Anger.

Anger can drive a pony to do things they wouldn’t normally. It was Anger that drove Pinprick to kill the Steel Ranger so gruesomely. Anger is what drives Needlepoint now; anger combined with his love for his sister.

Needlepoint barreled through the raider ponies. The blades, once served a medical purpose were taken up in anger, used to take lives rather than save them. He cut a bloody swath through the enemys, his normally white coat glistening with blood.

Nothing was left for us as we failed to gain on the sprinting stallion. The raiders had no sense; instead of fleeing, they ran towards the maddened stallion, malice in their eyes. He leapt at one, knocking her over and then bringing his mechanical hoof down with a bloody crunch, snapping the neck of the poor raider mare.

One of the raiders levitated a shotgun towards him and fired. The pellets sunk into Needle’s chest, drawing blood but hindering him none. He simply sent a scalpel forward toward the unicorn, catching its neck with the blade. A bloody spray washed the ground in front of the raider as he went down. Needlepoint simply moved on, his anger carrying him forward to the location of Pinprick’s fall.

He had easily taken down ten raiders before the crowd broke and he passed them. The few straggling raiders looked to us as we galloped closer, their weapons returning to a ready state.

I levitated out the shotgun and opened fire on an axe wielder. The buckshot sunk into him and, unlike Needles, he went down without any problem. I brought out the rifle, slipped into S.A.T.S. and fired a shot at the pistol wielding mare, hitting her in the skull.

A bullet bit into my flank. I wished that at least one of the medically trained ponies were nearby to dig it out, but I just downed a healing potion and hoped they could cut it out later. Better to need medical attention later than to bleed out now.

I looked for the offending pony, only to have the small band of raiders in my view explode. Razor stood next to me, levitating her newly acquired rocket launcher.

“Is he an idiot? He just charged in!” she shouted at me as she levitated another rocket into the launcher.

“You have to admire his skill with a blade,” I responded as we rushed to catch up. The path Needlepoint had taken was apparent even where he was not; blood and raiders marked his course toward his sister.

“KILL THAT THING!” came a shout from a building to the right. I looked up to see a small nest of raiders, one of them wielding a larger version of a rifle, but with a scope on the top. Hard to tell, but the bore looked like it could punch a hole in a Steel Ranger. It would certainly be able to deal some real damage to the unarmoured medic.

“Razor, top right window!” I shouted. She seemed to understand and quickly fired a rocket at the trio. The rocket soared through the window to hit the roof of the room, causing it to crumble and cave in. Dust billowed out as two were crushed, the third falling out as I watched. She landed with a bone crushing thump, the powerful rifle landed next to her with a clatter. Were these the three that had shot Pin out of the sky?

Razor picked up the scoped rifle before I could reach it. What was it with this mare and powerful weaponry? Bah, no time for thinking. Must blindly follow Needles, before he gets killed.

I had no idea where the little pegasus had landed, but Needlepoint seemed to know where he was going. And if he didn’t, he would soon be out of raiders to kill and we would be able to search more thoroughly.

A scream rose from dead ahead, that of a mare I knew. We galloped at full speed towards the sound to find Needles already there. I ducked behind some rubble before they noticed us, while Razor joined me, looking around and providing cover. I peeked around again, assured we had a safe second.

Pinprick lay on the ground, a bullet hole centered in one of her wings, and a metal clad hoof holding down the other. A Steel Ranger stood over her, pressing down with a hoof on the delicate wing, and a small snap was heard as fragile bones splintered. The ranger had a small gathering of raiders behind him, all armed. Needles stood opposite the ranger.

“Come on boss, just put a bullet in the bitch’s head and end it,” said one of the raiders.

The voice from within the armour responded. “No, I want to have a little fun with this one first, not every day you have a pegasus land right at your hooves.” The way he said ‘fun’ conveyed his meaning well enough. “Though, I could easily crush her neck before you even got close to her,” he said as he looked at Needles.

“Touch her, and I will end you. Slowly. And. Painfully,” he said.

