Fallout Equestria: Redemption
Author: Cooperdawg
Chapter 5: Tales of the Dead
“The dead. We are surrounded by the dead.”

The night passed only slowly as I lay on my bed in the Drunken Mare, listening to the regular breathing of my friends and companions as they slept. It seemed like it had been so easy for them to find the solace of sleep, but that same comfort was eluding me tonight. The last twenty-four hours had been filled with so much insanity that I could barely wrap my head around even the smallest of those events, and it was that lack of understanding that was driving me to sleeplessness.

It was moments like this one that led me to miss my journal even more. It had been such a great aid in allowing me to organize my thoughts and emotions, and its absence was making itself felt now.

I rolled over and my eyes sought out Autumn Mist, who was sleeping off in a corner, rifle laid carefully out in front of her, of their own volition. That mare had me seriously confused, and I knew as a fact that that confusion was a large part of why I couldn’t find rest right now. She still hated me, that much was painfully obvious in the way she watched me and how she behaved towards me, yet I couldn’t bring myself to return her anger, as I normally would have done.

When I looked on the dark mare, all I could feel was a pit of sadness and regret open up in my heart. Sadness at everything she had had to endure since I had murdered her parents, and regret at the fact that I could not remember the day I had killed them. They had been that insignificant to me at that point in my life. The worst part of the whole deal was that I felt like I deserved her hatred.

I sighed and tore my gaze away from the mare, rolling back over and looking towards the other side of the room, where Crosswire was curled up, hooked up to another blood pack that Suture had rigged up before they both drifted off, Crosswire because of how weak he was from the injury Autumn had inflicted, and Suture because of her exhaustion after treating Crosswire for the last day.

As well as the two of them were getting along now, I couldn’t help but feel like I had forced Suture into this venture through something I may have said to her in Metro. As valuable as she had been to us, she was not cut out to be traveling the wasteland. Without her, Crosswire would be dead, I could not lie about that fact, but I feared that my choices out there, through some combination of recklessness and blatant ignorance, would get her killed. I had only known her for a very short time, but already I knew that I wouldn’t be able to bear it. I had already come to rely on her advice and abilities, probably more than I should have been, but she had the kind of personality that made her somepony that was easy to rely on.

The fact that I could actually consider her a friend now filled me with joy. I doubted anypony could find two ponies in all of Equestria who were more diametrically opposed. Where I found it easy to hate others, or at least find a reason to fight them to protect myself, she looked for any reason she could to find the better side of everypony she met. She had done it with me, and it was that influence that led me to be where I was now.

Then there was Crosswire. He had proven to me over and over again, both in the past as well as over the last few days that I could rely on him for almost anything. That he had almost been killed was a sobering thought. You never expected the ponies closest to you capable of being beaten. It could happen to others, easily; all I had to do was think about the ponies I had killed at the Iron Hooves camp. How easy it had been to kill them, and there I was, thinking that Crosswire was special in some way, hell, that I was special in some way. Had anypony tried to attack my camp while I was still in charge, they would have been slaughtered, or so I thought, at least.

It was a helpful reminder that we were all vulnerable, and that all of us were at risk of being killed in a moment of weakness or inattention. But that thought didn’t make me feel better about anything, and it certainly wasn’t helping me relax enough to get some sleep.

Finally giving the prospect up for hopeless, I pushed myself to my hooves and tiptoed around my companions, sliding carefully out the door. I made my way down to the bar and was surprised to find that several ponies were still awake and drinking. Even more surprising was that Pearlescent was still awake. Since she was obviously the one that ran the place, I would have expected there to be somepony running the bar in her stead while she slept during the night. So she either had much more endurance than I had guessed, or tonight was an exception.

Either way, it wasn’t stopping me from taking a seat at the bar. I sat down heavily, sighing. Unsurprisingly, Pearlescent was almost instantly in front of me.

“Decided to re-think my offer?” she asked, raising an eyebrow seductively.

“Nope,” I answered, shaking my head, “Just can’t sleep. No offense, but I don’t look at mares that way. Stallions are more than enough for me.”

The white mare nodded understandingly. “I thought you had that look about you, but a mare never knows. It’s always polite to offer. What can I get ya?”

I chuckled despite everything and lifted out my bottle of Apple Whiskey. “Nothing for me, thanks. Found this little gem a couple days ago. Think I’m going to nurse it for a bit.”

Pearlescent arched her head to get a look at the label, then started in surprise. “You found a bottle of Ponyville Apple Whiskey! How in the hay did you manage that?”

“Found it in the fridge of a locked-up house half a day south of Metro,” I answered, shrugging. It didn’t seem like that big a deal to me. The whiskey was good, sure, but it didn’t seem like anything special.

The barkeep shook her head in disbelief. “I would have given both my hindlegs to get my hooves on a bottle of that whiskey,” she mused, eyeing the bottle with obvious longing.

“What’s on the table for a shot?” I asked, sliding the bottle over to the mare. I figured I owed her that much for setting us up for the night, even if we were paying.

Pearlescent almost jumped up into the air in surprise, her face bearing an expression of absolute joy. “I’d say free lodging for the night, and another one, should you and your friends need it,” she answered, sliding a pouch full of caps over to me before taking the bottle in her hooves and taking a large gulp. She sat the bottle back down a long second later, smacking her lips in delight. “That was one of the most wonderful things I have ever had the pleasure of tasting,” she muttered, her eyes half closed, “Thank you, Evergreen.”

I nodded as I counted out the caps, “Anytime.” There was exactly as much as I had paid her earlier that night.

“So exactly what is keeping you from sleeping, dear?” the barkeep asked a few minutes later when it was obvious that I wasn’t going to be starting a conversation anytime soon.

I sighed heavily before answering. It seemed like I’d been doing that a lot lately. “Just a lot of things going on in my mind. My life got turned upside-down a few days ago, and it’s been a struggle adjusting.”

“That happens a lot out in the wasteland, I’ve seen,” Pearlescent said, “What was the change in your life that pulled you all the way out here?”

The question was innocent enough, but I hesitated in answering it. I was comfortable with the idea of who and what I was now, but most ponies were not very forgiving. I was still deciding how best to answer the question when the white mare spoke again.

“So it was that kind of past, huh?” she asked with a knowing look, “Mind if I take a guess?”

“Why not,” I said, shrugging and taking another pull from the whiskey. How much harm could it really be?

“Ok. Believe it or not, your name is actually familiar to me. At least, part of your name seems familiar. I used to live in Metro until a few years ago. Had to leave for some personal reasons, but I was around for long enough to hear about the raider gangs to the south. I’m guessing something happened for you to want to get out of that life?” she offered.

I nearly spat my drink out on the table in shock, but that would have been a waste of good alcohol. So instead, I choked on it. The coughing fit lasted a solid minute before I finally got myself under control and looked up at the mare with tear-filled eyes. She had a bemused expression on her face.

“Judging by your reaction, I’d say I hit the nail on the head,” she said, actually grinning at me, “And don’t worry. I’m not going to say a word to anypony. It’s plain to see that you’re not living that life anymore. Besides, I recognize that maroon pony you’re traveling with. Can’t remember her name, but I know she wouldn’t travel with a raider unless she had no choice, but it looked like she was with you of her own free will.”

I nodded emphatically, “Yeah, she actually almost forced herself on us. Not that I’m complaining. If it weren’t for her, Crosswire would be dead. But at the same time, she has absolutely no survival skills or even instincts. I’m worried that I may end up doing something that will get her killed.”

Pearlescent nodded slowly in agreement. “I always knew that one would be more suited to city life. But she chose to come with you, knowing the risks. To that end, her life is only your responsibility so far as all of your companions’ lives are your responsibility. Don’t go out of your way to keep her safe. You’ll only end up getting yourself killed that way. Treat her exactly the same as anypony else.”

“That’s just it. I don’t think I could manage that,” I muttered, drawing my hoof through a small puddle of some congealing drink and drawing little shapes on the countertop, “She’s vulnerable, but she also makes herself a target. Also, none of us have any sort of medical skills beyond knowing how to drink a potion or bind a simple flesh wound. Without her… I don’t know…” I trailed off, staring down at the counter.

I felt a hoof on my shoulder and looked up to see Pearlescent leaning in close to me. “Then do what you think is right. Just know that trying to keep her safe is going to be an added risk to you, and you’ll need to plan accordingly. “

I nodded my understanding. “Thanks, Pearlescent. It’s just eating at me, knowing that I might not be able to keep her safe.”

“Good. That means you care. So exactly what brought you out to Millberry?” the barkeep asked, changing the subject abruptly.

“Mercenary work, for Metro. The mayor down there is looking to build alliances with some other settlements. Frankly, I agree with him since Crosswire and I found a recording down by Grovedale talking about somepony by the name of Seahawk setting his sights on the entire Seaddle region. This was our first stop. Now, we need to go all the way back down to Metro to bring the mayor your governor’s counteroffer. He told us that he needs a water purifier or recycler for the city if he’s going to agree to an alliance, so we need to talk to the mayor to see if he can supply one,” I answered.

“Hmmm, interesting,” the barkeep mused, “I doubt he’d be willing to part with technology like that, but I also happen to know of a place where you should be able to get your hooves on one, if you’re willing to take a risk.”

That piqued my interest. “Depending on the risk, I’m willing. There’s not a lot out there that I haven’t seen, and Crosswire is right there with me. We should be able to handle it. Where is this place?”

“There’s an old Stable not too far from here, Stable 60, I think. Last anypony knew, it was still sealed. The chance that anypony is still alive down there are fairly small, so you should be able to get in and out without a whole lot of danger,” Pearlescent explained.

It seemed too easy to me. “And if those ponies are still alive? Then what? And what about this risk you’re talking about? If everypony in there is dead, how would there be a risk?” I asked.

Pearlescent sighed. “And that’s the problem. If there are ponies there still alive, you obviously can’t take the purifier. And the risk comes from the fact that Stable-Tec isn’t known for having made lasting societies in their Stables. As far as I know, almost none have survived until now; most are nothing more than savaged ruins. That’s where the risk lies. If some Stable-Tec experiment went wrong in there, then it’s been sealed inside for two hundred years. Who knows what could be behind that door.”

I remained silent as I considered the information. If it did work out, and we did manage to get our hooves on a water purifier, that would really simplify my job and guarantee getting that bonus. And in the worst case, we would simply back out of the Stable and go back to my original plan. I knew we would be smart enough to not simply crash around inside. We would be careful and make sure we had a clear path back out before moving forward. “All right. I think we could handle that. Exactly where is this Stable?” I finally asked.

Pearlescent gave me some more specific directions. According to her, the Stable was a short journey to the west, maybe a few hours of walking would get us there. If Crosswire was up to it, which I knew he would be, we could leave once they all woke up. If we were lucky, the Stable would be empty and there would be a working purifier. Now I only had to pray that I would be so lucky.

We spent the next several hours making small talk, more or less just trying to pass the time. It wasn’t long before I stowed the whiskey back in my saddlebags and was just drinking water. I didn’t want to be drunk when we went after the purifier after all.

The bar was just beginning to lighten with the coming morning when Pearlescent excused herself to prepare breakfast. By the time she returned, back laden with several plates of cooked or raw fruits and vegetables, as well as some obviously preserved pre-war food, all three of my companions had risen and joined me at the bar. Where she got the fresh food from was a complete mystery, but I wasn’t going to question good food.

