---

Blood.

Blood was all I could see ahead of me, as I approached the body that could potentially be dead. What could have done this to him? And why was he out here? I saw many deep claw marks and bullet holes upon his acorn brown coat. The body seemed lifeless; the only thing that showed life was the few weak breaths escaping his mouth.

I began to look over his wounds and as I did, Crystal had an even closer look. She began to observe the wounds, checking how deep they were and how much blood he had lost.

“Well somepony fired at him and to top that off, I think Hellhounds tried finishing him off.” Crystal commented. “We’re going to have to go somewhere safe if we want to save him.” Crystal slowly levitated him off of the ground, with that he groaned in pain before the blood from his wounds dripped onto the ground. The radiation meter on my PipBuck was ticking faster, as the gases slowly approached us from the gentle breeze blowing towards us.

“What about Stable 55?” I found a small cave entrance and slowly trotted to it. I took a look inside, seeing a large steel door with the number fifty-five on it. I turned to Crystal and nodded to her slowly, Crystal carried the body over with her slowly.

“We can only hope that Stable got terminated.” She answered. We reached the gap and opened the steel gate to the cave entrance, before making our way into the claustrophobic cave. At that moment, I felt like all the walls were closing in on me, my claustrophobia was kicking in.

“T-terminated?” I asked, trying to calm myself down while we trotted through the tight cave. Once we reached the end, there was a small terminal by the door. It didn’t seem too hard to hack.

“Yes, it’s when either the Steel Rangers or Enclave thinks that a Stable no longer needs to be used, they kill everypony inside.” She kept the Pony levitated in her grasp. “I don’t know why they do it, they just do it.”

CLANK!!

I managed to hack the large steel door open. The door was pushed out and then rolled over to the left. The entrance was dark; the only light source came from the alerting light that spun around on an endless loop. The color of it was pale amber. Something didn’t feel right, I quickly witched the flashlight on my PipBuck on and I began to venture into the dark hallways of Stable 55.

“What do you see?” Crystal asked, carrying the Pony. Her purple, magic aura was also a small light source; she followed me, being careful not to slam Dodge into a wall.

“It seems clear, though, just silence.” An eerie atmosphere filled the air, as silence dominated the air. “Over here.” I trotted up the staircase and by the console which controlled the door. Crystal nodded and carefully placed Dodge next to me.

“Will he be okay?” Crystal asked, looking over his body with deep concern. I looked up at her sternly, thinking to why she was asking that.

“That’s your job; you’re the medic, not me.” A sudden bang echoed from down the hallway. It instantly caught my attention and I quickly looked to where the sound came from. Crystal tended to the injured sheriff using many stimpacks and other chems.

“What was that noise?!” Crystal exclaimed, while tending to Dodge’s wounds. I couldn’t respond, I was completely clueless to what it could be.

BANG, BANG, BANG!

There it went again, this time growing louder than before. I started to approach the noise, this time feeling the cold, steel walls of the Stable to sense where exactly it’s coming from. Crystal was trying to keep Dodge on the right side; we didn’t want him passing onto death.

The banging suddenly stopped as I drew closer. I looked around, completely clueless around the area where the green light from my PipBuck lit up.

“Could it just have been some scrap metal falling? Or maybe something falling over?” I was talking my thoughts, thinking what it could have been.

I began to make my way back to Dodge, who was now beginning to wake from being unconscious. He looked up at me, possibly still dazed from all the beatings he had been getting. How some of his wounds were starting to heal from the Stimpack, he was too injured to engage in combat or travel.

“Where am I?” His weak voice spoke, “what happened?” He felt his head and then looked at his wounds, before his head collapsed back down.

“It’s okay Dodge, me and Tornado saved you.” Crystal said softly, looking into his half-closed eyes with a smile. “You’re going to be alright.”

“Hey, buddy. Don’t you remember us, from New Appleloosa?” I asked, looking at him. “We stayed at one of your inns.” I waved a hoof in front of his face, but he didn’t respond. He was too weak to even speak properly. I looked around the room; again the only possible lights were from the alarm lights and my PipBuck.

“He’s too weak; we’re going to have to stay.” Crystal admitted, “We can’t move until he’s better.”

“And we can’t stay; your safety is at risk. I swear, I heard something down there. Maybe it’s nothing, but it could be trouble.” I looked at her sternly. I moved closer to her and then placed a wing around her.

“Why can’t you just fly?” Crystal asked, “It’d be easier right?” She spoke in a soft tone.

“Because, I’m not leaving you behind…and I’m not strong enough to carry Ponies.” I admitted with a chuckle, “Now come on, you can carry him a little further right?”