“Oh, don’t make me laugh, you half-robot freak. What, did your mother have a thing for the toaster or something?” he chuckled, the raiders behind him joined in. “But I am an honorable buck.” Now I think he was trying to get us to laugh. “You managed to kill most of my crew by yourself, so I want to end you personally. I will fight you for the whore, one on one, no weapons.”
The ranger was arrogant, but he might have had a right to be. He was in full Steel Ranger power armour, likely stocked with various healing potions and drugs, while Needlepoint was a weakened unicorn with mechanical insides and leg.

“We have to help him,” I whispered to Razor.

“Got any ideas?” she asked in a hushed voice.

“Yeah.” I prayed to Celestia that it would work. “When the ranger starts to fight Needles, you snipe the ones that are guarding Pin, and I will try to short out the ranger’s armour.”

“Give me your rifle, I have an idea,” asked Razor. I levitated it off my pack and she took it with her magic.

She crouched down and began to sneak to a better position to take out the four that were threatening the crippled mare. I moved closer, still undetected by those ahead. I hoped my magic reserves would be able to withstand two lightning bolts within such a short timeframe.

“I accept your challenge,” shouted Needles.

“Good. Oh, and to make things fair, no unicorn magic. If my crew sees so much as a glimmer of magic from your horn, a bullet is going in the bitch’s skull.” Ok, raiders guarding Pin would have to go down first. I hoped Razor knew what she was doing.

One of the raiders removed the weapons from her leader. Another levitated a rifle at Needles until he dropped the scalpels. Both sides were unarmed, though only one side was unarmoured.

The ranger began to chuckle and I quickly realized why. The hooves of his armour had been augmented. A yellow stripe went across the shoulder of his armour. “Fool, don’t you recognize Steel Ranger Delta armour when you see it?” Wait, Delta armour? No no no no no no. This was not good. “Extra reinforced plating, built in power hooves, and,” No, don’t let it be true. “EMP resistant spell matrix.”

Damnit! Our plan was doomed. Razor could take out the raiders, but there was no way we could take out the Steel Ranger if I couldn’t crash his spell matrix. Needles was dead meat, and so were we if we tried to help him.

The enhanced Steel Ranger charged at Needles. Needles had no chance of winning without magic or weapons. The ranger knew this, he just wanted to beat the unicorn to a pulp before raping his sister.

Needles was surprisingly agile for a stallion as heavy and large as he was. He dodged the leaping ranger, who landed on his hooves with a heavy thud as the power hooves created impact craters in the ground. One hit from those and Needles was finished.

Needles continued to dodge the ranger’s stomps and charges, landing a few good hits with his mechanical hoof, but these swings barely put a dent in the enhanced armour. I looked towards the rubble where Razor had headed and located her.

She had managed to climb her way to the roof of a nearby building. She levitated the larger rifle and placed it on the roof. She drew out the dual rifles. She levitated both the small rifles, and fired them both.

I think Razor might have had some training as a sniper. Both the shots met the head of a raider, guards of the little mare. Razor took aim again and quickly fired at the other two, hoping to catch them before they dispatched the helpless mare. The two began to turn and she missed both headshots. One bullet did hit, turning a unicorn buck as it passed through his shoulder. He and the shotgun floating next to him went down.

I had to act quickly. The other unicorn was beginning to realize what was happening and was slowly levitating her pistol to the head of Pinprick.

I pulled my revolver and dove into S.A.T.S., firing two shots. The first connected with her chest, bursting through it easily. She fell to the ground, dead already, canceling the second bullet. Damn! I only had five shots left, but I saw how powerful it actually was.

The Steel Ranger turned to see his companions falling. Razor levitated the larger rifle and fired at the armoured buck. The shot punctured his metal armor, but must have lost its killing force.The sniper’s recoil slid Razor back a step, its power not doubt throwing off her aim.

The ranger, unhindered by the ineffective shot, ignored Razor as she struggled to load another round. He turned back to face me, coiled, and leapt forward only to have his momentum stopped half way.

“What the hell?” he screeched metallically.

Behind him stood Needlepoint, his horn glowing. The ranger levitated in his magic as he spoke to me. “Kill this son of a bitch before I do.” He didn’t want to kill the pony that had threatened his sister?