Suture was fretting over me, making sure that I was okay since I hadn’t slept all night. It took me almost ten minutes to convince her that I was fine and that I just needed to think some things over. In truth, I was surprised at how awake I was. Most would be exhausted after the day we’d had, and while I had been, the conversation with Pearlescent had left me feeling oddly refreshed.

I took the opportunity of everypony being distracted with breakfast to explain about the Stable, and the opportunity it presented. They all remained silent while I spoke, though it was an attentive silence, rather than one of ignorance. By the time I was finished, Suture was sitting completely dumbstruck, Crosswire was eyeing me with a confident look, and Autumn was glaring at me, as if to say ‘are you fucking serious?’.

“So what do you think?” I asked as I wrapped up my plan, “If we’re lucky, all of our work will already be done for us. I’d say any chance of risk is worth that, especially since it solves all of our problems out here.”

Autumn was the first to respond. “You’re out of your Celestia-damned mind!” she shouted, “Have you ever been in any of those old Stables? They’re deathtraps, every single one! I got stuck in 45 a couple years ago, and was damn lucky that I got out with my life, much less anything else.”

“But this one could be different,” I argued,” Pearlescent told me that this one is probably still sealed, so nothing from the wasteland has had a chance to get in. Only thing we’ll have to deal with are the ponies who might still be alive on the inside, if they even survived this long. You never know given the social experiments that Stable-Tec designed.”

“They didn’t focus only on social differences,” Autumn ground out, “but scientific ones as well. The shit I dealt with in 45 wasn’t from the wasteland. It was from the remains of the experiment Stable-Tec set up in there.”

“In that case, we’ll deal with whatever is there when we get that far. It just seems to me like this is our best opportunity to seal the deal with the governor here. What about the rest of you?” I asked, turning to Crosswire and Suture.

“I don’t know if Crosswire is up to…” Suture started, but was quickly cut off by the ragged buck.

“I’m fine. I’ve been on my ass for far too long, and I’m starting to feel useless. Sure, I’m still a little weak, but I can fight, if need be. I’m good to go. Evergreen and I have faced more than enough dangers together that we should be able to handle anything we run into in there,” he interrupted, “I’m in.”

The medical pony simply looked from Crosswire to me, then back before finally shaking her head in defeat. “Fine. If you’re so intent to keep getting yourselves hurt, I guess there’s nothing I can do to stop it. I’m in. Somepony needs to make sure you lot stay in one piece.”

“So it’s settled then!” I announced happily, “Once you’re all done eating, we can leave. From what Pearlescent told me, it’s a few hours west of here, so it’ll take us a while to get out there, and I’d rather have the chance of starting our way back while it’s still light out than knowing we’re going to be traveling during the night.”

“I don’t think anything is settled,” Autumn argued adamantly, “You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, Evergreen! Those Stables are dangerous, more so than most everything else!”

“Nopony is making you come with us, Autumn,” I pointed out, “but Crosswire and Suture are with me, so I’m going. You haven’t seen and heard what we have. Metro needs this alliance if it’s going to survive the coming storm, and so will Millberry. The best way to make that happen is to go to the Stable. So, are you in or not?”

The mare grumbled darkly to herself for a few moments before finally glaring at me, “Fine, but when this fucking escapade falls flat on its face, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Works for me. All I need are my saddlebags and I’ll be ready to go. Like I said, I would suggest leaving as soon you’re done eating,” I said as I stood to head back up to our room.

Everyone nodded in agreement then turned their attention back to their food. The meal had a noticeably different atmosphere to it now as everypony considered what we were going to be facing.

Twenty minutes later we had our bags and were about to head out. As we were walking for the door of the Drunken Mare, Pearlescent called out to us. “I’ll keep your room ready for you for when you get back!” she said, “Just make sure that you do come back!”

“We’ll do our best,” I answered, nodding my appreciation at her concern, then stepped out the door.

Millberry was a very different town during the day time, even given today’s heavy rain. Ponies were everywhere, going about their daily business, and everypony seemed to have a job. Even more surprising, they seemed to actually be happy. Many of the citizens gave us cheerful smiles or waved at us as we walked by, despite our blatant display of weaponry. It was rather refreshing, to be honest. I was used to everypony glaring at me or making feel otherwise unwelcome.

It didn’t take long until we were out past the walls and into the wasteland proper. Today the rain was coming down heavily, quickly soaking all of us straight through our barding and all the way down to our bones. Since we were all used to this kind of deluge, we trudged on, sticking to higher ground when we could so we wouldn’t have to walk through the mud that was gathering in the lower areas.

The rain had driven most other forms of life to ground, but we could see a few dark shapes moving out on the horizon, though none of them came close enough for my E.F.S. to identify whether or not they were hostile. Honestly, if they stayed that far away, I could care less.

The one good thing about the rain is that it hid us rather well from any prying eyes. If anypony other than us was out here, they would probably be more concerned with getting in out of the weather, rather than going after us. Except for one pony, my mind insisted.

Thinking of that, my mind turned to why we were out here: to enable alliance between two towns so that the Seaddle region could maintain itself. I had been forgetting that there was somepony out there who was most likely hunting me down with the intent to make my life a living hell, and I knew next to nothing about him except for the fact that he was a ruthless and skilled mercenary.

Most ponies I had to fight either had no formal training or very little experience, but Greymane sounded different. He sounded like somepony who had actually learned how to fight before being forced to it. Somepony like that was much more dangerous than they appeared. And I had managed to cross him.

As a result of that line of thinking, I started watching our surroundings with much greater intensity, keeping on the lookout for anything that might have been out of place, but in the kind of gloom we were traveling through, nothing was apparently obvious, and I knew from experience that nothing would present itself. Besides, you couldn’t build a career like Greymane’s and make the kind of mistakes that would allow somepony like me to spot you in the wasteland. I would just have to wait and see what would happen, but that was not going to make me give up on being wary.

As I had expected, the journey took us several hours, and the destination was far from what any of us had expected. The cave in which the entrance to the Stable was hidden appeared to be just like any other cave: a small slit in a rock that offered just enough space for a pony to wriggle through. I knew from the looks on everypony’s face that they had been expecting something much grander as well.

“So who’s going through first?” Autumn asked, “Since I don’t do too well at close quarters, I would much rather it not be me.” She had her rifle out and was surveying the hillsides around us, obviously uncomfortable at being this close to a Stable.

I still couldn’t understand her fear of them. They were simply another form of pre-war ruin. Sure, they had been designed to survive for a couple of centuries, but many of the buildings that hadn’t been built for longevity had survived as well. It seemed to me that her fear was entirely unfounded.

“I’ll take point,” I answered, hoping that my confidence would at least inspire the dark mare to gain some herself, “Crosswire, you’ll come in after me, followed by Suture, then Autumn. First thing we do once we’re inside is clear the cavern. I don’t want any surprises sneaking up on us while we try to unseal the door.”

After everypony nodded their acknowledgement, I started forcing my way into the cave. It was a close fit, but wasn’t nearly close enough for me to get stuck. Once I was a few feet in, I heard Crosswire start in after me, the sound of his breathing echoing loudly down the tunnel. I winced, knowing that if there was anything waiting for us at the other end, they would know we were coming.

Regardless, I pressed on. We were committed to this plan, and so I would see it through. The end of the tunnel opened up on a large, circular cavern. The far wall was taken up almost entirely by the door to the Stable. It was huge, easily ten feet across and made of solid metal. It was shaped like a gear and fit snugly in its frame, leaving not even enough space for a breath of air to pass through. As Pearlescent had told me, it was closed. My eyes fixed on the door, focusing on the large number 60 painted on its face, and started towards it, completely ignorant of my surroundings.

“Well, what have we here?” A voice muttered from the shadows to my right, “Somepony coming down into my home? Maybe she wants to see what’s behind the door. Too bad she’s never going to know…”

I snapped my head to the right, and saw a red bar on my E.F.S. It belonged to a ragged green buck with a black mane. I slowed to a stop, watching him carefully. His voice had carried obvious hints of insanity, and I wasn’t going to risk doing anything stupid.

“There’s another one. Her lover, maybe…” another voice, this one low and rasping, said, this time coming from my left. It held just as much crazy as the first buck.

I took a step back, swinging my head around to find the source of the second voice. It belonged to another buck, this one grey with a white mane, but, on top of that, he had wings. I swung my head back to the first buck, and noticed his wings as well. They were both Pegasi, but that made no sense. What would two Pegasi be doing all the way out here?

I took a closer look at the green buck, focusing on his flank, or, more specifically, his cutie mark. It had been branded off, leaving in its placing a bastardization of an old, pre-war symbol: the cutie mark of the war hero Rainbow Dash. The branded cloud and thunderbolt stood out starkly against the buck’s hide, and the edges were swollen and red, obviously badly infected. This must have been a branding gone badly wrong. These two bucks were probably suffering from a heavy fever, which most likely was causing their behavior.

“Evergreen, what’s going on here?” Crosswire muttered, coming up beside me. His SMG was out and floating next to him, pointing roughly towards the grey Pegasus.

“Two Dashites, obviously crazy,” I answered, pitching my voice so that only Crosswire could hear, “best watch yourself. They could be unpredictable.”

“Why are they hiding down here? Everypony knows the Enclave doesn’t chase down the Dashites. If their crimes were that bad, they’d just execute ‘em,” he muttered, his eyes fixed on his target.

Before I could answer, the first Pegasus spoke, “Ooh, there’s another one. A very pretty mare. This could be a very good day.”

I turned my head just enough to see Suture coming out of the tunnel. “This isn’t good. We need to act, and fast,” I whispered, lifting my right foreleg leg slightly so Hammer was closer within my reach.

Crosswire nodded his head in agreement. “I’ll take the fucker on the left.”

I nodded curtly and turned to focus on the green buck. “We don’t want any trouble,” I stated, “We were just looking for a spot out of the rain.” I didn’t care that I was lying. At this point, I was trying to get these two bucks to lower their guard. With Autumn coming in after Suture, our way out was temporarily blocked, so going forward was our only way out of this.

To my despair, the buck shook his head at me and grinned wickedly. “No can do. You were kind enough to drop in on us. I think it’s only fair that we show you some, heh, hospitality.” He reached down behind a rock and pulled out a wicked-looking weapon studded with various components whose purpose I could only guess at. It was obviously an energy weapon.

As soon as the weapon shifted towards me, I was moving, ripping Hammer from its holster and diving to the side. I felt Crosswire do the same thing towards the left as two beams crossed right where we had been standing a moment before, one of which was red, the other green. One of these two fuckers had a plasma weapon.

I came to my hooves a short distance away, Hammer still in my grip. I wasted no time in settling my aim and pulling the trigger. The round slammed home in the green buck’s chest with enough energy to knock him back off his feet. Somehow, my shot must have missed his heart as he struggled weakly, blood pooling around the remains of his chest.

A staccato of gunfire echoed from the other side of the cavern as Crosswire dodged another attack and opened fire. The grey Pegasus cried out in agony and fell heavily to the floor, where another burst silenced him.

I walked up to the green buck, Hammer held ready for any tricks. “You should have stood down,” I said darkly, “We were both obviously better armed and prepared than either of you.”

“Enclave… never backs… down,” the buck wheezed in one last attempt at defiance before finally expiring.

