“Tis better to be alone, then of bad company”

Dead.

Dead was the only word I could think of to properly describe the desolate skyline that lay before us. Many words seemed fitting, such as horrid or decaying. Even Tartarus seemed like a logical description for what lay ahead, but dead was the only word that could perfectly encapsulated the foul view of the collapsing city of Manehattan.

Once grand and mighty skyscrapers now lay in crumbling ruins along the streets, many having completely collapsed in on themselves or against other structures. Muck and grime coated the concrete city walls and graffiti depicting graphic scenes and foul profanities seemed to cover most of the cities surfaces. A large elevated monorail ran throughout the city, though like most of the surrounding area, much of the monorail had begun to collapse. A ghastly green fog wafted around the bases of the crooked structures, making the whole city look like some form of nightmarish landscape from a horror story.

The Geiger counter on my pipbuck began clicking furiously. I had never seen such high levels of radiation before. I thumped my hoof against my pipbuck to make sure that it wasn’t just broken. To my dismay, it continued to click ominously.

“We should probably get out of here, we are collecting rads faster than I’d like,” I declared, looking over to Brisk, who was staring up at the sky grinning like a maniac.

I followed his gave up above the broken building to… to nothing! Holy fucking shit there was nothing above me! I dropped to my haunches and tried to flatten myself against the ground as much as possible. They sky was so big and vast! I couldn’t even see the ceiling above the thick curtain of clouds that hung above the city. I shut my eyes tight, wishing for the safe walls of Stable 25 to return. I dared to let an eye sneak a glance back up. Yup, there was still no roof and I still felt like I was going to fall up into that oblivion.

Brisk glanced down at me pitifully. “What are you doing?” He asked, reaching a hoof down, and pulling me back up.

“Hoping the ceiling will come back,” I cried, making sure my eyes stayed fixed on the ground. “I don’t like how big the sky is.”

Brisk gave let out a wild whoop. “Well I love it!” He exclaimed, practically bouncing on the tips of his hooves. “It’s so free! I mean, just smell that air!”

I gave a quick sniff and instantly regretted it. The whole area smelled like a mix between sewage and rotting flesh. I wrinkled my snout. “It smells like shit.”

“It smells like air that isn’t being recycled!” He insisted, taking a large whiff of the air. He coughed a little at the radioactive fog filled his lungs. “Granted, it could smell a little nicer I suppose,” His eyes wandered to something else and he began darting forward. “And look at this!” he pointed to something small, and close to the ground.

I looked closely at the small object protruding from between the cracks in the concrete. It took me a solid minute to figure out exactly what I was looking at. “Is that… grass?”

It was. Dead grass, specifically. The wasteland wouldn’t allow for anything more. It only stood about a half inch tall. Had Brisk not pointed it out, it is doubtful I would have even noticed it.

“Exactly! Grass!” Brisk was practically whinnying with excitement. “Bet you never saw that inside the damned Stable!”

“I didn’t know you were so interested in flora,” I smirked, glad for the distraction from the vertigo inducing sky above me.

“Flora what?” Brisk asked, glancing from the singular blade of grass to me. “The fuck is a flora?”

I glared at him flatly. “Plant life idiot.”

Brisk looked back at the grass in interest. “Hmm, yeah. It’s kinda cool,” then to my surprise, he leaned in closer, opened his mouth and ate the grass in a single quick bite.

“Wha- why did you just do that?” I asked in bafflement as he chewed on the grass thoughtfully. “I thought you found it interesting?!”

Brisk swallowed slowly. “I found it interesting enough to eat,” He smacked his lips together in consideration. “It’s not bad actually.”

I shook my head. “You’re weird.”

“You’re the one that followed me out here,” Brisk countered, leaving the spot behind and walking down the road. I followed close behind him, glancing around nervously. I didn't like how quiet it was out here. Brisk scanned the broken down buildings that surrounded us. “So what do we do now that we have a whole world to explore? Where do we go? I’ve heard Canterlot is pretty cool!”

I punched his foreleg gently. “We have a mission to do remember?” I reminded him. “We need to find those cyber ponies that took the A.A.S.S and bring it back to the Stable.”

Brisk rolled his eyes and slouched a little. “Really? But there is so much other cool shit we can do.”

“I tell you what,” I said, finally falling in step with him. “We can go exploring this place as long as we keep finding the A.A.S.S as our main priority. Deal?”

Brisk scoffed at the suggestion, but still nodded in response. “Fine. Who knows, maybe this quest of yours will be exciting.”

“Hopefully it’s just easily,” I replied lamely. “Now I guess we just gotta figure out what way to start walking. I don’t want to get lost out here”

In the distance, the flickering light of a fire began illuminating the road. I could see the forms of five or so ponies sitting around the flame, their backs slouched and facing away from us. I excitedly pointed them out to Brisk, glad to see another living pony.

“Hey, maybe they saw the cyber ponies,” I suggested as I began walking faster towards them. “Excuse me!” I called out to the ponies around the fire. “I’m looking for some directions, can you help us?” I noticed Brisk had stopped dead in his tracks. I turned back to him. “Hey, are you coming or what?” I asked him, trying to figure out what he was doing. He had the strangest expression on his face, wide eyes and slack jaw. The colour in his face slowly draining to a pale white.

“Amber,” His voice was so shaky it didn’t even sound like his anymore. “I… I think we should get going…”

I arched my eyebrows and glanced back at the group of five ponies that were slowly approaching us. Now facing towards me, I could make out their features a lot better. They were all muscular, with scores of jagged scars shooting across their matted and blood soaked hide. They wore makeshift armor comprised of chains, slabs of metal, and to my stomachs displeasure, pony flesh.

I dared myself to glance down at the EFS on my pipbuck (the Eyes Forward Sparkle, which is another thing every pipbuck has that no one ever thought they would need). To my horror, I saw five red bars. I had only ever seen red bars on my EFS once, and that had been when there was a small Radroach infestation in the Stable a few years back. Red bars meant that whatever was approaching was hostile, and I really didn’t want to fight anypony looking as horrifying as that.

I took a step back, my nose finally picking up on the smell of rot and blood that accompanied the newcomers. I glanced at the weapons they carried. The Mare in the front, the only unicorn of the group, wielded a large serrated machete in her magic. The other four simply carried large knives.

“Well well well!” the lead raider cackled, her voice similar to that of a high pitched whine. She pointed the tip of her blade at my throat. “What do we have here?”

“Uh… we’re just looking for some ponies that might... uh, might have come through here,” I sputtered, my eyes transfixed on the rusted blade and bits of pony flesh hanging from their armor. “But… um, I think we will be going now.”

One of the raiders in the back curled back their lips and revealed their sharpened teeth, giving us a low hiss. Both Brisk and I jumped back slightly at the hostility.

“Oh you cunts won't be going anywhere,” The lead raider grinned, licking her lips slowly. She flicked her head at the raiders behind her, ordering them to advance. “Skin ‘em alive!”

