Chapter IV: Bring My Shotgun

The Strip seemed twice as alive as it did before. There were high class ponies everywhere, all of them having a good time it seemed. Intermingled with them were several NER guards carrying what looked like riot gear. Rimfire and I stood still on the Three of Diamonds steps.

“What now?” I asked.

“I think we need to find a place to sleep and eat,” Rimfire said. “Not necessarily in that order through.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “We? You want to come with me still?”

“Yes, I do. For one thing, I don’t think you could handle yourself out in the wastes or the Palomino alone. Two, caps seem to rain down from the sky and into your bags and I don’t think I want to give that up yet.” She sauntered up next to me. “Frankly I’m not doing much either.”

“I always knew you were a charmer,” I said grinning. I went to give her a little friend hug. She pushed me back.

“But first the caps,” she said.

“If we’re travelling together, I think it’d be better to have one pony with the money. Don’t you agree? It’s just safer.”

“Whatever,” she groaned.

“Now let’s get something to eat!”I told her happily. Rimfire and I descended the steps to the Strip and soon we were immersed in the crowd. I had been with her enough that I could tell her particular light blue mane anywhere. This time however, she followed me as we walked back out into the Gutters. The guards happily opened the gates to let us out.

“I hope you got your ID’s because you aren’t getting back in without them,” one of the guards told us.

It was much quieter in the Gutters now. The long street we were on was practically deserted. A couple fillies were busy playing in the street with a mutated rat. On the street itself was a few ruined wagons that were missing their magical batteries. Probably scavenged long before New Pegasus had been set up. There were three side streets not covered in rubble down at the far end of the street, where the exit to the wastes was. Ruined buildings lined the street. Actually, they were more like concrete husks nowadays. Though most windows were boarded up the open ones showed the flickering of campfires beyond them. There looked to be a few stores on the street as well.

“So do you see anywhere the sells food?” I asked Rimfire.

Her ears perked up as she looked down to our left. “No, but I see something better.” She started a run towards a storefront with barred windows and a steel door. I followed suit. Rimfire quickly pushed me into the store. It was dark, but my eyes adjusted to it soon enough. On the walls were racks on racks of guns and ammo. In the back was a counter and a smiling old stallion sat behind it. Rimfire ran behind the counter and hugged the old fellow.

“Brass!” she yelled.

“Oh my, is that Sunshine I see?” the stallion, Brass, asked. Rimfire pulled back.

“I told you not to call me that. I know your memory’s good enough to last at least that long.”

Brass laughed. “Well it has been a few years.” His eyes fell on me. “And who’s this? A boyfriend?”

Rimfire walked over to me and tapped me on the back only a little painfully. “No way, Brass. I’m this guy’s mercenary. He’s a caravaneer, or at least he was,” she explained.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Brass. I’m Short Change. Ex-caravaneer.”

“Well met, Short,” he said. “Now,” he said to both of us, “what can I do for you?”

Rimfire used her magic and pulled my revolver from it’s holster.