I stood over the body for a few moments, trying to puzzle out the meaning of his last statement. What the hell did he mean, Enclave never backs down? The definition of being a Dashite was that they were disenchanted with the Enclave and wanted a different life. But that buck had sounded like he was still loyal to them, insanity notwithstanding. On top of that, he obviously knew how to handle that energy weapon, and there weren’t very many ponies, Dashites or otherwise, outside of the Enclave that knew how to do that. It was just another mystery to add to my growing pile.

“You all right, Evergreen?” Crosswire asked from where he was checking the grey buck’s body for valuables.

I looked over in time to see him pulling out spare energy cells to a laser pistol and pocket them, followed quickly by the pistol itself. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just trying to figure something out. This buck sounded like he was still loyal to the Enclave, yet he’s branded as a Dashite, which doesn’t make sense.”

“He’s also insane,” Crosswire pointed out, trotting over to where I was.

At this point, Autumn had joined us. “Uh, what the hell happened down here?” she asked, a hard edge in her voice that was obviously directed at me.

“Dashites,” Crosswire answered, “and crazy ones. They attacked us. Just ask Suture if you don’t believe me.” He crouched down and started rummaging through the buck’s bags, revealing a few energy cells and a couple of caps.

I turned away from the bloody sight and walked over to the two mares. Suture looked like she was going to be visibly sick, but Autumn had an angry look on her face. “I tried to talk them down, but they weren’t sane. Trust me, I wish this could have turned out differently. As it is, I’m just happy nopony got hurt.” With a glance over to the bodies, I amended, “Well, none of us, at least.”

The dark mare held her gaze for a few moments before looking away and grumbling to herself. She stalked over to an isolated corner, where she pulled out her rifle and started to clean it, drying out the parts from the rain.

I shook my head and turned to Suture, who simply gave me a short nod that she was going to be okay, then walked to where Crosswire was examining the Stable door’s opening mechanism.

“How’s it look?” I asked, peering past him to try to see what he was doing. As usual, nothing I saw made any sense to me.

“I’ll say this much: Stable-Tec knew what it was doing when they were building their Stables. Getting through this door isn’t going to be easy. How are they?” he asked, nodding his head towards where Autumn and Suture were waiting.

“They’ll be fine. Autumn is simply pissed, and Suture still isn’t used to seeing dead ponies outside of an infirmary,” I answered, “Can you do it?”

He remained silent for a few moments as he considered the question. “It’ll be tough, but yeah, I think I can pull it off. All it comes down to is the components and electrical systems, anyway. I just need to figure out how they interact. From there, it’ll be a piece of cake.”

I nodded dumbly at his response. Not a word he had said made any sense to me. I knew what components and electrical systems were, but everything beyond that was pure gibberish to me.

“All right. You work on that. I’ll prepare a quick meal in the meantime. We could use the extra energy before we try to tackle this thing, if it really is as dangerous as Autumn’s been implying,” I said, leaving the buck to his work.

At this point, he was so absorbed in the door’s mechanisms that he barely even acknowledged the fact that I had spoken. All I got was a nod of his head and a murmur that might have been ‘ok’ before he lost himself in his work.

I stepped off to one side of the cave, far enough away from the two bodies that they weren’t immediately obvious, and started to pull out some of my various provisions, most of which consisted of preserved pre-war snacks.

It took them a while, but eventually the other two mares joined me. Suture was beginning to look a much healthier shade of maroon, while Autumn appeared to be calming down fairly significantly. At least, she no longer looked like she wanted to put a bullet in my head anytime in the near future.

“So will he actually be able to get that door open?” Suture asked as she unwrapped a snack cake and nibbled at one corner.

I looked over to where the buck was hunched over the control panel, a mass of wires around him as he slowly gutted the system, looking for anything that might let him open it. “If there’s anypony I’ve ever met who could get that door open, it would be him,” I answered, “I have yet to see a door or terminal that he could not crack. Even this one won’t stand against him. All he needs is a little time.”

When I said that, I didn’t know how true it would be. The three of us finished our meal fairly quickly, but since there wasn’t a whole lot to be said out here, or, at least I didn’t want to bring up any of the issues that were plaguing me while our safety wasn’t assured, we simply sat in silence.

After a short while, Suture dozed off, and it seemed that even Autumn Mist was starting to struggle to keep her eyes open. I glanced down at my Pipbuck and scrolled through some of its menus, or at least the few that were available to me.

I only had limited access to the inventory management; while it would organize my bags, it didn’t make getting anything out any easier. If it had been capable of that, there would have been several instances in the last few days where my .45 would have come into play. But beyond the inventory, the map was next to useless, showing nothing except a blank screen of the area, when I had heard stories that it labeled everything from major settlements to small, abandoned shacks out in the middle of nowhere.

I shook my head sadly as I scrolled past the radio section. That one had never worked, and it was one of the few functions I was fairly sure I would have used a lot. I remembered from living in Grovedale and listening to the clunky pre-war radios that some of the shops and residents that the stations often gave away information on what various settlements were doing and where the caravans were in their cycles, not to mention a lot of practical information that would help just about anypony survive out in the wasteland, or aid a raider in choosing a mark.

But the single biggest feature that my broken Pipbuck was missing, by far, was S.A.T.S., short for Stable Assisted Targeting System. It was the programmed spell that would slow time down to the point where the entire world seemed to come to a halt and give the user time to line up the perfect shot, or even simply analyze the situation without fear of being eviscerated. Or so I had heard. I had never come across anypony with a working Pipbuck, except for one buck from when I had been a young filly, but he hadn’t allowed me to play with, or even see, any of its really cool features.

I sighed and looked up at the sealed door. If I was lucky, I would be able to fix that problem today. This was a Stable, so there should be several of these hardy computers stored away somewhere down there. The stories went that everypony born and raised in a Stable got one, so that meant that they had to have enough to support a growing population. The fact that I might not be able to get one never even crossed my mind as Crosswire let out an excited yell and jumped up from the controls in joy.

“Haha! I got it!” he exclaimed and slammed his hoof down on a lever on the console.

A siren started up, so loud that I clamped my hooves over my ears in an attempt to save my battered ears. Just as I thought it couldn’t get any louder, a terrible grinding filled the air, setting my teeth on edge and nearly rendering me deaf as it echoed throughout the cavern. I threw myself on the ground, trying to do anything I could to put something between my ears and the incredible volume.

When the noise finally ended, I hesitantly lifted my head and looked around. The massive Stable door was now open, revealing a portal into the dark confines of the centuries-old bunker. Crosswire stood just in front of the portal, chest thrust out, with a victorious smile on his face.

I pulled myself back onto my hooves and readjusted my barding, making sure everything was still in place, then glared at Crosswire. “Thanks for the warning,” I said darkly. Inwardly, I was extremely happy that he managed to pull it off, considering what those things were designed to withstand.

All he did was shrug in reply. “Sorry, we can’t all be this successful,” he said, his grin broadening, “We ready to move?”

I looked around the cavern, noting that Autumn and Suture were gathering themselves after the surprise and nodded, “I don’t see why not. We’ve had enough time to regain our energy, and I want to get back to Millberry. Let’s get in there and find what we need.”

We took a few moments to get together the supplies we had out, then stepped into the Stable. Completely against my expectations, the walls were covered in dirt and grime, and layers of dust had built up in the corners. It seemed that any kind of maintenance had been halted decades ago. And judging from the lack of anypony appearing to greet us, I doubted that whatever society had existed down here was still surviving.

“I have a bad feeling about this…” Autumn trailed off nervously as we approached the stairway leading deeper underground.

I still couldn’t understand the source of her discomfort. What could there possibly be down here that would present a danger to us? It appeared that everypony down here was dead, so what threat would there be other than a few decomposed corpses and skeletons? “We’ll be fine, Autumn,” I stated, “Between your rifle, Crosswire’s SMG, and Hammer, we’ll be fine. I don’t think anything Stable-Tec cooked up will be enough to overcome three hardened wastelanders.”

“Don’t underestimate the madness of what Stable-Tec thought up. Those fuckers destroyed almost as many lives as the apocalypse did,” Autumn snapped, “I don’t trust a fucking thing those sadists put together.”

I shrugged and kept walking, climbing down the stairs until they deposited us into what could only be the Stable’s atrium. I paused for a moment, considering what direction we would want to go in. Chances were that a water purifier would be in the lower maintenance section, but a sealed stable, or recently opened, in this case, provided a unique salvaging opportunity. A lot of the tech that Stable-Tec dumped in these things was designed to last centuries. If we could get our hooves on some of it and drag it out with us, we would be set for a lifetime. And the best place to find an accounting of that tech would be the Overmare’s office…

I cast about, searching for a sign, and finally found one, pointing down a side hallway. “That way,” I said, pointing a hoof towards it, “The Overmare’s office will have records of where all the machinery is, not to mention any other goodies that are down here.”

“Are you out of your mind?!” Autumn snapped, grabbing my tail to stop me from moving forward, “We came down here for one thing, and one thing only: the recycler. If we lose track of that, we’ll be stuck down here when the shit hits the fan and whatever horrors Stable-Tec cooked up find us. We need to go straight to maintenance, that way,” she waved a hoof towards a stairwell leading down, “grab the recycler, and leave. Nothing more.”

“And waste this opportunity, I don’t think so,” Crosswire cut in, “I’m with Evergreen. Our best opportunity will be if we find out everything that’s stashed down here and bring out as much as we can.”

“Arrgh, you’re both fucking insane!” Autumn exclaimed, “Suture, you’re with me, right? We need to get what we came with and get out!”

The medical pony remained silent as she considered the situation. “I don’t know…” she finally muttered, “You make a good point, Autumn, but Evergreen is right. If we can bring out more pieces of working technology with us, we’ll be able to help a lot more ponies. Besides, we haven’t seen anything that would constitute a threat, and this is the main room of the Stable. If anything had gone wrong, surely some of the ponies down here would have made it this far before it got them, but I don’t see anything out of place. I’m with Evergreen, we should take advantage of this, and I’m not normally one to say that.”

I nodded in appreciation to the maroon pony, then stepped out into the atrium. “As you keep saying, Autumn, the quicker we move the quicker we get out,” I stated, grinning.

“And we’re all gonna end up fucking dead…” the dark mare muttered as she followed me out.

We made our way quickly through the atrium and down the hallway to the Overmare’s office. The door was locked when we arrived, but was absolutely no match for Crosswire. In less than a minute, we were inside.

Inside, the room was a scene of chaos. Papers were flung about as if by a whirlwind and various desk implements were strewn about the floor. What little furniture that wasn’t bolted to the floor was also cast about, broken into pieces.

I stepped over a shattered chair arm towards the large, circular desk, fairly certain that the only reason it, and the computer resting on it, was still in one piece because it had been designed to withstand that kind of treatment. Sitting behind the console was a badly decomposed skeleton, the remains of the last Overmare.

I gently pushed the remains to the side; there was no reason to disrespect the dead, especially not when they had come to an end like this one. Surprisingly, the terminal the body had been facing was still active, and already had access granted… This pony must have died while working on the terminal.

“Find anything interesting yet, Evergreen?” Crosswire asked from one corner of the room where he was rummaging through a series of lockers.

“Yeah, the last Overmare. At least, what’s left of her,” I answered, “And her terminal, already with full access.” I looked over to where Autumn was standing uncomfortably off to one side, watching all of us with a disapproving glare. “Autumn, can you watch the door? If you happen to be right, and there is something down here just waiting to kill us, I want you to be the first thing it meets. I’d be surprised if anything could survive a direct shot from that rifle of yours.”