I had never been in a fight before. Once I had gotten my cutie mark I had been beaten plenty of times sure, but I had never dared to fight back. I had always just laid there and taken my punches. Even while trying to escape Stable 25, I had only run away. The most I had ever done was break that one guards legs. But now, as five psychotic, blood soaked raiders charged me with drawn knives, I took up my baton and swung with all my might.

The heavy baton crashed against the first raiders head with a solid thwack! He toppled sideways, stumbling into the raider beside him. I didn’t have time to celebrate my successful hit as the third raider swung her large blade at my throat. I ducked low to the ground, doing my best to avoid decapitation. I targeted her legs in S.A.T.S and sent my baton crashing into her fetlock.

The raider dropped her knife with a howl of rage as the baton broke both of her front legs. I grabbed at the blade and stabbed it upwards, digging the rusted edge through her lower jaw and up into her brain.

Blood and viscera rained down onto me as the raiders body spasmed above me before falling limp and collapsed to their side.

Fuck, did I just… shit I just killed a pony!

I stared in horror at the bloody blade, bits of flesh and brain matter still clinging to the serrated edge. I let the blade fall to the ground and tried to pull my gaze away from the crumpled corpse that lay next to me.

A gunshot pulled me back to my senses. I glanced over to Brisk who was doing his best to avoid the swinging machete and knife of the two raiders that had chased after him. The barrel of his 10mm pistol was smoking after having just been fired, but it didn’t appear as if he had managed to hit either of the raiders. To my confusion he held his pistol in his mouth. Why wasn’t he just using magic?

I started charging towards the two raiders assaulting Brisk when one of the raiders I had previously knocked over slammed into my side, sending me sprawling across the ground. As I tried to rise, he pinned me to the ground with his hooves and aimed his dagger at me. His right eye was blood red where he had been struck by my baton.

“I’m gonna fuck the shit out of you!” The raider screeched. His words were muffled by the handle of the knife in his mouth, but still clearly audible.

I wrapped a field of telekinesis around his knife and yanked it from his mouth, slicing the skin around his lips into a gruesome smile. The raider lurched his head back and howled, trying to stop the blood with his hooves to no avail.

I targeted his head in S.A.T.S and rammed the end of my shock baton into his face. There was a loud crack, then the baton pushed it’s way straight through his head and came out the other side, causing his head to explode in a shower of brain and skull fragments.

I turned to my final attacker, who was grinning at me manically as she pulled herself to her feet. For the first time I noticed she had sharp claws strapped to the ends of her hooves. How did I miss something like that?

I gulped as she lunged at me, her long claw like weapon extending towards me in the hopes to cut me into ribbons. I rolled out of the way, whacking my head against a large rock that protruded from the ground as I did. I rubbed my head and groaned, trying to pull myself back to my hooves.

I backed up against one of the buildings as the raider advanced on me, her smile growing more menacing by the second. Her makeshift claws clicked against the asphalt as she walked.

I readied myself for her attack, crouching lower and raising my baton.

Her attack never came.

Before she could lunge a bullet lodged itself in her forehead with a ear splitting bang, coating my face in her blood. She wobbled for a second before falling limp to the ground, the blood from her wound reaching out and mingling with the slowly spreading blood of the previously fallen raiders.

I looked over to Brisk, his 10mm pistol still clamped tight in his mouth. The two raiders that had attacked him now lay dead at his hooves. The machete that the lead raider had wielded was now strapped across Brisk's back. I supposed that having a collection of weapons to change to in a fight could come in very handy.

Unlike me, the raiders had managed to get a large number of cuts in on Brisk. His front legs now resembled that of a zebra with deep gashes zigzagging across his flesh where the serrated machete had cut into him. The cuts were deep, he was lucky that his front legs hadn’t been cut off completely. Blood oozed from the wounds and pooled around his feet.

“I think I need help,” He muttered, looking down at his legs and trying to take a wobbly step forward, only to fall flat on his face. “I don’t think I can walk much like this.”

I rushed over to him and pushed up against his side, giving him something to lean on. Brisk was a lot bigger than I was, so I wasn’t able to give him that much support, but I could try and give him what little I had.

“We need to find some healing potions,” I muttered, looking down at the lesions on his legs. “Any suggestions?”

Brisk gave a slow shake of his head. “Let's just get somewhere safe. We’ll figure it out from there.”

I nodded. That seemed reasonable enough.

We began our slow descent down the road. Brisk held back a whimper with every step. We had only be in the wasteland for a few minutes and we were already on the verge of death. Perhaps my father hadn’t been wrong.

A small round sphere of metal on wings bobbed up and down across the street as we walked, playing some weird tuba heavy song.

Brisk chuckled a little as we cautiously drew near. “Fuck, even outside the Stable we get stuck with shitty music.”

The metallic sounding song was eerily similar to the Stable-Tec March we had heard every day while inside of Stable 25. Did the wasteland really need to be this cruel?

As the song slowly faded out, the smooth voice of a male pony began to speak. It didn’t have the mechanical tinny sound like the song before it.

“Ponies, friends. This world of our is desolate, and lonely. I understand your strife, but know that we can make all the pain in this world end - must make all the pain end. You’re contribution to the cause will grant us the ability to move mountains, to ascend to a better tomorrow, a better Equestria. We will be able to rebuild our great nation and become the utopia we were always meant to be. We will create a unity among our fellow friends, all pony kind. This I promise all of you.”

The voice cut out and the floating metal bug robot continued playing it’s annoying song and it drifted into the ruins. Brisk and I stared in shock at where the robot had gone.

“What the fuck?” Brisk blurted, echoing my very thoughts. “The hell was that? Create a unity among our fellow friends? What?”

I shrugged, adjusting my position on Brisk’s side. “Everything out here is weird.”

Bang!

A cloud of dust erupted in front of us as an unseen sniper took a shot at the ground in front of our hooves. The two of us stumbled backwards, ducking behind the wreckage of a large sky bandit to avoid getting shot. Really? Could we not walk a few feet without getting shot at please? Because that would be great if we could!

“That was a warning shot!” somepony called out, a male by the sounds of it. I was unable to pinpoint exactly were the voice was coming from.

Brisk and I raised both of our weapons as we waited for them to show themselves or shoot at us again.

“How many shots do you have left in that thing?” I asked, gesturing to Brisk’s gun.

He looked down at the 10mm pistol in his hooves. “No idea, I don’t even know how to reload this thing,” he explained as he started fiddling with the gun, trying his best to understand the intricacies of it.

“Come out with your weapons holstered and we won't kill you!” The voice shouted out again, slightly closer this time. We wont kill you? So there was more than one of them. Great!

“They don’t sound like raiders,” I whispered, peeking out from around the broken sky bandit. I could see two ponies slowly walking towards us. One held what appeared to be a sniper in their mouth. I couldn’t see what the other pony had.

Brisk winced and he put pressure on his front legs. “That doesn’t mean they won't kill us,” He reminded me, sitting hard on the ground and trying to remove his weight form his forelegs. “At best it just means they’ll keep our death quick and not hang us on the walls like paintings.”

“Do raiders do that?” I squealed nervously.

He glared at me with his usual stare. “Did you not see the bodies?”

I didn’t get time to answer as the two ponies rounded the corner of the sky bandit and aimed their weapons at us.

