Fallout Equestria: Tales of Transylvania

by MeetSouder

Chapter Six: We Check Some Things Out

Chapter Six: We Check Some Things Out

Scarlet Rose

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I flapped my wings gently as I weaved around another dead tree. The path that cut through the forest was probably once a road but nature had nearly reclaimed it all.

It still blew my mind that the world entirely stopped nearly two-hundred years ago. There were ponies still around, yes, but we were sparse now. If anything, we were more like caveponies again. Kinda like that comic I read once, it was about a barbarian mare in skimpy clothing, ‘Sword Mares’ or something like that.

Midnight and I had been traveling for a while now. It was painfully slow with him stuck trotting on the ground but I didn't have the heart to complain about it. I imagined the poor bloke was just as frustrated about him being grounded as I was. I made a mental note to shove every extra health potion we found down his throat.

I brought up my PipBuck and began to check the map for the location of the Ironshod Firearms warehouse. Using the wheels on the sides of the device, I panned the screen from the little marker that read ‘Transylvanian Renaissance Faire’ to the similar shaped marker reading ‘IF Military Surplus Distribution.’

I turned on my EFS and smiled as the magic spell activated in my vision. A little indicator appeared on the compass in the direction we were heading. What a useful tool when you're anywhere bigger than a stable.

“So it looks like it should have been an hour of travel,” I said. “We're almost halfway.”

Midnight nodded and slung his rifle across his chest, “So do you think we’ll actually have to use these things?“ he looked disdainfully at the gun.

“Was it that zompony trying to eat you or the slavers who tried to blow my head off that makes you think that?” I spoke sarcastically.

“I believe they're called ‘ghouls’,” Midnight stuck his tongue up at me.

He grabbed his rifle and propped the forty-five degree angled stock against his shoulder. He held the gun by its firing bit protruding out of the left side. These earth pony designs were convenient, but for fliers like Midnight and myself, I could only imagine a battle-saddle would be far superior. Mounting the gun to our sides with a fixed sight would allow us to fly and shoot at the same time. But I doubted we’d ever find that kind of custom hardware.

The barrel of Midnights rifle wobbled to and fro as he trotted. He aimed down the bright green fiber optic sights, pointing it at random trees in the darkness.

“I hevth ner ideth hew tew useth dis thing,” he mumbled around the bit.

“You’re kidding, mate,” I stared down at him. “Firearms class was held every weekend in the orchard, didn’t you go?”

Midnight spat out the bit and let the rifle hang loose, “You think anypony trusted me with a gun? They didn’t trust me with a job.”

I pursed my lips in grim agreement. The poor buck really was an outcast everywhere.

“I actually have no clue though,” he looked up at me as I flew lower under the dead pine canopy. “I know you line up the sights and bite down on the bit?”

“Luna above, we are going to have a long conversation about this…” I sighed.

<><><>

“Just like flying, everything is affected by gravity. Bullets too. You want to remember to aim above your target if you’re at a decent distance. You can change your sight elevation to make up for it.” I explained to Midnight as we trudged along the forest.

I had landed earlier to point out different functions of his rifle and pistol; how to load it, magazines, jams, maintenance. He was surprisingly paying attention. Maybe he’ll actually start paying attention to our survival for once too.

The ground was covered in a thick layer of dead pine needles, dampening our hoof clops to soft crunching. The forest in these parts was relatively open, with the trees spaced out at least twenty hooves from each other. According to what our PipBucks said, a small abandoned town should have been up ahead where the warehouse was located.

“Okay, but what if I’m moving instead of my target?” Midnight asked, peering at a group of boulders off the trail.

Moonlight was leaking in through the cracks of the pine canopy above, providing ample light for us to scan the forest. Well, at least for me. I couldn’t imagine how much Midnight actually saw in the darkness. But, so far things had been pleasantly quiet.

I smiled at the opportunity to flex my knowledge, “Oh well that’s simple, you actually aim behind your targe-”

I was suddenly cut off by a blood-curdling choir of un-equine roars that filled the air behind us.

The fur on my back stood on end in familiarization. That was definitely the sound of a zompony.

We both stopped and whipped around to face the boulders we passed, just as three ghoulified ponies came charging around, howling in their horrendous voices.

“Shit! Midnight, kill them, kill them, oh my Luna they’re so messed up!” I screamed, reaching back to unsling my IS-4.

I wasn’t fast enough. The lead ghoulish pony was only a few hooves away and was already galloping at its nearest target: me. My rifle was still only halfway off my back. I could see in stark detail as the ghoul approached. Its black beady eyes, cracked and sharp teeth; I froze in fear.

