A group of archaeologists from the Followers of the Apocalypse go on an adventure to discover what lays at the heart of the San Palomino badlands
Who are you who does not know your history?
In the 24 years since the Day of Sunshine and Rainbows the NCR has expanded to control a large part of central Equestria. Throughout the land civilization has replaced savagery. Traders have replaced raiders. Deadly mutated bugs replaced with less deadly mutated bugs. Even slavery has been by and large stomped out. Ponies have even stopped referring to the "Equestrian Wasteland" and once again refer to it as simply "Equestria."
Well, at least in some parts. In areas outside the "Civilized Lands" raiders still run free and deadly creatures will still try and eat any living thing they come across. These are the regions that were out of range when the Gardens of Equestria spell was cast. They are still radioactive, tainted, and dangerous. It is at the heart of one of these areas, known as the San Palomino desert, that Stable 34 lies. And it is there that a crew of archaeologists from the Followers of the Apocalypse is being sent. Their goal is to reach Stable 34 and find out everything they can about it. But as it turns out, there is a lot more to the story of the San Palomino badlands than anyone had ever thought.
Expedition to Stable 34 Day 1, 8th day of the 3rd moon, 24 years After the day of Sunshine and Rainbows
As is standard on all Followers archaeological missions, the expedition leader is supposed to keep a detailed journal of everything that happens. Since the professor decided to wimp out and not come, that leaves me as expedition lead. Dammit, I’m already getting tired of writing these fucking journal entries and I haven’t even finished one yet! Since these logs are supposed to be the official expedition records, I guess I better start with some introductions. My name is Pickaxe (guess what my cutie mark is?), and I am an archaeologist with the Followers of the Apocalypse. I was supposed to be the assistant to the most senior archaeologist in the whole FoA, but at the last minute he wimped out. Never did have a thing for field work. He’s a bit too soft to go out exploring the wasteland; Guy’d get eaten by radroaches the second he stepped out of the Civilized Lands. That leaves me as leader, which means I actually have responsibilities. Fuck. It’s times like these when I regret not joining some wasteland team to go “civilize” the badlands. That’s what the NCR gives as an excuse to pay mercs to go out and claim territory. Also gives the mercs an excuse to hunt raiders (like anyone needs an excuse).
Anyway, that was off topic. Also on this expedition are 3 others, 1 earth pony, 1 unicorn, and a pegasus. The first earth pony is a mare (barely, she’s closer to a filly if you ask me) fresh out of the Followers training program and on her first real mission. Her name is Cherry Pie, and the only good thing about bringing her along is that she can make some damn fine pastries. Okay, that’s not really true. She’s really good with her hoofs, and can lockpick like LittlePip herself, not to mention being able to fix almost anything. Don’t know why she doesn’t just do that for a living. She can get more annoying than the weather in the Everfree forest though. She has a dark red mane with Pinkie-Pie pink coat, which she uses as evidence when she brags about being a direct descendant of the Mare of the Ministry of Morale herself. Everyone knows it’s utter bullshit (Pinkie Pie never had kids) but no one can convince Cherry of that. Next is Cloud Runner, our resident pegasus. He was never part of the Enclave, but his parents and older brother were. I think he sees it as his duty to make up for his family’s wrongs, often taking it a little overboard. One time he tried taking out a whole slave camp by himself, which didn’t turn out to well. He also tries to break his relation to the Enclave by trying to cover up his natural accent with a more ground-associated one, causing him to sound pretty strange sometimes. He’s not bad with a magical energy weapon, but his main strength is in reconnaissance and explosives. He has eyes like a hawk and can fly damn fast, not to mention being able to rain explosive ordnance down from the sky with unparalleled accuracy. Last in our ragtag band of explorers is Crystal Spell, our medic and a good friend of mine. We were roommates while going through Followers training. She can be a bit obsessive about a wide variety of things, including her looks. She makes sure her off-white coat sparkles (as much as that color can) and that her hair is always kept just the way she likes it. She actually acts a lot like Rarity, one of Fluttershy’s pre-war friends, in the stories we were told as children. With the important exception that Crystal Spell is definitely NOT the element of generosity. We also have a unit of 4 Applejack’s rangers who volunteered to accompany us. There have been rumors of heavy raider activity in the areas we are going, so they volunteered to give us some protection. I’m sure the possibility of a fresh stable’s worth of tech that they can get their hooves on is their true motivation, but we’ll take what we can get. The Rangers will probably be disappointed though. Stable 34 was probably cleaned out a long time ago, but really though, we have no clue about the condition of that place. It’s in a difficult to reach area of the wasteland, and for all we know it could still be sealed and have ponies living in it! That’s the point of this expedition. Find the Stable, and find out all we can about it.
