I realized I was in another dream the moment my eyes opened. How did I know?

Sombra was staring me in the face. He grinned. “You’ve made a name for yourself, Cybermare.”

“Seems I have.” I try to move around him, only for a black crystal to appear in my path.

“And you’re going to-”

I snap toward him. “I’m not going to do shit. The only thing I want to do is save my Stable. I don’t give a shit what you do to this pathetic wasteland. Do whatever the fuck you want with it. Okay? I’m not a hero. I’m just a pony. A pony that doesn’t want to see anything bad happen to her family and friends.” I take a deep breath. “So take back your kingdom. Take back your slaves. I don’t give a fuck. But leave me, and all of Stable 81, out of it.”

He seemed taken aback, but his shock quickly turned into a sneer. “I don’t think I will, Cybermare. You can’t really stop me. But you really need to hurry and save them. Because if you don’t hurry… Stable 81 will be gone.”

“Wh… what do you mean.”

He gave a menacing chuckle. “I wonder why your sister hasn’t answered your messages in a while.”

I took a few steps back. “She’s just resting. That’s all. Nothing’s wrong in the Stable. It’s in tip-top shape, like always.”

Sombra gave another chuckle. “Poor delirious pony. Can’t accept the truth.”

I ran at him, angered, only to receive a black crystal scythe to the face.

Unlike the other two times that Sombra molested my dreams, I woke up from this sleep slowly. I sat up, and rubbed my eyes. After opening them, I gave my Pip-Buck a quick check. Still no new messages. Not even any from Fix Ser or the Overmare.

I slowly sat up on the… bed? Oh yeah. That’s right. Turned in my little quest last night. Got my reward and exchanged part of it for a room. Which meant the mayor still owes me a few caps and a location.

I lazily climbed out of bed and landed on something soft and squishy. Ah, that was comfortable under my hooves. Whatever it was shifted, and started to crawl away. On no you don’t! I tackle hugged the soft thing, and rubbed my face against it. It was warm too. Bonus!

“Vanilla. Would you mind explaining to me why you’re rubbing your face against my hips?”

Why was my warm squishy thing talk-...

I sat up. “Hah-hah! Sorry about that Carrot! Totally a… prank! Yeah, it was a big prank.” I gave a sheepish grin down at the ghoul.

He smiles, and fortunately catches his eye before it slips out. He stands up. “I’m sure it was. I bet you were still half asleep.”

I dart for the door. “You’re not making fun of me today, zompony!”

He chases after me. “Hey! I find that very offensive and racially discriminative!” He states with a goofy grin.

Glad I made a new friend, Carrot Cake.

I ran the entire way to the room just upstairs and stopped in front of the mayor’s office. Carrot skidded to a halt just behind me. I knocked on her door, and it was followed by a “Come in,” which I did.

The mayor looked up from the papers on her desk. Hey, weren’t those the same ones she was looking at yesterday? “I take it you’ve come back for the remaining caps and the information you need?” I nod, and she hands over a small bag of bottlecaps. “Stable 5 is in the castle’s basement.”

I grin, but I can’t help but let my eye twitch. It was right there the entire time, and I never bothered to check? “Thanks, mayor. I really appreciate your help.”

Without bothering to wait for a reply, I left the room, and bolted down the stairs, making record time. I don’t know if Carrot Cake bothered to follow me.

Abandoned Stable? Check. Giant Stable door? Check. Two hundred pounds of TNT or plastic explosive to knock the door off of its hinge? Seems I forgot that little detail.

Instead of worrying about it right now, I chose to explore Stable 5 out of curiosity. Learning is great for an intelligent mind. The first thing I searched for was the Overmare’s room, which I found within a matter of moments. It was easy to find, since it was in the same position as the Overmare’s office in Stable 81. On the second floor, just above the atrium.

I turned on the terminal, and after a quick hacking session, which the password to was ‘Diamond,’ I managed to get into the Overmare’s terminal.

Message from Stable-Tec

Citizen Log

Stable Reports

All interesting choices. Curiosity got the better of me. I selected the first one, and it downloaded an audio file onto my Pip-Buck. Don’t know how it managed to connect with my Pip-Buck without me ever plugging it into the terminal, but it did. I might have to figure that out later. I selected the audio file.

Scootaloo from Stable-Tec here and…

Ugh. How many times have I done this now? What was that Sweetie? This is the two hundred seventeenth? Damn.

You know what? Screw it. Stable 5. We stuck everyone in the Crystal Castle down here. That includes Princess Cadence, Shining Armor. Basically all of the nobles of the Crystal Empire. Actually, that kinda makes me wonder. Why the heck are the two ponies in charge of the Crystal Empire not actually crystal ponies? That doesn’t really make any sense.

