ceiling that would give him away easily. Even being a pegasus would have given him trouble; folded up or not, having wings would make crawling through air vents and other tight spaces a lot tougher. Just an extra inch of body width would make over half the vents too small for him.

He didn’t have any idea what he’d do when he actually grew older, taller, and larger. He figured he’d cross that bridge when he came to it.

Looking around to make sure nopony was coming, he hopped off the pipes and began making his way down the wall to the ground, using shelves and other pipes to make his way down the fifteen feet. He could’ve jumped and made it, but he didn’t want to run the risk of landing on his hoof wrong and having somepony come along while he was waiting for the pain to go away.

As soon as he hit the floor, he turned to the vent cover next to him. Though it appeared to be screwed on properly, he had long ago taken a screwdriver to the covers of every disabled air vent that he could find. Nopony ever checked or tightened them, since they didn’t exactly have a use for disabled vents. As long as the cover was still there, they spared it no more than a passing glance.

Carefully pulling the vent cover off - screws and all - Cobalt slipped inside as quietly as he could, then pulled the cover into place behind him. Turns out he was just in time; as soon as the vent was in place, hoofsteps made themselves known. Panicking, Cobalt considered retreating into the vent as quickly as possible, but going too fast would create noise and going too slow would leave the cobalt blue of his tail for which he was named plainly obvious, contrasting against the darkness of the vent.

Thinking fast, Cobalt turned sideways, turning his head and tail against his body and away from the vent cover. He held his breath and waited, hoping his purple coat would camouflage against the blackness of the vent’s insides enough to prevent anypony walking by from bothering with a second glance.

Thankfully, it worked, and the hoofsteps quieted down as they headed away. Cobalt relaxed and continued his journey down the vent.





It wasn’t uncommon for Cobalt to find properly screwed-in vent covers while he was sneaking around. That’s why he always kept a tiny screwdriver and an unfolded paper clip on him.

Using a technique he had taught himself during several sleepless nights over the course of one month, he attached the tiny screwdriver to the end of the paper clip and curled it, so the screwdriver pointed back at him. Then, turning the odd contraption sideways and putting all his strength into pulling one of the spaces in the vent open wider, he slipped the screwdriver through the slot and clenched the end of the paper clip in his teeth.

With careful movements that he could never manage without his pills, the purple pony manipulated the screwdriver over to the first of the screws and began to turn. He didn’t magically know where the screws were; he had just memorized this sequence through over a year of trial and error. Even now he occasionally missed and would spend five minutes turning the screwdriver around when it was a good half-inch away from the actual screw.

Good thing the whole point of this was being sneaky, because if anypony caught him screwing that up (no pun intended), he’d crawl back to his room in embarrassment.

It took him fifteen minutes to get all the screws loosened properly. Rather than try to get the screwdriver back through the vent, he had learned months ago that he could just let go of the paper clip and let it fall through to the other side. It never made any noise - at least, not enough to be heard by anypony outside the room. He could then slowly open the vent, crawl through, replace it, and take apart his contraption before putting it away.

And that’s just what he did. Afterwards, he looked around. It took a few moments, but he soon realized where he was: his mom’s office.

The Overmare’s office.

He didn’t know about adults, but he did know that nopony his age was allowed in any of the offices unless they had permission. If he was caught in here, he’d be in some serious trouble. Then again, the Overmare was his mother, so he could just say his dad told him to bring something to her. It wouldn’t get past her if she was the one to find him, but anypony else would just shrug and keep walking.

This thought slowly receding to the back of his mind, Cobalt began to look around. He had never been in his mom’s office before, but really, it didn’t look like anything too special. Aside from the typical furniture and equipment he’d seen in the other offices he’d been to, there were a few extra terminals along the walls. Most of them were shut off, and he saw no need to turn them back on. One, however, was clearly active, and he trotted over to it.

Stable 14 Overmare Audio Diary

Cobalt’s heart nearly stopped. This was his mom’s audio diary. In the Stable, audio diaries were considered to be the one thing a pony could have and consider to truly be private, if only because they were locked by passwords. Everything else you owned, no matter where you put it, would be found sooner or later.

Before he even knew what he was doing, he had selected the diary and was now faced with an input system requesting a password. Obviously, he didn’t know it, but thanks to his father teaching him all about terminals, he knew how to find out. But he didn’t have what he needed yet.

He moved back over to the vent, pulled it off, and returned to the darkness of the shaft.





After making a trip to the repair centre, Cobalt came back to the office, clutching a blank PipBuck. Whenever a pony within the Stable died, their PipBuck would be retrieved, wiped, and held onto until it was given to another pony. However, nopony ever noticed if one PipBuck disappeared for a few hours.

Cobalt’s dad had shown him all the features of his own PipBuck, so the colt knew what to do. He plugged the device into the terminal, opening up several dozen lines of code and text. He looked around it patiently until he eventually found a real word, hidden amongst the gibberish:

MIND

Smiling, he selected it...only to open up more text on the side:

PASSWORD INCORRECT. 3/4 TRIES REMAINING.

He sighed. Hacking with a PipBuck in this way was, honestly, easy. The only problem was that it also relied madly on luck. If he screwed up too many times, the terminal would lock his PipBuck out, and he’d be forced to input the password manually. Which would require him to know the password. Which, obviously, he didn’t.

He tried again, this time with DIGNITY.

PASSWORD ACCEPTED.

Grinning widely, the young colt put the PipBuck down and moved to the main terminal screen. He selected the latest entry in his mom’s audio diary - the previous day’s entry - and set it to play through the PipBuck. He then put one of the earblooms in his right ear, keeping the left one vigil in case somepony came by.

“Ugh. Cobalt’s tenth birthday is in three days, and he still hasn’t earned his cutie mark. There are colts and fillies who are eight years old that are cooking or singing or repairing things, but what’s my son doing? Lazing about in his room. I can’t believe somepony with MY genetics would end up like that.

Cobalt’s smile became a frown. His mom sounded...ashamed. Insulted. Angry.

“I haven’t even had time to look for something to get him for his birthday, and Scalpel isn’t willing to bail me out this year. What am I supposed to get a lazy colt like Cobalt? I’ll probably just wrap up that toy PipBuck he got me two years ago and give it back. Not like he’ll notice. Besides, I’m the Overmare. I have more important things to do than to cater to my son’s every damned whim.

Scalpel...Scalpel was his dad’s name. Cobalt felt more and more upset with each word. All those gifts throughout the years were from his dad, with his mom’s name just slapped on them. She didn’t care.

“The day he makes something of his life is the day the Horseshoe Wasteland turns into a beautiful paradise. Ugh...but enough of that. Let’s talk about something important...

He didn’t listen to the rest. He shut the diary off (after rewinding to the beginning to erase any evidence he was here), picked up the PipBuck, and just sat against the terminal for a moment. He wanted to cry, but aside from that likely giving away where he was, it also wouldn’t solve much of anything.

Looking around, he saw a small box on his mom’s desk. Likely the box containing his present. It wasn’t even wrapped yet; just a plain cardboard box, the flaps on the top closed up. Before he knew what he was doing, he had ventured over to the desk and pulled the box down.

Carefully opening it up, wincing whenever that painful sound of cardboard scraping against cardboard slipped out, he peered inside. Sure enough, a toy PipBuck replica sat within. It looked exactly like the real thing - except, of course, it didn’t work. And was a lot lighter.

An idea hatched in his brain. He didn’t know why it did. Maybe he considered it petty revenge, or maybe he just realized he had a way to finally get something he’d wanted since he learned of its existence.

Either way, he pulled the toy PipBuck out and replaced it with the one he had proliferated, folded the box top back up, and replaced it on the desk. He then scampered off to the vent and jumped inside, leaving no trace behind.





“I still don’t really know why I did that...they didn’t find out, of course. I left the toy PipBuck back in the repair centre, where I had taken the real one. If they find it, they’ll probably just think it was a mixup, laugh about it, and keep going. Toy PipBucks aren’t exactly rare around here, and they get left lying around pretty often.

“Not much happened the next day...well, yesterday. I avoided mom even more than she avoided me, but she didn’t bring it up. Obviously. I didn’t sneak back into her office again. In fact, I didn’t do any sneaking at all. I stayed in my room, and...just...read stuff.

“...

“I cried, okay? I held it in for a full day and couldn’t anymore! Once dad left, I curled up on my bed and...cried...

*sniff*

“B-But then came today. My birthday. It was pretty simple...I woke up, dad gave me my two presents, and that was basically it. Ten minutes and it’s over.





“Sorry your mother couldn’t be here,” Cobalt’s dad, Scalpel, apologized as he cleaned up the few bits of wrapping paper. It was just the two of them in their den. Cobalt didn’t have any friends to invite, nor any siblings to join in. Just him and his parents...well, one of them.

Scalpel was an earth pony, just like his wife and his son. He was a light brown, with a deep blue mane and tail, both of which were rather short. His cutie mark - a scalpel, naturally - was often covered up by a white coat, but he didn't wear it when he was at home, such as now.

“Did she have a lot of work to do?” Cobalt asked sarcastically, anger seeping into his tone.

Scalpel looked surprised. “Coby, is something wrong?”

“Oh, nothing much. Just the fact that my own mother is so ashamed of me she doesn’t even turn up for my birthday.”

“Coby, you know that’s not-”

“Audio diary.”

There was a pause. A long, awkward pause. Scalpel sighed and pulled up a chair, sitting on it across from Cobalt on the couch. “When did your mother show you her audio diary?”

Cobalt kept a mild glare, aimed nowhere in particular. “She didn’t.” He then answered the question he knew his father was about to ask. “I snuck into her office, hacked her terminal, and listened to it.”

Scalpel looked down. “I see...” He couldn't say he was surprised. He had shown his son computers and terminals himself, after all. It was only natural that he'd learn this sort of thing eventually.

“Why does she hate me, dad?” The purple colt couldn’t hold back a sniffle, but he tried to keep his glare up. “Is it just because of...my cutie mark?” Or lack thereof.

The older stallion honestly didn’t know how to answer that. So he didn’t. He knew what was on his wife’s audio diary - she’d always record it during the night, after Cobalt had gone to bed but while the two of them were still awake. He never brought it up with his son, for fear of this very situation happening.

And now it was occurring anyway, and he hadn’t even done anything to prompt it.

“Coby...” he began, but stopped. He had no words. Instead, he just changed seats, moving from his chair to the couch, and hugged his child. Cobalt couldn’t hold his glare any longer and hugged his dad back, crying. “Did you take your Bitalin today?”

“N-No...”

His dad sighed. In honesty, he was a little glad for that. If Cobalt had taken his Bitalin, he’d spent all day thinking about that audio diary. He needed to be distracted. “How about we go for a walk or something? Clear your mind.”

“D-Don’t you have work?”

Scalpel shook his head. “I think they’ll let me have this day off. If not...well, I’d take a day with you over that job anyday.” He helped his son up. “Come on. Go wash up, then we’ll go for a walk.”





“So that’s what we did. Walked all around the Stable. When we got back, I was feeling better, so I went to my room to “play”. Really, I just waited until dad went off to find mom, and then started fooling with the PipBuck and recording device...and here I am now.

“The PipBuck actually still has mom’s audio diary on it...that entry from two days ago. I had it playing repeatedly while I was setting this up...for some reason, it doesn’t make me sad anymore. Because even though mom doesn’t like me - yet - at least dad cares about me.

“I’ll get my cutie mark someday. And then mom will be proud of me!

“...speaking of mom, I think she and dad are coming back. I better turn this off before they find me with a real PipBuck. Bye!





Footnote: Level Up (2)
New Perk: Thief. The blood of a thief runs through your veins. You gain a bonus to both the Sneak and Lockpick skills.
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

*sniff*

“O-Okay...I think I’m f-fine now...just a little c-cold...

“So t-today...it...it...

“It was horrible! I...I don’t know all the details...I just know that I was only awake for two minutes before it all went crazy...





As Cobalt’s consciousness traveled from the dream world to reality, his eyes fluttered open. He yawned and turned over in a futile attempt to get more sleep. He did this every day, and he was never able to manage to get the five extra minutes of rest he desired.

Finally, he sat up, stretching his front legs and letting his joints crack and pop. Jumping off his bed and leaving the blankets in a messy heap behind him, he went over to his small desk, picking up the bottle of pills he kept there. He had just popped one in his mouth and dry swallowed it when there was a loud crashing sound from outside.

Jumping, he looked around, at first thinking the sound had come from inside his room. It hadn’t, so he crept to the door and slowly opened it.

“...gone! He must have left the Stable!”

“Forget about him. She told us to get the kid, not the father.”

“Right. Where is he?”

Holding back a frightened yelp at the gruff and unfamiliar voices, Cobalt quickly shut the door. It didn’t make much of a noise, but he knew that even if he was completely quiet, they’d still find him soon anyway. Whoever “they” were. He could still hear them talking, though they were muffled:

“...punishment...blocking the vents...Overmare...”

“...father got out...big trouble...Wasteland...”

Hoofsteps. Coming closer to the door. Not even thinking, Cobalt ran to his bed. But rather than hiding under it, he jumped to the other side and started pushing.

He moved just fast enough. He pushed the bed up against the door less than two seconds before the handle turned and the ponies on the other side tried to open the door. He heard their conversation stop, turning to cries of confusion and anger.

“Hey! Open up, kid! You’ve already got the death penalty hanging over you! Don’t make it any worse!”

What could be worse than death? the colt thought to himself. Never mind! I don’t want to know!

He knew the bed wouldn’t hold up forever. Grabbing an old pair of saddlebags - one of the many gifts his mom supposedly got for him one birthday - he started throwing in everything he could find in his room that would fit...of course, that wasn’t much. He grabbed his Bitalin, a few books, a small sack of pre-war money (he hadn’t ever asked about there being a war; he just knew that his dad called it that), a blanket, his screwdriver and paper clips, and his PipBuck. He attached the PipBuck to his front left leg the way he had seen other ponies wearing them, rather than putting it in the bag.

He hesitated as he reached for one last item: a toy gun that his father gave him on his eighth birthday. The day he should’ve had his cutie mark. But his dad never brought it up. Just said that he’d get it someday. He remembered thinking that day that his father would be disappointed in him, but instead, he smiled and hugged him. Of course, his mom didn’t even show up.

He never used the gun - never had an interest in firearms. He didn’t even know if it worked. His dad said it fired little pellets, but for all Cobalt knew, it didn’t fire anything.

The sound of the door cracking made up his mind for him, and he grabbed the toy gun, tossing it in his saddlebags. Before the door could be completely broken down, he jumped through the crack in the wall he had frequently used to sneak around, just barely getting out of sight before the door crashed inwards.





Quest Added
RUN, PONY, RUN
Leave Stable 14.





Most of the disabled vents were inaccessible now due to the cargo Cobalt had on him, but there was still one large shaft he could use. Sneaking inside, he crawled along for several long moments until he found an exit. He quickly knocked down the vent cover and hopped out, not bothering to take the time to put the cover back.

He knew this hall well. It led to the Stable door. He remembered how he once tried to open it, his dad just watching in amusement.

“You can’t leave the Stable, Coby. It’s against the rules.” Those words rang in the young earth pony’s mind. Well, some rules have to be broken.

The problem was that, as he later learned, the only way to open the Stable door was through a password, which only the Overmare was permitted to know. Changing course as he ran, he began heading for his mom’s office.

“Hey! Stop right there!”

Oh fuuuu...dge!

Whipping around, Cobalt was greeted by the sight of two earth ponies and one unicorn charging down the hall towards him. The unicorn was levitating a pistol in her magic - and not a toy pistol like Cobalt had. A real, deadly one.

Not even thinking, Cobalt pulled out his own toy gun, holding it in his mouth. It was obvious from the orange trigger that it wasn’t going to shoot anything lethal, but the three ponies still hesitated. That split second was all the earth pony needed to line up his shot, his tongue moving over the trigger.

BA-PING!

The unicorn cried in pain, and her pistol fell to the ground. The pellet had soared through the air and hit her horn, disrupting the flow of magic without causing any permanent damage. The two earth ponies with her turned towards their injured partner, and Cobalt ran.

A couple gunshots went off behind him, and he knew they were still after him. He was running fast enough and was a small enough target that he didn’t get hit, but even so, every shot was a loud reminder that he was being hunted.

He got to his mom’s office, jumped inside, and went to shut the door...only to realize that this wasn’t like his bedroom, where the door could be pushed closed and blocked with a bed. The door in this office slid out from the wall, and doing that required using a terminal.

Running to the first terminal he saw, he plugged in his PipBuck, breathing quickly. He scrolled through everything, looking for the password, or at least a clue. He thought he found something when another gunshot rang out. It barely missed, running right by his ear.

With a cry of surprise, the colt turned his head around to look at his assailant. A dark red earth pony was smirking at him, a pistol similar to the unicorn’s from earlier present in his maw. In the second it took him to line up another shot, Cobalt turned and hastily selected the file on the terminal labelled “Stable Door Password”, causing it to begin downloading to his PipBuck.

The whole process took two seconds, but to Cobalt, it felt like several minutes. A cry rang out from behind him, and he turned back to see the reason why the earth pony with the pistol hadn’t shot at him again: several Radroaches had crept into the room, and were going after him.

Gunshots fired wildly as the pony’s attention was directed from the colt to the Radroaches, and a couple of them fell. However, he soon ran out of ammo, and didn’t have the time to reload before he fell to the ground, the creatures swarming around him.