We are currently at the New Appleloosa branch of the FoA. We will be heading south to Old Appleloosa by rail. From there we hoof it south until we hit the Macintosh Mountains, which we then follow west. The mountains run into the San Palomino Desert, at the heart of which is Stable 34. Who decided to build a stable in the middle of a Celestia-forsaken desert in the first place? I mean, seriously, that place was a wasteland even before the war. Anyway, after we are done exploring Stable 34 we will be heading north to the Las Pegasus Boneyard to meet up with another FoA group so we can travel back to New Appleloosa together.
That’s all I have to say for now. I probably won’t write on any sort of schedule, just when something important happens or something pops into my head I feel like writing down. If the day's events are really significant, I’ll have Chrystal Spell record my memories of it into a memory orb and include that instead of a journal entry. I’ll also be recording any archaeological finds we make here, with detailed accounts of the material, and copies of any documents found. Well, of we go, to the hell-blasted badlands that surround Stable 34.
The train vibrated and shook as it roared along it’s path laid down over two centuries prior. This train, unlike the ones that carried goods and ponies through the more civilized parts of Equestria, was only five cars long, three passenger cars, a freight car, and of course the caboose. On the side of the front passenger car was a pink circle with a thin, yellow cross transcribed inside it. Inside this car sat four ponies: an off white unicorn, a purple pegasus, and two earth ponies, one bright pink and the other a dark beige. They were taking full advantage of the fact that they had a whole train car to themselves and had spread themselves and their gear out over the entire area.
“Did you guys know that this is the very train LittlePip used to take out the alicorn in the Old Appaloosa fight? Well, not this exact train, but a train going on this railroad? Isn’t that cool!” Cherry blurted into the silence. She had apparently been reading the history section in her copy of the Updated Wasteland Survival Guide.
Pickaxe looked up from the map she was studying. “Didn’t they teach you that in Followers training?”
“Yes, but I just learned it again and really REALLY wanted to share it!”
This time it was Cloud Runner responding. “How can you learn something again? If you already know it, then reading it again doesn’t really constitute learning.” He spoke with a strange combination of the High-Society Tenpony tower accent he was trying to imitate and his natural accent, which sounds similar to the old holotapes of Applejack, the Mare of the Ministry of Wartime Technology, talking.
“Of course you can silly! Learning something again just means you know it twice!”
“Does this make sense to either of you?” Chrystal Spell said from bed she had made herself out of a table and several seat cushions.
“Nope.”
“Good. Now will you all quiet down? I need my beauty sleep.” With that she extended her magic out to the blinds in her corner of the train car, wrapping them in blue light. Gently, Crystal used her magic to pull down on the blinds, which then began erratically opening and closing.
“AHHHHH! My horn! Make it stop!” Crystal cried out in both shear terror and excruciating pain. The room filled with a blinding light. A flash as pure white as Celestia and bright as her sun forced the other three ponies to cover their eyes. The sound of shattering glass could barely be heard over the unicorn’s deafening shrieks. And then it was over. As the blinding light faded, Pickaxe looked out from behind her hooves to see that her friend lay panting on her bed, clutching her horn in her hooves. Before Pickaxe could even stand up, a huge, turquoise earth pony clad in a red-trimmed power armor suit burst through the door, magical energy rifle clenched in his teeth. After him a smaller unicorn ran in. He was wearing the red Applejack’s Rangers scribe robe, and was the first to speak up.
“Sea Foam! Put your gun down!” He barked at the power-armored Ranger. “Your three!” He turned his attention to the others, who were just starting come back to their senses. “What the hell just happened?”
Rushing over to her friend Pickaxe responded “I think Crystal just had some sort of magical episode. Go get me a med kit!” She demanded at no one in particular. She began reaching to pry the unicorn’s hooves away from her horn, which Pickaxe now noticed was smoking. Suddenly a second set of hooves was there as well, trying to nudge her out of the way. The Ranger wearing the scribes clothes was next to Pickaxe, levitating a yellow box with a pink cross on the front. His magic also began to wrap around Pickaxe, who almost punched him in the face in shock.
“What are you doing? Give me the med-kit and PUT ME DOWN!”
“This matter is better suited to be treated by a unicorn, especially given that I have Rangers medical training.”
“Yeah, and I have Followers medical training! She’s my friend, I need to help her!” she screamed back hysterically.
“Pickaxe, calm down,” Cloud Runner interjected. He had finally pulled himself off the floor and was waving his hoof back and forth in front of Cherry’s face, who seemed to be in a sort of trance.