“I’ll try; it’s all I can do.” She got back onto her hooves, levitating Sheriff Dodge to her side. I nodded to her and began to trot down the hall way, until we reached a door. I opened it and walked through; constantly glancing back to make sure Dodge was okay.

The hallways were thin, steel corridors. The windows on the left of me contained the rooms to some of the Stable residents. As more of the path became clear, I found patches of blood on the floor and with that instantly coming to a halt.

“Blood?” I gently peeked down at it, getting some on my hoof. It was fresh blood, so somepony, or something recently found their way into here. “It’s fresh, like really fresh.” I turned to Crystal, looking at her. “We’ll be expecting trouble.”

I slowly began to move again, preparing the rifle in my battle saddle. I opened another door, which led into another tight corridor, I slowly trotted through. Although, something didn’t feel right, I felt like we were being watched by somepony…or something. I started glancing around myself, checking all the pitch black windows to where the rooms were and also in front and behind us. I peeked into one of the windows, trying to get my PipBuck to light up some of it. From the area it covered, I couldn’t see anything.

“Tornado, do you see anything?” Crystal asked, levitating Dodge into the corridor carefully before entering herself. She stood beside me, placing the Pony down for a rest.

“I see nothing; something’s watching us though…we have to get into somewhere safe.” I glanced at Crystal before trotting ahead; she levitated the Sheriff to her side, before trotting behind me closely. I started to struggle breathing again, the tight corridors were not helping my claustrophobia.

I managed to find a room, I opened the door and it was pitch black. I walked in, the light on my PipBuck lighting up the way slightly. I did a check on the room before signalling Crystal to come over.

“Lay him down on the bed.” I pointed to the bed, before closing the door. “I have to try and search for a fuse; maybe I’ll be able to get some lights on in here.” My light only lit up a small segment of the room; therefore I had to keep close to Crystal while she healed Dodge’s wounds.

“There has to be a fuse somewhere in the Stable.” I thought to myself, looking around the room. I slowly began walking around the room, before finding a fuse box for the room. I opened the rusty flap, which squeaked. I felt it grind against my ears which made me flinch slightly, before I started to flick around with the fuses. Nothing happened.

“The fuses are burnt out; I’ll see if I can find more. In the meantime, you wait here, if you hear anything, call for me.” I walked over to Crystal and looked over to Dodge who was shifting and groaning in pain.

“Of course.” Crystal replied, “What happens if he dies while you’re gone? He doesn’t look so good.” Before I left the room, the green light only was shining onto him slightly. Crystal glanced back at him.

“Well, all I can say is, at least we tried.” I left the room, going back into the darkness. I began to trot left, coming to a staircase that lead downwards. I trotted carefully down them, just in case there were any dangerous items or bent steps that could make me fall.

I reached the bottom of the stairs safely, reaching even more corridors. This place was like a labyrinth! Well what Stable’s weren’t? I was trotting down, cautious of my surroundings. Something caused the sounds from earlier, but what?

BANG, BANG, BANG!!

Again, the noises started again. But Crystal didn’t call; besides it came from this level. I began to trot towards the noise; it was coming from a pitch black room. The door to it had been blown off in the direction towards me, or more like torn off. I stepped over the scratched, bent door and went out onto a balcony. My light barely lit up the room because it was a fairly large room.

BOOM!!

A bullet just skimmed my mane, and pinged onto the metal wall behind me. I ducked down quickly, waiting for any enemies to come into view. More gunshots were fired at me, pinging off of the railing of the balcony; I readied my rifle and stood up, taking aim.

BANG!!

I shot a bullet, hoping to hit something. I heard a grunt echo in the darkness; this obviously had shown that I hit somepony. Or something. Then something caught my eye, something stepping out of the darkness. It was fairly large, and it had a dark green coat and blood red eyes. Its mane was a dark brown and it also had both wings and horn. It was an Alicorn! It wore barbaric body armor that was made of rough leather and rusted, blood covered metal.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” The Alicorn spoke to me from below me, “a wanderer coming into our Stable?” He began to walk over to me, revealing his whole body with a threatening smile. “It’s rare we get a Pony like you visiting us.”

“So you’ve been causing the noise huh?” I looked down at him, preparing to shoot.

“Oh we do like to inflict pain onto our victims.” He answered with a menacing chuckle. Then another Alicorn stepped out, this time with a midnight blue coat, his hoof bleeding. This indicated that I shot this one.

“You shot me you puny Pony.” The one across from me stated, “You shot me in my hoof, now I can barely walk!” He raised his voice, but the Alicorn I was talking to first walked over to his ally.

