Light pierced through a hole in the curtains and roused me from sleep. With a groan, I rolled onto my back and peeled my eyes open to stare at unfamiliar wooden rafters. Where am I again? A loud snore broke the morning silence. I turned to see Nibble sprawled out on another bed, and yesterday's memories came flooding back. My stomach churned with gut rot and demanded food. Never again.

I fell back into bed after attempting to get up, every muscle in my body ached with exhaustion. I glared at the culprits, my armor, battle saddle, and saddle bags were clustered on a chair in the corner. Simply wearing them was draining.

Mangle was already gone and Gale had not returned for Hemorrhage or his armor. I wasn’t sure about Clover since he had a separate room from us. I got out of bed, stretched to the best of my ability, and grabbed my saddle bags before going downstairs.

Clover, Gale, and Mangle were at a table having breakfast. I joined them and Gale slid me a bowl of oatmeal. The hearty meal did wonders to quell the pain in my stomach.

“Ardent,” Clover said, “pull everything you grabbed from last night out, including excess caps.”

I wiped my face and complied. I gathered everything into a pile at the center of the table. Is this how I pay for the equipment?

Clover flicked through the pile. “Mainly junk... more caps than I expected.” Was that a compliment?

“After I sell we’re heading out. I found a lead for a possible recruit,” Clover announced. He used his wing to slide the pile into his saddle bag and left.

“Do you ever wonder what's under there?” Gale asked.

I followed his gaze and landed on Clover’s armor covered flank. “Uhh, can't say I have,”

Gale rolled his eyes. “I meant his cutie mark.” He stole another glance. “Mostly.”

“I figured it must be the brand all pegasus’ who make it down here have. That whole Dash-ite thing.” I shrugged. “I wouldn't want to show that off.”

“You know, I thought so too.” Gale leaned in and motioned for Mangle and I to do the same. I followed suit but Mangle sat there uninterested in the gossip. Gale continued on anyway, “He got shot in his backside a few months ago, nothing serious sadly, but he refused to let me check it. Instead he flew away and dealt with it himself. If it’s just the brand, why hide it?”

“Have you tried asking him?”

“In my own way, but he dodges questions better than bullets.”

Gale had successfully planted the seed of curiosity in my mind. Which was either a trap, or he really was curious. My bet’s on the former.

The caravan rocked to one side when it rolled off a destroyed chunk of road. The broken cement stretched past the horizon. Seeing a road was surreal since the only path to Dust was a beaten trail. Every time the caravan rocked Nibble let out an exaggerated whine. Her massive hangover kept her from being peppy and talkative so instead she sat curled in a ball poking at her welding equipment while wearing a funny looking sunglasses earmuff combo. She groaned as an oddly familiar trumpety song came from down the road ahead of us.

“Not a Sprite-bot.” Nibble curled up and pushed the earmuffs tighter to her head. “Not now.”

I leaned over the caravan for a better view, a small metal ball with rapidly beating wings fluttered toward us. It played music I recognized from one of the radio channels, I never listened to the station for long since it was the same endless tune. It passed a mostly intact billboard that had a pink pony staring down at travelers with the words “Pinkie Pie is watching you. FOREVER!”

Sprite-bot, Pinkie Pie… Oh, the Ministry of Moral leader and her little spies. Shot Chaser talked about the ministries from time to time, usual after a few drinks. He would go on and on about how foalish the ponies before the war were, “How could they ever feel the need to spy on their own civilians... Why would the Ministry of Arcane Science create the substance responsible for the monstrosities we face today... What was the purpose of wiping information about the war from the minds of ponies?” He always apologized after telling me about the Ministries like it was some heavy burden of truth he was forcing me to bear with him, but they were just stories to me.

As the machine crossed our path the music cut out. Clover brought us to a halt and stared at the metal ball. The Sprite-bot’s metal grate rotated to each one of us before the music returned and it continued on its way.

“That’s new.” Clover watched until the machine faded from sight.

“So Gale,” I said once we continued on, “why don’t you have a Pip-Buck?”

