An Enclave pony? What does he… or it, want?

Better yet, if I remember correctly from my scientist years, I was told that the Enclave were a notorious faction for performing un-foal-ish acts among other ponies. This one in particular isn’t showing any hostilities to us, not does it have the intention of shooting at us on sight. The armor really threw me a curveball, and its distorted voice had also concealed the true identity of an armored pony. My E.F.S. even said that this was a neutral, not a hostile.

As unsure as I was, it was merely looking at me. I wrote down three words from the PipBuck and showed it to the unnamed pony, reading as ‘Who are you?’.

“My name is not important at this time. What’s important is that we must return to safety in Whooveswick.” The unnamed pony replied. So, no name and Whooveswick? Wasn’t it renamed as Stable Town from our visit? Or was I seeing it wrong?

Taking a small glance, I saw it carrying twin plasma rifles carried onto its back. Battle saddles? Never seen those before… and filled with state-of-the-art technology, too!

Tootsie approached to it and attempted to poke at the plasma rifle, “Oooohhh… its glowing!”

However, the armored pony swatted her hoof away, “Don’t touch it, young filly. This is not a toy for you play with. Its a highly dangerous weapon.”

The filly’s response was a whine, but this one has a point. Its dangerous and who knows what’ll happen if it accidentally fired off?! It be all acid-y and gooey with fatal results.

It pointed a hoof at me and then both of my allies, “State your names.”

Tootsie was the first to introduce herself, “My name’s Tootsie Roll, and this is Bob, and the number pony, Zero!”

Not. Funny.

Bob waved his metal claw to the unknown pony as it nodded to us, “I see. Its a pleasure to see you three. Now, shall we go?”

Is this one in charge here? Unless its Starshooter in disguise, this one is more authoritative than it looks. And wasn’t I the leader previously back in New Hampshore? I merely shrugged and motioned the two for us to follow her. Looks like I’ve unofficially stepped down as a team leader.

Oh well. Back to Stable Town (or Whooveswick as mentioned by this armored pony of higher ranks) we go, oh mysterious and new leader of ours!

We arrived back to Stable Town (or Whooveswick as this armor pony mentioned) and the reactions we got were mixed; some of the ponies had welcomed us back, but some who are shooting up glares at the armored pony with threatening expressions. Its like they have the intent to kill this mysterious pony, or us! What did we do wrong?! Not my fault Tootsie Roll here decided that it was a good idea to explore the cave entrance of Mount Gallopmore!

It wasn’t long before one of the Stable Town residents took notice from Tootsie’s visible wound (even though it was healed after out exit), “The filly’s been hurt! I bet this Enclave did this to a poor filly!”

Oh you’ve got to be kidding me…

“No, it was this scientist pony!” The other pony proclaimed. Me?! The hell did I do?! It wasn’t my fault that we wanted to desperately get out of Mount Gallopmore!

One of the Stable Town ponies shouted, “Get them both! They’re the ones who hurt the poor filly!”

Before they went on a mad chase to us, Bob immediately took a defensive stance, aiming his tail at them and prompting them to stop. Even Tootsie Roll reassured them, “Nuh uh! They didn’t hurt me! Honest! I just fell is all and we were trying to escape from the killer dragon-breathing ants!”

Bob even knew that neither I or the armored pony inflicted any harm to this filly! They began to whisper against each other, not believing her at first before they quietly dispersed. They had also said sorry as they moved on. Good. The last thing we’d want is unwanted violence and bloodshed and I dismissively waved at the armored pony who was taking aim with twin plasma rifles.

It took a glance at me before it lowered its weapons, “If you insist… they did threatened us, Zero. So don’t think of letting your guard down next time.”

Oh great. I’m being told in an authoritative manner now? Might as well make it my foal-sitter, of course! I simply nodded to it, even if my senses were improved before I got chided.

I wrote down four words from the PipBuck and showed it to the unnamed armored pony as it read as ‘Lead the way, leader’.

“Follow me, then. And don’t separate.”

Sure thing, ‘leader’. And here I thought Starshooter was so strict… guess this one beat him to it by a landslide! But what’s there to stop it? I’ll just have to do what comes natural, especially since I’m still unable to normally talk anyway. Furthermore, Tootsie Roll and Bob separated from me a hoof-ful of times while trying to keep an eye on them. I’m a scientist, not a foal-sitter for pete’s sake!

We followed it inside a local clinic known as the Stable Clinic for Tootsie’s wounded hoof to be completely healed. We were greeted by a couple of pony doctors and nurses, “Hello, and welcome to the Stable Clinic! How can we help you, ponies?”

Tootsie was the first to trot over to one of the doctors and looking up a sky blue-colored mare, “I have a big boo-boo, though its not too bad! At least my numbered friend here helped it stop the bleeding!”

...really now?!

“‘A numberized pony’? Young one, I think you meant Zero. His name is far from a number.”

Thank you unnamed soldier whom I don’t even know, for giving me the benefit of the doubt!

“Though his coat does resemble a Blueberry.”

...I take it back from what I just said in my mind now. You and Tootsie had happened to double-teamed me, and I am greatly unamused.

“I see. I’m nurse Cloud Storm! Its nice to see you, little filly! And first visitors gets free treatment; second or more visits means payment in caps are needed!”

Free? Well, alright! That means it’ll be a quick time for her to be healed, though I did gave the armored pony a glare. I didn’t liked being called Blueberry, and you had somehow reminded me of the already-dead Carbon Monoxide. I selected two words from my PipBuck to clarify and let it know regarding name-calling, reading as ‘Not Blueberry’. Even if I had to suck up to major authorities, name-calling is just wrong.

The unnamed pony read and nodded, “Right… I apologize for that. I didn’t know that it was offensive for you.”

I gave the armored pony a nod as an act of forgiveness. Thank you for realizing this.

Tootsie Roll was guided into a medical room by Cloud Storm as other doctor ponies had taken us to the waiting room. Bob, on the other hoof, was given a curious look from one of the doctor ponies, “Hmm… you’re not from around here, are you little feller?”

Bob’s response was a curious whirr as he looked at the doctor pony back. He turned to us and asked, “Do either of you own him?”

I shook his head. And I blame my inability to speak though the armored pony next to me replied, “This robo-scorpion belongs to a filly, sir.”

