We’d made good time, easily covering close to twenty miles along the old highway. Behind us, Crossroads had long ago faded behind the tall mesas and hills of the terrain. Ahead of us, the highway stretched out across the Wasteland for as far as I could see, its surface cracked and pitted by age and the environment. Large chunks of the asphalt had shattered over time, and lay in piles all about the road; forming large potholes in many places. Larger sections of it were simply buried below the sand, the only way we knew we still followed it was by the road signs and old billboards we passed that rose up out of the piles of sand and dirt. According to both my new companions the road would take us past Steeldome, but we’d need to follow a side road to find the settlement. Looking up at the two, I found them a very odd pair. The down to earth Stonehoof and the brash, hot tempered Wildfire. The two had been talking for the past several hours about a good deal of subjects, and I listened in as they talked between themselves on yet another topic.

It seemed at the moment that the subject of conversation was on the pros and cons of their respective weapons. Which one had the better range and accuracy, which one was better for what type of targets and which one would be more likely to remove the ears from a raider at so many feet. I snorted softly and shook my head, letting them carry on, looking around the countryside as we trotted past.

After a while, they finally stopped arguing over who’s was best and had started upon a new topic: namely food and I quickly wished they’d returned to the former once they got on the subject. While I knew fresh food would be an issue on the surface, most of the stores back in Crossroads had been selling one hundred and fifty year old canned food and bags of chips. I figured they had to have other sources of food and had heard talk of farms growing some fruits and vegetables with limited success. The meal I’d shared with Rose had been proof of that, but there was something else I hadn’t expected: I didn’t expect to hear them talking about the proper way to cook a radroach. I listened in for the first few minutes and immediately decided to never let either of them cook my meals. Ever. Balking at the talk of how to tell if a thorax was properly cooked, I busied myself looking to the faded billboards to take my mind of the conversation happening just ahead of me.

Most were far beyond hope of ever making out what they had been of, and more than a few had been used for target practice at some point in the past hundred and seventy years (I wondered who’d waste bullets to put holes in signs anyway? Did somepony just have the rounds to spare?). A few however offered me a glimpse of the past, and what life had been like in Equestria before the bombs. Before Stables and the Wasteland.

The first real noticeable one we passed, that I could actually make out, had been of some drink. The sign depicted a very nice looking pink earth pony mare with a poofy mane and tail and very nice flanks. She had three balloons for a cutie mark. She was lounging back at what appeared to be a beach; a colorful umbrella propped up beside her (at least it had been colorful, a century and more had faded the hues to little more then grays). Her smile, despite the aged look of the rest of the sign, was still as bright and happy as ever. In her raised hoof, she was holding a glass bottle of something called Sparkle Soda. A caption below the picture read, ‘One sip and you’ll be hooked...FOREVER!’

I chuckled and looked away, though not after eyeing the cute mare up a bit more. Idly I thought of Rose back in Crossroads, she had been cute as well. Again I thought of the red mare and smiled, before shaking my head and looking back across the dry landscape around me. No, best not think about that just yet, once my sister was safe then I could think about settling down. It was several minutes before we reached another sign that had survived the years intact.

It appeared as we rounded a bend in the road, sitting atop a rocky hill we followed the highway around. Like the billboard before it, this one was badly faded from age and weather. This sign had a gray earth pony stallion with a brown mane holding up one of his forehooves. Behind him was a green glowing mushroom cloud rising up from a city; despite the grimness of the scene, the buck was grinning. He wore what looked like a very early model Pipbuck, but instead of the normal green glow and outline of a pony on its screen, it showed a very large clock. This one too had a caption below it, and said simply, ‘Timex Geiger Counter: Takes a licking and keeps on ticking’.

I rolled my eyes, oh you have got to be kidding me. I shook my head and looked back ahead of me, my two friends had gotten several paces in front, and I hurried to catch up. As I neared them, I heard the subject of the conversation had changed once again, thankfully. I doubted my stomach could handle talk about what spices went best with roach meat. My ears perked up as I caught a snippet of what Stone was saying:

“Ah’m tellin’ ya, it was a secret government research facility for th’ war.” Looking sideways to the pegasus beside him, the earth pony’s green eyes narrowing slightly as the mare simply snorted and looked over to him with a grin.

“Fuck. You dirt ponies, don’t even know your own history.”

“Kinda hard to know one’s histories when all th’ schools burned to th’ ground and took all them books with’em...,” Stone muttered, shaking his head and flicking his ears back a bit in irritation.

“What are you two arguing about now?” I asked, trotting up to them quickly and placing myself between them. Stone looked up as I stepped up, and started to answer before Wildfire cut him off and spoke with a chuckle.

“Stone over here was just telling me what the ponies around Crossroads think Steeldome was before the end. A fucking secret laboratory for creating alicorns...” She began chuckling as Stone gave her a sour look and looked away muttering.

For my part, I glanced over to Stone and arched a brow. Was that even possible? No, of course not, that was just crazy. I mean there had been few alicorns in the world to begin with, and they had been goddesses able to move the sun and moon with the power of their magic, that wasn’t something you made in a lab. My fellow earth pony grunted and shook his head once more making his hat slide back, reaching a hoof up he pulled it back in place before explaining to us.

“That’s what Ah always been told anyway...” Looking past me to the mare, Stone narrowed his eyes and asked, “So, tell me, oh high and mighty pegasus, what was it?”

I followed his gaze back to Wildfire and the mare shut her mouth, looking hurriedly away from us and back to the road ahead. She had no idea it seems, and Stone picked up on her sudden change as well. With a grin slowly coming across his face he cocked his head to her and asked.

“Well, shot. Ya got no real idea, do ya’s?”

“Yes...I’m just not one hundred present it’s accurate...and unlike SOME ponies, I don’t go around spreading rumors,” she shot back, ears folded against her head and her nose turned up a bit. Stone simply chuckled and shook his head once more before looking forwards.

“Well, granted what you’ve been told may not be correct, I’d still like to hear what it was.” I was curious now about this place to which we were traveling. All I really knew was it was called Steeldome and some ponies living inside it owed Wildfire a favor. It hadn’t appeared on any of the maps we had back in the Stable, so it must have been new. Or it had indeed been a secret of the government before the war. Eyeing us both up, the mare sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Hell. Fine. This was back when I was still a member of the Enclave, working as one of their wing commanders. But according to the information I had been given and what little the locals told me the first time I was there, Steeldome had been built by Stable-Tec. It was suppose to be a sealed experiment to see if it was viable to grow food in space.”

“And ya tell me Ah’m nuts for believin’ what it is,” Stone snorted when she finished speaking, earning a glare from the pegasus.

“Really?” I asked hurriedly before they could start arguing again. I swear they argue like an old married couple. So, the same ponies who had built the Stables had also built this place. Interesting, had it been the test bed for the actual Stable design or had they built it afterwards? I was starting to look forward to seeing this place.

“Yes...well, at least that’s what I had been told,” Wildfire explained, looking away from Stone’s grinning face to mine, “After the moon landing, there was talk about actually colonizing it or in building some sort of Stable in orbit. Fuck if I know all the details, but it was rumored to be run by the Ministry of Technology and Peace. It was likely just a waste of money, like so many other things the Ministries did during the war.”

“Sooo, what is it now?” I asked. I didn’t imagine anypony from the Ministries were still around to run the place, and I also doubted anypony was thinking of going into space anytime in the near future. Although given the state of the world, it might not be a bad place to go.

As we talked, the highway began to rise up along a low rocky hill: a few cactus stubbornly grew alongside it in spots, but its sides mostly lose slate and rock. Luckily, it was easy going due to the flat pavement we followed, our hooves making a steady clopping sound with every step. It was Stone who answered my question.

“A settlement, like most other places across th’ wasteland. From what Ah heard, it’s run by th’ descendants of th’ ponies who first ran th’ place.” As he spoke, the earth pony kept his eyes focused towards the top of the hill, “As ya no doubt noticed, not a lota bombs fell around these here parts. Not much worth blowin’ to hell and back.”

“No argument there,” Wildfire said, glancing around us, beyond a few rocks and the odd rusting highway sign, there was little else around us, but I knew they meant this part of Equestria. Not like it was back east; you couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a major city or large town. The west had always been sparsely populated by ponies, it had been the dominion of the Buffalo tribes that roamed the flat country and a few small dens of Diamond Dogs further to the south. That’s not to say ponies hadn’t settled in places. Kanter City, San Ponsico and Las Pagasus were all cities built and filled with ponies. At least they had been.

“There was still radiation, mostly from th’ fallout of th’ cities that did get blasted ta rubble,” Stone continued, “Only ponies who survived did so in th’ Stables, in underground tunnels and mines, or in large sealed buildings...like Steeldome.”

As our hooves took us to the top of the hill, we were greeted by more flat country before us. Yet, off in the distance to the west, I could easily make out another large stone hill rising up from the plains; it was off the road however, and the only real noticeable feature for some miles. Further beyond it, I could just make out a long winding line across the flat ground. A glint from its surface in the dying light of day pointed at it most likely being a river. Everything was a mix of browns and reds, from the plains, further on back along the distant horizon the colors changed to a mix of gray clouds and low, dark mountains.

Looking away from the horizon, I watched the highway below me wander its way across the plains and disappear off towards the far distant hills and mesas to the east; back towards San Ponsico and Las Pegasus. Despite it all, there was some beauty to the view before me, but I had little time to really take it in: beside me, my friends began walking once more, trotting down the hill we had just climbed up. Reaching the bottom, Wildfire added to Stone’s explanation of Steeldome as a breeze blew up and ruffled her long red mane and feathered wings.

“Steeldome is just what it sounds like, kid, a fucking big ass steel dome. Large enough to hold a city block or more and built into the side of a hill. Must have taken them sometime to do it, but they managed to hollow out most of the hill and down into the ground below it, fuck if you earth ponies aren’t a tenacious lot.” She grinned over her shoulder to Stone and myself, “Then they built within, under and atop it,” she said, trotting beside me. Stone meanwhile, had made himself busy looking ahead of us for something along the road, “and sealed the place up tighter then one of the princesses’ p...”

“Ah, reckon he gets th’ idea, Wild.” Stone cut in quickly before Wild could finish another of her colorful adjectives. She never seemed to run out of them and Stone simply snorted and went back to looking as the pegasus grinned happily. I rolled my eyes and chuckled despite it all. After a few more minutes of silence Wildfire pressed on.

“Anyway...when the shit hit the fan, the sealed environment inside Steeldome allowed the ponies who had been inside to survive. Surprisingly, most of them were smart enough to stay inside.” She tilted her head to the side as we stopped walking, Stone waving us to wait where we were while he checked on something ahead of us. I checked my E.F.S. and saw no threat within range so I relaxed and looked back to Wild as she added with a grin, “Which is sort of odd, given it was a government run place and it was never said ponies who worked for the government were the lightest clouds in the sky.”

“How did you end up meeting the ponies who live there?” I asked her, and the grin faded somewhat from her face and she quickly looked away from me and over to Stone. The earth pony was just now returning from his search alongside the road.

“That’s a long story and not one I wish to get into at the moment, kid.” I wondered if it had something to do with Kanter City. She quickly changed the subject however before I could dwell on it any longer, “It seems Stone may have found us a place to rest for the night.”

“Ah reckon Ah found us th’ perfect spot,” he pointed a hoof back across his shoulder to a slight hill that rose up from the edge of the highway where I could just make out a large set of ruins near the edge of the hill half buried in dirt and fallen rocks. We followed him as he turned to head back.

As we approached the spot, I saw he’d found the ruins of what had been some type of restaurant. It was little more then the remains of a wooden frame and bits of metal scrap half buried in sand and rocks that had rolled off the side of the hill. It was overgrown by sickly looking brown weeds. There were a few other details about the pile of rubble that pointed to its past: a ruined bar ran along the length of the ruins, rusted and buckled in several places, broken bar stools lay in the rubble or stood half buried in sand and dirt. Behind it all were several ruined stoves and other cooking appliances. There was even a rusted metal box; what must have been a refrigerator sat lopsided in the dirt. Off to one side of the ruins was a half broken toilet and tub.

Wildfire trotted through the rubble and back to what had once been a kitchen. The mare grinned and looked over the rusting fridge, placing her hoof against the half broken handle she began to pull, with some effort she managed to yank the door open with a groan from its rusted metal hinges. She shoved her head into the empty box and grunted unhappily. Inside were the broken remains of shelves and a few broken pieces of dishes. Thrusting her leg inside she pulled out a intact coffee mug and smirked at it.