His smokey eyes narrowed and he replied in a sharp tone, “We only have three. Clover ordered you take mine.” My ears dropped. His expression and tone became light hearted. “Oh Ardent, you make it too easy.”

A breath of relief escaped me. “Could you imagine Clover letting me have a Pip-Buck over you.” I was warned about ponies like Gale, who had mastered manipulating their tones and expressions making it impossible to truly read them.

“Well he did,” Gale stated as a matter of fact. “I have my own assisted aim spell that doesn’t work with a Pip-Buck and I never bothered with the rest of the features. It was just a fancy organizer to me, so Clover thought you might make better use of it.”

“So this is your Pip-Buck.”

“It belongs to Elpis.” Clover glared at me from over his shoulder. “Assigned where it’s needed most. Any questions?”

“No,” I muttered. I layed down and navigated through the device until I found the text file I downloaded from the slaver compound.

We got an outline from the ministry of image today for this week's paper. There seems to be a rise of recruitment ads for the Ministry of Peace. Also there is an ad for F.F.I weapons on almost every page. I don’t understand how the Ministry of Image allows F.F.I to continually advertise over Ironshod, they must have paid somepony off. F.F.I’s weapons look awesome, but they are next to useless. Oh well, not my job to ask questions, I just print the paper.

F.F.I? I turned to Gale but he was neck deep in a medical book. Not the best time for random questions.

I scrolled through what was left in the Pip-Buck tutorials and decided on electronic compatibility. I learned all about what the Pip-Buck can do when hooked up terminals, if I had the intelligence for it - Which I don't - so it was a big lesson of all the things I couldn’t do.

Clover brought the caravan to a halt. “Rest stop.” Clover’s announcement seemed directed at me since the others had already left the caravan.

Clover jumped down from the driver's seat into the back of the caravan. “We’re going to eat here as well.” He pointed at wooden crates. “Food and drinks are in here, two cans and a water per pony. Given your previous occupation I assume you can figure it out from here.”

It took a moment to realize Clover just gave an order.

“Oh, got it… Yes.” With all the grace of a worker on his first day I gathered the provisions and handed them out receiving a thank you from Nibble, then sat across from the others.

“We should get a hooficure soon,” Nibble said to Mangle.

Mangle groaned at the attempted interaction, but when glaring failed to relieve her of Nibble’s presence she gave in. “What’s a hooficure?”

“You know, when ponies treat your hooves. Wash them, rub them, make them feel amazing. I can only imagine how much you need one after running all the time.”

Mangle turned her hoof over and shrugged. She made no attempt to continue the conversation and we ate in silence.

After the meal I was in charge of cleaning up. It seems I found my place among ELPIS after all... as a barmaid. Same position, just exponentially more hazardous.

After finishing the mildly interesting tutorial about how a spell matrix is used as a relay to move items in your inventory, we arrived at the abandoned mall. A sign clung to the main entrance that held the name of the mall “Princess Luna’s Market.” Half the stores were in complete ruin, their ceilings had collapsed leaving them full of rubble and broken wood. A hoof-beaten path lead inside.

Clover lined us up to go over the plan, “The stores are more than likely looted, but we’re still going to split up and check them. The moment anypony runs into something call out and we'll regroup. There is rumor of a powerful unicorn holding out here, our goal is to recruit him. If you run into the unicorn be sure to talk before you shoot.” He glanced over to Mangle. “Or talk before you buck in some cases.”

Mangle smirked.

“Understood?” Clover finished.

“Understood,” we replied in unison.

We entered the mall and followed the path. Teams split up naturally, I followed Nibble into a restaurant, Gale and Mangle went together, leaving Clover alone.

Dust covered everything and the smell of rotted cloth filled the air. I searched the fridges in the back while she checked the register. I found some tin cans full of... something, I slipped them into my saddle bag and went to check on Nibble’s progress. She tinkered with a strange device attached to one of the registers.

“What's that?” I asked.