“Ohhh… so this cute little robo-scorpion belongs to a cuter filly? Well then, how’s about I fix up those dents and scratches for you? I myself happen to be efficient at healing fillies and sentient robots alike.”

So I take this is the same doctor while me and Tootsie were at Stable 75 were staying in for a night. Unusual that Sweet Cheeks never mentioned us his name from our previous night. As for cute? Yeah… so long as you don’t get on his bad side, doc. His small size isn’t to be messed around with. His tail laser is quite deadly if you ask me.

I nudged a hoof onto the armored pony’s shoulder to grab its attention as I began to write down three words from the screen as it turned its head to me and asked, “Yes?”

It looked at the screen and read quietly before giving me a nod and turns its attention to the doctor, “Sir, may we ask what your name is?”

The doctor pony looked at us as Bob climbed up to his back, “The name’s doctor Ratchet. A pleasure to meet you both!”

We nodded at his introduction, though I pondered on his name… looks like Dr. Scalpel without crazy intentions on carving ponies apart and make terrifying creations. At least he resembles nothing like the crazed doc who took my voice away. Ratchet motioned his head to Bob, “Follow me, little one. I’ll have you fixed up in a jiffy again.”

At least its just dents and scratches. I’m not sure if Ratchet has enough parts to have Bob repaired again after having fallen down into the pit. I looked at the armored pony and chose five words and presented it from the PipBuck screen, reading as ‘You’re willing to join us?’.

It gave me a nod in response, “I will. At least, away from the others who had done the unthinkable…”

Unthinkable? What did it do to piss other ponies off, other than the Stable Town residents coming close to wrongly accuse us of harming Tootsie Roll despite that we had no intention of harming an innocent filly (even Bob knew we meant no harm to her!). Where else would we go anyway, other than to get ourselves trapped again inside the caves of Mount Gallopmore? And this DJ-Pon ‘three’ or whatever he is said that New Hampshore had been overrun by a massive Cazador swarm. At least that’s only in New Hampshore, the last thing I want to hear is a second swarm that’s gonna head over to Mayne.

Inside the medical room, Tootsie’s open wound was closed easily as she drank the healing potion given by Cloud Storm, “Now, drink up dearie. We want the filly to grow nice and strong.”

“Mmm… thank you!”

Her visible wound closed easily as she finished drinking up the Healing Potion. Cloud Storm trotted over to the desk and retrieved a red lollipop, floating it over to her, “Here you go, little filly! Since you’ve been so nice, you deserve a cherry lollipop. Enjoy!”

She happily retrieved the lollipop with her magic and placed it into her mouth, “Mmm! Thank you so much, nurse Cloud Storm!”

Soon, the energetic filly got out of the medical bed and safely landed her hooves onto the ground without harm. Cloud Storm then accompanied her out of the medical room to return to us, “Here you go! Your filly friend is all better.”

We nodded to the nurse before Tootsie asked Cloud Storm, “Where’s Bob?”

“Your robo-scorpion friend is with Ratchet. He’ll be fixed up in no time!”

“Yay! Bob is gonna be all better like me!” Tootsie happily replied. Now all we have to do is wait for Bob to return for us to head elsewhere. But to where exactly is that we hope to not return to the Cazador-infested New Hampshore. I lifted my head back, and it didn’t took long for Cloud Storm and the unnamed pony to notice my crudely-stitched throat that was still there.

Cloud Storm was about to make her leave when she indeed noticed the stitches on my throat, “Oh my… I could give you a voice modulator, but sadly we don’t have any. Our supplies are a little sparse at this time. But if you can find those, I’ll see if I can do so for you. Of course, I can’t guarantee safety as augmenting your throat can have potentially dangerous side effects.”

A voice modulator for me to talk again? As great as it sounded, there’s pros and cons and cons outweigh the pros in my opinion. I would speak, but I’m not entirely sure if I would even sound the same like I was before. I could sound like a robot trapped in a body of a living pony. And chances of enduring through lots of pain is too high, even with medical practice. I guess for the time being, I’ll have to stay silent as I waved a hoof to her as a ‘don’t worry’ type of expression.

The armored pony did asked me, “How did you lose your voice? Were you foal-napped?”

I gave it a nod. Sadly, I can’t give out a clear explanation due to both my inability to speak normally and my PipBuck having a five-word limit that impedes me of placing more than a mere five words for a full story. And unless I knew where Dr. Scalpel is, he’s probably long gone by then. Probably eaten alive by the Cazadores, but I could be terribly wrong. And the clinic has a small number of doctors and nurses alike, so that doesn’t make things better.

“I see. Rest assured, we will find a proper voice modulator for you.”

I sure hope so.

Ratchet had left the workshop with Bob onto his back as the robo-scorpion jumped onto the table with a happy, robotic whirr.

“Yay! Bob is all fixed up!”

And not a moment too soon. Its nighttime outside and since I don’t have anymore caps in me, we’ll have to depart ourselves from Stable Town and look elsewhere within Mayne. No caps mean no staying in Stable 75 for a night again, so this’ll be the last time we stopped by a local clinic in this town.

Ratchet smiled at us, “I hope this will be all for tonight. Now please take care of yourselves and be careful out there.”

We nodded before Tootsie said, “Bye, mister! And thanks for healing Bob!”

And with that, we left the clinic.

“Soooo now what, oh mysteriously-armored pony?”

Tootsie asked it for me -- not that I wanted to be the one to ask with my non-existent voice -- and the armored pony replied with, “I’m not sure. Maybe your scientist friend will show us the way?”

M-Me?! When did I become their navigator?! But on the bright side, it didn’t wanted to be the leader forever. But to where exactly is beyond me, especially when the map is barely visible. All I could do was to wave a hoof as a ‘come on’ gesture as I led them out of Stable Town and elsewhere and totally not Camp Mayne Six.

The three willingly followed me, with the armored one trotting close to me. I’d ask for some personal space, though I’d figured with those twin plasma rifles it has will give us enough protection.

“Its alright. I have a built-in flashlight from the helmet.”

It turned the flashlight on and goddess its bright! But on the major plus side, at least we don’t have to run into unseen traps that could kill me or my new allies. I gave it a smile in thanks before we continued on, keeping ourselves in the illuminated area that showed slightly dense forestation. Our only obstacle was a giant pit with no bottom and it stopped us in time with its hooves, “Hold on. There’s a pit. We’ll need to find a bridge. Zero, take us there.”