“Even me?” Crosswire asked from where he was, a distinct note of anger in his voice.

“Hey, we worked our asses off to save yours,” I shot back at him, “and trust me, it wasn’t easy. If you could back her up once you’re done there, I would appreciate it.”

The buck shrugged noncommittally and returned his attention to the lockers.

I sighed and lifted a hoof to the keyboard, where I selected the first bit of highlighted text. Immediately, the voice of a young mare filled the air. “This is a pre-recorded message from Stable-Tec headquarters in Canterlot. If you are hearing this, then your Stable has been activated and you have been sealed off from the surface to protect you and your control group from almost certain death. This is now the time for the selected Overmare to open her sealed orders and conduct the Stable in the guidelines set forth by Stable-Tec. This pre-recorded message is now ending.”

As soon as the message ended, I could feel everypony’s eyes on me. “What’s the next one? Is it Stable-Tec’s orders?” Suture asked, stepping up beside me and looking at the screen.

“I don’t know,” I answered, “but I’m going to find out.” Resolutely, I reached out and selected the next line of text on the screen.

Again, a mare’s voice came from the terminal, but this time a different mare. “This is the first journal entry of the Stable 60 Overmare, Clockwork. The Stable sealed itself only three hours ago, and I have just finished reading my sealed orders. Celestia above, I can’t believe it’s come to this. I barely made it in time ever since those bombs just started dropping… everywhere, simply everywhere. I’m amazed that we managed to keep the door open as long as we did. By Luna, there must be so many dead…” the voice trailed off and there was a sound that might have been sobbing. “Ok, it’s going to be ok, Clockwork,” the voice muttered as the mare tried to calm herself, “You can do this. Our orders are to live as we did before the war, except the environmental systems are rigged for there to be a higher level of background radiation than usual, meant to simulate a world that survives an apocalypse like the one we just experienced, I guess. Apparently Stable-Tec was trying to plan for the worst after all. We have been given an extremely large supply of Rad-Away, to assist with any complications that may arise as a result of the higher radiation. I still can’t believe everything could have gotten do bad. Only this morning we were still living normal lives.”

The recording came to an end, and I just stood there, completely speechless. It was one thing to have the apocalypse explained to you as a filly. Then, it was just boring history, something you knew was true, but had no context for. The world simply was as it was. But hearing another pony talking about watching the bombs coming down with her own eyes… that was something else. Sure, I had met pre-war ghouls that hadn’t gone zombie, but they usually preferred to not talk about the apocalypse. Too many bad memories, they said. Now, I could understand that.

“Play the next one,” Suture pressed me, “I want to know what happened here.”

“You do realize that message means we are probably being irradiated right now, right?” Autumn called out from the door, “Anypony have a rad counter? Aren’t those Pipbuck’s supposed to have one?”

“Yeah, but mine’s broken,” I answered, “The rad counter hasn’t been working since I got tossed about in the Iron Hooves camp. We shouldn’t be down here too long, anyway, and besides, it was simply designed for higher background levels. They wouldn’t rig it to be deadly, would they?” Before anypony could answer, I reached out and started the next record.

“This is Stable 60 Overmare, Clockwork, entry number twenty-seven. It’s been almost a year since the Stable was sealed, and everything seems to be going well. We’ve had a few cases of minor radiation poisoning, but nothing the Rad-Away couldn’t handle. Now we know what warning signs to look for. It seems like everypony is starting to get used to the daily required medical checks to watch for radiation poisoning, and we are actually beginning to form our own society down here. It isn’t perfect, but then, what is anymore?” A loud alarm sounded suddenly in the recording, shocking the Overmare into an exclamation of surprise. “What?! What was that?” she spluttered.

“Warning, system breach in reactor four. Lethal levels of radiation detected. Initiating Lockdown. Sealing bulkheads,” a monotone, synthetic voice announced from the recording.

“What? No! This can’t be happening!” The Overmare exclaimed. Then, there was a crashing sound, followed by hooves running towards the door, and the sound of pounding, as though the Overmare was trying to force her way out. After a while, the sound of her returning to the terminal could be heard, ending with her sitting heavily down in the chair. “I’m trapped in here, with enough emergency food and water to last months. Too bad I know I’m going to go through it all, then die of thirst anyway. If the Stable sealed us off completely from the reactor, then nopony is going to be able to shut it off. I guess this is the end.”

“Great, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear! So now, instead low levels of radiation, we’re probably being bombarded with a fuck-ton of it! We should leave, right now!” Autumn snapped from the door.

“If the radiation were that bad, we’d already be starting to feel it. Anypony feel nauseous? Any headaches?” Suture asked. After a chorus of negatives, she said, “Then there’s nothing to be worried about. I have some Rad-Away if anyone starts to feel sick, but we need what’s down here. Play the next one, Evergreen.”

I nodded and obediently hit the next record. The first mare’s voice came out of the terminal this time. “This is Scootaloo, co-founder of Stable-Tec on a pre-recorded message. By now, you’ll have noticed that one of your reactors has catastrophically failed. I’m sorry, but we had to do it. Some of the scientists here at Stable-Tec have theorized that ponies could withstand a high level of radiation if they had already been exposed to low amounts for a long period of time, so we… You know what, fuck this! What did you ponies do to deserve this kind of treatment from us! Here I am, recording a fucking message that is letting you know you’re most likely going to die at worst, and survive as some twisted remnant of a pony at best, while I am probably going to be dead by the time you hear this message! When did we decide that we would have this kind of power over the lives of anypony? I swear, first thing in the morning, I’m going to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle and telling them that this needs to stop! Scootaloo, out.”

I stood in stunned silence as the last words of the message faded into silence. Stable-Tec… had planned this whole thing, had killed the entire Stable a single year after it had been put in place… How could they have done that? Everypony knew of the trio that had been behind the Stable program, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell, and Scootaloo, but I don’t think anypony truly knew what they had done with the company that they had built. To murder a few hundred ponies because a bunch of scientists thought they had discovered something… it was simply unthinkable. And yet, here we were, faced with the reality. At least it appeared as though at least one of them had discovered the same thing, but obviously not soon enough.

“I can’t believe it… They murdered them all,” Suture muttered from my side, “Why would they do that?”

“Because they thought it would serve the greater good. Big fucking surprise: they were wrong,” Autumn snapped from the doorway, “Now I’m telling you, we need to get the fuck out of here! Nothing good is going to come of this. Besides, I don’t think this Stable is entirely empty…”

As if to punctuate her words, the sound of hooves echoed down the hallway, sending shivers down my spine. The sound was faint enough that I told myself that I had imagine the sound, even tried to force myself to believe it, but the look on Autumn’s and Crosswire’s faces told me that I hadn’t imagined anything.

“Wait, there’s one last one,” Suture muttered. I heard her reach out and click a button on the terminal and the last message drifted out into the silence left by the echoing hooves.

“This is going to be the last journal entry from Stable 60 Overmare, Clockwork. I finished the last of my water three days ago and am starting to feel really weak. The lining of the office has been good enough to keep the radiation out, but that is as much a curse as it is a blessing. The lockdown lifted only a few days after the reactor exploded, but I sealed the door anyway. I’d rather die in here than face whatever fate has in store for me out there.” There was the sound of dry coughing, the sound of a mare obviously dying of thirst. “The Stable-Tec scientists were right, for whatever that’s worth anymore. Most of the Stable’s residents have survived the massive amounts of radiation, though I use the term loosely. I’ve seen them from the window, gathering in the atrium while they tried to figure out what was happening to themselves. None of the survivors even look like ponies anymore. Their manes have all but fallen out and their skin is starting to flake off, giving them the look of zombies from the old horror movies I watched when I was a filly, but they simply refuse to die. Some of them look like they’ve gone crazy, and are attacking anypony that comes within reach, though that part of the population is only small, right now, except the process looks like it happens over time. Guess everypony down here will either be crazy or dead within a few weeks. At least I know I will still be me when I pass to the Beyond.”

I felt a chill travel down my spine. These ponies hadn’t died. No, it was much worse than that. Before I could vocalize my fear, Crosswire shouted out, “I see something!” and let out a burst of SMG fire.

I followed his gaze, stepping into the hallway as I did, and pulled out Hammer. At the end of the hall, now lying on its side and struggling to stand after being shot with a half-dozen rounds, was an Earth Pony ghoul. Nothing remained of its mane except for a few tattered strands, and its hide had all but sloughed off, revealing the raw flesh and muscle beneath. It had the look of something dead, except for the fact that it was now climbing back to its hooves and galloping at us, eyes wide and staring, intent on nothing other than ripping us limb from limb.

“Fuck! Ghouls!” I shouted around Hammer as I brought the revolver to bear. I centered its sights on the advancing ghoul and pulled the trigger. Hammer was most likely designed to punch through moderately reinforced armor. The squishy, softened flesh of this undead beast was no match for the power of its shot as the round tore into the ghoul’s chest cavity and nearly tore it in half.

The ghoul collapsed in a pool of its own gore, and still continued to struggle, jaw snapping weakly in my direction, before finally falling still.

“This is fucking insane,” Autumn snapped angrily, “Now we’re facing an entire Stable’s worth of these undead fucks! You see what I mean about Stable-Tec consistently fucking us all over?”

“Yeah, I get it, Autumn. I got it the first dozen times,” I growled, “Crosswire, get on that terminal and find out where the recycler is. I’m going to side with Autumn now. We want to get down there, grab what we came here for, and get out. If there’s anything else worthwhile, then it had better be on our way.”

“Done,” the buck answered, and backed into the room and to the terminal. The sound of him typing on the keyboard echoed loudly through the room, as it was the only sound any of us were making. Autumn and I stood stiffly by the door, each watching the hallway with our weapons out and ready.

In the five minutes it took Crosswire to find what we wanted, nothing showed itself at the other end of the hall. “Found it. I know the way to go,” he finally announced, returning to the door and floating out his SMG.

“Good. Lead the way then. Suture, you with us?” I asked, looking back to where the medical pony was standing by a wall.

“I… I don’t feel too good,” she muttered before vomiting on the floor. Her breath was coming in ragged gasps and the color had drained from her face.

“Fuck, she’s already starting to feel the effects of radiation poisoning. We need to get her out of here,” Autumn snapped.

“Not yet, we don’t,” I argued, dashing over to the mare, where I pulled a packet of Rad-Away out of her saddlebag. I tore it open and held it up to her mouth. The smell of oranges tickled my nostrils, a misleading hint at how terrible the damn things actually tasted. “Drink this, you’ll feel better, I promise.”

Hesitantly, the mare took the packet in her mouth and gulped down the contents, nearly gagging several times, though I couldn’t tell if it was due to the Rad-Away itself or radiation poisoning. When she finally finished, she gasped and took a deep breath. “I hate those things…” she breathed, “but better than suffering from radiation. It’s a lot stronger than we think it is, if I felt it that quickly. We need to make a side-trip to the infirmary, if we want to have enough Rad-Away to last us however long we need. The record said they had a lot.”

I nodded at her and turned to Crosswire. “You heard her. We need to get to the infirmary first. Lead the way,” I ordered.