“Something I created to crack basic locks,” she replied as she shoved tiny levers around. “It sort of acts like a key being formed as you move these levers. When you feel the most tension from each lever it means you have pushed the tumbler to the right place. The thing is the push back is impossible to feel so I don’t know when to stop.” Her magic released the device.

“Want me to try?”

“Go for it, and if it works for you, you can take the stupid thing.” She stomped off to search the rest of the restaurant.

I placed my hooves on the lock picking device and fiddled with it, but couldn’t feel any changes.

I wonder if I could... I normally only used my trance to increase my hearing or sight, but I tried to focus it on touch. My eyes glazed over as all my other senses dulled. I focused on the sensation in my hoofs. I inched the levers feeling the tension rise as I shifted them up and down.

It was difficult to know when the tension peaked even with my heightened senses. I got all the levers in the right position, after that it was just a matter of the slightest movement until I felt a click and all the tension disappeared. I let my senses return to see Nibble staring at me with her mouth hung open.

“What was that?!” she said.

“What do you mean?” I said nonchalant. “I just played with it till it unlocked.”

“No, your eyes went all weird and you unlocked it.”

“Just lucky I guess.” I shrugged. My trance was an odd thing to explain to ponies with me coming off as crazy half the time. She gave me an unconvinced look as she approached the register.

“Well that or you're one physically sensitive stallion.” She brushed her tail against my underside. “Maybe I'll find out one day.” I stepped back feeling my cheeks flush.

“Now lets see what was in here.” She opened the register. Caps filled each holder, except for one that held a note. She grabbed the note and left the rest to me including the lock picking device.

I was about to ask what was on the note but something scuttled in the corner of the room. I activated EFS and a red dot appeared. I tapped Nibble to get her attention and pointed to where I saw the creature.

“Probably just a radroach,” she whispered as she wrapped her pistol in a purple aura. The shadowy creature passed by us and cornered itself on one side of the room. Nibble activated the light in her Pip-Buck, oh they also have a flashlight, revealing the creature.

She screamed.

My mind refused to comprehend the image in front of me. It's a radroach, but has twice as many legs. Oh, and a rotting pony's head is attached to its back. The head winced at the light and scuttled onto the wall. It let out an ear splitting shriek.

Nibble unloaded her clip into the creature. It fell to the ground and the red dot on my EFS disappeared, only to be replaced by countless others. I heard the echo of Clover’s battle saddle.

“Let’s get to the others,” Nibble said running past the body. I followed.

We headed back into the hallway where another monstrosity blocked our way. It had a bloatsprite for a head with the body of a pony and lion paws instead of hooves. It swiped at me with razor sharp talons as the bloatsprite fired a needle. I jumped back in time to avoid the swipe, while the needle imbedded itself in my armor. I went into SATS and targeted the bloatsprite appendage, it was no more durable than a normal bloatsprite and exploded as my bullets tore through it. The creature dropped and we carried on.

We found the others held up in a donut shop. A horde of creatures tried to push their way in but Mangle braced herself against the door while Gale and Clover fired through destroyed windows. All the creatures seemed to be fusions of pony, radroach, and bloatsprite parts. I was about to fire when Nibble handed me a metal apple.

“Use SATS, should be fine,” she said, clearly reminded of last time. I nodded and entered SATS and let the spell throw the explosive for me. Our grenades landed in the back of the horde blowing them to bits, mainly into the donut shop.

“Ugh,” Mangle groaned and shook off as best she could, but blood and chunks of flesh clung to her. “A fucking warning next time.”

“Sorry,” Nibble apologized as she carefully stepped inside the shop.

The light in the mall from broken windows and missing ceiling chunks started to fade. A rumble in the distance warned of an incoming storm.

“Not sure what these things are but they act no different than ghouls,” Clover said. “Stick together from here on out, no more scavenging, clear the rooms and move on.”

Gale inspected a partially intact body.

“Gale, assessment,” Clover said.

“It appears,” he replied, “the points where the bodies connect weren't sewn on.”

“Meaning?”

“It means necromantic magic was used to meld the flesh together.”

“Necromancy?!” I backed away from the body fearing it might get back up.