They were two earth pony stallions. Like the raiders, they were covered in a layer muck and their coats were marked up by a multitude of scars. Unlike the raiders however, these ponies were dressed in leather barding and were much less blood soaked. They didn’t look overly intimidating, or even look like they fully knew what they were doing. I suppose this was probably one of their first times raiding ponies.

The Stallion with the sniper had a dark brown coat with a bright purple mane. A long scar stretched from one side of his face to the other.

“Well look what we have here brother,” The brown stallion grinned, pointing the sniper at my head and looking over to the other pony. “Couple of Stable dwellers decided to come crawling out of their little hole in the ground.”

The earth pony beside him, a tall lanky looking stallion with a grey coat and a jet black mane chuckled. “Couldn’t have found ourselves a easier target for our first catch,” I guess that confirmed my first time raiding theory. I noticed that the grey pony only carried a clipboard at his side. The fuck was up with that?

The brown earth pony turned back to face us. “The two of us are going to be taking all of your stuff,” he grinned. “And if you don’t give it to us, we’re going to shoot you.”

All our stuff? We didn’t have anything except for a some flimsy Stable barding, a baton, and a pistol. Of course one of these ponies was planning to fight with a clipboard, so I supposed a gun and a baton were a pretty large improvement.

“Sure,” Brisk respond coldly, raising his pistol up with his mouth. “Have this.”

Blam!

Brisk fired, clearly catching the bandits off guard. Hell, he caught me off guard. His bullet ripped through the brown stallions leg and sent him crashing to the asphalt with a thud.

“You’re going to fucking pay for that!” The gray pony yelled, swinging his clipboard at Brisk’s head.

I brought my baton up and slammed it against his back, staggering him. Unfortunately for me, he was faster than I was and managed to recover and bash me across the face with the clipboard.

I reeled back in pain, my vision spinning from the impact. The fuck was that clipboard made of? Solid metal? Getting hit by it hurt like hell.

Brisk whacked the bandit across the face with his gun, knocking him down and forcing him to drop his clipboard. I quickly kicked the clipboard away from him, not wanting to be hit by it again.

The Brown stallion with the sniper slowly pushed himself of the ground. “You two are fucking dead!” he yelled around the mouthpiece of the gun.

I brought my shock baton flying at the sniper, knocking it from his mouth and sending it sliding across the road. There was a sickening ripping noise as the bandits teeth, which were clamped tightly around the gun, shattered from the impact and flew from his mouth like shrapnel from a grenade. Blood oozed over his lips as he suppressed a scream.

Brisk’s gun was aimed at him faster than I could have imagined. My green unicorn friend grinning as he placed the tip of his gun on the bandits forehead.

“Now I think we will be taking all of your stuff,” Brisk said, gesturing to the saddlebag that hung from the bandits side. “Then we will figure out what we are going to do with you two.”

“What the fuck are you doing?” I demanded, waving my hooves at Brisk. “We don’t just go around robbing ponies!”

Brisk just kept grinning. "Oh, but we do Rob ponies," he replied evenly, not taking his gaze away from the brown stallion. "When we run across assholes like these, we do whatever the hell we want with them."

I grit my teeth. "Brisk, put the gun down and let them go," I demanded sternly. "We do not rob other ponies!"

Brisk whirled on me. “We do if they attack us first!” He shouted. “This is the wasteland Amber! Not a fucking Stable! I haven’t been out here long, but it’s becoming pretty damn clear that when somepony has something you want, you take it!”

I stared at him with a mix of shock and growing anger. “That’s not how this fucking works Brisk! It’s shitty enough out here, we don't need to make it any worse by becoming just as bad as them!” I gestured to the grey earth pony who was still struggling to pull himself to his hooves after the last hit.

“What do you think will happens if we go around trying to be nice to every pony we meet Amber?” Brisk shouted back, his face growing ever so slightly red. “You don’t save the wasteland, bandits and raiders aren’t going to give you a fucking gold star if you let them live! All that happens is you end up getting skinned alive by some psycho and the wasteland gets to claim another victim.”

I slapped him; I couldn’t help myself. His head snapped to the side from the sudden impact. I wasn’t very strong so it couldn’t have hurt that much, but it was enough to take him by surprise. “We! Are not! Raiders!” I shouted, waving my baton at him.

I spotted the brown earth pony now a few feet way raising his sniper in his bleeding mouth. I hadn’t seen him move for it while I was distracted by Brisk. Brisk must have seen me react to this however, because he spun around and fired at the bandit without a second thought.

Blam!

The brown stallion dropped dead, blood oozing from the bullet hole in his forehead. I stared at the broken body of the pony in horror. Damn it, we were killing so many ponies already. There was so much blood on our hooves.

"Just because we need to kill to survive, doesn't make us raiders," Brisk retorted coldly, as he shoved his way past me and slowly limped towards the grey pony. The Stallion tried to back away from him, but before he had time to properly react Brisk raised his pistol and sent a bullet through the ponies skull. “Grab their stuff, let’s get going,” Brisk’s voice was low and steady.

I looked at the dead ponies around me. I’m not going to say they didn’t deserve to die, but we could have at least tried to save them. I slowly retrieved the sniper from the ground and began combing through his saddlebag.

I found a couple of bobby pins and a grenade. I made sure not to be to aggressive with the grenade; being this close to an explosive made me nervous. There was something else at the bottom of the bag as well. I reached in and felt around, finding ten or so Sparkle-cola bottle caps. I guessed this guy liked Sparkle-cola or something.

Not finding any use for the caps, I tossed them aside and dumped the rest of his supplies into my saddle bag. I winced slightly as I remember the grenade and proceed to place the remainder of the stuff into my bag much more gently.

I marched over to Brisk who was lying flat on his stomach, clearly trying to reduce the amount of pain he was in.

“Are your legs okay?” I asked, sitting down beside him.

He gave me a quick, pained glance. “Oh yeah, I’ve never felt better,” He coughed, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He raised his scarred forehoof and pointed at a building a few feet away from us. “I think I found a place for us to lay low for a bit though.”

I looked closely at the building. It did appear to be in much better condition than the rest of the toppling structures we had past, though that wasn’t saying much. The building was a tall narrow structure, shoved between two other less sturdy looking skyscrapers. Though much of the paint on the front of the building had corroded away over time, I could still make out bits of the white, orange and blue designs that once adorned the front of the structure.

Hanging on a now crooked and precariously dangling sign read the words ‘Carousel boutique: Manehattan branch’.

“The clothing shop?” I asked, glancing back down at Brisk.

He nodded slowly. “Yeah, looks more sturdy than anywhere else around here and it doesn’t look like there are any raiders inside.”

“How can you tell?” I asked, squinting my eyes at the building and trying to make out the finer details through the green haze.

Brisk looked up at me. “You really didn’t see all those bodies, did you?” I shook my head in response. Brisk gave out a low and pained sigh. “Let’s hope you never need to.”

He pushed himself off the ground and tried to take a step forward, stumbled and almost fell back to the ground. I rushed forwards and helped support his weight. I was really starting to wish I had some form of physical strength.