BA-PING! BA-PING! BA-PING!

The Radroaches screeched as they felt pellets dig into them; none deadly, but all painful. They turned to the purple colt and identified the weapon in his muzzle. Unable to recognize its non-lethality, they shrieked once more and crawled away.

Cobalt watched as the other earth pony stood back up, grabbing his pistol as he stood. He turned, and for a moment, they were looking each other in the eyes. The younger of the two shut his eyes, waiting for the other to raise his gun once more.

Instead, he heard slowly fading hoofsteps, then voices from around the corner:

“Parsnip!” A mare’s voice. “I heard gunshots! Did you find him?”

“Just some Radroaches.” A stallion. “Not a trace of the kid. Let’s check the reactor level.”

The hoofsteps resumed, growing quieter. For a brief moment, all was silent.

Cobalt opened his eyes. He was alone in the room now. Not questioning what just happened, he turned back to his PipBuck, which had long since finished downloading the password. Disconnecting from the terminal, he headed back out into the hall, plugging one earbloom in to play the audio file he had just received:

“The override code for opening the door to Stable 14 is...CMC3BFF.





As much experience as Cobalt had with sneaking around inside walls and vents, hallways were not his forte. He learned this when he suddenly had five ponies chasing him and he wasn’t even halfway to the door out of Stable 14.

Moving as quickly as he could and darting left and right to avoid gunshots, he felt more alive yet more exhausted than ever before. Fortunately, the Eyes-Forward Sparkle generated by his PipBuck kept him from running into any dead ends. He hadn’t even known about the E.F.S. until it popped up suddenly, but now that he knew it was there, he found himself thanking it every five seconds.

“Get the Overmare!” one of the ponies behind him yelled. “He’s heading for the door out of Stable 14!”

He ran faster. All around him, the Stable seemed to be falling apart. Radroaches crawled out of holes in the walls that were never there before. Ponies of all ages were yelling and arguing, occasionally joining in the chase. Disabled vent shafts were suddenly active again - likely done by the Overmare to keep him from using those vents to hide.

Not that he would’ve used them anyway. He had somewhere else to go.

“Stop him!”

He did not stop. One more corner, and the door was in his sight. He knew he wouldn’t have time to put the code into the terminal before he was grabbed or shot, but it wasn’t like he had any other options.

Dashing to the terminal, he quickly began moving his hooves around it, trying to input the sequence of characters he remembered from the audio file. He barely got the second C in before a bullet dug into his left saddlebag and came out the other side.

Jumping to angle his body a different way, he was barely able to keep going before another bullet whizzed by - this one going right through his tail. He jumped a bit.

“Stop shaking around and just shoot him already!”

Finally, he finished putting in the seven-character password. One final click, and the Stable door began to creak and move. Everypony else present stopped what they were doing and stared, watching the door open for the first time they had ever seen rather than shooting the colt responsible for opening it.

After several long seconds, the gear-shaped door was opened, and the outside was revealed: a dirty, underground tunnel. Faint light was visible on the ground, likely coming from an entrance or gate further up the path.

The first to move was Cobalt, darting away from the terminal and through the opened doorway.

“Hey!” Another gunshot. This time, the bullet actually grazed Cobalt’s hind leg, but he ignored the burning pain. He knew that if he fell or stopped, the pain would only multiply.

He kept running, leaving behind the only place he had ever called home. The gunshots grew quieter and less frequent, and he knew nopony dared to follow him.

After all, leaving the Stable was against the rules.





Quest Complete
RUN, PONY, RUN





“A-After I left...they closed the Stable door...I was - I AM - locked out. Forever.

“...I thought I’d be angrier...I don’t even know what’s out here. The Horseshoe Wasteland is what they call it. I haven’t really gone that far, though...I walked down the tunnel from the Stable, opened the gate at the end, and...well, now I’m just sitting outside it.

“I don’t really know what I’m waiting for...maybe for somepony to find me? I’m not sure if I really want anypony to find me, though...I don’t even know anypony out here...

“...

“W-Wait...there’s something on my PipBuck...I didn’t see that before. It’s...a new audio file?

“...‘Coby’...

“I-I’m gonna play this...hang on...





“...impressive. You’re quite the little rogue, Coby. Heh. Got yourself a real PipBuck...I won’t even ask how. I don’t think I have the right to ask...and I don’t have the time to wake you up.

“Coby, something’s come up. I don’t want to go into details, but I need to leave. Leave the Stable, I mean.

“Don’t worry. You’ll be fine. Your mother will look after you...I know you don’t particularly like her, but trust me, she loves you. Deep down, she loves you...just like I do.

“I’m going to be blocking up the ventilation shaft with some old things to cover my escape. They’ll be able to fix it, but it’ll cause enough of a panic that I can slip out. They won’t follow me, and neither should you.

“Coby...stay in the Stable. You’ll be safe. Your mother’s the Overmare; she’ll take care of you.

“I...I don’t know when I’ll be back. Or IF I’ll be back. I probably won’t be, honestly. I’m sorry.

“Goodbye, Coby. Stay safe. I love you.





“...

“D-Dad...

“...I’m coming for you, dad. I’ll find you.

*sniff*





Footnote: Level Up (3)
New Perk: Homesickness. You miss the Stable, but some places remind you of home, and you feel more comfortable within them. You gain a +1 to Strength and Charisma in any underground area.
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Gah! It’s been two or three days since I made an entry on this thing...I kind of got distracted.

“...and knocked out. Same thing, right? Kinda? Maybe?

“My first few hours in the Wasteland weren’t very interesting, but I guess I should talk about it a bit. Trust me, things get better as time goes on.

“Or worse. Depends on your definition of those two words...





After he had listened to his dad’s message, Cobalt was ready to move. His body, however, protested. The pain and exhaustion from the Stable was catching up with him, and he had no medical supplies with him.

He got up and began walking. He didn’t even know where he was going; his E.F.S. wasn’t showing him any nearby locations. He just kept going forward. He knew that, even if it took a while, he was bound to find civilization eventually.

As he walked, he checked his PipBuck to keep track of his inventory. He finally realized just how underprepared he was for this desolate expanse of land. The Bitalin, blanket, and pre-war money seemed like the only things that would help him survive, and even that was a stretch. Of course, he hadn’t exactly had proper time to pack.

His stomach growled, reminding him that he had yet to eat or even drink anything today. He tried to ignore it, but after another hour of walking, he found that he was starting to have trouble staying focused on anything but his belly.

Groaning, he slowed his pace and looked around, trying to stay alert in case anything came into view. As it was, there was just him, the bare land, and the sun above.

He had never seen the sun before. It was like a giant lightbulb, but he couldn’t turn it off. Even if he wanted to. He preferred the dark. It was easier to sneak around in the dark. Instead, he was out in the open and felt like he was melting.

A structure came into view. Hope rising, Cobalt began trotting quickly over to it. It looked centuries old and torn apart, but it still had four walls and a ceiling. (Well, more like three and a half walls.)

Rather than look for a door, he just hopped in through the first hole in the wall he saw. The inside was mostly empty, aside from a bunch of boxes. And amongst those boxes were corpses of dead ponies, bruised and bloody, littering the floor.

After the ten seconds it took for all this to register in his brain, the earth pony turned around into a corner and threw up.





Once he had gotten rid of what little he had in his stomach, Cobalt began walking around the area carefully. Based on the boxes, he assumed it was a warehouse of some kind. A large amount of them were torn open and looted. Apparently, somepony had gotten here before he did...and they weren’t gentle.

Not a single pony was still alive, yet Cobalt felt like whenever he turned away from a corpse, it would spring up and attack him. Whimpering, he held his toy gun, even though it would be completely useless. And not just because it wasn’t a real gun; he only had two pellets left.

He soon found one rather large box that had not been opened. Either the ponies that came here didn’t notice it, didn’t care for it, or didn’t have enough time to open it. Whatever the reason was, it was something he could open. Pulling out his screwdriver, he got to work on opening it.

He only got one screw out before the side fell off, the other screws being so rusted that they just fell out once one was gone. Placing the screwdriver back in his bag, the young colt peered inside the crate.

The earth pony was confused, but not disappointed. Inside was what appeared to be a soda machine of sorts. A logo emblazoned on the front advertised its contents as Sparkle~Cola. The machine was not plugged in, but locating a cord and an outlet on the wall soon solved that issue.

Pulling out his bag of pre-war money, Cobalt fed a few coins into the slot, and was rewarded with a glass bottle of this substance. Somehow, it was still cold. He hesitated, wondering if he should drink this odd beverage, or just toss it to the side.

He didn’t need to think about it for more than a few seconds. Pulling the cap off, he took a swig.

It tasted amazing - whether it actually tasted that good or just felt so pleasant as it washed around his dry mouth, he didn’t know or care. His PipBuck ticked a bit, indicating that radiation levels in his body were rising slightly, but he didn’t pay attention. It wasn’t too big a danger yet.

He drank the entire soda, then stuffed the empty glass bottle in his bags - cap included. He had a lot of empty space, and he didn’t know what might be useful in the future. He spent another several coins on the machine, getting five more bottles that he kept in his bags as well, saving them for later.

He then proceeded to look back at the...corpses. Even though he just drank, he managed to hold it all in, and started looking around for anything else that might be useful to him. As disrespectful as looting dead bodies felt, he logically realized that these dead ponies wouldn’t be needing their things anytime soon.

Not that there was much to take anyway. A fair amount of the bodies were already looted, and those that still held things didn’t have much. Out of all the useful supplies, he managed to salvage a small medical kit, several bags of bottle caps, and the one object he considered leaving behind: a gun. A real, loaded, deadly gun - a revolver, to be precise.

He wanted to leave it. To never touch it. But one thought in the back of his brain made him pick it up and stash it away:

Something must have killed all these ponies, and that thing is still out there.

His bags jingling slightly from the sound of bottle caps - he honestly had no idea why these ponies were hoarding them - Cobalt left the warehouse, his stomach growling again to remind him that food was still a necessity.





He didn’t know when, but at some point, Cobalt must have fallen asleep, because he suddenly found himself waking up. It was mostly quiet around him; there was a slight crackling noise and quiet murmurs, but that was all.

He was exhausted, and all he wanted was to roll over and sleep until he died. But his brain was already working again, and he knew he wouldn’t get back to sleep anytime soon. So he let his eyes open.

The first thing he saw was the sky above him. For a moment, he thought he was indoors, because it was pitch black. But he soon noticed the stars and recalled various stories his father read to him involving the night sky, and he realized that it was simply dusk.

The next thing he saw, as he tilted his head to the left, was another pony. A light grayish-brown unicorn stallion, with a dark greenish mane and tail and a cutie mark of a strange object Cobalt had never encountered. It looked like a longer version of his recently-acquired revolver, but with two barrels for bullets to come out of instead of just one. Whatever it was, this pony had it as his cutie mark.

“Waking up?” the stallion suddenly asked. His deep yet calming voice startled Cobalt slightly. “You’ve been out for a while there. How ya feeling?”

Cobalt didn’t know quite how to answer that. He felt cold, hungry, disoriented, endangered, lost, and just plain exhausted. But rather than list off all of those, he just let out a mumble that sounded somewhat like “I’m fine”.

The stallion either didn’t hear the mumble or chose to ignore it. He turned his head towards something out of Cobalt’s view. “Terminal! Gentle Touch! He’s awake!”

The murmuring that Cobalt had been faintly hearing stopped, and hoofsteps took its place. It was at this moment that Cobalt’s senses finally returned completely, and he realized he was lying on a small bed of hay. The blanket he packed had been tossed over him, yet he still felt cold. Sitting up, he looked around at where he was.

He was by a small fire, kept contained within a circle of rocks, with a tent several feet away. The stallion with the strange gun-like cutie mark was the only pony around, aside from himself.

Well, that was true for about five seconds. Then two more ponies stepped out of the tent.

The first was another unicorn stallion, noticeably larger and bulkier than the one beside Cobalt, and with a body that seemed to shimmer ever so slightly. He was a pale green, with hair that was similarly green, but much deeper. His cutie mark was a computer screen, much like those Cobalt found around Stable 14 on different appliances. He guessed that this stallion was Terminal.

The other pony was an earth pony mare, coloured a light blue and with a pure white mane that flowed down past her neck, but surprisingly, lacked a tail. Her cutie mark was a red plus sign that Cobalt identified as having to do with medical care - if only because he saw the same symbol on his medical kit. By process of elimination, Cobalt deduced that this mare was Gentle Touch.

The colt realized that he had zoned out for a few seconds while the stallion beside him got up and talked with Terminal and Gentle. When he returned to reality, he looked around for his things. His saddlebags were off, but thankfully, his PipBuck remained. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his saddlebags leaning up against the side of the tent.

Gentle must have caught his gaze, because she turned to him and smiled. “We didn’t take your things, don’t worry. We just moved them so you could rest comfortably.”

Cobalt tried to ask something, but his voice caught in his throat and all that came out was a cough. His hunger and thirst suddenly hit him hard. He felt like he hadn’t eaten or drank in weeks.

In seconds, Gentle was at his side with a canteen pushed to his lips. As soon as his tongue made contact with the liquid inside, he began instinctively gulping it down. The water rinsed against the walls of his throat, providing immense relief. Even the Sparkle~Cola from before didn’t taste this good.

He finally forced himself to pull away; his thirst was not quenched, but he knew these three ponies wouldn’t be happy if he drank all their water. He didn’t want to get on the bad side of the ponies who just saved him. In fact, he didn’t want to get on the bad side of any pony.

“Feeling better?” Gentle asked. He nodded.

“Now, I’m willing to bet you’ve got a lot of questions,” the currently nameless stallion broke in. “We’ll answer them, but first, we have a few questions of our own. First off, who are you?”

“M-My name is Cobalt Blue,” the colt answered nervously, glad his voice was back.

“Well, hello there Cobalt. I’m Full Force.” The stallion nodded at him, then gestured to the other two ponies. “That’s Terminal, and the mare is Gentle Touch.” He turned back to the child. “Now, what were you doing out in the middle of the Wasteland?”

I ran away from Stable 14 because my mom, who’s also the Overmare, was trying to kill me for something that wasn’t my fault, and I looted a warehouse and stole a bunch of stuff from dead ponies and then I passed out at some point from either exhaustion or hunger.

Rather than vocalize those thoughts, he simplified it. “I’m looking for my dad.”

Full Force nodded. “Do you know where he is?”

If I knew where he was, I wouldn’t be looking for him.

“No..."

“Alright, so you’re a lost little kid in the Horseshoe Wasteland?” Terminal broke in, his gruff voice reminding Cobalt of the ponies chasing him back in Stable 14. “Gee, somepony’s a genius. Didn’t even pack food and water.”

“I didn’t have time...” Cobalt murmured.

“Time? Listen here, kid. This place is unforgiving. Not having time isn’t an excuse. If you don’t bring along stuff to eat up, the world will eat you up.” Terminal spoke as though from experience. “What could possibly be more important than packing properly?”

Running for my life from ponies trying to kill me.

“Running for my life from ponies trying to kill me.”

That was an answer Terminal couldn’t say he expected. “...what?”

“Okay, I think we’ve asked enough questions here,” Force broke in, keeping Cobalt from elaborating and Terminal from pressing further. “If he doesn’t wanna talk, he doesn’t have to talk.”

The larger unicorn snorted and looked away. "All I'm trying to get across to him is that if he doesn't know things, he's gonna die. Plain and simple." A glare from Force at last got him to shut up.

“Where am I?” Cobalt asked, finally getting out the question he had wondered since he woke up.

“Just our little campsite a few miles out of Sunsettlement. We found you collapsed on the ground as the sun was setting. Starved, exhausted, and slightly injured.” Force motioned to Gentle. “Be glad we have a medic on our side.”

Suddenly reminded of his hunger, Cobalt winced as his stomach growled loudly. He hadn’t eaten anything solid since his birthday, which - assuming he hadn’t slept through an entire twenty-four hours - was one day and two nights ago.

“Hey Terminal, think you could break out the rations?” Force asked. “I think our little friend here needs a meal.”





“So I spent the night at their camp. I fell asleep just a few minutes after eating. I didn’t eat a whole lot, but it got me through the night. Of course, come morning, I was starving again.

“Terminal, who I guess was their leader, said we were heading back to Sunsettlement. I questioned why they were out here and not just home in Sunsettlement, but I didn’t get an answer. Terminal and Gentle just looked at Force, who got really quiet and kept walking.

“When we were close to the town and stopped for a little break, I found him in private and asked again why they were out so far from town...





“You’re nosy, you know that?” Force grunted. Cobalt shrugged. “Look, it’s nothing important. Even if it was, it’s none of your business.”

“I just want to know,” the colt whined. “Please?”

Force looked down at him for a moment before sighing, his eyes closing. “My sister.”

Sensing the beginning of a story, Cobalt sat down beside the larger stallion. “Sister?”

“Hopeful Horizon...or just Hope, as we called her. Last time I saw her, she was maybe a year or two younger than you.” Force chuckled a bit, his expression relaxing as he was lost in memories. “Our mother died from a sickness about a year after giving birth to her, and our dad left us since he didn’t know how to take care of kids on his own. I was sixteen and she was four when he left...years ago, but it feels like it happened just last week.

