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Fallout Equestria: Sweet Nothings

by Golden Tassel

Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Life Anew

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Chapter 1: Life Anew

Only after we've lost everything are we free to do anything.


The starting point. As good as any might ever be...

I was alone in the dark. In a cold, rocky tunnel leading away from the stable with nowhere to go but forward toward the dim light at the other end.

"It’s a puzzle, like any other,” I said aloud, trying to convince myself, "I just have to see what shapes the pieces are and I can get started. That’s all.”

The ground was uneven but I had an easy enough time going up it. As I began moving towards the light a bit faster, though, I heard the sickening crunch of breaking bone. I looked back and saw that I'd managed to catch my hind hoof in the ribcage of a skeleton. Staggering around while trying to shake it off, I lost my footing and fell flat, coming face-to-face with a unicorn skull missing a big chunk out of one side.

Underneath the skull, a metallic glint caught my eye. I gently nudged the skull aside with my hoof to reveal a gun. A magnum revolver, as I’d later learn. I looked at it hesitantly, having been told enough about the tools of war to be afraid of hurting myself.

I picked it up carefully in my hooves and inspected it. It seemed simple enough to use--bite the grip, point at what you want to shoot, and... fire? I tucked the gun into one of the foreleg pockets on my utility barding where I could easily reach it and got back on my hooves to continue up the tunnel to the exit.

I took my first steps out of the cave and was momentarily blinded while my eyes readjusted to the light. When they did I felt my heart sink. My hind legs gave out and I just sat there, mouth agape, staring out across a desolate, barren landscape that went on further than I ever imagined. I looked up and saw what I assumed had to be clouds high above me. They covered the entire sky, letting through only a diffuse and muted light. I knew from the clock on my PipBuck that it was barely just past noon but the cloud cover made it darker than normal lighting levels inside the stable.

There was a tingling in my sides and my wings quivered with an instinctive need, spreading out all on their own. They beat softly a few times and kicked up a small cloud of dust around me. I knew what they wanted but at the same time my heart sank further down into the pit of my stomach. I wanted to break down and cry like a frightened little foal.

I can't cry.

Part of me wanted to take off right then, climb into the clouds and just go from there but something else inside me was afraid. The stable was spacious, built with plenty of room for pegasi to casually fly down a hallway or even up and down levels through the central shaft of the atrium, which ran nearly the whole height of the stable from maintenance at the bottom to Administration at the top. I’d been all over the stable but never in my life had I ever imagined I could go higher than Administration.

So much open space made it seem like I could go in any direction and never get anywhere. In the stable, every corridor went somewhere. All that sky above me, it just went on forever. How would I ever know when I was where I needed to be? No, I needed to stay on the ground. The ground had structure to it. I could find my way along the ground.

I took a deep breath and returned my gaze to the horizon then glanced down at my PipBuck. I clicked through a few options and brought up the Eyes Forward Sparkle--a useful little spell contained within the PipBuck that, among other things, gave me a compass. The PipBuck's inventory spell had also apparently taken note of the gun I’d picked up, displaying information about it on my E.F.S. like its condition and how much ammunition I had for it. I looked around slowly, paying attention to the compass--no bars. That meant there shouldn’t be anypony else nearby.

The muted light under the cloud cover and the rocky, uneven terrain limited how far I could see. I could make out a road leading off to the east and winding through some craggy hills. It didn't look as comforting as a stable corridor would have but at least roads went somewhere, unlike that endless gray sky. I figured that if I followed the road far enough, I would find something--some sign or remnant of civilization, maybe even somepony who could help me.

A rocky, craggy path wound its way along the side of the mountain I'd emerged out of and lead down to the dusty, barren ground below. It would have been a slow trek to make it down on hoof but fortunately I had another way down. I stretched my wings, flapped a few times to get a feel for the air, and then carried myself almost effortlessly downwards. Even if the air was oppressively humid and full of dust that scratched at my throat, it made my heart race to fly like that for the first time in open air.

I stayed low, only a few yards over the ground, and didn’t push myself. I had remembered reading somewhere--I forget where exactly, The Egghead’s Guide to Running perhaps--that pacing yourself will allow even an inexperienced pony to cover long distances without succumbing to exhaustion. I didn’t know how far I'd have to follow the road to find something or even if there’d be anything worthwhile waiting for me when I got there. This was one puzzle I'd have to piece together face-down, apparently.

The journey was deathly quiet. I kept scanning around me, pausing to hover in the air while looking back any time I thought I heard something. Still, nothing appeared on my E.F.S. and after I lost sight of the stable, looking back only made me feel progressively more lost and alone. The excitement of flying in open air had passed quickly and I found myself following the road closely, not straying off it as though I could imagine walls and a ceiling around me to keep me safe.

It didn't make me feel any better.

It was about the time my wings were starting to get tired and I was considering stopping for a rest that I saw a collection of structures ahead on the road. The sight was encouraging and I hurried along towards it despite the burning complaints of my wing muscles.

I had arrived in what I could only assume was a settlement of some kind. The buildings looked like they’d been cobbled together (very poorly, I have to say) out of whatever pieces of salvage could be found. They were scattered around with seemingly no real plan aside from keeping a clear path through the town where the old, cracked, and pothole-ridden road I followed there had lain for the last two centuries.

Strangely, I couldn't see anypony around. The place seemed deserted. I was starting to worry that everypony in the outside world was dead already--that I was doomed to wander aimlessly until I simply died of exposure or hunger or thirst or I don't know what. Before I could lose all hope, though, one building caught my eye.

I landed and folded my wings, letting them rest while I walked the rest of the way into the settlement. My E.F.S. still wasn’t showing any bars but I could see light coming from the windows of the only building that didn’t look like it’d been built out of scrap, or at least not entirely. It was a long structure with large picture windows along the front, though most were broken and boarded up, looking like it must have been built before the war and had somehow stood the test of time. The back half (which included a second floor) appeared to have been built much more recently but with skill and planning put into its construction unlike the rest of the town. It actually looked like it wouldn’t collapse on top of me the minute I stepped inside.

Above the front section of the building was a large neon sign, cracked and broken. The dark letters read "Mum’s Diner.” I approached the door and stepped inside.

The interior of Mum’s Diner was spacious. There were tables spread out around the room and a bar at the far end. There was an open doorway behind the bar and a closed door against the back wall. As I entered, I noticed a brown earth pony with a dirty yellow mane was slumped over a table in the left corner, sleeping. I then noticed that my E.F.S. was now showing two bars; one that lined up with the sleeping pony and one that was apparently behind the back wall.

As I walked up to the bar a unicorn stuck her head out from behind the open doorway. She was a vibrant shade of green with a blue and white mane styled in curly ribbons that bounced as she moved. Her expression was at first plain, the kind I’d seen all around the stable on a daily basis--the kind of expression that comes from doing the same thing every day for years on end. When she saw me, however, her eyes lit up and she flashed a wide, exuberant smile, eagerly trotting out to meet me.

"Well hello there, sugar,” she said in a warm tone. "Have a seat anywhere just not-”

I was already lifting myself onto one of the bar stools as she was welcoming me when the stool cracked. Next thing I knew, I was flat on my back and gasping for breath, the wind knocked out of me.