“Awww...and here I was hoping to find something to drink.” Sniffing it, she tossed it away, sending it bouncing loudly across the ground until it rolled to a stop beside my hoof. I glanced down and lightly pushed it away.

Looking away from the mug and the pegasus, I looked over to Stone as he began removing his saddle bags and dropping them to the ground in the center of the ruins. Stepped away, he began inspecting the wooden frame of the ruined restaurant. There was little to see really beyond the few things I had already spotted, just a few beams sticking up out of the dirt in places. As I watched, he produced a knife from a sheath on his right foreleg and began cutting away chunks of wood.

I trusted the older earth pony’s judgement; after all, he and Wildfire had been surviving on the surface for a lot longer then I had. I moved over near Stone’s dropped packs and began unbuckling mine. I hadn’t realised how heavy they had been until I slipped them off. Sitting down next to them I glanced over as Stone began tossing pieces of wood back towards us. Once he was satisfied he had enough, he began pushing stones together in the center of camp. After he had a rough circle formed around the pile of wood scraps he looked over to me.

“So, why don’t ya tell us a bit about yerself, Shadow?” Stone asked, as he began working on his pile of wood scraps he had collected. He had produced a flint from his pouch and was even now attempting to strike up a fire. Sitting across from the earth pony, Wildfire glanced from his work to me and tilted her head.

“I can’t imagine there’s much to tell,” she said as she unbuckled her saddle bags letting them slump off her back to land in a small cloud of dust. Flapping her wings a bit, she blew the cloud away from herself and into Stone. The earth pony snorting and waving a hoof at the dust settled around him. Grinning, she loosened her battle saddle and more carefully laid it across her packs.

“There’s really not...,” I began, not sure where to begin really, they already knew why I was here “...I was born and raised inside Stable 45. Worked in security with my father, and took over when he was forced to retire.”

“Really? With that cutie mark I figured you were the Stable’s gardener,” Wildfire said with a grin and a point of an orange hoof at my flank. She looked back to where Stone was having little luck with the fire. The mare stood up, and walked over towards the small pile of wood scraps and the gray earth pony flexing her wings as she walked.

“Hmm...ya should know, a pony’s cutie mark don’t define him or her,” the earth pony said, narrowing his eyes on the stack of wood scraps and the lack of a fire. Behind him, Wildfire leaned over his shoulder and looked over his progress, which only caused Stone to mutter to himself. The mare grinned to Stone and pulled away.

Without a word, she removed something out of a pouch built into her armor, a pack of cigarettes. Holding the pack up to her mouth, she withdrew one and slipped the pack back where she’d gotten it. From the same pouch, she pulled out a pack of matches, breaking off a single match she proceeded to strike it across Stone’s backside. All the earth pony could do was blink in surprise at the sudden feeling along his flank, but most surprisingly it actually lit and she calmly placed the flame to her cigarette.

Turning to glare at the pegasus, Stone reached back and rubbed a hoof over his hind quarters as she took a few puffs of her cigarette and smiled down to him. He was just about to speak when Wildfire winked to him and tossed the still lit match into the scraps of wood, setting the dry pile alight almost at once in a burst of flames.

Whatever he was about to say was lost as he yelped and fell backwards away from the sudden jet of flames that rose up near his face. He was not quite fast enough, the edge of his cowpony’s hat catching on fire. With a muffled yell, he tossed it off his head and began to stomp on it with his hooves trying to put it out.

“Whoops...,” the pegasus said with a grin and settled herself back down beside her packs and looking back to me, “Well, it’s just according to the few Stable ponies I’ve talked with or ever heard of, I thought your cutie mark determined your roll in your Stable.”

“I suppose that was true for the first few years of the Stable, but after the third Overmare took over we were allowed to make up our minds on what we wanted to do,” I answered, looking over as Stone seemed to have put out the small fire on his hat (which as far as I could tell looked much the same).

“What's it like livin’ in a Stable?” Stone asked, as he picked up his battered hat and carried it over to his bags. Tossing it atop them, he sat down and began digging into his packs for something.

“Well...it was a very close knit group of ponies, I suppose like any real small community. There wasn’t many secrets between us, after all everypony knew everypony else and in many cases were related in some form or another. With just over two hundred and fifty ponies calling it home, it was a bit cramped at times. Everypony had their duties in the Stable, from security and medical to maintenance and cooking. You worked hard to do your part to help maintain the Stable; it was common knowledge that your fellow Stable ponies depended on you in some form or another. The Stables were built to last, well I think they meant them to last. I doubted they expected things to clear out within a few months. I don’t know about the other Stables, but after a hundred and seventy so years, ours was not doing so good.”

“What do ya mean?” Stone finally pulled his head out from his saddle bag with something in his mouth and began to chew on it. Wildfire continued to smoke, laid back on her own packs and saying nothing, though her blue eyes remained fixed on my face as I spoke about my home.

“Well, our systems had been crashing left and right for a few years, a few causing some deaths.” At Stones questioning look I explained, “Nearly everything inside a Stable is run from computers; from the air we breath to the water we drink, it’s all controlled by a central system. If it goes down, the entire Stable dies along with everypony inside it.” He stopped chewing his food for a moment to think that over.

“I can’t imagine spending my entire life in one of those things,” Wild said, shivering slightly at the very thought. I couldn’t imagine pegasi being very fond of being underground or in any cramped space. They were born to fly, used to the open spaces of the sky.

“It was fairly common knowledge we’d someday be forced to abandon it. Most figured we had a few years left, that it wouldn’t happen in their lifetime. I think a few thought we’d never leave the Stable. If not for the attack by those raiders and the damage they did to it, I think we’d still be sealed up down there.”

“Ya mentioned sendin’ the others off to San Ponsico?” Stone asked between bites, “How’d ya all know where to go?”

“We’d been sending teams up to the surface for awhile, ever since the radiation levels had dropped enough to safely allow it. On one trip, my father was leading, they managed to repair the old radio tower atop the hill Stable 45 was built under. It had been meant to keep the Stable updated on events across the planet, in the event somepony survived the attacks. I guess it had been damaged by a storm sometime over the past hundred and fifty years.”

“Likely enough, sand storms and rain storms can get a might bit nasty round these parts.”

“Well, regardless, they got it fixed. There was only a single signal we could pick up, Luna’s News Radio, so we began listening to Three Horns. After a couple years, we learned a bit about the surface and decided San Ponsico sounded like the best choice if we were ever forced out.”

“Three Horns? That crazy old bitch on LNR?” Wildfire piped up, grinning, her earlier discomfort forgotten, “I swear she must be like a hundred years old by now.”

I blinked in surprise, looking over to her as she said that. Granted we’d been listening to her radio messages for the past forty years but still. A hundred years old? Nopony before the war lived that long, and I highly doubted anypony now lived long enough to get old and gray.

“Ask anypony around the fucking Povoni Desert and you’ll hear the same thing, Three Horns has been broadcasting across the wasteland for the past one hundred years...perhaps more. But then, there’s another radio pony back east doing the same thing...Pon 4 or something,” she answered with a smirk and a puff of her smoke.

“Really?” I asked, looking to Stone, the earth pony swallowed the last bite of his food before he spoke up.

“Rightly far as we know, yeah, that’s about th’ jest of it. And Ah think it’s DJ Pon 3 out east, Wild.”

“Whatever.” She waved her hoof dismissively at the response before continuing, “I say it’s a robot...hell or maybe one of them damned ghouls that still have all their marbles,” the mare said, tossing her spent cigarette away. The burning tip left a red trail as it arched through the air to land amid the fire.

Wait, wasn’t she the one who said she didn’t like spreading rumors? I grinned and then thought on what she’d said. Interesting...if what she was saying was true, was I right in sending Sugar Pie and the rest of Stable 45 to San Ponsico? No. Rose and Lily had said the city was controlled by ponies, and largely a safe place to be. And, regardless of what or who Three Horns was, she sounded as if she generally wished to help.

“So, you sent your entire Stable to head out west to the safety of San Ponsico and you come east looking for your sister?” Wildfire asked and I nodded my head, causing her to grin back at me, “Well, that’s either the bravest thing I’ve ever heard, or the dumbest.”

“Well...Ah heard a bit of it from Lily and Rose...Ah think it’s a mighty brave thing ya doin’ Shadow,” Stone spoke up, earning a snort and a roll of blue eyes from Wild as she settled back against her pack.

“Like I told Rose, I’d never be happy not knowing, and if there’s even a chance...” shaking my head, I’d been over this before. Three or four times now it almost seemed. I looked back up to the two ponies beside me, “Well...that’s a bit about myself, so how about you two?”

“Well, Lily told ya most of my story. Ah worked with mah brother in his mine for a few years, before that Ah was a caravan guard and went all over th’ wasteland. Even made a trip or two across th’ mountains and into places like Manehatten and New Appleloosa. Always stayed clear of the Hoof though, heard a few bad stories about that place,” Stone spoke while digging around inside his pack once more, this time he quickly found what he was looking for and pulled out a small black box. Popping the latches, he opened it, and I saw what amounted to a cleaning kit for a gun. Cloths and oils and a few tools sat snugly in the foam lined case.

“The Hoof?”

“Hoofington, it’s back east, between Kanter City and Manehatten, lota swampish ground and ruined highways around that place. I flew over it once to reach Manehatten. Fucking place is worse than anywhere else in this goddesses forsaken wasteland,” Wildfire said, eyes narrowing as she mentioned the place. If it was bad enough to make the brash pegasus uneasy, it was clearly a place I planned on staying far, far away from.

“Right enough, if yer smart, ya stay clear of th’ place,” Stone added as he began cleaning his rifle carefully, then looked up to the orange mare, “And what about ya, Wild?”

Wildfire sat there for a bit, head propped up on her saddle bag and eyes fixed on a some faraway place. For a moment, I didn’t think she was going to answer Stone’s question, she’d told me a bit about her past back in Crossroads, but never more than was necessary. I got the feeling something from her past was troubling her, more so than her bold manner showed.

Stone shrugged and looked away, going back to his weapon. He blew softly into the bolt of his rifle and flicked it back easily. I was about to ask something to break the silence when she finally opened her mouth and began to speak.

“Born and raised in the Enclave up in Stormport.” She tossed a hoof back west before pressing on, “Followed in my father and brother’s hoofsteps and joined the army when I was old enough. Was a family thing. I was good at what I did, and it got me command of my own wing for a time, father was always so proud of me for that...least till things became... complicated.” I had to wonder what happened to cause her to be banished. She said last night she’d screwed up somehow, but never what. From what I gathered from our conversation, she’d begun to question the Enclave, perhaps that was the answer.

“After that, I got booted out of Stormport and the whole fucking Enclave, and started wandering the wasteland on my own. As I’m sure Stone could tell you, life isn’t easy for a mare on her own. So I joined up with a griffin merc group for a while back east calling themselves the Black Talons, then I got bored with taking orders from birds and took off on my own.” She mentioned to me last night two others she’d been banished with. A slip perhaps? She left them out this time, and I decided not to press the issue. If she didn’t want others to know, then fine, but I did wonder what had become of them.

“Griffin’s? Nasty bunch of cap mongers them birds,” said Stone as he finished cleaning his rifle he laid it gently atop his bags, within easy reach, and added, “Seen a few fly into Crossroads a time or two in th’ past few months. Bossy and loud. Never rightly cared for’em.” Them mentioning griffins got me thinking about something Wild had said back in Crossroads.

“Didn’t you say there were griffins working with the raiders in Kanter City?” I asked, looking from Stone to Wildfire.

“Yeah, they’ll take any job really, so long as it pays,” glancing away from the sky to look my way as she answered.

I frowned and leaned back against my pack. All I knew of griffins was from school and history tapes. They, along with dragons had worked with the Zebras during the later parts of the war, countering the ponies near dominance of the sky with pegasii. One would think a several ton scaled creature that breathed fire would make the fight more sided with them, however pegasii were very agile flyers and had given the dragons a run for their money. I recalled a group named the Shadow Bolts taking down a fair number of the large things, lead by somepony named Rainbow Dash, I think she’d been a well known pony in the government back then. One of the Ministry Mares if I wasn’t thinking of somepony else.

“Well, we’ve still a long walk ahead of us tomorrow, might wanna grab some sleep while ya can. Ah’ll take first watch.” Stone rose from the ground and dusted himself off. Leaning over he picked his rifle back up and swung the strap back around his neck. With a flick of a hoof, he tossed his hat up and let it land perfectly atop his head.