“Like I said,” the scribe retorted, “this is a magic emergency, not a medical one. As the only unicorn here not lying on the ground in agony, I am the only one suited to treat her.”
“Like hell you are! I've known her almost our entire lives. I know her magic better than anyone besides her. Now-”
“Both of you! Shut up! Can’t you see she’s hurt? Just work together!” Cherry had finally broken free of her trance. The two quarreling medics sneered at each other before getting to work on treating their patient.
Kneeling over the unicorn, who had balled herself up into a fetal position while the argument was taking place, the Scribe began to use his magic to pry her hooves off her horn. The unicorn put up a fight, multiple times breaking her medic’s levitation spell. Eventually, with the help of some rope, they managed to get the horn exposed and the hooves to stay still. What they saw made the whole room let out a collective gasp. the previously milky-white horn had turned a solid burned black and was smoking. The area on her head around the base of the horn had been burned bare, and the front of her mane was on fire. Worst of all were the seven separate cracks visible in the horn.
“Sea Foam! Hand me the med-x. This is going to take a while”
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Expedition to Stable 34, Day 2, 9th day of the 3rd moon, 24 ASR.
Today was an... exciting day. It started out pretty normal. We were all just relaxing on our way to Appaloosa. I was going over our maps again when Cherry blurted out something random. Nothing out of the ordinary there. I forget the conversation but it somehow ended with Crystal Spell using her magic on something. It was at this point that things went crazy. Crystal had some type of magical episode. There was a flash and I fell to the floor. When I got up, Crystal was screaming and some of the Rangers had come in to see what was happening. Only some though. I guess the rest couldn’t be bothered by the FUCKING HUGE light coming from the next room over. I got into a bit of an argument with that snobby one--Pearly Buck I think his name is? Fucking stupid name. He tried to use his magic to pull me off of Crystal, and then tried to not let me help treat her. Thankfully Cherry spoke up and snapped us out of it before we had more injured ponies to take care of.
Crystal suffered some relatively major injuries, but nothing that can’t be handled with pre-enchanted magic medical supplies. She had a singed and burned mane, a patch around the base of her horn where her coat was completely burned off, and worst of all she has 9 horn fractures, 7 surface and 2 core. She’s lucky her horn didn’t completely shatter. We have her sedated and sleeping right now.
As a side note, I made a bet with Cloud that the first thing Crystal asks when she wakes up is about her mane. He asked me to record it here to make it official.
The magic outburst seemed to have some sort of effect on Cherry as well. She was in a trance for a good minute and a half after the flash, and she claims she doesn’t remember it.
We made it to Appaloosa without any more complications, and moved Crystal to the local clinic. I spent the rest of the day just looking around town. The new settlers have done a pretty good job of scrubbing the place of any hint that it was ever a slaver’s paradise. They even put a plaque up talking about LittlePip’s fight here.
One last thought. I’m nervous. Something caused the incident earlier today. I’ve known Crystal for a very long time, and she’s never been the best at controlling her telekinesis, but she is by no means bad at it. Some exceptionally powerful unicorns can have that type of uncontrollable magic surge when they are young, but she isn’t exceptionally powerful or young, and I’ve never known her to have anything remotely close to that type of magical potential. Add to that that the Rangers began acting strangely afterwards--More strangely than normal I mean. I tried asking Pearly what he thought the cause was, and he just brushed off the question. Worse, the rest of the Rangers have completely refused to talk to us. I’ve talked to Cloud about this, and he noticed it too. Maybe we’re just paranoid, but I don’t think so.
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Expedition to Stable 34 Day 3, 10th day of the 3rd moon, 24 ASR.
Me, Cherry, and CR asked around town to see if anything strange had been happening. No unexplained magic had occurred here in recent memory.
The Rangers still refuse to give answers to our questions. Not even an “I don’t know.” They just brush it off. At least they’re talking to us again.
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Expedition to Stable 34 Day 4, 11th day of the 3rd moon, 24 ASR
I owe Cloud five caps. Crystal’s first words upon waking up were about the state of her coat, not mane.
On a more serious note, we tried asking her about what she felt during the incident. She says she doesn’t remember anything about the day, even before the flash. All she remembers is going to sleep the night before in the Followers camp at New Appaloosa, excited to get going the next day.
The doctor in the Appaloosa clinic insists that Crystal shouldn’t be going on an expedition any time soon. I agree, but of course Pearly doesn’t. He says she should be good to go by the end of the week. Hell, he even suggested we start moving now and let her heal on the road. He quickly retracted it when he saw the murderous intent in my eyes, but still, he’s rushing us. We’ll get to that Stable sooner or later, but not if our only dedicated doctor is in bandages the entire time. The tech in that hole will still be there.