"Just not there...” she finished as she leaned over the counter, looking down at me in concern. "Sorry, I’ve been meaning to get that one fixed for ages. We don’t get many newcomers around here though, so everypony just knows not to sit there.” She smiled apologetically while her horn shimmered and she helped pull me back to my hooves with her chartreuse magical aura.

I had apparently managed to pick the one broken seat in the entire place. "Just my luck,” I wheezed, climbing into another stool as I got my breath back.

"Welcome to Mum’s Diner. If you’re looking for food, trade, a place to sleep, or just about anything else...” She paused, her smile drawing into a wry grin. "You’ve come to the right place.”

"So you’re Mum then?” I asked, a bit sheepishly. I wasn’t really quite sure what I was doing there. I just needed get a feel for my surroundings, find a place to start from--a corner piece to anchor the puzzle on.

Her expression turned sour but she spoke as cheerfully as ever, "Honey, if you wanna keep those pretty little wings of yours, you won’t call me that again. I’m Chrysanthemum. Chrys if you want to keep it short. How about you?”

"Oh.” I flushed a little but her expression softened and put me at ease. "I’m uh, Day.”

She looked at me skeptically, "Sunny Day? Rainy Day? Daylight?”

"Just Day if you don’t mind, Chrys.”

"Just Day it is then,” she said, "So what can I do for you?”

"Um. I don’t really know, to be honest. I’m kinda lost out here,” I admitted.

"Mmhm. I figured as much,” she said, "The clean stable barding is a dead giveaway. What are you, fresh out of the stable today?”

I nodded, suddenly feeling very aware of how out of place I must have looked. "Wait. Are you saying you've met other ponies like me? From a stable?"

"Not personally, no," she said, "But everypony hears stories every so often about a stable pony wandering out into the wastes and getting herself killed trying to save the wasteland. Don't try to be a hero, honey. It's hard enough just trying to feed yourself out here. It's a good thing you didn’t happen across any raiders or slavers.” Chrys paused, her eyes looking up and off to the side. "Or gangers, or hellhounds, or rangers, or mutants,” she took a breath, "or any number of other things out there that’ll kill you--or worse--just as soon as look at you.” She looked back at me with that same cheerful smile and I nearly fell out of my seat again.

Celestia above, I thought, it really is that bad out there. I didn’t have a clue what half the things she listed off were but she sure made it sound like I actually should have died just by stepping outside the stable.

Chrys must have seen the look on my face because she frowned and turned away from me to duck under the counter. She returned promptly, carrying a glass bottle in her magic. She levitated it over and set it in front of me. "Tell you what, hon, this one’s on the house. It looks like you need it.”

The faded label on the bottle named it as Sparkle-Cola. Deciding I might as well give it a try, I grabbed the bottle between my hooves and bit on the metal cap. It came off with a sharp pshht sound and I let it clatter onto the countertop as I took a sip. It was warm, fizzy, and had a pleasant carroty flavor to it. "Thanks,” I said, setting it back down on the counter.

"Don’t mention it. I ain’t running a charity though. If you want more you’ll have to pay like anypony else.”

And suddenly I realized I was missing a pretty big piece of the puzzle. "Pay? Like, with money?” It was a stupid question but I just hadn’t even thought about that. I knew what money was from what they taught us about Old Equestria but in the stable everything was either rationed or labeled as communally available.

Chrysanthemum nodded and nudged the bottle cap I’d dropped on the counter over to me with her hoof. "We use caps in the wasteland. You can hang on to this one but you’re gonna want to find a lot more than that if you expect to survive out here. Not everypony is as willing as I am to consider alternative forms of payment,” she said with a wink. I wasn’t quite sure I understood her correctly but I felt a warm flush across my cheeks anyway.

"Probably the easiest way to get some caps is to go scavenging. It’s what most of the folks around here do to get by on,” Chrys said. I supposed that explained why I didn’t see anypony else on my way to the diner. "It’s not exactly safe though,” she continued. "Depends mostly on where you go and who you’re with.” She looked at me and tilted her head to one side, pursing her lips. "If you head south from here a couple miles you’ll find some ruins. There’s an office building still standing... mostly. It should be a safe enough place for you to start. Bring back anything interesting you can find and we’ll trade.”

I continued sipping on my Sparkle-Cola as I listened. My E.F.S. flashed a notice: Map marker added: ruined office building. Apparently PipBucks do a lot more than I thought they did.

Chrys looked down and jutted her chin at me. "You know how to use that?”

"Hmm?” I looked down and remembered the gun I’d picked up. "Oh. Sure. Nothing to it, right?”

I could tell from the disapproving look on her face that she believed that about as much as I did. Without warning she grabbed the gun in her telekinesis and pulled it right out of my pocket. Before I could protest she’d flicked a lever, the cylinder swung out and all six rounds fell out onto the table. Well, five rounds and one empty casing. She closed the cylinder again and set the gun down on the counter in front of me. "Reload it.”

I sat there, somewhat dumbstruck by what had just happened. If she’d wanted to, Chrys could have turned the gun on me before I’d even seen it coming. Thankful she hadn’t, I then realized that she was teaching me a valuable lesson and I should pay close attention. Picking the gun up in my hoof, I flicked the release lever. I held the gun against the counter, propped up in my hoof, while I picked up one of the bullets in my teeth and set it into the cylinder. I looked up and realized Chrys wasn’t there anymore. I looked left then right and nearly fell out of my seat (again) when I saw her standing over my shoulder, levitating a Sparkle-Cola bottle aimed at my head.

"Too slow, honey.” Chrys moved back around behind the counter and put the cola away. Her horn continued to glow as she levitated out a box of ammunition and a disk about the same diameter as the revolver’s cylinder with her chartreuse aura, setting both on the counter. "Revolvers are really only practical for unicorns,” she said as she levitated the disk over the loose rounds on the table and I watched as it picked them all up in a ring, neatly aligned to fit back into the cylinder. Chrys pulled the empty casing away with her telekinesis then dropped the rest into the revolver and set the disk down on the table in front of me. "It’s a speedloader. Enchanted to pick up bullets so non-unicorns can actually have a hope of using a revolver.”

I reached out for it and she pulled it back across the counter. "Ten caps.”

I blinked at her. "You know I don’t have ten caps.”

"Okay, five. But only because you’re pretty.”

"You know exactly how many caps I have,” I told her, starting to feel like I was being made fun of but blushing nonetheless.

"I know you have more than caps on you. The question is, honey, how much are you willing to part with?”

I bit my lip. "All I have is my PipBuck and my barding. I don’t know if you know anything about PipBucks but unless you’re ready to cut my leg off, it’s not coming off and my barding is all I have to carry things with so the gun and the speedloader would both be more hassle than it’s worth. I’ll just have to do without the speedloader.”

Chrys just looked at me with that devilish smile of hers. "There’s other things you’ve got to barter with.” She leaned over the counter towards me. "I’m sure you have plenty to offer,” she said with a wink.

I leaned away from her as she said that. I was blushing again and stammered, "I-I don’t- Th-that is, I’m- I’m not-”

"Into mares?” she finished with a giggle.