The buck nodded and started out the door, Autumn a step behind him. I took up a position at the rear, keeping Suture protected between us all. Knowing what was down here, the walls didn’t seem nearly as inviting as they had before, not that it had been welcoming to begin with. Occasionally, we could hear the sound of hooves scurrying as if from a far distance, but we saw nothing besides that first ghoul.

As we came back out into the atrium, I was struck by just how deteriorated everything appeared. Before, it had simply been a little creepy, but nothing really out of the ordinary from how everything was up on the surface. But now, knowing what was hiding down here, the walls seemed to close in on me. I wasn’t claustrophobic, not by a long shot, but the room appeared to shrink and offered me no way of getting out. The thought crossed my mind that I might not see the sky again.

Crosswire paused for a moment once we were all out of the hallway, casting about as he searched for a sign that would point us in the right direction. “There!” he announced, pointing with a hoof. Sure enough, the infirmary was there, a floor below us and across the atrium. All we needed to do was get there.

“Good job,” I said, “now get us down there.”

Crosswire nodded and took off at a canter, heading for a stairway leading down. It was exactly the wrong thing to do.

The door into the stairwell opened and released a tide of ghouls, all of them wild and snapping, lunging to grab at us and tear us apart. Crosswire let out an involuntary shout of surprise as the wave crashed over him, burying him beneath a pile of bodies. A spray of bullets flew from where he fell as he instinctively fired his gun, tearing many of the ghouls on top of him apart, but their sheer numbers drove him to the ground.

Both Autumn and I wasted no time in steadying our guns and opening fire, picking off the few ghouls on top of Crosswire that we had a clear shot at, and keeping the advancing masses from crushing the two of us.

In a deafening volley of gunfire, we both emptied the clips of our guns, the force of Hammer tearing limbs and exploding heads. Autumn’s sniper was even more devastating as it tore ghouls in half and left nothing but a smear of gore in its wake. Unfortunately, both of our weapons had small clips, and we were forced to reload far sooner than I would have liked. There were still at least a half dozen ghouls charging us, with three still holding Crosswire pinned, fighting viciously to get through his defenses and tear him limb from limb.

Seeing a quick opportunity, I spat Hammer into its holster and dug into my saddlebags for my .45. I pulled the weapon out, checked that the safety was off, and pulled my head up just in time to see a ghoul smash into me, driving me to the ground. I managed to keep a hold on the pistol, but was too busy fending the undead horror off to get a clear shot.

The ghoul lunged for my throat, its breath washing over me and nearly making me gag. I barely got a leg up in time to stop the attack, but the result was the ghoul locking its jaws on my leg instead of my neck. It started worrying away, blood flowing freely from its jaws as it tore through my flesh.

The pain was nearly unimaginable as I screamed in agony, kicking blindly with my rear legs and battering at the ghoul with my one free foreleg, trying to dislodge it, but it was locked on tight and wouldn’t let go.

It was then that I heard a shot from behind me and felt a bullet whiz pass my ear, clipping it before smashing into the ghouls face. Its head exploded in front of me, showering me in blood and bits of bone and brain. I shoved the body off of me, trying to catch my breath.

I simply lay there, listening to the sound of my ragged breathing and feeling my heart pounding in my chest. I barely felt the pain from my ear, as it was being completely dominated by the fire in my leg that seemed to be spreading throughout my entire body.

“Evergreen! Get up! I need you here!” I heard Autumn shout, but my brain barely registered the words.

All the same, I slowly rolled over to my stomach and gingerly dragged myself onto my hooves, keeping my injured leg off the ground. I turned my head towards the place Autumn’s voice had come from and saw her wrestling with a ghoul. It seemed to be the last one left alive, and the young mare was struggling with it, her physical strength not nearly up to par with her levitation skills.

Crosswire was a short distance away, reloading his SMG. He was watching the fight with interest, but it didn’t appear as though he was going to intervene anytime soon. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why.

I limped over to her, making sure my .45 was still usable. With a complete lack of grace, I stuck the barrel of the gun against the ghoul’s head and pulled the trigger, blowing its brains clear out the other side of its head and making it collapse limply on top of the dark mare.

“Thanks,” she grunted, hefting the body off of her and climbing shakily to her hooves. She checked herself quickly for injuries, then floated her rifle over and reloaded before turning angrily on Crosswire. “What the hell was that about!” she yelled, “You could easily have helped me there!”

The buck simply shrugged. “Honestly, I see no reason to help you survive, considering you’ve sworn to kill Evergreen and almost killed me. You’re only here because I respect Evergreen’s decision, and having that rifle between me and anything else improves my chances of survival.”

“Crosswire, this really isn’t the time,” I growled, “If we want to get out of here alive with what we came here for, we need to be working together, not expecting a shot in the back. Now come one, there shouldn’t be another group of the things that close to us now. We should have enough time to get into the infirmary. Celestia knows I need it.”

“I’m sorry, Evergreen, but I can’t make myself come to this pony’s rescue. Not after the shit she’s pulled. In time, maybe, if she pulls that stick out of her ass, but until then, I won’t attack her, but I’m not going to help her either,” he argued, walking over to me and supporting me, “but I agree with needing to get to the infirmary.”

We just started walking towards the stairwell when I looked behind me and saw Suture standing in place, 9mm pistol on her mouth, completely frozen in place.

“Suture?” I asked, “You coming?” Something didn’t seem right with her. This was not a good time for us to lose our medic.

“I… I killed somepony,” she muttered just loud enough for us to hear, “I’ve never killed somepony before.”

“Fuck, this is the last thing we need,” Crosswire snapped.

“Suture, it wasn’t a pony anymore. Anything that would have made it a pony died a long time ago. Whoever it once was has been done a favor now. You let them rest and go to the princesses,” I said, hoping to break her out of whatever funk she was in.

She turned her head slightly to look at me. “You don’t understand, Evergreen. I’m a doctor. My job is to help ponies. Not kill them. I’m a disgrace to my profession.”

“Trust me, Suture, you aren’t. You fought to protect somepony’s life. I don’t see how that could ever be considered a bad thing. Now come on! We need to get down there.”

The maroon mare nodded dumbly and followed slowly after us, walking as if on wooden legs. When she reached us, Autumn reached out with her telekinesis and pulled the pistol out of her mouth and slid into her holster.

The four of us then proceeded down the stairs towards the infirmary, me leaning on Crosswire for support because of my savaged leg, and Autumn leading an expressionless Suture, who followed along without comment.

As soon as we stepped inside the infirmary and Autumn closed the door behind us, I collapsed on the floor near one of the medical cabinets as Crosswire began rummaging through them one at a time, building a pile of Rad-Away and a pile of other medical supplies.

The Rad-Away quickly outnumbered everything else, lending a lot of weight to the Overmare’s claim that they had been overstocked. We all slurped one down, doing what we could to combat the radiation levels down here.

The taste was completely terrible, reminding me of spoiled oranges, but the cost was worth it. Better to gag at the taste than to die of radiation poisoning. After forcing the Rad-Away down, I reached for a healing potion and chugged that as well. My leg stitched itself together in front of my eyes, the savaged bite receding to a small patch of pink flesh and thin hair. I placed it on the ground experimentally, testing my weight, and was pleased to find that it could support me again. Unfortunately, it did nothing for the notch that Suture’s bullet had carved in my ear.

Once my own ills were taken care of, I turned my attention to everypony else. Crosswire was still rummaging through the cabinets, tossing something valuable out every now and then. Autumn was standing off to one side of the room, nursing her Rad-Away, with a dark look on her face. Suture was still standing near the door, her face completely blank.

I walked over to her, and stood directly in front of her, my nose barely a foot from hers. She made no indication that she recognized my existence.

“Suture,” I said, finally getting a reaction out of her as her eyes focused on mine, “Are you ok?”

“Evergreen,” the mare breathed, “Evergreen, something terrible happened. I… I killed somepony…”

I sighed. Of all the times for this mare to have a mental breakdown, it had to be now. “No, Suture, you didn’t kill anypony. By definition, feral ghouls are no longer ponies. Most sentient ghouls don’t even care what happens to the ferals. Besides, you saved my life. How could that be a bad thing?”

The mare resolutely shook her head. “No, it doesn’t work like that. The ends don’t justify the means. I… this isn’t right.”

Obviously, talking to her wasn’t going to solve anything here, as she was basically repeating the same things she had said before, so I did the only other thing I knew to do. I lifted a leg and smacked her hard across the face.

Her head snapped to the side, and she let out a startled yelp that drew both Autumn’s and Crosswire’s attention. I then reached out and grabbed her head in both my hooves and forced her to look me in the eye.

“Listen to me Suture,” I snapped angrily, “You are not a disgrace, not even close. I can tell by looking in your eyes that you have never even fired a gun before, and that’s okay. But you shouldn’t be angry at yourself because you had to shoot something. Your life was in danger, and it would have killed you had it not been busy trying to eat me alive. I owe you my life because of that shot. So pull yourself together and get your head on straight. I need the brave medic that came down here with us. Not this shell.”

Suture stared at me blankly for a few seconds, still in shock from me hitting her, then slowly nodded.

“Good,” I huffed, and released her.

“You… you hit me,” she muttered, but there was an undertone of anger to her words. I was happier hearing that than the emotionless monotone she had been speaking in.

“Yes I did, because you refused to listen to me. I had to get your attention somehow. That seemed like the best way to do it,” I answered simply, “so go ahead and be angry. I can handle it, and you’ll thank me for it before long. When you understand why, then I’ll apologize.”

I turned away from the mare, whom was now starting to sputter angrily at me, and focused my attention on Crosswire. I figured that since I was handling one pony’s problems, I might as well handle the others as well.

“I know exactly what you’re going to say,” Crosswire said, not quite angry, but definitely annoyed, “and I’m warning you now: if you so much as twitch a leg in my direction, I won’t hesitate to kick you square in the jaw.”

“Good, that makes this quite a bit easier, since I already have your attention,” I growled, “I know you’re pissed, and I know why. I’m not too happy with the situation, either, but the only way to get out of it is to kill her, and I am not willing to turn back down that path. If you still want to murder somepony, who basically did save your life back there, then be my guest, but I will have nothing to do with it.”

I saw Crosswire glance over in Autumn’s direction, then heard the echoing sound of the dark mare chambering a round.

“Don’t even think about it, Crosswire,” she snapped, “You’d be dead before you got halfway here.”

The tech maintained his glare for a few seconds before snorting angrily and turning his head back to me. “So what do you expect me to do, Evergreen? The way I was raised, and the rules I was taught to follow, tell me to have nothing to do with somepony like her, especially since she almost fucking killed me!”

“I don’t expect anything from you,” I snapped back, “but I also thought you were better than that. I have never seen you simply leave somepony to their fate before, even while we were still in the gang. You would always outright kill anypony other than us, or help anypony that was in the gang with us. You never just abandoned them. And honestly, given our reputations, her actions yesterday were justified. So why the change?”

Crosswire was now glaring at me, his green eyes a sea of anger and pain. “Believe it or not, Evergreen, there are some things about me that even you don’t know.” He said, every word dripping with the same anger radiating from his gaze, “so trust me when I say that I will not, cannot ever put my life on the line to save somepony like her.”

“But your life wouldn’t have been at risk!” I yelled, “She was pinned beneath a single ghoul! I managed to do it by simply shoving a pistol against its head and pulling the trigger, and one of my legs wasn’t even working! So where’s the problem?”