Brisk’s legs were getting worse. The more he walked, the more blood began to spill from the multitude of incisions. I really hoped there was some healing potions inside of that fashion store.

“So tell me about yourself,” I ask Brisk as we slowly made our way down the road to the boutique in the distance.

Brisk gave me a weird glance. “Why?” he skeptically answered between heavy breaths.

“Because,” I started. “It seems we are going to be sticking together out here, and I feel like I should know more about the pony I’m traveling with.”

Brisk nodded in agreement. “Well, what do you want to know?”

I thought for a moment. “Tell me about your cutie mark,” I asked, quickly glancing at the multi coloured cone on his butt. This time I could make out some black letters on it as well, though I couldn’t see exactly what they read. “Is it a party hat?”

He gave a low chuckle. “Sort of. Back when I was in school I was always a bit of a class clown.”

I snickered. “And you aren’t now?”

He rolled his eyes, but smiled all the same. “Well my teacher didn’t tend to find my jokes very funny, so it wasn’t uncommon for me to get in a lot of trouble,” Brisk sighed. “One day my teacher decided to be extra cruel and tossed me in the corner with a big ol' dunce cap on my head. Course before she knew it I was decorating it with crayons and stickers and making it a fun and exciting party hat. Then Kaboom, this little mark appeared on my butt.”

“Soooo,” I glanced at his cutie mark again. “Your cutie mark is a dunce cap?”

“A decorated dunce cap,” he quickly corrected with a slightly defensive tone. “But yeah, it's technically a dunce cap.”

I nodded slowly, but I had no idea what a decorated dunce cap cutie mark meant. Was it that he got in trouble a lot? That he couldn’t be discouraged? That he was simply really annoying? That last one seemed the most probable to me.

“So you’re teacher?” I continued. “Did you have Ms. Dry Chalk as well?”

Brisk grinned deviously. “No way! Dry was her first name?”

I nodded, not really knowing how to respond to that answer. “I’m guessing that’s a yes?”

“Fuck yeah I had Dry Chalk,” Brisk whinnied gleefully. “She had the most dry and uninteresting lectures! Am I right!” He laughed again. “Damn, thinking about pieces of work like her remind me why I’m so much happier out here.”

I chuckled nervously, not mentioning how Ms. Chalk had been my favorite teacher.

I glanced down at Brisk’s legs. “You are still happier out here? Even after being so badly hurt?”

“I told you back in the Stable, I’d be happier out here even if I dropped dead within seconds of leaving. I live for adventure Amber, and this is the greatest adventure there is,” He gave me a wink, making me blush. What the fuck? Why did I blush like that?

Before I could think more about why I had reacted to his wink the way that I did, Brisk turned the questioning around on me. “Alright, now it's your turn. How did you get your cutie mark?”

I folded back my ears at the question. “I fixed a generator… I don’t really like to talk about it?”

Brisk stopped limping and turned to me. “Oh come on now, I answered your questions. What’s the story behind it?”

I flushed. “I’m assuming you’ve heard about my families hereditary cutie mark, yes?” I asked, nodding towards the building and making him continue walking. Brisk nodded. I sighed. “Well, when I didn’t get the same cutie mark and my dad realized I wasn’t going to become the next Overmare he… well…”

“Became really disappointed?” Brisk offered in a monotone voice, though hints of sarcasm were still present.

I nodded. “That’s a rather blunt way of putting it, but yeah. He was disappointed in my existence. I’m sure he still loved me and all, he just wished I was somepony else and not the failure that I am.”

Brisk shrugged. “Well you managed to escape the Stable and survive a group of raiders and bandits, so I’d say that you can't be that big of a failure.”

I gave him a small smile. “Thanks, I appreciate the effort, but that just kinda makes me a bigger disappointment in dads eyes. He probably hates me more now for leaving the Stable the way that I did.”

We finally arrived at the ruins of Carousel boutique. It looked just about the same up close as it did from a distance, though now the blue and orange patterns on the wall were a little more visible. In the cracked and dusty window on the right I could see a mannequin dressed the tattered remains of what was once a beautiful dress.

I stiffened as I looked at the mannequin. It was probably just a coincidence, but it just so happened to be positioned in a way that made it’s hollow eyes stare straight at us. It was spooky.

We pushed open the half broken door and stumbled into the boutique, the top of the door hitting a rusted bell that made a pathetic clank as it opened. We half limped, half fell into the center of the room.

Brisk had been right, the building did appear to be in better condition than everywhere else. Unlike the rest of the building, the roof seemed almost perfectly intact with only a few small holes in it. A curved staircase lead up to a second floor and piles of stained and ripped clothing lay in large heaps on the floor.

There we also mannequins. Lots and lots of mannequins. The creepy, faceless, beige pony models were everywhere you looked. Some stood in normal spots, displaying clothes like you would expect to find in a boutique, but others stood in random places such as the middle of the floor or hanging from the ceiling.

“Wow, you couldn’t have picked a creepier spot, could you?” I scolded, picking myself up off the floor and looking closer at the mannequins.

“At least we are off the road where somepony might attack us,” Brisk reminded, sitting back on his haunches and keeping his front hooves off the ground.

There was a sudden crash of thunder and the beginnings of rain began to drizzle from the cloud layer above us. I stared at it in confusion for a second at the water droplets descending down, taking a few moments to understand what I was looking at. I had read about rain in books, but to see it in person was absolutely fascinating.

Brisk pointed towards the rain. “And we are out of whatever that is, so I’d say coming in here was a good idea, regardless of how creepy it is.”

“It’s called rain,” I informed him, still staring at the weather outside. “And it’s harmless.”

“Whatever, I didn’t listen to all that stuff in school,” Brisk replied. “I’m not even sure why they taught that in the Stable, you know, with the lack of sky and weather in there.”

There was a small thump upstairs, catching both of our attentions, shortly followed by a small yelp and another small thumping noise.

Really, this place couldn’t just be abandoned? It just had to have something in it, didn’t it?

Brisk and I exchanged a glance. He groaned. “No, we are not checking it out,” he complained, seeing the clear determination in my eyes.

“What if somepony is in trouble up there?” I questioned in a low whisper. “We can’t just leave them.”

“If we go up there then we might be in trouble as well,” Brisk retaliated, glancing up at the roof. “I say we sneak off into this rain thing that is apparently harmless and get out of here,” He turned towards the door and froze.

A hunched over figure stood twitching in the doorway. It appeared to be a pony, except it seemed wrong. Though hard to make out in the dim light, I could see large scars and blisters marking up wrinkled and rotting skin. Small tufts of greasy hair sprouted from the top of the pony creatures head and its eyes had a strange whitish glow to them.

Oddest of all, it didn’t appear to be looking at us, but rather sniffing the area around it as if trying to make sense of the situation.

I checked the EFS on my pipbuck. Red bar. Whatever this was, it wasn’t friendly. Then I spotted the green bars. Lots and lots and lots of green bars were all around us. I gulped and looked at the mannequins.

For Celestia’s sake, please tell me my EFS wasn’t picking up those mannequins.