Gale put my worries to rest, “This spell doesn’t bring life to the dead Ardent.” He levitated out a scalpel and carved into the conjoining part of pony and bloatsprite. “It looks like this spell melds more than just external flesh. It literally makes the attached flesh part of the creature.”

Fuzed pony insect monsters. I suppressed a smile. Shot Chaser never had stories like this.

Gale continued, “If I had to guess, we are running into are the first trials of this flesh melding spell. If the unicorn has had enough time to experiment there might be more advanced creatures.”

“There are a lot of ponies who come to scavenge here,” Clover stated. “I doubt there was an issue gathering test material.”

“Those are ponies you’re talking about Clover, not test material,” Nibble said. “This changes the plan right?”

Clover stomped and loomed over Nibble, his yellow eyes bore down on her. “This changes nothing,” he growled. “Understood?”

Nibbles ears dropped and she nodded.

“Now move out.”

We forced our way from store to store and eliminated the abominations. I even managed to land the finishing blow a few times while Clover was watching. With the help of SATS of course. Are Clover and Nibble this good because of their Pip-Bucks? Nibble at least knows about electronics but what skills does Clover have?

The creatures grew more gruesome as we moved deeper into the mall. A few had armored legs made of Manticore tails without the stingers. Can’t wait to see what monstrosity the stingers are attached to.

We made it to a set of double doors that opened into a courtyard. A creature that looked like a balloon fused using the bodies of ponies blocked the door. Without hesitation Mangle launched herself at it and smashed her powerhoof into the bloated monstrosity. The skin tore with ease and caused the creature to pop. A swarm of bloatsprites sprung from its corpse. The air filled with needles and gunfire. We eradicated the bloatsprites, but not before we were all riddled with needles.

“Let me deal with these before moving on,” Gale sighed. He spent a few minutes going over us, pulling out needles, and removing barbs.

Clover pushed open the doors to the courtyard. The open air washed away the stench of dead that began to fill the market halls. Decayed tables were spread around the area, and a large worn statue of Luna was planted in the center. There were doors back into the mall on every side.

“I am rather upset about the damage you have done to my little army,” a crazed voice said. A light green unicorn with a black mane stepped out from behind the statue. He was flanked by two abominations. The beasts had the bodies of manticores with multiple pony heads protruding from various places. Instead of a manticore tail it had a tail made of connecting Bloatsprites.

“You won’t make up for all the parts you have cost me,” he finished. A shudder ran through my entire body as an unsettling vibe radiated from him.

Clover stepped forward. “It takes a unicorn of exceptional power to do all this. Perhaps you would consider joining my ranks.”

Was Clover serious!? I couldn’t imagine traveling with this mad pony.

The unicorn laughed maniacally. “Even after seeing everything I’ve done you're interested in recruiting me? That's great… Your party looks full though.” His smile disappeared replaced by a deadly serious look. “Let me make some room.”

A green aura surrounded me. I felt weightless as I was raised into the air. What's happening? With a jerk of the necromantic unicorns head I went flying.

A sharp pain pierced my side and ran through me. When the initial pain subsided I opened my eyes to stare at the end of a blood covered horn stuck out of my side. I was skewered upon the horn of Luna’s statue.

My thoughts from the printing press echoed back to me, ‘May Luna skewer me with her horn!’ I mentally promised myself not give the wasteland anymore ideas. I reached out to the others. Nibble stared at me in shock, her hoof covered her mouth. The others kept their attention on the green unicorn.

“Well then,” Clover said, “are we good to go?”

Is that all I was worth? An easily replaceable part for some pony better.

The green unicorn laughed maniacally again. “Oh, even after that you still want me? You are as evil as me.” His laughter stopped. “It’s a shame I have to kill you.”

“You must know you don’t stand a chance against us,” Clover said.

The conversation became distant. I felt stiff, and the pain dulled as my body grew numb. Am I bleeding out? It didn't feel the same as the bear trap. I dared to glance where the horn had entered my body. My stomach twisted as I watched a small trickle of blood seep from my side. It ran along the horn and dripped on the stone face of Luna. Shouldn't this hurt more? I turned back to the green unicorn who began monologuing.

