Fallout Equestria
Broken Steel

Chapter 8: The True Quest Begins

A young stallion, around his early teens ran for his life as he was chased by a group of pissed off ghouls who were chasing him with an array of bladed weapons. The pony cursed himself for bringing this upon himself for killing one of the ghouls who challenged him with his chainsaw staff.

He had entered their territory and was almost immediately challenged by a ghoul pony dressed in old Equestrian Army combat armour. The fight didn’t last long as he used his chainsaw staff, a double ended staff with a chainsaw on each end, to first cut away the sword the living dead pony wielded and then plunged one of the two chainsaws into the ghoul. The saw struggled through the armour and once it was lodged into the ghoul’s chest the motor died leaving it stuck in the now dead ghoul. The other ghouls brought out their own swords and started to run at the young buck who had no choice but to abandon his chainsaw staff and leg it.

The young earth pony’s purple coat was dirty from the dust, his long black mane and tail was messy from his journeys and his two crossed chainsaws cutiemark was covered by his saddlebags.

“Get back here runt” Screamed a raspy voice from one of the ghouls chasing him.

He bucked his saddlebags off to loose some weight so he could run faster. He was running as fast as he could until he noticed that the ground ahead seemed to suddenly end.

“OH SHIT!” He screamed as he slammed on the breaks, skidding on all four of his hooves until he came to a stop just a hoof away from the edge of a cliff with a sheer drop to the rocky ground below.

He had no choice; he would have to face the four remaining ghouls. He turned around and walked forward to face the ghouls. The four zombie like ponies stopped and drew their weapons as they noticed the purple pony moving towards them. The young pony assumed a combat stance as he stopped in front of them.

“You got guts after all kid” The one directly in front of him said in the same raspy voice.

The other ghouls moved to surround the purple pony, giving him no chance of escape. The ground below the earth pony sagged slightly and the four ghouls backed up slightly as they noticed it. The young stallion looked down as a faint sound of snapping metal was heard through the dirt floor.

“Did you hear that?” Asked a ghoul who looked towards one of his comrades.

The young pony looked up and then with a yelp he disappeared into a black hole as the ground below him gave way, leaving a clean square hole where he once stood. The four ghouls approached the hole cautiously and peered down into the black void of nothingness.

“Heh, that little brat fell to his death”

“Serves the little whelp right”

“C’mon, we got better things to do than waste our time out here” And with that the ghouls left to return to their home territory.

The young stallion didn’t scream as he fell into the dark of the void surrounding him. He closed his eyes as if accepting death and waited to hit the ground. Instead he felt himself land into a tangle of vine things that stopped his fall. Some of the vine things stretched and snapped as they stopped him but when he did stop he was tangled up in them, leaving him suspended in the air above goddesses knows what. He opened his eyes to look around; all he could see were blackness and only a few of the vine things holding his body. With what little light he had from the small hole above him he took a closer look at these ‘vines’ and found out that they were actually steel cables and electrical wiring. He raised a brow at the unexpected turn his fall had landed him in. “Electrical cables?”

As if on cue a humming sound started to echo throughout the cavernous void and one by one florescent lights began to turn on. Bathing the area in light and revealing exactly where he had fallen into. As he looked around he started to make out some sort of underground facility. It had a concrete floor which was still several stories below him. Steel reinforced walls which had thick beams running up to the ceiling which had a honeycomb of other steel beams to hold up the ground above it. Soon the lights began to reveal doors and other hatches leading off into the facility and then finally, the centre began to be revealed and as each light revealed more and more, the ponys jaw began to drop.

Standing a mere ten hoof away from him was the largest metal pony shaped machine had he’d ever seen. He could see clearly through its unfinished structure to its interior, seeing its computer systems, hydraulics, mechanical parts and everything else that makes a robot or something work. This was the largest machine he had ever seen and soon his dropped jaw closed and a smile began to form. His eyes soon turned to a wall which seemed to have some lights focused on it and written in large block capital letters that were slightly faded from age was a name and it read.