“Alright, I’ll take second watch, the kid can go last.” Wildfire yawned and stretched out, wings spreading open wide before she tucked them back against her body tightly and rolled over onto her side to get some sleep. After a few minutes, I heard the sound of her soft breathing as she drifted off.

Yawning myself, I was about to settle in for some sleep when I suddenly remembered the package Rose had slipped into my packs that morning. Turning over, I reached over to my packs and opened up the flaps to look inside. It was easy enough to spot, a white cloth package wrapped with a thin black cord, picking it up with my teeth, I sat the package down beside me. Easily, I snapped the cord holding it closed with a hoof and began unfolding the cloth from around the bundle.

Inside I found three healing potions sitting snugly against one another along with a package of something called Buck and a few packs of dried food. As I lifted the potions up, I noticed there was something else below them. Sitting the glass bottle down beside me and unpacking the food, I unfolded the remaining white scrap of cloth and found at least three dozen brass bullets staring back up at me. 7.62mm rounds, meant for my assault rifle I had sat beside my shotgun. Beside these I found two grenades and a note. Picking it up, I read over the carefully written text by a skilled hoof...or rather horn as I was fairly sure it had been written by Rose: ‘In case you come across anything too big for your shotgun again.’

“That’s some thank you...” I thought back to Rose’s words about the package and smiled. Sorting through them quickly, I began putting the items away in my packs. Once I was happy everything was tucked away, I lay my head down and tried to get some sleep.

I was just about to drift off when I heard the mournful howl of a wolf or wild dog off in the distance and my eyes snapped open.

This open space was going to take some getting use to...

The night passed quickly, and it seemed nothing was interested in approaching our camp in the darkness, or more likely there was nothing in the area to worry about.

As we broke camp, I glanced up into the sky and noticed off in the distance a darkening patch of clouds. I pointed it out to Stone, who was nearby strapping his saddle bags across his back. The gray earth pony looked up to where I pointed and narrowed his eyes on the dark patch.

“Looks like we have ourselves a storm brewin’.” With a flick of his tail he stepped over to the embers of our camp fire and began kicking dirt atop the still glowing coals with a hoof.

“For once the dirt pony is right,” Wildfire called out, landing in a cloud of dust beside us, “That’s a natural storm building up there, since the war we don’t exactly do much with the weather anymore expect to maintain the cloud cover.” The pegasus had taken a short flight around the area, to look for any signs of trouble; part of me was thinking she just needed to fly. She moved over to her own packs and began to slip them on over her battle saddle. As I watched, she flicked a switch on the firing bit of her weapons, and with a soft hum of motors the barrels of the rifles slid back on themselves. Once back, she more easily got the packs on and tied. Hmm, that was useful.

“Ah reckon we should reach Steeldome before it hits,” Stone added, picking up his rifle and swinging the strap across his head and hat, the gray pony turning to eye the road before us.

“Well, we’d better get moving then.” Having finished securing my own packs I began checking the rest of my gear. My shotgun was fine, a bit of dust had gotten into it last night, a quick puff of air blew it out from the trigger and stock before I slipped the strap across my head, letting it drop around my neck and rest against my chest. The assault rifle already rested against my back out of my way for the time being, I trusted my shotgun more. The grenades Rose had sent with me now hung from my chest armor in places I could easily reach them. Lastly Raging Buck was secured in its holster and strapped to my left leg, a bit easier to reach in a hurry, then just under my head.

With everypony ready we started back down the highway, leaving the ruined building behind us. A rumble of thunder from over head drew my attention back to the darkening sky and I noticed a distant flash of lightning far off. The scent of rain reached my nose a second later as a breeze began to blow from the north. I looked back down to the road and quickened my steps.

It took us barely two hours after breaking camp to reach the point where we’d be leaving the highway behind. At the edge of the road, another branched off and ran off through the flat dry plains, curving off towards that large rocky hill I’d seen the day before. Beside the new road stood a small single story building, it was in far better shape than the one we had stayed in the night before. Made of bricks, it had few windows and only a single door facing the highway. The roof looked to have caved in some time ago, perhaps from a storm or just the passage of time, the few windows I could see were missing their glass, like so many other ruins I’d seen. The door was also wide open, and looking inside I could see mounds of dirt and trash heaped up around the small room. Behind the building was a tall chain link fence, easily eight feet in height. It would have been far more impressive, if not for the fact most of it had gone missing, or a large portion of it was twisted and half buried in the sand. Across the roadway, a gate had once stood, blocking off passage past the building, it too had fallen over sometime long ago, and sat rusting in the ground.

Stepping up to the new roadway, I noticed off to the side a half hidden sign blocked by the sickly brown scrub grass that grew in patches all across the area. As we walked past, I noticed it bore the royal seal of the Princesses and below it a notice was posted; ‘This is a restricted area.’ Please have your IDs ready. Needless to say, we ignored the warning and trotted past the building. Through a broken window, I saw another of the rooms, a desk half buried under the piles of trash and dirt, along with rusting out filing cabinets, chairs, and tables. I suppose it had been cleaned out long ago, and decided to not even bother with checking it out. Besides, the storm was quickly approaching and we were near our goal.

“Steeldome; ya remember Wildfire said it was built inside a hill?” Stone asked, as he trotted ahead of me. I nodded and he motioned his head towards the hill, “Well, that’d be th’ one.”

“It won’t take us an hour to reach it, but before we do, we should probably tell him about the rules,” Wildfire added, as she walked beside me, the mare had said little since we’d broken camp, and I wondered if it was due to where we were going, or if it was something else. I turned my eyes away from the hill and back to Stone as he nodded his head once again.

“Sure enough,” he answered, dropping back to walk beside us, the rumble of thunder rolled overhead, causing me to look to the sky above. Those dark clouds had been steadily moving towards us, and now they had finally reached us.

“Rules are simple and common enough, but this an’t like Crossroads. Th’ ponies here don’t rightly welcome outsiders, and aren’t rightly known for their hospitality.” As I recalled, the ponies who welcomed us at the gate had eyed us up as we passed, and most of the others had simply ignored us. Later they had warmed up to me, but that might have been due to me helping to save their water supply from radioactive-pony-eating geckos that spat acid (wow that just sounded crazy).

“Alright, so any I might need to worry about?” There was no sense in pissing anypony off if I could avoid it.

“Only one rule ya gotta know for sure. They don’t allow anypony to carry weapons inside their town. No exceptions to th’ rule.” I frowned at that, ears flicking back as I glanced down to my weapons. Well, I can’t really say I blamed them for that, after all it was their home they were letting ponies into. I’d likely had done the same thing back at the Stable if we had allowed strangers inside. Still, I had become somewhat attached to my weapons over the past few days, my combat shotgun was a piece of home and the revolver had saved my plot from that radscorpion. Well, so long as I get them back when we leave...

“Beyond that rule, it’s all simple stuff really. No fightin’, no stealin’, no makin’ passes at any of th’ settlers...” I blinked at that last and stumbled across a stone in the road, he almost seemed to slip it in hoping we wouldn’t notice. I glanced over to the earth pony beside me with a arched brow and perked ears. Was that really a rule? Beside me, Wildfire took notice as well and spoke up.

“Excuse me?” the pegasus asked as she walked in front of me to trot beside Stone, the orange mare narrowing her eyes on his face as she continued on, “I don’t recall that rule being on their little list of things not to do in their town, though honestly I can see why I might have missed it. Not a one of the stallions in the place I meet last time got even so much as a twitch from my wings,” she snorted softly.

Twitch from her what now?

“Well...ya see, last time Ah was here was with a trade caravan. Despite what Ah said, they still have a need for things they can’t rightly make themselves, things from around th’ wasteland. Ah was a might young back then and had just been paid a fair amount of caps...and...maybe Ah did have a bit too much to drink with my friends...and well, it had been a while...ya know...,” Stone began to explain uncomfortably, the earth ponies ears flicked to the side from embarrassment at what he was saying. I grinned, and here I thought this pony was a rock.

“Oh, you sly stallion you.” I couldn’t help it, the look I got from Stone only made me chuckle more.

“Oh sweet Luna’s horn...” the pegasus began to laugh beside him, “...so...was it any good?” she asked, nudging his side with a wing and wearing that trademark grin of hers, blue eyes sparkling with mirth. The question only serving to brighten the gray ponies cheeks as he looked away from Wildfire and back towards the road ahead of us.

“Wasn’t bad...mighta pushed my luck a bit with her sister though Ah reckon...,” he added with a grin of his own, Wildfire let loose a roar of laughter and slapped a hoof on his back. With a chuckle, I followed them up the road towards Steeldome. It felt good to laugh again, hadn’t been much reason to for the past week or so.

Luckily, Stonehoof managed to recover from his embarrassment as we grew closer to the large hill ahead of us. It looked natural enough, a mound of dirt and rock that rose up from the plains. While not as tall as Wildfire’s mesa, it was nearly eight times as wide. The roadway we followed drew closer to the hillside, and began curving around it, and as we trotted closer I began to notice something else about the hill. Bits of metal appeared to be sticking out at random all across its surface. So, this was Steeldome.

I began to turn towards my friends and ask if they had buried the dome back under the rocks when something about the metal caught my eye. I looked back and saw that the metal was not so much under the rocks and dirt, as a part of it. It looked almost fused to the stone around it, like it had been melted to it. Arching a brow, I stepped closer to the side of the hill to get a better idea of what was going on, but a bit of movement out of the corner of my eye caused me to quickly turn my head. I watched as a piece of metal began to flicker and fade before my very eyes, and then completely disappear. It was replaced by the same dark brown stone that covered the hillside, and much to the plains.

“What the hell was that?” I’d never seen anything like that before, pointing a hoof to the spot. Stone and Wild stopped and looked back to where I was pointing.

“According to what I was told before, when this place had been built, they had a good number of unicorns cast some powerful spells across the dome to camouflage it with the natural stone and coloring of the ground around it. It’s why it was never targeted by Zebra bombs; they never knew it was here,” Wild answered, trotting past me and up to the hillside, raising a hoof, she lightly tapped against the stone, and I heard the unmistakable sound of a hollow metal wall. I’d heard that sound often enough growing up in a Stable.

I gave the hill another look, and wondered just how much of it was real stone and how much of it was pony made. I suppose it made sense to enchant the place, it would be very difficult to hide such a large structure out in the open. Even if it was in the middle of nowhere, with few ponies living nearby, it was bound to be seen. Still it seemed a lot of trouble to hide a place that was suppose to be finding ways to grow food in space. Why didn’t they use this to hide the military bases...or whole cities from the bombs?

“The spells to mask the Dome’s true appearance have been passed down for generations and they recast the spell on areas where it has begun to degrade. Something’s causing an issue with maintaining them, and it’s been fading more quickly, least that’s what Fuse told me the last time I was here.” She gave the hillside another look, before turning away and returning to the road.

“Fuse?” I asked as I dropped into step beside her.

“Yeah...or rather Director Shortfuse, she’s the unicorn in charge of the Dome, sorta like a mayor or Overmare I suppose. Just be warned, once you meet her, she’s going to try and tell you all about how she’s descended from the original Director of the project here,” Wild rolled her eyes and snorted at the last bit.

After several more minutes of walking, we at last reached what appeared to be the entrance into the hill, a dark cave in the side of it. As we trotted closer, I could see that further back into the cave the walls had been reinforced by metal beams to hold back the weight of the stone over head. I could also see along the edges of the cave, signs that something had exploded here recently, within the past few years at least given that the blacked stone had yet to be worn away either by rain, wind or age. There’d likely been a door here, masking the entrance, but it had been blown away by something powerful.

I took a few steps towards the tunnel, when a sudden sound caught my ears and I halted.

“What the...,” I began to step away from the cave entrance and looked back to Stone and Wild as I heard the whirl of motors around me, followed by the sound of metal scraping against metal and the whoosh of air escaping a suddenly opened door. Turning to look to my right, I saw a hatch had opened half way along the ground near the tunnel. As the steel doors slide open fully, a round dome about the size of a wagon wheel began rising up, below it was a four barreled chain gun, which was pointing towards me. Beside it, was mounted a large box with a red lens and a targeted for the weapon. A beam of red light shot out from the marker and struck me right between the eyes. Oh shit...

My E.F.S. started flashing red dots on either side of me, alerting me to the presence of enemies. Little late thank you...wait...two?? A quick glance to my left confirmed my fears, as the turrets twin finished its rise from below ground and turned to point its frightening arsenal towards me.

“Well...I guess this saves us from having to ring the front bell.” I began to wonder if there was any chance in hell of destroying these things before they reduced me or my two friends to little more than chunks of pony littering the ground. Still, they had yet to fire, and that was a good thing, a moment later a voice rattled from the right turret.