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Expedition to Stable 34 Day 8, 15th day of the 3rd moon, 24 ASR
We have nothing much to do besides wait around here until Crystal gets better. She was able to get up and walk around for the first time since the incident today. We think she should be good to travel within the next two weeks.
Also decided to do ourselves some shopping today. As the days go by I like the idea of relying on Rangers for protection less and less. They still refuse to acknowledge our questions and are still trying to rush us along. So today Cloud, Cherry and I went and bought ourselves some new weapons to replace the cheap-as-shit ones the Followers provided. CR got himself a good supply of grenades and dynamite, as well as a grenade launcher. Cherry bought a magic blaster pistol, which she promptly named “Pinkie.” She swears it’s because of the color of the energy beam it fires, but we all know the real reason. After getting it she ran back to her bunk to paint the thing and came out two hours later with a weapon covered in a fresh coat of pink, and three balloons on the side. She also claims she tampered with it a bit but refuses to tell us what she did. As for me I got myself a set of power hooves. We asked Crystal what type of weapon she wanted us to get for her, but she insisted that she would go get one herself when she was ready.
We are planning on getting on the road in about two weeks. I probably won't be writing another journal entry before then.
Three weeks after first getting into Appaloosa, Pickaxe and her team were ready to begin their travels into the wasteland. The sun had barely come up, yet the group had already been awake for nearly two hours, packing and making some final arrangements. By the town's front gate a wagon was being hooked up to two of the Applejack's Rangers, both wearing their signature power armor. They would be the ones pulling it, taking full advantage of the armor’s strength boost. In the wagon was all of the team’s equipment; food, medicine, surveying equipment, sample containers, sketchbooks, and digging and excavating tools. Sitting on the wagon was Crystal Spell, who would also be riding in it while the rest of the crew walked. She was leaning against a large wooden box marked with the pink and yellow Followers cross, scrubbing off and shining the weapon she had bought the previous day. In her hooves was a large scoped revolver, similar in type to LittlePip’s signature weapon. That model had become fairly popular in the years since the Day of Sunshine and Rainbows, no doubt thanks to its prominent place in the Book of LittlePip, which was standard reading for school children all over Equestria.
Crystal had the radio on and tuned into DJ-Pon3’s channel.
You’re listening to DJ-Pon3. Here’s the news. Weather: Bright and Sunny, but watch out for freak lightning storms in the areas around the Everfree Forest. In other news a gang of slavers north of New Stalliongrad has been wiped out in a battle with NCR Military forces. When asked about it, NCR General Olive said that it was a massive victory for the forces of good in Equestria. Now back to the music. Here’s a classic covered by that beloved duo, Velvet Remedy singing together with Calamity, talkin’ about the roads we all have to walk.
Some roads are straight and narrow, Some paths are high and steep, Some ways are slow and heavy, Some tracks are dark and deep, But this trail is the one I follow, No matter where it leads, And I know I’ll never wander...as long as I heed
“Do you think it’s the same DJ-Pon3?” Pickaxe said.
“What? Same as what?” Pickaxe had snuck up on Crystal while she intently cleaned her new gun.
“Same one who LittlePip was friends with.”
“Oh, uh, I don’t know. Maybe? it was only about 25 years ago. She could easily still be alive.”
“Yeah, but how old was she before she met the Lightbringer?”
“Hey Pickaxe, can you help me with a few of these boxes?” Cloud Runner flew over carrying a metal box with the Applejack’s Rangers logo on the side. “There is still a pile of gear we haven’t packed outside the general store.”
“Hey Cloud, what do you think? Is it the same DJ-Pon3 who knew LittlePip?”
“I really couldn’t say. Every DJ-Pon3 has always sounded the same. Even if there was a new one we wouldn't be able to tell. Given that, I don’t really think it matters if she is the same as the old one or not. Now come help me pack this gear.” Pickaxe fell into step besides the pegasus and the two started walking over to the general store located across the town square from where their wagon was.
“Why do you say it doesn’t matter? It’s a part of history, and history matters. If it’s the same one there would be so many questions I could ask her. If not, then an incredible person in the history of Equestria is gone and we should know. If you argue that history doesn’t matter then why’d you become an archeologist?”
“I’m not saying history doesn’t matter. I’m saying that you shouldn’t worry about certain things that you can never find the answer to. We will never know whether it’s the same Pon3 that the Lightbringer knew, and you will never be able to speak with her. I became an archaeologist so that I could find out the answers to questions of history that can be answered. Questions that actually matter.”
“Ugh! Philosophy this early in the morning? We haven’t even eaten breakfast yet! You guys really need to take a chill pill.” Cherry was coming out of the town apothecary carrying a bag of... something. Whatever it was was moving.