No, I saw the truth in his eyes. He wanted to kill this pony. He wanted to watch him suffer, to torture him until he begged for death. His final step to becoming a monster would be to kill this ranger. He didn’t want to do that. He didn’t want to forsake his morality.

I nodded slowly. Needlepoint delivered a powerful kick from his mechanical leg to the face of the pony, facturing his visor. I levitated the revolver at the fracture. I fired. The visor cracked open, the bullet embedded in his eye. He began screaming and thrashing. I delivered a second bullet, this one penetrating his skull, killing him.

Needles dropped the lifeless corpse and ran to where Pinprick lay. His horn began glowing as he looked at the crippled mare. She was barely breathing, and had lost consciousness, it seemed. He stared at her for a few seconds, and then breathed in deep.

His horn began to glow brighter. I heard a few snaps as I saw her chest began to move strangely. “Realign the ribs,” he muttered, likely to himself. “Mend the bones and heal the perforations caused by the broken ribs.” His horn began to glow more intensely. “Stop internal bleeding. Reknit liver and stomach. Heal other internal injuries. Repair external damage to the wing.” The hole in her wing closed some. “Realign broken bones in the other wing.” More faint snapping as her wing moved strangely.

His scowl lessened, and then turned to a smile. “She should be fine.” I breathed a sigh of relief.

Pinprick lied deathly still, her light weight draped across my back. Needlepoint had revealed how injured and weak he actually was from the entire incident. His magic was at the point of a burnout, and we couldn’t risk our only functioning medic from passing out. Turns out even cyber ponies can become worn out. I decided to tell him about the bullet floating in my side later. Right now, he needed rest. As did we all.

Pinprick was very light, even for her size. Probably something to do with being a pegasus. You’d think all the syringes would weigh her down, but they barely added to her mass. Light or not, I had given a little yelp of pain when one of her syringes, luckily only Med-X, had dug into my flesh. She really needed a safer way to carry those things.

I carried her back to the cart. I levitated her into the back, setting her as to not injure her mending wings. Razor trotted behind me levitating several weapons she had taken from the bandits. Old habits die hard. She carried the powerful rifle, something she called an sniper rifle. Appropriately named. Where did the raiders manage to get this kind of firepower?

“I decided to name it Can Opener,” she said with a smile. What kind of pony names their weapons? Is it some kind of wasteland thing? “Next Steel Ranger we face is going to find himself without a head.”

I really didn’t want to think about facing more Steel Rangers, especially if they are Deltas. Deltas were a project started shortly before the megaspells hit. Never finished, but somepony must have found working versions. They were an attempt to improve upon the flaws that the regular power armour presented. Namely, the armour not being strong enough given new zebra weaponry, and the weakness the spell matrix had towards EMPs. The power hooves were just there for kicks. Blugh, poor choice of words. Anyway, like I said, I had idolized them as a colt. Now that I saw how cruel the Steel Rangers really were, I wouldn’t be joining up anytime soon.

“Hey, how are we going to get this thing to move?” I asked, gesturing towards the cart with a hoof. “I mean, Needles is on the point of collapse. He can’t pull us.” She simply stared at me, a smile starting to form on her face. “Oh great.”

“Needles,” I groaned. “Has. Anypony. Told you. How. Heavy you are?” I grunted with each step. It was exhausting to pull the cart itself. Loaded down with Needlepoint, Pinprick, and various supplies, it was backbreaking. Razor at least had the courtesy to walk alongside the cart instead of ride on it.

“I have a mechanical leg and most of my organs are made of metal, of course I am heavy,” he responded.

“Calm down,” said Razor. “It is getting late anyway.” Time flies when you are getting shot at. “I think I see a building up ahead.”

“What is it with all these random buildings along the road?” I asked.

“Don’t ask us, none of us were here when they were built,” said Razor.

Razor was right, there was indeed a building. It took almost half an hour of laborious effort for me to pull the cart there. It might have been a house, once. For now, it was shelter and a place to rest. E.F.S. scanned the place for any potential threats, and I was happy to see only the yellow of our group.

“Wait.” I counted for a second. The detection spell picked up another dot. Yellow. Either whatever inside was friendly and was going to invite us inside for some pre-war tea, or it wasn’t hostile yet.