“I brought her up. Kind of weird...a colt like me with a shotgun cutie mark, reduced to caring for a little filly. But I didn’t mind. She was nice. Always excited over something or other, but in a good way. No cutie mark, but that was one of the few things she didn’t care about, believe it or not.”

Cobalt glanced down at his own blank flank. He had trouble believing a pony wouldn’t care about earning their cutie mark; after all, you had to earn one to really do anything in Stable 14.

“We lived in Sunsettlement. I still live there, on my own now...thanks to those bastards.” His face turned to a glare. He either didn’t realize he was using foul words in front of a young colt, or didn’t care. “About a year ago, some raiders invaded the town. Shot a few ponies, kidnapped some others. Hope was one of the ones they kidnapped. It’d be a miracle if she’s still alive somehow.

“I miss her...I’ve been traveling around the Wasteland, looking for where the raiders might have taken her. I’ve found a few hideouts, but Hope wasn’t in any of them. Did you find an old warehouse while you were walking around? Full of dead ponies?” Cobalt nodded. “We were there maybe a day or two ago. Got ourselves some new weapons and supplies, but we had to bail out when it got dark. You don’t want to be out here alone when it’s nighttime.”

The young colt nodded. “Thanks again for finding me...”

Force waved it off. “Don’t mention it. Pure luck. Terminal led us the wrong way from the warehouse, so it took us several hours to turn around and start heading the right way back home. If we went the right way the first time, you would’ve been far behind us, and we wouldn’t have noticed you.”

Cobalt shuddered at that thought. “I didn’t even know I fell asleep...”

“You’re only, what, ten? Eleven? With minimal supplies, trekking through the Wasteland? Buddy, I’m surprised you even made it that far from the warehouse. You’re one tough little guy.” He gave Cobalt a soft, friendly punch on the shoulder, and the earth pony giggled. “Say, where’d you come from, anyway? I know you were at the warehouse, but where were you before that?”

The answer was automatic. “Stable 14.”

Force laughed. “You couldn’t have come from a Stable. All the Stables either don’t have ponies in them anymore, or keep the ponies in them.”

“I am from a Stable!” Cobalt argued. “My dad ran away and everypony started hunting me down, so I ran away too!”

“How’d you get out, though?”

“I got the password and opened the door.” He left out most of the story, mainly because he had trouble remembering it all with how tired he was.

Force shook his head. “Well, innocent until proven guilty. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt on this one. Not really my business anyway.” He looked away, then back. “Say, what weapons do you have on you?”

Huh? “Weapons?”

“Guns and such. Like this.” He pulled out a shotgun, identical to the one pictured on his flank. “Beautiful, isn’t she? I call her Firelight. Not a day goes by where I don’t shoot her or polish her.”

Cobalt stared at the gun. Compared to the two weapons he had (one of which could barely be considered a weapon), it was huge. His eyes widened as Force spun it around.

“‘Course, Firelight isn’t the only gun I carry. I’ve got a pistol as well, and Terminal has a sniper rifle. Gentle doesn’t care much for fighting, so she carries our medical supplies instead.” He put Firelight away. “So what do you have? If anything.”

The colt slowly took out his toy pistol and revolver. He expected Force to look disappointed at the small amount of firepower he carried, but instead, he looked shocked. He looked back and forth between Cobalt and the revolver.

“...geez, kid,” he finally sighed. “I was just joking. I didn’t think you even had weapons on you.” He looked at the toy gun. “At least you’re packing something safer as well.”

At that point, Terminal yelled at them to get moving again. Cobalt packed his guns back up and rejoined the walk. He stayed between Force and Gentle, while Terminal took the lead a few feet ahead.

All Cobalt could think about was Force’s sister. He didn’t have a sibling of his own, but he wondered about how it would feel to have one, only for them to be taken away. It likely didn’t feel too good.

They walked in silence.





“So that covers my first two days in the Wasteland. It took us a few hours, but we eventually got to Sunsettlement. Terminal went off somewhere, but Force and Gentle stayed with me. I think they wanted to keep me from getting into trouble.

Sunsettlement looked...old. Then again, everything since I came out of the Stable looks old. Force and Gentle showed me around, and I guess that’s what I should talk about next, because things started to pick up from there...





Footnote: Level Up (4)
New Perk: Travel Light. Terminal may mock you for not being well-equipped, but you'll have the last laugh when a lack of armour (or simply a lightweight set) allows you to move 10% faster.
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Coby! Are you still awake?

“Uh...no?

“Funny. You know Terminal’s gonna be pissed off if we leave late because you slept in, right?

“Yeah, Force, I know...I just need to finish something up.

“Alright, but be quick. A full night’s sleep doesn’t come along very often...

“...

“Whew. Maybe he’s right, though. I should go quick. Alright, I’ll just tell you about the important things that happened yesterday...





Cobalt had many questions, but he couldn’t ask them. Looking around at the buildings surrounding him, he had lost his ability to speak. He had never seen an actual town; back in Stable 14, all he saw were a series of hallways and rooms, and the warehouse he had been in the day before was just a single isolated building. (And with how much it was falling apart, he had trouble calling it a building without imagining air quotes.)

Force watched him with a chuckle. “What’s wrong, Coby? Manticore got your tongue?” He had picked up the habit of calling his newest companion by his nickname, as had Gentle. Terminal never addressed Cobalt by name in the first place.

The purple colt began walking, continuing to look around at the structures. A few townsfolk were giving him odd looks, confused by the young colt who was walking in circles and looking up. Eventually, Force stomped a hoof in front of him, catching his attention.

“Instead of just looking at everything, how about we show you around?” he suggested. Cobalt nodded, and followed the stallion as he began walking. Gentle walked alongside the young colt, occasionally waving to any bystanders.

“Right there is Terminal’s house,” the tail-less mare explained as they trotted along, pointing towards a large but torn-up building. “He spends most of his time there, when we aren’t out hunting raiders. Force and I stay in that house over there.” She gestured to a smaller but cleaner house, almost directly across the road from Terminal’s.

“Ain’t much, but it’s home,” Force chimed in. “You’ll probably be staying there for a while too, Coby. Unless you’ve got somewhere else to sleep?”

Silence was the answer to the question. The unicorn turned around and saw Gentle walking beside empty space where there used to be a colt. The mare, who had been looking away for all of three seconds, turned back to notice the same thing.

“...goddess dammit,” Force cursed under his breath.





Buy, Try, Stay Alive

That was the name of the house Cobalt stood in front of, judging by the sign above the front door. Why a house would have a name, he wasn’t sure. Then again, towns and Stables had names, so why wouldn’t houses?

He had been walking with Force and Gentle when something glittering on the ground caught his eye, and without a second thought, he began trotting over to it. It turned out to be a discarded bottle cap. He had picked it up, even though he already had a few bags full of the things. When he turned around, Force and Gentle were gone; they had continued walking, not noticing his absence.

It only took the young colt another couple minutes to wander over to this building. Unlike rooms back in Stable 14, where you were expected to knock on the door and await a response before entering, ponies were going in and out of this house without pause. Deciding that Sunsettlement - or this particular house at least - had exceptions to this rule, he pushed the door to “Buy, Try, Stay Alive” open and walked inside.

A few mares and stallions were inside, trotting around and talking with one another. Being the smallest living being in the area, Cobalt had trouble seeing much of the interior. All he really noticed was a bored-looking stallion standing behind a counter.

“Hello there, and welcome to ‘Buy, Try, Stay Alive’’,” the stallion said to Cobalt in a monotone voice. “Boss is out for a few hours, so I’m runnin’ the shop until she gets back. Now whaddya want?”

This pony scared Cobalt, but he had asked him a question, so it was only polite to answer. “Um...I think I’m lost.”

“Well, I just told you where you are. If that doesn’t help, I got nothin’.” He shrugged, uncaring. “Look, if you’re not here to buy somethin’, get goin’.”

Even though he had no intention of buying anything (or, for that matter, any knowledge on what was available to buy), Cobalt pulled out his bag of coins and strained to drop them on the counter. The stallion looked at the bag with sudden interest at first, but upon leaving the young earth pony’s maw, the drawstring loosened and the bag opened up a touch, revealing its contents. Rather than look pleased at the sight of money, the stallion raised an eyebrow.

“What the hell is this?” he asked rhetorically.

“Well...money...?” Cobalt grew even more nervous. Did he do something wrong? “I don’t have a lot, but...is there anything I can buy with it?”

The stallion opened his mouth to answer, but his eyes wandered to Cobalt’s saddlebags. Though they weren’t exactly bulging, he could tell they contained something else. “Whatcha got in those?”

“Um...not much. Mostly just bags of useless bottle caps.”

For some reason, the room got quiet as soon as Cobalt said that. The stallion behind the counter looked interested again. “...I’m sorry?”

Deciding to show rather than tell, the colt withdrew the five sacks of caps. He didn’t count them - even if he was interested in doing so, he’d likely get bored of it quickly - but he knew he had to have at least a couple hundred of those things spread throughout the bags. Even though he firmly believed in the saying “Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it”, he was beginning to wonder why he felt compelled to carry so many bottle caps around.

“...well, Celestia stick the sun up my anus and call me a candle,” the stallion muttered. “That’s a lot of caps.” He cleared his throat. “Er...you said these were useless?”

“Yeah. I found them in some old warehouse.” He left out the part about them belonging to now-dead raider ponies.

The stallion thought for about five seconds before a wicked grin crossed his lips. “Well...you know, carryin’ all these around is gonna do a wonder on your back. Might wanna get rid of ‘em. How about I take ‘em off your hooves?”

“Really?”

“Sure! Not a problem!” Taking the colt’s silence as an affirmative, the stallion swept the sacks of bottle caps behind the counter. He seemed a lot cheerier now than he was when Cobalt first walked in. “So, anyway...you gonna buy somethin’?”





Cobalt walked out of the store feeling both confused and pleased. The stallion had been in a much nicer mood after taking the bottle caps, and while he seemed a little irked by it, he agreed to accept the pre-war coins to buy things. Apparently the coins were outdated now, but the young colt didn’t have any recently issued currency on him. He’d have to ask Force or Gentle about that later.

It took some bartering, but he gave up half of his remaining coins in exchange for some extra revolver ammo (the stallion was nice enough to pinpoint the type of ammo he needed upon seeing the weapon), some paper clips, and replacement pellets for his toy gun. With the trade completed, Cobalt had left and returned to looking for Force and Gentle.

“There you are!”

They found him first.

“Cobalt, you can’t just go wandering off like that!” Force scolded, using the colt’s full name for emphasis. “Sunsettlement may be home, but for strangers like you, it’s not a fun place to be stuck in.”

Cobalt looked down, feeling guilty. The unicorn sighed and put a hoof on his back, leading him away. “Alright, come on. I’m guessing you were just inside the store, so we can cross that off our list of places to visit.”

“Which is pretty much the only place here aside from houses to go to,” Gentle added, walking up to stand on the opposite side of Cobalt from where Force was.

“I bought some stuff,” the colt suddenly said. “The pony inside was really nice and helpful!”

Force couldn’t help but smile. “Nice and helpful? That'll be the day. What’d you buy?”

The three of them sat against a wall and Cobalt pulled out his recently bought goods to show them. Gentle seemed shocked that this young pony was already buying ammo without having even fired a real gun, but before she could say so, Force made a statement of his own.

“You know, you probably don’t need that many paper clips,” he chuckled. In addition to the ten that the colt had bought, he had eight from home. “You gonna save the Wasteland by keeping all of its paper neat?”

Cobalt laughed a bit. “No. It’s a trick I learned to open vents from the inside.” Gentle and Force looked at him like he was crazy. He continued. “Plus, I heard you can pick locks using paper clips and a screwdriver, so that might come in handy.”

“Well, do you have a - yes you do.” Gentle’s question was answered before it was even fully asked when Cobalt pulled out the screwdriver he had been carrying all this time. “Well, if we ever need to open locked doors or get out of air vents, we’ll call you.” She giggled. The colt couldn’t help but feel that her giggle was at his expense.

“Well, it’s gonna get late soon,” Force noted, looking at the setting sun. “Let’s head to the house. We’re gonna be resting up tomorrow, then the day after we’re going on another little trip.”

“Trip?” Cobalt inquired as he put away his belongings.

“Hunting raiders and slavers. There’s always a few camps set up within walking distance from here.”

“Walking distance over the course of two or three days, you mean,” Gentle muttered.

Force shrugged. “The more you travel around the Wasteland, the longer you can go before reaching your limit and thinking you should’ve stayed at home.” His face grew slightly dark. “And when you’re motivated like I am, that limit might as well not exist with how rarely you’re gonna hit it.”

He turned and began heading to the house he shared with Gentle. The medical mare followed, keeping Cobalt at her side.

“What got you so distracted, anyway?” she asked the colt curiously.

“I saw something on the ground,” he answered. “Turns out it was just a useless bottle cap.”

“Oh, trust me, even one bottle cap can have a use.” She smiled. “For one thing, you apparently bought a bunch of paper clips with it.”

The little pony looked confused. “Huh? No, I bought them with coins.”

“Really? I thought ‘Buy, Try, Stay Alive’ only accepted bottle caps as currency.”

Cobalt stopped walking. “...what?”

“Currency...you know, money?” She looked at him, worried. “Coby, is something wrong?”

“...no. I’m fine.” He kept walking, but didn’t speak up again. Terminal’s words echoed in his brain:

“All I'm trying to get across to him is that if he doesn't know things, he's gonna die. Plain and simple.”

Well, he had already gotten cheated due to not knowing one thing. Who knew what other things he lacked knowledge of would come back to bite him in the flank?





The house was slightly bigger on the inside than the outside gave the impression of, but not much. There were only three rooms: a kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom. The door to go inside led right to the kitchen, and the bedroom and bathroom were accessible via doors on either side of the room.

The kitchen was small; Cobalt recalled his own bedroom being bigger. There was a single small table, a cupboard, a stove, and a pile of boxes in the corner. The boxes, according to Force, were empty, but made for good chairs.

The bedroom had a mattress, a cot, and a single blanket on each. It was even smaller than the kitchen, and aside from the sleeping arrangements, had no furniture whatsoever. Only the bathroom had less furniture, and that’s because it didn’t have any; just a sink and a toilet.

Despite the entire house paling in comparison size-wise to even just a classroom from Stable 14, Cobalt found it had a pleasant, cozy atmosphere to it. Almost like his room from home.

Force decided to let the others have the bedroom, while he went over to Terminal’s place for the night. Gentle let Cobalt take the mattress while she slept on the cot, and before the moon was fully visible, everypony was in bed.

She had been asleep for a couple hours when a noise woke her up. Roused from her sleep, her ears flicked, trying to figure out what the sound was. At first, it sounded like the squeaking of a Radroach, but once she had woken up more and her brain was back to full speed, it began to sound different.

Lifting her head and turning towards where the sound was coming from, she noticed Cobalt on the bed, tossing and turning. The noise she heard was actually a combination of the mattress squeaking under the colt’s weight, and him whimpering in his sleep.

“Coby?” she whispered, slowly getting up and walking over to the side of his bed. As soon as she got there, his eyes shot open and he yelped. “Coby! What’s wrong?”

The colt just stared back at her, breathing quickly. He couldn’t think of anything to say, and just whimpered again as he lay back down. Gentle extended a hoof, brushing his mane tenderly.

“Did you have a bad dream?” she asked quietly. Cobalt only nodded. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Cobalt didn’t respond with words. Instead, he sniffled, then began loading up a recording on his PipBuck. Gentle watched curiously as he did so and was soon surprised when a piece of audio began playing.

“Ugh. Cobalt’s tenth birthday is in three days, and he still hasn’t earned his cutie mark...





The audio diary entry finished, and Gentle could only sit in shock. Cobalt hadn’t said anything about his mother, aside from her being the Overmare of Stable 14. Now she knew why.

“Did...did you dream about her?” she asked hesitantly.

Cobalt nodded. “Th-that message...it was playing over and over...and she was chasing me...”

Gentle looked at him sadly. Being afraid of one’s own mother...it wasn’t something that should happen. Slowly, she leaned forward and enveloped him in a comforting embrace. “Shh...it’s okay...”

He hugged back, shaking noticeably. For a few minutes, they just stayed like that, sitting on the bed and hugging each other. Finally, Cobalt’s shivering had dulled, and he looked up at Gentle.

“Thank you...” he said quietly.

She smiled. “Are you okay now?”

He nodded. “Can you...stay with me tonight?”

Surprised, Gentle looked down at him and blinked. After a second, her warm smile returned. “Of course.”

Crawling into bed beside him, Gentle kept the colt in a hug. He didn’t resist, and after a few minutes, both of them had dozed off into peaceful dreams.





“We slept in pretty late...Force came in and woke us up at almost noon. I stayed in the house all day while the others went around buying supplies. I didn’t want to get distracted again and end up wasting more time and money.

“Tomorrow we’re heading out again...hopefully we find Force’s sister. I can tell it’s been bugging him that he can’t find her...and really, it’s been bugging me too. The whole idea of slavery...

“...

“I should get going now. I’ll try to keep you updated on how it goes...

“...if this is the last audio diary entry on my PipBuck, then you can assume I died.





Quest Added
MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU
Help Force locate his sister.





Footnote: Level Up (5)
New Perk: No Refunds. Now that you know how the money system works, your Barter has increased by 5. In addition, you can convince shopkeepers to let you buy things with pre-war bits if you lack the necessary caps.
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“-it work? ...oh! There we go...