Brisk quickly checked his pipbuck as well. “Not friendly,” He whispered to me. He glanced back down at the EFS on his pipbuck and his eyes widened in surprise as he spotted all the green bars as well. Brisk quickly glanced at the mannequins as I had just done mere moments before, the same thought I had just had no doubt running through his mind.

I nodded and pulled out the sniper rifle with my hooves, not wanting the light of my horn to catch the zombie ponies attention. I stared down the scope at the creature, making out more of its features with the magnified scope. I could clearly make out a set of razor sharp rotting teeth and large gashes that revealed bits of bone and muscle underneath the creatures already peeling skin.

The creature turned and looked down the barrel of my sniper, spotting the two of us for the first time. It curled back it’s lip and screamed.

Blam!

The sniper fired and put a bullet right between the zombie ponies eyes. It’s head exploded causing blood, brain matter, and bits of skull fragments flying everywhere.

Then the green bars on my EFS turned red.

Fuck, that was bad. Very bad.

I glanced around at the mannequins, expecting them to start moving. Instead, the piles of shredded dresses on the floor began to rise, revealing the small army of zombie ponies that had once been sleeping beneath them.

“Now would be a good time to get out of here!” Brisk yelped, forcing himself to his hooves and limping to the door as fast as his injured legs could carry him.

I prepared to follow him when three zombie ponies blocked the exit and began advancing. Brisk whirled around on his back legs and began rushing up the stairs as fast as he could, doing his best to ignore the pain.

“Where are you going!” I shouted, quickly chasing behind him as the zombie ponies pulled themselves to their hooves and began shuffling towards us.

I would have expected them to be slow due to their decrepit and beaten appearance, but shit they moved fast. A few lunged at me, grasping onto my back hoof and pulling me back down the stairs.

My baton was out in a flash, bashing them all over the head as they quickly sprang at me. Each hit of the baton bursting one of their head open or shattering one of their limbs. At least they didn’t seem very durable.

“Upstairs, hopefully there are less up there!” Brisk replied hastily, as he bolted towards the iron door at the top of the steps and forcefully yanked it open.

I kicked the final zombie pony off of me and scuttled after him into the room upstairs. I slammed the door behind me and bolted it shut with a rusty lock that had clearly seen better days. I could hear the zombie ponies scratching at the door behind me, but for the time being they seemed to be being held at bay, but who knew how long that would last.

I turned from the door and surveyed the room. And it looked as if I had just stepped out of one nightmare and into another.

Like the last room, this one was filled with mannequins. Some stood like they were supposed to, while others hung from the roof by sloppily tied nooses. In this room however, none of the mannequins wore any dresses.

In the center of the room was a petite looking zombie pony with the tangled remains of a light cyan mane. She wore a ripped sailor collar with a scarlet tie and the remains of a floppy hat cutie mark could still be seen on her decaying rump. Worst of all however was that she was tied down to a table with large chains held together by a rusted lock and had bits of fabric sewn onto her, creating a permanent makeshift dress. Bruises across her body showed the signs of multiple beatings. A multitude of sewing needles had been stabbed into her flesh as if she were a pincushion.

I glanced down at my EFS. Her bar was green. I guess not all zombie ponies aren’t out to eat you.

Her cyan eyes met mine, and for a second I wanted to rush over and unite her. Then I saw her lips move ever so slightly through her tight gag. I squinted to try and make out the words.

“Run,” She seemed to be trying to say.

My eyes started darting around the room. Run? From what? My eyes landed on a small door at the far end of the room. I checked my pipbuck. There was a red bar behind it. I saw the the door open a crack.

Shit! We didn’t need more things trying to kill us.

I pushed Brisk down to the floor behind a pile of mannequins just as the door fully opened to reveal a pale orchid zombie pony with a violet mane and a cutie mark of three buttons. I pulled out my sniper and tried to get a shot on her, but all the mannequins kept getting in my line of sight.

“Shut up out there!” The zombie pony yelled at the door where we had just come through. There were a few scratches, but almost instantly it died to almost nothing. The zombie pony gave a big false grin. “That’s much better. You are all so kind, m'kay.”

The orchid zombie pony slowly approached the tied up mare in the center of the room. The tied up mare squirmed, but seemed otherwise unable to break free of her bonds.

“Alright Coco, I do hope you are feeling alright today,” the zombie pony flared up her horn and pulled one of the needles out of Coco’s foreleg. Coco squirmed as the thin piece of metal was removed, but didn’t make much more than a small squeak of pain. “I’ve got a lovely dress idea that you are simply going to adore, 'kay? m'kay.”

I didn’t like how much this zombie pony said the word okay.

I slowly began creeping around the side of the mannequins, hoping to be able to line up a clear shot at the zombie ponies head. Before I got the chance however, Brisk quickly pulled me back behind the shelter.

“What the fuck do you think you are doing?” He whispered in a startled voice. “Do you want to get us killed?”

“I’m trying to save that poor pony,” I replied in an equally low whisper. “We can’t just leave her like that.”

Brisk pointed to an elevator only a few steps away from us. “Yes we can, lets just hop into that and get the fuck out of here before we get into any more trouble.”

“Oh, come on. There are two of us and only one of her,” I pointed out, trying to move back into a position where I could get a clear shot at the hostile zombie pony. “Let’s save that thing and then get to safety.”

Brisk just stared at me in awe. “You’re crazy,” He muttered.

I grinned. “Hey, you’re the one that decided to followed me on my quest or whatever.”

Brisk crossed his forelegs and snorted. “Don’t mock me.”

I looked back over the top of the mannequins. Holy fuck, the hostile zombie pony was literally sewing dresses onto Coco. I had to cover my mouth to stop myself from vomiting. That was horrifying.

I began moving closer to the ghastly scene. A floorboard creaked under my hoof, causing me to stop and check to make sure the zombie hadn’t noticed me. To my relief, the hostile zombie pony hadn’t seemed to hear anything. Coco on the other hand was staring at me with wide pleading eyes as a large piece of fabric was sewn onto her chest, the metal sewing needle piercing her flesh over and over again as it weaved between her and the soon to be dress.

Goddesses how long had she been like this?

“I’m coming to save you, don’t worry,” I mouthed to her as I slowly took a few steps closer. I raised the sniper and aimed it at the hostile zombie ponies head.

You got this Amber, don’t fuck up now.

I took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.

Blam!

A bullet burst from the barrel of the sniper with such force I was knocked onto my rump. The hostile zombie ponies ear exploded in a bloody burst of flesh and cartilage.

Fuck! How do I miss a perfectly lined up shot like that!? This is why I was a mechanic and not Stable security of anything else that would required me to be useful at something.

The zombie pony whirled around to face me, snarling at me with it’s rotten teeth. Shit.

I pulled the trigger on the sniper again.

Click.

It was empty. Of fucking course it was empty! Why would my luck allow for anything else?

“Looks like I found somepony new to help me make my dresses,” the zombie pony sneered, taking a few steps towards me. Radioactive blood dripped from the now bloody stump of her ear and down her face. “You are going to be perfect for my new line, m'kay.”