"I- no! That’s not what-”

"Alright,” she said with a grin, "I know when I’m beat. No sense trading your canteen for water. Two caps.”

I was still flustered from her last proposition but leaned forward again since at least she wasn’t directly in my face anymore. I looked down at the counter. The speedloader sitting there between us, the one single cap I had to my name resting on my side of the counter. I pushed the speedloader back to her side. "I’m sorry, all I have is one cap.”

Chrys pushed it back to the middle. "Two caps.”

I looked at her, wondering Can’t she count? "You know I can’t do better than one cap,” I said flatly, pushing it back.

"Two caps.”

"One cap’s all I have!”

"Five caps."

"Wait a second, what happened to two caps?"

"Prices change all the time, try to keep up, darling."

"So what? I still only have one cap!" I yelled in frustration.

"Okay fine, two caps."

"Are you listening? I only have one cap!"

"Well the price is two caps."

"All I've got is one cap!"

"One cap!”

"I’m telling you it’s two caps or nothing!”

"One cap is my final offer!”

"Fine! One cap it is!” I slid the cap across the counter and took the speedloader in my teeth. I was about to drop it in my pocket when it struck me that something quite wrong had just happened.

I looked up at Chrys and she was just grinning at me. "Of course, that speedloader won’t do you much good if you don’t have any more ammo to use it with. You drive a hard bargain but I’m sure we can reach some kind of agreement.”

I gave a dry laugh, easing myself off the seat. I finished off the last of my cola in one quick gulp, tucked my revolver back into my pocket, and started backing towards the front door. "Heh, well I guess I’ll just have to hope to find some more ammo while scavenging then. Uhm. It’s ah... been real nice meeting you, Chrys. I’ll just be going now and I’ll be back with whatever scraps I can find out there. Thanks again!”

Chrys was still smiling as she waved from behind the counter. "Caps, scraps, or ass, honey!” she called out to me as I ducked out the door.

Chrysanthemum was strange but she'd been pleasant at least. And helpful in giving me a direction to go in. My PipBuck had tagged the location Chrys told me to try scavenging in and it showed up as a marker on my E.F.S. compass. With a deep breath, I flapped my wings and took off again in that direction to go find... whatever it was that would help me start my new life out here in the wastes.

I realized almost right away that there was no road between the diner and the ruins. I had the marker on my PipBuck so I wasn't worried about getting lost, it was just that the idea of traveling without even the token boundaries I could imagine around a road... It scared me a little. It was slowly getting darker outside, though, and I shuddered to think what traveling in the dark would be like.

I took flight and headed south toward the ruins. What else could I do?

Despite the pit in my stomach, the flight to the ruins was eerily calm. Much the same way the trip to the diner had been. It gave me the strangest feeling as though the wasteland itself was just... waiting. Waiting for what, I couldn't really say. Knowing my luck, the wasteland had been setting me up for a spectacular failure from the moment I left the stable. That was just silly, of course, but it still made my feathers bristle.

I didn't have to travel far before I came into the outskirts of the ruined city. Everywhere I looked there were collapsed buildings and blasted rubble. As soon as I saw a road I raced off towards it and dropped in for a landing, taking a deep breath and sighing in relief.

The road under my hooves was in even worse shape than the one by Mum's Diner. Long, jagged cracks tore up the asphalt into some wicked parody of a jigsaw puzzle. In some places whole sections were missing, swallowed by sinkholes and gaping fissures. Rubble that had crumbled down from the collapsed buildings scattered across the road. From the look of what remained, these buildings had once reached as high as Administration; some had risen even higher than that.

I could almost see the city as it once was, pristine and full of majesty. It was an easy puzzle to piece together, especially with so much of the city's skeleton exposed like it was. I-beams and rebar, warped and sheared, stuck out from the collapsed ruins at odd angles but I could see how it had all once fit together. I had to marvel at the old world construction. It was a beautiful feat of engineering.

I suppose it was probably too much to ask of the wasteland to let me simply stroll through a ruined city while imagining it as a living, thriving community. My reverie was broken when I heard a, sadly familiar, crunch under my hoof. I looked down and lifted my hoof to see I'd stepped onto a few fragments of bone that looked as if they belonged to a skull but the rest of the skeleton was missing. I looked up along the single standing wall of the collapsed building I was next to and saw a dark, rusty brown smear stained into the concrete around the edge of a second floor window.

Cautiously, I flew up to the window. A long-dead skeleton had already provided me with a gun; I supposed that if looting the old world remains was how ponies made a living in the world outside, I shouldn't pass up an opportunity. Looking inside, I saw the barely-intact corner of a room. There was just enough floor left for a single pony to stand on. Everything else had collapsed into the pile of rubble beyond the crumbled wall.

A skeleton lay slumped against the inside of the window; most of the skull was simply gone. I slipped in through the window and flapped, hovering above the remains as I looked around for anything helpful but it looked like all there was left was just a saddlebag in the corner. I took a closer look at it: one side was a typical canvas bag, though the buckle on the strap was broken and some of the seams looked frayed but it was still mostly intact. The other side of the saddlebag was a metal box, scratched and dented, but likewise whole. The paint was faded but I could make out the distinct pattern of a butterfly.

The box was locked. Shaking it gently suggested that there were at least a few things inside it and, recognizing the faded design on the front, I knew they were likely medical supplies. They'd surely be useful sooner or later so I'd have to find a way to pry it open or force the lock. I decided I could worry about that later, though, and moved on to check inside the bag. It contained only a journal.

I took it out and began looking through it. Many of the pages were faded or torn and unreadable. As I got further into it though, I started making out what looked like diagrams of sections of the ruined city with angles sketched in various places and notes in the margins about things like elevation and wind speed and bullet drop. In between the sketches were some scattered entries:

-sniper skulking about. Killed Tumbleweed and Trigger Happy soon as we got close to the building. He gave away his position with that shot though. I paid him back in kind.

~~~

-he's good. Musta been a decoy I shot before. Nearly took my horn off after I stood up. Had to sneak back into cover. Has to be a pegasus the way he moves to a new firing position so quickly. Fucking turkeys. Well I won't go down so easy. If I only had-

~~~

All day I've been crawling around on my belly. Once it got dark I thought I might be able to lose him but it's like he knows exactly where to expect me. I can't even use my magic to write with or he spots the glow and starts taking pot shots at me. I can feel his scope burning into the back of my neck. If I could just manage to get a position to sight him from, Ol' Painless would give him a taste of his own medicine.

~~~

Two days. He's had me pinned for two fucking days. I'm out of rations. He's toying with me now. Shot my lockbox key right out of my magic while I was completely in cover. Heard a dozen ricochets before it hit the key. There's luck and there's just plain cheating.

~~~

I give up. He knows where I am. He always knows. Fuck this city. Fuck the turkey. Fuck the salvage. I just want to go home. He won't let me though. There's only one way out of this shithole.

The next page was in a noticeably different script:

His legs wobble like jelly, threatening to shatter from fatigue. Time, wind, and rain gnaw at his flesh, working to strip away whatever remains of the life that once burned inside him.

His brothers already lie in jumbled, gruesome heaps. But still, he hangs on.

It's not pride that holds him upright -- there is no beauty left in him; age and hardship have withered his elegant features down to bone. He stands all alone, swaying meekly in the wind, because he must.