“Um...to anypony listening to this, hello. My name is Gentle Touch. Coby...he isn’t really in a condition to record an entry on this, so he asked me to do it for him.

“I guess I should start from when we left Sunsettlement, early yesterday morning. We met up and Terminal led us away. Nothing of particular interest happened while we walked, at least for the first few hours.

“Not long before the sun began setting, though, we saw something...





“Raider camp.”

Terminal was staring down the scope of his sniper rifle, peering up over a large rock, at the tents and sloppy buildings in the distance. Gentle and Force sat around him, listening, while Cobalt was on the ground a few feet away. After some persuading, Terminal had taught him a bit about lockpicking, and now he was practicing with his screwdriver, paper clips, and an old padlock.

“Big or small?” Force asked.

“Small. Think they just set up recently.” The large, slightly shimmering unicorn lowered the scope and clambered down behind the boulder. “Somepony told me that some slavers left this general area a while ago, but they didn’t have any slaves on them. My guess? They sold them to these assholes.”

Force nodded silently. Gentle looked worried. “What can we do?”

“Aside from go in and get shot full of bullets? Jack shit. This is a full camp, not just a few ponies who think they’re cool because they have guns and slaves.” He sighed. “Small or not, we can’t take on a full camp. And even if we went and got reinforcements...well, for one thing, I don’t think anypony would be dumb enough to join us. Course, shrimpy over there proved me wrong on that already.”

The other unicorn rolled his eyes. “‘Shrimpy’ has a name, you know.”

“I don’t care. He’s probably gonna die by tomorrow afternoon anyway. The only reason he’s still alive is because we got lucky and haven’t run into any monsters out here.”

“You want a slap?” Gentle threatened.

“I’ve been shot before, lady. Good luck throwing anything actually painful at me.” He went back to looking through the scope of his rifle at the camp, either ignoring or unaware of the mare beside him glaring holes into the back of his head.

He was interrupted from watching only a few seconds later by a tap on the leg. Looking down, he saw Cobalt holding the padlock, now open, up to him. “Finished.”

Rather than congratulate or thank him, Terminal just grunted incoherently and stashed the padlock away before going back to looking through his scope. Cobalt stood up on his hind legs, leaning forward against the rock with his front hooves to look over it and get a better view.

“You wanna help me scout, kid?” Terminal laughed gruffly. “Doubt you can see much without a scope of your own or something.”

“You mean like the ones you and them have?” the colt asked.

“Yeah, like the ones me and them-” He paused right in the middle of talking. “...what do you mean, ‘them’?”

Cobalt pointed toward the camp. Terminal scanned the area through his scope, and after a second, noticed something he hadn’t before. The raider camp had been set up at the base of a small mountain, and partway up, two ponies were looking around with sniper rifles of their own.

And one of them had seen them.

“Duck and cover!” Terminal barked, quickly crouching down behind the rock. Cobalt followed his lead, just as the sound of metal against rock rang out. “They spotted us!”

“No shit, Sherclop,” Force growled. “Now what?”

“Well, I can’t exactly get up and snipe them. They’ll be waiting for one of us to pop up. And if we stay here, they’ll come for us instead.”

Force sighed. “Looks like we’ll have to wait for them, and just hope they come slow enough that we can shoot ‘em down, one by one. No way we can sneak in now.” He pulled out Firelight and double-checked to make sure his prized weapon was loaded. Suddenly, a look flashed across his face as though he had just gotten an idea. He smiled. “Coby, you up for a little solo mission?”





Four blood-splattered unicorns approached the giant rock they heard sounds coming from. Each of them levitated a gun of some sort in their magical grasp; two of the stallions had pistols, the third had an assault rifle, and the only mare was carrying a shotgun. The mare was the first to reach the rock, and as soon as she did so, she jumped up to the top of it and pointed her weapon downwards.

She was instantly knocked back in a bloody mess by Force’s own shotgun.

The remaining raiders paid their dead comrade no mind and instead charged around the sides of the boulder. One of the pistol-wielders went around the left side, while the other two stallions went around the right, intending to corner the hiding foes.

Gentle had borrowed Force’s pistol, but didn’t have much experience with firearms, and so her shots were wild. While Force unloaded Firelight into the lone pistol-wielder, the tail-less mare was alternating between shooting the air around the other two raiders and running in a frenzy to avoid the rapid fire of the assault rifle.

BA-PING!

The stallion with the assault rifle grunted as the sudden hit to his horn caused him to drop his weapon. The other raider stopped firing his pistol and looked around, trying to find where the pellet came from. He never found out, as before he had even managed to look behind him, a bullet from Gentle’s borrowed pistol pierced his brain, a second and third swiftly following into his partner’s.

Throughout all this, Terminal had remained crouched behind the rock, sniper rifle loaded and ready. Thanks to Force and Gentle, the incoming raiders had been dealt with and hadn’t been able to go after him while he was focused elsewhere. All he needed now was-

BANG! BANG!

-the signal!

The gunshots came from a short distance away, and as predicted, the two snipers up on the cliff aimed their guns over to the source of the sound. What they saw was another, smaller rock, which they began to unload on, believing it to be hiding reinforcements. However, they made the mistake of leaving the larger rock unchecked, giving Terminal the time he needed to jump up.

Two well-aimed shots later, both sniper ponies were down and out. One of them even fell off the mountain and tumbled to the ground for good measure.

The situation had calmed, but the group knew that it wouldn’t be long before more raiders came rushing out. Gentle and Terminal put their weapons away and began to retreat to a better hiding place, while Force took a few minutes to loot the raider bodies. He stashed away the guns, ammo, and bottle caps he found, but noticed that the shotgun the raider mare had been carrying was gone. He looked around, but didn’t see any other raiders nearby that could have taken it.

Smirking to himself, he raced off after Gentle and Terminal before they got too far.





Cobalt looked at his PipBuck. Two and a half hours had passed since he had snuck away. They had agreed on three, but the sun was beginning to set, and he didn’t want to be out in the open when it got dark.

He had taken his Bitalin earlier; he hadn’t had time to take it that morning, but it was better late than never. Besides, he needed to be focused for this plan to work. His body barely weighed down by the new shotgun he had acquired during the commotion earlier, he crept along the ground towards the camp.

He had looked around carefully and saw that nopony was outside anymore. A few raiders had come out when they heard the noise, but either they didn’t care too much or were very stupid, because they just shrugged it off and went back into their tent after only a few minutes of looking around. The area was empty.

The plan was simple. He just had to wait until the raiders were asleep, then set off a signal to let the others know it was safe to move in. He didn’t know what signal to use, though; firing a gun would wake the raiders, and he didn’t have any sources of light big enough to be seen from a distance.

He bit back a curse. Of course, he had forgotten to ask about that one little detail. He didn’t even know where they were hiding and waiting, so he couldn’t sneak back and ask for something. He’d just have to wing it.

As these thoughts ran through the colt’s mind, he continued to sneak along. Before long, he was in the camp proper, and he heard noises coming from one of the buildings. With the exception of the tents, there were only three buildings in the camp, and all of them were rather shoddily-built. It was the largest one - about twice the size of Force and Gentle’s house from Sunsettlement - from which the noises were coming, and so it was that one he moved closer to.

The noises became louder, but not clearer. Grunting, muffled screaming, and some cheering and laughing. He pressed up against the wall, trying to listen better.

“Ya got her, Tweak!”

“Let me g-go!”

“Ah, keep quiet. I’m almost done. Then it’s Temperament’s turn.”

“Mmm~”

Curious, Cobalt slowly raised his head to peek through a window.

He instantly ducked back down and tried to keep himself from throwing up. Did NOT need to see that!

The noises and screaming continued, paused, and resumed. Finally, they stopped completely, and all the sneaky colt could hear was one pony crying and several others gasping for breath.

Then the door opened. Cobalt’s heart stopped.

Three rather satisfied-looking ponies stepped out and slammed the door shut, one turning back to lock it. Chatting and laughing with one another, they trotted off towards one of the tents, opened the flap, and disappeared inside.

Cobalt breathed a sigh of relief. The raiders were too distracted to turn back when they left. If they had looked back, they would’ve seen a purple colt pressed flat against the wall. He waited another couple of minutes before slowly moving over to the door.

He took out his screwdriver and one of his paper clips to begin picking the lock. Now more focused, it didn’t take long at all to get the door open. He opened it as little as possible, slipped in, and quietly shut it behind him.

The sight before him was atrocious. Twenty or so ponies - adult or child, stallion or mare - were scattered around the room, trapped behind bars in cells. A fair amount of them weren’t even moving, and judging by the large amounts of blood pooling around them and staining the hay they lay on, it wasn’t because they were asleep.

Every one of the ponies had injuries of some kind, and none were patched up. Bruises, cuts, and even legs broken so badly the bone poked through the skin. They all looked like they had spent their whole life crying, and one filly was doing so right now, curled up in a corner of the first cell. None of them even batted an eye when he entered; apparently, they were used to ponies just walking in.

Cobalt observed the room for a bit before trotting over to the first of the five cells. The ponies inside looked at him and cringed, except the crying filly, who hadn’t seemed to notice him. However, their worried looks became mixed with confusion when he held up his screwdriver and paper clip.

“Everypony stay quiet,” he whispered. “I’ve got this.”





“...okay, maybe I don’t got this.”

The cell lock seemed much more secure than the one on the door. Cobalt’s first paper clip had been bent and broken beyond use, and he was on his second one now. The ponies inside had gone back to slumping against the wall, apparently losing faith in their supposed saviour.

Finally, with a quiet clicking sound, the lock came undone and the door creaked open slowly. Instantly, everypony in the room (who was still alive) was looking in Cobalt’s direction, looking less afraid and more hopeful.

“Out of the cell and into the corner,” Cobalt quietly directed, pointing the few equines inside to the opposite end of the room. They nodded and began to move, one of the stallions having to poke the crying filly to get her attention. Once all the living ponies were out of the cell, Cobalt moved on to the next-

CLANG!

Everypony jumped. Cobalt whipped around. When he left the cell, he had bumped against the door and caused it to slam back into place. Nopony was trapped inside, but the noise was bound to catch some attention.

Hoping to buy some time, the colt darted back to the front door to the building and locked it, just as he heard voices outside expressing confusion. He ran to the second cell and started picking the lock as the ponies inside watched anxiously. He was panicking, though, and broke one of his paper clips within seconds.

“Little...” he grumbled, instinctively stopping himself from getting vulgar. He pulled out another paper clip and went back to work. Finally, the lock opened, but by that point raiders were banging against the door.

Oh, to Tartarus with this! No point being quiet now! Cobalt swung the door open, directed the ponies out, and moved to the third cell. He put away his lockpicking tools, pulled out his revolver, and took aim at the lock.

BANG! The lock shattered off and the door opened. He started leading the ponies out, but just as he was doing so, the front door slammed open. One of the raiders had a key.

The ponies huddled into the corners, whether still trapped in cells or not. Cobalt watched as several raider ponies surged into the room. He noticed that very few of them were actually carrying weapons; one had an assault rifle and one had a pistol, but aside from those, he couldn’t see any other raiders holding firearms.

The gunfire began immediately. As soon as the raiders saw Cobalt, they began shooting at him. His first reaction was, of course, to run, but there wasn’t anywhere to run to. The unarmed raiders chased after him as he darted left and right, trying to pounce on him. He saw two or three get shot down by their own companions as they accidentally got in the way of the gunfire meant for him.

Then, one unicorn stallion entered the building, levitating the biggest weapon Cobalt had ever seen in his telekinetic grip. He smirked and fired.

A rocket came hurtling at Cobalt’s face.





“Force. Gentle. Something’s going on.”

The two named ponies looked up and crawled over to where Terminal was. The larger unicorn was looking through the scope of his sniper rifle, though since they were at least twice as far away from the camp as they were in the earlier battle, he couldn’t see much. The fact that it was dark out didn’t help either.

“What is it?” Force hissed.

“A bunch of ponies - probably the raiders - are getting worked up over something. They’re all running to that big building.” He lowered the scope. “What was the kid’s signal supposed to be again?”

There was a brief silence, broken by Force’s hoof coming in contact with his face. “Of all the things to forget to plan...”

“Well, let’s take this as our signal.” Getting up, Terminal put his ranged weapon away and took out the assault rifle that had previously been used by one of the now-dead raiders. “Get loaded and get going.”

Force nodded, taking out Firelight. Gentle pulled out her new pistol - “new” being a relative term, as it too used to belong to a raider. The other pistol had been claimed by Terminal.

“What’s the plan?” the medical mare asked.

“We don’t have time to make a plan!” Force grunted as he started galloping off towards the camp, the other two following quickly.

Less than ten seconds later, they skidded to a stop when an explosion tore apart a good corner of the building the raiders were running to.

“...oh, Luna fuck me til I whinny,” Terminal growled as he started running again, pulling ahead of the others.





Ponies everywhere were screaming. The explosion from the rocket launcher had completely torn apart the two unopened cells, along with all the ponies inside them. Cobalt had tried to run the other way, but he still got caught up in the blast and went flying into the wall.

The raiders laughed, and one walked up to him, pistol in mouth. He chuckled smugly. “Damn, who’da thought a little shit like you could make such a fuss?”

Cobalt glared up at him, but couldn’t move. He had hit the wall at an odd angle, and now his back-left leg was crying in pain. Actually, his entire body was crying in pain, but that leg was the worst. He squinted his eyes, as due to his position on the floor, glaring up at the pony over him required staring almost directly at the room’s only light hanging from the ceiling.

“What, you gonna glare me to death?” the pony taunted, holding off on firing for now. The other raiders were all laughing as well, standing in front of the door and the gaping hole in the wall to keep the slaves from escaping.

Cobalt didn’t answer. He just pulled out his toy gun.

“Oh no, the kid’s got a peashooter!” The raider feigned fear, eyes dramatically wide. “Don’t shoot me!”

Cobalt aimed the gun up.

“...kid, you need your eyes checked. You’re not even aiming at me!” All the raiders laughed.

Cobalt laughed too. “I know.”

He fired at the lightbulb, and the room went pitch-black.

Ponies stumbled around in the darkness, banging into each other and firing their guns wildly. Several of them dropped, taking bullets that were either meant for them or not. Both raiders and slaves were shot in the dark.

Finally, the raiders managed to get together, and several unicorns lit their horns to provide some light. Cobalt, along with all of the remaining slaves, were gone.

“Horse apple fuck!” the stallion previously aiming a gun at Cobalt yelled. “We had him! We had them!”

BANG!

A bullet ripped through the air and into his head, causing him to drop down and join the already large field of corpses.

“And now,” Force declared as he walked up, “you have us.”





“Mommy!”

A young colt, even younger than Cobalt, jumped up and grabbed onto an adult mare. Both were a dark green, though the mare had light blue hair while the colt had black. Both were bleeding, injured, starving, and exhausted, but still they smiled as they hugged each other.

Cobalt smiled too. The two had been separated in the cells, and this was the first time since they had been captured that they had a chance to embrace one another. However, it was still not an ideal time. Thanks to Cobalt’s injured leg and the general bad condition the slaves were in, they had only been able to make it a short distance out of the camp. They could still hear gunfire and yelling.

All the freed ponies were staying moderately quiet, either simply whispering to one another or saying nothing at all. Even without Cobalt telling them, they knew that they weren’t in the clear just yet. At best, this was a short break before they were found again.

Cobalt knew they wouldn’t stand a chance. He had a revolver and a shotgun, but he didn’t know if he could bring himself to hurt or kill another pony. He hadn’t even fired either of them, quick lock-shattering notwithstanding.

BANG!

The green colt hugging his mother suddenly dropped to the ground, dead.

Cobalt turned his head quickly. Several raiders were charging at them, having noticed them not too long ago. One of them was hanging back, using a sniper rifle. It was that sniper that had just broken up the mother-son interaction.

Everything seemed to go quiet. Cobalt was frozen. The mother and her child had barely been together for a few minutes, and suddenly they were pulled apart again. This time, for good.

...they were happy. A mother and her son, happy.

Before he even knew it was happening, he had gotten up, pulled out his shotgun, and was staring down the sights at the closest raider to them.

BLAM!

The raider fell.





“They’re retreating!” Gentle noted, seeing that the few remaining raiders were beginning to run away.

“No, not retreating...they found something!” Terminal retorted. He had switched from his assault rifle to his pistol after not having good luck with his accuracy.

Force said nothing. He was already chasing after them, Gentle and Terminal soon following along. The two unicorns would sometimes lift their pistols and fire, picking off the raiders one by one.

Before too long, they saw what the raiders were running towards.

“Coby!” Gentle screamed. The colt in question was wielding a shotgun, blasting away any raider ponies that got too close. Other raiders stayed back and tried to shoot from a couple dozen feet away, but with the exception of the sniper who was spending more time shooting the slaves, none of them could aim well enough.

Soon, however, Cobalt ran out of ammo, and had to reload. Which he didn’t know how to do. He was left completely wide open as one of the raiders ran in closer and started shooting him with an assault rifle. Dropping his shotgun, the colt tried to run for cover, but his bad leg stopped him.

The bullets were wildly fired, but a few managed to pierce the earth pony’s skin. He cried silently in pain as he felt a burning sensation in his legs and flank. The only thing that stopped the raider from getting an immediately lethal shot across was a bullet through his own head, courtesy of Terminal.