“Hey,” I protested.
She hushed me and placed it on the counter. “Short’s got a bad gun. He needs something a little better.”
Brass picked up my .32 in his hooves and carefully examined it. “I see what you mean,” he said, “I wouldn’t bet that this would last another fight.”
“I could repair it,” I said defensively.
“No,” Rimfire corrected me, “you couldn’t. I’ve heard the way you talk about guns. You probably don’t even know which way the magazine goes in a gun.”
“I agree with the lady,” Brass spoke up. He had put down the gun. “This revolver is old and beat to hell. There’s rust on the trigger and the cylinder here.” He pointed to both on the gun. I could see the brown starting to marr the silver. “I doubt you could even find anything decent enough to repair these. They’re generally the first to go, you know.”
“Yeah,” Rimfire chimed in, “that’s what I’m talking about. Brass, do you have anything for this guy?”
Brass turned to me, “do you know what type of boomstick you’d like?”
“A big one, probably,” I told him. He looked at Rimfire, she shook her head. “Hey,” I told her, “I can handle it.”
“Fine, whatever, don’t take the gun experts advice. Show him the big guns, Brass,” she told Brass.
Brass reached below the counter and pulled up what looked like a normal shotgun with a rather worn wooden stock. “This here is your standard shotgun. It uses 12 gauge shells. If you pull the trigger and the raider’s close enough, one’s all you’ll ever need.” He reached below again and pulled up a short, dark weapon, looked like a handgun. “This is .45 calibre, semi automatic pistol. It’s a magazine based weapon that holds 9 rounds per mag. If you need more than 9 in a fight, get back to the shooting range.”
“Do you have anything more like Rimfire has?” I asked. He looked at her gun quickly.
“Yeah, I got stuff like that.” Brass got out behind the counter and went to a few of the racks and slung a few of the guns behind his back. After five or so he laid them on the counter and resumed sitting. He picked up a long black rifle. “This is your typical assault carbine, it’s an assault rifle like little Sunshine here’s got. You see this black portion here?” He indicated a portion of the barrel which was thicker than the rest. “This was to make it easier to pick up if your fellow soldier died and you needed an extra gun. For the earth ponies like me of course.” He put that down and picked up a stubby silver gun. “This is your standard 10mm submachine gun. 30 round magazine, nothing to say here.”
I cut him off. “I’ll take them.” He and Rimfire looked at me strangely.
“What?” Brass asked.
“You’re an idiot, Short. You can’t take them all,” Rimfire said flatly.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Son, these guns are big and get heavy, especially when you get all the ammo you’ll need. Frankly you look pretty scrawny too,” Brass told me.
“Well I don’t want to be useless in fights and it seems that I should just have a lot of guns,” I told them.
“Alright Short, let me just help you out here,” Brass said. He cleared off all the guns except for the shotgun and then he reached below the counter one more time. This time he pulled up a brightly gleaming revolver with a pearl grip. There was a dark cloud and a light blue moon on the handle as well. “This,” he said, “is a .44 magnum. One of the strongest handguns you’ll find out here. I found it myself while scavenging one of the abandoned factories, it damn near saved my life. I think it was being made as a gift for the Princess before the war, I’m almost glad she didn’t get it. I call it the Luna Protegit, that’s fancy talk, not quite sure what it means.”
The gun was beautiful, I couldn’t take my eyes off it. “I’ll take it,” I told him.
He placed the Luna on the counter in front of the shotgun. “Normally I’d never sell this, but you’re Sunshine’s friend, and I like your chops, kid,” he said,
“How much?” I asked warily. No matter what he said, it’d be worth it.
“500 for the shotgun, it’s pretty beat up but reliable. I’ll throw in plenty of ammo for 100 more. For the revolver, 4000.” That news hit me like a ton of bricks. It was a pretty penny, but for a very pretty gun.
“Sounds fair,” I said. Rimfire’s eye twitched as I handed over a large lump of caps. I carefully picked up Luna with my magic and placed it in my holster. It was a tight fit, but it’d do. I hung the shotgun over my back. Brass passed a few boxes of ammo to me; I accepted them gratefully.
“Now I don’t mean to take all your caps, but I notice that your barding is a little, well, awful,” Brass admitted. I looked at my pitiful armor. I’d known for a long time that it was well worn, but I’d gotten it for a good deal and hadn’t spent any caps on it in a long time. It was just some raider’s old dirty leather barding. There were still some bullet holes from when it had lost it’s previous owner.
“It’s fine, Brass,” Rimfire said, “and stop calling me Sunshine, you know I hate it. We’ll just get him something when the time comes for it. I mean, he lasted around New Appaloosa for who knows how long with it. I think it’s best we got going too, there’s a lot left to get done.”
I nodded. “Thank you so much, Brass. I’ll take good care of Luna, but I have one question, you said you found it in a factory?”
Brass nodded. “Yes indeed. The Palomino is lousy with secret facilities hidden all over the damn place. I’d reckon that not even half of them are found.”
“Why are there secret facilities?” I asked.
“During the war, Los Pegasus wasn’t much on the military’s eye. We had a base or two, but that was it. A few of the families in power decided that to be safer against possible Zebra incursion they should boost some of the defenses. Thus they built weapons factories here. They saw what had happened to Hoofington, and I don’t think I can blame them for wanting a little protection.”
“Didn’t the ministries have anything to say about that?” I wondered.
Brass chuckled. “Surprisingly no. All the paperwork was filed and I guess it got cleared. I think Pinkie had a little of her influence in Los Pegasus at all. The rest of the mares didn’t give a damn what happened in the city of sin. I think only the Ministry of Morale had an office here. You can find it on the other side of the Gutters, it’s still locked up good though.” Brass settled himself in his chair. “I think that’s enough history for today.” He turned to Rimfire and bowed his head, “Always a pleasure, Sunshine.”
She frowned a little, “Bye, Brass.”
I said my goodbyes and Rimfire and I walked out of the gun store. I looked at the sign as we walked away, ‘Brass Bombs,’ it read. I thought it was catchy. The sun was low in the sky as we walked the streets of the Gutters.
“So where do you think looks like a good place to eat or sleep?” I asked Rimfire. “....Sunshine,” I added before she could answer.
She responded first with a kick to my hind leg. I let out a grunt of pain. “Don’t call me Sunshine, Short. Brass was like a father to me growing up. He gets privileges.”
“Alright, fine. I won’t pry anymore. But you have to know where there’s a room we can rent.”
Rimfire stopped walking. “Why don’t you check your pipbuck?” she asked.
“Oh yeah, it can do something like that can’t it.” I pulled up my left hoof and looked at the pipbuck’s display. I fiddled with the controls until a map appeared on the screen. “We are in business!” I said excitedly.
“You found a place?” Rimfire asked.
“Not yet, hold on.” I scrolled the map a little. It was hard to tell when buildings and roads stopped intermingling. A few spots had markers and names. I found one that was promising. “Here we go. It’s called the... Wrastler?”
Rimfire shrugged. The Wrastler looked to be down a block and two more blocks to the right. As we took the right, the road became much more dark and decrepit. It looked like somepony had gone to town on the roads with a little bit of explosives. We were the only ponies walking on the street. If there was anyone else, they clung to the shadows.
From a block away I could see the lights of the Wrastler illuminating the relative darkness that was everywhere else. It hit me just then, most if not all of New Pegasus was powered. There had been streetlights on the main road, but it’d been too light for them to matter much at all. Even Brass’ store had had a working light.
“New Pegasus has power?” I asked Rimfire.
“Uh, duh. You really are dumb as shit sometimes. New Pegasus wouldn’t even exist if it didn’t have any power,” Rimfire explained slowly. She gave me a queer look. “Don’t you know anything about New Pegasus before you set out?”
“No,” I admitted.
“Well there’s a lot you are going to learn.” Rimfire lead the way to the Wrastler. As we got nearer we could hear the music coming from within. A group of ponies were stumbling out of the bar drunk. It looked like they had NER outfits. We carried on and went inside.
It was a large building and affected by the years like any other. The ponies inside didn’t seem to mind however. Tables had been set up and there were dozens sitting around drinking, talking, laughing, and crying. The sole bar sat on the right sight of the building. Behind it were stairs leading to a second floor. There was only one bartender and he was polishing glasses. The two of us made our ways to the bar. The bartender put down the glass when he saw us and pulled up two from underneath the counter.
“What can I do ya’ for?” he asked over the music. “I’m Rusty.” He indicated his rust colored coat.
“Can we get two rooms and what have you got for food?” I asked him.
Rusty walked from the bar to a small refrigerator he had. From it he pulled two skewers of meat. He came back and put them on the counter. “Six caps for the meat,” he said. “The room’s going to be a bit more as we are filling up fast.”
I passed him six caps and Rimfire and I each took a skewer with our magic.
“Forty caps for two rooms,” Rusty said.
“One room,” Rimfire corrected.
Rusty looked at Rimfire with his jaw askew. “Okay, miss, forty caps for one room.” He placed a key on the counter. “Have yourselves a nice stay at the Wrastler.”
I laid the caps on the counter and picked up the key. Rimfire and I nibbled the skewers and we ascended the stairs. It wasn’t hard to find the right room as both the door and the key had a bold, black ‘3’ on them.
It was dingy room, wallpaper peeling off the walls and part of the ceiling was missing. There was a bathroom with a shower. In the back was a bed that sat beneath a window. The blankets looked comfortable.
“Being a gentlecolt that I am, I offer the bed to you,” I told Rimfire. She gave a blank stare as she continued to eat the ‘meat’. “Yes?”
She took her time to answer, long enough to finish the skewer and throw it away. “Why can’t we just fucking share it?”
“Uh” I mumbled.
“Exactly. Goodnight.” Rimfire took off her gun and armor for the first time since I saw her. I took a quick look at her cutie mark. It was two spent casings. Beneath the dirt and armor I saw that her coat was a rich emerald. With an almost air of excitement she hopped into the bed. I approached the bed slowly. On the way I took off my barding and guns and laid them aside. My saddlebag I kept next to the bed with my revolver. As I got under the covers I reached out for Crescent’s journal and brought it to me. I flipped to where I left off.
I can’t even find my files about Cork. It’s like he just disappeared. I went to where they buried him, and the grave’s still there. Even though everyone here seemed to forget him I won’t so easily. I think I got him killed. What he carried it...
It wasn’t found on his body. I checked that. The NER’s looking for it, that’s for sure. Why wouldn’t they want it? It’s the key to New Pegasus. It must be. Well, the key to something. I think Cork was murdered.
He’s telling me that if he doesn’t get it in three days, I’ll be next. I’m going out to the Galloping Stretch, and if nothing turns up. I’ll just go east. For now I’ve put Palmer in charge. He’ll take good care of it when I’m gone. With all the caps Redlight brought for doing the Kid’s job, everyone should be set for a long time. I whatever I’d gotten to Cork’s family. His wife appreciated it greatly.
I closed the book and put in on top of my saddlebags and laid back down. I could feel the warmth from Rimfire. It was a pretty good time to be in the wastes right now.