Right… Bob skittered up to the armored pony’s back, seemingly afraid of heights. I led them to a different direction. It was taking a little longer than expected, up until I read the map with the aid of the helmet’s flashlight. We were at The Giant Crater that has no entrance to it. You call that a pit?! Its too big for it to become a pit!

But as odd as it looked, there wasn’t even a giant meteor that struck into the land. In fact, there weren’t any meteor showers at all. Weird… I suppose we’ll have to find an alternative route to go for.

“Oooohhh… that’s one biiiig hole!”

Obviously, it is. And if we ask them about a giant crater, they’ll either become skeptical or that the question would be too sensitive and create panic and fear.

Up ahead, we saw a steep hill with an elevator door to it. We took an approach and I pressed on the elevator button. It still (barely) works as the sliding doors slid open and we went inside. I pressed the button that'll take us to to the bottom floor. The armored pony turned off its flashlight and as the elevator door slides open, I was suddenly shocked at the sight; the walls were tunneled through! And they’re huge!

“Those are biiig holes! Somepony’s been mining!”

I highly doubt it, Tootsie. They’re way too big for somepony to be mining something that doesn’t even exist. My pony thoughts replied. What could’ve caused this?

At least none of us are heading into either of the giant tunnels as I wasn’t sure which direction it goes anyway. I motioned my head for us to keep moving as we went down the stairs. Surprisingly, the ceiling didn’t collapsed the first time we saw this.

Suddenly, we heard and felt rumbling noises and those weren’t our stomachs. An earthquake?! And we’re still heading down the stairs! We quickly trotted down the stairs, fearing that the ceiling is threatening to collapse with us inside of it!

As we made it downstairs, the rumblings had suddenly stopped. I’m wondering if anypony were using a giant, half-assed mining machine while inadvertently causing hazardous earthquakes?

Up ahead were multiple cots attached against both sides of the walls and two terminals set on tables. We were becoming tired, but to how we rest up with sudden rumbling noises could be anypony’s guess. I suppose I can look up both of the terminals before calling it a night. Tootsie slumped herself onto the cot, “Guh… nighty night, you ponies! And Bob, too!”

I smiled softly as a returning good night as I booted up the terminal. Before I could figure out the password, an armored pony approached me as it tapped a hoof onto my shoulder. I turned around and faced it. Something you need, oh nameless armored pony?

“Make it quick with the terminals. We need to rest for us to venture on and reach to another area.”

I nodded to it, but despite my tired eyes my brain begs for knowledge. I waved dismissively to it and gave it an assuring smile. My response was, “If you insist, then. Just… please don’t overwork yourself.”

Its concerned about me now? Well… alright, if it insists. Regardless, I focused on cracking the code and found an easy password to gain access to the terminal. It was ‘tearuk’. (Whoever came up with the name ‘Tearuk’, I’ll never know.)

There was only one entry to show for. I suppose I can open up and see what it has to offer me.

>Thingy!

“We busy excavating tunnels for good treasure! Like, big and shiny thingies! Us alicorns need rich to build new thingies! Yes, new thingies! For us! Yes. Nopony else! Lunakin here wants treasure for herself! I say, ‘tis a lie! You share and care! Anyway, tunnel mining went bad! That giant worm thingy ate treasure as food!

“Stupid worm thingy! Come back with treasure! Treasure not food! I want rich and build thingies for Equestria! You have no reason, stupid worm!

“But that worm is too big, it ate good friends! How can I collect treasure without share and care?! Its too big and scary! My friends not food, stupid giant thingy! Return treasure, now!

“Alas, search is gone, worm gone, treasure gone, all gone! It not possible! Please, read this and don’t find treasure, and giant worm thingy!”

‘Giant worm thingy’? Well that would explain the giant holes and random rumblings… but I’m not sure what it even is. Probably a coincidence, no less. It also explains from a huge crater we saw, but still just a coincidence. I’m no animal expert, but I’m sure there isn’t any time of animal that can make giant holes boring through tunnels and burrowing into the ground which leaves massive holes to it. I closed the terminal and my brain wants to go to the other terminal, but my tiredness is already getting the better of me now. I’ll figure it out later the next day as I got off of the chair and slumped myself onto the vacant cot, with Bob simply guarding us should anything happen.

But for now, its off to sleep I go…

The armored pony was the first to wake me up as my shoulder was nudged, resulting me to roll my body a little bit and stretch my hooves before waking up. I looked at it as it asked me, “Do you have something for us to eat? As a soldier I require an adequate meal.”

In another room (presumably the kitchen), Tootsie brought in some boxes of food she scavenged from the fridge, “Found them! Also, he has one can Pork N’ Beans left!”

Gee, thanks for a wild guess, Tootsie! Truthfully though, I really do have one left. I did however, pulled it out of my saddlebag and offered it to the armored pony. Of course, I got a dismissed wave and told me, “Keep it. You’ll need it more than I do. I shall go and feed my own food the filly had found.”

I nodded. I followed it into the kitchen for us to begin our meal. Since the stove doesn’t work, perhaps I should just open up the lid and chow down. Of course, it was lukewarm at best but enough to help ease my stomach from rumbling inside. The armored pony looked at the box of Cram before looking at us, “I… think I should eat it privately.”

Huh? Eat alone? But why? Was it hiding something from us? Tootsie apparently replied with her mouth full, “Mmmphkay mypphry pnny!”

Its best to have manners for once, Tootsie. I selected five words from the PipBuck and showed it to the armored pony, reading as ‘Don’t wander too far’. Its response was, “I won’t. I’ll have Tootsie’s pet friend here to look after me.”

It seemed that even a well-armed pony needed additional protection from Bob. Fair enough, I suppose. I looked ahead at the closed door (hopefully not collapsed inside) and took a curious approach before opening it up. Empty and intact… and a reloading bench? Well, this is an interesting sight to see.

My sniper rounds had empty shell cases to them, so I suppose I can refresh my sniper ammo without the need of searching for some. It was quite simple to use and enough for me to be full with ammo again. And it didn’t took any effort to do so as well! I wish I could stick around and work more with the reloading bench, but I really doubt staying inside is the best way to go.

We needed to move on and find a safe place to go. I waved a hoof to Tootsie and we left the reloading bench room for us to get Bob and the armored pony, whom had already finished lunch. My glance barely spotted a visible muzzle. Its round instead of square… mare, I suppose? Or probably a stallion shaped like a mare? Damnit, Zero! This isn’t the time to guess! It looked at me and said, “Thank you for giving me your meal. It was thoughtful of you.”

