The alarm in my pipbuck woke me up with the familiar fanfare that went booming through the cabinet I had been resting in. I rose from my stupor, wiping the salvia from my lips and immediately banged my head into the roof of the same said cabinet. It took me a while to remember what had transpired. Clicking through a few options on my pipbuck I noted that Grey iron had taken the liberty of setting my alarms at the standard military hours I had grown used to. With a growl I had disabled them, not only to shut up the overwhelmingly loud military trumpet, but to stop it from occurring again.

There was no telling what awaited outside. After a small meal containing one of the cans of preserved carrots and a small drink from one of my canteens, I had prepared my newest gun, the Varmint rifle as well as my pistol, holding both in my telekinetic grip as I leaped, saddlebag and all, from the open window sill and landed as quietly as I could manage. The raiders I had knocked out in the store below had left sometime over the night, the evidence on the ground suggested that the two I had shot in self defense had managed to bandage their wounds rather than bleed out.

With a sigh I decided to go north, having every direction but west to go to really left a mare with very few options, and several interest spots popped up as I trotted through the rubble of countless buildings that had been destroyed when the Mega spells had hit. A majority of the buildings had been in ruins, fewer, about a quarter of them overall, had been only halfway destroyed, often missing a good portion of walls as well as the roof. Very few buildings, like the store I had crashed in, were still standing.

I looked up at the sky, finding my vision still impeded ever so much by the clouds that covered the sky like a giant roof as far as the eye could see. If anything, it seemed slightly thicker as well as darker than yesterday. What it meant however was unknown to me.

As I progressed through a rather steep pile of rubble of something that must of once been an office building I wondered if there were other ponies out here that weren't raiders. If there were sane ponies around in the wasteland, there would be a chance at civilized society, or perhaps even a town or Stable. I had been lucky to drain as much emotion of my stable's ponies as I could before leaving, though that also meant that besides the three raiders yesterday I hadn't gained a sufficient recharge. Until I found a town or settlement, I would need to conserve what magical energy I had. As a result though, I would need to seek out the largest, or most easily fortified locations as I could until I found someone who wasn't a scary-blood-soaked-crazy-head of a pony.

As I reached the top of yet another ruined building's rubble I looked around. Luck seemed to shine upon me as I spotted a building larger than any I've seen before. As I slid down the rubble I blessed my luck at finding such a large building. There was no doubt something would be inside such a structure. My blessing was immediately withdrawn as it began to rain on my parade. Literally. Within seconds I was soaked to the bone as the thick drops came down. The pipbuck attached to my left foreleg began to make a ticking noise, indicating that the water had trace amounts of radiation.

Great, I thought as I double timed it to the shelter of the large building, a prewar shopping mall judging from how the faded sign read, "Vanhoover Mini Mall: For all your daily needs!" Though the letter y in your was crossed out turning it into an 'our'. A second countdown appeared as I entered cover and the slowly rising radiation meter stopped. The counter was a stop watch counting down from five minutes with an image of a piece of jagged glass shaped into a rather pointy looking triangle.

Not knowing what it was, I assumed sometime in the next five minutes I would find out, though in the meantime I shook myself, freeing some of the excess water from my barding before heading inside, making sure both my pistol and rifle were fully loaded. An eerie silence filled the halls only changed by the very quiet muffled thud as water hit the roof. The first room was small, a mere entryway where many abandoned shopping carts either lay in the cart return area or shoved up against a door in some attempt to clog the doorway. Moving them aside by shoving them back to the return area I moved onwards to the Mall itself.

It was massive, Like a giant hallway it stretched on, the other side's exit effectively as small as pen's cap in the distance. The second floor was a wide walkway along the walls, occasionally stretching a bridge out to connect to the other side's walkway every hundred feet or so. The only way up however was to either take the stairs or one of the many small ramps meant for shopping carts I had just gone past. Looking further up I spotted the roof.

the roof was ceiling covering either side's second floor and a bit beyond, but going through the middle of the mall's hallways was a series of metal beams that once were window frames. But without the glass it allowed the rain to pour inside, already several large puddles had formed around the first floor and it was quickly rising as the mall's amazing lack of drains began to start a small trickle of water leading to the door.

I took a ramp up to the second floor, not wanting to walk in the irradiated rain, let alone stand in it. My pipbuck quipped again that there was three minutes left until whatever that it was alerting me to happened. As I walked I peered into each store. All of them looked looted though many still had what was considered uneeded in them. Though each pillar between the stores also had a ministry poster attached to it. As I passed by between what once was a Pre-war toy store, The lower half of a poster greeted me with the word 'forever' in large capital letters with only a creepy smile of a pink ponies lower half of her head. Looking away from it I scanned the other side of the mall, all clear, before checking the next shop on my side.