Now, surprisingly, the buck’s glare shifted from one of anger, to one of hurt. I recognized it for what it was: a window into his past, a glimpse into a life he had left behind long before we had met. “You wouldn’t understand. Please, Evergreen, just drop it. Just understand that I can’t bring myself to help her and leave it. Maybe one day, you’ll figure it out, but now isn’t the time.”

I could tell that he was trying to soothe me off of the issue, but all it did was serve to piss me off even more. “Seriously, Crosswire…” I said, “You seriously expect me to simply leave it at that? If we expect to get out of here alive, then we need to be watching each other’s backs the whole way through. If any one of us can’t rely on everypony else, then we aren’t going to get out in one piece, and that is a promise. So fine, I get that you have some long-standing issues that are keeping you from trusting Autumn Mist, or even helping her, but for the interest of survival, can you put it aside for a few hours so we can do what we came here to do?”

Crosswire glared at me again, but then looked over to Autumn Mist. His gaze softened slightly, and he sighed. “Fine. While we’re down here, she can rely on me. As soon as we step outside, that ends.”

“Thank y…” I started, but was cut off by the buck.

“I’m only doing this because I respect you, Evergreen, and I know you wouldn’t ask if you didn’t think it entirely necessary. Don’t make me regret that judgment.”

It was a threat, and a thinly veiled one at that. He was telling me, in no uncertain terms, that I was taking a risk in asking this of him. My entire friendship with him was now on the line, but I would be damned before I would let that stop me.

“I won’t,” I answered resolutely, “but I hope that you’ll trust me enough soon that you’ll tell me why.”

Crosswire looked past me and seemed to focus on something in the distance that I wouldn’t be able to see. “Maybe at some point, but not now,” was all he said to answer before turning back to the pile of medical supplies. “We should split all of this up amongst the four of us. It’ll be easiest to carry, and we’ll all have a supply with us to take as we need it.”

I nodded in agreement. “Good idea. Suture can pick up the extra, since she’s carrying the rest of our medical supplies anyway,” I said, looking over to the maroon mare.

She was glaring at me, still angry at the fact that I had hit her, but I wasn’t concerned about that. At least she wasn’t in shock. “Fine,” she ground out, stepping forward and pushing roughly past me, “but don’t think I’ve forgotten, Evergreen. You and I are going to have a long conversation about proper treatment of others when all of this is said and done.”

She quickly divided the pile into four equal sizes and deposited the extra medical supplies in her saddlebags. The rest of us stepped forward and grabbed a pile of Rad-Away each. Thankfully, it didn’t add too much weight and I should still be able to move quickly if I needed to.

Once we are all settled, I peered carefully out of the window into the main square of the atrium. The window was grimy and it was difficult to see through, but I could make out enough to see that there wasn’t an army of ghouls waiting for us outside, but I could see some shadows moving at the edges of the room, centered at the various doorways leading out into other parts of the Stable.

“Ok, I can see some movement, but there doesn’t seem to be too many of them,” I said, turning back to the others, “Crosswire, you know which way to go to get down to the Maintenance level?”

The buck nodded curtly.

“Good. You’ll be leading us then. I’ll follow after you, then Suture will be behind me. Autumn, take up the rear and make sure nothing follows us too closely. We all ready?”

Everypony nodded in acknowledgement. They were all angry, in their own way and for different reasons, but at least they had all agreed to put their rivalries aside for the time being. They simply didn’t have a place in what we were trying to accomplish. It would have to do.

“Ok. Let’s move!” I said, gesturing to the door.

Crosswire floated out his SMG and hit the control to open the door. It slid open smoothly, surprising considering how worn-down everything else was, but that fact was lost on us all as we dashed out of the infirmary.

Crosswire made a beeline for one of the shadowy doorways, moving at a quick canter, and casting his head from side to side, searching for targets. We came within ten feet of the door when the first of the ghouls showed themselves.

Four of the ferals launched themselves out of the shadows towards the grey buck, aiming at his chest and neck. Two were quickly cut down by a pair of bursts from his SMG. The third dropped bonelessly to the floor a moment later, a revolver round through its chest. The last ghoul reached its target, but instead of latching onto Crosswire’s neck as it had intended to do, the buck lowered his head and charged the ghoul, impaling it on his glowing horn and driving it back into the stairway where he stopped and momentum sent the dead ghoul flying down the stairs to land in a wet crunch at the bottom.

We didn’t pause in wake of the attack, instead continuing down into the depths of the Stable. I could see blood dripping down Crosswire’s face and matting in his mane, all of it left over from the ghoul he had charged, but some seemed to be getting into his eyes as he tossed his head from side to side, probably trying to clear his vision.

We had just reached the first landing when I heard a pair of shots from Autumn’s rifle. “They’re coming up right behind us, and there are a fuck-ton of ‘em!” she shouted, firing another pair of rounds.

I made a split decision and spat Hammer into its holster, then reached into my saddlebags, pulling out a pair of grenades. This would be a perfect time to use them, if I could get the timing right. “Get out of the way!” I shouted at the sniper, then pulled out both the stems from the grenades and tossed them into the air.

I waited, watching as they arced through the air, praying to any deity that would listen for this to work, then twisted around and bucked at the grenades.

My aim was true, and the two apple-shaped explosives soared through the air to the top of the stairs, where they detonated in a rain of fire and shrapnel, accompanied by pained shrieks from the ferals that had been caught in the blast.

I didn’t wait to see what came out of the explosion. Instead, I turned and ran after Crosswire, who was now sitting at the bottom of the stairwell, struggling with a door.

“What the fuck’s happening here?” I asked, “Get it open!” The sound of hooves pounding on a metal floor became louder, which could only mean that more ferals were coming after us.

“What the fuck do you think I’m trying to do! Whoever the fuck locked this door wanted to make sure nopony followed them! It’s a lot harder than it has any right to be!” he snapped back.

I heard the sound of Autumn chambering a round, then there was a quick succession of shots from her rifle. “Evergreen, get the fuck up here! There’s more than I can handle alone!”

“Luna rape me with a fucking cow-prod!” I swore, then bounded up the stairs to where the dark mare was once again reloading her rifle. Even Suture was holding her pistol gingerly in her mouth. I pulled Hammer out again and aimed up at the stairs.

The ghouls came rushing in a moment later, pouring down the stairs like some unstoppable tide. All three of us fired into the mass in desperation. Autumn’s and my shots struck with careful accuracy, killing ghouls with a single chest or headshot. Suture’s shots were largely flying about randomly, only striking targets because of their sheer numbers, but the hollow point rounds did an incredible amount of damage to the ghouls, tearing limbs clean off or leaving massive, bloody holes wherever they struck a torso or head.

Somehow, we fought the assault off, leaving the stairway covered in blood and torn bodies. All three of us were bleeding from injuries gained in the attack, though the worst was a deep gash in Autumn’s shoulder where a ghoul had managed to tear right through her barding.

She was grimacing in pain, but shook Suture away when the medical pony tried to wrap up the injury, gesturing to the stairs. “We don’t have time for that, Suture. The next wave could come at any time,” she snapped, reloading her rifle. “You have any grenades left, Evergreen?”

“A few,” I answered, pulling three of the apple-shaped explosives out of my saddlebags and setting them on the ground in front of me, “Don’t know how useful they’ll be though, given how many bodies are up there.”

Autumn Mist shook her head slowly. When she spoke, I could detect a hint of desperation in her voice. “This is bad. We’re cornered with nowhere to run, with who knows how many ghouls between us and the exit…”

I heard her words, but refused to listen to them. If I gave in to that kind of thinking, then we were all dead. They came here with me at my request, so it was my responsibility to keep moving forward, to keep up the belief that we would get out.

I turned my head to where Crosswire was still hunched over the locking mechanism of the door. “Crosswire, how much longer are you going to be?” I shouted, “We’re running out of time up here.”

“This doesn’t seem right!” the buck shouted back, “Whatever happened to this door, it is refusing to budge! I don’t think I can get through.”

“Fuck!” I yelled, but before I could get anything more out, the sound of pounding hooves echoed through the stable, and the next attack started. I pulled the stem from one of the grenades and sent it through the air, where it detonated amidst the charging ghouls, but it barely slowed them down.

Once again, we were all fighting desperately for our lives, but this attack seemed much more relentless than the others, and the wave of ghouls just kept coming. I watched almost helplessly as a pair of ghouls got past our wall of gunfire. One of them bit Suture deeply on the shoulder and started ripping its head back and forth, tearing the flesh and sending blood spattering around the room. The second dove for me, jaws spread wide and hooves outstretched to wrap around my neck.

I lowered myself slightly as it flew at me, and twisted with it as it struck me, managing to pin it underneath me when we finally came to a rest. At this range, Hammer was completely useless so I shoved it into my barding and reached for my knife.

The ghoul was struggling violently, much stronger than it appeared to be, and I had to abandon my attempt at pulling my knife out to keep it from breaking free and tearing me apart. I shifted myself slightly so I was holding it down with all of my weight, but I wasn’t in a position to actually do anything to take it out of the fight. It was taking all of my strength to simply hold it down.

It was then that I heard a loud crashing, followed by a cry of shocked surprise from Crosswire. Then, there was a gunshot, and the ghoul beneath me went completely limp as a bullet tore through its skull.

The next thing I knew, I was being grabbed by a lot of sets of hooves and dragged down the stairs and through the now open door. All around me, there were surprised shouts and the sound of gunfire.

“Get the fuck off of me, you undead fuck!” I heard Autumn shout as we were all dragged past the door to the maintenance area.

Everything went black a few moments later when the door slid shut and something heavy crashed into it, supposedly sealing us off from going back that way.

In the darkness, I was straining for any kind of information my other senses could pick up. My ears were twisting in the direction of any small scrape or sound, and I turned my body to face the direction of the slightest breath of air, but it was all for nothing. I couldn’t tell anything about my surroundings.

The hooves that had grabbed me had let go as soon as the door closed, leaving me completely directionless. I fumbled with my Pipbuck, praying that the flashlight would work. Thankfully, the light came on, bathing the area around me in a pale green light.

What I saw made my breath catch in my throat. Surrounding us was a group of ghouls, just like the ones we saw outside, except these were still clad in barding and several were carrying crude weapons, mostly lead pipes and lengths of iron. Only two of the ghouls were carrying firearms, and those were both simple 9mm pistols, nothing even close to what I would call effective firepower.

“Fuck! We get away from a fuck-ton of stupid ones up there just to run into the clutches of the smart ones!” Autumn swore loudly as she swung her rifle around to face these ghouls.

“Stop it, you idiot!” Crosswire exclaimed as he smacked the rifle aside, “These ponies just saved our lives! They’re not trying to kill us!”

“Who… who are you?” I asked, ignoring the commotion. Crosswire could handle it. My interest lay in these ponies that were in front of us. Now that I looked closer, I could see that they were all wearing some form of Stable barding, ranging in use from maintenance uniforms to guard outfits.

“We are what’s left of the population of this Stable,” one of the ghoul’s rasped, “I suppose I’m what’s closest to what could be considered a leader. My name is Marmelade. Who are you and where are you from? How did you get down here?” His remaining hide was a faint yellow in color, and what few strands of mane were left appeared to be a bright orange.