You’re… welcome?

The rumblings resumed, and a red blip was shown in my E.F.S. though I can’t see which direction its going. Its moving in random places! I looked at them with concern and wrote down four words that reads ‘We need to move’ from the PipBuck.

“Ooohhh! More adventures!” Tootsie replied. There’s not going to be an adventure if we’re left buried alive!

The armored pony reiterated to Tootsie, “This isn’t an adventure; this is us getting back up to the surface without being buried alive.”

Thank you for that, oh nameless pony!

We went into the door that led deep into the wide tunnels. They weren’t excavated like the giant ones that burrowed through earlier but also had a functioning elevator shaft along the way. Still intact as well!

My E.F.S. kept showing me a red blip that’s still moving erratically around and deep inside, but nowhere in any direction. We got in and I wrapped my hoof around the lever and pulled it as it began to slowly make its way up to the surface. Halfway there, and the rumblings began to intensify again, and I’m anxiously waiting to get to the top. I looked down below and-- giant, purple scales?! Whoa…

We made it back on top and we were met with thundering clouds. Goddess damnit, who’s in charge of the weather anyway?! You’d know that Bob is vulnerable to water! To make matters worse, we were greeted by Slavers as we made our way to a nearby shelter! There were five of them, all whom are armed and dangerous.

“Well, well. It seems we got ourselves some outsiders! And our bargain for the take.”

Tootsie cowered behind me, “Wah! Scary ponies!”

One of the Slavers snorted, “We’ll take that filly of yours off of your hooves if you wish to save your sorry asses!”

Like hell we will! Bob immediately took a defensive stance, aiming at one of them with his laser tail as it let out angered beeping noises. I cautiously aimed at one of them as well, as the armored pony armed its twin plasma rifles. It dangerously spoke, “I don’t know what your intentions are, but if you lay a hoof on the filly, we won’t hesitate to take you down by force.”

Apparently, our response were their snarked laughters as one of them replied with, “And who are you supposed to be? Some white knight in shining armor?! And as for this little tinker toy, we’ll have to dismantle it! Even if we kill you outcasts, we’ll at least use your corpses as target practices!”

I don’t want to kill anypony and neither would my allies do the same thing. However, whatever their reasons are were nothing more than their cruel and sadistic intentions of using us as personal slaves for their negative beliefs, and I’m not letting them lay their filth-ridden hooves on Tootsie Roll!

The armored pony was the first to open fire at one of the Slavers, as its twin Plasma Rifles fired off green and highly-toxic goo.

PPRRRROOOWWWW! PPRRRROOOWWWW!

A direct hit from one of the Slavers as he was dissolved into green goo. And what power it had! Bob and I opened fire; I first took it down with the help of V.A.T.S. by getting a good aim at his head and taking him down with ease.

TZZZAT! TZZZAT! TZZZAT!

We were shot, though I was still alive with no bullet holes to show for as Bob killed another Slaver pony. Most of the bullets were easily deflected thanks to the armored pony’s thick armor that renders most bullets impenetrable whilst Bob’s own body armor merely deflected bullets coming from Slavers. Now there’s only one left and Bob took aim at him before the Slaver stammered, “W-Wait! W-W-W-We can make a deal! Y-You give us the filly and we’ll leave your asses b-b-be!”

Not happening. However, there were loud rumbling noises again as a red blip from the E.F.S. charged towards us! Oh fuck!

Apparently, it narrowly missed us as it grabbed its first victim, “Aaahhh!! Fuck! Get it off of me! Get it off--”

His screams of agony were cut off by sounds of bones crunching and gushes of blood spraying all over the ground before our unidentified hostile disappeared.

Sweet, mother of Celestia… what in the absolute hay was that…?!

I’m not sure if this was even luck that was on our side, but the armored pony told us, “We can’t stick around. we need to get somewhere safe now.”

I couldn’t agree more, nameless pony. Sliding my sniper rifle back in between my side and my saddlebags, I nudged a hoof to Tootsie who was covering her ears.

“I-Is the bang bang finally over?”

I gave her an affirmed nod. I’m aware that Tootsie isn’t used to gunfights, much less hearing Slavers wanting the filly more than us. And that it wasn’t right of killing them, but to have them even attempt to have us bribe them by giving our filly friend to us is a sure way of crossing the line. There was a semi-large mound that was caused by a possibly large creature (or ‘giant worm-thingy’, according to the terminal I found and didn’t bothered to check out the second terminal due to general sleepiness and our dire need of getting somewhere safe), but still enough for us to navigate into a building for our temporary stay.

There was nothing inside, except from our horrifying sight. Enslaved ponies… in chains! One of them was suffering from huge malnourishment (seeing that he hasn’t eaten in days due to lack of food); the rest… were no longer alive.

“Please… help me…” A young colt pleaded to us. He looked extremely frail, the tip of his horn cut up by the Slavers whom we killed (with a creature we don’t know devouring one in a bloodied fashion). With ribs and bones visible from the inside of his weakened body, I looked on in horror. I had nothing in my saddlebags; no food or syringes… nothing. And even with food and medication, there’s no guarantee that he’ll be able to live in this state.

I wrote five words and showed the PipBuck to Bob, reading as ‘Lead Tootsie to armored pony’. The robo-scorpion nodded and huddled to the filly, bringing her to the armored pony. I don’t know what its expression was, but its likely that it felt the same way I’m expressing. It told Tootsie, “Get behind me… and don’t look.”

“O-Okay…” Tootsie simply responded. What am I supposed to do with this colt..? Surely I don’t want to lay a bullet through his head, would I? I can’t risk traumatizing my filly friend. I just can’t…

“Please mister… please kill me…”

I shook my head in response. Hell no! I’m not some murderer! We only killed those Slaver ponies because they mistreated you and your friends horribly! I’ve already done this to my own teammate before, why now?! Please don’t make me, Goddesses!

The armored pony told me, “Its for the best… if we have nothing that can save this young colt, then you must put him out of misery in a peaceful manner.”

I still relented, regardless. What good will that do in the end? Am I going to become hated by my own allies for just killing a young colt? Do I really have to., Celestia…?