“Calm down, I must talk with the Pegasus before you begin to brutalize him.” He sat his fellow Alicorn down and then looked back towards me from below.

“Brutalize?” I asked, tilting my head. “You really think you need to torture your victims?” I leaned over the balcony, poking my head out towards them.

“Well, it all really depends on the victim. Depends how much they piss us off, right now your death will be quick and painless. Don’t test my patience though.” I grimaced as those words left his mouth, imagining the gory sight of what the victims have been through. And imagining the pain they felt at that moment.

“You’re a bunch of monsters, you know that? What you do to them is disgusting and they don’t deserve any of it. You’re all a bunch of FUCKING monsters!” I felt myself scream out in anger, my heart burning from all the anger and then I quickly covered my mouth, realizing that what I said could cost my life.

“We’re not monsters, we’re misunderstood.” He then walked closer, levitating a Combat Shotgun to his side. “But if you want war, you’ve got war.” His lips quivered slightly towards a smile.

“If war is all you can think of, then fine…it can be that way.” I aimed the rifle in my battle saddle at him, preparing to shoot him. But then he lowered his firearm and kept the same, smug grin.

“Y’know, your sister passed through here.” He suddenly mentioned. With that I saw another vision of my sister, this time she passed them. She ran down the corridor behind them and disappeared out of my sight. Something was not right here.

“H-How do you know she’s my sister?” I asked them, I just wanted to break their necks for what they could have possibly done to her.

“Well you both look alike. I thought you would have known that.” The Alicorn chuckled darkly.

“What have you done with her?!” I was preparing to jump down and fire up the whole place, killing not just him but all the Alicorn’s in this room.

“Oh we’ve done nothing; she just passed through and then happily fucked off. She was heading in the direction of the caves.” He stated, lifting a hoof. “If you want to find her, you’re going to have to lower them firearms of yours too!”

“The caves?” I looked at him, confused slightly. Surely this can’t be true. No Pony can simply dig holes in a Stable.

“Yes, the caves. You see when this Stable was terminated, many Ponies found that this could be used for easy access to Manehattan. With all the radiation floating upon the outskirts, Ponies blew a massive hole into one side of this Stable and used it for direct access to the city.” He grinned, “I believe your sister went that way.”

“I hope I’m not too late!” I quickly ran back into the corridor and headed back towards the stairs for Crystal; I quickly trotted up and then back into the room to where Crystal was.

“Did you get the fuses?” She asked, looking at me with hope. I had to be honest about it.

“No, I’m sorry. I promise I’ll stand by while you heal him.” I walked over to Dodge, while lifting my PipBuck up so his body was within the light’s radius.

“Dammit Tornado, it could have been easier!” She began to get her medical supplies out and she laid them upon the bedside table. The wood on it was scratched and decaying slightly, bits were flaking off that could easily give splinters.

“I have a good reason for it, I found Alicorns in the Stable.” I admitted, “And they said that my sister passed through here, that she was heading to Manehattan.”

“Alicorns?!” She looked at me, looking terrified. “We aren’t safe here, and they could be lying. For all we know your sister could have been killed by them!” I could tell she was angry at me; her tone of voice was powerful and threatening.

“I-I know…I’m sorry.” I felt tears grow in my eyes, since it could have been possible that she had been killed. My only piece of family left could have been killed.

“Here’s one thing, before you even start to believe what Ponies tell you out here, you have to learn your place in the Wasteland!” I looked down, just wanting all this to be over. “Look at me!”

I looked up at her, my tearful eyes looking into her fury filled eyes. She grabbed me and poked her nose against mine, just wanting to let out all of her rage.

“And until you learn your place here, you cannot fight on your own!” She let go of me, it was as if the word Alicorn really ticked her off. Big time.

After Crystal healed Dodge, I sat alone in a corner knowing that the sister I barely even knew could be dead. This made me dead inside; this made me want to kill every fucker that even would dare touch her. This made me feel broken. I just wanted to cry so hard until all my tears became dry. But I couldn’t, I couldn’t cry anymore. All the tears I had were spent for the time being, I couldn’t let any more of my sadness flow out of me. Even if I wanted to.

“Hey.” Crystal sat down next to me; she was really close to me. I just kept staring at the floor. Her voice was back to her soft, elegant voice.

“Hey.” I simply responded, staring at the floor still.

“Look, I’m sorry about earlier Tornado. I couldn’t possibly understand how you feel about all this; I shouldn’t have used my anger against you.” She admitted as she levitated her medical bag back over to her.