“Get down!” Midnight commanded around the firing bit of the Tidus 11 pistol in his mouth.

I flinched and found my muscles again. I dove to the side and out of the-

*BOOM*

The .45 cal round rocketed out of the barrel of the pistol. I saw my mane fly in front of my face as the bullet passed through the falling hairs. It penetrated clean through the skull of the ghoul and imbedded itself into the dirt behind it, sending a micro-sized mushroom cloud of pine needles into the air. Scarlet threads gently floated down around me.

That was way too close, I thought to myself. My rifle thumped across my chest as I landed on my back.

Midnight leaped over me as he dodged an uncoordinated strike from ghouly-number-two.

I took the firing bit of the IS-4 in my mouth, moved the fire selector switch to the ‘automatic’ position, and bit down on the pressure plate. I felt the plate click as it released the hammer inside the carbine.

The gun was so loud, all I remembered was feeling it rattle in my mouth five times as it sent hell into the ghoul that was about to jump over me. Its body tore apart as I struck at its ancient bones and tissue, killing it before it hit the ground… Or in this case, me.

“Oof!” I grunted as the heavy-arse bugger landed right on top of me, throwing my carbine off to the side.

The rotten stench reached my nose and tears welled up in my eyes. I tried desperately to buck the huge earth pony off of me, but the blasted corpse weighed twice as much as I did.

Midnight, who was galloping away with the last ghoul close behind, quickly flared out his right wing. The broad feathers caught the wind in his momentum and spun him around one-hundred-eighty degrees. The blanket of stars peeking through the canopy caught his feathers and they shimmered through silky thin threads. A trail of white sparkles flashed in an arc around him as he flipped around.

I stared with wide eyes at the spectacle before me.

*BOOM*

The Tidus 11’s mighty roar echoed into the night, fading into a ‘crack’ then a low ‘hum’, as the soundwaves were caught by the forest and surrounding distant mountains.

The ghoul that was trailing Midnight fell over into a heap on the ground, the back of its skull ruptured from the immense force of the pistol’s large caliber bullet.

I watched in stunned silence as Midnight threw his pistol into his saddlebag and quickly trotted over to me, stopping and heaving the dead ghoul off of my body. He held out a hoof for me to take.

That was… incredible. The battle scene replayed in my mind as I took his hoof, mumbling a small ‘thank you’ before getting on all fours.

I stared at the corpses around us. The way he moved wasn’t like anything I’ve ever seen. It was almost like starlight itself propelled against his wings.

“W-what was that?” I stuttered. His folded wings looked perfectly normal now, albeit the left one was still splinted up.

Midnight tilted his head, “What was what?”

“The way you moved…” I trailed, shaking my head. “Nevermind.”

I met his eyes and felt a particular feeling, something I wasn’t familiar with. He saved me. Sure, if I had gotten a hold of my shock earlier I would have been fine. But I didn’t. If he wasn’t here, Luna knows what would have happened to me.

This battle brought the thoughts I had back in Renaissance; this world was hell. One of us could have died at any moment from those monsters and we wouldn’t even know what was going on. I needed to steel my nerves if I wanted to pull my weight.

“Are you okay?” Midnight brushed himself off and examined the corpses of the ghouls. “Foul creatures, eh?” he nervously laughed.

I don’t know if it was out of panic or relief, but I quickly leaned forward and nuzzled Midnight’s cheek in appreciation. I stepped back and pet my mane nervously, trying to regain my composure. “You, um, you did a good job with that pistol.”

“Oh, uh– you smell bad,” Midnight sputtered.

Really? I stared at him for a moment.

I quickly smacked my hoof against his shoulder. Oh the nerve of this dense buck. Yes, I may have just had a dead corpse collapse on me, but there were other times for those comments!

“S- sorry,” Midnight stammered, “I mean, I’m glad you’re not hurt.”

I slung my rifle over my back with a relieved sigh, “Thanks. I guess I do smell pretty awful though, huh? I’m sorry for rubbing it all over you like that.”

“Don’t be.” Midnight straightened and grabbed his gun. He ejected the magazine from his pistol and began the arduous process of hoof-loading bullets from his bag back into it, just like I taught him. “For my first time shooting, I guess it wasn’t that bad.”

“Not bad at all, mate.” I shook myself off and flapped my wings, climbing above him. I hovered a healthy distance above one of the ghoul corpses, “What do you think causes this to happen to ponies?”