“What is that?” Cloud and Pickaxe said in unison upon seeing the strange wriggling bag.
“Just a baby bloatsprite. Don’t worry, it’ll die pretty soon. Baby bloatsprite stingers are just scrumptious when mixed with a little bit of radigator blood and pan fried. They make a great snack for the road.”
“But why’d you have to get a live one?”
“Seriously? Everyone know that bloatsprite stingers are best when they’re cooked fresh!”
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Expedition to Stable 34, Day 23, 30th day of the 3rd moon, 24 ASR
Finally got on the trail today. Day started off pretty simply. We got up a few hours before sunrise to pack all of our gear. We hooked up two of the Applejack’s Rangers to pull our wagon--Silver Luster and Thunder Gun I think? Couldn't really tell from behind the power armor. Cherry cooked us some snacks for the road and we left town just as the sun was rose. Not ten minutes out of town we ran into our first radscorpion. Pearly quickly dispatched it with his Plasma Defender, but it still isn’t a good sign. We might be needing our metal-clad companions for more than taking out raiders afterall.
The rest of the day went as expected. We made good time, making it about a third of the way to the Macintosh Hills. Tomorrow might present some challenges however. CR flew ahead and told us that the semi-paved pre-war road we have been following completely disappears. That’s bound to slow us down. Add that to the increased numbers of varmint we are likely going to see, and I expect to only cover about half our planned distance per day. Luckily we brought more than enough food and water, so we should be fine in that regard.
We are currently camped out under a rock outcropping. The Rangers will be taking turns doing patrols throughout the night, so we should be safe. But just incase, I’m going to be sleeping with a power hoof on.
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Expedition to Stable 34, Day 26, 2nd day of the 4th moon, 24 ASR
The last few days haven’t been nearly as bad as I thought they were going to be. We have definitely been going slower than that first day, but overall our pace hasn’t been too bad. We have been running into radscorpions at a pace of about one or two an hour, but we have plenty of firepower to take care of them,
Today we also got a glimpse of what Cherry did to her Magical Energy Blaster. It now fires 3 beams instead of its original 1, and I’m pretty sure she boosted the power output per beam as well. Even Pearly’s impressed by the punch that little thing packs.
We haven’t seen any raiders yet, and I’m starting to believe the rumors of them being active around here are false. We still have quite a ways to go, but so far things are looking good in that department.
For tonight we’re sleeping in a cave we found. It doesn’t look like anything lives in here, but we have two Rangers on lookout duty tonight just incase.
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Expedition to Stable 34, Day 27, 3rd day of the 4th moon, 24 ASR
It’s raining. It’s Celestia-damned raining. What the fuck. The weather forecast was clear skies for the next 4 months. We knew we were going out of range of the SPP towers and the weather would start getting sporadic, but we should have been well into the San Palomino desert before that started happening.
To add to the problem, we can’t pick up any radio signals. Cloud tried flying a few of our radios up above the clouds and they still didn’t work. We can’t even pick up Pon-3’s channel in order to get the news and find out what the hell is happening!
But by far the weirdest part of this is how the Rangers are acting. While me, Crystal, CR, and Cherry are freaking out, they act like nothings wrong. Of course if we talk to them about the rain they will recognize that it’s different, but to me it seems like they expected this. When I asked them about it, they said they had no idea what I was talking about, and that they were just as perplexed as we are. I think they know something about what’s going on and aren’t telling us.
Until the rain stops we have no choice but to stay in this cave. For once the Rangers aren’t rushing us and agree we need to hunker down until the storm passes. They say it’s because they don’t want to run into any freak floods, but I think they just don’t want any of their fancy tech to get wet.
Hope this storm ends soon. The rain tends to bring out the worst creatures.
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Expedition to Stable 34, Day 28, 4th day of the 4th moon, 24 ASR
It’s still raining.
As long as I have nothing else to talk about (or do) might as well tell you a little bit about the device currently in my hooves. I’ll be talking about it a lot, so might as well get the explanation over now. This device is probably the most useful tool I currently have. It’s a PipBuck 2000. A PipBuck is given to the head of every Followers expedition in order to keep track of things, record events, and generally make the expedition’s life a whole lot easier. You probably know about PipBucks thanks to the Book of LittlePip, but you likely don’t know much about the one I’m currently holding. This one is an older model with less capabilities than the model 3000 LittlePip wore. It isn’t a device worn on your leg but instead is a little box with a screen on front that you have to carry around. I keep it in a little pouch I wear around my neck. Being an older model, it doesn't have some of the more well known features, like Stable Assisted Targeting, inventory manipulation, or Eyes Forward Sparkle, but it does have the mapping capabilities, can store a crap-load of data, and will help me hack into any terminal that we find. And yes, it can even be made to glow like a lamp. I have been using it to write these journal entries on, and we will be using it constantly.