You know what else doesn’t make sense? The fact that Stable 5 is our two hundred seventeenth Stable. Did we plan this? Sweetie? Of course we did. I don’t remember signing anything that said we’d be doing this. Ah well, guess it’s what we get for doing everything south of the Crystal Empire first. How many more of these am I going to have to do? Cause I’m kind of getting tired of recording these messages.

Scootaloo signing ou- Hey, Sweetie! Give that back!

Sorry about that. This is Sweetie Belle of Stable-Tec. It’s obvious that Scootaloo can’t be trusted with recording the messages anymore. She’s not exactly on-topic with it these days.

This is Stable 5. If things went as planned, then the Crystal Empire will be one of the last places to be targeted by the zebras. Especially since you guys decided to stay out of the war as much as possible. There’s also the possibility you guys might never be targeted at all. But of course, in case we aren't lucky enough for that to happen, we’ll be building eighteen Stables around the Crystal Empire. Stable 5, the one you’re in right now, is one. There’ll be thirteen more in and around the Crystal Empire main city. There’s going to be one in that farming community to the east of here. Of course, one in the mountains for any yaks in the Crystal Empire and any mountain dwelling ponies. And the last two. Well, we’ll let you set up contact with them. Stable-Tec is going to need constant reports of what is going on in Stable 63 and Stable 118. If communications fail, then the Stable has either fallen, or something in the transceivers between the Stables have broken. If this occurs, please report it to Stable-Tec headquarters immediately.

This was Sweetie Belle from Stable-Tec. Thank you for your cooperation. No Scootaloo! You can’t complain about always doing the recording and then complain about not getting to-

The recording cut out at that. I couldn’t help but chuckle. The argument was a little pathetic. But, only two really close friends would get into an argument about something so feeble, I suppose.

Hey wait a moment. Sweetie Belle? Wasn’t she a singer? Yeah. I heard Voice say her name several times over the radio. She was definitely a singer. But she also worked for Stable-Tec? That was a curious double life.

I shrugged it off, and clicked the next option; Citizen Log.

Year 1: Citizen report: Overmare Blossom Jewel: 65 of 700 designated citizens made it into Stable 5 before the doors shut. That is less than 10%. Furthermore, both Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armor are both unaccounted for. Shining Armor has not been seen for more than three days, and is assumed to have disappeared. Princess Cadenza left a mere hour before the first megaspell hit to go on a search for him. It is assumed she has been killed by the megaspells, but we can only hope for the best. What is a further concern is the lack of citizens. Our gene pool is not quite large enough for surviving to the time specified. By the third generation, we’ll be inbreeding. This is a major concern.

Year 86: Citizen Report: Overstallion Diamond Dust: Our population is at an all time high. With a total of 287 ponies living under our Stable three generations later, I can only form the summary that Blossom Jewel was wrong. She didn’t think like Overmare Amethyst did. When she enforced the strict marriage and breeding program, why, I thought that was genius! Every marriage has been sorted out for the next three hundred years. Each couple has been given specific times and numbers to have children and get married. It’s perfect. I don’t see any way this could fail.

My name is Capulet. And I’m the last fucking mare left alive in this fucking hellhole. If anyone is reading this, and especially if you’re from Stable-Tec, this Stable was a fucking disaster. After Amethyst died, Diamond Dust took over. And that fucking hermit had no idea what he was doing. It didn’t take long for everything to fall to fucking anarchy. Everyone wanted that damn Overstallion dead. So what does he do? He locks himself in his room, and shuts down the water. Then guess what? He has a fucking heart attack while he’s trapped in his office. Guess his body must have fell on top of a power grid or something, because the power shut down. Not to mention what’s left of his body is fucking fried. Now, here we are. Trapped in a fucking hell. No water, no food. The door won’t fucking open. Hell, it took us six days to disengage the lock on the Overstallion’s door. I have two other stallions alive, but they have no idea what to fucking do. Nope. Make that one stallion. Nopony is going to make it out alive. Heh. That noise sounds like alarms… Of course the Stable door is opening, just when I’m getting those black spots in my vision. Well, at least that last stallion will make it out. After all, it was obviously him that opened the door. .

Well, let Stable 5’s memory be etched in stone and memory. At least most of it. I could get the basic history of what happened. I started to wonder why I hadn’t seen any bodies in the Stable, but I supposed that the citizens of Crystal City had probably cleared them out a long time ago.

With only one option left, I selected Stable Reports.

Stable Reports:

Stable 118 report 1: Stable-Tec was still working on this Stable when the first balefire bombs fell on the Crystal Empire. As a result, it is completely abandoned. Any and all messages that are sent are relayed by Stable-Tec, and they tell us the same thing every time. Stable 118 was never completed.