“KROGOTH”

xxxxx

We had left Pondale behind us and were heading east towards the large city of Manehattan, or what’s left of it. We were staying on a road going in the general direction of the city. For now our mission was to make it to the Ministry of Technology hub there and find out if Applejack had any hidden information of this Project-K that we could use to either find it or put a stop to it.

As we walked up the road we came to a sign post beside a set of concrete stairs leading down into a Metro Station.

“Hey, App, if we take the blue Celestial Line from here it will take us directly to the city and….” Zyon began as he surveyed the map below the metro sign. “Hmm, seems that there is a station a couple of blocks from the hub”

I stood beside him and checked the map. He was right, the blue Celestial Line was more or less I straight path there.

“You guys aren’t seriously suggesting taking the subway right?” Sky Fire asked as she looked a little troubled.

“Well I am” Zyon said as he descended the stairs to the steel mesh gate and pushed against it.

“C’mon Sky, it’ll take use a couple of days on the road and there are goddesses knows what out there, at least in the tube tunnel we only have to really worry about Feral Ghouls and Radroaches” I reasoned.

Sky opened her mouth to say something but got a rude interruption from Zyon.

“Ah, son of manticore” He yelled as the mesh collapsed and he fell through it and got into a tangle with the mesh.

I stifled a giggle as Sky tried again. “Alright fine but we’ll need to be damn careful, I’ve heard that a Reaver has been seen around here” She said sounding afraid.

“Since when did you hear that?”

“I…I don’t rightly know…” She said as she tilted her head in thought.

“Maybe from before you were cloned?”

She nodded. “Hmm, possibly”

“Yo, any day now, you know” Zyon shouted from the gate after untangling himself.

“I’m sure we can handle a few Feral Ghouls, Sky, we’ll keep on our guard”

Sky Fire nodded and we descended the stairs and trotted through the gate and into the station entrance. As all three of us walked into the station we were treated to a sight of almost complete destruction. The floor was littered with rubble, bricks, stones, broken concrete and two hundred year old litter. The walls were covered in cracks and where the rubble seemed to pile up against the wall there was like a huge hole in the wall where the concrete and bricks had fallen loose. There were also holes in the ceiling with some of the holes showing the gloomy daylight.

As we moved deeper into the station terminal we came to a row of posts with poles sticking out at the sides to block entry.

“What are these things?” I asked as I looked at them. At the top there is a slot for a gold bit coin and on the front of the post there is a circular screen flickering an “ERROR” sign.

“These are Toll Gates” Zyon replied as he leaned forward to see the screen. “Ponies who wanted to use the Metro had to pay a toll to get through the gates here. According to this, the Metro system is offline, likely since the bombs dropped”

Looking down the line of gates I noticed that two of them were stuck open and so I walked around and through them. My friends followed suit and then we entered an extremely large open space which had an elevated platform which we entered on, two platforms in the middle and several ruined stores running along the two end walls. The large space was like a huge half cylinder which only opened up to the tunnels leading away at either side and the tunnel leading to the entrance. We were stood on the elevated platform above the rail lines and the platforms below. Even this massive room was filled with rubble and…

“What the buck?” I said as I looked at something I didn’t expect to see in a tube station. “How did a chariot get in here?”

Zyon and Sky followed my gaze to the sky chariot which was parked at the edge of the elevated platform with its pulling harness dangling off the edge with unfortunately a black skeleton of a pegasus pony hanging from it. They both shared my confused look as they checked it out.

“Weird” Zyon said as he finally looked away. Weird indeed, I've lived in the wasteland for several years now and it always seems to surprise you with something like this. We continued walking until we came to the escalators. Metal stairs that back in the day would move up or down to help ferry ponies from floor to floor similar to an elevator. Between each of the two sets of escalators stood a large board with the metro map for this area on it.

“Hmm, we want the Blue Celestial Line right?” I asked as I checked the map.