“Yeah, hold up,” I said to the three of them, though I doubted the unconscious mare could hear me. “Something is in there. I don’t think it is hostile. Yet, at least.”

“You stable ponies have an unfair advantage with those PipBuck things. I need to get one,” said the mare.

“Heh, I doubt you will,” wheezed the large unicorn on the wagon. “A working PipBuck costs more caps than most ponies see in their life.” Ok, good to know. I could take solace in that when a raider killed me, they could become rich off the hunk of metal on my leg.

“Ok, I am going to go in and investigate. If you hear gunshots, or me shouting in pain, please come help.”

“What? Why you?” asked the mare. “Why not me or the big guy here? Or all of us?”

“Well, I mean no offense, but you kind of look like a raider.” I really hoped she wouldn’t shoot me for that. “And Needlepoint is huge, partially mechanical, and somewhat intimidating. Of the three of us, I pose the least threat.”

Razor looked offended by my remark, but begrudgingly accepted the fact. Her expression softened. “You are just jealous that I am more intimidating than you. I’m the hardened wastelander, and you are the wimpy stable pony,” she gloated. I couldn’t deny that she was intimidating.

She removed the harnesses that connected me to the cart. I cautiously levitated my packs back on. I didn’t want to seem intimidating, but I wasn’t going in unarmed. I walked up to the caved-in door and entered.

The building looked like a home, I guess. Being raised in a Stable, the best guess I had for a home was my living quarters. It didn’t seem like a place of business, and it had the feel that somepony had lived there at some point. Possibly still did, if the yellow dot was any indication.

The room I was in was fairly large and open. It had what was once furniture, along with the usual rubble and clutter of the wasteland. In the corner sat a set of stairs, but I wasn’t going to risk falling and hurting myself on the splintering board the made it. There were a few openings in the room, leading to adjacent rooms.

The first room I passed looked like a kitchen. I would have to scavenge it later. Assuming the current inhabitant didn’t need it... better find out first. Two rooms down. The hallway was cluttered with various debris. Bits of metal, some spare plates, and so-WHOAH.

I was not a graceful pony. I tripped over a pipe and landed on the floor, right on my face. metal junk rolled across the floor, clanging and clattering. Well, whoever was in here knew about my presence.

I heard hooves on floor as the yellow dot on my E.F.S. moved. I watched it closely as the pony came through the door. Stay yellow, stay yellow! It looked to stay that way, so I looked up at the new ‘friendly.’

Wait. That wasn’t a pony.

The... thing... had lost it’s coat, though patches of it remained, clinging to the sickly flesh of the once-pony. A few sparse strands of mane clung to its neck, a dark and dusty purple. The flesh of the creature looked decayed, rotting on it. It turned to face me, part of its face had fallen off around the side of the mouth, revealing some of its teeth. The mouth began to move.

“What the hell are you doing in my house?” it shouted in a disturbing voice.

I stared at the creature for a second, paralyzed. It waited for my reaction, but when it didn’t come, it took a step towards me. I did the only thing I could, given the situation.

“AHHH!!!” I screamed. “ZOMBIE PONY!”

I quickly stumbled to my hooves and galloped as fast as I could out of the building. I was met by an alert Razor, who levitated one of the smaller rifles at the doorway, and Needles, who stood there confused. I leaped over the cart and took cover behind it. I drew my shotgun out, and levitated it at the doorway.

The zombie pony trotted slowly out of the doorway. It looked at Razor, who lowered her rifle some, and at Needles, still just standing there. Then its gaze fell on me, still menacing the creature with a levitated shotgun.

“You all raiders?” he asked.

“No,” responded Razor. What was she doing? Why didn’t she fire?

The zombie pony stared at me a second, then glances at my leg, the one that held the PipBuck.

“So, I take it he’s new?”

To be fair, I was on edge from being under fire every hour since I’d entered the wasteland. As it turns out, the ‘zombie pony’ I had run from was actually something called a ghoul. Ghouls were ponies that had, Celestia knows how, survived the megaspells and had been mutated by it. They supposedly never died naturally, though they could still be killed if they sustained enough damage, as most ghouls were around during the war, and they were healed by radiation.