“My name is Evergreen. My friends are Crosswire, Suture, and Autumn Mist,” I answered, gesturing to each pony in turn. Suture was grimacing, and fumbling about in her saddlebag for a healing potion, blood flowing freely from the ragged wound on her shoulder. Crosswire kept looking back and forth from Autumn to the ghouls, trying to keep in control of the dark mare, who was glaring at the ghouls with obvious hatred. In the pale light of my flashlight, he looked almost like a ghoul himself as the light reflected starkly off the blood still running down his face. “As for how we got here, Crosswire managed to hack into the main door. We came down here hoping to get our hooves on a Stable-Tec water recycler. One of the towns on the surface needs it to survive.”

Marmelade shook his head slowly in disbelief. “So ponies have survived on the surface for all these years? I still remember the bombs coming down the day we were called to enter the Stable. I didn’t think anypony would survive that. What is it like up there? Is there anything left of the Equestria I grew up in?”

I thought for a moment about everything I had seen and experienced, from the raider gangs to the communities like Metro and Grovedale. “It’s not the same,” I answered carefully. When I saw a confused come over his face, I elaborated, “There are some good things out there. Some of the communities that exist are probably a lot like what it was like before. But there is a lot of bad too… Raiders, bandits, slavers… It isn’t always pretty, and surviving isn’t easy.”

The ghoul, Marmelade, lowered his head and I could see the grief appear. “So our homes and civilization are gone… What of the princesses? What happened to them? I know they wouldn’t stand for that kind of thing.”

I had no idea how to answer that. Part of me did believe as my parents had; that the princesses lived on in the sun and the moon, and that they still looked down on us. But for how much I liked that vision, I knew that it wasn’t the answer this buck was looking for. Thankfully, Suture stepped forward, only gingerly using her injured shoulder, and saved me from having to answer.

“I’m so sorry that we are the ones that need to tell you this, but the princesses died in Canterlot on the day the bombs fell. They gave their lives to contain a megaspell that would have devastated most of that area of Equestria. If not for their sacrifice, there would be much less out there than there is,” she explained, reaching out and placing a hoof on the ghoul’s shoulder.

Marmelade looked up and stared into Suture’s eyes. “Then they died as they lived: giving themselves to their subjects. We should all live by their example,” he said. He cast about for a few moments, as though looking for something he couldn’t find, then focused his gaze on me. “We should go a little farther inside, where there’s some more light. We’ll be able to talk there.”

With that, the ghouls turned, flicked on their own Pipbuck lights, and led us down into the depths of the Stable. Within a few minutes, I was hopelessly lost. The twists and turns that the ghouls led us through as we descended were one of the most disorienting things that I’ve ever gone through.

Thankfully, the journey was not long, and soon we were sitting comfortably in one of the lower reactor chambers eating a meal provided to us by our ghoul hosts and drinking another couple of packs of Rad-Away. We took the chance to see to our injuries, using healing potions when necessary and binding the smaller scratches and bites to keep them from getting infected. Crosswire also took the time to clean off the gore from the ghoul he had impaled.

“So what did you say you came down here for, Evergreen? I can’t imagine that it was to rescue us.” Marmelade asked once we were done eating and had returned to some level of civilized appearance.

“As I said, we’re looking for a water recycler, or a purifier. I’m a mercenary, working for one of the main settlements on the surface that calls itself Metro. My job is to secure an alliance with another town called Millberry, but they need a purifier or recycler before they will agree to anything. We heard about how this Stable hasn’t been opened since the bombs fell and thought we’d try our luck,” I answered.

“Millberry is still standing?” another ghoul answered. This one appeared to be a mare that had once had a cherry red hide and purple mane, “I used to live there. What is it like?”

“They’re surviving, if only barely,” I answered, “A lot of the town is in ruins, but they have rebuilt a lot of it, by the look of things. So do you guys have a working recycler?”

“Unfortunately, no. The damage cause by the exploding reactor destroyed our recycler. It hasn’t worked in years,” Marmelade answered, “Lucky for us, we can survive on irradiated water. I’m sorry you had to risk your life for nothing. For what it’s worth, thank you, though. I thought we’d never be able to get back to the surface. The crazy ones attack us just as readily as they attacked you, and we don’t have the weapons or supplies to make it out past them.”

“Great! We come here for a water recycler, and all we get is the gratitude of a half-dead fuck!” Autumn snapped from where she was sitting, nursing her Rad-Away.

“Autumn, that was entirely unnecessary! These ponies saved our lives,” I snapped, turning on the mare.

“Ok. Thanks, for saving my life. Doesn’t mean I have to like them,” she growled, finishing the faux orange drink in a large gulp.

I shook my head at the mare, surprised at her bigotry considering the rest of her moral stances. “I apologize for her,” I said to Marmelade, “We haven’t known each other for very long and are still trying to figure out where we all fit in the group.”

“No, I understand. We know what we look like. It’s only understandable that some ponies will think of us like that. I know most of us did for the longest time,” the buck answered, waving my apology aside, “Now, I don’t want your journey here to have been completely without gain,” he said pointing at my left foreleg, “I see you have a Pipbuck, but it looks like yours is pretty banged up. We have several extra, since the Stable failed pretty early on. I’d be willing to give you one in exchange for you helping us get out of here.”

I very nearly jumped out of my seat at the prospect of getting my hooves on a fully functional Pipbuck, “For a Pipbuck? Consider it done. All we need is a plan.”

“Woah, why does just she get one of those things? If we all get one, it’ll help all of us!” Autumn protested, “Especially since we’re the ones with actual combat experience.”

Marmelade looked over at the dark mare. “Maybe. I’ll have to see exactly how many we have that are fully functional. Gearbox! What does our supply look like?” he shouted at another ghoul who was working on something on the other side of the room.

The buck spun his head around to look at us. “Uhh… I think we have three fully functional Pipbucks,” he answered, digging around in a small box by his hooves.

“Perfect!” Autumn announced, “Give us those and we’re in till the end!”

The yellow ghoul glared at the mare for a few moments, considering the request. “If you really think it necessary,” he muttered, looking back at me.

“It couldn’t hurt,” I said, “And she actually has a point. If several of us had one, it would go a long way to making any attempt to get out of here successful.”

Marmelade nodded, then gestured to Gearbox. “Fine. I suppose it’s a small enough price to pay. Gearbox, grab those Pipbucks and get over here,” he said.

The buck obediently stopped what he was doing, fished out a few intact computers from a crate, and trotted over to where we were sitting. Marmelade held out a hoof, and the buck dropped one of the Pipbucks into it.

Marmelade turned to me and gestured for me to hold my leg out. I did, and he reached down with a key he had pulled out of his barding and pulled my old and decrepit computer off. He then quickly slapped on the new one and sealed it in place.

Almost instantly, my vision filled with little icons dancing around and telling me that the system was booting up. Within a few seconds, everything returned to what I was used to, with just a small bar at the bottom of my vision that showed my E.F.S. Unlike with my old one, this one was much clearer and sharper, which would hopefully mean that it would be easier to pay attention to.

Almost instantly, a clicking sound filled my hearing. In the corner of a my vision, I could see a red bar telling me that I was soaking up a lot of rads, somewhere close to seven or eight a second. Hopefully it was that high only because of how close we were to the reactor.

I lifted the computer to my eyes and started scrolling through it. Everything was fully available and usable, from the inventory management to the radio. I could even pick up the Stable’s PA system on it, not that anything would be playing on that channel.

I lowered it again and looked over at Autumn. A short moment of concentration, and I felt time dilate as my sight focused on the dark mare. Small icons popped into my vision, showing me small percentages next to various parts of her body. Everything was labeled as 0, since she was sitting a fair distance away from me and I didn’t have any of my guns out, but it was a wonderful feeling to have a fully functional S.A.T.S. system. Missing any shot would be nearly impossible now!

“Thank you,” I finally said a few minutes later, after I dropped back out of S.A.T.S., “I didn’t think I’d ever get my hooves on one of these.”

“Of course. And now for your friends,” Marmelade asked, his gaze shifting to my companions.

Autumn was almost instantly standing at his side. “I’ll take one,” she said, holding her leg out.

The ghoul nodded and fastened a Pipbuck to her leg. As soon as he was done, she pulled away and started to play with the machine, racing through its functions and examining every small detail that she could.

Once she was gone, I looked at Crosswire, but he shook his head at me. “Give it to Suture. She’ll get greater use out of it than I will,” he said.

Slowly, almost meekly, the mare approached us. “I suppose I could use one. The inventory spell is supposed to be quite useful,” she said as she held out her leg.

Marmelade attached the last Pipbuck to her leg, then took a step back, letting the maroon mare return to her seat to figure out how to use the computer.

“So, are you still willing to help us?” he asked me, his voice and gaze thick with hope.

“Of course,” I answered, reaching out and placing a hoof on his shoulder, “We’ll help you and everypony down here to get out. It’s the least we can do to make up for you saving our lives.”

Our planning session was short, if only because there was truthfully little to be planned. The ghouls that had survived down here had almost nothing in the way of weaponry or protective barding, so the four of us would be the spearpoint of any attempt to get out, three and a half, if you considered Suture’s skill with a weapon. She was probably outclassed by the couple of guard ponies down here that still had guns.

In the end, our plan was pretty much what I had expected it would be. We were going to unseal a door in a different part of the stable, since most of the feral ghouls had been pulled over to the end we came from. We would cut through a small portion of the living area, come out on the second floor of the atrium, and make a dash for the Stable door, where Crosswire would hopefully manage to seal it again before any of the ghouls got out, simple.

We took a short amount of time to gather ourselves, prepare our weapons, and make some quick repairs to our barding before making for the living area entrance. Once again, the ghouls led us through an incredibly confusing maze of corridors and hallways, but we eventually arrived at our destination. The door stood before us, sealed off and impassive, but the buck, Gearbox, ran over and started working on its mechanics, and gradually we could hear the machinery come to life.

I steeled myself for the plunge into madness. We would have little to no time to think once that door was open. Our entire plan was completely dependent on our ability to move as quickly as possible. If we allowed ourselves to get cornered, we would all end up dead. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes and fixing the picture of the open sky and skyline of the mountains in my mind, praying that I would see them again. When I let the breath out, the door was sliding open.

As soon as the door was clear, we started moving. One of the Stable guards was in front, wielding my .45. He had been the most obvious choice to lead us, since he was familiar with the layout of the stable. Crosswire was just behind him, his SMG floating next to him, ready to fire. Next was me, followed by the ghouls that had survived this long. Taking up the rear was Suture, then Autumn, who would make sure nothing attacked us from behind.

We galloped as quickly as we could while making sure nopony fell behind. Somehow, we met no resistance until we were reached a stairwell that would bring us even with the bottom floor of the atrium. It was only a small group of ghouls, only five of them, but it was enough of a shock to these ponies that several started to panic.

“Keep your heads on straight! It’s my job to keep you all alive!” I shouted at them around Hammer.

The ghouls rushed us, but the front two were quickly cut down by the crossfire from both the Stable guard and Crosswire. As the last three approached, I slipped into S.A.T.S., almost giddy at the prospect of using the system.

Time dilated, leaving everything near motionless. I lined up three shots, which was unfortunately all that the program would allow me to. The first two I set to hit the closest two ghouls in the head, while the last was aimed at the final ghoul’s chest. The chance to hit that one in the head was simply too low to risk anything else.

I activated the spell, and time snapped back into reality. I fired the shots, and they all flew exactly as I had planned. The front two ghouls’ heads exploded in a shower of bone and brain, and the third tumbled to the ground as its chest cavity imploded. It could easily be said that I had never been that happy at shooting something in all my life.