“No, no it’s alright. You’re right; I don’t know my place out here. I’m just a Stable-Dweller, maybe if they didn’t throw me out; I would never have come out here.” I felt sadness beginning to develop again, “I mean just look at me, I’m a mess, there will come a day when I get you killed and the only Pony I can blame is myself.”

“Shh, shh. Stop talking.” I felt Crystal pull me into a warm embrace. All I did was hug her back. I felt her soft coat against my face and her warm body making me feel loved. I wanted to cry even harder, I’d never seen Crystal so caring in my life.

“Why can’t I see her again?” I gripped her tighter. She gave my head a small nuzzle and just rubbed my back.

“I promise, we’ll search for her. Even if it kills us.” She admits, keeping the same calm tone to her voice.

“No, don’t put your life at risk for me. Please.” I didn’t want to lose a friend like Crystal; she was a friend that I hoped for all my life. Remembering the early days of living in the Stable, I never had any friends. I kept getting beaten and bullied.

“You’re my best friend Tornado; I’d hate to see you like this, and if I have to give my life for you, then so be it. If I did give my life for you, I’d die smiling.” Her lips quivered into a caring smile, as she then slowly rubbed my wings.

“Me too Crystal.” I just gripped tighter, telling her that I’d do the same. She was the closest Pony to me right now. Not only with the hug, but friendship wise. We just couldn’t give up.

---

Within the night, I started to dream about my sister. Everything was black around us and only a smoky image of her and Raiders trying to pull her away was seen. I tried reaching out to her, but she was screaming as they were attempting to pull her away. I saw my parents’ bodies, in a pool of blood. I knew exactly what was happening. I tried reaching out for her, but they started to beat her. The sight was terrifying; this only made me grow angry. I tried waking myself up, I couldn’t it kept going on and before I knew it, I was being dragged into a dark hole, where the light was fading out and then…a door covered my vision.

From that moment I woke with a gasp, seeing that I was in Crystal’s arms. We must have fallen asleep; I slowly lifted my head off of her chest and looked around the room. It was too dark to see everything. I got out of Crystal’s arms slowly and then walked over to the bed which contained Dodge, he was fast asleep, and he was breathing. This was good news. I didn’t want to wake either of them, Crystal seemed to be deep in sleep and Dodge was still getting healed.

“I have to find her, even if it kills me.” I thought deeply to myself, I looked back at Crystal. Part of me wanted to leave to find my sister; another part of me wanted me to stay. I couldn’t just leave Crystal and Dodge alone here. Crystal woke up and the light on my PipBuck.

“Tornado?” She got onto her hooves and slowly walked out of the darkness and towards me. She yawned and looked at me. “What’s the matter?”

“I can’t sleep,” I turned away, sighing to myself. “As much as I want to, I just can’t sleep.”

“Then I’ll stay up.” She commented, smiling at me. “We may as well wake Dodge up and find a way out of here.” She shook Dodge gently.

“The Alicorns told me about some cave, that is where they claim my sister went.” Dodge started to stir slightly and looked at us both, a smile came onto his face. He obviously recognized us.

“Oh hello you two, if I last recall we didn’t exactly get properly introduced. You know my name, but I don’t know yours.” He sat up, looking at us both. His scars were fading away slightly, but still visible to our eyes.

“Well, I’m Tornado.” I smiled softly, but I couldn’t help but frown slightly knowing that my sister could be in danger.

“My name’s Crystal.” Crystal also smiled at him. “We found you out in the Wastes, unconscious.” She stated, “We had to bring you to safety.”

“And you think this is the place?” Dodge asked, looking at us sternly. “Stable 55 is infamous for having Alicorns, Raiders, Scavengers and tons more. Truth is, somepony managed to lock this place down, until you two broke in.”

“Well, there’s apparently a tunnel that will take us to Manehattan, correct?” I wanted information out of him, and I glanced at him slightly.

“It’ll take you pass the radiation, but that’s it. If it took you from here, to the centre of Manehattan, The Steel Rangers would surely lose the fight.” Dodge responded, “I know exactly where the tunnel is, follow me.” He got onto his hooves and began trotting out of the room and into the corridors.

“Tell me, how do you know?” I followed him closely and Crystal was also following us closely.

“How do you not know? It’s marked on the map, I may not have a PipBuck, but I’m pretty sure those things come with maps.” He trotted into the room where the Alicorn’s were, and we followed. We stood on the balcony.

“Look who’s back and it looks like he brought some friends!” The Alicorn chuckled darkly, “so you want to get past huh? One-hundred caps will let you past.”

“No fuckin’ way!” I responded, preparing to battle, “if you want money, come and get it.” The Alicorn’s burst into laughter and then prepared for battle, levitating their weapons to their sides.