I awoke next morning to knocking at the door. I threw myself out of bed and landed not to gracefully. The sun came in rays through the boarded up window above the bed.
“Don’t hurt yourself,” Rimfire muttered.
I ignored her. “Who is it?” I called out while striding towards the door. The only answer was more knocks. I got to the threshold and unlocked the door. I waited for a lull between the knocks to open it. Outside was an unhappy mare with NER gear on. It was Tin. She was wearing a battle saddle with what looked like a pretty powerful assault rifle on it. She narrowed her eyes when she saw me.
“End of the line you son of a bitch,” she growled at me.
“Can we talk about this?” I asked. She pushed me back into the room and walked in, her gun continuously trained on me.
“What you have on your leg is NER property. Stealing it was probably enough of a reason for me to kill you.” She stepped closer. “Anything to say in your defense.”
“Hey,” Rimfire spoke up. We both glanced at her, she was stretching next to the bed. “Don’t kill Short. He’s cool.”
“Now, Tin. I know we haven’t known each other long, that’s a problem. I get that, but maybe I know something that can help everyone out.”
“I’m not in the mood for your bullshit, Short,” Tin declared.
“This isn’t bullshit,” I told her. It was bullshit, but I hoped it worked. “I know the NER’s looking for something in the Galloping Stretch.”
Tin stayed still for a good minute. Her eyes didn't stop glaring at me. Eventually she spoke. “What do you know?” she asked coldly.
“I know where it’s hidden,” I lied.
“Do you?” she asked.
“I’ll have you know Crescent told me himself. Right before he got killed and all.”
She took a step back. “We’ll contact you. Don’t try to run, you won’t be able to.” Tin turned and walked towards the door. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten the pipbuck,” she called back as she left. When the door shut again I started to breathe. I went back to the bed and started to put on my gear and saddlebags.
“That was rough,” Rimfire said. I gave her a tired look. She just shrugged.
“Yeah, it was. I was really hoping they’d never notice.”
“What was all that about a thing the NER wants?” Rimfire asked.
I finished pulling my barding on before I answered. “Remember that skeleton and book I found? Well it was Crescent’s journal and I’ve been reading it every night.”
Rimfire stepped around the bed. “So what is this ‘thing’?”
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. I began to trot towards the door.
“Hah, oh wow. They are so going to kill you when they find that out.”
I chuckled, “yeah. Hopefully that won’t happen though. We should get out of here, New Pegasus I mean.” I opened the door to the hallway. It was empty. As I stepped out, Rimfire followed me. “Maybe we can find that thing, or an underground factory like Brass talked about.”
“Are you sure about that?” Rimfire asked. I laughed at her while we descended the stairs, gave the key back to the bartender, and left the Wrastler. “Okay I get it.”
The closest exit out of the Gutters was a brisk 3 minute trot, and even the wasteland air is fresher when you’ve spent time in the Gutters. I took a quick look at my pipbuck to see if I could tell where we were. As far as I could make out we were on a road to the north west. It met up with the highway two miles out.
“Well I guess we just keep walking,” I said to Rimfire.
“Uhuh.”
“Like good old times!” As we began to walk the dusty road I pulled journal out of pack and began to read. Rimfire was never much for conversation on the road.
Got to where Cork died. Some of the sand was still colored with blood. I must have dug for a good twenty minutes all around the site, it wasn’t there. It must have been taken by whatever killed him, but there’s no tracks. Why would there be? It’s been too long. I’m losing it. I’ve got to find it or get out of New Pegasus. I swear the NER’s on my tail. I should have never taken this job. Everyone’s going to die because of me.
The pages went on in gibbering scrawl that I sort of skimmed over. As I closed the journal with a slight sigh of disappointment I noticed the sounds of hooves behind us. I stopped and turned. Rimfire saw me from the corner of her eye and turned as well. Behind us was a medium group of ponies. Ten or so dirty and grumpy mares and stallions, there was one happy mare in the lead.
“Ahoy there, travellers,” the mare greeted us.
I stared at her blankly for a second. “What?” I asked her.
The mare and her posse stopped. “I’m sure you’re confused,” she said. The dark brown mare had not blinked. “I’m Slipper, and who might you be?”
I wrinkled my brow and spoke. “I’m Short Change, and this is my companion, Rimfire.”