He feels the ground below him beckoning, pleading to him to lay down and rest his tired bones, but he still has the strength left to say no. When his creators brought him into the world, they blessed every beam, fibre, and pane of him with the same, all-important purpose: To stand.

And so, through time, pain, and sorrow, he holds his head aloft.

-Janus

I looked up from the journal at the skeleton, its skull mostly gone, the bones bleached. It had lain there for decades. Beyond the headless skeleton, out the window and across a sea of rubble, was the ruined office building Chrys had directed me to. It stood before me as the only structure I'd encountered so far in the city that hadn't collapsed in on itself yet. Though I had to guess it would crumble like the rest sometime soon, judging by the spreading cracks around the foundation. They weren't too bad yet, though. Barring an earthquake or an explosion near a support column or load-bearing wall, I didn't think there was any immediate danger of collapse.

I tucked the journal back into the saddlebag and pulled in on across my back. With one last, mournful look at the skeleton, I slipped out through the window and glided back down to the road. I scanned along the rooftops cautiously, my feathers bristling. The sniper had to be long dead by now but I still felt nervous being out in the open like that so I made a hurried gallop to the office building. My E.F.S. flashed a notice confirming that I'd discovered the location.

The front doors had been made of glass, shattered ages ago, but the entrance was blocked from the inside. It looked like the floor above it had fallen in, dumping a pile of desks and filing cabinets along with assorted other debris to bar the way in. I took few steps back and looked up; the window on the floor above was broken, leaving an opening conveniently large enough for a pony to fit through. I flew up to it and slipped inside, hovering above the floor and taking a careful look around.

It seemed like that entire room had fallen through the floor into the entryway below. Splintered floorboards and broken piping ringed the walls where the floor had once been. My E.F.S. was now showing several bars. Some red, some blue. Some flickered back and forth between colors and some disappeared altogether, reappearing after a few seconds. I couldn't tell which ones were above or below me or how far out any were.

I knew that the E.F.S. could tell when somepony, or something, was hostile--how, I doubt anypony knows, well, anypony still living at least--but this was the first time I'd actually encountered red bars. I didn't really have any clue about just how hostile something had to be be for it to show up red. I hoped the fact that several bars kept going back and forth between red and blue meant they wouldn't be any one of those things Chrysanthemum had mentioned that would kill me (or worse) on sight and that if I just kept my distance, they'd ignore me.

I glided across the room to the open doorway on the far wall. Peeking my head around, I looked up and down the hall. It looked clear but was too narrow to continue flying through so I folded in my wings and landed carefully in the hall. The floor creaked under my hooves as I touched down and I held perfectly still, listening. The creaking stopped and I breathed a sigh of relief. Having a lighter build than your average pony had its advantages.

Unfortunately, I didn't make it more than a half-dozen paces down the hall before it gave out anyway. The floor creaked and then there was a loud crack before I was dropped straight down to the ground floor. It didn't stop there, though. I landed hard on my flank then that floor gave way. And again before I finally came to a stop, all the debris clattering around and on top of me.

My everything hurt. So I just kind of laid there amid a pile of broken wood, floor and ceiling tiles, staring up through the three or four stories I’d just fallen through. Then a head poked down through the hole in the ceiling above me. A blue mare with a black and white mane tied back into a braid.

“Are you okay down there? Anything I can do to help?”

"Yes!" I wheezed, "In the name of Celestia, don't just sit there and do nothing!"

I choked back a cough from all the dust kicked up by my fall while she dropped down through the hole and landed gracefully with a few flaps of her wings. She had on a charcoal grey barding that looked like some kind of uniform with pockets everywhere and a pair of silvery metal bars pinned on her collar. She also wore a matching grey cap with some kind of badge I couldn't quite make out on the front of it. She carried a canteen over each shoulder and a strange harness over her back. The harness carried some kind of boxy-looking thing with a red crystal at the end of a long rod on her left side. On her right was what I could only guess was some kind of gun, though it was a hell of a lot larger than the revolver I was carrying--its barrel must have been at least twenty millimeters in diameter!

"Careful, try not to move," she said as she started pulling debris off of me. I just kind of groaned in response, not really wanting to move anyway. Though I did wiggle my hind hooves a bit just to make sure I could still feel them.

She pulled a particularly heavy piece of wood off my side, freeing the wing it'd pinned down. I gave it a flex and winced a bit. It felt strained and bruised but at least it wasn't broken. I figured I could probably still fly if I needed to but it'd be best to stay off that wing for a while. I noticed then that the blue mare had stopped and was just looking at me. I looked up at her, watching her gaze.

"Um... is there a problem?" I asked hesitantly.

She opened her mouth and paused a moment before speaking. "You're from a stable, aren't you? Are you all alone out here?"

I gave a little nod and rolled to my side, crawling out of the rubble. "Yeah, I-" I wheezed and coughed again as I tried to speak. She took off one of her canteens and held it out to me. I sat down, grabbed the canteen in my forehooves, and took a long drink from it to settle my cough. I offered it back to her but she just held up her hoof and shook her head.

"You hold onto it," she said with a warm little smile. "I'm Starry Night," she said as she sat down across from me. "Are you alright?"

"I'm alright," I said reflexively, looking back at her. Her smile faded a little. "No, really. I'm fine. Just a few scrapes and bruises. I've had worse."

"What are you doing out here all by yourself?" she asked, reaching a forehoof towards me. I flinched away and she stopped. "You sure you're okay?"

"Y-yeah. I'm fine," I told her and took another drink from the canteen. As I went to replace the cap I noticed that I was shaking. I bit my lip and looked away from her. "I... I was exiled," I said with a heavy sigh, "I don't... I don't know what I'm doing out here." I managed to keep from breaking down and crying like a little foal. After all, there was no going back; I had to accept that and move on. Crying about it wouldn't change anything.

I took a few deep breaths and managed to steady myself. Turning back to face her, I saw that Starry had moved closer. I could make out the symbol on her cap now: a golden badge with a rampant pegasus between two columns. She was still just sitting there, watching me with wide, deep purple eyes. "What's your name?" she asked in a gentle tone.

"D-Day, ma'am," I answered, clearing my throat, "I'm sorry. I'm just trying to figure out what I'm doing out here. You're only the second pony I've met since..."

She was quiet for bit before asking, "What did they exile you for?"

I looked away from her. My ears folded back as I answered hesitantly, "I killed somepony."

There was a long silence after I said that. In the corner of my eye I saw her hoof come towards me again and again I flinched away. She paused but only briefly. "It's okay," she said reassuringly. "You said your name's Day?" I nodded and she continued reaching out to my chin, turning my head back to face her. "Is that your full name?"

I winced at her touch but didn't fight it. "Just Day, ma'am."

"Please, call me Starry," she said with an encouraging, if forced, smile. She glanced up and furrowed her brow in concern. "What happened to your ear, Day?"

I put a hoof up to my left ear. It was ragged and missing the tip. "Oh. I uh... got clipped by a fan blade while I was making repairs one time when I was little."

"In the stable? You do a lot of repair work there?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I work in maintenance. Got to know practically every inch of the stable," I said with a little bit of pride. It faded quickly though. "I mean... I used to work..."