Eventually, I quietly sighed as I gave myself in. Slowly trotting over to him and my ears falling flat, I gingerly placed a hoof onto the dying one’s neck. I closed my eyes and began to press my hoof against the dying colt’s fragile neck and soon his neck snapped like a defenseless twig. I would’ve heard him say ‘thank you’, but it didn’t felt satisfactory. I was trying to fight back tears, but my hooves gave way and I slumped onto the ground, readying myself for another round of saddening tears…

“Go with your robo-scorpion friend, Tootsie Roll. We’ll have Zero regroup with us momentarily.”

As it trotted over to me, I felt my shoulder rubbed softly by a metallic hoof. I turned to look up to it, wondering what it wants from me. I didn’t asked for some company, but I’m just too weak to show resistance of what I’ve done.

“I’m aware that this was hard for you to put this young, weakened colt out of his misery. But it was the right thing to do, and without laying a bullet in him. For now, we need you to stay strong and keep moving. We don’t know that thing will ever return and we need you to lead us to safety. Okay?”

I slowly nodded, and in return, it pressed its metallic muzzle onto my cheek as if expressing care for me. I smiled softly amid having tears running down in my eyes. Rubbing my hoof against my teary eyes, I got up on my hooves and simply motioned my head to it as we regrouped with Tootsie and Bob. It seems she’s calmed down now, and not have to worry about gunshots.

What we do have to worry however, is for us to move somewhere else. The armored pony told the two for me, “Let’s keep moving.”

“O-Okay…” Tootsie merely replied. Bob patted her head with a metal claw as we left the slave-ridden room and into the open, deserted space again, albeit with blooded parts and Slaver corpses rotting onto the dirt ground. We’ll have to head north, and hopefully we don’t find them again.

There’s a (really) small town up ahead, though we’re now outside of Mayne and into an unspecified location. Only three ponies were residents in an unnamed town, the rest were inside the houses (though it’d be a crime if we’d try and enter inside), especially if its sparsely populated. Hell, even my PipBuck says that its an Unknown Town! No name, no named places… nothing! Nothing, I say! In my mind, of course. Tootsie asked one of the townsponies, “Hey, mister! What’s your name?”

It seems her response was, “My name is none of your business! Now beat it, squirt!”

Whoa. Talk about a harsh response.

“H-Hey! That wasn’t nice…” Tootsie’s ears fell flat after she got an insulted response from him. Bob skittered in front of the stallion and lets out a warning whirr, threatening to shoot him should he kept going with brash insults. Of course, he trotted past by him, as if Bob didn’t even exist.

I saw the armored pony taking it seriously and galloped over to the nameless stallion (who obviously refuses to give out his actual name) before it gave him a hard buck to the side.

THWACK!

It was enough force for him to fall onto his back.

“Gaahh! What the hell’s your problem?! Are you some white knight in shining--” He was immediately cut off when the armored pony pinned its hoof against his neck, expressing intent to harm him even further after having witnessed him insulting the filly. Geez, might as well bow down to it thanks to its high level of authority!

“Don’t you ever insult a filly, or you’ll be hearing it from me. And if you continue to insult her even further, I’ll make sure your ass will become a personal punching bag.”

Talk like a badass… noted! The unnamed stallion had received cold looks from the armored pony and without a word, he galloped off, with the other two ponies completely oblivious to what was even going on. I sat down and thought to myself, Damn, I wish I could be like my new armored ally!

Bob gently rubbed to his filly friend’s hoof with a metal claw as the armored pony assured Tootsie, “Its alright. He won’t bother you anymore. We’ll make sure of that.”

Tootsie nodded in response, “Okey-dokey-wokey, oh mysterious pony! Thank you so much! He was a big and ugly meanie!”

Heh. ‘Big and ugly meanie’. Good one, young Tootsie. Gazing my sights onto the left is an abandoned house that’s left wide open. Not sure if a pony resident had left and never returned at all, but anything that’ll help me scavenge at least a meal or two left inside and in good condition as well. Curiosity led me inside, but what really interested me was a workbench! Oh my gazing stars… its designed for endless possibilities!

Even better is that there’s an unused recipe from under the table! Oh how wonderful! I quickly grabbed it with my hoof and pulled it out, eager to reveal its secrets; a recipe for the Flash Mine! If I can think of what a Flash Mine is, its a non-lethal weapon but enough to render anypony blind for several hours, as well as their hearing impaired. This could be useful!

I’ll have to read them later, as I need to regroup with my team. They joined up with me after the armored pony’s brief physical altercation after the pony had just verbally insulted Tootsie Roll. The new recipe I acquired safe in my saddlebags. Of course it wasn’t without the armored pony taking a glance at me before telling me, “We need to head elsewhere… here is too unfriendly and we don’t want anypony further insulting the innocent filly.”

I nodded to it. Good idea; here is less than friendly than in Stable Town. Only problem is that we’re unable to return to that said town before, and the only way back is forward. I suppose we could find refuge from outside of Mayne, so I hope things go as planned.

We eventually arrived on Fhoal Island, small and dense. From the outer edges of the ‘island’ are littered with barrels of radiation. Take about a dumbest way to set up a barrier…

And the sign had the motto ‘The friendliest island in Equestria!’, when its pretty much not. On the plus side, there wasn’t a giant thing pursuing us. At least, not for the time being of course. Up ahead were abandoned motel buildings with nopony out there at all. The pathway would even lead us to it anyway, so its time that we’d take a brief rest before continuing on to see the rest of Fhoal Island.

“Fhoal Island? I suppose this will be fitting for our beneficial rest, Zero.”

I nodded to it as Tootsie groaned out, “My hoofsies ache!”

Yes, yes, I know that feeling, Tootsie Roll. But at least we managed to escape the beast of the unknown from pursuing us further. Sadly, there isn’t anypony out there and it just adds the creepiness within the atmosphere. Come to think of it, the E.F.S. has been displaying a green blip this whole time. This whole bucking time! Most likely a glitch of the sort. Maybe there’s a reset button somewhere?

Either way, we went into an empty motel room for us to rest up… save for myself as I took off the PipBuck and looked around for a reset button. Where the buck is it?!

Of course, the armored pony placed its armored hoof onto my shoulder and told me, “Don’t exert yourself too much. You need to rest before we can explore the rest of Fhoal Island. Okay?”

I looked at it with a nod and gave my PipBuck to it. It took a curious look when it retrieved my PipBuck, “Is there something wrong with your PipBuck?”