Stable 118 report 2: You would assume the messages Stable-Tec sends pertaining the current condition would change slightly every time we sent it. But no. They send the same message every time. Even after 80 years of persistence. I’m beginning to think Stable 118 was completed, and they just don’t want us to know what was inside.

Stable 63 report 1: This is a Stable meant for experimentation. Of course, this doesn’t come without its downsides. Experimented subjects tend to escape, it seems. They wreak temporary havoc on their citizens until they’re either subdued or put down. I’m quite glad I was put in charge of this Stable rather than that one.

Stable 63 report 2: Their reports are getting sent less and less over time. Not only are they running out of experiments to perform, their population is dwindling thanks to the escaped subjects. Ultimately, they’re putting down everything they can to use as fuel for future experiments.

Stable 63 report 3: Communications with Stable 63 have fallen entirely. We have not received a report from them in over six months, so we’ll be reporting this to Stable Tec.

Stable 63: report 4: We’ve been getting messages from Stable 63 again. Threats and brutal descriptions of what somepony will do to us if they ever find us. The pony sending us messages calls themselves Songbird. They claim that they murdered everypony in Stable 63, and that they’re coming for us next. They also claimed they were immortal, and wished us luck whenever we tried to fight back.

Note to self: Avoid Stable 63.

I shut down the terminal after reading the last message, and left the Overmare’s, or should I say Overstallion’s, office. The Stable was actually really clean. And it sparkled. Can’t ever forget that it sparkled. Especially in the Crystal Empire. I didn’t realize why it was so clean until I passed by a few citizens in the Stable. Of course. It made sense now. They used the castle as a living space. Why not use the Stable below it as a living space as well? I smiled as an Alicorn walked past, then left the Stable. I don’t know why, but those Alicorns gave me the heebie-jeebies.

It didn’t take me long to meet back up with Carrot Cake, since he was waiting just outside the Stable door for me.

“So. I hear you’re going to be leaving the wasteland behind after you knock that door off of its hinge.”

I scrunch my face. I actually don’t remember telling him I would leave the wasteland behind. “Who told you that?”

“You did. Did you know you sleep talk? And sleep cuddle?”

“Shut up.” I say, my face becoming a light shade of pink. “I am not attracted to you in any way, shape, or form. Got it?”

That emissioned a bout of laughter from the ghoul. “What’s the unattractive part? Is it the slowly rotting flesh? The flesh in general? Is it my sarcastic and overall rude nature? Is it the eye?” And to make his point more clear, he grinned and let his eye slip halfway out.

“Put that back in. And no. It’s not any of that. The flesh part I could get past. The eye is a little disturbing, but that’s another thing I could get past. And your personality? If you’ll believe it, I actually find it attractive.” I received a stunned face. Did I say something wrong? “But I’m not actually attracted to you. Some stallions are hot, sure. And I’ve found myself staring at my fair share of stallion flanks. But I’m not completely attracted to them, you know? Stallions are hot, but mares are sexy.”

The stallion’s shock transformed into a grin. “So you’re gay!” He said much too loudly, which caused many pony’s heads to turn our way.

“I think I would call myself bisexual, but with more of an attraction to mares.”

The ghoul laughs. “Funny! I think I’m the exact same way.” He winks at me. “Stallions and mares are both great in the bed. But mares are a lot more fun. And you’d be surprised about the number of crazies that go for a ghoul boning.”

“Okay Carrot. You can stop saying words now.” I leave the castle, Carrot in tow, and approach the first explosives shop stand I find.

“I need about 200 pounds of plastic explosives. And a detonator.”

The shopkeeper looks at me, quite surprised. “I don’t think I have quite that much ma’am.”

I huff. “Any idea where I can find one?”

He thinks for a long moment. “Actually, I do. You ever hear of Compresium?” I raise an eyebrow. “It's an incredibly powerful explosive crystal. It’s native only to the areas of the Crystal Empire. With just ten or eleven pounds of it, you could blast a hole in several layers of metal.”

I gave a grin that would make Carrot Cake proud. “Perfect. Where can we find some?”

“Well… here’s the thing about that. You can only find it in crystal caves, which are pretty far out of the way. The closest one isn’t even within the pre-war ruins. It’s about five miles outward.”

My grin faded. “Great. More traveling.”

This time, we had managed to leave the Crystal Empire ruins in less than a day. Mostly because we were quiet, quick, and avoided getting a pony injured this time. By the time we left the ruins, the day was beginning to end, and night was starting to settle.

I was beginning to get used to the hustle of the wasteland, and had barely broken a sweat despite our long walk. After giving my Pip-Buck a quick check to make sure we were heading in the right direction, which we were, I started to walk.