“What is your business here?” The voice was that of a mare’s and sounded a bit annoyed at our presence. I somehow doubted she’d have much trouble telling the turrets to open fire simply for bothering her. Looking back to my right, I spotted the camera mounted just beside the targeter, and watched as the lens rotate slowly to zoom in on me. I was about to answer the question, when Wildfire took matters into her own hooves.

She calmly trotted up beside me, and into the line of fire from both turrets and turned her gaze towards the camera. A smile slowly spread across her snout, and she waved a orange hoof towards whoever was sitting on the other side of the screen before she spoke up.

“I’m here for that favor you guys owe me, Rivets, so open the damn doors and put away your toys.” She turned her blue eyes from the right turret to the left and cocked her head slightly, “Or have you forgotten about that?” she asked. After a few tense seconds, the turrets lowered their weapons and the red target lights went dark.

“No, I haven’t forgotten about what we owe you, Commander Sunsparkles, though we were beginning to think you had. Or had either moved on, perhaps killed,” the voice behind the camera said. Wildfire continued to stare down the turrets beside me, before with an annoyed sigh, the clank of gears and the hum of motors, the turrets finally began lowering back into the ground.

“Very well, the door’s opening, I’ll meet you at the base of the Tower in a few minutes. The guards at the entrance will see to your weapons, and do try and behave Commander...last time you were here it ended up causing us a bit of trouble.” With those words, Wildfire looked away from the turrets and frowned before she started towards the tunnel ahead of her.

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and started following her when I noticed Stone was not following. Stopping I looked back to the gray stallion and arched a brow, he was sitting down beside the road looking oddly at Wildfire.

“Something wrong, Stone?” in front of me, Wildfire turned back to see what was going on, and noticed Stone looking at her. She blinked and turned a bit to face him. Slowly, he began to smile and tilted his head towards the orange pegasus.

“Sunsparkles?” he asked, I wondered what the hell he was talking about when I remembered that was what Rivets had called Wildfire. I blinked. Oh Celestia. I looked back over to her, and found the pegasus’ ears pinned back against her skull and glaring razors at the earth pony.

“My father named me after his mother, we had the same coloring.” her wings ruffled up and opened slightly, “Got a problem with it, dirt pony?”

Stone chuckled and stood up from the ground, lightly dusting himself off a bit with a hoof before he started towards the tunnel, walking past me and Wildfire as he did. He glanced to the mare as he passed her and added lightly.

“Oh, nothin’...just found it sorta pretty and fittin’ is all.” I half snickered to that and awaited the pegasus hot tempered response. To my surprise, she said nothing but stood there as Stone stepped past her and into the tunnel beyond. I noticed a bit darker coloring to her cheeks, as she stood there, was that a blush? She ducked inside and past Stone before I could be sure, the earth pony glanced back to me and waved a hoof with a grin.

“Well, come on Shadow, don’t wanna keep’em waitin’.”

We followed the still flustered pegasus only a few steps into the cave before we were greeted by a familiar sight, at least for me it was familiar. A Stable door stood before us within a dark gray metal wall, slowly began to sink back into the frame, with the soft groan of metal. Unlike my former home, there was no number on the large gear shaped door, only a name; Steeldome. After a few seconds, steam escaped from narrow cracks in the door as it began to roll slowly to the right and behind the wall. I suddenly could believe this place had been built by Stable-Tec.

As I stepped across the thick frame of the door, and entered into the room beyond, it was like stepping into home again. Clean gray walls and floors outlined the room in a perfect square, in several spots along the floor plating were grates leading to wires and ducts below the floor. Along the walls were the usual vents and various bits of electronics and metal pipes that ran the length of a Stable. Over head, the lighting came from the soft glow of panels built into the ceiling itself, humming softly as they ran. It was a very familiar sound, one I had not noticed I’d missed. There were two doors that granted access into the room, not including the door behind us, and both were closed. The back of the room was taken up by a large booth, inside behind a window I could see two unicorns standing working the controls in the room, and a doorway behind them. It must have been the control room, a shame we hadn’t had something like that for Stable 45, things may have been different. The glow of the consoles reflected off the faces of the ponies within the control room, and one appeared to be speaking into a mic on the side of his head. As he did so, the doors on either side of us clicked softly, and began to swing outwards, allowing seven well armed and armored ponies to swiftly file out and surround us.

My attention was torn away from the room and over towards the seven ponies that stood around us. I noticed that all seven were unicorns, and all seven had their automatic weapons floating beside them and pointed at us. They appeared to be far better cared for versions of the one I had across my back; the one I had taken off a slaver. Though, where mine had a wood stock, theirs had a folding metal stock. All wore barding similar to my own Stable security barding, complete with the annoying helmets and visors which were pulled down across their faces.

One of the guards floated a plastic container over towards us, and sat it down upon the floor. I glanced towards it, then over to Stone and Wild. I had an idea what it was for, and a second later I was proven right. Stone began pulling the strap for his rifle up and over his head with his right hoof, at the movement, half of the weapons pointing at us turned on him. He calmly looked down the barrels of the rifles and gently placed the rifle into the container, he next removed his knife and let it lightly drop inside. They turned away from him, and I felt rather then saw, seven pairs of hidden eyes turn on me.

Okay, my turn it seems.

I followed Stone’s example, and began by pulling off my shotgun, with my right hoof. I made sure the safety was still on, since the last thing we needed was for it going off as I sat it in the container beside Stone’s rifle. The old assault rifle soon joined it, before I moved to pull the revolver free from its holster along my left leg. As I pulled it slowly out with my teeth, I was more reluctant to let it go. After all, I had taken it from the home of a fellow law enforcement pony. With a sigh, I dropped it carefully into the container and allowed it to join the other weapons. The grenades came last, each placed inside the open box with a careful grip.

As I stood unarmed, they then looked to the pegasus who stood between Stone and I, Wildfire having watched as we disarmed stepped towards the container and grinned. She looked over the seven unicorns then over to us, her earlier embarrassment about her real name seemingly forgotten for the time being.

“My oh, my...nine big strong bucks waiting on me to undress in front of them...its a dream come true.” With a flick of her tail against Stone’s face and a wink to me, she began unbuckling her battle saddle from around her waist. She went about it quickly, knowing just how to get the straps out and off with little fuss. As the last buckle was released, a soft glow surrounded the large rig and it was simply lifted up and off her back to lay atop the rest of our weapons. With a nod to the guard who helped, she reached down to draw her sidearm, the pistol sliding free from its holster against her chest. It was an odd little weapon, I couldn’t see any slide or clip for it, nor did it look to have anything else a normal pistol would have on it. It was dropped in with the rest and I winced as I heard it strike something inside the box...like a grenade. Still, nothing exploded.

Still, it seemed it was not good enough, and two of the guards lowered their weapons and moved up towards us, their horns glowing brighter as they did. A third guard, floated away the box with our weapons inside it, sitting it beside himself as his two friends began to wave their horns over her packs and armor slowly, I arched a brow and looked over to Stone and Wild, but both my friends remained still and allowed them to work. Looking back to the green glowing horn near my chest, I remained still and let the pony finish his work. It was likely a spell to detect hidden weapons, I’d been friends with a number of unicorns, so I’d picked up a little bit on how magic worked, and Brightblade had mentioned reading about a spell that allowed a unicorn to do just that.

Satisfied we were carrying no hidden weapons, the two finished and stepped back beside the others, who, after a nod from one, lowered their weapons and relaxed somewhat. The one who had nodded, reached a hoof up and slid the visor up from his face, a pair of bright purple eyes appeared from behind it framed by a turquoise coat. He looked us each over, before settling on me, though his armor was much the same as the others, I noted a mark on his shoulder indicating rank. Was this my counter part? Chief of Security for Steeldome?

Finally, he smiled and loosened his helmet, near white gray strands of his mane fell loose from under it as he pulled it off his head, the helmet glowing as he levitated it over to hang off the side of his barding.

“Sorry about the welcome, but given the recent attacks by raiders we can’t be too careful anymore. My name’s Swiftwind, and I’m head of Security for Steeldome, I assume you all know the rules?” he asked. Beside him the remaining security ponies split up, two trotting towards the door to our left as it opened. Between them, they floated our weapons with them and stepped inside.

“Right enough, we both know th’ rules been here before and we explained’em to Shadow here.” Stone nodded his head towards me with that same friendly smile he always wore when speaking to other ponies, “Ah don’t reckon we’ll be stayin’ long, we’re just here to pick somethin’ up.” he added with a look to Wildfire.

“Ah, right, I see. Well, Director Rivets said to escort you to her once you were cleared. So if you’ll please follow me, I’ll show you the way.” Turning, the unicorn nodded to the ponies behind the glass, who worked the controls with their horns and hooves. A moment later, my ears twitched as I heard the right hatch click and begin to swing open, while behind us the large stable door began to grind its way closed. I glanced back and watched as the massive door slowly rolled back into position over the open hole in the wall and began to slide back into place in the frame. The sound of hoof steps caused me to turn away as the door sealed itself and I looked back over to the others.

Swiftwing had turned away from us and was trotting towards the now fully open hatch on our right, the remaining security ponies following closely behind him, their weapons now lowered and floating alongside them. Stone stood up and began following them, I was about to do the same when I noticed Wildfire hanging back a bit, a confused look on her face. Stepping over towards her, I looked closely to the pegasus and asked.

“Is everything alright?” She looked away from the others and over to me, a frown forming on her normally grinning snout.

“Fuse is the Director of Steeldome, not Rivets.” Blue eyes looking off towards Swiftwind as she answered me who had turned to see were we’d gotten ourselves. Stone glanced back as well, head cocked slightly as he noticed Wildfire’s look.

“Maybe she stepped down?” I offered as we started walking towards the others, the mare shook her head, “Well...it has been awhile since you’ve been here, things could have changed,” I pointed out. She looked back to me.

“Maybe...” by the tone of her voice, I could tell she didn’t believe it, but went silent as we approached Swiftwind and the others, Stone seemed about to ask something, when the Security Chief beat him to it.

“Everything okay?”

I looked over to Wildfire, who did not seem likely to answer the question, so I turned back to smile to the unicorn and nod my head quickly.

“Everything’s fine, I was just reminded of home seeing yours.” It was true enough, and it seemed a good enough answer for him, smiling back he turned and started walking again.

We’d entered into a short hallway, leading off from the entrance room, much like the one back home. The hallway was narrow, and lined with the same lighting panels as before, at the end was another doorway beside which a card reader sat, a single red light glowing on its silver gray casing. Swiftwind stopped before the door, and floated a card out from his barding. With a swipe of the ID card, there was a soft beep and the light turned from red to green on the reader. Another click, and the door was unlocked, with the soft blue glow from his horn, he pushed the door open and stepped through, the rest of us followed him inside and I stopped.

While Stone and Wild had both been telling me a little about Steeldome, they had not managed to do it justice. What lay beyond the doorway, was no less then a small town hidden below a massive metal dome and surrounded by a large orchard of trees. The green leafy orchard appeared to cover much of the space within the dome. We’d had only a small number of trees in Stable 45’s orchard level, and none as tall as these. The ground below the trees was covered in a pale green grass, growing between the roots. Most appeared to be fruit trees, though a few seemed to bare no fruit at all, perhaps the wrong time of the year? Or had they already harvested the fruit? A better question was, what did they do with all that fruit? If we’d had that amount back home we could have feed the whole Stable three times over, but then this was a far larger place than it had been, likely with more ponies. Still, that was a lot of food for one small town, and while Stone had said they didn’t trade often with others, I imagined this was the source for much of the Crossroad’s food supply. At least that food which wasn’t one hundred and seventy eight years old.

I looked away from the trees and off towards the town itself. It was half the size of Lonesome Hoof, though it had fared far better then that dead little down. Much like Crossroads, the buildings were made of native stone; the walls the same deep browns and reds of the rocks outside, and most were two stories in height. They looked in far better shape then Crossroads, likely due to the protection from the elements the dome offered. Another difference was in metal piping that ran along many of the buildings walls and roofs, before disappearing down into the streets below.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Swiftwind asked as I stepped up beside my friends. Impressive didn’t begin to cover it. I simply nodded my head. He began to trot down a street, and we fell in behind him, I was still looking around in amazement when suddenly I realized it was actually very bright inside the dome, brighter than it had been outside.