I nodded to it, wondering if it can find a reset button for me, or even fix it up for me.

“Hmm… it looks like its glitched. Its outdated if you ask me. I’m afraid I can’t do much about it, but I’ll keep it safe in your saddlebags until we can find a local repairpony. For now, come. We need you to rest up.”

Guess not even it can fix it, huh? Oh well. I slumped myself onto the vacant, strewn mattress before stretching my hooves and going to sleep, not even taking off my lab coat and slept with it. I heard its whisper in my ear, “Rest assured, your PipBuck will be safe in your saddlebags, as well as your sniper. It will be safe with me.”

This Enclave pony… is different. Nevertheless, I took a nap after hearing its comments. I felt my mane ruffled by its armored hoof as it went to get my sniper rifle and place it next to me. I’m PipBuck-less now, but for a good reason anyway.

Bob was already ‘asleep’ next to Tootsie. I heard a voice coming from the bathroom, though I quickly disregard it. Must be Pinkie doing silly sounds in my head.

To my lack of acknowledgement, the armored pony was in the bathroom and taking off its helmet, revealing to be a mare. She looked at herself in the mirror, “You can do this… no other Enclaves are looking for you. They’re just regular ponies, including this Zero fellow. I just gotta keep myself discreet for the time being. I don’t want them to find out that I’m just an Enclave that’s looking to kidnap them. I can never let my father tell me what to do…”

The unnamed mare washed her face away with the barely-working faucet before shaking her head to dry herself, “I need to rest up as well. A good three hours of rest will do until I can wake them up again.”

She slipped her helmet back on, completely concealing her voice and hiding her true gender with a distorted one again. I was merely too busy discovering the wonders in my dream realm, with this hyperactive pink pony going by the name of Pinkie Pie just jumping around on an invisible trampoline! How does one even defy laws of physics anyway?

After its three-hour rest, it woke up and went to first wake Tootsie Roll and Bob up.

“Wake up, you two. Its time for us to go.”

Tootsie simply fidgeted in her sleep before letting out a soft yawn, slowly waking up along the way. Bob was the second to ‘wake up’, as his servos whirr quietly inside before looking up to the armored pony out of curiosity.

I was the third to be woken up by the armored pony as it told me, “Get up. We need to find the repairpony to have your PipBuck fixed. Its too dangerous for us to go without your PipBuck to lead us.”

My ears received its mechanical-like voice and I slowly nodded, slinking myself onto my hooves before stretching my back. I looked at it with a nod before looking at the two and motioned my head for us to leave the abandoned motel room. We left, and no surprises neither. I no longer have a PipBuck in me, thanks to it malfunctioning. It can’t retrieve any information, check the map or even check my inventory. At least I have my SDM-9 with me along with my saddlebags. The problem is that I’m unable to engage S.A.T.S. for precise aim so I’ll have to solely rely on aiming down the sights without the PipBuck’s aid.

And even if I wore it back on, the screen would stay frozen with no response. If I remember… one of the gunfire from the Slavers must’ve grazed my PipBuck that rendered it non-functional!

Great. Now I’m unable to determine if I could encounter any creatures or other ponies, friend or foe. As we kept looking around, the ground shook below our hooves (and Bob’s legs) in a faint rumble. We stopped and I looked around, immediately worried!

“An earthquake..?!”

Not likely, armored and nameless pony! Equestria never had earthquakes at all! Tootsie spoke in a jiggly and shaky voice, “Hey, why is the ground shaking?!”

I don’t have a clue, and I really don’t want to know! It could be that ‘giant-worm thingy’ the poorly-written terminal it told me about yesterday!

The rumblings suddenly stopped. Not sure if this was either luck or just some freak accident that didn’t happen. We had to keep moving, with me close to the armored pone and both Tootsie Roll and Bob close to me for us not to separate.

“Whatever the rumblings are, at least it stopped. The repair shop is nearby.” The armored pony informed us. Thank goddess!

We entered inside and found a merchant. It appeared to be an elder stallion with transparent goggles over his head as the armored pony was the first to approach him, “Excuse me sir. You don’t happen to be a repairpony, are you?”

He looked at it and gave it a nod before giving us a friendly smile, “Yes, hello there fellow strangers! Welcome to Crankshaft's Tinker ‘Em All! I’m Crankshaft, your repairpony in all of Fhoal Island!”

Clearly, this is the most desolate location we’ve ever found. Bob skittered himself onto my back before relaxing himself on top of me. Tootsie excitedly waved a hoof up to him, “Hi, mister! I’m Tootsie Roll and this is my nerd-look--”

She was immediately interrupted by the unnamed pony when it cleared its throat, “Allow me to make proper introductions, Tootsie.”

I saw her making frowny faces, but at least she’s not going to introduce me as a number pony.

“This little one is, as already mentioned, Tootsie Roll. This is Bob, a sentient robo-scorpion. And lastly, this is our fellow scientist, Zero.”

“I see this one’s a scientist… interesting. And this young fellow he’s carrying with a robo-scorpion?! Oohhh… I’ve never seen anything like it before…” Crankshaft cleared his throat from his brief, amazed expression before turning his attention to it.

“Might I ask what your name is?”

It didn’t gave out its name to him, “My name is classified for the time being. Think like going undercover.”

“Well, I suppose you’re right. You’re an armored… Enclave soldier that’s here to rob me?”

Crankshaft apparently thought it would rob him because of its heavily-armored nature. I shook his head as to let him know that its not here to cause any harm on anypony. It replied to the elder repairpony, “I may be of Enclave, but I serve of no purpose to their heinous acts. I’m affiliated with the three with me and I intend on being by their side.”

He nodded in an understanding matter after it told him its different motives, “Well, alright then! Anyhow, what can I do to help you ponies? And that cute robotic scorpion, of course.”

It turned its attention to my saddlebags and slid its hoof inside to retrieve my glitched PipBuck 1000 before showing it to him (the screen was locked in place and unresponsive to commands even when latched around a pony’s hoof), “Here. This PipBuck requires repair.”

Crankshaft let out a surprised gasp, almost falling off of his chair. He has never seen a PipBuck like this before, “I-Is that… the PipBuck 1000?!”

We nodded to her with Tootsie saying, “Yup! Veeery rare!”