I hope this rain stops soon. I don’t know how long my sanity will last cooped up in here.
6 bodies lay on the floor, each one wrapped in it’s own sleeping bags. Each of their torsos slowly moved up and down in cadence with their breath as they slept. They were arranged in a circle surrounding the embers of a dying campfire that had earlier in the night been the only thing keeping the cold out of the damp cave the explorers currently called home. The only other light came from the headlamps of the 2 Applejack’s Rangers who had stayed awake to guard the group throughout the night. The pair were sitting away from the main group, towards the mouth of the cave. The one on the left was an average sized orange earth pony with a scarlet mane that had been cut as short as possible to fit comfortably under his armor, which at the moment obscured him from view. He had unhooked the minigun from his power armor’s weapons rack and disassembled it. Before him lay an array of tiny screws, springs, and other gun parts, all grouped by size and function. He held in his hooves a tiny brush, normally used by foals to tidy the hair of their dolls, and was using it to scrub down one of the gun’s 6 barrels.
His companion had his helmet off, exposing his shiny silver coat and white mane, and had positioned it next to him on the ground so that it’s lamp was directed onto the checklist in his hand. This Ranger was much more visibly aged than his partner, giving him a traveled and wisened look. With a pencil held in his mouth he went over the list for the third time that night, making sure all their gear was in order.
“Silver, I think I heard something outside,” said the one on the left.
“It’s the rain.”
“No, no, something besides the rain. There’s something outside, you should put your helmet on.” He stood up and prepared his second minigun, which was still attached to his side.
“I’m not putting my helmet on kid. And sit down before you get us all killed with that gun of yours. You’re just hearing things.”
“You should put your helmet on anyway. It’s protocol.”
“Thunder Gun, look at me. I’m an old stallion. This is probably going to be my last mission. Do you think I give a damn about protocol? Besides--”
Lightning flashed outside, illuminating the cave for a split second. That short moment was enough to reveal a silhouette in the mouth of the cave. This figure stood so that the two guards could see it’s profile, and what they saw terrified them. It appeared to be a twisted amalgamation of an enormous lion with some type of head sticking out of it’s back and a tail with a mouth at the end. The cave then lit up again with the brilliant light from a blast of fire that erupted out of the beasts mouth.
The sleeping adventurers who hadn’t been woken up by the intense heat and light that had all of a sudden engulfed the cave were startled to consciousness by the roar of Thunder Gun’s six-barreled killing machine. It was soon joined by the the repeated thud-thud-thud sound of Silver Luster’s custom grenade machine gun and the now-awake Sea Foam’s twin rocket launchers. The trio of rangers all blindly firing at the mouth of the cave became a duo as the creature leaped forward, striking at Thunder and cutting him down with it’s alicorn-horn-sized claws. By now the five remaining ponies had all grabbed their weapons and joined into the fight, pouring extra grenades, plasma, and lead into already impressive stream of ordinance that was flowing in the direction of the hell-beast.
Pickaxe hung off to the side, crouched and ready to buck incase that thing came her way, unable to add any extra projectiles to the fight. Unluckily for her, the creature decided this meant that she was the easiest target and rushed her. Instead of attacking directly, a move which would surely end up with her leg being sliced off, she rolled to the side just before the still unidentified creature swiped at her. As it overshot her she gave it a sharp power hoof jab in the flank, causing it to stumble. As she pulled her hoof back she felt a sharp pain and then a flush of heat engulf her leg. Refocusing her eyes onto the source of the pain, she saw the creatures tail retracting from her foreleg, only this wasn’t a tail. It was a snake. And that snake had bitten her! The creature reared itself around to line up another shot at pickaxe, but it never got the chance. It was suddenly turned into a cloud of pink ash, which silently fell to the floor. Where the creature had stood only a second prior was Cherry Pie, her pink magical energy blaster held in her mouth.
“I told you I made a few improvements”
Cherry looked up from her fresh kill. Before her lay a scene of utter destruction. Large portions of the cave wall had had been chipped off and now took the form of sizable boulders that had settled on the cave floor. To the left of the cave Thunder Gun lay on the floor, the metal plating covering the left side of this neck and upper torso slashed wide open, blood seeping out of the hole. Pearly Buck, Sea Foam, and Silver Luster were already rushing towards him, Pearly warming up his horn to perform some basic medical spells. In front of her Pickaxe sat up against a wall, eyes on the verge of tears as she held her hoof into her chest, screaming obscenities as loud as she could. Cherry knelt down in front of her as Cloud Runner and Crystal Spell ran over to their fellow Follower of the Apocalypse.