Looking up, I saw the dome itself had been long ago painted a light blue, to match the skies outside, or at least how they had been. Despite the lack of weathering, the paint had been fading over, and was now a pale blue. I spotted the source of the lighting easily enough, hanging along the curve of the dome’s interior were light panels, much like the ones back in the entrance room, but far larger and much brighter. I noticed a few were dark, blown out sometime in the past, but enough still worked to cast the entire dome in bright warm light, it was likely why the trees had grown so much taller then back home. I also saw something else, the top of a pillar that ran from the ceiling all the way to the floor of the dome. Following it back down, I saw it hidden away behind a cluster of buildings, likely the tower I had heard Rivets mention outside.

The road we followed appeared to lead us directly towards the tower, which I noticed seemed to be in the center of the buildings. Trotting across the cobblestone roads, we began to move towards it, Swiftwind leading us, my friends and I following closely behind. The security guards had remained behind near the hallway we’d passed, likely their posts. As we neared the buildings, I was not surprised to see a number of ponies moving about, going about their lives as we passed them, I was however wondering about something else. For a settlement this large, there seemed to be very few ponies around. Perhaps there were more inside, or off somewhere working in the orchards.

Back to the ponies themselves, there were the usual mix of unicorns and earth ponies, though there appeared to be far more unicorns. They all looked clean and healthy, a notable difference from the dirt covered ponies I’d seen in Crossroads, but then they had far better uses for their water then a bath. Steeldome likely had a working water talisman somewhere producing clean fresh water for them. No wonder the Raider’s wanted in this place, it was a treasure trove of food and water. Another difference about these ponies from those in Crossroads was simply how much more quiet they seemed. They looked at us as we passed, a few offering smiles or a nod, but little beyond that.

“You look like a stable pony,” Swift said, breaking the silence that had fallen over us, and offering a light smile towards me. I nodded my head in response and he looked back ahead of us, “Then this must all seem a bit familiar to you.”

“A bit,” I admitted, “But we had nothing this large inside Stable 45, our orchard level was not even a quarter of this size.” I was beginning to think you could fit the entire Stable inside this place and still have room for another two. I found myself wondering if this had been where Stable-Tec had first tested their designs for the Stables they built across the country. Had they used what they learned here to help make the Stables better? If this hadn’t been built for the Stables, then why? Was it really a test to see if they could grow large amounts of food inside a sealed environment for a moon base like Wildfire had been told? I couldn’t quite believe it, but I also couldn’t see any other reasons why they’d build something like this. Out in the middle of nowhere. Looking around, I decided there at least didn’t appear to be any secret labs for making alicorns. I smirked, looking back ahead of us as the buildings began to thin out.

We neared the base of the pillar, and I could see just how big the thing was, it appeared to be as big around as Rose’s saloon, and must have a good number of rooms and floors within it. Looking upwards, I noticed several windows along the surface of the metal tower, the walls themselves were cluttered with pipes, vents, and small and any number of other things sticking out from its metal skin. Looking back once more to the base, I noticed two ponies standing atop a set of stairs that lead to the entrance to the pillar, or tower as they called it.

One was a unicorn, her coat a deep slate gray, almost matching the walls of the tower behind her. Her short cut mane and tail were a deep black, nearly the color of my own coat. She wore a small necklace around her throat, with a odd gold cog pendent on the end. Her cutie mark was of a bolt and ratchet, as we drew closer to the base of the stairs I saw her dark brown eyes narrow a bit and a frown on her snout, before it was quickly replaced with a fake smile. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise up and was at once on alert. If this was Rivets, I could see why Wildfire had been displeased to learn she was in charge of Steeldome.

Beside her, stood a earth pony stallion, wearing a slightly soiled work vest and saddlebags, his rust red copper coat was equally covered in dirt, looking like he’d just come in from the field. His silvery white mane and tail were tied back by red bands to keep the loose strands of his mane from his purple eyes. His flank bore a shovel and spade cutie mark, he was likely the pony in charge of the orchards. Unlike the mare beside him, his smile seemed genuine and warm, he nodded his head to each of us.

“Hello, Rivets...I see you're moving up in the world,” Wildfire said, trotting to the front of our little group to look up at the gray unicorn, “Where’s Fuse at?” she asked. Rivets simply smirked and arched a brow to the pegasus standing before her. Both Swiftwind and the earth pony shared a look at the mention of Fuse’s name: worry filled the earth ponies purple eyes, as did Swifts.

“And it seems you’re moving down, Commander Sunsparkles, I see your as blunt and to the point as always.” The venom in her tone caused me to narrow my eyes slightly, and even Stone frowned to the words, for her part Wildfire snorted and awaited an answer to her question, “I’m sorry to say that our dear Shortfuse has fallen gravely ill, and is resting in her home at the moment.”

“Ill? How?” the pegasus asked, and I shared a glance with Stone beside me. It was the earth pony who answered, cutting off whatever Rivets had been about to say.

“She was out inspecting the front doors after a recent raider attack had damaged the outer wall in a few places. It seems we had suffered more damage then we at first thought as the sensors that warn us when something is near the Dome were off line...” At that, his purple eyes glance over to the gray mare beside him before he continues, “It also seems the noise of the raiders attack had attracted the attention of a pair of radscorpions. In the fight, she was stung by one of them before the guards could kill them. She’s been in a coma ever since.” His tone made me feel there was something more going on here then we knew, and it was bucking me in the face trying to get my attention.

I glanced to Wildfire, the pegasus’ only response to the news was to frown up at the unicorn, but she said nothing more. Ignoring the looks she was getting, Rivets turned to Swiftwind and waved a hoof towards the entrance.

“Thank you, Chief Wind, you may return to your duties.”

The turquoise unicorn nodded his head, before turning and trotting back the way we had come, disappearing around a building as I turned back towards the others.

“Oh, please excuse me, allow me to introduce Harvest, he’s in charge of our orchards and gardens here in Steeldome.” She smiled to the earth pony beside her, but again it seemed to lack any real warmth.

“Its my pleasure, I believe I already know two of you from past visits.” Harvest smiled to Stone and Wildfire before looking to me. Unlike Rivets, he did not seem insincere when he spoke, and I nodded to the pony, he reminded me of Greenbean, a earth pony who helped me learn about my special talent of growing plants. Most had just called the small earth pony Bean, which suited her just fine.

“Name’s Shadow, from Stable 45.” At the mention of a Stable, Rivets looked over me more closely.

“A stable pony? Hmm...I was unaware there was any unopened stables left in this area of the country.” She lightly tapped a hoof against her lip as she spoke, a thoughtful expression on her face, the only time I’d seen her look anywhere near normal thus far.

“Well, I hope you're managing in the Wasteland, I can’t imagine how much of a shock it must have been for you and the others from your Stable to come out and find how much Equestria has changed in the past one hundred and seventy years.” Harvest said, a look of excitement in his eyes.

“I’m...managing.” I answered simply enough, not ready to go into my whole story yet again, while Harvest seemed a likeable enough pony, I was still unsure on trusting Rivets.

“Well, I should really be returning to the fields over at the east corner of the wall, Spade was having some issues with the water pipes and I promised him I’d take a look.” Nodding to each of us, the earth pony took his leave and trotted off back down the road. That left us with the dark gray unicorn, who looked from me back to Wildfire and brought the subject back to the matter at hoof.

“Now then, you said you were here for that favor we owed you?” Turning, she began to trot towards the tower’s doors behind her, as she neared them they opened smoothly for her to pass.

“Yes, Fuse said she’d see to getting my sky chariot back up and running, we’re in need of it, so I’m here to collect,” Wildfire said as she started up the stairs behind Rivets. Stone and myself following behind the orange pegasus and through the double doors into the tower.

“Well, as I said earlier, we didn’t really expect to see you again, but work was done on your damaged chariot as Fuse promised.” As the doors shut behind us, I found myself in a large open room that seemed to take up the entire first two floors of the tower. The reason why was in the center of the room, where a large statue of Princess Celestia stood as a fountain, her majestic wings spread wide in greeting and smile across her beautiful face. From the tip of her long horn, water flowed down to the pool around her hooves. Looking away from the goddess of the sun, I looked to the walls and the pillars that had been built along it, between them were several benches and short tables with books laying atop them. I noticed a few vending machines in one corner of the room, along with a desk across from them. The entire room looked like some sort of waiting room for visitors to the Dome. Despite the more noticeable difference, I was reminded of the Atrium from home, the walls were still the same cold gray, and lighting was from the same light panels overhead. I glanced to the fountain and the statue in the center of it...almost like home.

We followed Rivets around the statue of Celestia, and towards the back of the circular room, where stairs spiraled around the wall to disappear into the floors above.

“The last report I seen on your little...project was that work on it had nearly been completed when a more pressing problem came up for her, and she was forced to reassign the ponies she’d had to it.”

“So, it’s not finished?” I asked, earning a look from Rivets as we climbed the stairs behind her, she reminded me of my school teacher a bit, if she had been a creepy ass bitch. Hmm...I think Wild’s rubbing off on me a bit. It’d been four or five years since Wildfire had first been here by her account, I found it hard to believe they hadn’t finished whatever it was. It seemed more likely they hadn’t even bothered with it, Rivets had said herself, they didn’t expect Wild to return.

“No, it’s not. I’m afraid the best pony we have to finish it is currently unavailable to complete the repairs as well.” We climbed to the fourth floor, and stepped out into another hallway passing several closed doors as we trotted through the narrow passage. We neared the end of the hall, and a closed door, as we approached the doors slowly opened and allowed Rivets into a small elevator. As Stone and myself stepped inside, I turned around to see Wild seemed less then thrilled about getting in the small space. With a grunt, she squeezed in beside me, her feathered wings felt odd pressing against my sides. With a soft white glow from her horn, Rivets pressed the sixth floor key on the control panel. I noticed there was a total of fifteen floors listed as we began moving up.

The trip lasted barely a minute before the we slowed and halted, the doors opening up and allowing us to step out. Wildfire was the first one out, muttering softly to herself as she flexed her wings; it was the closest I’d seen to fear on the pegasus since meeting her. Rivets only smirked and trotted past her, walking along another hallway towards a door at the end. Stone stepped up to the orange mare and patted her shoulder, before we hurried to catch up with the unicorn.

She’d entered a room beyond the door, and as we stepped inside I saw we were in a office of sorts, likely hers. A metal desk took up the center of the room, appearing to have been made as part of the floor itself. Along its surface was a console and several well worn books, along with a number of parts and bits of machines. The only other pieces of furniture within the room were a few metal cabinets along the wall to our right, and a few soft looking couches and chairs surrounding a wooden table. Along the plain metal walls of the room, I saw a row of pictures in wooden frames. Each was of a different pony, though each had three things in common. All were of unicorns, all were wearing the same golden pendant that Rivets was wearing, and all stood somewhere within the office as they had been painted. Past Directors maybe? Behind the desk, a large window looked out over a section of the dome I hadn’t seen from where we entered. Stepping closer, I looked out to see the trees had given way to flat gardens. Though I couldn’t make out much, I guessed it was where they grew their vegetables.

“Alright, Rivets...what is it you want?” Wildfire narrowed her eyes as Rivets walked around the desk sitting down behind it, turning the console on as she looked up to Wildfire, a smile on her lips.

“Well...I suppose if you're willing to help us, I could see about getting a few ponies reassigned to work on your little chariot,” the mare answered with that same cold smile, “Although in truth, you helping me helps you.”

“Oh? And how’s that exactly?” Stone asked from beside me, the earth pony had mostly been quiet since entering the Dome, and had been looking out across the field below the tower. At Rivet’s comment, he turned and looked back to the unicorn.

“As I’m sure you noticed, and well remember, the spells hiding the Dome from view have been failing faster then we can ever hope to replace them, and while a few know of this place’s existence, not every slaver or raider does. Once the cloaking spells fails, that will change.” Lightly, she typed a few buttons on her console and the lights in the room dimmed, suddenly a glowing green projection appeared in the center of the room, depicting the Dome and the surrounding landscape. I’d never seen anything like it before, nothing we had in the Stable could project such a image and in such detail. I slowly walked around the image and looked at over it, seeing the entrance way we had come in, and the road leading back to the highway.

“Despite the show of force at the front door, most of our defences stopped working about five years ago...I’m sure you can figure our why, Commander.” Rivets voice was hardly friendly, but once more it dropped as she looked to Wildfire and her smile turned far colder. The pegasus said nothing, but looked away from the unicorn, I arched a brow and wondered what was being left unsaid between the two. On the projection, several green dots (which I took for turrets or other weapon systems) winked out and went dark, leaving a very large gap for attackers to exploit.