This elder pony can’t take the pressure he’s in but did managed to relax himself before he’d inadvertently hurt himself, “Ooohhh… is that a PipBuck? But… this… this is an older version of the 3000 one…”

I suppose that the 3000 is much more modern than my current, malfunctioned one.

“This is the PipBuck 1000.” The armored pony told Crankshaft. Despite his age, his enthusiasm is still quite young. Even his cutie mark bears his namesake!

“A PipBuck 1000… such an old model it is, too! But what’s this? Why’s the screen frozen? Hmm…” As he inspected the PipBuck, he noticed a slightly deep scratch from the edge of the screen that resulted it into not functioning properly.

“Oh! Its damaged! What happened to your PipBuck, Zero?”

The armored pony did the talking for me, “We were in a skirmish against ponies, who happened to be Slavers. What we didn’t know that the PipBuck was working fine at first until it started to glitch without warning.”

“It seems this one had bullet fragments to it and one of them managed to lodge its way inside, thus making it non-functional. I’m afraid I don’t have any PipBuck replacements, so I’ll have to rewire your PipBuck 1000 and give it replacement parts. I can’t guarantee you ponies that this’ll work, but I’ll give it a try. This is an outdated PipBuck, after all.”

So I’ll have to be stuck without a PipBuck, huh? Gee, thanks Olive Oil for your lack of warning when you first gave me the PipBuck! I was so damn excited that the PipBuck of mine showed defects prior to my leave for this ‘mission’!

“I see. Do you have a replacement for it?” The armored, nameless pony asked. To be honest, the PipBuck 1000 felt more like a curse than a blessing…

Crankshaft made some brief thinking before giving it a nod, “I do have only one, though. One which is state-of-the-art but nopony had been able to get used to it before.”

We looked at him in curiosity. State-of-the-art? Is it far more advanced than the 3000 version itself? I bet its screaming out my name! I excitedly smiled to him, eager to see what it is! Lemme, see, lemme see!

“But first, I need to have this repaired, so you kids go and explore Fhoal Island. I’ll have it ready within the next five weeks or less, but don’t go venturing too far! You whippersnappers have a habit of not even returning to my shop… nopony ever did returned to my shop so therefore, I started collecting! And I wanted to make bits, but noooo! Nopony’s buying!” Crankshaft let out a hacking cough after informing us in an effort to repair my PipBuck 1000.

Five weeks?! How can I handle five weeks with no PipBuck to go for?! Better yet, how am I to tell if any creatures or ponies I found are either friendly or not?! This isn’t right! My head’s like a running faucet dribbled with worry!

“Yay! We’re gonna explore this teeny tiny island! Let’s go, Bob!” Bob immediately hopped onto Tootsie’s back as she eagerly galloped off with him riding shotgun, and me wondering how am I gonna live five weeks of no PipBuck! This is not the punishment I’ve ever wanted!

The elder stallion looked at me as I was on a verge of losing myself, “Now, now, calm down, Zero. Its not like this PipBuck is gonna grow hooves and mosey on its own. Rest assured, this repairpony may be old, but he still has his repairing skills up in his sleeves!”

I seriously hope so. I’m really afraid of what will happen if one of us separates and we can’t find each other because of the lack of PipBuck. I just… I just…

“Zero, its time to go. We’ll need to start exploring Fhoal Island, with or without your PipBuck. Rest assured that you’re still well-armed like I am.” I heard the ex-Enclave of a pony told me. I haven’t got a choice but to nod to it as we both left the repair shop, leaving Crankshaft to work on the PipBuck.

The outer edges are littered with irradiated barrels that acts like a wall to prevent waves from even entering the sands. And the sands feel pretty eroded as we saw Tootsie making a sand castle. Honestly, this isn’t a summer vacation! We need to get to exploring if we need to scavenge for food and weapons. Or workbench shops for me to tinker shit around. Or probably have a hair trigger if I’m unable to tell what’s a friendly and what’s a hostile. Damnit! Pull yourself together, Zero!

The nameless Enclave pony told the two, “If you’re done playing sand castles, we have to go. We’ll return within the next five weeks. And stay out of the toxic barrels. They’re deadly.”

I nodded to Tootsie Roll and Bob as to agree with it. Even they’re smart enough to not go near the barrels, unless the filly would want to give it a taste and see if it tastes like jello.

“Okey-dokey-wokey! Stay off of bad barrels, Bob!”

Bob may be invulnerable to irradiated continents, but should he bring it to us means it can create a significant health hazard to us from the radiation close to us. At least he nodded to Tootsie; the robo-scorpion may not listen to other ponies except me, Tootsie and the pony whose name is yet to be revealed.

A bridge. Not wooden, thankfully, but its sure as hell uneven. The water below is murky and difficult to see, with hidden dangers waiting to kill us down below. Bob remained onto the filly’s back as we carefully traversed through the bridge. It was getting slightly foggy up ahead, though our armored ally had turned its flashlight from its shoulder and I nodded it in thanks.

Whatever’s up ahead, we need to be ready. I can hear feral growls in the midst of a fog up ahead. Not good. They’re slowly creeping up on us and without S.A.T.S., I can’t get clear shots on them!

“Something’s wrong. Tootsie, get behind us. Zero, Bob, get ready!”

I crouched down onto an even floor from the bridge and grabbed the sniper’s muzzle with my teeth as I pulled it out from my side and aimed it down. Bob took a defensive stand and took aim at the incoming hostiles, with the nameless pony taking aim with its twin plasma rifles. The growlings were getting closer; feral ghoul ponies! They were fairly large in numbers, but we need to make our shots count or we’re fucked!

We did our best to stay calm and mindless pony ghouls were shot down, some even melted into goop. Bob never runs out of ammo, he can fire off laser without the worry of being empty! I’m out of bullets and so is this armored pony, “I’m running out of plasma ammo. Gonna take matters into my own hooves…”

The last one was a glowing one (I’ll have to call it Bright One as I don’t have a PipBuck with me) who was charging towards us before stopping in front of it. It was about to emit its small radiation explosion before it gave a hard buck to the head, knocking the Bright One down into the ocean. Wow… who’d knew it can kick flanks like that?! I smiled widely to it as a wonderful job.

It glanced at me and spoke, “Just because I’m low on ammo doesn’t make me a damsel in distress… now that that’s taken care of, let’s go.”

Well, its obvious because you’re wearing armor and that your weapons are far more advanced than my own! Yours even rival Bob’s laser from his tail!