"Did you mean to do it? Did you mean to kill somepony?" Starry asked bluntly. Her gentle tone suddenly much more serious.

"I- I- Well... it was... just-" I stammered. I bit my lip and winced then sighed and hung my head. "I didn't have a choice." I turned away again. "Please, ma'am-"

"Starry."

"...Starry. Please, can we not talk about it?"

She was silent again for a moment. Thankfully, she didn't press the issue. "Okay. You don't have to tell me about it. Are you okay to walk? We should get moving," she said as she stood up and adjusted her gear.

I turned back to look at her and she was just smiling. I could tell it was a forced smile but there was a sincere glimmer in her eyes. "You're... You're taking me with you?"

"Well I can't leave you here all alone and quite frankly I could use the company," Starry said as she took a sip from her canteen. "Plus I think I owe you," she added, turning to start walking and continuing as I followed alongside her, "I was trying to find a way down to the lower levels but the stairwell and the elevator shaft are blocked off. I was about to try clearing a way with explosives when you came crashing through. Saved me the trouble at least." Lucky for her.

I took a look around for the first time since landing down there. There was some light that came down through my hole in the ceiling but there weren't any windows and naturally the light fixtures didn't work after two centuries so there wasn't a whole lot I could see. I turned on my PipBuck light and waved my foreleg around, casting pale blue light around the room. I'd apparently fallen through into the middle of what looked like some kinda old records storage room with rows of filing cabinets lining the walls on either side.

"That's a useful little light you've got there, Day," Starry said as she tapped something that was clipped on the side of her cap. It was a small black cylinder with a clear gemstone at the front. When she tapped it the gemstone began to glow. Turning her head to scan the surroundings, she shone the light around the room.

I looked up at Starry, the light of my PipBuck making her blue coat glow brightly. "It's my PipBuck. Everypony in the stable has one. It's a very smart tool," I said, putting it rather simply, "It's got a spell matrix built into it that does a lot of different things like one spell that keeps track of the things I'm carrying or Eyes Forward Sparkle which-" I stopped at that, realizing suddenly that I hadn't been paying attention to my E.F.S..

"Um.. ma'am? Starry? I think we're surrounded by something... Something my E.F.S. says is hostile. There's a lot of 'em and they're moving around a lot."

Starry looked around, her ears swiveling about and her face scrunched up in concentration. Her expression softened after a moment though and she just smiled at me. "Sounds like it's just radroaches. Don't worry about it, I've been handling them since I got here," she said, motioning with her head to the boxy thing on her side.

I wasn't really sure what a radroach was but I figured I'd find out soon enough. Starry at least didn't seem concerned about it.

"What is that you're wearing anyway?" I asked as we walked up to the door at the front of the room. Starry held up a hoof for me to be quiet while she pressed her ear to the door before trying the handle. It was locked.

Starry practically squeed as she sat down and pulled a screwdriver out from one of her pockets. With one of her wings she deftly pulled a bobby pin out from under her cap and slipped it into the lock. Holding the screwdriver in her teeth she barely tapped the it and the lock opened right up for her. She put her tools away and took a sip from her canteen before opening the door all the way and trotting through.

"It's my battle saddle," Starry answered belatedly as we ventured out into the hallway, "It carries larger weapons more comfortably for me."

"Those are both weapons then?"

Starry just smiled and turned her head down a side hall as we passed; the light on her cap sent several large insects scurrying. I guessed those must have been the radroaches she'd mentioned. There was a loud metallic thump from the large gun on Starry's right side followed a moment later by a bright flash and an explosion down at the other end of the hallway. The roaches were little more than a gooey paste along the floor and walls afterwards.

I might have been more in awe if it hadn't left my ears ringing. Not to mention the fact that setting off an explosive in a building this close to collapsing didn't seem like any sort of good idea. "Caesar's ass! What are you thinking?" I yelled over the ringing in my ears.

Starry gave me a strange look but then started laughing. "Don't worry, they're only anti-personnel rounds. Won't do any real harm to the building." Her ears perked and she turned on the spot, aiming down the hall in the direction we'd been going, and a (thankfully quiet) beam of crimson light streaked down the hall. I caught a faint glimpse of another roach as its whole body glowed briefly before settling into a loose pile of ash.

"Magical energy rifle," Starry explained over her shoulder at me, "A solid hit with a laser will ash just about anything," she said with a cocky grin before taking another drink from her canteen.

I have to admit, I was rather impressed by her weapons and her apparent skill with them and I was grateful she wasn't pointing them at me. I just wished she had shown better judgement than to use explosives inside a building.

"Come on. The elevator should be down at the other end of this hall," Starry said, heading off without another word.

I followed after her, pausing a moment to look at the ash pile that had been one of those giant roaches. I shuddered to imagine myself in the kind of world where something that could do that existed--or worse, that such a thing was needed out here. I tried to remind myself that such a thing was the product of Old Equestria--from the war; from when ponies fought each other.

I didn't linger too long but as I followed Starry I saw that we were passing several open rooms that looked like they could have been worthwhile to scavenge through--maintenance closets, terminal rooms, and the like.

"Excuse me, ma'am, but what are you here for?"

"I told you, you can call me Starry. And I'm looking for something."

"Like scavenging you mean? 'Cuz I think we passed-"

"I'm looking for something specific and I need to get down to the bottom level to find it. Here we go." She stopped after rounding a corner at the end of the hall. We stood in front of an elevator door. Starry put her ear against it and tapped her hoof, listening for a moment before standing back with a grin. "Okay, give me a hoof with this," she said as she braced herself against the seam of the door.

I moved in beside her and together we pushed the door open. There was a screeching sound of metal against metal from a clear lack of maintenance. It sounded like the bearings hadn't been oiled in- well... two centuries I guess.

Once we had the door open Starry stuck her head in and looked down through the open shaft, her wings spread open. "Here we go!"

"Whoa! Wait!" I called out. She stopped and looked back at me. "Let me take a look at what's in there before you just jump in like that." Starry folded her wings and stepped back, giving me a nod to go ahead while she unscrewed the cap on her canteen. I leaned in and looked up, holding out my PipBuck light to so I could see. It looked like the elevator car was stopped a couple floors above us.

"You sure seem to know what you're doing," Starry commented while I was looking around.

"I basically grew up in maintenance," I said while continuing my inspection. Part of the building had shifted and bent the shaft, making it virtually impossible for the car to fall any lower without being completely demolished. There was a fair amount of debris that had collected along the sides of the shaft that would likely come loose if the building shifted, though.

"Starry, can you shine your light down so I can see the bottom?" I asked and she obliged, leaning in and looking down with me. I could see the counterweight laying at the bottom of the shaft some three stories down, the cables snapped; it was only the bend in the shaft keeping the car aloft. I couldn't see the emergency brakes from the bottom side but even if they had all failed, I reasoned it would be safe to fly down.

"Okay, looks safe, ma'am," I said.

"Starry. You should relax a little, kid," she said, giving me a pat on my shoulder which made me flinch from a bruise there. She didn't seem to notice, however, and dropped down the shaft with her wings spread. My injured wing ached as I followed after her but I made it to the bottom without complaint.