The slaves that hadn’t been killed yet rushed to Cobalt’s side as the battle was turned away from them. Force, Gentle, and Terminal began picking off the raiders, but there were a lot more than there appeared to be at first.

Luckily, the raiders didn’t seem to realize there were advantages in numbers, as at least half of them turned tail and ran away. Nopony bothered to chase them. Even if they managed to somehow survive nighttime in the Horseshoe Wasteland on their own, they likely wouldn’t come back as much of a threat to anypony in the future.

The few raiders that stayed to fight soon paid for it, and within minutes, all of them were dead or unconscious. The gunfire ceased, and for what felt like an eternity, all was silent.

The mother of the green colt quietly weeped over his body. Two of the stallions in relatively better condition were trying to get Cobalt to stand up. All the others were just standing, looking at each other and the corpses. No words were spoken, until at last, Terminal broke the silence.

“All of you, come with us!” he ordered. “We’re heading to Sunsettlement. Gentle will help heal any serious injuries. If you can walk, help any who can’t. Move it!”





“Coby was awake, but he blacked out after only a few minutes. I hadn’t been shot at as much as Force and Terminal, and the former slaves were obviously in rather poor condition, so I carried him on my back.

“It took us a while to actually get through the Wasteland. Nopony was truly strong enough to make it to Sunsettlement before sunrise, so we just walked at a steady pace, with Force and Terminal moving ahead constantly to take out any enemies before the rest of us were in danger.

“We all stopped moving completely by the middle of the day today. Coby was waking up, and Force and Terminal were coming back to the group after scouting around...





Gentle carefully lay Cobalt down on the blanket he had with him. He had been patched up somewhat, though he still wasn’t looking too good. Nopony was, really.

Only six former slaves were left now out of nearly two dozen. Over half of them total died the previous night, and that very morning, two mares had collapsed and not gotten up. Two of the remaining ponies were children and were in the worst condition of the six.

Gentle sighed. She had done what she could with limited medical supplies and rations. If they didn’t get back to Sunsettlement that day, it was highly unlikely that any of the former slaves would survive. She had doubts if even Cobalt would survive.

Finally, the two unicorn stallions came back. They had constantly been away from the group for the past several hours, so this was the first time they had seen the slaves in daylight, or vice versa. Force seemed to look over them anxiously.

“I need to ask something,” he announced, catching their attention. “Do any of you...know of a young mare named Hopeful Horizon?”

Silence was his answer.

He sighed and hung his head. “Didn’t think-”

“F-Force?”

All eyes turned to the speaker. A young unicorn filly, with a coat and mane that might have been red and pink respectively at one point but were so soaked in blood and dirt that they looked more brown than anything, was slowly standing up. Cobalt, who was half-awake at the time, recognized her. She was the filly that had been crying in the corner, as well as the one that the raiders had been...playing with, right before Cobalt’s entry.

And now this filly was staring at Force, tired eyes brimming with liquid. And Force was just staring back, unable to speak.

Then, like a switch was flipped, they were no longer frozen. Force ran to her, grabbing her in an embrace as she buried her head in his shoulder. Everypony around watched, shocked at the sudden change of mood.

“Hope...” the stallion quietly said, trying to fight back tears of his own. “Finally...I’ve found you...”

Cobalt watched. He wanted to smile, but this scene reminded him too much of the previous night, with the colt and his mother. He almost expected to hear a gunshot any second now. Thankfully, none rang out.

The brother and sister stayed hugging for a long time. Once everypony was rested up enough, they continued to move on, Gentle again carrying Cobalt. This time, however, it was only Terminal who went ahead to scout. Force was hanging at the back of the group with Hope, catching up with her on everything that happened.

Gentle had a lot on her mind. Now that Force had Hope back, was he going to stop going around and hunting slavers? Finding his sister was his primary motivation, but over time, he had seemed to start caring about freeing innocent slaves as well. Was he planning to stop now?

And what about Coby? Gentle found herself looking back at her sleeping passenger. He was still looking for his father. Was he going to go off into the Horseshoe Wasteland all by himself to do so?

She shook her head. She couldn’t answer these questions. Only Force and Cobalt themselves could, and that wouldn’t happen until they got back to Sunsettlement.

They kept walking.





Quest Complete
MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU





“...and that’s about everything. We made it back to Sunsettlement without losing anypony else. Coby was taken in for proper medical care, along with all of the former slaves who weren’t just malnourished.

“Terminal went home right away. Force went to take Hope home, and I’m staying here with Coby for a while. Until he’s better, at least.

“There isn’t anything else to go over...I haven’t had a chance to ask Force or Coby about their plans. Coby was only awake for a few minutes, just to ask me to record this for him, saying he’d forget if he waited until he was better to do it. He fell asleep before I even began.

“He’ll probably get back to recording entries on this once he’s healed. So, um...bye, I guess?

“...

“...I’m not very good at this, am I? I’m sorry. Um...bye.





Footnote: Level Up (6)
New Perk: Ferocious Loyalty. Your friends will never desert you in your time of need. When you drop below 50% HP, your companions gain +50% damage resistance.
> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey again! So the past few days have b-

krr-ZZT-kkkk...

“What the...?”

WHACK!

“Hitting it is only going to break it more.”

“Right, sorry. I’m just impatient.”

“Just give it a moment. It’s an old thing.”

“...”

“...there we go, I think it’s good. Try playing it now.”

ZZT-

“-all day. Probably the most boring thing I’ve ever done. Didn’t help that Gentle was getting on my case about taking my Bitalin now that she knew about it, so I couldn’t even just let myself fall into being easily distracted to pass the time.

“Finally, though, I was feeling good enough to walk again...





For the first time in almost a week, Cobalt stepped out of the house.

He blinked as the sunlight hit his eyes in an unexpected glare. He had seen the sun through the bedroom window, sure, but it was so much brighter when he was getting it all at once rather than only what could get through a little square hole. But even though it temporarily blinded him, he welcomed it.

His body was feeling much better now, with the bullets removed from his flesh and the wounds bandaged up. What had not healed completely was almost there. However, he still stumbled a bit as he walked, and Gentle had to stay beside him to support him.

Force had checked up on him at least once a day, and a few doctors had taken care of him for the first while, but Gentle stayed with him the longest. She stayed in the house at all times, and in the bedroom with him at least half the time. After he was no longer spending almost every hour of the day asleep, the two of them talked, asking questions about one another. Most of Gentle’s questions were about Cobalt’s past. Cobalt, however, seemed to want to know about the future instead.

“What do I do when I’m better?” he had asked one day.

“Whatever you want to do,” Gentle had replied.

“But I don’t know what I want to do...”

“Do you want to find your father?”

“Yes.”

“Then do that.”

“How?”

“I don’t know, I’m afraid.”

Cobalt didn’t know either. And here, as he stepped outside for the first time in days, he still didn’t know.





“Where’s Terminal?” Cobalt asked. The question was more out of curiosity than worry. He knew Terminal didn’t really like him, and in turn, his feelings about the sniping unicorn were about neutral.

“Packing up,” Gentle replied with a sigh. Force, who had joined them not long after they left the house, nodded. “He’s travelling someplace else. Not that he said where.”

Cobalt tilted his head. “Why?”

“He says the mission’s done,” Force broke in. “We saved Hope, and that was what I asked him to help me with. He doesn’t see any reason to stay in Springsettlement anymore, so he’s leaving.”

“Oh.” This made a bit of sense to the young earth pony, though he still wondered why Terminal hadn’t even said where he was moving to. “What about you?”

“Me? I’m just gonna kick back and live here for however long I live. Somepony’s gotta look after Hope.”

Cobalt turned to look at Gentle, silently repeating the question to her.

“I’m not sure what I’ll be doing,” she admitted. “I could stay here, but there isn’t much I can do around here. The only family I had living here were killed when the raiders attacked.”

The young colt sighed. “I was hoping I could figure out my own plans based on what you three were doing.”

“Well, in reality, I think you’ve only got two choices,” Force said thoughtfully. “Either stay here in moderate safety and do nothing, or go out into the Wasteland and figure out life from there.” He chuckled. “Can’t exactly do both.”

“I want to find my dad,” Cobalt mumbled.

“Then it’s Option B for you. Shame, too. Hope’s gonna be sad to know you’re leaving...”

Both Gentle and Cobalt looked at him, confused. “What do you mean?” the mare asked.

“Hope knows as well as any of the former slaves do that it was ol’ Coby here who got them out,” Force elaborated, ruffling the young colt’s mane (which was responded to with a whimper of annoyance and mild pain). “But she’s a lot more ecstatic about it. She goes and yaks on to anypony who’ll listen about how awesome and heroic he was.”

“Awesome? Heroic?” Cobalt felt proud, but disbelieving. “All I did was pick some locks and run away.”

“Sometimes even small actions from small ponies can have big results,” the unicorn replied.

Somehow, Cobalt got the feeling that he wasn’t necessarily the ‘small pony’ Force was referring to.





They didn’t walk far. Only to Buy, Try, Stay Alive. The trip was partially for Cobalt to start walking again, and partially so Gentle could stock up on supplies. She didn’t say what for.

Cobalt was still wary of the shop, though Force assured him that he’d have a “talk” with the stallion who had been filling in for the store's actual owner at the time. He put a strange emphasis on the word “talk” that slightly scared Cobalt.

“While Gentle’s in there, how about I take you to meet Hope?” the unicorn suggested. “The two of you haven’t properly met yet.”

Cobalt nodded in agreement, and they began walking towards Terminal’s house. Since the sniper pony was moving out, he had given his home to the others, and it was Force and Hope who took it and had been living in it for the past few days.

Just as they arrived, Terminal was leaving through the front door, a small box in his magical grasp. He placed it on top of another, larger box, then turned to see his two guests.

“Force. Cobalt.” He nodded in greeting. The colt was surprised that he had been addressed by name.

“Just here to see Hope,” Force replied.

Terminal nodded again, as though he already knew that. “She’s in the den, drawing.” He looked down at Cobalt with his usual look of indifference, but with an easily missed bit of respect as well. “You did good, kid. Credit where it’s due.”

“Thanks...” Cobalt responded meekly. He still wasn’t sure about this stallion.

The large unicorn leaned against his small stack of boxes. “So what’re you gonna do now?”

“Find my dad.” The answer was engraved into his brain by now.

“You’re going back out into the Horseshoe Wasteland?”

“Yeah...if that’s what I have to do.”

Terminal would never admit it, but he was surprised at the kid’s guts. He was silent for a minute, letting it sink in. He then stood up straight. “You two go in and see Hope, but don’t leave. I’m gonna get something.” He trotted back into the house. Shrugging to each other, Force and Cobalt followed.

Hope was, as Terminal said, lying on the ragged-looking carpet in the den with a crayon clutched in her magical hold. As soon as Force and Cobalt walked in, she looked up at them, instantly grinning widely.

Since being saved, Hope had been cleaned up. Her coat was, as thought, a light red colour, and her mane and tail were soft pink. Her eyes were bright violet, much more prominent with her mane brushed back to avoid covering her face. She still had a bandage or two on her body, but overall, she looked much better than she did during Cobalt’s rescue several days earlier.

It took all of two seconds for her to drop the crayon, jump to her hooves, and run up to Cobalt to envelope him in a sudden hug.

“Coby!” she cried. Apparently, she had picked his nickname up from her brother.

The colt on the receiving end of the embrace was having trouble figuring out how to respond. He just hugged back, searching his blank mind for words.

Force chuckled. “You two get acquainted. I’m gonna go talk to Terminal.”





“So just where do you plan on going?” the smaller unicorn asked, walking into his larger friend’s room. The other unicorn was loading objects one by one from a pile into a third and final box.

“Away,” came the cryptic response.

“Oh, stop being like that. You’re the one who’s always on our backs about having a plan. So what’s yours?”

Terminal sighed, pausing in his packing. The shimmer on his body glinted briefly, becoming a bit more noticeable. “Lunar Spotlight.”

Force’s eyebrow raised. “Lunar Spotlight? Term, you know better than I do how dangerous that town is. More raiders than we’ve ever seen at once.”

“Yes, I know.”

“Then why the hell are you going there?”

Terminal picked up his pistol. He looked it over for a moment, removed the clip, and loaded in a new one before dropping it into the box. “Gonna take out as many of them as I can.”

“You’ll die.”

“I know.” He closed the box. “Maybe it’s about time.”

“Pardon?”

“You know I’m a lot older than I look, Force.” He leaned against the box. “I’ve been having a lot of trouble keeping up my illusion spell to hide that fact. I should have been dead, what, a hundred years ago?”

“Two hundred,” Force corrected almost subconsciously.

“Two hundred years ago. I haven’t done anything with my life - or lack of one, if you want to get technical - since then. Sure, I helped you find Hope, but it was really Cobalt who had the most important role. Anypony can use a sniper rifle.” He started picking through his pile of belongings again. “Speaking of which...”

Force watched as his friend pulled his sniper rifle from the bottom of the pile and slid it over to him.

“Give that to our little friend, will you? He’s gonna need it.”

Force blinked. “What?”

“He’s going out into the Wasteland to find his dad. He’s gonna need more firepower than a toy gun and a revolver. Me, I’m just gonna take my pistol and shotgun to Lunar Spotlight and take out as many fuckers as I can before I get killed for real.”

The smaller unicorn shook his head. “...why are you doing this? And what do I tell Coby?”

Terminal picked up his recently-packed box with his magic. “I’m doing this because I have nothing else to do, and because I want to die as I lived: in battle.” He headed for the door. “As for what to tell Cobalt...just tell him I’m not here right now.”

With those final words, the disguised ghoul left the room, his body shimmering one last time.





Click...click...click...

Hope giggled, watching Cobalt flick the light function of his PipBuck on and off. Cobalt giggled as well.

They kept this up for a couple minutes, then became bored. “What else does it do?” Hope asked.

“I dunno,” Cobalt admitted. He tapped the screen, then yelped as music suddenly began blaring from it. Slamming his hoof on the PipBuck several times, he tried to shut it off, having accidentally tuned in to the radio.

After a moment, he finally managed to turn it off, and breathed heavily for a moment. He looked over at Hope, who had been similarly startled, and she looked back. They were quiet for a minute, then burst out laughing.

Once their laughter had died down, they sighed, boredom returning. Cobalt idly tapped at his PipBuck - careful to avoid turning the radio on again - trying to find something else on it to show off. Sadly, nothing came up that made any sense to him.

“I wish this came with an instruction manual,” he mumbled, loading up something called ‘Eyes-Forward Sparkle’. “What are all these green dots?” Shaking his head, he exited out of it.

Hope looked at the PipBuck, then up at its wearer. “So, um...what do you wanna do now?”

The colt shrugged. “I don’t know, really...what do you wanna do?”

She thought for a moment. “Well...I was drawing earlier...want to give that a try?”

Cobalt nodded, and with a smile, the filly slid a couple sheets of paper and some crayons over to him. She laid down on her stomach, picking up a crayon of her own in her magical hold, resuming the drawing she had been working on earlier.

Cobalt, however, had a bit of trouble. Not with the act of drawing - though he was an earth pony, he knew how to hold things in his hoof properly, and manipulating the crayon like so was a practiced task. Rather, he had no idea what he wanted to draw.

He was suddenly distracted by the sound of hoofsteps. He looked over to see Terminal walk by, not even giving him a glance before walking out the front door. Cobalt blinked at that, a little confused. He hadn’t seen such a sudden an unexplained exit since his dad left Stable 14.

...dad...

Before he even knew what he was doing, he began sketching a familiar pony. It was a rough drawing, as he had never been much of an artist, but it was recognizable to him. His colour options were limited, so he mainly stuck to just using a black crayon; even without the proper colours, he could imagine the light brown coat and deep blue hair of the earth pony on the paper.

He stopped and looked down at his attempt at a drawing. He had never been able to understand his father’s cutie mark, so all he had drawn on the flank was a squiggle. Not that one could tell that’s why it was drawn like that, given how the entire body looked like just a series of scribbles. Cobalt sighed; he could manipulate a screwdriver and paper clips, but not a crayon.

His train of thought was interrupted by a loud squeak from Hope. “Done!” she cried out as she dropped the crayon from her magical grasp. Then, picking up the paper, she examined her work.

Cobalt couldn’t help his curiosity as he tried to sneak a peek at her little art project. Slowly, he crawled over and peered over her shoulder to try and get a good look. Hope turned to him, not seeming to care for the lack of space between them, and simply smiled.

“Like it?” she asked, holding her drawing up for the young earth pony to get a better look.

He blinked a couple times before asking, “What is it?” He had a feeling he knew, but part of him didn’t understand it.

The young filly giggled into her hoof, trying to hold in her faint laughter. “It’s you, silly.” Sure enough, the drawing was of Cobalt, but with a few changes. The colt was standing atop a mountain, in a heroic pose, wearing a green cape that blew in the breeze.

The purple colt wasn’t sure what to think, but he felt his face heating up. Looking over, Hope couldn’t help but notice the blush. She giggled again. “So...?”

He opened his mouth to respond, but his brain couldn’t formulate a proper reply, and all that came out was a little squeak.

Hope found herself nearly doubling over. She tried so hard to keep the laughter in, but failed miserably. She just burst out laughing, and after a moment, Cobalt couldn’t help but join her. For the second time, they both fell into uproars of laughter.

After a nice long laughing session, a long and seemingly awkward silence drew out. Hope, quickly trying to think of something to break the quiet, looked over at the abandoned sheet of paper that Cobalt had been working on previously. “So what did you draw?”