“While Swfitwind and his security team are well trained, I doubt he can fend off a determined attack, I know his predecessor couldn’t even handle a few well armed and armored soldiers.” Again it seemed she directed her comments directly towards the pegasus.

“Get to the point,” Wildfire growled out, wings ruffled and ears laid back; seems Rivets had struck a nerve.

“My point is, we need another means of maintaining the cloak around the dome, at least until we manage to repair the defences that have been destroyed. To do that requires power, more power then we can currently generate. A couple of months ago, Shortfuse discovered records in our systems computers pointing to a possible answer to our power issues. It was a invoice from the Ministries of Technology indicating a power station not far from here was due to receive a new power talisman meant to replace a blown generator. According to these records it was to be delivered the morning of the attack.” Her horn glowed once more and the projection changed, moving away from the Dome and towards a collection of buildings across the plains, it looked to only be a couple miles away in fact, near the river I’d seen coming here. Beside it, power lines ran off towards the direction of Kanter City and a up the river to a very large dam.

“Shortfuse was injured before she could do anything with the information, and I only discovered it after taking over her role. I sent a team out to discover if it was still there, they radioed back that they had found the station and it looked to be undisturbed. They were going to check out the buildings the following day, but after we received a message saying they were entering the building, we lost all contact with them. It was decided it would be too risky to send another team out, we have so few ponies left who know how to maintain the systems here and with the risk of being discovered by the roving bands of raiders.” As she finished, I began putting the pieces together quickly enough and felt my ears perk slightly.

“So, you want us to go find out what happened to your team and bring the talisman back to you?” I asked, looking from the display to the unicorn behind the desk.

“Yes, you see the ponies that were sent are the ones most qualified to repair your chariot,” she quickly added before the projection faded out and the lights in the room returned to normal. I had seen that coming, honestly.

I looked once more to Stone and Wild, neither said anything, though I could see the distrust on Wild’s face. It was painfully clear Rivets and her had a history, and it had something to do with the reason the Dome’s defences were destroyed. That, however, would need to wait for another time, right now I had something else to think on.

“Its yer call, Shadow,” Stone said, looking from Wild to me and I grunted. Well of course it was, they were both here trying to help me, if not for that reason, they’d both be back doing whatever it was they were doing before I came along. I looked away from them to Rivets.

Something about the mare made me uneasy, but I still couldn’t put my hoof on it. I knew we were being forced into this, but I couldn’t see any other choice we had. We had few options at the moment; we could always try and walk to Kanter City, but it would take too long. The longer my sister and anyone else from home were held, the more likely chance something would happen to them, if it hadn’t already. We could always try and convince Rivets to get somepony else to fix the chariot, but somehow I doubted it would work. Besides, she could be telling the truth, and there was really nopony else able to fix it.

Dammit...

“Alright, fine, we’ll do it.” Rivets cool smile remained on her snout as she nodded to my answer. Once more my Pipbuck updated itself with the location of the power station she’d mentioned with a soft beep. Looking down to the softly glowing green screen, I saw it really wasn’t very far away, we could be there before nightfall if we left now.

“Good, here I’ll download a photo of the talisman and what little information we have on the buildings.” As she spoke, a cord floated up from her console and lightly connected with a port on the side of my Pipbuck. With a little ping, the screen flashed the word, downloading and a little bar below it, slowly filling. After another second the screen flashed download complete before a list of names appeared, along with a photo of the talisman. As the cord was retracted, I looked over the item we were after, it looked little like the water talisman back in the Stable. This was a orb, about as large as my head, it appeared to be made of metal of some kind and had copper rings around its surface. I also noticed a few wires coming out from small ports in the side of the orb, and a few magical runes etched into the metal. I looked back up to the still smiling face of the mare behind the desk and stood up.

“Just so we’re clear, once we return the talisman to you, you’ll see to Wildfire’s chariot, correct?” I asked, making sure she understood.

“Of course.” Her horn glowed and the console before her shut off with a soft click, followed by the sound of the doors behind us opening. I looked over my shoulder as two ponies stepped inside the office, both wore security barding and their weapons remained holstered at their sides but the meaning was clear. I turned back to find Rivets’ brown eyes fixed on my face, a smile still on her face.

“If there’s nothing else, I’m sure you’ll want to get started right away and these two will help you find your way back to the door.”

As we left the office, the guards trotted beside us as we headed back down the hallway towards the elevator. Her fear of the small space seemed pushed to the back of her mind as Wildfire stepped inside beside Stone. As we began to descend back to the third floor, I wondered what was going on in this place. Stone had said they didn’t care for visitors, but it seemed we were getting a somewhat mixed message. Rivets was cold, and clearly didn’t want us here, but Swiftwind and Harvest had seemed like decent enough ponies. I glanced to the nearest security pony, like all the others she was a unicorn, her coat almost the color of Wild’s, and her tail was a golden yellow. She had her visor up, and was staring straight ahead at the doors.

The ride came to a halt, and once more we followed them down the hallway towards the stairs. I glanced to Wildfire once more: something was troubling her, hell something was troubling me about all this. We reached the stairs, and began walking down to the first floor, the pegasus beside me with Stone leading the way flanked by the two guard ponies. I turned to Wildfire and spoke quietly.

“I take it this wasn’t what you were expecting?” I asked Wild as the statue of Celestia came into sight once more. Beside me, Wild glanced over and answered.

“No, but I should have expected something like this,” she growled, looking towards the security ponies in front of us, “I’ll never claim I was friends with anypony here, but at least I had the feeling from Fuse she was a pony of her word. Rivets...I don’t trust that bitch any further then I could throw her skinny ass.”

I wanted to ask her what had happened the last time she was here, hell I should have asked that before we arrived, but I wanted to find my sister and Wildfire’s idea of reaching Kanter City in two days seemed worth it. I stopped, however, before I could ask her, the last time I had pushed her for more information about her past she’d closed up and changed the subject. I decided not to press, given her already foul mood, and not wanting to have the guards over hear us.

By the sounds of it, whatever she had done had been with others, a team of soldiers, and had damaged the Dome’s defensive systems and left the ponies here open to attacks. Was it while she’d been with the Enclave? She’d mentioned some of her information had come from them, had it been a mission they’d given her and the pegasus she’d spoken of back in Crossroads? And if so, why did Shortfuse owe her a favor...it didn’t make much sense at the moment, but I was forced to push it aside again as we reached the base of the stairs and started walking towards the doors leading out of the tower.

Once outside, we followed the same route we had upon entering, and trotted between the rows of buildings heading towards the entrance to the Dome. As we walked, I noticed a few more ponies than when we’d first arrived, but still so few given the size of the place and the amount of food they could produce. Most seemed to be returning from the orchard and gardens, and I noticed most of them were earth ponies. I looked over them, then back to the unicorns, many of whom I had seen walking in and arched a brow. Were earth ponies the ones growing the food, and the unicorns the ones in charge? I still noticed there seemed to be far more unicorns then earth ponies and wondered about it, also something else bothered me, namely something missing, but I just couldn’t figure out what.

I didn’t have much time to dwell on it, as ahead I spotted Swiftwind and Harvest exiting one of the buildings along the road; by the looks of it a restaurant of some kind. Swift looked over towards us and stepped towards the orange unicorn mare walking us back out of the Dome.

“We’ll take it from here, Edge, thank you. I’m sure you two have other duties to see to,” he said to the mare, a friendly smile on his snout. The orange unicorn arched a brow and looked from Swift to Harvest then to her partner beside her. Looking back, she nodded her head and stepped back a few paces from us.

“Sure thing, Chief, we’ll...just head back up and finish our rounds then.” As we watched, the unicorn turned away from Swift and motioned for her partner to follow. As the pair trotted past us back towards the tower, I blinked and looked to Stone and Wild. Something was going on around here and I was wondering just what we’d gotten ourselves into.

Swiftwind smiled to each of us before he turned back and began trotting towards the Dome’s entrance. Harvest fell into step beside me as we followed him. He looked to each of us before locking his eyes with me.

“I take it you’ll be leaving now for the power station?” It was hardly a question, and by the tone of his voice it sounded like he already knew the answer I’d give. I simply nodded my head towards the rust red farmer pony and decided to ask a simple enough question to see his reaction.

“Yeah, seems you’re in need of a talisman...is that a problem?”

“No, I’m sure whatever you were told is true enough, we do need the talisman; without it the Dome’s cloak will fail. It’s just odd she’d ask you to go, she’s never been very trusting of outsiders, not like my mo...Fuse,” he corrected, but I still managed to work it out. After all, father had taught me well enough to read others. I decided to press on, and see where this was going.

“I get the feeling there’s something we’re missing,” I said, looking away from the road ahead to the pony beside me. He smiled and turned his head towards me.

“You’re sharp...a few of us just find it odd how the sensor net seemed to crash at the exact time a pair of radscorpions seemed to zero in on the section of the Dome which Fuse and her team were working on. Or why it took so long for the distress signal to reach the medical building in the Dome.” He looked away with a frown and shook his head. “It’s also odd how only those ponies who worked closely with Fuse were sent out on the mission to find that talisman.”

Odd indeed. I looked over to my friends; Stone looked back to me with a unhappy look. He was clearly thinking the same as me, but it was Wildfire who pointed it out with a growl, looking over to Harvest.

“Are you saying somepony in the Dome tried to get Fuse killed?”

“We don’t have any proof of that,” Swift spoke up from ahead of us, turning his head back to look from Harvest to Wild, “At least nothing concrete we can show to the others.” Harvest snorted and looked back ahead of us, eyes narrowed.

“I think Rivets tried to kill her, yes. She’s never liked the changes Fuse has been pushing for and the attack a few years ago only strengthened Rivets’ arguments. More ponies started listening to her.”

“And what were the changes she wanted?” I asked. We were quickly approaching the hatch that would lead us back to the entrance chamber and then from there back out to the surface. I wasn’t sure how long they would keep talking, unsure who they thought they could trust in the Dome.

“Changes to the laws that have been in place since the Dome first sealed its door, and suggestions we start inviting outsiders into our little community.” The answer was simple enough, but lacked any real detail about what was going on between the two. I frowned and looked over as Swift produced his key card from his armor once more and swiped it across the reader. The doors opened, and once more we found ourselves standing in the cold gray walls of the hallway leading back to the entrance room. Stone stepped in behind us and the doors slide quietly to a close. Harvest stopped in the middle of the hall and looked over to Swift; it seemed they were trying to decide on something, and after a minute it seemed they had made up their minds.

“I can’t ask you to get involved in our problems, you’ve likely got your own otherwise you’d not be here asking for a sky chariot. But I would ask you for a favor if I can, Shortfuse...my mother is very sick. The doctors do not expect her to last much longer without a proper antidote, but to make one they require a sample of the poison itself.” Harvest turned and stood facing me, head lowered and a look of worry in his purple eyes, “I have tried to ask Rivets to allow somepony to go out and collect a sample, but she says it’s too dangerous. You’re already going out across the plains to the Power Station...if you happen upon any radscorpions, please try and bring a sample of their poison back.”

He was worried for his mother, and with good reason. I looked over and saw Stone and Wild looking at me, wondering what I was going to say. I looked away from Harvest and closed my eyes. I could understand how he felt, but I had barely survived an encounter with one of those things. I opened them again and looked back to the pegasus and earth pony who had taken it upon themselves to help me this far, and were following me into the unknown for a talisman.

“Alright, Harvest, if we come across any, we’ll do what we can.”

With a sigh, the earth pony smiled and nodded his head quickly. Behind him Swift swiped his card beside the second door, and it slid open a moment later.

“Thank you...while you’re away, I’ll see about getting someponies working on that chariot of Wild’s, so when you return it might be ready to go and you won’t need to wait long,” Harvest said as we stepped into the entrance room. The two ponies inside the booth looked up as we entered. I looked over to Harvest and cocked my head.

“Rivets made it sound as if you’d lost the ponies best able to repair it.” The look of hope he had a moment before faded as quickly as it had appeared and he looked away from us. I blinked and wondered what was wrong when Swift walked up beside him. The unicorn lightly laid a hoof on the rust red earth pony’s shoulder before looking back over to me.

“We did, one of the ponies sent to retrieve the talisman was Harvest’s sister.”

As we made our way through the short tunnel leading back outside, the stable door slowly rolled into place and began sinking back into its grooves in the steel wall, groaning as it slid fully shut and sealed out the rest of the world. I glanced across my shoulder at the massive door and grunted, looking over to my two friends as they followed me to the entrance of the tunnel. Ahead of me, I heard the patter of rain striking the ground, and the rumble of thunder from the sky above. It had started to rain when we’d entered Steeldome, and it seemed as if it had continued on with no signs of stopping anytime soon. As my hooves carried me to the exit, I watched the steady downpour just outside and frowned. The already grim looking wasteland looked no better under the rain.