“Yea that’s right” Zyon said in agreement as he took a quick glance at the map. I looked down at my pipbuck and used my magic to prod the third button and then twist the knob next to the screen to cycle to the local map screen and then rotated the wheel next the screen before the knob to zoom in.

“Does your map have anything showing “New Hope”?” Zyon asked me as he noticed me checking my pipbuck map while he looked closer at the map on the board.

“New Hope?” I asked as I zoomed in as far as my map would allow and no icons for doors apart from the station entrance appeared. “Nope, nothing for that, why?”

“It’s on the way down the line to Manehattan” He replied.

“New Hope…New Hope…ugh, I’ve heard that name before” Sky says as she rubs her temple with a hoof as she tried to remember. She repeats its name several more times until she looks up at the map like she’s remembered something. “New Hope, I remember now, it was a medical research facility”

“Medical huh, I think it’ll be worth a stop to restock on our medical supplies”

“I agree” I replied as I started to descend the escalators.

After making it down to the platforms we all checked the ruined stores for any supplies but they were all empty of anything useful. Looks like we weren’t the only ponies to come through here. We took a few minutes to rest, mainly because of me, before we headed out into the Blue Celestial Line tunnel towards Manehattan and New Hope.

XXXXX

“I see that Project Ironhide is treating you well Mr Runner” Said the voice of the smartly dressed ghoul with cloudy pink eyes.

“Star Metal is truly a wonderful metal, I’ve taken many hits without feeling a thing” The other smartly dressed pony replied.

“I take it this isn’t a social visit; you’ve barely shown yourself around here since you asked for Ironhide. You require something else?”

“Yes, I was wondering if you know of the Synaptic Link technology”

The ghoul looked at the larger pony with a raised brow and with a look of slight surprise. “Synaptic Link, how do you know about that?”

“You’re not the only pony who has their hooves on a project”

“I suppose not, but what could you possibly require the Synaptic Link for?”

Motor Runner turned to face the ghoul. His gold K-P badge shown on his suit jacket collar in the light of a candle on a wooden round end table beside a ruined couch. The two ponies were stood inside a well preserved hotel room. There were two large windows on either side of a fireplace that were still intact. The view from the windows overlooked the city of Hoofington and the arena below it.

“There are plenty of machines out there that are as insane as most ponies and many more with encrypted terminals. I could greatly benefit from the ability of controlling a machine like it was my own body” The tall purple pony explained.

“Hmm, well the procedure has never been successfully done before since the bombs dropped. There is a chance you’d die but you’ve already had a successful cybernetic enhancement before so you may be able to survive the process”

Motor Runner didn’t show any signs of fear from being told he might die from the procedure. He simply looked out the window and raised his cybernetic foreleg and with a soft snap it split down the middle and something dropped out. He used his long straight haired tail to skilfully pick up the object that fallen from his leg and held it before Sanguine.

The ghoul’s eyes widened from what he saw in his acquaintances tail. It was a small clear vile holding a dull grey liquid and etched into the glass was the name “New Hope”

“You found Project Sire?”

“You give me the Synaptic Link and I’ll hoof over this sample of the DNA material for a Sire and tell you where the New Hope research facility is located, do we have a deal?” He asked as he turned around to face the ghoul again.

The ghoul smiles. Project Sire was one of the cancelled projects that had thought of have been long since lost and forgotten. Its purpose was to create super soldiers but it went horribly wrong and instead was changed. Sanguine smiles and nods. “Certainly, now if you’d please follow me, we can get started” He said as he turns around to the door and starts to walk. Motor Runner follows suit shortly after.

XXXXX

We had been walking for a few hours now with nothing eventful happen to us. Everything had been rather quiet down in the tunnel apart from the clop of hooves on concrete and steel.

Sky Fire had taken to flying rather than walking. At least her flying was silent down in this tunnel. Zyon was making good use of his Fallen Caesar training to minimize his noise but me on the other hoof, I was making as much noise as any pony would walking on concrete and steel. Steel Ranger’s weren’t known for stealth as we had overwhelming firepower on our side but I’m without my armour so I should be quieter. Luckily I wasn’t as noisy as I would have been if I had my armour.