Slowly, she walked over to the piece of parchment on the floor and picked it up in her magical aura, either ignoring or not noticing the nervous look on the purple colt’s face.

She tilted her head in confusion. “What is it?”

He pawed at the ground awkwardly. “Oh, um... it’s supposed to be a picture of my dad.”

“Your dad...?”

He nodded. “Yeah...”

“I think Force said...you were looking for your dad?”

The colt nodded again. “I don’t know where he is...he’s somewhere in the Horseshoe Wasteland. He ran away from our Stable the night before I did, so he doesn’t exactly have a huge head start...but still, he could be anywhere by now.” His tone was even; not excited, but not solemn. He was simply stating the facts as he knew them.

Sadly, Hope looked down at her hooves and frowned. “I haven’t seen my daddy in a long time...”

Cobalt’s heart sunk a bit. He knew from Force the story about what happened to their parents, and he didn’t want to end up digging up unwanted memories. He tried to think of something to say, but he couldn’t think of anything.

“Force says it’s okay, that we don’t need daddy,” Hope continued, sniffling slightly. “But I still wish he was here.”

Not sure how to respond to that, Cobalt simply wrapped his front legs around her in a hug. He felt her tears before he heard them. He noticed as his shoulder began to dampen, and looking down, he saw her face buried into his body, looking like she was hiding from the rest of the world.

“I...I want daddy...b-but Force says he didn’t want me...”

He rubbed her back. “Shhh...that’s not true...”

“Then why did they leave!“ She continued to sob. “Why did they have to leave me all alone?!”

“You...you’re not alone, Hope,” Cobalt tried to comfort her. “You have Force, don’t you? He searched all over the desert to find you. He spent a whole year, wandering around the most dangerous place on the planet, just to find you. You’re not alone.”

He felt her sobbing begin to cease. He carefully broke the hug and took a step back, though he kept his hoof on her shoulder.

“Better?” he asked quietly.

Nodding her head, she wiped the tears from her eyes and looked up at Cobalt, smiling. “Thank you...”

He noticed the abandoned paper and crayons. “So, um...wanna colour some more?”

“Um, no thank you, I don’t really feel like colouring,” Hope all but whispered back.

“Oh. Um...what else can we do?”

“Well, I don’t really know...sorry,” she said as she looked down at her hooves.

Cobalt nuzzled her comfortingly. “It’s fine.”

Hope leaned into the nuzzle a bit and smiled again, then suddenly,let out a tiny yawn. Cobalt giggled, only for the contagious yawn to affect him as well, and he let out one of his own.

The filly giggled. “W-Wanna take a nap?”

She was answered by another yawn and a nod as the earth pony colt curled up on the ground. Hope trotted over next to him and laid down. She snuggled a bit and accidentally bumped the colt beside her, causing a slight blush to spread across her face. Cobalt, oblivious to this, simply wriggled around until he had moved closer to her, sharing body warmth.

Her face now completely flushed, Hope could feel his warm fur up against her own. Sighing a bit and smiling, her eyes began to close, and soon they had both drifted off to sleep in the middle of the floor.





A couple days later, Cobalt was up early. He was healed up - for the most part - and ready to get going again. He had packed his saddlebags with all sorts of supplies and weapons, including two new guns.

The first was Terminal’s sniper rifle. Force didn’t say anything about why Terminal had given it up; it seemed less like he was keeping a secret and more like he himself wasn’t sure. The former sniper had left the same day he was last seen, so it wasn’t like Cobalt could find him and ask.

The second was, to Cobalt’s surprise, Firelight. Force had given him his prized shotgun the afternoon before.

“Not like I’ll be needing her anytime soon,” he had said. “Just promise me you don’t lose her.”

He promised. And he meant it.

Trotting out of the house that now solely belonged to Gentle, Cobalt looked at his PipBuck. His conversation with Hope a few days prior had made him realize just how little he knew about the device, and so he had spent several hours flicking through it, trying to learn the various functions. He found a targeting system called S.A.T.S., which allowed him to lock onto enemies when shooting. He had a feeling that would be useful.

He also managed to decipher just what the Eyes-Forward Sparkle was, figuring it was more or less a map or radar system that identified creatures as friendly or hostile, as well as showing him where to go next. Acting on advice from Force, he decided to go to a large town called Lackluster. He didn’t know what to expect there, but it was a start.

His ears flickered as he heard hoofsteps. Turning, he saw Gentle walking up behind him. At first he thought she was just there to say goodbye, but then he noticed she had saddlebags of her own on her back.

“We ready to go?” she asked nonchalantly.

He didn’t answer the question, instead asking his own. “You’re coming?”

She nodded. “I don’t have anything here in Springsettlement anymore, aside from Force. And knowing that there’s a child, wandering around the Horseshoe Wasteland, all by himself...it scares me too much.”

“I’m not a child! I can take care of myself!”

“Coby, you’re ten years old. You lived those ten years sheltered in a Stable, believing that life was about fun and sunshine and puppies for all. Then, not even two weeks ago, you were thrown out into the real world, where life is about fighting for survival and relying on fewer ponies than a griffon can count on their talons. And you carry a toy gun.”

“A toy gun that’s saved me at least twice.”

“Yes, but it won’t always save you. It can’t kill or seriously injure. It’s a distraction at best. You need real firepower. And if you’re going to carry real firepower, you’re going to face others who carry real firepower. And I’m not letting you face that alone.”

No response came to the purple colt’s brain. He gave up. “Fine...”

Gentle smiled. “Good. Now, to Lackluster?”

“To Lackluster!”





“So now Gentle and I are out in the Horseshoe Wasteland again. We haven’t run into anything yet, though. Good thing.

“I’ve marked the location of Springsettlement on my map, in case I want to come back. Probably will. But for now, I want to find my dad.

“Guess now my adventure REALLY begins...





Quest Added
WANDERING THE WASTES
Search for clues as to your father's location.

Quest Added
A LACKLUSTER START
Proceed to Lackluster.





Companion Perk: Like A Mother For Her Child. Gentle Touch: she cares for you. As long as she is with you, healing items are 10% more effective and are easier to come across.
Footnote: Level Up (7)
New Perk: Friends His Own Age. Your time with Hope has helped your social skills with ponies your age. You gain a +10 to Speech when dealing with other young colts and fillies.
> Chapter 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Bloatsprites are a lot like parasprites I read about in stories, but they’re a lot more...mutated.

“I say this because bloatsprites are kind of stuck on my mind right now. Given that Gentle and I have shot about fifty of them today, I hope that’s justified.

“...okay, it was mostly Gentle. My toy gun doesn’t do a whole lot...

“Lackluster was supposed to only be two or three days away on hoof, but it’ll probably end up being a little longer than that. I’m not exactly a fast walker, and plus, we may have gotten a little distracted by the remains of an old town.

“There was only one building in the town that was still really standing, and that was the hospital. Every other house or store was empty and missing at least half of its...um...

“Foundation?

“Yeah, that. Every one of them was missing a few walls, and none of them had a roof anymore. I don’t know how the hospital survived...then again, it wasn’t exactly empty...





Cobalt’s PipBuck labelled the town as Winterstar, and Gentle suggested dropping by to scavenge some supplies if possible. Of course, all the torn-apart places were almost entirely bare of anything they could use. There was a half-full bottle of water that seemed to contain trace amounts of radiation, barely a hoofful of caps, and a few old cans that were too dirty to even use as storage. They only picked the caps up, leaving everything else.

The hospital was the one place they didn’t check out immediately upon seeing it, and that was because as soon as they got close, bullets were fired in their direction and forced them to retreat. Luckily, whoever or whatever was shooting didn’t care to follow them.

“Whoever’s there must not be a raider,” Gentle said quietly after they had retreated to cover. “Probably just a pony or few trying to protect something.”

Cobalt tilted his head. “Like a treasure?”

“It’s a hospital, so probably not.” The mare allowed a small laugh. “Maybe they just like where they’re staying.”

“So...they’re normal ponies like us?”

Somehow, Gentle had a feeling this was going somewhere she didn’t like. “Probably...why?”

Cobalt smiled obliviously. “We can talk to them!”

“...Coby, they were just shooting at us.”

“And if we tell them we’re not bad guys, they won’t shoot anymore, right?”

Gentle sighed. “Not necessarily. I highly doubt they’d believe us, especially since we’re carrying weapons. Besides, what would we do after we told them we weren’t hostile?”

He shrugged. Obviously he hadn’t thought that far. “At least they won’t shoot at us when we try to leave.”

He had a point. The light blue mare wouldn’t say it out loud, but he had a point. She took a moment to think. “...stay here and guard our things. I’ll leave my weapons with you, and see if I can talk to them.”

Cobalt nodded and sat down on the ground as Gentle began shedding her equipment. Once it was all off, she began trotting out from behind cover.





Quest Added
THE INVINCIBLE INTANGIBLES
See what’s going on inside the Winterstar Hospital.





Once out from behind cover, Gentle took a look at the hospital. Nopony was immediately visible, meaning whoever was shooting at them was either hidden or had gone back inside. Deciding to hope for the best and prepare for the worst, she walked slowly towards the hospital, looking around constantly in case anything popped out.

Sure enough, out of nowhere, a pony holding a rifle of some sort poked his head and weapon out of a second-floor window, aiming down at the mare. However, rather than firing like she feared, he yelled to her.

“State your business here, leave, or get shot!” the stallion demanded.

Gentle looked up at the window. The stallion was green in colour, but she couldn’t tell anything else due to him being higher up than her and mostly obscured by an instrument of death.

“We’re just scavenging for supplies!” she called back. “We’re not here to cause any trouble!”

The stallion didn’t aim his gun anywhere else, but he didn’t fire either. “Bring out your friend!”

Gentle didn’t have to do anything. Cobalt heard the conversation and stepped out, no longer wearing his own saddlebags, having deposited them with his older companion’s. However, he didn’t stray more than a few feet from the rubble they had hidden behind, trying to keep their things in his peripheral vision so nothing happened.

“Got any weapons on you?” the stallion yelled.

The tail-less mare gulped as she tried to figure out how to word her reply. If she lied, they’d likely be shot as soon as the ponies in the hospital saw the guns. But if she said yes, they’d be in trouble just the same.

“...yes...b-but we won’t use them!” She quickly tried to dissuade the possibility of them shooting up the place.

She could’ve sworn she heard the stallion chuckle. “Not like I expected anypony to be out here without one.” He lowered the rifle, but was still holding onto it. “Grab your stuff and come on in. But make one threatening move and everypony in here will have a knife to your throat or a gun to your head.”

Gentle turned back to Cobalt and nodded. Getting the signal, he went back behind cover and donned his saddlebags, dragging Gentle’s out from behind cover as well. She went back to pick it up, and then the two trotted towards the hospital.





The stallion with the rifle - a hunting rifle, as Gentle discovered upon getting a proper look - was an earth pony with a light green coat and blue mane. He said his name was Stack; an ironic name considering his cutie mark was of building blocks falling apart. From what Gentle could gather, Stack was the leader of the ponies in the hospital, of which there were a surprising amount. It was like a little town inside a single five-story building.

“What are you all doing in here?” Cobalt asked.

Stack sighed. “All of us used to live all around Winterstar, but some assholes came in and started tearing the place up, setting fires and shooting at us.”

“Raiders?” Gentle asked, worried.

“Nah, not raiders. We’d be dead if they were raiders. It was just some explorers looking for a good time, and they got it through pyromania. Burned down the entire town except the hospital, and the only reason we saved that was because Break chased them off.”

“Break?”

“That’s what we call him. He’s a mechanic, and he built some sort of flamethrower a while back. When he realized what was going on, he decided to fight fire starters with fire, and they haven’t come back since.” He chuckled. “Practically had their tails between their legs.”

Gentle snickered. “So you all moved into the hospital for the time being?”

“Time being?” Stack shook his head. “We’re probably gonna be in here until we die or leave. No way we can fix up our old homes, and besides, we have all our supplies here. By sticking together, we can keep an eye out for anypony who’s trying to finish the job those assholes started.”

“And that’s why you shot at us?” the light blue mare asked. Stack shook his head. “Then why?”

He sighed. “For several years, we’ve been using Winterstar as sort of a rest point for travelers. We give them food and shelter, and if they need it, medical attention. In return, when they feel better, they run a trip for us. Either to some other settlement to pick up supplies, or to wherever they can find anything we can use. We don’t have any use for caps, since we never leave this place and don’t have stores of our own. But this made us a little too...naive. Even after most of the houses burned down, we continued to help travelers from the hospital itself. Until somepony...betrayed us.”

Cobalt tilted his head. “They attacked you?”

Stack shook his head. “Worse. They sold us out to the Intangibles.”

The young colt looked confused, but Gentle’s eyes widened. “Oh dear...”

“Um...who are-”

“The Intangibles are like raiders,” Stack began to explain, anticipating Cobalt’s question. “But whereas ‘raider’ is basically a catch-all term for anypony in the Wasteland who kills and tortures for fun, the Intangibles are a close-knit gang that roam the Wasteland to find caps and supplies and whatever they decide they want. But they don’t just scavenge like you two were doing. They overthrow entire towns, killing all the residents until they find what they want.”

Gentle nodded. “If they want to attack your town, the only way to make them go away is to bribe them, and they don’t go for cheap offers. Sunsettlement barely avoided conflict with them, and it left us starving for months.”

“They call themselves the Intangibles because they ‘go through anything and everything’. Kind of dumb, but nopony has the balls to walk up and tell them that. Or even go near them at all.” Stack shrugged. “But anyway, it was about a week ago when that traveler went and tipped off the Intangibles about Winterstar. We’ve been on our guard since.”

“How’d you know they were told?” Cobalt asked.

“Not everypony in the Intangibles sticks around. One of them ran away, and when she came across Winterstar, she told us that we were their next target. She’s still here, in fact.”

Gentle sighed. “I don’t know what to say. I’d offer to stick around and help protect you, but I don’t think two ponies would make much of a difference.”

“You’d be surprised. Besides, we’ve already prepared for when they arrive.” Stack grinned. “We’re all carrying at least two guns at all times, and we have armour available at short notice. Grenades are stored in boxes right by the windows. And best of all, Break’s upgrading the flamethrower to something extra special. Those guys won’t even make it through the front door.”

“They aren’t feared throughout the Horseshoe Wasteland because they fall for traps,” the mare pointed out. “They’ll overrun you before you know it. They’ll come at the hospital from all sides, bring snipers to take down the ponies in the windows, have upgraded weapons of their own...”

Stack’s grin faded and he sighed. “Probably. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to let anypony else here know that we’re screwed. Confidence can make all the difference.”

“Why not leave?” Gentle asked. “You could run, couldn’t you?”

“Gather up enough supplies to survive, get everyone ready and packed, and still be far enough away that the Intangibles won’t come after us when they invade the town?” He snorted derisively. “Sure, that’s completely manageable.”

“So...they’ll be here soon?” Cobalt tried to confirm.

“Afraid so. They might get here tomorrow, or in a few hours, or in ten minutes. So unless you’re gonna help us with what’s likely to be a suicide mission defending this hospital, you might want to get going.”

The mare and the child exchanged a look. They both knew what this meant. If they left, they’d be safe, but almost certainly dooming the population of Winterstar - not to mention one of few safe havens in the middle of the Horseshoe Wasteland - to a fight they could never win. They’d all be slaughtered, the hospital would be raided and possibly destroyed, and the Intangibles would go on to kill another day.

But if they stayed to help...Gentle was right. Two ponies wouldn’t make much of a difference. All that’d happen is they’d join the hospital’s residents in death.

So why was it such a hard decision to make?





Quest Updated
THE INVINCIBLE INTANGIBLES
Leave the hospital and escape Winterstar before the Intangibles arrive...or stay and help fight them.





Footnote: Level Up (8)
New Perk: Hunter. You'd rather deal with mutated creatures than ponies. In combat, you do 75% more critical damage against animals and mutated animals.
> Ending 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The choice was easy when it came down to it. Either leave a town to die, or stay in the town and die with them.

Cobalt and Gentle did some trading with the locals, scavenged around outside a bit more just in case, and then left Winterstar as fast as they could. They almost weren’t fast enough; ever so faintly, they heard the commotion as the Intangibles attacked the hospital no more than a few hundred feet away from them.

They turned around, Cobalt whimpering, and took in the sight. Armoured ponies charged at the hospital, only a couple being picked off by shots from the window. Flames poured out of the doors, likely from Break’s invention, incinerating a couple more. But that was only a fraction of the whole crew.

They didn’t see what happened inside, but they could guess well enough. From their position behind a large rock as close as they were willing to risk, they saw blood splattering against some windows and others being broken as ponies were thrown out of them. Gentle gasped as she clearly recognized Stack as one such pony.

Suddenly, Cobalt wavered and fell backwards. He groaned as he hit the ground, catching Gentle’s attention, and turned his head to the side to throw up.

“C-Coby? What’s wrong…?”

She trailed off as she saw something flash on his PipBuck. Her eyes widened as an image of a pony with devil horns took priority on the screen, with small text underneath:

You lost karma.





Quest Failed
THE INVINCIBLE INTANGIBLES
> Chapter 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So we ended up getting mixed up in the whole Intangibles deal, and...well, that could’ve gone better…

“We hung around for a while, not completely sure what to do. I know Gentle wanted to leave, but she never said so, as if she wasn’t completely sure.