It was a clothes store, filled with rotting, dirty clothes and several broken crates. Though upon further search I learned that there was a locked crate as well as two more locked ammo boxes. The ammo boxes and crate's locks were too advanced for my small knowledge of them, though the crate's maker hadn't been too smart in comparison to the completely sealed ammo boxes. With screw driver in hoof, I started undoing the screws that held the box together, circumventing the lock by removing what kept it in one piece. With a crack the backside of the crate came off with considerable ease, spilling dozens of small hats ranging from ridiculous feathered hats that stuck out plain as day to baseball caps and cowpony hats.

While not completely useful for armor, I took a white desperado hat, the only one of it's size in the box and put it on, giving a small smirk at the simple joys of life. While it might not be bullet proof, it would help keep things like rain and light off my face. With further scavenging I managed to gather up a few dirty prewar suits, having found the dresses far too flashy for anything resembling blending in that I could also pack. It would take work to get them to their former shine, and I didn't have the slightest clue about stitching, but I hoped they would be worth some bits if I ever found a shop to sell them at.

Moving outward, I took a peak at a poster featuring a torn up picture of a purple unicorn smiling at me while the caption above said plainly, "Knowledge is magic!" beneath someone had painted over the original words with blood until they said crudely with the original text unreadable beneath it, "Until you're dead that is."

That sent a shiver down my spine, looking into the next room I was met by the small beady stares of some of the largest roaches I had ever seen in my life. They stared at me, I stared back. Not believing what I was seeing, there were six probably in all, four of them on the remains of some pony, the other two were hanging around on the floor. I backed away from the store entrance slowly, as they watched me, once they were assured that I wasn't going to disturb their meal and was out of sight, I could hear them resume their meal. Tiny little teeth biting and tearing into flesh of the corpse they had probably either found or killed.

I'll admit, my breakfast found its way over the railing and onto the first floor without me. That had been disgusting to watch, I made a note to not pet one, while they seemed a bit cute at first glance, learning what they were eating had twisted that mental image in a horrid way. One thing for sure, I wasn't ever going to eat a bug that ate ponies. Wouldn't that be double Cannibalism? I considered that before shaking my head, it may be a bug, albeit the size of a football, but it wasn't related to a Changeling. Or at least I thought so. Ugh... Gross...

I went into the next store without checking in order to get my mind off of it. What I found inside however, made me glad I had already lost my breakfast moments earlier. Otherwise I'd be retching again. On the walls and hanging from the ceiling were ponies of both Unicorn and Earth varieties hanging crucified to the walls or mutilated on chains above. I backed away, noticing that several had their stomachs cut open, vital organs hanging out and similarly stapled without being severed making a mockery of art with brutal methods. The smell of death was strong here and I paled, so much death and destruction for what cause? The foul smell of long since dead ponies hit my nose causing me to retch and tears filled my eyes for the unknown ponies. While I wasn't fond of many, the sheer amount of death and torture that must of been caused was nothing I would wish upon any other pony. Not even the Overmare deserved such a fate.

A cruel sadistic voice called out, "Welly welly welly well. What do we have here?" A cruel voice called, a pony dressed in leather armor that was covered with blood stains and whose shoulder pads had necklaces made of tongues around it rose out of one of the piles of filth, his helmet was the skull of some sort of bull, the horns sharpened into lethal points and the face visible behind the once proud creatures mouth. It drew a shotgun, pointing it at me, "Another to join the collection? Get 'er boy's!"

I panicked, dashing to the side to avoid a majority of the first shotguns blast of pellets, a good portion of them hitting me in the flank as I dived over the edge and flapped my wings quickly in order to put the gap between us. However, around him several other raiders rose, while none of them was as large as their 'leader' who dwarfed even me in size, his friends were all heavily armed with pistols, shotguns, and even a rifle amongst them. All hell broke loose as they fired at me while I ran, jumped, dived, and flew my efforts stopping me from turning into a pin cushion for bullets, and instead just leaving several agonizing holes in my side as it cut through my barding and the smooth chitin beneath.

I screamed, flying into a nearby store while the raiders fanned out to crawl across either side's bridge. I'd be surrounded in moments, bleeding, afraid, and alone. In moments several of them had stampeded across the bridge, with at least two dozen more still crossing. Then the pipbuck's counter struck zero.