As we walked I kept an eye on my E.F.S compass for any danger ahead. It had been clear for most of the trip so far but now I was starting to see red markers appearing, a lot of markers.

“Whoa hold up” I called out quiet enough to be heard.

“See something?” Asked Zyon who silently moved to my side.

“Yeah, up ahead” I said a tad quieter as Zyon was right next to me but unfortunately it wasn’t loud enough for Sky.

“Huh?” She asked as looked back to us “What did you say?”

The tunnel was starting to curve here, starting to branch right. “Ah, Sky, watch out for that…”

I didn’t get to finish as Sky flew into the wall of the tunnel with a resounding clunk and she then fell onto the concrete platform running the length of the tunnel on either side of the rails with an even louder whack. “Oww that hurt” she shrieked.

A unpony like scream echoed through the tunnel which was followed by more screams of something that didn’t sound happy. The sounds of many hooves clopping on the concrete and steel started to ring out through the tunnel and they were getting closer.

“Shit, everypony get ready”

I used my magic to pull free Overmare’s Fury from its holster and held it ready. Zyon leans his head down to his left foreleg and gripped the end of the handle to his Tribal Sword and pulled it out of its sheath and then held it tightly in his mouth by its zebra striped grip. Sky Fire leaned back to one of her saddlebags and pulled out one of her magical beam pistols and held it tightly with her tongue on its trigger. I could see her cringe from the metallic taste she was getting from the trigger.

We began to see a large group of feral ghouls galloping as fast as their bony legs could carry them towards us. The zombies were a perfect example of how the Wasteland could destroy something and bring it down to its lowest level.

“Ok, I’ll try to pick off as many as I can from here, Sky, focus on the leading Ghouls when they get in range of your beam pistols. Zyon, do what you can to take down those that make it past Sky Fire”

“Right” Both ponies said in unison.

I aimed Overmare’s Fury using the scope and zeroed in on the first ghoul to enter my sights and fired. The shot zoomed through the stale air and struck the ghoul in the head. There was a sound of breaking bone as the skull exploded, sending its deteriorating brains out onto itself before it collapses into a heap which caused some of the other to ghouls to trip over it.

I used my magic to yank down the lever ejecting the spent round and then pulled it back up to chamber another and repeated the process. I was able to drop another six in a similar way but there were more ghouls charging us than I realised.

Sky Fire had begun to fire her magical beam pistol. Beams of bright hot red magical beams started flying. Some ghouls started to burst into flames from the beam impacts while other instantly turned to ash. Sky took to the air as the ghouls were getting closer to us. She used this to her advantage by shooting down over her targets and to get clearer shots.

Zyon dropped into a battle stance and held his sword to his left in his mouth. The blade out stretched and ready to slice. As one of the ghouls stumbled towards him it shrieked and charged in to bite him. Zyon dodged to the right, avoiding being bitten and then he swung his head up. The blade caught into the neck of the ghoul and sliced through much of its neck flesh, cutting through the main artery in the neck and its oesophagus. The creature gurgled as its mouth and lungs began to fill with blood. Zyon planted his fore hooves firmly into the ground and reared up then gave the drowning ghoul a double hind leg buck to its side, sending the dying monster onto its side.

For a time the tunnel echoed with the sounds of gun fire, magical blasts and metal striking bone as we battled the horde of ghouls. I had to drop Overmare’s Fury as I couldn’t take the time to aim through the scope as more and more kept coming. Sky was still flying but was running low on her small spark cells. Zyon on the other hoof was the only one doing fine. He was standing on top of a small mountain of dead ghouls. A shocking thing for me to realise was how clean his sword looked. I’ve seen him stab and slice several of these ghouls but the sword was as clean as a whistle.