Then she lunged at me. Really damn fast. Why do these rotting ponies move so fucking fast!

I jumped out of the way as the zombie pony barreled past me and slammed into a cluster of mannequins I had been standing in front of, knocking most of them off their flimsy base and sending them toppling to the floor. She had hardly come to a halt when the zombie pony pulled itself back to its hooves and lunged at me again.

I tried to dodge to the side again, only to trip on my own hooves and fall flat on my face. The pale orchid zombie pony reared up in front of me, its sharp teeth glinting in the dim light of the room.

Blam!

A shot from Brisk’s pistol ripped through her leg, forcing the appendage to buckle at the joint. The zombie pony collapsed to her knees from the impact, hot blood spurting from the bullet wound. The creatures head snapped toward the pile of mannequins that Brisk cowered behind, her milky eyes locking onto Brisk’s.

I could see Brisk struggling with his gun. Shit, looked like he was out of ammo as well. Just our luck. He began slowly backing away as the zombie pony advanced on him.

I whipped out my shock baton and slammed it against the creatures back leg. There was a snap as the zombie ponies back leg broke. Somehow, the two broken limbs didn’t seem to slow it down much as it spun around and slashed at me with uncomfortably sharp hooves.

A searing pain shot across my face as her hoof struck me. I could feel blood trickle down my cheek as a small gash spread across the area the zombie pony had struck.

I raised my baton to protect myself as the crazed zombie pony went to strike again when Brisk leaped over the mannequins and stabbed his machete into the creatures side, his blade still clenched tightly in his mouth. The serrated blade piercing the squishy flesh and protruding from the other side of her body.

The zombie pony spun back around to him snarling, pulling itself from the metal blade “Would you both stop doing that? m'kay!” It howled at him, enraged. It lashed out at Brisk, knocking him off his already unsteady hooves and sending him sprawling across the floor.

It began limping towards him again, only for me to knock the zombie pony back down with a whack of my shock baton across its back. The zombie pony collapsed to the ground screaming.

Screaming that brought a lot of trouble with it.

The zombie ponies outside began banging and scratching on the door at the sound of the screaming, reminding me of their presents. The door began to shake violently as the rotting hoard threatened to rip it off its hinges.

We needed to get out of here quickly.

I swung my baton on the pale orchid zombie ponies head, hoping to finish her off before the other zombie ponies managed to break down to door, only for the zombie pony to swiftly knock the baton away with her two remaining good legs. The baton flew from my telekinesis and landed next to the tied up zombie pony.

The orchid zombie pony lashed out at me again, creating a slightly larger gash across my cheek in the other direction. This time however, Brisk’s machete flew forward to meet her outstretched hoof, slicing the decrepit limb right off.

The zombie pony howled in pain as she watched the severed stump of her foreleg fly from her body and land with a pathetic thump on the floor next to her. She growled at Brisk and lunged at him again, digging her teeth into the flesh of his neck. Brisk tied to stab at her with the machete, but found it impossible with the blade still in his mouth.

I screamed… something, I’m not exactly sure what, before lunging at the two of them myself. I grabbed onto the writhing pile of rotting flesh that was the zombie pony and began prying her off of Brisk. There was a disgusting popping sound as the creatures rotting teeth dislodged themselves from his neck.

Brisk fell backwards, applying pressure over his neck with his injured hooves to prevent the bleeding. He pushed against the floor with his hind legs to scoot away from the raging zombie pony who was struggling to escape my grasp. Finally it gave a rather large jerk and clamped its teeth around my forehoof. I loosened my grip both from shock and pain just long enough for it to wriggle free of my grasp.

I took a quick step back to avoid the creatures gnashing teeth and glanced over at my baton halfway across the room. Far to far away for me to get to. Brisk caught my glance and began limping towards my fallen weapon for me.

I jumped sideways as the zombie pony swiped at my neck in an attempt to rip open my throat, giving me enough time to pull out my empty sniper and use it as a shield as the creature regained its stance and lunged at me again.

I really wanted to know how it managed to move so fast with only three legs.

I pushed my sniper against its chest hard, staggering it for long enough to move a bit closer to where my baton lay before the creature pulled itself back to its feet and stumbled towards me.

I could see the door leading to the horde of zombie ponies outside the room was almost off its hinges, the flimsy lock on the door seemingly the only thing keeping it from completely breaking down.

I heard Brisk shout something and saw my baton sliding across the floor towards me out of the corner of my eye. I scooped it up with my magic and slammed it against the zombie ponies face, shattering a part of her skull and making the entire left side of her face go slack.

The zombie pony however continued advancing, though notably slower than before. I raised both my baton and sniper with my magic and began bashing the creature over and over with the blunt objects. With each hit some part of the zombie pony broke. First their still functioning legs, then their body, then their head. Finally I crushed the creatures neck between both of my weapons.

At last the rotting pale orchid zombie pony went slack and fell over dead.

I took a second to breath, relieved that I wasn’t under attack. Then the banging against the door grew louder. Right, small army of zombie ponies outside… I’m still under attack.

I rushed over to where Brisk was slowly bleeding out on the floor. “Are you alright?” I asked, quickly looking over the new bite wounds on his neck. Between his neck and legs, Brisk was losing a lot of blood. I was surprised he was still able to keep conscious.

Brisk glared at me dumbly. “What do you think Amber?” He asked sarcastically, pushing himself up off the ground and wadding over to the tied up zombie pony.

I followed him and began trying to pull the large chains that held her down off of her. The chains did little but shift position as if mocking me.

“You’re not just going to be able to pull them off,” Brisk stated, looking over the chains. “You'll need to pick that lock if you really want to get her out of there,” He pointed to the large lock connecting the chains together.

“I don’t know how to pick locks,” I responded, looking the lock over myself. “Can you pick it?”

Brisk looked at me in shock. “What? Pick it?” I raised my eyebrow at him skeptically. I remembered him saying something about picking locks back in the Stable. “I mean, sure I probably can, but not before those crazy zombie ponies outside get in. We are going to need to just leave her here and save ourselves,” I could see Coco’s eyes widen in horror at his words.

I stopped my hoof down hard. “No! We are not leaving her like this Brisk!” I shouted, pointing at the lock. “Now get picking, I’ll hold off the zombie ponies when they come in.”

Brisk narrowed his eyes at me, clearly disapproving of my choice and not liking my rather bossy attitude, but bent down and started picking the lock anyway. I approached the tied up zombie ponies head and pulled the gag off of her mouth, allowing her to gasp for air.

“Please, don’t leave me,” Coco pleaded, with a trembling voice.

I shook my head. “We aren’t going anywhere until you are out of these chains,” I declared sternly, giving the tied up pony a small reassuring smile.

Brisk grunted. “We might never be going anywhere if those freaks break down the door,” Brisk complained around the mouth of the bobby pin he had slid into the lock.

I gave him a quick warning stare before returning my attention to the scared zombie pony. “Don’t worry, everything is going to be okay… What is you name?” I asked, trying my best to calm her down. I was never very good dealing with ponies emotions, or my own emotions for that matter.