My jaw dropped as thicker glass like shards started to rain down in place of raindrops. The sharp edges and momentum cutting several of the lesser armored raiders into bits of meat in seconds and causing dents and scratches into the few wearing metal armor but even then, several metal armored ponies fell from holes in their armor and the few with protected backs and heads rushed out back the way they came, "Razor Hail!" one of them shouted. In mere seconds, eighteen of them had died to the deadly rain, my pipbuck's counter began to countdown again, ten minutes with the same hail symbol, only with a circle that had a line through it over the triangle. This time I understood, the deadly hail of shrapnel would only last ten minutes.

The raiders that had already crossed, approached without care towards my position, enough venomous anger and glee coming off them was practically visible. With a shudder I drew my weapons with magic, this situation called for it. Varmit rifle in field, and pistol in other, I activated S.A.T.S. sliding from cover and targeting the first two raider's heads with two shots each. With a bang the first round of the varmint rifle shot forward, striking the raider in his left eye, killing him. The second shot canceling itself and restoring some spell charge as it fired off the third and fourth targeted instead, missing the third shot as it skidded off his metal helmet and the fourth shot burying itself in the angry raider's gun, causing the thing to break in his mouth. He spat it out as time resumed, drawing a guard baton while the raiders began to take fire at me again. I ducked under the poorly aimed shots, the crossfire causing several of them to kill each other as I grabbed the fallen one's weapon, a Sub machine gun, and fired it's clips into the midst of the left side of Raider ponies.

I rolled back into the store as several took shots at the now prone me. Getting another bullet into my flank that screamed in pain every time I moved it now. Behind cover I took off the stopper of a health potion and chugged it down, watching before my eyes as several of the bullets popped out of healing flesh and chitin, becoming less full of metal, though they didn't heal entirely. I looked for a way out, finding the solace in a hole of a weakened wall I progressed through it. Arriving behind the counter of what was once a donut shop I crawled to the end and waited until the other ends raiders passed by to enter the store I had just exited from before exiting the store, taking aim and firing into several of their exposed flanks.

With yowl's of pains from several of them, I began to ran as they turned around, anger all but burning from their eyes as I galloped away, their inaccurate submachine guns and shotgun blasts peppering the air around me as I zig-zagged to and fro in a desperate attempt at getting away. I arrived at the center of the mall, arcing around the corner blindly as I fled, being chased by about eight angry raiders who were all firing rounds off after me while the leader and the rest of his forces were going around the long way in both directions to surround me. As I passed I could see that the entire west side of the mall was decorated with more corpses than I could count. Some of them bones, others rotting, and some...Fresh.

I cried in terror, this place was a raider fortress of all things! I dived into another store, a pet clinic, before my pursuers could round the corner, diving behind the counter as quickly as I could manage. My barding was torn up, I was gasping for breath from dozens of small wounds lining my back and sides. As I gathered my breath I searched around for anything that could be of use. Empty cages, the thin cover of the counter, rotting pet food and pet supplies. Cages too small to fit anything larger than a small dog or house cat lined the back half of the pre-war shop. Their bars long since rusted into structural collapse. It was hopeless. The sound of running stopped as the raiders looked for me. Briefly I saw a glint of grey to my right but when I looked there was naught but a hole in the wall, a bit too small for me to crawl into though. I looked down into it though, just incase any other nasty surprises.

What awaited me was not what I expected. The long angular face of a creature I only heard about in the few storybooks and lessons on wildlife I had in the Stable. It was a wolf, it was gazing at me, and it wasn't doing much else. I shrank back towards the other end of the pet clinc's shelter, in case it attacked, our gazes not leaving each others as the voices and hurried trots of the raiders came into earshot again. The wolf merely tilted it's head off to one side, an ear flicking down before it turned away and ran deeper into the shop it had taken shelter in. My pipbuck tallied five minutes remaining on the counter as dozens of raiders passed by the window, their yells growing more excited as they charged at whatever they had seen, right past the pet clinic. All but a half dozen or so. Among those were the big raider who I assumed was the boss. Up close and personal I noticed he was hulking around a sledgehammer in his mouth bigger than I was. I gawked at him as he noticed me, with a muffled roar he charged forward, bringing the giant sledgehammer down at me as though he was playing a round of golf.

And I was the golf ball.

With a scream I dodged, rolling around and firing the varmint rifle and pistol at him while he pulled his sledgehammer out of the ground. The bullets themselves doing no damage to the hulking form of the raider chief as he brought it around again, this time accidently smashing one of his cohorts head as I weaved around them and made for the exit.

"Not so fast Slick." another raider nickered, pulling the stem of a metal apple and hurling it at my way out.