“I have to say, it was pretty funny seeing that dumbass go fleeing out the door, screaming like a scared little filly,” chuckled the ghoul, whom I learned was named Toothpick.

We were sitting outside the house, calmly chatting. I found it strange that a pony who looked like Toothpick did could be more civilized than any raider. Still, I couldn’t fault his generosity. I levitated a bottle of Sparkle-Cola out of my pack. It was better than ANY of the stuff they gave us back at the Stable.

“Yeah. I have been trying to teach him about the wasteland,” said the scarred mare. “Unfortunately, he isn’t a very bright student.”

“Hey!”

“And we have yet to cover ghouls. He seemed more interested in wasteland politics.” The fact that the wasteland wasn’t ruled by a corrupt Overmare was something I wasn’t used to. I took a swig of the carrot-y beverage.

“Oh, well here’s all he needs to know about ghouls,” said the ghoul. “If they talk to ya, treat ‘em like any other pony. If they start screeching and charge right at ya, best open fire. Not every ghoul has as charming a personality as I do. Radiation softens their brain, makes some go crazy.”

“How do you stay sane?” I asked.

“Well, the way I see it, a ghoul goes crazy when they lose the thing that keeps ‘em sane. Find something to keep you sane, and you’re good. Me, I just want to stay alive. Or whatever the hell you call what I am now. Ain’t got much reason to go crazy.” He kind of countered his own logic there, but I wasn’t going to argue.

“Anyway, I reckon you folks are needin’ a place to stay,” continued the ghoul. “I think I can spare some room for you.” Well that was kind of him. “For a price...” And there it was. “Would hate for you folks to be eaten by bloodwings in the dead of night, but I need to think of my own survival as well. I reckon...200 caps each should do.”

“What?” shouted Razor. “That is blatant extortion!”

“Alright, alright. How about I only charge 100 for the filly, 700 caps total.” He was a shrewd business pony, but he was right. We needed a place to stay, and he needed to survive. I’m glad nopony corrected him on calling Pinprick a filly. 100 caps saved was better than 100 caps spent on correcting a misconception.

I checked my PipBuck. Somehow, the inventory management spell counted the total amount of caps I had. 552. I had no idea if this was a lot, or if it was chump change. It would cover me. My companions checked their own bags in order to find the caps to pay. Combined, we managed to reach the 700 cap total. As it turns out, Razor and Needles were much richer than I was.

“Thank you kindly,” said the earth pony ghoul as he eyed the small pile of wasteland currency. “I got two rooms upstairs, one for the mares and one for the short fella.” Hey! I wasn’t short. Well, compared to Needles I was, but still. “But I don’t want to risk him breaking my stairs. You sleep down here.” He pointed his hoof at the cyber unicorn.

“I suppose that’s fair,” said the large buck. I had to agree with the ghoul, Needles was heavy.

I downed the rest of the bottle. It was lukewarm and flat, but I still thought it was tasty. I levitated the small mare from the back of the wagon. She was still unconscious but I didn’t want to risk injuring her. I laid her across my back, careful this time to avoid the syringes. Needles stared at me the entire time. He was very protective of his sister, but I would have thought by now he would trust me enough to carry her up some stairs.

I carefully carried her up the stairs, making sure she didn’t shift as I went up the incline. At the top, I levitated her over to Razor. She took Needles and went to the room on the right. I took the room on the left.

The room was well cleaned, something surprising for a building in the wasteland. Likely the work of Toothpick, or one of his other guests.

I was cautious about trusting the ghoul. Whether this stemmed from the fear I had for him, or from the fact that almost everypony in the wasteland intended to kill me, I wasn’t sure. Either way, I would be sleeping with one eye open.

Well, I would if I’d ever learned how to do that. But I was going to be paying attention for anything suspicious.

I laid down on the mattress, now removed from the twisted wreckage that had once been a bed frame. Either way, it was more comfortable than the floor. I was out in seconds.

The world was grey again. The sounds were muffled, but I could somewhat make them out.

I was in the wasteland. My body felt strange, alien even. I felt taller, stronger. I had no control over my actions. I wasn’t me. I was looking through another pony’s eyes.