“What happened!?!” Crystal shrieked. She coerced Pickaxe’s hoof away from her chest and saw the twin puncture wounds where the creatures tail had bitten her. “What caused these?”
Pickaxe was barely able to get out a few words through gritted teeth; “Tail was actually snake. Snake bit. Think poisoned.” After that last sentence fragment, she slumped over against the wall, the last thing she saw before closing her eyes being the glow of her friends horn as she began performing her healing art.
Eight hours later Pickaxe stirred. She could hear the soft voice of other ponies, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. She also couldn’t understand the constant ringing that was playing in her ears, nor the sound of what she thought was music. What she could understand was something that she didn’t hear. She could no longer hear the pitter-patter of rain outside the cave entrance.
She looked towards the source of the voices and saw the rest of her team, Thunder Gun excluded, sitting around a fire. As her senses began regained their sensitivity she began to make out what the voices were saying, all though she still couldn’t tell who was saying what.
“So you’re saying that thing came from...”
“Yep”
“How is that even possible? I thought it was guarded by-”
“Normally it is, but-”
“Hey, I think Pickaxe is waking up.”
Crystal Spell got up and walked up over to where Pickaxe was laying, swiftly followed by Cloud Runner. Cherry Pie, Pearly Buck, Sea Foam, and Silver Luster merely turned around to look at the now awake expedition leader from where they were already sitting. Next to them was a radio that appeared to be turned on, no doubt the source of the music she was hearing.
“How’s our patient doing?” Crystal said in the motherly tone she took on when talking to her patients.
“I’ve been better” Pickaxe responded. She slowly sat up, taking in the scene around her. She saw a large pillar of wooden crates that had been stacked up at the front of cave and large rocks scattered over the battlefield. As she continued to scan the area, she noticed an empty suit of power armor with three eight inch long gashes sliced clean through it. Never in her life had she seen or heard of anything doing that much damage to a suit of power armor with just it’s claws, and in only one hit. Maybe a dragon or Star Spawn, but she wasn’t even sure those mighty beasts could make that big of a hole. As she continued looking around, she saw the body that had previously inhabited the shredded suit of power armor. Thunder Gun lay on a makeshift cot comprised of a pile of bloody sleeping bags, slightly glowing from the healing magic that was still working on him. Near the sleeping Ranger was a rather large pile of sopping red rags and bandages.
“Is he going to be okay?” Pickaxe asked, giving a slight nod in Thunder’s direction.
“He should be.” Crystal responded. “I currently-”
“We! We currently!” Interrupted Pearly.
“Oh, shut up. All you did was administer an anesthetic spell while I did all the hard work.”
“That’s still helping!” Pearly said with a conviction that would make Discord himself accept the argument’s logic.
“Whatever. WE have him sleeping right now. The sleeping spell is linked to the healing spells, so whenever he wakes up we’ll know he is fully healed. Luckily his power armor absorbed most of the damage. If he was wearing anything less he’d be dead.”
“What about the rain? When did it stop? When did the radio start working again? What was that thing that attacked us? How did it slice through Thunder’s armor so easily? Where-” All the questions Pickaxe had yet to get an answer to all burst from her at once. As if to plug a dam, Cloud Runner put his hoof over her mouth.
“There will be time for answers later. Right now you need to sleep.”
With that, Pickaxe gently laid back down and floated back into the dream world that she had emerged from only minutes earlier.
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Expedition to Stable 34, Day 31, 7th day of the 4th moon, 24 ASR, Morning
I don’t normally write journal entries in the morning, but since I was incapacitated last night and yesterday’s events are fairly important, I felt the need to do this now. Yesterday, while we slept in the early morning hours in our cave, we had a run in with a creature that can only be described as demonic. I had the body of a lion, with a goats head sticking out of it’s middle back, and a venomous snake instead of a tail. Oh, yeah, it also breathed fire. In it’s attack it took down Thunder Gun. Cut right through his power armor. I also got poisoned after being bit by the thing’s tail, but it wasn’t anything Crystal couldn’t fix. We through pretty much any type of ordinance we had in fighting the beast. We were only able to bring it down when Cherry vaporized it with her souped-up Magical Energy Blaster. The fight almost brought the cave down on us, but afterwards Pearly came up with the idea of using our supply boxes as pillars to stabilize the cave. Worked like a charm, if only temporarily.