Carrot skipped behind me. “You know. I’ve never killed a diamond before.”

I turned to look at him for a second, then looked back forward. “I don’t understand what you mean by that.”

“Didn’t the shopkeep tell you? Crystal caves are usually infested with Diamond Beasts. Huge diamond like creatures that were mutated by radiation. I think they were like little bugs before the war, because I’ve been told they look an awful lot like giant millipedes.”

I looked up toward the setting sun. That cloud cover I had seen two days ago had receded, and I could see all the up to the ‘ceiling’ of the blue sky. It was still a little unnerving.

“No. The shopkeeper never told me anything about that. And it really doesn’t sound inviting. Carrot Cake, why I am I risking my life for this?”

He took a moment to think, before giving his answer. “It’s obvious, ain’t it? You’re doing this so you don’t look weak. You’re doing this so you can prove to your Overmare that you’re better than she suspected. But most of all, you’re doing it for your sister.”

Was it bad that I was surprised by his heartfelt and genuinely kind answer? In retrospect, I suppose it was.

I nodded. “You’re right, Carrot. You’re absolutely right.” I took a moment to switch Surgeon’s Toys for Pegasus Pride, then turned to the ghoul. “Let’s make this quicker, huh?”

“Sure.” he said, and I took off and wrapped my arms around his chest to lift him up. “Awesome! I’ve never flown before! This is great!” He widened what was left of his cheeks and let his tongue hang out to flap around in the wind.

Despite being larger than me, Carrot was surprisingly light. I suppose the fact that he barely had any flesh on his bones helped with that. Actually, now that I thought about it, all the other ghouls I had seen were a little more meaty than he was.

“Carrot? Do you starve yourself?”

“Yep. Gotta look perfect, you know? Those ladies love a skinny stallion.” He chuckled. “Of course I don’t starve myself, Vanilla. I eat quite regularly. Once every two or three months, maybe. It’s not really my fault. Much like we age slower than regular ponies, we use much less energy in our day-to-day activities. I just so happen to have less of an appetite than other ghouls.”

“How is that possible? Radiation magic or something?”

“Probably. Something to do with how the balefire bombs screwed with our genetics.”

I nod. I think I understood. Within moments, the mouth of the cave came into view. It was lined around the top with crystals. There was also a little shack nearby. It looked recently built, no more than five years old, and it looked like it barely supported itself, like somepony wasn’t really watching what they were doing when they built it.

I sat down for a moment, in front of the cave. I I had just finished switching between Pegasus Pride and Electro when I heard a low hiss. My ears perked up, and I turned to the mouth of the cave.

Holy shit, that thing was huge. Diamond Beasts were exactly as Carrot had described them. Giant millipedes that were made of crystals. The one in front of me was easily ten feet long, and came up to the middle of my neck. It’s eyes were a glowing red crystal, and its chitin armor, if you could call it chitin, was a dark, nearly black crystal. And did I mention his pincers? They were huge. Each one was at least the size of my head.

I backed away from the cave entrance, a scream starting to build up in my throat. The Beast apparently decided I would make an excellent supper, and started to skitter away from the cave entrance, heading straight for me. I fired a shot from Electro at the monster, but when the electric bolt hit the thing, the electricity coursed over its body then dissipated.

No way! My best weapon didn’t do shit to that thing.

I continued to back away. The thing slowly rose up to where it was only moving forward with its hundreds of back legs and it towered above me, and I got a good look at its underside. And trust me when I say, everything about this creature was armored with crystal.

Whenever Carrot Cake jumped at the beast with a mighty yell, his hoofsaw whirring to life, and the creature effortlessly batted him to the side with a row of legs, I knew I was fucked.

So, instead of fighting, I kept backing away. I closed my eyes and poured as much magical energy into my horn as I could. I needed a miracle.

And I got one.

Just as the creature lunged at me, my entire body flashed. I felt entirely weightless for a tenth of a second, then my hooves were firmly planted on the ground again. I opened my eyes, and saw the Beast land a few meters to the right of me.

No way… did I just…?

The creature looked confused. It had lost sight of me. I took advantage of its moment of hesitation, and focused on Carrot’s now unconscious body. I tried my hardest to focus on bringing it to me. In a flash, his body appeared next to mine.

I did! I learned how to teleport! Not only myself, but other ponies. Yet, for some reason, I felt strangely weaker.

The Diamond Beast looked to its right, at where Carrot Cake’s body used to lie. I took advantage of the creature’s distraction again, and focused on both Carrot’s body and my own. I needed inside that nearby shack… But my focus wouldn’t take us inside for some reason. I settled instead on teleporting to just outside the door. I tried the handle, luckily finding it was unlocked, and dived into the building, pulling Carrot in behind me.