While I didn't know what it was, I didn't want to be near it to find out, dropping my pistol I telekinetically grabbed the metal apple and started to throw it back. It blew up between us, causing the ground to crack and sending me into the railing, dangerously close to the razor hail. that was raining down with a vengeance onto the ground. The ground within twenty meters cracked around the shop. The hulking figure stepping out, a layer of soot and the front of his armor gone. His chest was torn open, yet he still advanced, Without his helmet I could see that his face was horriably mutated, His insides leaking a icky ichor color. I didn't know what he was, and as he brought it up for the finishing blow I heard a deafening crack from underneath.

The explosion had cracked the supports of the floor, and with those weakened the extra weight of the monster in front of me was too much. The ground collapsed, sending us falling towards the Razor hail, I gave a shrill cry as I ran towards him, wings unfolding as razor hail began to claim the falling platform, he swung the sledgehammer, the falling platform forcing his aim to go far above me as I leapt and glided to the intact portions of the second floor. I turned around and I couldn't believe what I saw. Getting up in the Razor hail the monster pony shrugged off the boulder sized chunks of platform that had trapped him when it fell. He took a few steps back before charging forward at me. There was no way he could leap this high, no buckin-

He leapt, causing me to dive to the side or be crushed by his mass as he vaulted through the air and rammed through the stone wall as though it was made of paper. With a grunt I crawled back onto my hooves, looking at the rubble of the next room. As I waited for the dust to clear I noticed just a little too late that he had made another hole in the second floor. the stone at my hooves cracked as he punched through it, grabbing my hind leg with the wide meaty one of his own. I screamed as he ripped the stone apart and pulled me to him. His chest was no longer blasted open and before my eyes the wounds from the razor hail were healing. He wrapped his hooves around my body as he seemed to glow, the radiation meter of my pipbuck beginning to tick again.

It was hopeless, I could only stall for time, though for what I had no idea, "What are you!" I tried to shout but emitted a high pitched Squeak instead when he squeezed me.

He stared for a moment, then squeezed again when I tried to speak, causing another squeak. He chuckled, I groaned for my ribcage. I noticed an metal apple, dropped from one of the deceased raiders as he began to squeeze me again, I groaned, muttering to distract him, "What are you... you monster."

The leader of the raiders chuckled, not noticing the slight green glow of my horn, "Why. I'm you're worst nightmare that is." he hovered his horribly mutated face towards me, laughing, showing rows of sharpened razor like teeth and a breath that would put the sewage system of my Stable to shame.

He began to squeeze, my short miserable life flashing before my eyes as I suffocated and my bones and chitin began to protest from the pressure. I was going to die. I felt unconsciousness began to take me when my pipbuck squawked out a muffled beep, indicating that the razor hail was stopping. An idea struck me, with the remaining verges of my strength I spat a glob of green construction goop into his laughing face.

The effect was instantaneous, he dropped me and started prying at the goop that was clogging his entire mutated face, from behind I could see a dim shape of a pony, another raider? More than lightly, I groaned, reloading my varmint rifle and taking aim, the monster swung and caught me on the chest however, sending me hurling into a wall half concussed. With a groan I popped out of the wall while he ripped the goop off, tearing off a section of his face that began to regrow and glared at me. With a crack of his neck he began to approach me. I tried to move but my left forehoof, the one with the pipbuck was stuck under a large bit of wall. My eyes widened as I struggled and he merely grinned.

Then a blade erupted in his neck. Turning his head he looked back, and I looked back for the cause of the injury. All I could make out in my daze of pain was that the owner was wearing armor of some sort that covered most of his body but his head and the lack of a helmet. The monster grunted beginning to reach up to knock the pest off when the blade sparked with both a familiar crackle of electricity and with an orange flame as it's owner slashed a clean line through the neck and then doubled back after flipping the blade around severing the other side and completely beheading the Celestia damned thing.

This time it didn't get back up or regenerate it's injuries, I sighed in relief, but then I found the pointy tip of a ichor coated blade at my neck. I gulped. I tried to say something, anything. Convince him I wasn't an enemy, but when I opened my mouth to speak the only thing that came out was a quiet, "Help?" and I fainted.

Footnote: Level up: New perk: Changeling Sheller(Rank 1): You've taken such a beating that your body has grown a harder shell to combat further battering, as a result add a flat bonus of +3 to your Damage Threshold every time you take up this perk, for a maximum of +9.

Next Chapter: Chapter 5: Cat and dog Estimated time remaining: 15 Hours, 22 Minutes