“A pleasure to meet you both,” Slipper said. Hey eyes glanced over our weapons. “Say, you two look like strapping young adventurers. Would you join my party for a little while?”

“I’m not sure about that,” Rimfire spoke up. “I’ve seen this shit before. You take us a little ways off the road and then you and your friends kill us.”

“No!” Slipper gasped, “nothing like that! We are merely on our way to an underground facility and we think we are woefully under armed.”

Even I could tell where this was going. “Look, Slipper. We aren’t going to do something so risky for a stranger...” I told her.

“You would be rewarded,” she offered.

I could feel the gears in my head shifting. “How rewarded?” I asked.

“Well,” she began. Slipper scratched her chin while she talked. “I think about a hundred caps would do nicely. What we’re looking for isn’t that far in at all.”

“How far is the facility?” I asked.

“Well, do you see that stretch of hills?” she asked and pointed to the north.

I turned and looked. The terrain around the road was mostly flat, a few shrubs and cacti littered the plains. The road continued to the north and started to snake through a range of hills stretching off in either direction.

“Well, in there is a particular mine,” Slipper continued, “at the end of that is a locked door which leads into a robotics manufacturer. We need something in there.”

“Lead the way,” I told her.

We followed the road into the hills, but as soon as it started to snake away, we left it. Instead we took to a roughly hewn path that had been well traversed for years. Up and down the range we followed it. Steep ascents and narrows paths made for a slow journey. Eventually we made it to an unassuming door made of rotted planks that closed shut a hole in the side of one of the hills. On it was a sign, ‘Keep Out!’.

“Okay, Short and Rimfire come with me,” Slipper said. “The rest of my crew will stand guard out here.” Slipper’s posse collectively nodded and dispersed around the opening. A few of them gathered in a small circled and took out decks of cards from the bags. The rest merely watched the surrounding area. Slipper strode to the mine door and opened it. The hinges squealed and she pushed through the buildup of rust. She motioned for us to enter, we did.

The mine was dark and for whatever reason, damp. Slipper has a flashlight which she used to navigate the twisting paths. Twice she had to turn back and find another path. The probability of there being a secret facility down here at all was looking next to zero when at last there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Slipper beamed as she ran towards it. Rimfire and I broke into a sprint to keep up with her.

As we caught up we saw that she was standing in front of a large, metallic door. She was busy interacting with a panel that had been installed next to the door. As she pressed various buttons it was beeping back at her. She seemed to be getting annoyed.

“Forgot the password?” Rimfire asked sarcastically.

Slipper ignored her and continued to press keys rapidly.

“You can open this right?” I asked her.

“Yes, I can,” she explained. “I was told the password before I set out, but I think I’ve forgotten in.”

“Clearly,” I said.

Slipper laid her head on the panel and groaned. “Oh,” she said after a minute, “I remember it now.” She lifted her head and tapped a few keys expertly. There was a clanking noise behind the door and it slid backwards revealing a polished metal, grey room. It was just like any receptionist lobby I’d ever seen before. Chairs on either wall, a desk with a terminal, magazines on the tables. You could almost hear the flipping of pages. As we entered Slipper coughed.

“Okay, guys, here’s your mission,” she began.

I cut her off. “You’re not coming?”

She shook her head. “Too dangerous,” Slipper said. “That’s why I have you two. Now here is what you are looking for. In the main lab there should be a main terminal that can access all the logs and files and the like. One of those files is sprite-bot schematics. Get me those and you have your reward.”

“That’s it?” asked Rimfire.

“Yes. Feel free to keep anything else you find.” With that she shooed us onwards to the door opposite the room. It sat next to the receptionist’s desk. It was a simple wooden door with a brass knob. On it was a sign that read “Employees only” in faded black writing. I approached the door slowly. My hooves disturbing a fine layer of dust that had settled over many decades. Rimfire cradled her rifle with her magic as I reached out to turn the handle. It turned easily and I was able to open the door with the lightest of pushes.

The hallway beyond was much different than the room we were in now. Instead of a peeling green wallpaper, the walls were bright white and well lit. Everything was pristine, something I’d never seen in all my years in the wastes. The hallway ended in a t-junction ten feet down. I used magic to lift my shotgun off my back and loaded a shell into the chamber. The two of us left Slipper in the waiting room. The hall echoed out hooves as we walked.

“Know anything about this stuff?” I asked Rimfire. On a whim we took the left path at the junction. We were now in a long hallway with an open door at the opposite end.

“What Brass said to you was mostly true, he’s old you know. These weren’t built by just the casinos, the ministries were involved as well. Yes, Morale was the only ministry that had a proper office, but I think they all had a little something here. Why else build these factories?”

“So you think they had a part in it?” I asked her.

“Frankly, I don’t know,” She said. “History was never something I learned when I was a filly.” She stopped talking as we passed through the door into a much wider room. The walls were a subdued white now, with regular concrete floors. Workbenches with metal pieces and wires dotted the room intermittently. A few skeletons lay at the seats of the benches. Only the rotted tatters of work uniforms covered the dusty bones. On one of the near tables was a radio that played the static of a station long since silent.