I was in the wasteland, that was certain, but it looked like a settlement. Ponies were walking between various buildings. They appeared calm and peaceful, something I found strange for ponies that lived in the wasteland. The buildings looked to be stores of some sort.

I, or rather the pony I was inhabiting, walked toward one of the buildings. A red medical cross was painted on the wall next to the door. With actual paint too, not blood. Some sort of hospital? A clinic maybe?

’I’ entered the building. Inside were two ponies, an earth pony mare and a small pegasus filly. The filly looked familiar, though the grey shading of the world made it hard to tell.

The earth mare looked up at me; she had a warm smile. “Hello son,” she said in a calm tone. “Did you get the supplies?”

I felt my host begin to speak. “Yes, but I had some trouble getting the Med-X. Trader said that some addict came and bought the whole supply. Damn traders, selling medicines to the addicts so they could kill themselves, rather than to the medical ponies who could put it to good use.”

“Honey, you know that traders have to make caps somehow,” said the mare in a hushed voice. “And you can’t blame the addicts, it isn’t their fault. Addiction is a powerful thing. They are lucky that when they decide to seek help, there are ponies like us to help them.”

“What’s an addiction?” asked the filly in a cheerful voice. She didn’t even have her cutie mark yet.

The mother turned her calm eyes to the little one. “An addiction is when a pony is has the physical need for a drug. Sometimes they can get sick if they don’t have it, and it is usually up to us to help them break the addiction,” she responded gently.

“So are we going to be leaving soon?” my host asked.

The mare turned to look out the window, staring at the passing foals and ponies. She smiled as she saw a colt happily wave a bandaged hoof at the window. “I think we should be ready to leave by tomorrow morning. As much as I love Armistice, there are many ponies in the wasteland that need our help. I’m sure that Aorta and Vena should be able to handle this settlement. They do have the help of the auto-doc.”

The mare turned back to me. “Be sure to pack everything you need. The wasteland is a difficult place to travel, so it is up to you to protect your sister.”

“I will, mom. I won’t let anything happen to her.”

“Good, now go get some sleep.” She turned to the filly who weaved between her legs playfully. “And as for you, you need to rest as well.”

“Aw, but momma, I’m not even tired!” she whined.

“Now now, go to bed,” she said in a stern but kind voice.

The filly raced up the stairs ahead of me. As my host walked up them, the boards gave a slight groan. He went into a room, his living quarters I guessed, and lied down on the bed. He closed his eyes.

The grey world was flooded by the white void.

“Enjoy the memory?” asked the same voice I had heard the last time I was asleep.

“What? I don’t remember this,” I yelled. The voice I spoke in was mine again. My body was my own and I could move on my own accord.

“Oh, it isn’t your memory, but a memory nonetheless,” said the voice, echoing from somewhere in the empty void.

“Where am I? What is this? Who are you?” I called out.

“My, you ask a lot of questions. Where you are? You are asleep inside the ghoul’s house. What is this? Who am I? These questions will be answered in time. But now morning approaches. You have a lot to do, Live Wire.” The void began to be flooded by darkness again. More words echoed from the abyss. “So much to do...”

I opened my eyes to the mundane room. Awake for real, this time. I quickly checked myself over to ensure I hadn’t been attacked in the night. Bullet wounds? None that I didn’t already know about. Cuts from a blade? Nope. Anypony around me that is likely about to attack? E.F.S. said no.

It seemed I had misjudged the ghoul. He wasn’t going to rob us blind during the night and murder us. He merely planned to rob us blind through the totally acceptable method of inflated prices.

I rose to my hooves. Pulling the cart had taken a lot out of me and my muscles ached from the small act. I considered asking Needles for another dose of Med-X, but then I remembered the pony from my dreams. Med-X addicts, always in ‘pain’ and reliant on the drug to keep sane. I didn’t want to become like that. I thought more deeply and decided I could wait for now.

Speaking of the strange dream, what was that? Normally my dreams were of mundane Stable things. They had never been so detailed and vivid before. And that voice, what was that? Who was that? It said the dream I had was a memory, but not my memory?