“Me? Honestly, I wanted to stay. We’d done cool things before, right? Maybe we could do the impossible again.

“But our choice was made for us…





They stayed all day, and through the night. The Intangibles always attacked during the day - according to Stack, they liked having a good fight rather than assassinating ponies while they slept. So it was safe enough to sleep in the hospital, as long as they left very early the next morning if they wanted to leave before the bloodshed.

When she awoke the next morning, Gentle instantly picked up her saddlebags and began to look around the hospital for Cobalt. The Intangibles hadn’t attacked yet, but they would soon, and she didn’t want to stick around for it. It hurt to know that she was leaving these ponies to their death, but at the same time, she refused to be a part of it.

“Decided to leave?”

She whipped around and saw Stack. He had donned some light leather armour in preparation for the Intangibles’ attack, and from the look in his eyes and state of his mane, he hadn’t slept all night.

Gentle sighed sadly. “I’m just looking for Cobalt, and then we’re...we’re leaving. You said yourself that staying here was suicide.”

He just nodded. “We’ll defend the hospital until one side is all dead, regardless of which side. I understand your desire to leave.”

“Do you know where Coby is?”

“The kid? Last I saw him, he was chatting with Ten Mill - the mare who left the Intangibles. They’re up on the fourth floor.”

Gentle nodded in thanks and began heading for the nearly-broken wooden stairs. She was on the first floor, meaning she had a lot of climbing to do. She sighed-

-and fell backwards as somepony charged down the stairs, knocking her over.

“They’re here! They’re coming already!”

Suddenly, the calm and quiet room became one of panic. Some younger ponies tried to find hiding places despite carrying weapons, while other stallions and mares began yelling questions at the pony who had delivered this news. Stack was trying to calm them all down with little success.

Gentle, meanwhile, left it all behind as she galloped up the stairs. “Cobalt!”





Ten Mill, or Millie as she asked to be called, was everything Cobalt expected a former member of one of the most feared gangs of the Wasteland to look like. She was a dark orange colour that bordered on brown, with a pitch-black mane almost completely covered by a metal helmet. The rest of her armour, which covered her entire body sans the face and tail, was similarly metal and dark. She had an assault rifle next to her, a pistol attached to her armour, and what looked like grenades attached to a belt around her hip. All in all, she looked like the kind of mare who could either save or destroy any town she waltzed into, making Cobalt believe the Intangibles’ dangerous reputation even more.

As fearsome as she looked, though, she seemed perfectly willing to talk with him. For some reason, the other ponies in the room looked shocked when they noticed this. Then again, the sight of an armoured pony shooting the breeze with a little colt would probably catch anypony’s attention.

However, whatever they were talking about was interrupted when a sniper by the window was suddenly blasted in the head, falling over backwards with the rifle still in his grasp. Everypony else at the windows ducked down, and one ran down the stairs to warn the other ponies in the building.

Millie grabbed her assault rifle instantly, glowering at the windows. “Already...”

Cobalt looked concerned. “What is it?”

“The Intangibles. They’re here.” She trotted over to the window, and Cobalt followed. “Now we just sit and wait to die.”

“Can’t we talk to them?”

“Not likely, pal. Even the reasonable ones like me are hard to...well, reason with, especially when they’re on the warpath like they are now.” She sighed. “I’d suggest you run away, but aside from the windows, there’s only one way into and out of this hospital. And it’d lead you right into their gunfire.”

“What about fighting? Can’t we fight them off?”

“Not unless you’ve got a missile launcher to blast them all from this distance. And the reflexes to do it before they snipe you. Trust me, they never miss a shot.” She sighed. “The best you could probably do right now is hide, hope they don’t find you, and sneak out when they’re done ransacking and murdering. Otherwise, you’ll-”

“Cobalt!”

The purple colt was suddenly grabbed by his older companion, startling both him and Millie. “We have to go, now!”

“Calm down there, lady,” Millie said with a firm but calm tone. “As I just got finished telling your son, there’s no point running now.”

Gentle glared at her. “He’s not my-” She stopped as what the former Intangible said registered in her brain. “What do you mean, no point?”

“Head out the front door, you’ll get shot even from the distance they’re at, and that distance is closing every second. There’s no back door, and there aren’t any windows that aren’t boarded up except the ones on the fourth and fifth floors, and I don’t need to tell you that if you take those as your way out, you won’t be doing much running away.” Millie shook her head. “Just hide somewhere in here, hope for the best, and sneak away when they’re gone. That’s all we can do now.”

While the discussion happened, Cobalt had wrestled away from Gentle’s grip and trotted over to the sniper that had been shot no more than two minutes ago. Ignoring the corpse, he picked up the sniper rifle itself and propped it up against the window so he could look down the scope at the oncoming attackers.

“Coby, get away from that window! You’ll get shot!” Gentle moved to pull him away, but Millie blocked her way.

“Give him a second,” Millie said quietly. “I know that look.”

There was silence for all of three seconds, then another shot rang out. However, this one seemed to be from below, as it was quieter than the one a few minutes ago. It was followed by several more shots, along with screams of pain and anger.

“They’re here!” Gentle cried, moving to grab Cobalt again. Before she could, he pulled the trigger on the rifle.

BANG!

From below, there was a scream of pain, and a fair amount of the gunfire ceased. Gentle and Millie exchanged a look of confusion and worry while Cobalt turned back to them, grinning.

“We’re fine.”





“Don’t give any ground!” Stack yelled, ordering as many ponies as he could forward. He held his hunting rifle, but didn’t use it quite yet, as the Intangibles had yet to get into the hospital itself. However, it wouldn’t be long before they did. All the ponies he was sending out were either retreating quickly, or getting riddled with bullets instantly and collapsing.

That’s not to say the entire population of the hospital was being torn apart. A quarter of them ponies were hiding, while others like Stack waited inside the first room. A few were scattered around on the higher floors, preparing their equipment. As it was, maybe a third were actually going outside. But to Stack, that was still a third too many dying or being injured.

Another stallion staggered over to Stack’s side. He had taken several bullets to the side and one of his legs, but his armour had saved him. He growled. “I don’t know where they’re coming from! They can’t be shooting that fast!”

Stack raised an eyebrow. Deciding to see what this stallion meant, he grabbed a helmet and prepared his weapon, heading for the front door to join the firefight. He barely got out the doorway before he saw what was going on - or rather, didn’t see.

Half the Intangibles were several feet back, picking off who they could with ranged rifles, though they were also being dealt with by the snipers a couple floors up. Getting up close and personal were about two dozen of them, armed primarily with shotguns or hunting rifles. In his quick glance, he noticed only two of them with assault rifles.

So where’s this barrage of bullets coming from?

One bullet coming from an apparent mystery source dug into his leg, and he hissed as he struggled to stay standing. Remembering his own weapon, he began firing at the ponies, not sure if he was actually hitting anything or not.

BANG!

A sniper shot from the top floor of the hospital suddenly rang out, and in a split second, Stack realized what was going on.

The bullet seemed to have been aimed at nothing, as it didn’t hit anypony - anypony visible, that was. However, as it dug into what must have been its target, an armoured unicorn stallion suddenly became visible right in that spot, wielding a minigun in his magic. Or rather, he had been, until the bullet took his horn clean off.

The rate of bullet fire diminished a fair amount, especially since the other visible ponies mostly stopped firing to look over at their decloaked companion, surprised at what must have been a lucky shot. This gave precious seconds for the Winterstar residents to open fire without much resistance, taking out several of them, including the formerly invisible minigun-wielder.

But the battle was still far from over. The torrent of bullets resumed, only a bit slower. One invisible Intangible was taken out, but there had to be more with the same firepower, and it was too unlikely that whoever shot the first one would score another lucky-

BANG!

Another invisible pony became visible, this time with the bullet piercing their skull rather than just their horn, knocking them over dead almost before their cloaking wore off.

“Son of a Changeling!” one of the visible Intangibles cursed. He stopped firing. “Intangibles, fall back!”

The gang followed orders, firing less as they focused more on trying to get away. Another sniper shot rang out, hitting the leg of a cloaked pony, rendering them visible but not hindering them too much from their escape attempt.

What did hinder the Intangibles was the sudden appearance of...a floating cannon, attached to a screen. There was no other way to describe it. It looked like a gigantic gun, floating about a foot off the ground, with a terminal screen on top.

One of the Intangibles aimed their hunting rifle and shot at it. The bullet bounced off the screen harmlessly. As if that was the cue, the gun suddenly clicked, and a robotic voice echoed from the terminal.

“INITIATING INCINERATION SEQUENCE.”

Walls of fire poured from the gun, engulfing every last one of the Intangibles. Screams of pain quickly died out, but the flames persisted as the floating gun continued to spray the area, its robotic voice continuing to drone on.

“INITIATING INCINERATION- INITIATING INCINER- INCINER- SEQ- INITIATING INCINERATION SEQ-”

The Winterstar residents quickly took shelter back inside the hospital while the living flamethrower continued to attack the ponies that had already been cremated. Eventually, it ran out of fuel, and continued clicking and droning at the piles of ashes and scorched earth.

The door opened, and a bulky earth pony stepped out, walking stoically up to the floating gun. He looked at it for a moment, then turned and bucked it in the side. The terminal shut off, and the gun fell to the ground.

“Still gotta work out the kinks,” Break chuckled, grabbing the machinery and dragging it back towards the hospital. “Alright, safe ta come out now, ya wimps! He ain’t gonna hurt ya!”





Quest Complete
THE INVINCIBLE INTANGIBLES





Footnote: Level Up (9)
New Perk: Wavy Air. Not so invisible after all! Ponies or creatures using technology to appear invisible will still be easy for you to see when looking through a weapon's scope.
> Chapter 9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

One quarter of Winterstar’s population was dead.

Most of them died in the heat of battle. Others survived for a brief time until their wounds took them. Despite living in a hospital, they didn’t have the supplies to heal everypony, and they just weren’t quick enough for some.

Break’s intervention with his flamethrower robot (whom he had christened “Love and Incinerate”) had made quick work of the Intangibles...or rather, the ones who attacked Winterstar. There were still more out there, but the chances of them coming by the hospital-only settlement were slim to none now. This was the first time in recent history the Intangibles had entered a place and not come out; news would spread quickly, and the rest of the gang would know it was not a part of the Wasteland to mess with.

“Robots that shoot flame and snipers who can see through their invisibility cloaks,” Stack said with a chuckle. “Something tells me we’re gonna get a reputation.”

“Might be a better reputation if Break can fix the damn thing,” somepony murmured.

Break glared. “Hey! He works jus’ fine!” He lowered his gaze to the ground. “Jus’ a little hard ta tell him he kin stop burnin’ things...”

“My point exactly.”

As the survivors rested and chatted, three of them made their way away from the group to a private corner to chat. Among them was Cobalt, who fiddled with Terminal’s old sniper rifle, having apparently gained an interest in them since his experience earlier.

“How did you see them?” Gentle asked as soon as they sat down. Millie, sitting beside her, looked just as curious about the answer.

“See who?” Cobalt replied as he stared down the barrel of the gun. Gentle would’ve panicked, but the ammunition had been removed before she let him play around.

“The Intangibles. The invisible ones.”

He shrugged. “I saw the air was wavy and bullets were coming from the wavy air, so I figured somepony was probably invisible. That, or they were using a portal to another universe to fire guns from.”

Gentle blinked. “...you saw wavy air?” He nodded. “An army of ponies focusing their efforts on shooting, and the only one who saw the wavy air was you?”

Cobalt looked at her and shrugged again. “It wasn’t that hard to see…” He abandoned the sniper rifle on the ground and went to playing with his PipBuck instead, as though he completely forgot the gun existed.

“...Coby? Did you take your Bitalin this morning?”

He shook his head absently as he flicked through the PipBuck’s features. Music came on and turned off occasionally.

“Bitalin?” Millie looked confused, finally getting involved with the conversation. “He’s on meds?”

Gentle nodded. “It’s supposed to help him pay attention better, from what I can tell. He’s supposed to take it every morning.”

“Huh...” Millie rubbed her chin. “Might’ve been a good thing that he didn’t today. I don’t think he would’ve noticed the ‘wavy air’ if he’d been focusing more.”

“How so?” the light blue mare asked, as her little friend stopped fooling around with the PipBuck and instead batted at his tail.

“I know what they used to get that invisibility. It’s called a StealthBuck, and it turns you mostly invisible for a period of time. They must have been using unicorn magic to make it last longer, which is why it wore off when their concentration broke. Or their horn did altogether.” She laughed a little. “Thing is, it’s almost impossible to spot somepony who’s invisible, unless you know they’re gonna be there. If you’re focusing on something else, they’ll be in your peripheral vision or even right in front of you, and you almost definitely won’t notice them until they attack or turn visible again.”

Gentle nodded slowly. “And what does this have to do with Coby and his Bitalin?”

“Bitalin helps him focus, you said. He didn’t take it today, so he’s easily distracted...as you can tell.” She motioned to the colt, who was now drawing on the floor with a piece of charcoal he had gotten from...somewhere. “If he paid attention, when he used that sniper rifle, he would’ve focused on the ponies he could see. But by being easily distracted, the ‘wavy air’ caught his attention more than it would’ve for a normal pony.”

“So...the fact that he didn’t take it...”

“Probably saved this entire hospital and everypony in it, yeah.” She shrugged. “Guess it’s a double-edged sword, huh? Taking it could save lives, but not taking it could too.”

Gentle groaned. “Great...now it’s a guessing game. Making a random guess in the morning about whether or not it’s best for him to take it...”

“Could just hold onto it until you need it, right? Besides, you have a limited supply, and I doubt it’d be easy to find in the Wasteland.”

Cobalt apparently tuned into the conversation at this point, because he responded before Gentle could. “It takes about an hour to kick in when I take it, and it lasts about twenty hours after that. At least, that’s how my mom said it worked.”

“...well, yeah, guess you’re right. Basically guesswork. But hey, at least it’s just a fifty-fifty chance, right?” Millie shrugged, trying to sound positive.

Gentle sighed. “I guess…”

“But speaking of guessing, any guess where you two are headed next? I assume Winterstar wasn’t your planned destination.”

“Lackluster,” the light blue mare replied. “I’m not sure exactly what’ll be there for us, but a friend of ours said it’d be a good place to start looking.”

Millie didn’t need to ask what they were looking for. They had told her the story already. “Lackluster isn’t too far from here, but I don’t know what you’re gonna find there either. It’s just another town like Sunsettlement, albeit bigger. Unless there’s somepony in particular around that area, but I think your friend would’ve mentioned them in that case.”

Gentle groaned and rubbed her temple. “I should’ve asked Force what we were looking for...”

“Maybe he just thought it’d be obvious when you got there. And who knows? It might be, assuming you can even get there.”

Coby looked up. “Why couldn’t we get there? It’s not too far.” He pointed to the map on his PipBuck. Lackluster was, at most, two days’ walk from where they currently were.

“Yeah, but if you’re gonna get there through a direct path from here, you’re gonna have some trouble,” Millie explained. She pointed to the map as well; specifically, the bit of Wasteland between Winterstar and Lackluster. “Hard to tell on a map like this, but that’s a bad place. Full of radiation that’d kill an adult before you’re halfway through. And going around it, even if you knew exactly how close to get while staying safe, would add an extra three days to your trip.” She traced a circle on the screen, indicating roughly how large the area was. It was large. “We traveled through there once. After two of us died - they were too stubborn to take any RadAway - we just let some pegasi carry us across.”

Gentle looked surprised. “Pegasi?”

The Horseshoe Wasteland was different from other parts of Equis that had been obliterated in the war. Pegasi were practically extinct in other parts, hiding in the sky above the cover of clouds. However, this part of Equis was lucky; the Pegasus Enclave had not spread over the entire world, and so in some parts, pegasi were as common as earth ponies and unicorns. Unfortunately, their ability to fly caused them to be branded as cowards; they would simply escape all conflict as quickly as possible, and it was hard to find any that would leave whatever town they lived in.

Even worse, since they could fly, they were often hunted down to be used as slaves. Earth pony strength and endurance was useful, and unicorn magic had almost limitless potential; but pegasus flight was sought after in the Wasteland, especially by fighters. It gave them quick escapes, aerial advantages, and fast travel. So it wasn’t unheard of for pegasi to be kidnapped as foals and raised as no more than a quick ride.

Gentle recalled a rumour that had passed through Sunsettlement. Apparently, somewhere in the Horseshoe Wasteland, there was a town populated entirely by pegasi (well, mostly by pegasi; to say there wasn’t a single earth pony or unicorn living there as well would be unrealistic). Force and Terminal had ignored such rumours, and Gentle did the same, if only because she refused to believe such a place could exist without being attacked and its population enslaved.

“Some of the Intangibles are pegasus ponies,” Millie explained. “Most of them are...not there of their own free will. Only a couple are. But slaves or not, they were useful, and more than strong enough to carry us across. Admittedly, it was one by one, and it took all night. But it was better than dying.”

“So unless we have a pegasus, we’re not getting across,” Gentle grumbled.

Millie smirked. “I don’t recall ever saying that.”





The Intangibles were evil. They were ruthless, murderous, merciless...and in some cases, cannibalistic. But Gentle would be damned to the moon if she said they weren’t smart.