Rimfire walked to it and began to change the dial. As she busied herself I looked around the room. I stopped at a few of the tables to see if any of it looked useful. None of it did. I spied a closed door near the back of the room. Rimfire saw me staring and dropped the radio on the table and made her way over. While I walked over, I noticed something different. I could see red dots around the bottom of the vision, near the compass the pipbuck had given me. I told Rimfire about them.

“Sounds like a personal problem,” she said. This door was more in line with the rest of the facility; a white metal door with a keypad next to it. This door however, had an inscription on it. It was emblazoned with a set of gears and sparks, a sword ran through the middle.

“The ministry of technology, eh?” I muttered.

Rimfire nodded. “You don’t see these much around here, at least where I’ve been.”

I took a quick look at the console next to the door. It looked similar to the one I’d had in the stable when I grew up. I tried the normal open command, it worked.

The view of the next room was obscured as laser fire began to blast through the threshold. Rimfire dove behind one of the tables. I fell to the side of the door.

“Prepare to die, Zebra scum!” came a robotic yet patriotic voice. Rimfire laid her rifle on the tabletop and began to fire blindly into the other room. We were met with another volley of lasers.

“I can’t get a clear shot at them,” Rimfire yelled over the blasts.

“Don’t worry about it,” I yelled back, “I’ve got it!”

Rimfire looked worried as I stood up with shotgun ready. I waited for a lull in the shooting to rush forward into the next room. This room was much larger than the last. Huge conveyor belts and machines dominated the floor space. I could see Mr. Gutsy’s and turrets intermittently between them.

“Zebra spotted!” screeched the closest one as it turned to me. It extended it’s flamer apparatus. I pointed my 12 gauge at it and shot once. The pellets bounced of it’s plated skin.

“Fuck!” I yelled. I lunged under the conveyor to my left and the Gusty spat fire at me. I rolled to the other side and stood up. The Gutsy turned to me again. Quickly I pumped another shell and shot it at the robot.

I must have done something right as it’s ‘eye’ cracked.

“Zebra treachery!” it shouted as it began to fire it’s plasma cannon all around. Other Mr. Gutsy’s began to converge on me. I crawled onto the conveyor belt as a laser came flying at me. My tail got singed. I pointed my shotgun at the closest Gutsy and shot shell after shell at it. My gun was empty as the Gutsy began to spark and smoke.

“Free...dom..” it spluttered and lurched to the floor. The Gutsy next to it was engulfed as well and was thrown into one of the machines.

“Get back here!” yelled Rimfire. I ignored her and ran down the conveyor dodging robotic limbs and scraps. I couldn’t focus enough to reload so I slung it over my back. I needed a place to think.

I looked around as I ran. There was a set of stairs that led to catwalks above the factory floor. ‘Perfect,’ I thought. The stairs started three conveyors to my right and forward ten yards. I stopped and jumped on the open line to my right. A Mr. Gutsy behind me took a shot with its plasma cannon. The green globule singed a hole in my barding. My sides got uncomfortably warm.

I whipped my revolver out and fire blindly. To be sure the Luna was much more powerful than my old .32. I nearly lost my grip on it in shock. The bullet when wild and punched into machinery.

I lept to the next two conveyor belts and up the last one towards the stairs. A robot on treads was descending it precariously. I used my magic to tip it over and send it tumbling down to the floor. I jumped over it’s prone, mechanical body and hurried up the stairs. There didn’t seem to be any robots on the catwalks, but that didn’t stop the ones on the factory floor from taking potshots at me.

Lasers and plasma bolts bombarded the catwalk beneath me. I peeked over at the doorway below me. Rimfire leapt through the threshold gun blazing.

“Eat lead, you tin cans!” she yelled. A few of her shots hit the robots and they exploded in a shower of sparks and shrapnel. There were only a few left, and their energy weapons were enough to make her take cover. “Do something, Short!” she yelled.

“I’m trying!” My shotgun probably wouldn’t do much at this range, and they were getting closer and closer to Rimfire. I pulled out my revolver and pulled back the hammer. Carefully I lined up the sights at the one closest to her. Trying to control my breath, I took the shot at it’s core.

Like the last robot, this one had a hole punched through it as it slumped to the floor. I looked back at Rimfire, she was pulling a new magazine from her bag. There were just three more gutsy’s in the room. I leveled the next shot and fired again. The bullet scraped the side of it and the robot twisted slightly.

“Zebra scum will not be tolerated!” came the tinny voice of one of the robots. I was getting awfully tired of these things. The next shot didn’t miss and now only two remained. As I aimed for a third, a laser clipped my front leg, searing my skin. I let out a cry.

Rimfire stood up from her cover and let forth another volley of bullets, slaying the last two bots. I rolled over to my back and dropped my gun beside me. “At least I’m not losing blood,” I thought. Rimfire made her way to me and stood at my side.

“You’re a fucking idiot!” she told me sweetly. She gave a quick glance at my injury. “You need something for that or can you walk?”

I rolled over and tried to stand. The pain wasn’t that bad at all. “I can walk,” I told her. She looked at my cut and frowned.

I took a good look around the catwalks. They mostly stayed near the edges of the room, only crossing through the middle to go near particular pieces of machinery that tall enough.There were two doors behind us.

I winced a little as I strode towards the door on the left.

“Hey,” Rimfire spoke up, “put more shells in your gun, Short. Don’t want to get caught unaware.” I pulled the gun off my back and began to slide fresh shells into the receiver. Rimfire kept a careful eye on me as a I did so. “Good,” she remarked.

I slung the gun and continued to the left. The sort of compass in my sight showed a little arrow pointing this way. The door was like any other we’d seen in this place. Sleek, grey, and made of metal. It opened as we got closer. The next room was full of filing cabinets and tables. The tables all had workstations on them. As we walked in, I noticed that the arrows hovered pointedly at one of the stations. I walked to it quickly and booted it up. It sprung to life as if it was brand new. The main menu consisted of a few selections.

>Memos

>Mail

>Plans [Confidential]

I accessed the plans menu first. The terminal whirred on the inside as it loaded the next directory.