Apparently my PipBuck was able to get an ID on the creature in all the chaos. It says it was a “Chimera--Classical.” I know what a chimera is, and that wasn’t it. The chimeras were little cat-lizard things LittlePip ran into in the vault outside of New Appaloosa. However, Pearly Buck was able to give some insight on that matter. According to him, long before the war there was a species of creature called the Chimera, now referred to as the Classical Chimera. The CCs inhabit the realm of Tartarus, the gates to which are guarded by the three headed dog Cerberus. According to legend, Cerberus is suppose to ensure that nothing gets in or out. I don’t know why Cerberus let this thing out, but somehow it got here, and that means there could be more.
In other news the rain finally stopped. According to the rest of the team it stopped about three hours after our fight. I couldn’t witness it first hand though, as I was still unconscious from the snake-tail bite, but according to Cherry immediately after the clouds parted there was a rainbow. Whatever was interfering with our radio signals apparently disappeared with the rain. When I woke up the radio was playing loud and clear.
We should be getting moving as soon as Thunder Gun is healed. Can’t wait to get out of this damn cave and actually get going again.
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Expedition to Stable 34, Day 31, 7th day of the 4th moon, 24 ASR, Evening
Me, CR, Sea Foam, and Cherry went to scout out our path towards the Macintosh Hills. A few miles out we found our first signs of raider activity. No actual hostiles, but a camp with a fire that was still smoldering. From the empty food containers, it looked like there were about seven of them. We also found some sort of note, which I’ve transcribed below. It appears to be just a receipt for some chems. It includes the typical raider writing style of barely comprehensible grammar, abhorrent spelling, and illegible hoofwriting, but I’ve tried to copy it as faithfully as I could. When we got back to the cave around sundown, we found that Thunder Gun had already woken up. Apparently Pearly convinced Crystal to try some less-than-safe spells to get Thunder to heal faster. Chewed him out for a good hour about that. At least we can get moving again, which is good. We’ve run through far too much of our supplies being cooped up in this cave.
The Raiders Drug Receipt
Feends has receev caps for 4 barel of dash 5 boks rage 3 kace buck.
721 caps payd.
And here’s my translation/interpretation:
The Fiends (probably the name of a raider gang) have received payment in caps for 4 barrels of dash, 3 boxes of rage, and 3 cases of buck.
721 caps were paid for the dugs.
It’s worth noting that that is a shit ton of drugs. Probably means that there’s quite a large gang out there. Or just a smaller gang hopped up on a ridiculous amount of drugs. Either way, we better keep our guns loaded.
One last thing: where the hell did they find that many chems? And for only 720 caps? That’s cheap as fuck! Not that I would know or anything. Anyway... there has to be some large group somewhere supplying those chems, so we better watch out for them as well.
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Expedition to Stable 34, Day 32, 8th day of the 4th moon,
Once again got on the road today. Despite the worries raised by our findings yesterday, the road has so far been raider-free. Can’t say the same for other creatures though. Seems like every radscorpion for a thousand miles has made up it’s mind to have us for dinner. they’re easy enough to kill, so I’ve been taking care of most of them with my power hooves to save ammo. They haven’t really caused us much trouble besides just being annoying. Only time I ever felt in actual danger was when six of them tried to gang rape me (hopefully only figuratively). One of them managed to tear a hole in my armored Followers lab coat with it’s claw and give me a minor flesh wound. I was fixed up inside of five minutes with a few magically imbued bandages. The worst part was that it stained my lab coat blood red.
Speaking of the lab coat, might as well say a little bit about that since I have nothing else to say today. The Armored Followers Lab Coat is the standard dress for all traveling Followers of the Apocalypse missionaries, archeologists, and doctors. It consists of an off white colored light trench coat (similar to my natural coat color, but a little lighter). It has sleeves for you forelegs, but is open in the back like a dress that’s been altered for greater mobility. It has a Followers cross on both sides of the flank, right over your cutie mark. For protection it has extra layers of leather underneath, along with pieces of plate armor covering your torso. Overall it has some decent protection. Not quite as good as combat armor, but decent. Even though the FoA armored lab coat is standard dress on these type of expeditions, Me and Crystal are the only ones who actually wear it. Cherry doesn’t like to wear armor and CR has some Enclave tech flight suit his parents gave him.
Oh yeah, one more thing. Our newly-working radio was able to get us some news from back home. Apparently the storm that hit us also moved up into the Civilized Lands, making it as far north as the Ponyville ruins. Freaked a lot of folks out. Apparently it caused some civil unrest when an angry mob blamed it on pegasi. Even after almost 25 years, some of the older ponies still hold grudges against the pegasi, even though virtually all denounced the Enclave long ago. Racism at it’s finest.
I guess that’s it for today. If we can keep up the pace we made today we should make it to the base of those hills in about three days. Only a month after we had originally planned.