“Well, went about as well as Ah expected,” Stone said from beside me, looking skyward as the rain poured outside. He snorted and glanced back to the sealed door.

“I get the feeling we’re getting involved in something that could turn very ugly, very quickly,” I said, checking my weapons for a second time since getting them back. All seemed in order, and I felt much better with the familiar weight of my shotgun around my neck. According to the updated map on my Pipbuck, we’d find the Power Station and the missing ponies somewhere off towards the northeast. Looking back outside, I saw the once dry cracked ground of the plains had been turned into a quagmire of mud and pools of water. My Pipbuck clicked ever so often as it detected radiation in the rainfall.

Perfect.

I shut my eyes and sighed, I was already in a foul enough mood after our talks with Rivets and Harvest. Both seemed to be hiding things from us, but I trusted Harvest more than Rivets. The unicorn just made my skin crawl with that cold smile of hers. Opening my eyes again, I looked back to my Pipbuck, ah, a bit of good news at least, it seemed another roadway wound its way across the plains towards the Station, it might be in better shape than the ground at least.

“Well, we’re not going to figure anything out standing around here all day. Let’s get a move on and find this power station of hers.” As I stepped out into the pouring rain, my hooves sank into the thick warm mud beneath them and the heavy rain ran down my black coat and mane, soaking me within minutes. With a grunt, I began walking towards the direction of the road, then we’d head towards the Power Station.

Stone and Wild fell into step beside me, the heavy downpour running down the old cowpony hat perched atop Stone’s head, keeping his face mostly dry. His heavy saddle bags were soon soaked through, and his coat soon after. His hooves sunk into the thick mud the same as mine, but Wild seemed fairly lighter on her hooves and managed to keep from sinking so far into the mud. Her mane, tail and feathered wings were still soaked in water and a steady stream poured off her battle saddle, but the mare kept pace with us easily.

Despite the heavy rain, the trip to the power station had been uneventful. Luckily the road we found had withstood the test of time, and made the trip far quicker then it would have been if we’d attempted to cross the plains through the mud. We reached the station just before nightfall. Though the rain had slowed to a drizzle the last hour we’d been walking, it continued to fall around us as we sat atop a hill overlooking our goal. From within his soaked packs, Stone pulled a set of binoculars and began to peruse the area. Beside me, Wildfire shook the water from her wings and narrowed her eyes upon the structures below us.

“I don’t get it, if it was this easy to reach, why didn’t the bitch just send some more of her goons out here,” the pegasus said with a growl. It was the first thing she’d said since we’d left Steeldome and her tone was about normal for the mare. She was right, I half expected us to be attacked on the journey here, but nothing had shown up on my E.F.S. Perhaps it was just the rain keeping the creatures at by.

“Ah don’t rightly know, but it seems peaceful enough from th’ outside,” Stone said, lowering the binoculars in his hooves and tossing them to me.

Catching them easily, I lifted them up to my eyes with a hoof and looked towards the power station. A large, half toppled sign was the first thing I saw upon looking through the lens, a large green and white slab of metal stating to any who cared the name of the collection of buildings beyond. ‘Sub Station B Midwest Power.’

Sub Station B of Midwest Power was a collection of three rotting buildings surrounded by a ruined fence. Warning signs hung rusting against the poles and were mostly unreadable. Like the gate on the road to Steeldome, the power stations gate had long since lost its fight with time and lay in a heap beside the road, half buried in mud and debris.

Turning my attention to the buildings themselves, I noticed all were four stories tall and in places still intact. Made of gray concrete, they seemed normal enough and sported a few windows and doors. I also noticed the building nearest the road had been gutted by fire sometime ago, its roof having collapsed and taken the floors inside with it, turning it into little more than a shell. Still, it left us with three largely intact buildings to check, and being as large as they were, it’d take us the better part of a day to search through them all. There had to be some way of narrowing it down. I scanned the lower floors of the three buildings and muttered to myself.

I was just about to give up when something near one caught my eyes and I zoomed in as best I could. There. I’d almost missed it due to the rain and the location of the door, but I had noticed something off about the ground near it. The door to that building appeared to have been blown out, and recently too. The scorch marks around the door frame and wall were still blackened and not washed away with age or the rain, and the door itself had fallen back into the mud.

“I think I see the most likely place to check first,” I said, passing the binoculars to Wildfire. With a flick of her hoof she tossed back strands of her red wet mane behind her ears and brought the binoculars up to her face. With a soft grunt she looked towards where my hoof pointed before smiling slowly and nodded her head.

“I agree, it seems the most likely place to start.” She tossed the binoculars back to Stone and flexed her wings again, shaking the water from her orange feathers and flicking a bit onto Stone beside her, “I’ll check the place out right quick, don’t you boys get into trouble.” With that, the pegasus leapt skyward and flew off towards the station.

Deciding not to risk working our way down a muddy hill, Stone and I backtracked to the road, and made our way down towards the power station on hoof as Wildfire flew overhead. She passed low across the rooftops before diving back down to earth beside us.

“I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary around the buildings or atop the roofs, so it should be safe enough,” she said, as her hooves touched down.

Up close, the buildings showed their age: the smooth walls were pitted, cracked, and in places crumbling away to lay in piles of rubble in the mud. The windows had all long ago been broken out, either by looters or the elements, and the darkened interiors of the buildings gave off a slight menacing feel as we walked between them. I glanced up to the dark holes and narrowed my eyes slightly, good place for a sniper to sit. Shaking my head, I looked away and back to the buildings themselves. Odd faded posters clung to the walls in spots, one still bore color and showed a earth, pegasus, and unicorn pony all standing around one another with hard hats on their heads. The slogan had been ripped away sometime ago, and I idly wondered what it had said. The rusting signs along the ruined fence warned of high voltage and no trespassing. Most either remained bolted to posts and the walls of the buildings or lay half buried in the mud beside the road. Bits and pieces of other debris littered the ground around us: empty soda bottles, chunks of broken metal, even a few hard hats lay sunken into the ground, forming little islands in pools of water.

Reaching the building with the blown-off door, I found my old security instincts kicking in and pressed myself up against the pitted wall, inching closer towards the dark open portal. Behind me, Stone followed suit, sliding his rifle up and into position to cover me, the safety clicking off as he took aim. Wildfire flicked her ears back and nudged the bit of her weapon harness, which gave a soft click as the barrels pushed themselves out from below her wings and she took aim.

Edging closer, I poked my head slowly around the doorway and peered inside. The lights on my E.F.S. remained clear of any threats, only the two green dots for friendly behind me appeared in my vision. There seemed to be no threat from the room. However, not far away from me was the body of a mare laying face down on the floor, just past the doorway: she wore the same armor and clothing as the ponies from Steeldome, beside her still body lay one of their rifles, like us, she wore saddle bags across her back and appeared to be carrying a few extra bits of gear. Across from her was another body, in much the same position and wearing the same thing. I did not see any blood under either of them, but I also didn’t see any sign they were breathing nor did they appear as yellow dots on my E.F.S. Not far from the two bodies lay a third form, this one was larger than either of the two ponies, more boxy in build and shape. By the looks of it, I imagined it was some type of robot. Pulling back, I glanced behind me at my friends.

“Well, seems we picked the right door,” I whispered back before stepping inside. The rain continued to fall outside, and water had begun to pool around the open door. I still swept the room with my shotgun; despite the lack of red dots, old habits die hard. As I did, I had a chance to look over the room: it was plain enough in look and design, having been built for function rather than form. The same gray walls outside looked much the same inside, cracked and pitted, a few rotting posters hanging from them in spots. Directly across from the bodies was a large wooden desk, overturned chairs sat behind it and scattered atop the desk was two busted terminals and empty food cans. Papers and other trash littered the floor all around the room, and covering it all was a thick layer of dust and spider webs. Behind the desk was a set of stairs leading up to the second floor and off to either side of us were two doors in each wall. A few ruined benches lay around the room, looking like they’d been used for cover during the fight. I stepped forward trailing mud and water in after me, as I allowed the others to enter, eyeing the many open doorways around me.

Stonehoof stepped inside and swept the room with his rifle before edging into cover behind an overturned bench and scanned the two doorways to my right. He gave a quick glance to the two bodies and pile of scrap that had been a robot before looking back to the doors, water pooling under his body as he waited.

Wildfire entered next; for all her brashness, the pegasus was no slacker. She entered as quickly as any trained security pony and took up position to cover both the doorways on our left and the stairs behind the desk, ignoring the bodies for the time being. She flicked water off her wings and narrowed her eyes on the darkened room.

Lowering my shotgun I looked back to the fallen bodies and stepped closer. Reaching out my front hoof I rolled the mare onto her side and discovered the reason why there was no blood. She had several burn marks across her chest and neck. It looked like her barding had done little to protect her from the strength of the shots, in fact it appeared to have simply melted into her coat. The wounds looked as if they had cauterized almost instantly, and the flesh around them was black and charred. From the looks of it, one or two of the shots had struck an organ, or she’d just died from the trauma. I looked to her face, and saw fear etched across it, eyes wide at whatever had killed her. As gently as I could, I reached up and shut her eyes with my wet hoof.

Stone moved over to the robot behind me, pressing the barrel of his rifle against its oddly shaped metal head. Looking closer I saw it had been meant to look like a pony, four large round legs, a neck and tail. Its head was roughly pony shaped, but lacked any sort of mouth or nose. A single red lens ran across its face where its eyes should have been. Oddly, it even had a mane of stylized metal. Sticking out from one side was a long sleek looking rifle-from the other, large metal tubes. The rifle appeared to be damaged: wires and bits of metal blown out from run fire, and looking closer, I saw the tubes were in fact meant for rockets. It was empty however. All across its metal body, it bore dozens of bullet holes and dents. It had taken a lot of punishment before going down, and still it had taken two ponies with it. Satisfied it was dead, Stone looked back to me.

“Which way?” he asked, motioning to the doors around us.

I scanned our options and quickly ruled out two of the lower doors. Signs beside them marked them as the bathrooms, and I doubted we’d find the generator controls inside there. Though, we were also looking for any survivors from the original team sent in. I added mentally. With a grunt, I jerked my head towards the two doors. Best to get them out of the way quickly and focus on the remaining doors.

“We’ll check these rooms for the other three members of the team, then we’ll check the remaining rooms on this floor before moving upstairs,” I said. I wanted to clear as much of the lower level as we could, not wanting to leave anything to come up behind us. Moving towards the door on my left, it was marked for colts. Behind me, Stone rose up from where he’d been sitting beside the robot and started towards the one marked fillies when Wildfire stopped him.

“Now now, can’t have you going in there,” the pegasus said with a grin. Reaching down to the holster on her chest, she withdrew her side arm. It was a sleek compact pistol, solid black and unlike any I’d ever seen, though it did look similar to the rifle on the robot. Winking to the gray stallion, she trotted into the fillies room.

Well, at least she seemed to be getting back to her old self...though I honestly wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. Stone shrugged his shoulders to me and dropped down to take up watch over the remaining doors in the room.

Smirking, I stepped into the colts room and swept my shotgun around for any signs of trouble. It was pretty much what you’d expect in a bathroom. Small, with several stalls along one wall with sinks along the other under a nearly room length cracked mirror. All but one of the stall doors were open, as I walked towards the closed stall, I checked inside the others; the toilets had clearly seen better days. Dark brown stains lined the once white seats and I passed by each quickly. With the barrel of my gun, I opened the last door along the row and grunted as a skeleton greeted me.

Had the poor bastard died on the pot? The yellow bones lay in a heap across the toilet seat, the skull grinning back at me, resting on the back with a sizable hole in its side. Looking to the forehooves, I spotted a old dusty pistol lying on the titles of the floor and a single brass casing beside it. No, not died on the pot...well...at least not like I’d thought. Reaching a hoof out, I pulled the pistol up and looked it over before tossing it in my saddle bag. It looked in good shape, and you could never have enough guns out here it seemed.

Turning away from the body, I looked to the row of sinks and the cracked mirror and saw little of use or signs of the others who had come before us. Turning to leave, I spotted a small yellow box with pink butterflies across it. It was a medical kit, strapped to the wall beside the door. Arching a brow, I trotted up and opened it, inside I found some bandages and a bottle of water. By the looks of it, it was no longer pure, but it would still be drinkable. Adding them to my bags, I walked out to find Wildfire already standing near Stone.