I ran over it again, but the memory made no more sense than before. Bluh, now I had another reason to speak with the doctors. Oh right, would you mind checking to see if I’m insane? I have voices inside my head and strange dreams? Yeah, that sounded crazy enough to me. Wasteland life had required I do some things which... well. It could make anypony crazy. Or maybe it was just the radiation frying my circuitry. Who could say?

I levitated my packs onto my back and exited the room. I had no idea how early it was, but I seemed to be the first one awake. I wasn’t going to bother the mares. Looking into the room of a sleeping mare was likely to get you injured, wasteland or not.

I crept down the stairs, trying not to wake anypony else. The kitchen was just as it had appeared yesterday. I went down the hallway, intent on finding out if Needles was awake. I had to speak to somepony about this crazy dream, and a doctor seemed like the best opti-WHOAH.

Damnit! I tripped over some of the clutter in the hallway, falling on my face with a bang as I knocked the loose metal around. Well, if he wasn’t up already, he was now... Along with everypony in the house.

“I know you’re new to the wasteland, but are ya new to walkin’ as well?” cackled the ghoul pony as he exited his room.

I caught the scent of blood. My nose dripped droplets of it on the ground. Joy.

“Bluh, have you seen Needles?” I said with a likely broken nose. “I kinda need him now.”

“Heh, you stable ponies are a riot. Your friend was in this room, last I checked.” He pointed towards the one in between us. “Stable ponies,” he chuckled as he passed me toward the kitchen.

I rose back onto my legs and walked into the room. Needles stood over a few boxes he had taken from the cart. They were open, and various syringes, bottles, and packets floated in and out of them. He turned to look at me and I explained the situation.

“I think you are the only pony I know that could possibly get hurt worse by floorboard than by bullets.” He walked over to me, stared at my nose for a second. His horn glowed as the bleeding stopped and the wound healed. Fast and precise.

“What were you doing? Before my floor incident, I mean.”

“Inventory. Checking to see how many supplies we have and of what types.” He returned to levitating the various items. “We have plenty of potions and bandages. Aside from Pin’s personal stash, we have a fair amount of Med-X. There is also a small amount of emergency Hydra.”

“Hydra?” I asked. “The giant multi-headed creature?”

“Yes and no. Hydra is a drug that is made from hydras. It magically causes tissues to regrow at astounding rates. It can even regrow limbs and organs, it can realign broken bones and mend them, it even forces out foreign objects such as bullets.” Wow.

“Sounds like a miracle! Why didn’t we use that earlier? Actually, better question, but please don’t be offended by it. Why don’t you take hydra to regrow your organs and your leg?”

“Because Hydra would be just as likely to kill me by rejecting my bionic organs, forcing them out violently. It hasn’t exactly been well tested on cyber-ponies.” I imagined cybernetics being ‘forced’ out and nodded violently.. “Plus, hydra comes with risks even for normal ponies. It has the possibility of growing tumors inside you, causing you to die a slow and painful death because of the cancer.” Ok, hydra isn’t something I would want to be using any time soon.

“Then why carry it if it is so dangerous?” I asked.

“The short term benefits are amazing, able to save ponies from losing limbs, or even from dying due to severe injuries. I carry it for emergency situations where the patient will die without it.”

He continued sorting the medicines for a few minutes in silence. “How is Pinprick?” he asked.

“I didn’t check. They were still asleep when I woke up.”

“After your incident in the hallway, I doubt they are any longer.” He turned to me. “Could you please go check on her?”

“Sure.”

I left the room and entered the hallway again. I was careful to not trip over anything this time. Really, it wasn’t my fault. Toothpick should have kept this place cleaner.

I ascended the staircase and entered the room on the left, taking a second to knock first. When there was no response, I peeked in. Razor was still asleep, snoring loudly; I doubted firing Can Opener in her ear would wake her up. An empty brown bottle laid next to the passed out mare.

Pinprick was awake, but was lying on the floor. She looked up at me with her golden eyes. Her expression became mischievous. “Look at you, nervous about entering a mare’s room,” she snickered. “Don’t worry, I won’t bite. Stab you with a syringe, maybe, but not bite.”