>Drone [Offline]

>Weapon X [Missing]

>The Iron Giant

Without hesitation I selected The Iron Giant option. The screen changed to say ‘Downloading’ and there was a small beep from my PipBuck. The terminal went back to its home screen.

“Is that it?” ask Rimfire.

I nodded to her and began to tap into the terminal’s mail directory.

“So... are we going to leave?” she asked.

I looked away from the screen. “Why would we leave?”

“Well maybe I’d like to get paid for once,” Rimfire chided me. I waved her off and kept looking at the emails. There weren’t that many, even fewer that weren’t corrupted from age. Most of the one’s still available were just business reports and testing data.

One message in particular caught my attention. Its header read ‘RE: Ministry Interference’.

Keep the projects on the down low. I know we’ve been over this, but we’re getting funding from them for a reason. Don’t fuck it up, tell them what they want to hear.

“The more time I spend around New Pegasus, the more I feel like an idiot,” I said aloud.

Rimfire looked up from digging around the drawers of a desk. “What do you mean? You’ve always been kind of an idiot if you ask me.”

I flashed her a quick grimace and turned away from the terminal. “Well, it just feels like no one knows what really happened in Las Pegasus. Brass said there was limited Ministry activity here, you said there was more, but it seems like they were very interested in what these places were producing.”

“It was a tough time back then, Short. Nopony really knew what was happening. It’s not like anyone’s really trying to unearth the past around here either.” Rimfire moved towards me. “Why don’t we get out of here anyway? We got what we came for.”

I took a few steps back towards the door. “No, not yet. I want to see what’s a little deeper in here.”

Rimfire let out a quick cry. “Fuck! Why? You nearly died getting in this room,” she said.

I trotted to the door and opened it. The catwalks were just as we left them. Smoke was rising from the lower floor and pooling around grates in the ceiling. Rimfire followed me begrudgingly as I went to the other door. This one was different from the other, but it too had a placard on it. Two stripes of black and yellow ran up the sides of the door, almost giving off a vibe of warning. The placard read, ‘Only Authorized personnel. All others enter at risk.’ The door rose smoothly, revealing a hallway beyond.

The following corridors were strictly different in appearance. Cool, grey tiles lined the floors and the walls were a barren, white paint. The ceiling was a common concrete. The only things on the walls were either signs or security cameras that glowed a deep, menacing red.

A voice spoke as we entered the hallway, it sounded mechanical. “Identify,” it said.

“Short Change and Rimfire,” I responded. There were a few loud beeps and squawks before the voice returned.

“Not recognized,” it said. “Leave immediately. This is your only warning.”

Rimfire and I ignored the voice and began to walk down the hall. The long hallways echoed the sounds of our hooves hitting the tiles. If this place had ever been lively, there wasn’t a sign of it.The lights in the ceiling kept a natural light in the room. Rimfire stopped in the middle of the hallway. She looked around briefly, her ears twitching.

“You hear that?” she asked.

“No, what did you hear?”

“I guess nothing,” she admitted. She began to walk a bit faster towards the end of the hallway. \

The hallway ended in a T-junction that split to the left and right. There was a sign on the wall with two arrows to either side. To the left was ‘Specific Hardware’, to the right was ‘Robotics Testing’.

The path to the left looked just the same as the last hall did. Cool grey and white surrounded us. Ten paces down the hall and we hit the door. A big warning sign adorned the doorway, and sigh on the wall stated that safety goggles and hard hats were to be worn at all times. I disregarded the warnings and opened the doors.

The room was filled with lanes as though it had been a bowling alley. Instead of bowlers there were rusted relics of a bygone era. Husks of old machines lined the room and even a few piles of bones were scattered about. There must have been twenty lanes with targets at the end of them, like a shooting range. A few of the machines still seemed to have life in them.

“They died in here?” I asked looking at some of the bones.

“I guess so,” Rimfire said as she began to walk towards the machines that were still powered. I joined her at one of them. This one was large and spider-like. It’s chassis was matte-black and its eyes glowed a sinister green. Where it’s mandible would be were what appeared to be laser rifles. It’s eight legs were chained to the floor. The robot’s abdomen was made of overlaid sheets of metal, giving it the look of scales. As we looked at it it jostled softly and silently.

“What’s this?” Rimfire asked and gave the bot a quick poke with her hoof.

Her touch caused the spider-bot to try and pull out of it’s restraints, its body straining against confinement.

“Why’d you touch it!” I yelled.The robot settled down and stood still again.

“Declare orders,” beeped the robot.

“What?” asked Short Change.

“Declare orders,” it said again.

“Fire!” Rimfire declared. The spider-bot raised its head and the tips of its ‘mandibles’ glowed red hot. Three piercing volleys came from its mouth as it shot the target at the end of the range.

Steam rose from the barrels as it stopped firing. A red light at the end of the lane turned on and a ‘bzzzzt’ accompanied it. The target at the end of the lane levitated itself to us and hung next to the spider-bot. Pictured on it was a malicious looking zebra. There were 2 burn marks on its face, three direct hits. The room was silent as we looked at the zebra, until the robot spoke again.

“Free... me...,” the spider-bot said slowly. Rimfire backed up a good distance.

“Get away from that thing, Short!” Rimfire yelled at me. I didn’t get away, I started to walk around it. Its eyes began following me.

“Free... me...”

“What are you?” I asked.

“Cy... borg...” it said. Rimfire had drawn her weapon and was aiming at the spider.

“Don’t talk to it, Short...” she said weakly.

“How did you get here?” I asked it.

“Made... chained... tested... waited...” it responded.

“So you’ve been here 200 years haven’t you?”

“Yes...” it said. Rimfire lowered her gun.

“What’s your name?”

“I am... project 1343.”

I began to look at the chains that bound it to the ground. “Okay, Thirteen, let’s see if we can’t get you free.” The chains looked stronger than any I’d seen before. I turned to Rimfire. “See if you can’t find anything to cut these,” I told her. She rolled her eyes and began to walk about the room.