“What took you so long? We thought you might have fell in,” the mare said with a grin. Stone shook his head and stood up from the robot; he’d been removing parts from it by the looks of the open access panels along its torso and the pile of burnt wiring and metal scrap beside it. He picked up his rifle and nodded, ready to move onto the next room.

Walking past the pair, I approached the door beside the colts room and saw we’d walked into a narrow hallway leading further back into the building. Not far down was another open doorway and I carefully worked my way towards it. As I walked over the trash that had piled up in the hall, I noticed in several spots above me the ceiling was sagging, and panels had fallen into the floor from above. Water slowly dropped from the buckled areas; the roof had likely collapsed somewhere above it, and water was pouring inside. I looked back ahead, at the doorway and stepped inside.

We’d entered what looked like a break room: scattered around the room were several round tables and overturned chairs, a few of the tables still bore empty bottles and trays on them, all covered in dust. Windows lined the far wall, their glass panes broken and allowed the rain from outside to lightly splatter across the floor; running around shards of broken glass and bits of trash. Walking further inside, I noticed in the far corner a stove and sink, likely for the employees to prepare food, both were rusted and covered in dust. What caught my eye, however, were the vending machines along the wall leading back out to the hallway. Their lights flickered off and on, and every so often one began to make noise as if attempting to power up. Either something was still powering them, or they were built to last through the end of the world.

Turning away from the machines for the time being, I saw there was only one other door in the room, and Wildfire had already moved towards it. She had retracted her rifles back under her wings and carried her pistol in her mouth; in the tight spaces, her battle saddle would be of little use. With a hoof, she carefully opened the door and found herself looking into a broom closet. She snorted and lowered her pistol, lightly pushing a mop back into the small space. I was about to start back when I noticed Stone over by the now opened vending machines. He had four bottles of something sitting on the ground beside him and a few bags of chips. I also noticed the stove’s door was open, and glanced to the earth pony. Was he going to strip every room we went into?

“We’ll save these for later,” he said as he tucked the items into his saddle bags with a grin.

Stepping back into the hallway, we followed it down a few more feet before we came across were one of the floors had collapsed in some time ago. A steady stream of water ran down the fallen slabs of concrete and rebar, forming a large pool along the shattered rubble. With no going forwards, we returned to the entrance room and looked to the other two doors we had yet to check.

Crossing the room, I carefully edged around the corner of the doorway and was amazed to see a few of the overhead lights glowing dimly and casting a pale light along the otherwise dark hallway. I spotted at least three other doors along the hall, all open to the rooms that lay beyond and judging by the light coming from them and the sounds of water, likely open to the outside as well.

Edging around the corner, I carefully trotted down the hallway, avoiding the deeper piles of trash that littered the floor below my hooves. Stone and Wild following a few paces behind me, focused on the area ahead of us. My E.F.S. remained clear, and I allowed myself to relax somewhat. Had there been only one robot in the place? And why was there a robot here anyway?

Approaching the first door, I looked around the edge and saw a small office room with a single small desk and chair. Behind it was a row of battered filing cabinets and a large shattered window to the outside. Papers lay strewn about the floor, along with empty bottles of beer and water from the steady rain outside falling lightly near the window. I turned my head towards the next open door and thought for a moment before I stepped aside and looked to Stone.

“Check out this room, Wild and I will check out the next two rooms, it’ll be faster.” He nodded and moved past me and into the small office room, starting to search it for any clues about the talisman or the other ponies. Wild stepped up beside me, and we pressed on down the hall. The only sound was the steady drum of the rain outside striking the roof and the crunch of our hooves on the trash covered floor.

The next room was much like the first, a small office, only this one appeared to have been shot up. Bullets holes lined the far walls of the room, the desk itself was riddled with bullets, but more telling was the fact it had broken in half under the hail of shots. Behind it, the filing cabinets lay broken about the floor; one across the desk and rusting in the water that seemed to soak everything in the room.

“Well...this looks like a place I’d hang out in,” Wild said, eyeing up the broken beer bottles and spent bullet casings littering the floor. Stepping past me to check the room over, I could only shake my head and turn around to walk past and come to the third and final doorway in the hall.

Like the first two, it was an office, but unlike the other two, it seemed to have survived in slightly better shape: the door had only recently been opened, judging by the clean space on the floor. Behind the intact desk the window had managed to retain all it’s glass, and the rain from outside ran along the panels instead of dripping inside.

Stepping inside, I approached the desk and trotted around it. I suppose I shouldn’t have been that surprised to notice somepony had gotten to the rooms contents before me. Many of the desks drawers were open and their contents spilled out across the floor as somepony had searched in a hurry. Looking around atop the desk, I noticed a spread of papers and files that had likely come from the cabinets behind me. A single piece of paper seemed to stand out from the rest, and I pushed aside a file to look it over. It was dated nearly a hundred and seventy years ago. I began to read over it.

‘Well, it seems you were right, whoever was running this place before me had been cutting a lot of corners with the safety of this power station. When I arrived I found most of the fire systems hadn’t been properly checked for at least four years and not a single fire extinguisher had enough pressure to put out a bag of dog shit let alone a real fire.

‘Don’t even get me started on the generators themselves. I think they were actually using extension cords to run power from one generator to the next. Not even the good kind, we’re talking about the shit you’d buy down at Mare Mart for a couple of bits. I can see why this place was known for so many injuries over the past few years. Its amazing to me nopony died in this death trap.

‘The good news is I’ve managed to increase worker safety by almost 90%. The risk of a serious injury should be minimal now, and we shouldn’t have to worry about losing any more workers.

‘The bad news is, the generators themselves are going to take far longer to fix. While we were testing one today, it caught fire, and nearly exploded, thankfully my focus on safety prevented a disaster, but we’re now down to just two generators. I’ve had to reroute the controls to the third floor control room while we wait on the replacement parts. Once the parts arrive, I’ll have them shipped up there until I can figure out who knows not to stick their tongues into a power outlet. I’m keeping the door locked and a spare key in my desk.

‘Oh, and if you want my advice on my predecessor? Ship’em off to the front lines to fight the damned Zebras, Celestia knows he’s managed to mame enough ponies with his greed.

‘Your friend,

Snowleaf’

Hmmm, third floor control room. Well, at least we had a lead on it and judging by the state of the desk, whoever had been sent before us likely had the key. A noise from the door made me jerk my head up quickly, only to spot Wild and Stone standing there. Wildfire had managed to find a unopened bottle of beer from somewhere and was blowing the dust off it, grinning happily.

“Any luck?” The stallion asked, glancing with alarm at the mare beside him. I smirked as I walked around the desk, somehow I doubted Wildfire was much different drunk then she was sober.

“A bit, what we’re looking for is on the third floor but whoever got here before us has the key.” We started back down the hall quickly and towards the main room, stepping back out around the corpses and the busted robot. We’d checked all the doors down here, time to move up.

“Let's head for the power control room first, if there are any survivors to find we have a better chance of finding them there,” I reasoned. I didn’t want to waste a lot of time on searching the whole building if it wasn’t necessary.

As I placed my hooves on the stairs they groaned from the sudden weight placed upon them, but held. Climbing the stairs, I carefully avoided large bits of junk that had settled atop them and reached the second floor landing overlooking the entrance room. A quick scan revealed only more junk littering the floor and little else. The doorway I had spotted from downstairs was before me and I stepped into it, looking around at the new room.

It looked like the break room had: tables and chairs scattered about, a few signs of fighting in the form of bullet holes in the walls and broken overturned tables. But it all looked old, dust covered most of the room, and that gave me a sudden idea. Looking down to the floor, I saw where someponies had recently walked across the room towards another door and grinned.

Behind me, Stone and Wild stepped inside, and I glanced back to my two friends, pointing a hoof to the dust trail. Turning around, I followed the trail up to the open door and peaked around outside. Yet another hallway greeted me, and more doors, like below a few of the overhead lights still flickered off and on and with it. As the hall was lit up, I saw the trail across, still in luck.

For the next half hour we worked our way through the building, following the trail in the dust, we’d found little else from the team before us, but Stone had managed to find plenty to fill his, Wilds and my packs. I think I even saw him digging in a trash can in one room. Still, Marcus’ words came back to me, I’d need caps to survive, and if I wasn’t going to take them for helping ponies, I’d need to get them elsewhere.

At one point, the tracks separated, one set continued off towards a set of stairs, while the other two followed the hallway further back into the building. For a moment, I was unsure which direction to go, but remembered the control room was on the third floor, if we did not find any sign of them there, we could always back track and follow the second set of tracks. Waving my friends on, we turned and followed the single set of prints.

We’d climbed the set of stairs to reach the third floor, these had been far more degraded and a few had given way below us, luckily we’d managed to scramble up to the third floor. Wildfire had the easiest time, simply flapping her wings to land gracefully beside Stone and myself’s panting forms. So not fair. Picking ourselves up, we found the tracks once more, and pressed on along the third floor.

Not long after, we’d come to the power control room, which, as I expected, was wide open. A quick look to the floor confirmed the trail we had been following disappeared inside, however a new trail appeared as well. Odd marks came from further down the hallway from where we found ourselves, a sign along the wall indicated the hallway lead towards the Generator Room. The odd tracks turned the corner and went into the control room. They were not hoof prints, rather they looked oddly like treadmarks. As I pressed myself up against the wall, Stone stepped up behind me and Wildfire took up position across the door from me. I checked my E.F.S. yet again, and still there was nothing coming from inside the room, although I was detecting something with my nose. A smell I’d come across before around my father after he was injured, and again downstairs with the dead ponies.

Poking my nose around the corner, I quickly scanned the room beyond the door. It looked like one would expect for a control room. Lots and lots of controls. The wall opposite the door was covered in screens nearly to the ceiling. Most were dark, but a few still displayed pictures on them. Video cameras from around the facility I realized. Below them, a large console sat against the wall, a chair pushed up to it. To either side was more displays and controls, most dark but a few still flashing reds and greens. Two other chairs sat around the room, and like everything else it was covered in dust.

Nodding once to Wild, I moved around the doorway and into the room beyond, shotgun held tightly and sweeping the room as I went left while behind me the pegasus stepped inside and went right, and Stone dropped down between us. We needn't have bothered, as I already knew; the room was empty with one notable exception.

The smell was coming from the chair turned with its back to the door. I carefully approached it, and placed a hoof on its back to turn it around. I had seen the hole burned through the back of the chair from outside, so I knew what I was about to find. With a squeak of aged parts, the chair spun around slowly and sitting slumped in the seat was a unicorn stallion, a hole burned neatly through his head. His assault rifle lay in his lap, like the ponies downstairs, he wore the barding from Steeldome. I sighed and lowered my hoof.

“Poor bastard...,” Stone muttered looking at the body, before looking over the room around us. Poor bastard indeed.

“I don’t see the talisman in here,” Wild said, as she turned away from her scan of the room and back towards me.

I blinked and quickly looked around myself, the room was actually rather small, much smaller than my old room back at the Stable, and much of the space was taken up with consoles and computers. I saw no evidence of a crate or anything that looked like the talisman. With a snort I looked back towards Stone.

“I guess we’ll have to backtrack to the second set of prints and hope they lead us to...,” only Stone wasn’t paying attention to me, instead the ponies green eyes were fixed upon something behind me.

Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the screens along the wall behind me, as I had noticed when entering most showed pictures of areas around the building, however a flash from one caught my eye. Turning around I looked up, and saw a large open room from high up along the wall, and three massive generators quietly rusting on the floor below, water running from above from holes in the ceiling. Moving between them were three large robots, rolling along on tracks. The machines moved towards the far generator and fired off twin beams of red light. Sparks flew up from where they struck, and something ducked back down behind a row of controls. As the shape popped back up, I could just make out a pony wearing barding and firing off a assault rifle, missing the robots as they slowly rolled towards her.

“Looks like we found the rest of the original team...,” Wildfire said, trotting closer to the screen as she noticed were Stone and I were looking. I frowned and turned towards the door.

“If we don’t hurry up, there won’t be anypony left.” Behind me, I heard Stone and Wildfire rush to keep up as I raced down the hallway leading to the Generator Room.

Welcome to Level 6!

Perk Added: Shotgun Surgeon: With this perk, your precision with a scattergun is something to behold. When using shotguns, regardless of ammunition used, you ignore an additional 10 points of the targets Damage Threshold.

Author's Notes:

Editor and Chief: TheGamefilmGuruman

Editor: Avi

Pre- Reader: MagicLlama

Pre- Reader: Bronyken

Original Cover Art: TimeForSP

Current Cover Art: MisterMech Go. Worship his work.