Thankfully, the conversation seemed to be helping. Her shaking was slowly decreasing. I wondered how long it had been since she had talked to someone that wasn’t trying to torture her. “Coco Pommel,” she replied quietly.

“How long have you been here?” I continued, trying to keep her calm.

Coco Pommel thought for a second, before finally shaking her head. “I don’t know, it’s hard to keep track of things after the bombs fell. I feel like I’m losing my memory more and more every day,” she replied. “A few years, I think.”

Since the bombs fell? She wasn’t talking about… there was no way that?

“200 years?!” I exclaimed, staring at her in shock. “You’ve been alive for over 200 years!”

The zombie ponies eyes widened. “Goddesses has it really been that long?” she sounded just as surprised as I was. She pointed over to the zombie pony we had just killed. “Suri Polomare was always talking about never having enough time to finish her fashion line… It couldn’t have been that long.”

I guessed Suri Polomare was the name of that monster we had just killed. Great, now there was a name to the body. As if I wasn’t going to have enough nightmares about all of this.

The zombie ponies outside bashed against the door even harder, causing the door to break off from its hinges at the top and dangle at a slant, allowing us to see the milky eyes of the numerous zombie ponies outside the door. To my surprise, the door somehow managed to hold them back a little longer and simply refused to collapse completely.

There was a click and the lock fell away, allowing Coco Pommel to slowly rise to her hooves. She swayed slightly for a second as if she we about to fall over before looking at the two of us.

“Thank you,” Coco said shakily, glancing at the door.

“Alright, great! We saved her!” Brisk bristled. "Can we get out of this deathtrap now!” He pointed to the elevator, urging me to hurry up.

I nodded quickly and gestured for Coco Pommel to follow. “Yeah, come on. I don’t think that door will last much longer.”

Coco Pommel glanced at the door as another wave of banging caused it to nearly fall in completely. “No, you two go. I’ll try and keep them from coming after you.”

“What?” I replied, dumbfounded. “We can’t just leave you here. Not after all of that!”

“It’s okay,” Coco Pommel replied, oddly calm. “They won't attack me. Besides, I’ll try and see if I can get this shop up and running again. Maybe try and make the wasteland a better place.”

I was going to argue, but Brisk grabbed my leg and began pulling me towards the elevator. “Be careful,” I shouted back at her as Brisk shoved me into the elevator.

Coco Pommel gave me a quick smile. “I will, thank you!”

The zombie ponies finally broke down the door and began flooding into the room. To my relief, Coco Pommel seemed to be right. Not a single one seemed to bother her other than a quick sniff.

With a squeal of metal on metal as the elevator began descending to the floors below. I was unsure exactly where it was going, as I thought there we only two floors to the boutique and we sure as hell weren’t going to go back to floor one.

I turned to express my concerns on the matter to Brisk when there was a loud crash and the elevator shook violently, then fell far past where the bottom floor should have been.

Everything was dark. I slowly pulled myself to my hooves and brushed the dust and rubble off of my coat. I looked around. Nothing, everything was just black. I reached down and turned on my pipbuck flashlight, expecting it to illuminate the room. Again nothing.

“What the fuck?” I muttered examining my pipbuck closer. I Brushed my hoof across the screen and wiped away a thick layer of dust that had obscured it. A bright green light burst from behind the dust and lit the room up.

It was a small room made out of a mix of broken concrete and rock. Most likely it wasn’t even supposed to exist and had simply been created due to a mix of balefire detonation and erosion. A rusted pipe hung from the roof slowly filling up the room with a gross sludgy brown fluid that I really really hoped was just water. The broken remains of the elevator lay in ruins halfway through the wall, separating me from a larger room beyond.

Something was missing from the room however. I glanced around to make sure I hadn’t just missed him lying still in one of the shadowy corners.

“Brisk?!” I shouted, looking about the room. “Brisk are you there?!”

There was a small sound of coughing from the far side of the elevator, but nothing more.

I Sighed. He was still alive. That was a relief. “Hold on Brisk,” I shouted, quickly approaching the crashed elevator and beginning to climb through it into the room beyond. “I’m coming for you.”

As I pulled my way through the wreckage I could begin to make out the faint flickering sound of music playing. Fuck, don’t tell me it was the damned Stable-Tec March song!

As I climbed into the dark room beyond I began make out slight differences in the song. Not the Stable-Tec March, but the song that dumb robot bug had been playing when we had first escaped the Stable. The light of my pipbuck landed on the broken remains of one of the metal robots, half buried under a pile of rocks.The song coming from the robot kept cutting in and out as the robot attempted to keep itself running. The bot was lying next to a long tunnel that looked like it had once been some form of sewage for the city before the war.

I glanced around the room and saw the pile of green fur below me, lying in a large pool of his own blood. I hopped off of the ruined elevator and looked over Brisk closely.

His front two legs had gotten stuck underneath the elevator. As if his legs weren’t broken enough. Most of his body was covered in large purple bruises and a few long scratches ran across his body. He did not look good.

He slowly tilted his head up towards me and caught my eye. “Hey,” his voice was so frail, so not like the Brisk I had met.

I gave him a reassuring smile. “Hi,” shit, I couldn’t let him die now. “We need to get you some medication,” I said, glancing down at his legs. “Can you walk?”

He looked at the broken limbs, now stuck underneath the elevator. He gave a grunt and shook his head. “I don’t think so,” he glanced over at the broken robot that continued to hum it’s annoying tune. “Damn, I ran away from that Fucking Stable, hoping to get away from that damn song,” He paused so that he could cough. Blood came out of his mouth. “Yet here I am, about to die listening to that goddess damned tune.”

“You aren’t going to die here,” I tried to reassure him. “I’ll think of something.”

Brisk tried to pull his legs out from the collapsed metal, only to find them very much stuck. “No offense Amber, but I’m pretty sure you won’t be getting me out of this one.”

The music coming out of the robot finally began to die down as the song came to a close. Both Brisk and I gave a sigh of relief as we welcomed the eerie silence of the room.

And then the song started up again, this time louder and more annoying than ever. Brisk finally snapped. “Shut up you stupid machine!”

Silence. The music shut off at his request. We both froze, staring at the broken robot lying on the ground. Could it hear us? Was it listening?

Slowly I approached it. “Um, can you hear us?” I asked, tapping my hoof against the cracked metal sphere.

There was a quick buzz of static, followed by a synthetic voice coming out of the robot. “Yes, I can hear you.”

I scuttled back from the robot with a small shriek. "Holy shit!" I took a second to calm down. I took a deep breath and looked closer at the robot. "Who are you? Why are you listening to us? Are you a robot? And what the fuck are you?"

“My name is Watcher,” the synthetic voice replied. “No I am not a robot, I’m somewhere else and am just speaking to you through this Sprite Bot, and you don’t need to know why I am listening to you,” any emotion that he might have had was obscured by the synthetic voice. Odd, hadn’t a real ponies voice come out of this robot before?

“What do you want,” Brisk grunted from behind me, still trying to dislodge his legs from below the wreckage.

“To help you,” Watcher replied, a small camera on the bottom of the Sprite Bot attempted to flare to life, but with a small shower of sparks, it shut out.