I used my magic to float out my revolver and held it against one of the links in the chain. I pulled back the hammer and fired.I pulled the smoking barrel away from the chain and looked at the damage done. There was now a sizeable hole in the chain link, and with a little bit of work I was able to separate the links.

Behind me, Rimfire coughed. I looked at her and she was carrying a welding kit.

“Going to cut that bad boy out,” she said as she pushed me out of the way and put down the fuel. Grabbing the welder with her magic she held it close to the rest of the chains. After she lit it, she made quick work of freeing Thirteen.

As we pulled the last of the chains away from him he began to walk around the room. His pointed legs making distinct ‘tnks’ against the floor.

“Free... at last!” Thirteen said.

“Yes,” I agreed, “but do you think you could tell us a little more about yourself?” Thirteen stopped moving and looked almost hesitant.

“Hard to... remember,” it began. “Remember pain... then tests.... All of it so... long ago. They used to... hurt me.” I looked at Rimfire with a pleading look. She grimaced at me and let out a quick sigh.

“Thirteen, we are going to go a bit deeper in this place, do you want to come with us?” I asked it.

Thirteen stopped moving and looked at me, its cold eyes locked onto mine. “You saved me. I will go with you.” I gave the spider-bot a brief smile. Its maw did not move.

“Where do we go from here?” Rimfire asked me.

Thirteen spoke up. “Across from here... is hardware. There you will find... Boss’ room.”

As Rimfire and Thirteen turned back to the door, I looked at the rest of the machines in the room. “Are they sentient?”

Thirteen stopped. “No,” it said plainly.

The three of us hurried back into the hallway and made our way to Specific Hardware. Thirteen was barely able to fit inside the hallway, being easily the width of three ponies and twice as long.

Specific Hardware stood behind a door just like Robotics Testing, with a sign demanding safety precautions be taken. The room was smaller than I imagined it. The first room we saw with work benches in it had been bigger than this. One side of the room was lined with shelves holding a menagerie of spare and pristine looking electronics. The rest of the room was filled intermittently with plain white workstations with welding kits and soldering irons. On the far side of the room was a door surrounded by skeletons, each of them as though they were trying to get in. Around the door were scorch marks, and even a few of the bones had them. As we entered the room, the door slammed shut and locked itself.

“What the fuck!” Rimfire shouted and grabbed her rifle.

“What’s going on, Thirteen?” I asked. I looked around, all the security cameras were pointed at us.

A voice came then, from the loudspeakers. It definitely wasn’t friendly. “Intruders detected. Purging process activated.” Tiles in the ceiling were pulled up and pushed to the side. Shiny, grey turrets slowly descended and began to swivel towards us. Rimfire was the first to react. She pushed me behind a table and laid her rifle on top of it. There were only four turrets, one for each corner of the room. They began to fire at us, their red-hot lasers melting the workstation we hid under.

“I’m getting real tired of robots!” Rimfire yelled over the din of laser fire.

I kept my focus on Thirteen, he was unfazed by the turrets, and they didn’t fire at him at all. An idea formed.

“Thirteen!” I yelled. “Take out the turrets!”

Without giving any indication he heard me, Thirteen turned his head to one of the turrets and let loose a quick barrage of lasers. They melted the turret with ease, and as easily as he dispatched the first, he had taken care of the rest.

Rimfire and I ducked out from under the workstation. “Thanks, buddy!” I said to Thirteen.

He stood still for a moment. “You’re welcome... buddy.”

I led Rimfire and Thirteen to the door at the end of the room. I tried my best to keep away from the bones but my hooves knocked into a rib or two. Thirteen made no effort to avoid having his armored legs crush the bones. The dry snapping of the bones echoed through the room. I shuddered as the point of one of his legs pierced the skull of a long dead pony.

The door was as intimidating as any other in the facility. Stark metal with riveted edges, in the middle a sign that merely said “Boss”. I tried unsuccessfully to open the door.

“Let me try,” Thirteen said in his typical monotone. He stepped up in front of the door and raised himself so he stood solely on his back two legs. His front six legs he placed firmly on the door. It groaned slightly under his weight. The servos in him began to whine as he pushed into the door. The grating noise of metal on metal began to fill the air as hidden mechanisms began to grind together. With thick snaps that sounded almost deafening compared to the relative silence, the door slid open slowly. Thirteen dropped onto his eight legs. “Opened.”

“Guess we’re not going to need anymore lockpicks,” I joked to Rimfire. She frowned at me. I wiped the smile from my face and turned back to Thirteen. “Stay out here, we won’t take long.”

“I awaited freedom for so long, I can wait more.” Thirteen took a few steps back to let us through. Rimfire followed me into the opened office.

It wasn’t as extravagant as I thought it’d be. The floor was covered with a nearly worn-through, green carpet. The walls had wood paneling up about three feet, the rest would a diamond pattern wallpaper that was just starting to peel. As with most of the rooms, it had file cabinets in one corner, and a desk in the center. On the desk were a few knick-knacks and a terminal. Behind the desk, in a chair, lay a skeleton curled into a ball.

Rimfire began to root through the file cabinets as I gingerly pushed the chair aside and turned to the terminal. It booted up rather quickly and went to writing in progress.

Fucking shit. I can’t stand it anymore. They want to be let in, they want to know what to do! I don’t fucking know. The bombs dropped today and the fucking doors locked. We can’t get out. Everyone came to my door for my fucking guidance.

Fuck fuck fuck.... I can’t stand them crying anymore. I’m turning on the security bot, no safeties, that will shut them up.

I looked up from the terminal and stared blankly out the door. “We have to get out of here,” I said to Rimfire.

She shut one of the cabinets and looked at me. “Why?” she asked, “You need nap-time?”