“You’re on, I’ll break you.” The Alicorn replied. I glided down, opening fire with the rifle in my battle saddle; I managed to hit the Alicorn but not a direct hit. When I had the chance, I opened S.A.T.S. and opened fire onto the Alicorn’s thick skull.

BANG!! BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!

Four shots were placed into the Alicorn’s skull, knocking it clean off. Blood sprayed upwards and onto the cold steel walls. Crystal and Dodge jumped down as the other Alicorn’s charged at us. One who was carrying a Combat Knife charged at me and took a swipe for me. I quickly evaded and flew back up and around the room. Once again, I targeted him with S.A.T.S. and targeted his horn twice and his front left hoof once.

BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!

The Alicorn fell, crippled. Crystal managed to cripple the midnight blue one and Dodge finished him off with a brutal headshot. I landed by them and smirked.

“Good work, now I have one more to finish off.” I walked up to the one I crippled, his coat was a sickly yellow and the eyes were red. This one had no mane or tail, but sat there glaring at me.

“Go on, do it. Kill me.” The Alicorn spat, “I just have one more thing to say before you do.”

“And that is?” I walked closer to him, glaring back at him with a smirk.

“Look behind you!” The Alicorn whispered, as it did, another one who had been hiding in the shadows came out and swiped their club right into my ribcage.

THUMP, CRACK!!

I grunted and was sent into the wall, before hitting it with a loud bang. I fell in pain, and shaking from it. The brutish Alicorn swung at Dodge, but Dodge quickly evaded the attack and shot at the Alicorn in the leg.

BANG!!

It was just a flesh wound; Crystal went over to me, looking worried. I attempted to get up, but I couldn’t. The pain was so intense; I let out a loud yelp and fell yet again.

“You’re going to be fine Tornado, let me help you.” Crystal held onto my cheeks, before starting to wrap some bandages across my chest. After that swing a huge tear in the Stable 30 jacket I was wearing was around the chest. It also contained a bleeding wound.

Dodge managed to climb up onto the Alicorn’s back and then shoot it in the back of the head. After that, a huge gaping hole was in its skull before it fell with a loud thud and blood was leaking out of it.

“Is he okay?!” Dodge ran to us worried. He looked down at me. “We can’t go on, not yet!” Dodge was panting from the fighting. “Tornado’s too injured.”

“I’ll be fine!” I grunted, holding my ribcage as Crystal finished the bandaging. I attempted to get up yet again, the pain slightly less intense but still intense. I limped slightly. “See, no problem.” I let out a cough.

“You need to rest, Tornado.” Crystal frowned, “trust me; it’ll only get worse if you keep walking.” At that moment I collapsed slightly, but retained my balance and kept walking.

“Just let him go, Crystal. If he struggles later on, then we’ll rest.” Dodge began to follow behind me, and then so did Crystal. It hurt so much, but I couldn’t stop. I had to continue.

“See, I’m having no problem.” My tone of voice was the sound of grunts, as I slowly made my way into another corridor. I continued onwards, with them following closely. My light lit up the way, until we reached the end of the corridor and we were welcomed to a huge hole in the wall. The hole was actually lit up by many hanging lights, the lights were dim and seemed to be dying out, but it was surely better than nothing.

The sign by the entrance stated:

Shortcut to Manehattan, warning path ahead could be dangerous.

It was all written by hoof or magic, not very neat, it was actually painted on the wooden sign. I could feel a breeze brushing against my face from the hole, before I started to continue onwards.

“Well, here we are.” I trotted on into it, taking small steady steps. The path was uneven, as the rocks were sharp and harsh on my hooves. I flinched slightly as one poked me in the hoof, the hoof that was on the side of the damaged ribcage. I felt a buzz of pain which made me collapse slightly with a groan.

“Tornado!” Crystal ran to my side, avoiding the pain of falling over. She helped me up and looked at me with concern. “Careful, please?”

“Don’t worry, I’m fine.” Dodge caught up with us and looked at me with a frown.

“You should really stop running ahead Tornado, you could get yourself hurt.” He sighed. We finally reached flat ground, to where we were presented with a door. This was where the service tunnels were.

“So they blew a hole in a wall and dug through until they hit service tunnels?” I looked around, while talking in my thoughts. “Interesting.”

---

Footnote: Level up!

New perk: Novice Hacker, your skill in hacking as gone up in 20% but as a side effect, your combat endurance has gone down by 10%.

Current level: 6

Next Chapter: Chapter Seven: The Service Tunnels Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 18 Minutes