Millie told Cobalt and Gentle about an underground tunnel the Intangibles had come across a few months prior. They weren’t sure where it had come from; maybe it was dug by Diamond Dogs back before the war, or maybe it was built afterwards by pony hooves. Maybe it was connected to a Stable somehow, or maybe it was just a natural formation.

However it was made, the Intangibles had discovered it led to practically every corner of the Horseshoe Wasteland. They took it for themselves, and since nopony else knew about it, nopony else tried to take it. The few who stumbled upon it were greeted with automatic turrets that chased them away...or, if they were brave and stupid, riddled them with bullets.

“I know for a fact those tunnels lead to Lackluster,” Millie explained. “Hell, I don’t think there’s a single place in the Wasteland they don’t lead to. The Intangibles found it as it was, but we - they - expanded it. Dug more tunnels to reach more places. And best of all, they’re simple paths with not a single monster in sight.” Her face darkened. “Well, except for the Intangibles themselves.”

“So we could use these tunnels to get past the radiation?” Gentle asked, feeling her hopes rising.

“Probably not.” Aaaand back down they go. “We brought in some terminals and programmed the turrets to fire on anypony not recognized as a member of the Intangibles. And you two wouldn’t be recognized.”

Gentle groaned. “Way to get our hopes up.”

“Couldn’t you get through?” Cobalt asked Millie. “You were an Intangible, right?”

Millie grinned. “Exactly my point. I’m willing to make you folks a deal.” They looked at her, listening. “I’ll get you guys access to the tunnels. I can wipe out any of the Intangibles still in there, then reprogram the turrets so they won’t shoot you two. And, while I’m at it, remove the names of every Intangible from the list except my own.” She chuckled. “Then, only us three will be able to use the tunnels.”

Gentle perked up, but then frowned. “What if somepony else went down there…?”

The former Intangible shrugged. “Dead.”

“Couldn’t you just reprogram the turrets so they shoot Intangibles - minus yourself - and nopony else?”

“Not unless you’ve got any experience with advanced hacking,” she grunted. “The turrets operate on a ‘do not shoot these’ system. They thought it’d be easier than a ‘shoot these only’ system, since nopony knew every name of everypony in the Wasteland. And trying to reverse the way it works would basically involve rewriting the code from the beginning.”

“How did you code it to start with, then?”

“I didn’t. One of our smarter guys did. Funny enough, he was one of the ones who got burned to death here in this town.”

Gentle winced. “...oh.”

“Eh, don’t worry about it. He was too far gone anyway. No Intangibles are safe from the corrupted feeling of ‘Hey, everypony fears me!’.”

“Except you, right?” Cobalt asked, smiling.

Millie didn’t answer right away. “...yeah. Except me.” She sighed and changed the topic back to the tunnels. “Tomorrow, I’ll take you to the closest entrance. You’ll wait while I go in, take out anypony inside, program your identities into the terminal, and add your names to the safe list. Shouldn’t take me more than an hour. I’ll come back and get you, and then we can camp out there while I remove the Intangibles from the safe list.”

“Maybe you should leave them there?” Gentle suggested. “If we ever find somepony good with terminals, maybe they could rewrite the code...”

“I won’t be deleting their identities,” Millie snorted. “Just taking them off the safe list. Whenever the Intangibles recruit, enslave, or just meet somepony who doesn’t die, they put them into the terminal. Then they can add the pony to the safe list if they’re deemed an ally, the priority list to be shot first if they’re deemed an enemy, or just left to be switched to one or the other later on if they aren’t a definite friend or foe.”

“Sounds...useful, actually,” Gentle admitted. Again, Celestia damn her if she said the Intangibles weren’t clever. “Are you sure you can, though?”

“Reprogram it? Hell yeah. I’m no tech pony, but any Intangible with half a brain is expected to know how to work those terminals.”

“No, I mean...” The light blue pony rubbed her forehead and sighed. “...k-killing them.”

Millie paused. “...I’m tough enough to handle a few of them. Besides, they won’t recognize me at first, so I might be able to stick some grenades in their pockets or something before they realize what’s going on.”

Doubt flashed across her face as she finished, though. Gentle didn’t miss that, nor did she press further. Partially because she knew it wasn’t her business; partially because she didn’t want to anger possibly the most dangerous pony in the entire hospital.





Quest Added
TUNNEL VISION
Acquire use of the Intangible Tunnels.





Companion Perk: Not All Guns Are Hired. Ten Mill: she fights for you. As long as she is with you, you deal 10% more damage to enemies, and they will target her before you.
Footnote: Level Up (10)
New Perk: Commando. Your first time using a rifle will likely not be your last. You have an extra +25% accuracy in S.A.T.S. with all two-hoofed weapons.
> Chapter 10 (Part 1)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We stayed in Winterstar for another day, then said goodbye to Stack and the others and left. Gentle insisted I take my Bitalin that morning, since she was pretty sure we wouldn’t be doing any fighting that day. Only walking.

“She was right. We just walked for a few hours, kinda talking a bit and telling Millie some of the more specific parts about what happened to me so far. She didn’t tell us much about her own life or why she left the Intangibles. Just that she ‘had a realization’.

“There was only one pony in the tunnel when she got there, so she just knocked him out and stabbed him while he was unconscious. Then she turned the turrets off of us like she promised, and we waited around while she removed all the other Intangibles from the list.

“Today, we’re heading to Lackluster again. This time, underground…





The Intangible Tunnels were really nothing spectacular...but, in a way, that made them spectacular. Just a straight path from one place to another, with no raiders or mutated creatures or traps. The most dangerous thing any of them saw was the arguably weak-looking wooden supports along the walls of the tunnels, but Millie assured them they hadn’t shown even a subtle sign of weakening since the Intangibles started using the tunnels.

“That was...anticlimactic,” Gentle noted when they reached the rickety but sturdy wooden ladder leading to the surface. Behind them, a pair of turrets were attached to the ceiling, beeping quietly but not homing in on the trio.

“What were you expecting?” Millie asked, climbing up first. “Raiders around every corner shooting at us?”

“That’s actually exactly what I was expecting. But then again, that’s how pretty much every day’s gone for the past few years where I haven’t been in Sunsettlement.”

Millie just laughed and pushed open the space on the ceiling before climbing out into the early afternoon sun. Cobalt followed, with Gentle bringing up the rear. Up top, they noticed just how the tunnel was hidden; a fake rock that lifted up to reveal the ladder.

The former Intangible noticed Gentle’s sceptical look. “Yeah, I know. Not much for a secret entrance, but that doesn’t really matter with the turrets there.”

The light blue mare shuddered. “How many ponies do you think came across those tunnels completely by accident only to get killed by those turrets?”

“It’s the Wasteland. Death’s constantly staring you in the face no matter where you are, waiting for you to blink. If somepony dies purely by accident, they died purely by accident. Wake me up when I care.” With that, she turned to the city not too far away. “Got any more questions or can we get moving?”

She didn’t. So they could. The entire walk over, Millie stayed at the front, while Gentle glowered at her from behind. Cobalt hadn’t been paying much attention to their conversation, being more occupied with his PipBuck. Gentle had no idea what exactly he was doing, but she assumed he was just exploring its various features.

Suddenly, a loud crackle of static came from the PipBuck, startling the two ponies in back. Millie just looked back in confusion, unphased. Cobalt was about to shut it off, but Gentle blocked his hoof with her own. “Hang on...”

The static wasn’t the only thing coming from the radio. Underneath it, the three of them could faintly make out somepony’s voice. They exchanged a look.

“We must not be in range,” Millie said. “Not enough to hear it properly, at least. What station are you tuned into?”

Cobalt looked down and shrugged. The earth pony mare sighed and trotted around to look over his shoulder.

“‘Unknown Signal’...” She scratched her chin. “Definitely not a radio station. Might be a distress signal.”

“Should we get into range, then?” Cobalt asked. Gentle almost felt shocked to hear his voice. He’d been pretty quiet ever since they left Winterstar - and even before then - but she didn’t know exactly why.

Millie nodded. “Gentle, you go to Lackluster and start looking for whatever you two are looking for from this place. I’ll parade around with Coby until we get a better signal, or until the sun sets. Whichever comes first.”

Gentle shook her head. “I’ll stay with him.”

“Why, don’t trust me with him?” She didn’t even seem surprised when Gentle gave an immediate, albeit sheepish, nod. “I get it, I get it. I’m new, I’m scary, I used to be evil. But I’m also the only one of us three who has armour and a weapon they know how to use, and-”

“We know how to use our weapons, thank you very much,” the other mare snapped.

“Fine. An effective weapon they know how to use. Look, I’ve seen your arsenal. A pistol, sniper rifle, and shotgun aren’t gonna cut it. There’s dragon ants in this part of the Wasteland.”

Gentle froze. “...dragon ants?”

“Yep. And if we want to find that signal, we’re gonna have to wander. And if we come across dragon ants...well, it’s easier for me to keep them off one pony rather than two. And he’s the one with the PipBuck.” Millie shrugged. “If it makes you feel better, we won’t even wait until sundown. One hour, then if we don’t find anything, we’ll start heading to the city.”

The mare groaned. On one hoof, Millie made sense. On the other, she really didn’t want to leave Cobalt alone with her. And on a third hoof, this was just a signal that could be nothing but a wild goose chase. “Do you have to go looking for the signal?”

“I didn’t ditch those Intangible bastards just to walk away from what could be a distress signal from a pony in danger.”

Gentle winced. Right. Might be a distress signal… She sighed. “One hour, and then you’ll start heading back?”

“Assuming we don’t find the signal and its source, yes.”

“...fine. I’ll wait by the entrance after an hour. If you’re not back within another hour, I’ll assume you found something. And if you’re not back by midnight, I’ll assume...”

She didn’t finish. She didn’t have to. Millie nodded. “You won’t have to make that second assumption. We’ll be back.”





Quest Updated
A LACKLUSTER START
Locate the source of the strange radio signal.





Despite Millie’s warnings, Cobalt didn’t notice anything that resembled a dragon, an ant, or any mix of the two. He wasn’t even sure what would constitute a mix, and when he asked his companion, she just shrugged. In his head, he imagined an ant with a dragon’s head, or an ant as big as a dragon. Both mental images scared him, and he walked closer to Millie.

It only took half an hour or so of walking before the static began to clear up. An urgent male voice took over, finally comprehensible. Both ponies quickly directed their attention to the PipBuck on Cobalt’s leg.

“...backup, pronto! Anypony who can hear this, please make contact as soon as possible! Message repeats. Mayday! Mayday! This is Second Lieutenant Protein of the CoNCORD. We’re...we’re pinned down here at the mountain east of Lackluster! Captain’s been shot - don’t think he’s gonna make it! Hell, don’t think any of us are gonna make it...we need backup, pronto! Anypony who can hear this, please make contact as soon as possible. Message repeats. Mayday! Mayday! This is Second Lieutenant Protein of the CoNCORD. We’re...we’re pinned down...”

“The CoNCORD...” Millie grumbled.

Cobalt tilted his head. “The who?”

“Coalition of National Combat Operatives Rectifying Disharmony.” The mare reached back and took out her assault rifle, sitting on her haunches so she could hold it properly. “Pretty much the closest thing the Horseshoe Wasteland has to a military. And even then, they’re not doing much of a good job. All they ever do is scout out unfamiliar territory, see if there’s anything dangerous there, and then run back home to tell ponies to stay away rather than actually fighting it off.”

“You don’t like them?”

“Kid, I don’t know if you forgot or something, but I was in a group of murderous assholes until just recently. Those guys kept warning towns before we showed up, and while now I’m glad they did, it was still a huge pain in the flank to have the townsponies prepared to fight.” She checked to make sure her firearm was loaded fully. It was. “Literally, too. Some of them shot me right around the cutie mark, and if not for my armour, I probably would’ve lost it entirely.”

“Can you lose a cutie mark?”

“Who knows? Not like it’d even do anything. It’s a picture on your butt. Sure, you celebrate when you get it, whoop-dee-fucking-doo, but then after that it’s just a way to make blank flanks jealous or to give ponies around you a general idea of what you do for a living.”

She finished her little rant, finished checking her gun, and started on her pistol next. “But getting back on topic: no, I don’t like the CoNCORD. Not because of what they did to the Intangibles - futile as it was - but because they never do anything. They see danger, they warn others rather than getting rid of it. Hell, you’ve probably killed more raiders than all of them combined.”

He doubted that, and he told her so.

“Yeah? Just wait until we see what’s got them trapped over at the mountain. I’ll bet you fifty caps they outnumber their enemy three to one, and they’re still hiding their asses behind some rubble or whatever.”





“Of course the one time it’s actually a decent threat pinning them down is the time I make a bet with a kid about how it isn’t.”

Ten Mill would not stop grumbling to herself as she shot at as many of the mercenaries as she could without letting them get close. She had ordered Cobalt to stay back and try to snipe them, but apparently he wasn’t up for the second part of that assignment, as she noticed no help.

She had to admit, these mercs weren’t fooling around. Rather than the insane raiders that only proved dangerous if they cornered their prey, or the often poorly-equipped slavers that were only capable of shooting attempted escapees, this group was almost as well-armed as the Intangibles were during their assault on Winterstar. They lacked the StealthBucks, but they had the sheer numbers, weaponry, and even armour that made the group so feared.

Well, feared before Love and Incinerate.

A sudden shot from the side hit Millie in the shoulder, causing her to nearly drop her assault rifle. Her armour had taken a beating already; then again, she’d ditched the more protective parts before running from the Intangibles, since she couldn’t afford to be weighed down. As intimidating as what was left looked, it didn’t do much for anything but her torso.

Another bullet came in and buried itself into her left hind leg. While she was no stranger to pain, this was more than enough to begin slowing down her movements, but it didn’t slow down her rate of fire. Mercs that got too close went down as soon as she decided she didn’t like them within that range, and the numbers were slowly thinning.

Then her gun jammed.

“Bitch!” she screamed at her weapon, as though it could understand her, as she tried to fix the jam. She got it working after a few seconds, but in those seconds, two mercenaries had gotten within a range she normally wouldn’t have allowed. She put some bullets into one as soon as she could, but that left one more, who suddenly had his shotgun pressed right against her temple.

BANG!

Millie cringed, only to discover that she was untouched. A look through her peripheral vision revealed that the mercenary was similarly fine.

His shotgun, however, was now cracked in two and lying on the ground several feet away.

Grinning, the former Intangible pulled her pistol out and shot two rounds into the stallion’s throat, causing him to fall over gurgling blood. Leaving him to drown, Millie aimed the small gun at some other ponies who were getting too close for comfort, the shots much more precise than the automatic fire from her larger weapon.

However, switching to her pistol didn’t mean she was instantly saved. It may have been more accurate, but it was weaker and didn’t penetrate the mercs’ armour at all, meaning the only effective hits were directly to the head. Lacking a PipBuck of her own, she couldn’t use S.A.T.S. to make sure her aim was true, and instead had to rely on her own instincts and luck. She managed to get moving again, backing up towards where Cobalt was, hoping she could grab a healing potion from his saddlebags.

She got halfway there when, strangely, the gunfire stopped altogether. Glancing around, she saw that the mercenaries had vanished - likely back behind cover. Taking advantage of the situation, she turned and limped her way back to the rock Cobalt was behind.

“Millie?” he asked, concern evident in his tone as he noticed her hobble along. Obviously he hadn’t been paying attention to the entire fight (his lack of sniping assistance proved that), seeming to not realize what was wrong.

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out,” she grunted as she sat down with a hiss. “Get me a healing potion. And if you’ve got a weak stomach, don’t look at me for a few seconds.”

While he obliged in her request, she turned her head to the bullet lodged in her leg. She could handle having some lead in her body, but this was keeping her slowed to a crawl. Something that was nothing but a disadvantage in any situation. Leaning down, she used her teeth to grip the tiny bit of metal that was poking out of her skin, and roughly yanked it out.

Millie was no doctor, but she knew this was the best she could do at the moment without limping off back to another town. Grabbing the healing potion offered by her small friend, she gulped it down quickly, the wound left by the now-extracted bullet mending itself just enough to let her keep walking.

Just in time, too. As soon as she stood up with minimal wincing, the sounds of gunfire reached her ears once more. Grabbing her assault rifle, she ran out from behind the rock to fire back, only to realize after a few shots that she wasn’t the target.

The mercenaries that had previously been focused on nothing but ending her life were now running about frantically, guns firing all over the place as they tried to aim at an oncoming swarm of ponies that appeared from nowhere. However, even at a distance, Millie could tell something was wrong with these ponies. And what was wrong nearly made her run back behind the rock to hide.

For one thing, they were all as black as charcoal, but not by natural causes. No; instead, they looked as though they had been roasted alive. Their eyes were bright red and constantly twitching, yet never blinking, and they didn’t have a single hair on their bodies. They had no armour, yet bullets that embedded themselves in their skin had no impact whatsoever. Even shots to the legs didn’t so much as slow them down.

And when they got close enough to a mercenary, they opened their mouths and breathed fire on them, incinerating them into a pile of ash.

“...this day just gets more and more fucked up,” Millie grunted. She backed up to the rock and looked at Cobalt. “I think we should start running out of here.”

He looked at her with worry. “B-But...the distress signal...”

“To hell with the distress signal! There’s fire-breathing invincible ponies over there. Unless you’ve got something to fight against that, we need to get...somewhere...safe...” She trailed off upon seeing the look in his eye and sighed. “You do. Of course you do. Why should I have expected anything different?”