“Normally I would agree with you.” He paced back and forth. “You must have noticed my manticores, but you haven’t seen their stingers; that's because I thought, what if I take the poisonous part, cut it up, and applied it to bloatsprite stingers.”

Clover’s eyes narrowed as he flexed his legs.

“It was a failure however,” the unicorn continued. “The stingers don’t have the potency of normal manticore poison but a much weaker version, it takes dozens of them to paralyze the victim.” He smirked. “It has been useful as I think you’re coming to realize.”

“Kill him!” Clover yelled flaring his wings and firing his battle saddle. The manticore on the right blocked the attack with one of its heads. The laser sank into the head and its neck went slack. The creature seemed unaffected by the loss as it rushed Clover, forcing him to backpedal.

Mangle lept at the other manticore slamming her power hoof into it. The metal plate released but had no effect. A closer glance revealed the manticore’s body was covered in radroach legs. They clung onto Mangle’s hoof and blocked the attack. The manticore gave a wide sweep, its talons cut into Mangle and sent her flying. The manticore whipped its bloatsprite tail unleashing a wave of needles that sank into Mangle before she landed.

Gale and Nibble fired at the necromantic unicorn. His horn lit up and a shield surrounded him blocking the attacks.

My attention was pulled from the fight as I heard bits of stone fall. A crack had formed at the base of Luna’s horn. Maybe I could... I prodded the statue with a back leg. The motion caused the crack to grow, and the horn to falter. The slight drop pushed the horn deeper and I convulsed in pain. White filled my vision as a cold crept along my limbs.

Clover's commanding voice brought me out of the brink of unconsciousness. I could barely lift my head, the pain started to dull again, but the cold seeped deeper into my body. I focused all my attention on the fight below me, trying to keep myself from slipping away.

“Nibble!” Clover yelled, “Bait and switch.” Clover had just struck one of the Manticores and a bright red light spread throughout its body. It thrashed around in pain until bursting into ash.

The green unicorn growled at losing one of his creations. An over glow appeared around his horn as he maintained his shield and wrapped Mangle in a green aura. Mangle used her weapon to haphazardly launch herself out of the necromancer’s control which slammed her headfirst into wall. She fell lifelessly to the ground. The green aura returned and it started to lift her into the air.

Clover joined Gale’s assault on the necromancer, his laser rifle punched holes into the barrier. The necromancer abandoned Mangle and poured more magic into the shield. The holes sealed up and the barrier shimmered with the newly added power.

Nibble caught my attention as she ran at the last manticore. She barely dodged the needles the creature whipped at her. When she got in close the manticore rammed her, tossing her back. Her body skid across the courtyard. Nibble attempted to get back up, but the poison seemed to stop her from moving. She smirked as she let multiple pins drop from her mouth. A cluster of grenades underneath the manticore exploded.

Chunks of flesh showered the courtyard. One chunk slammed into Luna’s statue and caused a crack to run up its length. My heart raced as I followed it, but it stopped at the base of the horn.

“No!” the green unicorn screamed seeing the shower of flesh. “I’ll kill you all for this!” A second layer of overglow covered his horn. As he maintained his shield he wrapped Gale and Clover in a green aura and threw them into the air.

Clover attempted to spread his wings but the poison had him completely paralyzed. Gale and Clover smashed into the ground just as the necromantic unicorn’s magic fizzled out.

“You bastards!” he screamed. “I won’t be able to continue my work for days now. I was almost ready to get it, and you had to go and fuck it all up!” He pulled out a knife with his mouth.

Shit, this is it. I felt so cold and darkness crept in on my vision. All I had to do was close my eyes and let it take me, then all the pain would go away... so I did.

Shot Chaser sighed as he finished wiping off the counter again. It appeared no pony wanted a drink today. I kept myself busy sweeping the corners of the bar where debris found a safe place to hide.