“Great plan Appletart, we’re gonna mauled to death by freaking zombies” Sky growled as she flew over me while attempting to reload.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think it would be this bad” I said as I pulled out my Lever Action Shotgun from my saddle bag. As I looked back to the fight after pulling it out I had a ghoul almost in my face. I let out a surprised squeak and fell to my haunches. The zombie opened its mouth ready to bite me and thinking quickly I brought my shotgun round and shoved its barrel into the mouth of the ghoul. I shivered as I looked into its clear, lifeless eyes, seeing nothing in them, just death. I looked away and pulled the trigger. The bang was muffled by the flesh of the ghoul but the back of its neck was ripped out from the buckshot tearing through its spine and muscle. The ghoul fell limp as I shoved it off my shotgun in time to blast another ghoul in the face.

“This is bad Apple” Zyon said as he jumped back toward me just after he slit the throat of a ghoul he was fighting.

“I’m almost out” Sky shouted as she flew back over the group of ghouls and firing a few more shots down into them.

”And I’m getting tired” Zyon added.

“We gotta hold on, just a little more” I yelled over the gun fire from my shotgun.

We had to start dodging ghouls that got to us. Zyon was jumping and flying over some while cutting them with this sword while Sky just flew out of reach. Sky let out a cry frustration as her beam pistol’s last spark cell went dead. I fired almost blindly since these ghouls were so close. I couldn’t risk aimed shots so I aimed in the general direction of my targets and fired. I had a couple of lucky shots where I blew away a leg or something.

After several more minutes of fighting my Shotgun clicked as it no longer had any more shells. Zyon was getting slower in his movements as he was getting tired and Sky Fire flew around to try to distract any ghouls she could.

We now had five ghouls in front of use, I was out of shotgun shells, Zyon was tired and Sky was out of ammo for her beam pistols. I quickly put my shotgun back into my saddlebag and levitated my revolver up from its holster.

“Zyon, try to keep the ghouls busy, I’ll pop them with a shot each”

The zony let out a tired moan as he jumped forward again. He successfully drew their attention as I aimed down the sights of the small revolver, lining it up with the head of the first ghoul. I fired my first shot with the revolver and managed to strike my target in the head and killing it. Unfortunately this drew some of the ghouls to me. Three of them charged me while the other one focused on Zyon.

“Fuck you bitch” Zyon cried as he bucked his ghoul with his hind legs and slashed open its chest with his sword.

I jumped into S.A.T.S and toggled only three shots. This revolver needed a lot of energy to use in S.A.T.S. I toggled a shot each to the ghouls running at me in the timeless essence of the system. Once I had all my targets selected I exited S.A.T.S and with the aiming spell fired three shots in quick succession. Two of the ghouls dropped from the shots to the head but the third one managed to avoid being hit and tackled me to the ground.

Zyon jammed his sword into the head of his last ghoul in time to see me get floored by the ghoul I missed. “Shit, Appletart” He cried.

I landed on my back and kicked out with my back hooves to hold the monster back. I had lost my revolver in the attack as the strike made me loose my magical concentration. These ghouls may look like malnourished freaks but they are still strong as hell.

“Get the hay off her” I heard Sky almost scream as she came flying at full speed and slammed her out stretched fore legs into the side of the ghoul. Upon impact with the ghoul’s ribcage I heard several sickening wet cracks as its ribs broke. The creature toppled over wheezing from a collapsed lung. Sky jumped back and helped me back onto my hooves. “You alright?” She asked softly. I smiled and nodded. Zyon quickly ran over to the ghoul before it could get back up and thrusted his sword into its chest. The creature barely made a noise before it fell limp on the floor.

“We killed them all” Zyon panted in relief.

I opened my mouth to say something as I noticed that there was one last red bar moving towards us from down the tunnel where the ghouls had come from and a roar of another ghoul echoed through the tunnel towards us.

“Oh that doesn’t sound good” I moaned as I holstered Overmare’s Fury and my revolver I managed to find as the ghoul screamed.