“Needles wanted me to check on you,” I responded.

“Aw, sure it wasn’t because you were missing your marefriend here?” she chuckled pointing at the unconscious Razor. “Tell Needles I am fine. My chest still hurts, and I won’t be flying for a day or two, but I am fine.” Her expression turned a bit more serious. “Is Needles okay?”

“Yes. He was worn out from saving you, but he is ok.”

“That isn’t what I meant.” Okay, she was confusing me. “I mean, what happened? I know he was duelling that Steel bastard, but I blacked out. What did he do to him?”

“Razor and I managed to sneak up on the raiders that were threatening to shoot you. She took out three of them, I took out the last one. Needlepoint levitated the ranger in the air, and I fired my revolver point blank into his visor..”

She stared at me for a second. Then she sighed. “Good. I didn’t want him to repeat what happened at Armistice.” I suddenly recalled my dream. Armistice was mentioned. Now that I thought about it, the small filly looked similar to the little mare before me.

“What happened? At Armistice, I mean.” I asked.

“I was just a filly at the time.” She stopped for a second. “An actual filly, not just short,” she corrected. “From what I remember, raiders and rangers attacked the settlement. They were merciless. They killed most of the bucks; raped then killed most of the mares. They took my mother from me.” A tear fell from her eye and down her cheek. “Needles and the rest of the survivors tried to fight off the raiders, but there were too many of them. They broke into the clinic. One of them attacked me.” Her voice faltered. She had been more than just attacked. “But Needles came to my rescue. He was...” she trailed off for a second. “He had lost his leg in the fight and had healed the wound shut. Somehow, he managed to fight off the raider, but he didn’t kill him at first, just knocked him out.”

“The raiders invaded the lower part of the clinic and stripped it of everything while we lay up there in hiding. It took almost a day, but all the raiders finally left, except for one.” She stopped for a minute.

“Needles healed my wounds, took me to my room, and then knocked me out with his anesthetic spell. He didn’t want me to see what he was going to do. I awoke a few hours later to the sounds of the raider screaming. I crept into the room and saw...I saw the dark side of him.”

“What-” I began. She quickly began to describe the horror that she had encountered in Armistice.

“Let me finish, you should know. The raider lied on the ground, his legs were impaled with large nails, maybe railroad spikes. Needles had healed the wounds shut, burying the nails into the flesh of the raider. His chest was open, similar to his legs it was ‘healed’ to remain open. The raider was awake for this torture. Needles had removed some of his internal organs. The raider was somehow still alive after this. ‘You deserve this,’ I remember hearing him say. The raider just kept screaming. ‘I promised my mother that I would protect her, and YOU violate her?’ The raider had mumbled something, but I didn’t hear what it was. ‘No, you don’t deserve this. You deserve worse. But my sister will be waking soon, and she doesn’t need to endure this. Consider yourself lucky.’” The small mare shook some. “Then he took a grenade from his box of medical supplies and placed it in the raider’s screaming mouth. Then he rose to his hooves, his three hooves. I scrambled to my room and acted like I was still unconscious. He woke me up, put me on his back, and we left Armistice. A few moments after we left the clinic, I heard a muffled explosion.”

I thought back to Needles’ threat to end the ranger ‘slowly and painfully.’ I realized that he had likely meant it. The terrified mare looked up at me with her tear filled golden eyes. “I don’t think I could handle him doing something like that again. He’s so happy as a doctor and that shouldn’t be a part of him.” She rose to her hooves, walked over to me, and wrapped around one of my forelegs, tears streaming down her face. I laid my hoof across her back gently as she sobbed into my coat.

The pony who I thought was the sanest of our group, the one who I thought was the calm level headed pony, he had done that? He had tortured a raider for hours for assaulting his sister? How could he have done that?

And then I remembered.

Anger can drive a pony to do things that they wouldn’t normally do.

=====================================================================

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Foal at Heart- This perk greatly improves your relations with children.

(I would like to thank Kkat for writing Fallout Equestria, one of the best stories I have read, and I would like to thank Fillyosopher, Melon Hunter, and Tonto the Trotter for all assisting me in the rewrite.)