“How about a story,” Shot Chaser said. In a flash I found my place on one of the stools lining the bar. Shot Chaser got a kick out of how much I loved his stories. He would sometimes use them as leverage to assign near impossible work with the reward of a new story. He was always surprised when I succeeded.

“Let me tell you about the time I nearly died at the Fillydelphia Crater,” Shot Chaser said. “A few colleagues and I decided to go digging there for some information. We didn't know how irradiated the place still was or the type of monsters we would find.”

Shot Chaser levitated a pen over and scribbled a crude image of a small ball with wings and enormous eyes.

“Flesh eating parasprites!” he yelled in his scary voice. “We thought they were normal parasprites when we ran into them but the radiation had mutated them. Seeker was the first to go when he grabbed a group of the creatures for a cuddle. They ate through him in under a minute and tripled in number.” Shot Chaser paused when he saw the look on my face. He rubbed at the back of his neck. “Maybe this wasn't the best story for a kid.”

I took a deep breath. “It's okay. I know the story ends well because you're here to tell it, but please tell me you killed all the monsters.”

“Well, no.” My ears dropped. Shot Chaser followed up with, “But I did trap them.”

I found some comfort in that.

“Anyways, after Seeker went down we panicked and separated. I managed to trap myself in a janitor's closet with a horde of parasprites on the other side. I dug around trying to find something that could save me, but in the end all I found was a dozen tattered uniforms, a half empty gasoline canister, and a pack of smokes...”

“What did you do?” I asked, unable to bear the dramatic pause.

“Besides smoke, nothing. I sat back hoping one of the others would rescue me. Each hour that passed eroded that hope and a new problem presented itself. I could feel the radiation sickness sinking in and knew I didn't even have a day before it killed me.” Shot Chaser poured himself a drink.

“I thought for certain I was going to die. The only question left was how. I could sit back and let the radiation kill me, or I could make a run for it and get eaten by parasprites. I favored the former. As I sat waiting to die another option came to mind. I could torch the place and take as many of those evil fucking bugs with me.

“The more time passed the better the idea became. I don't remember when I opened the gasoline canister but I remember the smell. I remember shaking uncontrollably as I tossed the first wave of gas over the door. Through dumb luck I knocked one of the janitor's outfits off the rack and it fell into the gasoline. An idea sparked as it soaked with the fuel. All my options before had me dying, but this idea, this idea was just foalish enough that I might live.”

Shot Chaser poured alcohol over his hoof.

“I put on every janitor suit in the room and doused myself with gas. I opened the door and set myself ablaze.”

He pulled out a match and set his hoof on fire.

“Stop!” I yelled. “You're going to get hurt.”

Shot Chaser covered his hoof with a rag and put out the fire. He slowly pulled away the rag to reveal his undamaged hoof. “Not if you're fast enough, and I never ran faster than that day. I got away and killed plenty of them on my way out. When I got the clothes off I tossed them onto a wooden support beam that burned and collapsed the entrance. I learned an important lesson that day.”

Shot Chaser stared into my eyes.

“Dying is easy. If you want to live, you have to fight.”

I forced my eyes open. A tingling sensation ran down from the nap of my neck and surged into the rest of my body. The necromancer, dagger in mouth, made his way over to Nibble. Sorry Luna. I braced myself for the pain as I kicked the statue in the face as hard as a could. It wasn’t much, but enough to break the already cracked horn.

I dropped and slammed into the ground. I felt the horn split inside me, both ends turned in different directions. A warmth pooled in my body, I became light headed, and my vision blurred.

I cried out as I got to my feet, “Get away from her!”

The unicorn turned to face me. The blade slipped out of his mouth when he saw the barrels of my gun aiming him down.

“How are you still alive?” He said.

“Just lucky I guess.” I slipped into SATS and targeted the necromancer's head as many times as possible. I queued up the shots and felt the spell start to guide my body as my vision went dark.

Footnote: Level up New perk; Entomologist You do an additional 50% damage every time you attack a mutated insect… or insect part.

Quest Perk; Just Lucky I Guess, Reduce an enemy's chance to critically hit you by 50%.