Sky flew over to where the rails seem to dip going down hill. “Oh fuck no….REVEAR” she screamed and before any of us knew what happened a ghoul had suddenly ran up to Sky. It was more grotesque than the normal ones; it seemed to be wearing the remnants of metal armour and seemed to shimmer with a slight radioactive aura. From where I was standing my Pipbuck was clicking steadily from the radiation being emitted from the ghoul.

“Get out of there” I shouted.

The ghoul reared up on its hind legs and then swung one of its fore legs and swatted Sky Fire like a fly as she jumped into the air and made her go crashing into the far wall beside me. That ghoul was fast and fucking strong. Zyon jumped to my side and I levitated out my revolver again.

“That’s the Revear?” Zyon asked in a somewhat surprised voice.

Sky picked herself up and moaned from her fall and stood beside us. “Ugh, yeah. The worst of the worst for ghouls. They are strong, fast and very resilient. Most ponies that go up against one of those things are killed fairly easily. You’d need a fucking powerful weapon to kill that bitch…” Sky then looked at my back with 'This Machine' strapped into its harness. “I’ve seen what that rifle can do, that’s our only option, Appletart, your gotta shoot that bitch with your rifle”

I looked back at my alien rifle. This thing is huge and heavy. “I’m gonna need a minute to get my aim, that thing is heavy. Think you two can distract it while I get my aim?”

“Sure, no problem” Zyon said not sounding very happy with the turn of events.

Sky zoomed forward leaving a rainbow trail and started to fly at high speed around the ghoul. I could hear the creature scream and grunt as it tried to swat the fast moving pegasus. Zyon ran forward getting ready to take over when either Sky stopped flying or if the monster struck her.

I moaned as I undid the harness holding the weapon in and then hefted the large six foot long weapon in my magic. I placed the butt of the weapon to my right shoulder and held it as level as I could in my magic and peered down the scope at the rainbow tornado surrounding my target.

The ghoul let out a horrible roar and with a swift swing of a fore leg it managed to connect with Sky Fire. She screamed in pain as she again went flying into a wall and landed into a pile of crumbling concrete.

Zyon got ready to engage as the rainbow tornado around the ghoul began to fade. Luckily the ghoul had its back to us which gave me the perfect opportunity to get my aim. The ghoul began to turn.

”Zyon, get back” I yelled as I pulled the trigger.

I yelped as the gun suddenly shot back into my shoulder with great force. The tunnel echoed with the roar of 'This Machine’s' bang as it fired its round. Zyon dived backwards away from the ghoul just in time. There was a small explosion that erupted from the ghoul’s chest which sent the ghoul hurtling backwards and into the wall of the tunnel. I mentally face hoofed as I forgot I didn’t remove the explosive rounds from the magazine after I tested it back at Pondale Airport.

“Holy shit” Zyon moaned as he rubbed his ears with his fore hooves. “That fucking thing is so damn loud”

Sky Fire picked herself up and shakily limped back over to us. “Ohh, I’m gonna have a pounding headache for the rest of the day now” She moaned as she opened my saddlebag to fish out a healing potion.

There was the sound of shifting rubble which got our attention again. I peered down the scope of the rifle and let out a shocked gasp. The Revear was getting back up. “How the fuck did that thing survive an explosive round?” I pretty much screamed to nopony in particular

“Quick, shoot it again”

The ghoul got to its hooves and looked in our direction while letting out another horrid shriek. I sighted the ghoul up onto its face and pulled the trigger again. This time there was a sickening pop from my shoulder fallowed by extreme pain as the butt of the gun was again forcefully shoved back against my shoulder as it fired another round.

This time the explosive round struck the ghoul’s head like I aimed for and thankfully this was enough to kill the blasted thing. The ghoul’s head had exploded along with the round leaving the ghoul headless and dead with the rest of its ghoul chums. If it wasn’t for This Machine we’d all be dead now.

I let out a scream of pain as I dropped the rifle and clutched my shoulder with a hoof. Sky quickly downed her potion and rushed to my side.