As I gained a small lead from the armored pony (stallion or mare, or neither because of the mechanical voice), Bob nudged Tootsie for her to follow him and us.

“Oh! Wait for us!”

We’re regrouped again and made it to the bridge as the fog clears up, revealing to be residential homes. What is this place? Is anypony living there? Or were they pony ghouls like the ones we killed in the middle of the bridge?

It looks abandoned, but I really don’t want to let my guard down for the time being. Even with mindless pony ghouls taken care of, I can feel the ground trembling very slightly against my hooves. Something’s not right here… I looked at them and pointed to one of the abandoned houses as to let them know that we should find food and ammo there. Apparently, Tootsie told me, “But isn’t it a bad thing to do by breaking into somepony’s home?”

Oh so you’d think canned food grows on trees, filly?! If that’s the case, then I’d rather have Celestia serve hot buns from my rear end! Okay so what my mind said was… rather unexpected, but still; you can’t expect a fresh meal to appear out of thin air, Tootsie Roll! At least this badassery of an armored pony reassured her, “Young one, we need to find food for us to survive or we won’t make it.”

Not to mention that we just barely survived against a horde of feral pony ghouls that were closing in on us. Tootsie lets out a cute pouty face, “Fiiiine… we’ll go get some foodsies…”

Great. No more objections now, so now we made our way forward and into the house. And hoo boy, its stuffy in here! Almost no air to go for, too!

But the lack of air was the least of our worries; we saw a couple of bloodied corpses with darkened blood stains scattered all over the wall and completely ruining the sofa. I winced at the sight, and am glad I haven’t eaten anything yet or I’d be sick to my stomach. Tootsie however, scampered under the pony’s wing, “Wah! W-W-What is that?!”

It covered the terrified filly with a wing as a means to censor her eyes from seeing the goried interior of the house, “Don’t look, little filly. Cover your eyes, I’ll take us to the kitchen. Zero and Bob, we’ll be at the living room.”

I nodded to it. Can’t blame Tootsie Roll for it, and I feel sorry for her already. Whatever caused it to kill this unfortunate pony must’ve went down with no means of defending oneself. I trotted upstairs, with Bob skittering behind me. Small corridors but less claustrophobic. On my left lead to a foal’s bedroom, nothing too particular inside of course except an interesting comic book strewn onto the cabinet. I suppose I could take it (probably worth it as it depicts of the use of Sneak). Up ahead is the parents’ bedroom and we went inside and opened up a large cabinet.

A basic rifle… and a couple of sniper rounds! Yes! Just what I needed. All in all, nothing in particular so we headed back downstairs, with Tootsie and the nameless pony waiting for us (too bad there isn’t any medication to find and collect). They’ve collected some foods of different kinds, “Find anything in particular?”

Bob answered it for me by crawling up onto my back and sliding his metal claw down to reach for the comic book I just found before pulling it out and showing it to the armored and no-named soldier pony.

“I see… aren’t you a little too old to read comic books, Zero?”

Nonsense! Comic books have worthwhile benefits! You’ll never know what it has to offer, obviously.

The filly let out a laugh as she looked at it, “Aww let him read, oh nameless pony! Reading makes him smarter, and nerdier!”

Thank you for-- hey! I’m not that big of a nerd!

“Alright. If it helps him benefit his IQ, then I won’t judge him.”

Bob had put the comic book back into my saddlebags, with Tootsie floating the foodstuffs they had collected inside my saddlebags too. I looked at the three as to wonder if they’re ready to head over to the next house. Before we went inside, I motioned my hoof to them to stop. Something’s not right inside. I took a small peek from the peephole of the door and saw a trio of Securitrons with faces on the screens depicting ponies (albeit warped). I don’t think they’ll be giving us a warm welcome inside, but all I can assume is that there’s medication in one of the rooms inside.

“What is it, Zero?”

I pointed a hoof at the peephole for it to take a look. As it trotted over there and spotted three securitrons wandering below level, it looked at me, “I have an idea. I’ll fly up there and check if there’s medical boxes inside. I’ll be back ASAP.”

I nodded and saw it spreading its fairly wide wings and flew up in the air as Tootsie watched with amazement, “Ooohhh… I didn’t know no-name can fly!”

Well, duh. I’ve seen Carbon Monoxide do it before.

It crashed through the window, which was enough to grab attention as it landed into the bedroom, “Right. Now to look for it before these robotic killers look for me. And I don’t have enough ammo left in me neither.”

The nameless Enclave pony trotted out of the bedroom and looked both ways before spotting an abandoned bathroom, “Let’s see…”

Inside were filth-ridden faucets and a bathtub, both rendered useless. Next to a broken mirror is a yellow box with pink butterflies to it.

“Aha! And unlocked as well so inside should have medication.”

Opening it up revealed to be four healing potions, two RadAways and four Stimpaks to go for. It carefully grabbed all of them with its fore-hooves and begins to spread its wings, “Alright, time to get out of here, and not risk spilling any of them. Need to be careful…”

One of the Securitrons spoke as it made its way up, “Scanning for threats.”

It was nearly startled but managed to fly through the broken window before slowly flying around the abandoned house and meet up with us, “Got them, Zero.”

I nodded with a congratulatory smile. Well done! I trotted aside and allowed the no-named pony to store them in my saddlebags. Seems like we’re good to go!

“I was almost caught by those Securitrons. They’re searching around so its best that we get moving right away.”

Sounds like a plan. Let’s go! And no, Tootsie. You’re not allowed to play with them!

We ventured deep, but the rumbling noises from the ground becomes intense as we were about to enter an empty area. Oh no… what’s that sound?!

“What in the wide world of--”

It was interrupted as the ground below us was beginning to engorge, and fast! We galloped out of the way, “Earthquake!!”

It was far, far worse than an earthquake as the ground soon erupted! Clouds of dirt was covering up the giant, snake-like figure as Tootsie looked on in a terrified manner as it let out a shrieking noise with its giant tongues wriggling from its gaping maw in the air, “W-W-W-W-What is that?!”

GRAAAWWWRRAAAAWWWWRRRR!!!

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Ministry Training -- +10% to hit when using rifles of any description.
Penalties: Without your PipBuck, you are unable to determine any living beings, be it friendly or hostile from E.F.S. Furthermore, you are unable to engage S.A.T.S. during combat or even check your inventory.