The exhaustion settled in after that. Double vision started to settle in. Did I really push my energy too far with just a few short distance teleports?

Despite my weakness, I gave a triumphant laugh. It was loud enough to make Carrot start to stir. I shut myself up when the creature outside gave an angry roar. I didn’t think bugs could roar. I kicked the door shut behind me.

I drug Carrot underneath the bed that was inside the shack. Funny how this bed was larger than other beds I’ve seen before, so both Carrot Cake and myself fit underneath it.

I found myself wanting to fall asleep. Those teleports were very taxing on my body. The double vision was beginning to subside, and of course it was replaced by a numbing pain at the base of my horn.

Carrot sat in silence while I rubbed my forehead. At least he understood when he needed to be quiet. The creature outside gave another angered roar, and I found myself wishing I could be smaller than I already was. At least my sister’s size.

But some loud gunshots, and I mean loud gunshots, sounded outside. I shrunk back further under the bed. I heard something heavy fall to the ground outside, but the gunshots continued for a few seconds before stopping.

The next few seconds felt like an eternity. Then I heard something like claws scratch against the front of the shack. I subconsciously curled into a ball to make myself as small as possible. The scratching stopped, and the door opened.

I was surprised to see a rather large griffin walk into the shack. I barely caught a glimpse of his golden furred lion back legs, and his light yellow eagle talons that took the place of his front legs. I took a dare, and poked my head out from under the bed just a little. He walked over to a pre-war fridge, causing him to turn to the side. He wouldn’t have been able to see me. If he could see. His eagle feathers were a color of gold a few shades darker than his fur. And his eyes… He had vertical scars over both eyes, which looked like he was cut. And based off of how straight those scars were, it was intentional. His actual eyes were dead, both irises had turned blue, and he had a cloudy layer over them that were a definite hint that he was blind.

I waited patiently for a chance to escape. I just wanted to get in that cave and get some Compresium. But the griffin stayed in that shack, which I pieced together was his home. Even though he was blind, he knew exactly where everything was. His kitchenette, his gun cabinet. He was surprisingly quick at loading and cleaning his guns, which were two very large rifles that were attached to the left and right side of a specialized saddle. In fact, he seemed mostly to see with his hands. Whenever the blind griffin couldn’t find something he needed, he would patiently feel around the room until he found what he needed.

It took nearly thirty minutes of Carrot and I hiding under the bed before our charade ended.

“I know you’re hiding. I can hear your breathing.” I held my breath. “If you wanted me dead, you would have shot me by now. So if you come out, I promise I won’t kill you. Immediately.”

I looked at my companion, who just gave a slow shrug. With a sigh, I crawled out from under the bed. “Sorry. Sorry. We were about to enter that cave when we were suddenly-”

“Attacked by that Crystal Beast outside? Don’t worry about it. It’s dead now. I would say the same for you, but you haven’t made any sudden movements yet.” He said, without ever turning away from cleaning his gun to stare at us. “Based off of your voice, you’re… a unicorn mare.”

“What? How did you-?”

“You pick up a few tricks whenever you can’t see out of either of your eyes. Like noticing that unicorn’s have a certain quality to their voice that no either race has. And based off of the raspy breathing of your friend there, you’re traveling with a ghoul.”

Carrot Cake grinned, and gave a nod. “Yup. One hundred percent radiation zombie.”

“Deep voice. Definitely a stallion. Gravely.” The griffin lowered his head for a moment in thought. “Earth Pony?”

Carrot Cake looked at me. “He’s good.”

I nod to the ghoul, then turn to the griffin. I take a cautious step toward him, and when he doesn’t react, I walk to his side. He does nothing more than raise an eyebrow, but still continues to clean his gun.

“Excuse me, griffin. Can I get your name?”

He pauses for a moment, then sets his guns against a wall and stands up. He had at least a head of height on me. “Name’s are trivial in the wastelands. But if you’re willing to hire me, I can give you my name.”

“Hire you?”

The griffin nods, while giving a dead stare.. at the wall behind me. “I’m a retired merc. I’ve been out of the business for eight years now, ever since I lost my eyes. And yet I’ve been surviving out here all on my own all this time. I’ve had annoyances show up. Like the Rangers. Enclave. Most recently, a dragon. And I’ve dealt with all of them, whether it was slowly or quickly. So, who’s to say I don’t make some kind of comeback?”

“Retired merc, huh? How good were you?”

“One of the best. Ask Gawdina Griffinfeathers. She was basically my boss. I was one of her highest sources of income.”

“How much are you?”