“Let me see” she commanded. I removed my hoof to reveal my shoulder being further back than it should be. “You’ve dislocated your shoulder. Lie down on your side so I can pop it back in”

I obeyed and lay down, I gritted my teeth as hard as I could as I braced for even more pain. Damn I wished I had some Med-X.

“Ok, here it goes” she said as she gripped my loose shoulder with her fore hooves and shoved it really hard. There was another wet pop as my shoulder was pushed back into place which was followed by a high pitched scream from me. Oh goddesses the pain, it was worse than getting shot.

“Argh, shit that hurts” I cried out in pain.

Sky dug out another healing potion and gave it to me to restore any damage caused to me by the dislocation of my shoulder which thankfully eased some of the pain but not all of it. I decided to take a few minutes to rest while I waited for the pain to subside somewhat.

After we had rested enough we continued on down the tunnel which was now thankfully free of any ghouls. After another hour or so of walking we made it to a train station which seemed rather small to be a public station. My pipbuck beeped and a message appeared in my E.F.S.

“You have discovered the New Hope Research Facility”

“Hey guys, this is it, this is New Hope” I called back to them as I climbed up onto the platform. The platform was pretty much devoid of anything. It had a few waiting benches, a single door leading into the facility and several Ministry of Peace and Arcane Science posters. Most of the posters were badly faded from age.

My friends joined me as I stood in front of the door. I looked down at my compass and breathed a sigh of relief as it shown it was clear. I looked back at my friends who nodded and I used my magic to open the old wooden door. The door opened up into a dark corridor which lead into New Hope.

We quickly walked through the corridor and into the main building. The room we entered into was a huge lobby. It had several desks with terminals mounted on them, chairs lining the walls and two other door ways. One door lead into a small office while the other opened up into another large corridor. We checked the desks and found only a hoofful of caps and some 10mm rounds but nothing else useful.

With nothing else to check we entered the large corridor. As we trotted up it we noticed several open doors on either side of the corridor which lead into small empty storerooms. At the end of the corridor was a surprise. A huge steel stable like door, more of a vault door really. Above it and to the side of it were monitors which were still glowing with a dull green glow which meant they were still online.

What sort of medical facility would need such a door to its main offices and labs?

I began to get a bad feeling about this place, that huge door was telling me that there was something we were not suppose to find back there. Something that the ponies who built this place didn’t want any pony to know.

A face of a pony suddenly appeared on the screen above the door.

“Welcome to the New Hope Research Facility”

XXXXX

Motor Runner now had what he came to Hoofington for and was now heading back to the Hanger. Half of his mane on the back of his neck had been shaved off for the procedure of having the Synaptic Link installed. Sitting on the back of his neck is a small circular piece of metal. The metal was just a protective cap as what was under the cap was the important part. Embedded into his neck is a seven holed socket, six small holes in the formation of a six pointed star with a larger hole in the centre going deep into his neck.

The Synaptic Link is a computer port that’s fitted around the spinal column. The risks involved in having one applied to somepony were high as most ponies to try it resulted in having partial to total paralyse of their bodies. There had been some successful cases but those were from before the bomb, but since the bomb and the lose of some technological assets no pony has survived the procedure. A Synaptic Link enables a pony to use a special cable to connect to any mechanical device and override its core programs to control the device as if it was apart of their own bodies.

The Synaptic Link was going to be used in a long line of heavy power armour that would be too slow to be used like normal suits of power armour so if connected to the user the user could control the heavy suit’s leg motors far more efficiently allowing the suit to be moved as if it was the pony itself inside.

Motor Runner has his own use for the Synaptic Link. He found out that the Krogoth was designed to work with a Synatpic Link. This explains the Krogoth’s advanced locomotors and ball joints.

The tall pony stops his walking as he witnesses a group of Raiders attack a poor defenceless mare and begin to rape her. He sighs deeply as he watches the horrible act.

“Soon the ponies of the wasteland won’t have to suffer, I’ll bring back the order that is missing here with the power that I’ll soon weild”

(Author notes: Re-read and modified with corrected miss used words and missing words. Also altered some bits. Thank you for reading)