Starry was already pushing on the elevator door and I joined her, the door screeching as we opened it. We stepped out into what was apparently some kind of lobby area with seats along the walls to either side of us. There was one large desk facing the elevator and several other desks behind it.

As we trotted into the large room, shining our lights around, I realized there were several red bars on my E.F.S. that started moving around a lot faster than before. Starry had already stopped when I heard the buzzing. It was different from the chittering noises the roaches had made. I started seeing shadows moving around in the darkness and backed up behind Starry. Then one of those shadows moved into the light from Starry's headlamp.

Chirrirp.

It was some kind of bug. Small, round, with four little legs and it just sort of hovered there.

And then there was a flash and the bug disintegrated like the roach upstairs.

"Shit. Parasprites. Day, stay back and keep your eyes open. Get your pistol out. You cover the right side, I'll watch the left."

"I don't understand? What's a-"

"Gun. Now."

I hesitated. "Um, I've never fired a gun before, ma'am."

She glanced back at me, biting her lip. Her ears swiveled around, listening as the buzzing and chirping noises got louder and more numerous. "Alright. Stay behind me. You said you have an E.F.S.? Use it to tell me where they're coming from. I'll try to corral them together and take 'em all out at once."

I nodded and started following the bars on my compass. There were a lot of them and they were moving around quickly so it was hard to keep track. "There's a big group to the left."

Starry turned and fired off several rapid shots with her laser rifle. I saw a small glow where she must have hit one. "They're scattering. Most of them to the right." A few more shots streaked off through the dark while Starry kept turning her head side-to-side, shining her light around to watch for any coming close. The rest of the first group moved back to the right after a couple other bars vanished from my compass.

"They're massing on the right now."

"I see them."

I looked up from my compass and I could actually see the swarm now in the light of Starry's headlamp. Celestia above, there were dozens of them and coming straight at us now. I think I even saw one of them licking its lips.

"Fire in the hole!"

"Wha-"

Thunk.

Boom!

Starry fired off her grenade rifle and the round went off right in the middle of the swarm. I was blinded for a moment by the flash of the explosion and my ears were once again ringing.

"Are there any more?" Starry yelled. I suppose her ears were ringing as well.

The air reeked of ozone and what I could only assume was the scent of burnt and splattered parasprite. It seemed like Starry's plan had worked. I looked around, watching my E.F.S.. "I think there's a few left but they're scattered. Might not even be in this room." I certainly couldn't hear them anymore but I couldn't hear my own hoofsteps for that matter.

I pointed Starry in the general direction and sat there quietly as she told me to hang back while she secured the area. She scanned around the room briefly then headed off through the door on the left side of the room, leaving me behind to wait.

A red bar to my right started moving around and I looked over to see a lone parasprite lazily making its way toward me. It chirped and landed near me, looking up with these wide eyes that didn't hold a single glimmer of malice in them. Maybe the E.F.S. is wrong about its hostility? I wondered. I reached out a hoof and the 'sprite chirped and flew up to land on it. I smiled at the bug and I think it even smiled back.

Then it bit me.

I let out a yelp and flailed my hoof wildly, shaking it loose, before I scampered over to the other side of the room. I pulled my gun out, took aim at the parasprite and bit down.

The gun was loud. I briefly thought I might have gone deaf in one ear and felt like it nearly broke my jaw with the force of the shot. And for all that, I still missed the 'sprite.

There was a hot kick right in my thigh. It wasn't the worst pain I'd ever felt but I still dropped my gun as I yelped again and staggered back with a limp. I hadn't just missed. No, I don't deserve to be that lucky. I'd shot myself with the ricochet.

Starry came running back and reacted right away. Turning to face the last remaining parasprite, she fired off her energy rifle and the bug evaporated in a cloud of dust. She scanned around the room, swiveling her ears constantly, until she was satisfied that was the last of them. Meanwhile, I'd hobbled my way back toward the elevator and pulled my bags off so I could get a better look at the injury.

Blood ran down my hind leg from a gash just below my cutie mark. It didn't look too bad but I was more frustrated that I'd actually managed to shoot myself the very first time I ever fired a gun. As Starry approached, carrying my gun with her, I just folded my ears and looked down. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I-"

"Starry," she corrected me as she set the gun down, "And it's alright, Day." She glanced over at my saddlebag. "Let me have the key to your medkit."

"I don't have the key," I said meekly, "I just found it."

"Oh. No problem then," she said as she trotted over to the box with the faded butterfly logo, pulled out her screwdriver and bobby pin, and slipped them into the lock. She had to wiggle the pin back and forth a few times before she could finally get the lock to turn all the way.

Starry put her tools away and took a sip from her canteen before opening up the medkit. She looked inside and frowned. "Okay, well... Not much to work with but it'll do. Hold still. This is gonna hurt," she said before coming up with a pair of forceps in her mouth.

I nodded quietly and laid down on my side for her, looking back and watching as Starry leaned in with those forceps. She stuck them in the open wound and pain flared up all through my leg. I yelped loudly and kicked out with my hind leg. Starry managed to hop back out of range just before my hoof would have hit her in the face.

"Whoa there! Easy. I gotta dig it out or it won't heal right."

I sucked in a breath through gritted teeth. "Sorry."

"It's okay," Starry said calmly as she took a careful step forward. I just watched her quietly, trying to focus on my breathing while the pain died down. "Ready to try again?"

I nodded, watching as she came closer again. My leg started to tense up.

"That's an interesting cutie mark you have, Day," she said as she leaned in cautiously, not yet digging into the wound. "What's it mean?"

"It's a puzzle piece," I said rather flatly.

"It sounds pretty special to me--every piece is unique isn't it? And each one has a place where it fits in with the ones around it. Maybe you just need to find your place."

Like I hadn't heard that a dozen times growing up. "I'm just good at puzzles," I said, rolling my eyes. At least she hadn't sounded condescending while she said it.

I glanced back at her own flank, noticing her cutie mark for the first time: a pattern of stars arranged in some kind of cross shape. "What about yours?" I asked.

"That's my compass rose," she said proudly. "My talent is finding things."

"Doesn't look like a compass..."

Starry laughed, "It's a constellation. You have to see what's not there. All done by the way."

I blinked, noticing that she'd already dropped the bullet and forceps and was reaching back into the medkit. I hadn't even felt it that time. Starry pulled out a roll of bandages and started wrapping it around my leg, tying it down tight over the wound. The pressure made me wince in slight pain but it was already starting to feel better as the healing magic imbued into the bandages set to work.

Starry noticed the bite on my foreleg and held it up in her hoof. "Parasprites are dangerous," she explained as she started wrapping it in a bandage. "They eat just about anything and a just puke up more of themselves. A single 'sprite can reduce a pony to bones and leave as a swarm in no time."

I looked down at the small blood stain in the bandage and gulped while Starry closed up the medkit and helped me pull it back on. I got back on my hooves and limped over to where Starry had left my gun and stood there just looking at it for a moment before I picked it up. As I bit down on it though I felt a pain in my jaw. I tucked the pistol back into my barding and felt along my teeth with my tongue. It felt like my gums were swollen but none of my teeth had been knocked loose, so I had that to be grateful for at least. I don't imagine dental care is easy to come by in the wasteland so a loose tooth would have been incredibly annoying.