“I start simple. 150 caps a day, or a set amount of caps for specific types of jobs. The prices might go higher or lower, depending on the employer.”

“I’m the Cybermare. Perhaps you’ve heard of me?” I say in an attempt to get a better deal on hiring him.

“No. I’ve never heard of you. I suppose that would explain the small mechanical creak I hear coming from you. I thought it was just some kind of gun I had never felt before.”

Did my back make a creak noise whenever I moved it? “Uh, yeah. Most of my back is cybernetic.”

“I kind of figured that. So why’d you run away from the Diamond Beast? They’re easily disposed of.”

“No they’re not! I shot at that thing with my most powerful weapon, and it didn’t do anything to him.”

“Were you using an energy weapon?” As he said it, he reached over to his gun cabinet, and felt around. Then he pulled out a strange, plastic, box-shaped rifle and threw it on the ground in front of me. The thing looked like it had been clawed to pieces. “Because plasma doesn’t work on those things. I’ve tried.”

I lowered my head. “Yeah… I was trying to use electric bolts.” I turned on Electro just to give the blind griffin a sound to place my weapon to. The electricity arced between the two coils. “I’m a Stable pony. In case you couldn’t tell, I’m still learning about the wasteland.”

He raised an eyebrow then shut his eyes in thought. “First day’s free. But only cause you’re a Stable pony.”

I looked up at the griffin. “Really?”

He nodded. “Of course. You remind me of some other Stable pony I met a long time ago.” He seemed to smile in remembrance, but his smile quickly faded. “Never you mind that. You needed to go in the cave for a reason. What was that reason?”

“I need to get some Compresium so I can blast a Stable door off of its hinge.”

“Sounds intense. Alright. Let’s get it down, Stable pony. My name is Jawbreaker.”

“Jawbreaker huh? I’m Vanilla Cream.”

“Carrot Cake!”

The griffin, and my new ally I suppose, nodded. “Very well. A Stable pony, a ghoul, and a mercenary. This is certainly an interesting group.” He straps on his saddle, quite quickly for a blind griffin, and attaches his guns to the side of it. “I can’t wait to hear of our tales of grandeur.”

I smile at the griffin, even though he can’t see it. “What, already consider us friends?”

He shook his head. “Oh no. Not at all. You’re nothing more than employers.”

My smile faded. “Right. Let’s get going then. To that Crystal Cave.”

“First, do you have a weapon that isn’t energy based?”

I levitated out one of my pistols. “Yeah, but it’s only a 10 mil. And I only have six shots left in it.”

“A 10 mil doesn’t have enough bite to do much to a Crystal Beast.” The griffin felt around his gun cabinet for a moment, then pulled out a pistol that was considerably larger than my gun, along with a box of quite large bullets.

“This is Dessert Griffin. One of my old friend’s customized guns. I must warn you, it has a much tougher bite than your pistols. That also comes with a harsher recoil. Whatever you do, don’t hold it between your teeth. You might find you’ll be missing a few.”

I grabbed the gun with my magic. Or at least, I tried to, but I quickly found my magic had given out. “Right. I’ll keep that in mind.” I grabbed the gun and ammo with my teeth and placed them in my saddlebags. That was a strange feeling, mind you. I was always used to carrying objects in my magic.

With a turn, I led my friend and employee out of the old shack. I was not happy with what we found outside.

If you’ll look to the right, you’ll see a pile of crystals that used to be a Diamond Beast. If you’ll look dead ahead, you’ll see a raider in full metal armor and his mare acquaintance with mismatched eye colors. Both of which want me dead.

It took Crackerjack and Cinnamon Sweet a moment to recognize me, but once they did, Cinnamon grinned.

“Well well, look who it is! It’s the Cybermare that got away from us Crackerjack.” She swiveled the large chain gun in her magic. “And it seems she’s made some friends. Let's blast them to bits too!”

I grit my teeth, and look just to the right. The cave entrance was within running distance, but I wouldn't be able to reach it before Crackerjack blasted me to bits or Cinnamon filled me with bullets.

Carrot laughed. “Damn Vanilla! You’ve already made enemies. And one wears power armor and has twin missile launchers, while the other has a minigun.”

Not helping, Carrot. “Look, uh, guys. What’s so bothersome about me? I’m nothing more than a pony that’s just trying to survive. You know?”

One of Crackerjack’s guns gave a click. “Exactly. You survived. I don’t think we’ve ever had a pony manage to escape our hooves alive. Cinnamon.”

Cinnamon’s gun started spinning, a very bad sign, and she started to laugh. “Night night, Cyberpony!”

Even Jawbreaker seemed conflicted about what to do. If he fired at either pony, he’d probably end up dead.