We thundered past the dead ghouls, clambering up the stairs and into the higher-class living quarters, where the Stable management would have lived. Here, there were many more ghouls waiting for us in the abandoned rooms and hidden shadows. They came at us in twos and threes, biting at our flanks and striking out at us with decomposing hooves, but each time, ponies were in place to drive them back. Many of the ghouls in the middle of our formation were carrying some sort of melee weapon that they used to beat the ghouls back long enough for one of us to finish them off, if not kill them outright themselves.

Before long, we were approaching the door to the second floor of the atrium. Almost every one of us had some kind of minor injury, along with a few major ones, but nothing that was serious enough that it required us to stop.

“We sealed this door off back in the early days to keep the crazies from getting at us,” the guard said as we neared the door, “I can unstick it, but we may need your friend here to bring the machinery back to life. We’ll need to hold off whatever is coming at us from behind while he works.”

I nodded in agreement and looked to Crosswire. “Can you handle it?” I asked breathlessly. Beyond the simple exhaustion of running for so long and so quickly, I was beginning to feel slightly nauseous as the effects of radiation poisoning began to set in. Hopefully I’d be able to get down a Rad-Away before the fighting began again.

“So long as it isn’t as fucked up as that first door to maintenance was, yeah, I can get it,” Crosswire growled, “Just keep the ferals off me.”

“Done,” I said as I turned and galloped down the line to the rear, where I could hear Autumn’s rifle firing at regular intervals.

I skidded to a stop beside her, bringing Hammer to bear and focusing my gaze down the hall. If I strained my eyes enough, I could see something moving in the shadows, lining up with the red bars in my E.F.S., but nothing was clear enough for S.A.T.S. to give me a reliable shot, and I was not about to waste ammo.

“What’s the hold-up?” Autumn asked, firing another round into the darkness and eliciting another death shriek from a ghoul.

“Stable ponies sealed the door from the living quarters to the atrium in the early days, trying to stem the tide. Guard is unsealing it, but needs Crosswire to get it running again. We’re on guard duty until then,” I answered curtly.

We didn’t have a chance to say anything else as the ghouls charged, coming at us in a solid, screaming mass.

I slipped into S.A.T.S. as they approached, lined up three shots and let loose. All three were perfect hits, decapitating three of the charging abominations in midstride as Hammer’s heavy rounds tore through their skulls. As time returned to normal, I fired the last few round that were still in the carousel, killing another two ghouls, then spat the revolver into its holster and pulled out the 9mm I had gotten from the guard in exchange for the .45. Thank Celestia for this new Pipbuck! It actually had a fully functional inventory spell!

Autumn was firing next to me, sending round after round into the approaching ghouls. Each round did a devastating amount of damage, tearing limbs from bodies, or simply tearing bodies in half. No matter what, every round she fired resulted in a ghoul’s death, oftentimes also killing more than one, no doubt the influence of her now being able to use S.A.T.S. as well.

On my other side, Suture held her fire until the ghouls were almost on top of us, and even then she only fired when in direct danger herself. She had run out of hollow point rounds a while ago, but at this range, the standard 9mm rounds were more than capable of killing a ghoul. In the next instant, the ghouls were amongst us, biting and striking at anything that came within range.

I fought just as ferociously as the ghouls, kicking to keep them from getting a grip on me, and firing the 9mm at the ones that gave me a chance to do so. My only respite during the fight was whenever S.A.T.S. recharged enough for me to line up a shot and finish a ghoul off. Those moments of near timelessness did wonders to let me catch my breath.

When the 9mm finally ran out of ammo, I slid it into a pocket on my barding and pulled out my knife. With this weapon, S.A.T.S. would only get in the way, and that fact was proven as three ghouls rushed me, wrapping their legs around my neck and tried to drag me to the ground. I twisted as I fell, plunging the knife into a ghoul’s neck and twisted the blade, widening the wound. That ghoul released its grip on me and gave me space to pull my knife free, kick at the second and slice its throat open. As I pushed the second body off of me, the last ghoul redirected its attack, aiming its jaws at me throat. I turned my body so it latched into the armored scales of my barding instead and brought the Pipbuck down hard on its head, caving it in.

As it fell, I lifted the computer to my eyes to inspect it for any damage. It would really be sad if I had finally gotten my hooves on a brand new Pipbuck, only to break it a few minutes later. Luckily, the only damage I could see on it was a bit of bone and blood that were sticking to it. I guess new ones were built a lot sturdier than the old hunk of junk that I had carried around.

I shook the gore off and looked around me, searching for another target, but it seemed as though the attack had been turned. I quickly wiped the gore from my knife off on my barding and slid the blade back into its sheath, then pulled out my guns and reloaded both of them. Who knew when the next attack would come?

“Shit, I really need to get my hooves on another gun,” Autumn swore as Suture bandaged up a bite on her leg, “this rifle does not do well in close quarters.”

“We’ll make that a priority when we get out of here,” I said, returning the 9mm to my saddle bag, “For now, we need to make do.”

“Fair enough,” the mare grunted, testing her weight on the bound leg, “How much longer is that door going to be? I don’t know if we can turn another attack.”

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly as I pulled out a pack of Rad-Away and slurped it down, nearly gagging at the taste, “but it shouldn’t be too much longer. The longest I’ve ever seen Crosswire need for a door was the Stable door, and that was a special case.”

Autumn simply grunted in response and checked her rifle, sliding the receiver back and forth as she looked for damage.

“Are you all right, Suture?” I asked, turning to look at the medical pony. She looked pale, as though she was about to faint.

She shrugged. “I’m all right. Surviving, at least. I don’t like that I have to keep shooting, though. It just doesn’t feel natural.” She still sounded, but it appeared as though she had pushed aside her problems with me until later.

I nodded sympathetically, “I understand, but we need your help. It’ll take everypony working together to get out of here in one piece.”

“I know,” she answered shortly, nodding, “and I’m doing my best to cope.”

I smiled at her, not knowing what else to do to show my support. We were all going to have some new scars after this, emotional as well as physical. I turned my head to look towards the door, hoping that Crosswire was almost finished with the door.

As if answering my prayer, I heard him shout a moment later, “I’m through! Evergreen, get back up here!”

I pushed my way through the crowd, pulling out Hammer as I did, and met Crosswire and the Stable guard at the door. With just a quick nod of acknowledgement, we were running again, though at least this time we were on the last leg of the journey.

We charged through the atrium, watching as the ghouls milling about on the floor below us caught sight of us and charged for the stairwell to our floor. The fear of being trapped by that wave of undead simply spurred us to run faster. Crosswire and I stopped by the stairwell to hold the line against the approaching ghouls and to make sure the Stable denizens could get out. Most of the Stable ponies had passed the stairwell by the time the first of the ghouls reached the top, and they were quickly cut down by the combined fire from both Crosswire and me, as well as from Autumn as she approached from the other side.

“MOVE!” the mare shouted at us and galloped by, Suture a step ahead of her.

The second they were past, Crosswire and I stopped firing, turned, and ran for our lives. I could feel the breath of the ghouls behind us, hot and rasping on the back of my neck, threatening to overwhelm me and drag me down into darkness. I spurred myself on even harder, pushing myself past my limits, acting with only one thought in my mind: survive.

The next thing I knew, we were past the Stable door, and Crosswire jammed his hoof down on the lever that would seal the door again. Slowly, the door started to slide in place, crushing a few ghouls unlucky enough to be caught in its path, and finally blocked the door from their advance.

The few ghouls that had managed to beat the door out were quickly cut down by us. We had made it. We were out, and we were alive.

I took a deep breath, enjoying the feel of fresh air in my lungs, even if we were still in a cave. I pulled out another pack of Rad-Away, drinking it to dispel the last bit of radiation that was still in my system, and saw to it that the rest of my friends did as well. Throughout the entire process, no one said a word. We were probably all too afraid that this was just a dream, and that breaking the silence would break the illusion, and we would all realize that we were still trapped in the depths of the Stable.

All around me, everypony was sucking in great breaths of air, fighting to regain their breath after the flight, and struggling to tamp down their fear that they might not make it. Crosswire, Suture, and Autumn Mist seemed relieved that we were finally outside, and the Stable ponies looked nervous, which was understandable, considering that none of them had been outside since the bombs fell. But there was also a sense of joy. For the first time in two hundred years, these ponies would be able to live again.

Finally, after almost twenty minutes of exhausted silence, Marmelade approached me. “Evergreen, I can’t thank you enough for helping us to get out of there. I’m sorry that we weren’t able to help you get what you came out here for, but please know that if you ever need anything, all you need to do is ask.”

I nodded at the buck. “Thank you, Marmelade. I know what it’s like to be trapped in a certain way of life. Even out here, life can put you in a position where we are unable to act. I’m just happy to know that my actions may have let another group of ponies get that chance to act again. Thank you for your offer. I’ll let you know if I need anything. Where do you think you’re going to go from here?”

The ghoul looked around the cave, then settled his gaze on the opening to the surface. “I’m not sure. We’ll probably try to set up a settlement somewhere nearby, maybe in one of the ruined towns. Hopefully we’ll be able to trade with somepony else out there, maybe one of those settlements you were talking about?” he said, throwing a questioning glance in my direction.

I shrugged in response. “You can always try. I’m not sure how Millberry would respond, but I know most of the caravans wouldn’t be opposed to the idea. I can talk to them the next time I see them.”

“Thank you once again, Evergreen. You truly are a blessing to us,” the buck said, then turned away and returned to his group.

I looked at the buck as he walked away, shocked at his words. I had been called a lot of things in my life, both good and bad, but never had anypony ever called me a blessing. Maybe I could pull off redeeming myself after all. I had definitely done a good thing here.

I tore my gaze from the ghouls and started towards the cave entrance, itching to look at the open landscape again. Along the way, all four of my companions joined me, climbing out into the wasteland.

Outside, darkness had just fallen, leaving everything with a feeling of peace. It seemed appropriate, considering the actions of the day. I sat down on a rock, looking out into the wasteland towards the south, where I could just barely make out the mountains reaching up into the sky, as though trying to touch the stars with outstretched fingers.

I turned my gaze upwards, towards the sky and was reminded of the mystery of the Dashite who had professed his loyalty to the Enclave with his dying breath. That was something I don’t think I would ever understand, but for now, I was willing to push all thoughts of mysteries and plots out of my mind and simply enjoy the night with the few ponies I think I could call friends, even if one of them wanted to kill me.

One thing I knew I could say for certain: I never thought I would be this happy to see the clouds.

Level Up!
Perk Gained: Lead Belly – After long exposure to radiation, and surviving, you gain +20% to radiation resistance.
Skill Note: Guns (75)

{Well this chapter has been an adventure and a half, and not just for Evergreen. I apologize for the delay in getting this one out, but school has really picked up over the last couple of weeks and I have been struggling to find time for writing (I’ve spent a god-awful amount of time in the library in the last couple of weeks). But here we are nonetheless, successfully and in one piece. As always, thank you to Kkat for creating Fallout: Equestria, and thank you to Cody and MUCKSTER for being my editors (and another thank you to MUCKSTER for being my soundboard for silly ideas). Again, I would like to point out that I have a gDoc hub set up here. Check it out for extra goodies. In other good news, I do have someone working on a cover picture, so look for that in the coming weeks!}