I hobbled over to one of the desks to rummage through the drawers, adding a spark battery, a hooffull of caps, and a bottle of wonderglue to my saddlebag while Starry took another pass around the room. Continuing to scavenge through the desks, I managed to collect a few other trinkets but nothing that looked especially interesting.

One drawer I searched held two wrenches. I fit one into a tool pocket on my barding and left the other. It would only weigh me down to take both and besides, why would I ever need more than one?

I would have searched more thoroughly, tried going back up to the elevator car for scrap components, or even gone looking for another maintenance closet but Starry was apparently getting impatient.

"Come on, Day. We shouldn't stay here too long, more 'sprites could wander in any time. What I need is just down this hall. We'll grab it and get out of here and I can see about helping you with your situation."

I nodded and followed quietly as Starry lead the way.

It wasn't a very long walk before Starry stopped outside a door that looked like any one of the dozens of other doors we'd passed on the way down there. How she knew it was the room she needed, I had no idea but I trusted that she knew what she was doing.

Starry sat down at the door and pulled out her her tools, setting to work on the lock.

"Shit," she cursed as her pin broke. She had to gouge at the lock with her screwdriver to pry it loose before starting over with a new pin she pulled out from under her cap. She jiggled the lock back and forth a few times before it broke the second pin.

"Arrgh! Fucking Goddesses-damned lock!" she shouted at it as she spat her screwdriver out and gave the door a kick.

I limped back a couple steps. "Are... are you alright, ma'am?"

"I'm fine," she grumbled, drinking from her canteen. She took a deep breath, picked up her screwdriver, and pulled out another bobby pin. This time she finally managed to open the lock, though not without a few more curses muffled around her screwdriver.

Starry put her tools away and pulled the door open, trotting in. I followed after her and looked around inside the room. It looked a lot like the room I'd met her in, only larger. Rows of filing cabinets seemed to stretch forever into the darkness, dimly lit by Starry's headlamp and my PipBuck light.

Chirrirp.

We came to a dead stop. I glanced at my E.F.S., reporting to Starry, "Looks like there's only one.. wait.. tw- thre- um... Shit. That's a lot." What had appeared as only one bar started spreading out rapidly, as though there had been dozens all stacked on top of each other.

The buzzing started getting loud very quickly and Starry turned in place, breaking for the door. "Shit! There's a hive in here! Move it! Run!"

That very moment, I saw the swarm as it drifted into the ambient blue glow of my PipBuck light. I didn't have to be told twice and hurried after her. The wound in my hind leg complained but I ran on despite it. It hurt, yeah, but fuck if I was gonna be eaten alive and puked back up as a swarm!

We burst through the door and I kicked it shut behind me. We both sat there, panting as we stared at the door and listened to the parasprites smacking against it. We didn't have long to feel safe though, our eyes going wide as we saw the handle start to turn.

I ran up and threw my weight against the door to hold it shut while the parasprites buzzed and rammed themselves against it. "Lock it! Lock it!" I screamed anxiously. Starry hurried over and stabbed at the lock with her screwdriver, missing it a few times before finally jamming it in and giving a hard twist. I heard the lock turn and snap as she forced it closed. Hesitantly, I stepped back from the door, watching it. It rattled a bit but the lock held.

"Fuck!" Starry ground her teeth, pacing back and forth with her tail twitching behind her. She paused to take a long drink from her canteen, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath while she fumbled with the cap a bit before getting it secured and leaving the canteen to hang back at her side.

"Um... Starry, ma'am, are you sure this is the right room? Maybe it's-"

"It's the right room," she said curtly. "We just need to... to..." She resumed pacing while muttering to herself, pausing occasionally to tap the side of her head with her hoof as if she could shake loose an idea. Her eyes looked sunken and tired, her cap was crooked, stray hairs that had come loose from her braid dangled in front of her face, and her wings flared and beat erratically, feathers ruffled. To say she looked a mess would have been putting it kindly.

I lifted my PipBuck and clicked through the menus to bring up the automap spell which gave me a rough blueprint of the surrounding area. It looked like there were no other ways in or out of that room. I started wondering if maybe there was some way we could maybe round up the parasprites like before to make them easier to deal with. Maybe a single well-placed explosive would-

"-take out the whole hive in one bang!" Starry said excitedly. I looked up. She'd managed to pull herself together apparently. Her cap was straight, her wings neatly folded to her sides and though her braid was still coming undone, she'd swept the stray hairs out of her face which was looking less strained now.

"Do what now?" I asked.

"It's so simple, come on," Starry said as she set off down the hallway at a rapid clip. I followed, keeping pace despite my wounded leg while she explained. "We can't get through that many parasprites with the guns we've got. Not with a hive in there," she said as we rounded a corner, "but the hive is right against the wall."

We stopped in front of a door and Starry put her ear to it, listening quietly for a moment before trying the handle. Locked. Without even blinking, Starry had her screwdriver and a bobby pin out. She barely tapped the lock and it opened right up for her. Letting the door swing open, Starry trotted in with a pleased grin on her face.

I followed and nearly ran into her as she stopped short, firing off three quick shots with her laser rifle. I saw two clouds of ash fall to the floor and a third parasprite drop behind a desk on the right side of the room. Starry continued without missing a beat, moving straight for the back wall, "I just have to set a shaped charge against the wall here and we'll blow the wall in over the hive, burying most of the 'sprites and then what's left I can mop up quickly. Then we grab the records and we can go. Easy."

"Whoa, whoa, wait," I said, "That's a support column right there. You'll bring the whole building down on us!"

Starry glanced at the column that was right next to the wall she was intending to demolish. She pursed her lips and tapped her chin with her hoof a few times. "Hmm. Nope. We'll be safe. Don't worry. Shaped charge. It'll all go into the wall. You'll see. Just sit tight."

She was busy rigging together... whatever it was she was rigging together. I guessed I would just have to trust her judgement. She did seem to know what she was doing after all.

Chirrirp.

"What wa-"

"The third 'sprite. I musta just dazed it. Go and finish it off, would you?" Starry's ear barely twitched when she heard the sound and she didn't even look up from what she was doing to answer the question she didn't let me finish.

I trotted around behind the desk where I'd seen the parasprite fall. Sure enough it looked like it was still alive, though it was burned pretty bad, making it a two-toned pastel green and charred black. It was barely moving, its wings buzzing occasionally as it tried to right itself. I felt kinda sad for the little thing. They actually were kinda cute when they weren't trying to eat me alive. It even showed up blue on my E.F.S..

"Day, just hurry up and stomp the thing and get over here. I need you to gimme a hoof setting this thing."

"I don't think it's any danger," I said as I turned to face her, "It's just-" I stopped as I heard a ripping sound followed by a clatter of my entire saddlebag contents spilling onto the ground. I looked back to see I'd stepped on one of the threads hanging off the frayed seams and pulled it wide open. Just my rotten luck.

I gave a sheepish grin, my ears folding back as I ducked my head when Starry came over. She didn't say anything. She didn't even look mad, she just started gathering up my things and tucking them away in her own bags.