And then I received a favor from the goddesses. Cinnamon’s bar on my EFS turned from red to green. The barrel on her gun stopped spinning before it could fire, and her face softened from insanity to kindness. She looked at me and my companions as Crackerjack turned toward her. “Cinnamon? What the hell are you doing?”

“Cyberpony, ghoul, griffin! Run!”

And she turned her gun on the power-armored pony. The bullets were hitting Crackerjack at almost point-blank range, but they bounced off uselessly, most putting a few dinks in his armor. Rather than firing a missile at his suddenly traitorous companion, he solidly planted his two steel plated back hooves into her chest. With a resounding crack, she flew backward and hit the ground, completely unconscious. Crackerjack turned to us, only to find the three of us running into the cave. He fired an unaimed shot, which didn’t hit it’s mark, of course. Instead, it hit the top of the mouth of the cave.

With a shudder, the roof of the cave around the entrance started to collapse. Jawbreaker and Carrot had already made it inside, and I had to make a leaping dive to avoid being crushed by a falling crystal.

I stood up, and rubbed the dirt and crystal powder out of my coat, then turned to the entrance. It was a complete cave-in. The entirety of the mouth of the cave had collapsed due to the force of the missile, and the rubble piled up to the ceiling, effectively trapping us inside.

Jawbreaker turned to the crystal wall keeping us from the outside world. “We’re trapped, aren’t we?”

I nodded, then quickly realized he couldn’t see me nod. “Yeah. We are.”

“That’s fine. These caves are like a maze with multiple entrances and exits. I suggest we start moving, before some Diamond Beasts get attracted to the sound of the cave-in.”

“Right. Then let’s get going.”

I started to walk deeper into the cave. As Jawbreaker had stated, it was like a maze. There were multiple twists and turns. Many ended in dead ends. But like the ruins of the Crystal Empire, I was able to quickly map out a pattern. True, there were times it definitely didn’t follow it, but for the most part, I didn’t think I was lost.

The inside was also quite bright, illuminated by the shine of the crystals. Even though it was probably brighter inside the cave than it was outside at midday, I still found myself perfectly capable of seeing. I couldn’t help but notice that Carrot had to squint his eyes.

We met a few Beasts during our excursion through the caves, but Jawbreaker handled them with a few shots from his rifle. The way the fell apart into crystals upon the moment of their deaths was quite spectacular.

We kept exploring for what felt like several hours. I kept a lookout for what the shopkeeper had described Compresium to look like. It was a gray color and it crystallized into the shape of a cube. It proved a little bugger to find. I never even saw the smallest traces of it.

It’s not until we came to a room infested with Diamond Beasts that we found what we were looking for.

“Look at that one in the middle.” Whispered Carrot.

And so I looked at it. The Beasts was at least fifty feet long. It was the tallest one I had seen yet, and while it laid flat on the ground it had to be at least twice my height. And it was wrapped around a cube of Compresium that had to be at least as large as me. The rest of the Diamond Beasts in the room looked like your common, ten-foot-long, garden variety crystal millipede. There were at least five of the smaller ones.

I turned to the other two and started to whisper my plan. “Carrot. Use your sneaky skills to saw through the first few without bringing up the alarm. Jawbreaker, will a hoofsaw get through those things?”

He nodded. “But only if you go for the face. Which puts you dangerously close to their pincers.”

Carrot grinned, then pushed his eye back into place. “Ah, I’ll be fine. My eyes have adjusted to this cave by now. So I shouldn’t be too distracted.”

“Good. Take as many of them down as you can without raising the alarm. The moment it goes up, Jawbreaker and I will rush in there and take the rest out. I get the feeling the giant one will be a bit more of a problem than the rest.”

Carrot gave a silent giggle, then ran into the cave. He slowly sneaked his way in, heading toward the closest of the normal sized beasts. He lunged at it, ran along its back, and shoved his hoofsaw into its face before it could react much.

Unfortunately, it still got a chance to roar. The moment it roared, both Jawbreaker and I ran into the large room. I drew Dessert Griffin. The hours we had spent exploring the cave gave my magic a chance to regenerate, so fortunately I didn’t have to hold the gun between my teeth.

Jawbreaker was right. Compared to energy weapons, guns that used actual bullets worked much better. Every time I fired the large bullets into a Diamond Beast, it tore away part of the creature’s body through sheer force alone. It took two shots to take down the first one.

Jawbreaker was killing much more efficiently than I was. By the time I had taken out my first one, he had taken out the last remaining three. He wasn’t lying about himself. He was good.