I let out a slow breath, “I think we should have paid attention to the security here.” The floor rumbled softly as I finished telling Rimfire. Thirteen let out a shrill note. Rimfire and I ducked out of the boss’ room and stood looking at the end of the room.

It was a tall sight, that robot. It stood on two thick legs and had a body like a tree trunk. The two arms ended in impressive weaponry, one a minigun, the other some sort of flamethrower. Its head resembled that of a Steel Ranger, but more primitive. The chrome body had all but rusted away.

“Protocol dictates that I take you outside instead of kill you. Unfortunately, my protocol was abandoned with a direct order,” it spoke.

“Are all the goddamn robots here alive?” Rimfire asked aloud.

The robot levelled its minigun at us. “Sadly,” it said as the gun began to spin up. Rimfire and I both dove for cover behind desks as bullets began to tear through the air splintering the wood they met. Thirteen stood still as bullets slammed into his armor.

“Get a move on, Thirteen,” I told the unmoving spider-bot.

Something within him came to as he began to shoot lasers at the security drone. Rimfire had been moving down the lines of workbenches and had reached the end of the room. She laid her rifle on the tabletop and began shooting in quick bursts at the security drone. I grabbed my shotgun off my back and let off a quick shot at the enemy robot. The pellets spread and lost force, only a few penetrated into the rusted carapace.

“Don’t use the fucking shotgun, Short,” Rimfire yelled over. She was cut short as the security robot turned its fire to her. The desk and walls around her exploded into dust and flying debris as the hail of bullets hit home. The robot took steady steps towards her and lit his flamethrower, the fire was an intense blue.

I let go of my shotgun immediately, leaving it to fall on the desktop. I used my magic to grip my revolver and whipped it at the robot. My sights aimed right at the rusted head but my shot went wild, hitting the wall and throwing dust into the air.

“Fuck!” Rimfire yelled. The robot stopped moving a mere ten feet away from Rimfire. Without warning, great flames leapt out from its flamethrower. The powerful fires licked the walls and workstations. Wood and paint burned and peeled as the unrelenting heat got to them. Rimfire started screaming like I’d never heard before.

The table she was hiding behind was holding, but it wouldn’t for long. That's when it finally hit me, we weren't going to make it out of this hole alive. In an instant, memories of our time spent trekking through the wastes came flooding into my thoughts. Everything we had done had always seemed so certain, so destined for success. Sure, we may have had some close calls, but there was never any doubt that we'd pull through. This whole time I had thought of her as this constant, her being there was just as sure as Celestia's sun would shine each morning. But this was different. We'd taken too big of a risk, bitten off more than we could chew.

Rimfire was going to die. Thirteen’s lasers weren’t doing anything to the robot’s armor, and if I couldn’t do something fast, none of us were going to make it out alive.

But then something clicked, and time just seemed to slow down. I could see everything in such detail. Thirteen’s laser blasts arcing through the air, The flamethrower igniting napalm to incinerate the room, its conflagrations burning the walls and tables as everything in front of it charred. And I could see tears stream down Rimfire’s face.

I knew what to do though, it was all in place. My aim went on autopilot as I took a shot at the head of the robot. I saw everything, the end of the barrel erupt fire and a bullet fly off straight. It’s slow rotation as it impacted the robot, catching on something and tearing open a large hole into it’s head. Servos, wires, and flashing lights were revealed underneath the metal helm as the large chunk of the front panel was torn off. Time seemed to speed up as the action caught up to me.

“Thirteen!” I yelled to the spider-bot, “shoot the head!” He heard me and he shot into the security robot’s exposed circuitry.

It stood still for a moment before the flames from its flamethrower began to dwindle and its machine gun wound down. The hole in its head was spewing smoke and sparks. The robot’s body began to shake as it fell backwards, crashing onto desks which splintered under the enormous weight.

The smoking body lay still on the wooden fragments and torn metal, its head lay with its remaining eye staring at me. I turned from the robot and rushed over to Rimfire. She looked mostly fine.

“How are you holding up?” I asked her. She looked away from me, sniffling.

“I’m fine,” she said tersely.

I felt a sharp tap on my flank. I looked back to see Thirteen behind me.

“It’s not dead,” he said. I pushed past the robot and walked towards the fallen security drone. Its glowing eyes had dimmed but stayed constant as I walked towards it.

“You’ve got AI, don’t you?” I asked it.

“Y-es,” it sputtered, “he and I are not different.” Every word it spoke was clear and constant, a half second pause between each.

“You mean you and Thirteen?” I asked.

“Yes,” it said, “we were both made into this.”

Thirteen stepped up next to me. “We are nothing alike. You are simply a weapon.”

The robot gave a synthetic, wheezing laugh. “So are you. Don’t you remember when they made us? They probably wiped your memory, after they saw what it did to me.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“We were ponies once,” it said. “Workers here.... They killed our bodies and put our minds into machines, but I’ll be free soon. I thank you.”

“Wait, why would they do that?” I asked hurriedly.

The robot replied slower and quieter than before. “During the war... individual lives became secondary to winning.”

“I’m not like you,” Thirteen spoke up. “I’m not a slave anymore.”

“Easy for you to say, forgetting your orders does not make them go away.” The security robot’s voice was barely audible to us anymore, his eyes nearly completely black. “One day, you will remember the pain the came with your body.”

“Why didn’t anypony stop them?” I asked, though I felt I already knew the answer.

“Because nopony cared,” the robot said slowly. “If you’ll excuse me... I’m dying.” No one said anything as the humming of the robot became dimmer and dimmer, and as the light of his eyes faded to complete black.

I trotted back to Rimfire, leaving the robot’s husk behind me. She seemed to have composed herself and was stretching her hind legs lightly.

“You ready to get out of here?” I asked her.

“I thought you’d never ask,” she said tiredly.

END OF CHAPTER 4
Level up!
Guns 25
Perk Gained: PipBuck Prowess! You may have not been using it for a long time, but you sure got good at it!(Gain 40 AP for use in S.A.T.S.)