"Sorry, ma'am. I just-"

"Starry. And it's alright, Day," she said, facing me with a smile, "We'll get it patched up when we get back to-" she stopped short, her eyes looking past me and her mouth agape in a look of mixed disbelief and horror. I turned around to look and saw that in the commotion, the surviving parasprite had snuck away from us and was now trying to fly off with the explosives Starry had been working on.

It would have been an impressive sight if it wasn't for the fact that it was far too small to be carrying that much weight and it was dragging the explosives right toward the support column. It strained and managed to actually lift the charge off the ground. Then it apparently stalled out and dropped like a high explosive rock. Starry grabbed me and pulled me down behind the desk. She laid atop me with her hooves clamped around my ears which did little to muffle the noise of the explosion that followed.

The desk was blown into us and we crashed into the wall, pinning my strained wing against it painfully. I tried to scream as I felt my whole body crushed under the weight but all the air had been squeezed out of my lungs. All of that happened within a second before the desk fell away and I collapsed on the floor. I opened my eyes and tried to stand but everything around me was spinning.

As the room started to steady I realized somepony was missing. I looked around for Starry. The wall had blown through into the next room, destroying the hive like planned after all. I felt, more than heard, the dull thud of Starry's grenade rifle going off a few times. Presumably clearing out straggling parasprites in the room. Then I realized just how bad the damage had been.

"Starry!" I yelled. At least I think I yelled. I could only hear a ringing in my ears. "Starry! The support column!" I looked up at the ceiling where the column once stood. There were big cracks and exposed rebar was poking through. I could see the cracks spreading like a completed puzzle falling apart. "Starry! We need to get out of here! Starry!"

Starry ran out of the hole in the wall while stuffing a stack of folders into her saddlebag with her wing. Her mouth was moving but I couldn't make out anything she was saying. I got the distinct impression she didn't need me to tell her the building was about to come down on top of us though. She practically shoved me out through the doorway and we took off running back to the elevator shaft.

The whole building shook and debris started falling down on us as we flew up the elevator shaft. My strained wing burned with the effort to pull me up the shaft but I pushed through it, wincing and gasping with each beat of my wings. Starry reacted to dodge the incoming debris before I could even see it so I stuck close behind her, keeping a tight formation until we emerged out the doors we'd forced open earlier.

We scrambled through the halls as the building gave another lurch. My hearing started to come back as we rounded another corner. The pain in my wing and hind leg made it hard to keep up and I was falling behind when I heard a loud crash coming from above. I skidded to a stop just as the ceiling collapsed in front of me, cutting me off from Starry.

"Starry! What do I do!" I yelled while frantically trying to pull open a hole in the fallen debris so I could fit through.

I could see through smaller holes in the rubble. Starry was looking around the edges of the debris. She paused for a moment then looked at me. "Stand back," she said calmly as she pulled out a grenade.

My eyes went wide. "Are you crazy! These are load-bearing walls!"

She wedged the grenade down low in the pile. "Day, listen to me. What I'm telling you is the honest truth: you'll be safe. Just take cover and start running the second it blows."

I bit my lip, staring at her through the rubble. I had to trust her. I galloped back down the hall and ducked around the corner, covering my ears with my hooves and cringing as I waited. I heard a muffled "Fire in the hole!" then a loud BANG! Celestia above, I could feel the wall behind me shake and creak as the explosion tore through it. I screamed. I was a goner for sure!

But I wasn't dead yet. I looked around the corner and to my amazement the walls were still standing. Shrapnel and debris were scattered everywhere and there was a hole blown through the floor but I had a clear path now. I could see Starry at the other end of the hall, motioning for me to hurry. I took off with a flying gallop after her as the whole building gave another shake. My injured wing and leg protested with every stride but I grit my teeth and kept moving.

I caught up to Starry and we took off running down the corridor together. Rounding a corner, we made it to the room where I'd fallen through and we both flew straight up through the pony-sized holes to the ground level and took off running again.

We were in the final stretch. The entrance was right ahead of us, blocked by as much rubble as it always had been but the collapsed floor from the room above gave us a clear shot to the open window I'd come in through. Or it would have given us a clear shot if the next floor up hadn't collapsed down and blocked our only exit.

"Starry!" I yelled even as we kept running straight at it.

"I see it," she said confidently. In one fluid motion she pulled out another grenade, bit out the pin, tossed it up, rounded on her front hooves and kicked out with a hindhoof. The grenade went soaring right up toward that collapsed ceiling and while still in the same motion, Starry tackled me through an open doorway to a side room. She held me down and clamped her hooves around my ears as exactly at that moment I heard the grenade explode. Before I had even fully processed what had just happened, Starry was pulling me back out of the room, yelling, "Move! Move! Move!"

The way was clear, I could see a dim amber glow through the open window and made a mad dash for it, Starry right behind me. As luck would have it though, as I sailed through the window, the pain in my wing flared as the muscles seized up. I let out a pained cry and dropped straight down to the ground alongside the building, landing hard on that same wing while Starry made a safe landing several feet away.

I coughed and gasped for breath, the wind knocked out of me. I rolled over off my wing and onto my back to see a huge chunk of the concrete wall hanging perilously several feet above me. I watched in wide-eyed horror as the rebar holding it up creaked and bent while a widening crack ran down the wall, threatening to drop it right onto me. I tried to move, to scream but I couldn't breathe. It was all I could to do just flail helplessly while struggling for air.

"Not again!" I heard Starry yell. Of course I needed saving again. She was on me in an instant, grabbing the collar of my stable barding in her teeth and pulling me out of the way. Starry dragged me across the split and rocky pavement while I continued choking to suck in air.

I heard the crack of splitting concrete followed soon after by a smash against the ground where I'd lain helplessly just a few moments before. Then the weight of two centuries came crashing down with an earth-shaking roar of tortured metal and shattered concrete. The building's collapse threw up a thick cloud of dust that swallowed us whole and luck would have it that the first deep breath I was able to take in was full of dirt.

I was nearly blacking out from suffocation by the time we stumbled our way out of the cloud, hacking and wheezing and half-blind. I downed the last of my canteen to wash the grit out of my throat and I could see Starry doing the same while I tried to rub the dust out of my eyes.

I looked back at the collapsed ruin as the cloud dispersed. I could still hear concrete crumbling as it settled down into itself. That building had stood the test of time for two centuries then I had to come along on my first day in the wasteland. Now it lay in a jumbled, gruesome heap like the rest of its brothers.

"Woo! Haha!" Starry let out a yell and began laughing. I turned to face her. She'd finished off her canteen and had pulled a metal flask out from one of her pockets. She was taking a long draught off of that now. Her face twisted up briefly and she shook her head as she let out another excited yell and stomped her hoof before capping her flask and tucking it away. "That was one hell of a race, kid," she chuckled and looked over at me with a wry grin, "So. You gonna tell me your whole name now or you gonna make me guess it? 'Cuz after a run like that there's only one thing it could be."

"It's just-" I stopped. I couldn't hold out any longer it seemed. "I'm..." I hung my head and sighed, "I'm Lucky. Lucky Day."

And that's when it started raining. Next Chapter: Chapter 2: The Schoolyard Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 51 Minutes

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