“How can you help us?” I asked, slowly approaching the Sprite Bot again.

Watcher was silent for a long time. For a second I began to wonder if he had left or if the Sprite Bot had finally shut down for good. Right when I was about to give up hope that he would return, his voice came back over the speakers. “Alright, down the hallway and to your left there should be an abandoned bunker originally planned as a possible escape for Rarity if she were to be in her boutique when the bombs fell. It should be clear of any ghouls, I can see no records of it ever being opened in the last 200 years,” Watcher said, another shower of sparks erupting from the Sprite Bot and making the voice flicker in and out for a second. “You should be able to find medical supplies in there.”

“Thank you Watcher,” I responded, looking down the hallway he had mentioned. Save for the light of my pipbuck, it was completely black, so I had no idea if the bunker he was talking about was actually down there. Watcher remained silent. I turned back to him and tapped on the Sprite Bot. “Hello? Watcher?” Nothing.

I glanced back nervously at Brisk who looked equally as confused. Hopefully Watcher was trustworthy, I didn’t really have any other choices. Without wasting any more time I began trotting down the dark tunnel. Hopefully I could get the medical supplies in time for Brisk, I didn’t want to know how much time he had left.

As Watcher had said, after only a minute of walking down the hallway I came across the metal bunker door with an access terminal beside it. Thank Celestia the door was locked with a computer and not a lock and key. I can hack a terminal and I think I've made it pretty clear that I can't pick a lock.

It only took me two minutes to hack the terminal, getting the pass code on my second attempt. Though honestly, ‘image’ wasn’t the hardest password to guess.

The door slid open with a screech. Almost instantly the Geiger counter on my pipbuck began clicking furiously. Shit, that was a lot of radiation.

I took a step back from the door to avoid further radiation and peered into the room. There wasn’t much inside, just a small fold up bed, a sink and a shelf full of supplies against the far side of the room. I searched for medical supplies from the hallway, not wanting to be in that room any longer than I had to. The idea of radiation wasn’t a pleasant one to me.

At last I spotted the medical box sporting the image of three butterflies on the bottom shelf at the far end of the room. I took a deep breath. “Alright, here goes nothing,” And I dove head first into the room.

My Geiger counter exploded with clicking. I watched the rads I was taking in increase from 5 rads a second to 20 to 30. I could feel my skin slowly beginning to boil in the radioactive air.

I grabbed onto the medic pack and threw it into my saddlebags. No time to check on what is inside, I was just going to have to make do with whatever was within. I was about to dart out of the room when I saw it lying against the wall behind where the medic pack had once been.

A small statuette of Rarity. There was something about the small statuette that drew me to it, I simply had to have it. At the bottom of the statuette was a small inscription reading ‘Be Unwavering’. Without thinking, I picked it up in a field of telekinesis and threw it into my saddlebags. As soon as it was in my possession I felt better somehow, as if the whole world could be fixed with just the right touch of a creative mind. Maybe it could. Maybe I could.

I glanced down at my pipbuck. 70 rads a second, fuck! I bolted out of the room, accidentally slamming myself into the far wall of the tunnel. I hadn’t been inside of the bunker for half a minute and I was already well over 200 rads.

I pulled open the medic pack and looked inside. Two slightly glowing bags of RadAway looked up at me among an assortment of other medications. I quickly pulled the bags out and gulped down the vile fluid inside. I watched my rad levels slowly drop down to around 40 rads. Not completely rad free, but much better.

I pulled out the Rarity statuette and looked it over more closely. It was so lifelike, as if someone had shrunk the old ministry mare and placed her on a tiny stage. It felt nice to, having something that looked similar to Shade from my Stable, a small way to remember home. Turning it over, I found a small note pinned to the bottom reading, ‘If we never meet again Coco, Thank you’. I would have to make sure to give this to Coco Pommel if I ever saw her again.

I picked myself up of the ground and slowly made my way back to Brisk.

As I came to the wreckage of the elevator, I saw that Brisk had managed to finally pull his forelegs free of elevator and had pulled himself into the corner of the room as he attempted to stop the bleeding to no avail.

He looked up as I approached, eyeing the medic pack I held aloft in my magic. “I’m taking it that Watcher was telling the truth,” It wasn’t really a question.

I nodded as I pulled out three healing potions from the pack and levitated one of them to his lips. He quickly drank the liquid, the skin and muscle on his forelegs and neck slowly began patching their way back together. It took two healing potions for the skin around the wounds to fully heal over, leaving only a gross looking patch of hairless skin.

Unfortunately, while the wound itself healed, his broken legs remained broken. I handed him the final potion, but he raised a hoof and gestured for me to have it. I looked down at my body. I wasn’t doing to hot myself. Granted my legs weren’t broken, but I still hand numerous cuts and bruises form the fall in the elevator and the fight with Suri Polomare had left quite a few gashes on me, including a large bite mark on my forehoof.

I lifted the healing potion to my own mouth and took a long swig of the magical fluid. I could feel the itchy feeling of my flesh slowly beginning to mend itself back together as the potion took effect.

I don’t suppose you have something for broken limbs, do you?” Brisk asked, much of the life that had been in his voice had returned, though he still sounded tired.

I dug through the bag, looking for something that might do that. There were a few bandages and some gauze. I could probably make a makeshift cast, but then he wouldn’t be able to walk. Finally I found a jar of some yellowy orange coloured tablets. A label across the bottle read ‘Buck’ and below that in smaller lettering read ‘Isosteroprophenhol’.

I held up the jar of anabolic steroids for him to see. “These won't fix your legs, but I think they should make it easier to walk,” I floated the jar over and he popped a tablet into his mouth.

His eyes widened as the tablet hit his tongue. He chewed on it thoughtfully for a second, then to my surprise, stood up as if his legs were fine. They weren’t of course, the bruising and odd angle of the joints were a dead giveaway of that, but at least he was standing.

“Well aren’t those handy,” He grinned, spinning in a circle and almost laughing at his ability to walk again.

I winced as he carelessly twirled. “Careful, your legs are still broken. The Buck is just a way of ignoring the pain and being strong enough to continue carrying yourself,” I warned, turning from him and dumping the contents of the medic pack into my saddlebags. “Just make sure you have one of those when you feel it starting to run out until we can find an actual doctor or a medical brace of some form.”

Brisk just grinned like the idiot that he was and did another small twirl, this time falling flat on his rump. “You got it,” He chuckled.

I rolled my eyes and turned back to the tunnel. “Well I guess we are going to need to figure out where this tunnel goes,” I said, beginning to walk down the tunnel as Brisk pulled himself up and began to follow me. “There has got to be some way out of here.”

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Daddy's Girl -- +5 Science and +Medicine

Author's Notes:

And there is chapter 2, I hope you all enjoyed.

The word Isosteroprophenhol originates from Somber's Project Horizons (ch61), so I'm just going to credit Somber here for that and any other references to his fan fiction that may arise throughout this story. There will definitely be more PH references to come, so be ready for that.

As usual, huge thanks to kkat for creating the wonderful world of Fallout: Equestira