The bigger one was now angry, and he rose up to full height, using only the back of his body to move toward us. And he was fast. My attempt to dodge one of his attacks was cut brutally short when I was smacked to the side by a row of insect legs. Jawbreaker had the idea to fly upward as I recovered from the dazing attack.

Flying blind apparently wasn’t easy. Jawbreaker rose too high, and ended up ramming his beak into the ceiling of the cave. It didn’t seem to faze him much. But at least he was out of reach of the crystal millipede. He angled his body slightly, and started to fire down at the Beast, which fortunately took its attention off of me and to the griffin. I took that opportunity to activate SATS.

Carrot Cake was running toward the creature in slow motion, his hoofsaw powering up in an equally slow motion. Jawbreaker was firing his gun down at the creature, and I could actually see the trail left behind by the bullets as they traveled toward the creature. His bullets were quite fortunately biting chinks in the millipede’s armor. Chinks that if they were struck again, would definitely bite away at the creature.

I targeted three shots at the weakened armor, since that was the most SATS would let me put in with this gun, and fired away, Two shots hit the creature, but none of them hit the already created chinks, instead creating chinks of their own.

Whenever SATS deactivated, I started to manually fire at the millipede.

“Carrot!” The ghoul turned to face me. “If you can, climb up its chitin. Put your saw in its holes!”

“That would sound really weird out of context!” Carrot shouted back as he started to climb up the millipede’s back. Luckily, it didn’t seem to notice.

I ran out of bullets and started to reload the powerful pistol. Jawbreaker continued his firing, reloading as soon as I finished with my gun. We managed to keep the Diamond Beast distracted for long that Carrot was able to climb high enough. He shoved the saw into one of the chinks in its armor. With a resounding loud crack noise, the creature’s armor started to fall away. Its main body was soon taken with it. Within seconds, Carrot Cake was performing a merry jig on a pile of crystals that used to be a fifty-foot-long millipede.

Jawbreaker landed on the ground, quite roughly. “Well, that was quite the escapade.” He shakes to get the dust off of him.

I winced in pain, just realizing the millipede had injured me when he batted me to the side. Carrot Cake was knocked unconscious by an attack from a normal one. I could only imagine the injury I had just received.

I dulled the prominent pain in my chest with my last potion, and pointed at the Compresium cube. “Let’s grab that thing, and get out of here. I’ve had enough crystal caves to last a pony a lifetime.”

Jawbreaker raised an eyebrow. “Are you hurt? You’re breathing sounds slightly labored.”

“I’m f-”

Without a word of warning, the griffin placed a hand on my chest. I winced in pain. He felt around my chest. “You wasted your potion. They can heal bones quite well, but only if the rib is set into place beforehoof.”

“I...I have a broken rib?” He nodded. “Great…”

“I’ve got the Compresium. Carrot will carry you out of here. You need to rest so we can get to a doctor who can help you”

Carrot lifted me up onto his back. Within moments, I had drifted into unconsciousness. Why did a broken rib hurt so damn much?

Butterscotch,
I’ve been out here for six days now. And it wasn’t until just two nights ago that I got my first injury. The doctor down in Crystal City had to perform a surgery and everything. Apparently the rib had pierced my lung, and then shattered. Basically, I had little fragments of bone swimming around in my lung. Good thing Carrot Cake carried me here. If I moved around to much, I probably could have made it worse. So, I’ve spent the past two days in a tent, recovering.
Of course, this also means I’m down a rib. And my left lung has little pockets of holes in it. They won’t be a problem, the doctor says. And anybody can trust doctors. Especially shining sparkly ones.
And I made another ally and acquaintance the other day. His name is Jawbreaker, and all I know about him is that he’s a blinded, ex-mercenary griffin.
Anyway, I hope you get better with whatever it is that’s troubling you. Be good.

Butterscotch?

Fix Ser,
My sister isn’t answering. What the hell is going on? Tell me!

Level Up!
5>6

Perks Gained:

Magical Prowess (Rank 1)
You have risen above the beginner level unicorns that can only lift things with telekinesis. You now have access to intermediate level unicorn spells, such as short-range teleportation, fireballs, and electrical shocks.

Partner Perk Gained:

Your relationship with Carrot Cake has gone high enough to receive the following perk:

I’ve Got a Ghoulfriend!
As long as Carrot Cake is in the party, all ghouls, both passive and feral, will not attack unless provoked.

Author's Notes:

Please, if you like it, add it to your favorites, and keep up with it. Also, thanks to Kkat for writing the original Fallout Equestria, and thanks to many other authors with their own Fallout: Equestria fanfiction for inspiration to create my own.

Also, a huge thanks to Ernest Wood and Starlight Nova for editing my story, and making it 20% cooler.

Please, comment on it. Constructive criticism is accepted, as well as positive comments.