Its deformed and rotten figure was beyond recognition, all you could tell was that it was an earth pony at some point. The muscles that hung loosely on its exposed skeleton was more than even the toughest body builders could hope to gain. It was obvious that something had mutated this creature. Dark blood tainted with a sickening rainbow tint oozed out of its head. The marred colors painted the blood like an oil slick.

Midnight holstered his gun on his saddlebag strap and carefully approached the body. He reached a hoof out to poke the shimmering fluid.

“Don't touch it!” I hollered and dove down, smacking his hoof away. “Are you kidding me? Middy, we don't know what that stuff is.”

“Good point,” Midnight grimaced and put his hoof down. “Why do you think they're all earth ponies? I thought Transylvania was just us.”

“There were probably plenty of ponies all over Equestria during the war. They had powered chariots and such. These poor bastards probably got hit by balefire and that was that,” I shrugged, ushering us to continue down the path and away from the ugly scene.

We began down the trail once more. My confidence wavered but I was glad to put the attack behind me. I was careful to keep my rifle at the ready and I was certain I wouldn’t freeze like that again. Not just for my sake, but our sake.

After a short while, the forest rapidly cleared as we approached the rocky base of the mountains that surrounded Transylvania. I could barely spot the twenty or so ruined pre-war homes of a small settlement ahead, the cracked asphalt road winding its way through town.

Near the left side of the town was a three story concrete building in decent repair. I could only assume that was the Ironshod Firearms warehouse since there was an abandoned lot out front surrounded by a broken and rusted barbed wire fence.

The building had three visible garage openings, two of which were closed with enormous rusted steel-slatted doors, the last one was open. A large powered chariot with a storage container in tow was parked before the opening, probably loading supplies when the bombs fell and radiation bathed the area.

We probably had another fifteen or so minutes ahead of us but I was glad to take it slow with Midnight’s trotting. After that ghoul attack, I wanted to be doubly sure to check our surroundings.

The moon was just barely reaching its halfway point in the sky, bathing us in a pale glow that made every structure look equally important. I pulled out my IS-4 magazine and checked how many rounds I had left; it felt mostly full.

I slapped it back into the rifle. I wasn’t going to freeze again. Next time a zompony or whatever the hell the wasteland threw at us attacked, I was going to be the one to save Midnight’s sorry flank instead. I owed him that.

<><><>

“I don’t see a bloody thing, Middy, what the hay are you talking about?” I mumbled as I squinted my eyes.

From our position on a hill, we could see more closely into the buildings. The little neighborhood lined the asphalt road and around a circle drive. This group of abandoned houses was between us and the warehouse that was nestled along the base of the mountain on the other side.

“I could have sworn I spotted movement down there. I didn’t get a good look at it, but it was alive,” Midnight affirmed.

The various pre-war houses were the generic Tidus 50s suburban dream. They had their dead little front lawns, tiny cracked little white picket fences, and pretty blue collapsed walls. Only about eight or so of the houses were still standing, all of which were covered in a variety of grotesque spray painted images of pillage, murder, and… stallion parts.

I guess ponies still need to express their feelings through art, even after the fall of Equestria, I reasoned.

“Somepony’s definitely been here recently. Walls don’t paint themselves,” Midnight nudged my shoulder.

“Well, mate, those houses had two-hundred years to get decorated. Anypony could have traveled through between the bombings and now and just, um, prettied up the place,” I said nervously. I wanted to believe that anyway.

Midnight sighed and unslung his hunting rifle from his back. “Let’s just be ready for anything, Scar. I really don’t feel like knowing what the afterlife tastes like.”

He spoke as he pulled his gun’s bolt half-way out to make sure it was chambered, just like I instructed him to do earlier. He was a fast learner.

“Tastes… like?” I quizzically tilted my head while I did the same checks with my carbine.

“Yeah, there’s obviously going to be food in the afterlife?” he responded in confusion. “Luna’s gotta have some cake on the moon or something.”

I stared at him for a moment, slowly mouthing what he just said.

He did get brain damage from that fall.

“Okay,” I shook my head and stood up. “C’mon let’s head on down and follow the road to the warehouse.”

We cantered down the hill, my rifle bumping softly against my chest as it swung on its sling. When our hoof steps contacted the asphalt, I heard the familiar clopping that was ever present in the Stable. I didn’t realize I missed the sensation of hard ground until now.

Looking around, I inspected the houses that were completely caved in. Nothing but burned-out wooden frames stood amongst the pile of rubble that comprised their foundations. The houses on the main road leading to the warehouse were all standing, however.

As we slowly made our way through the neighborhood, I began to see bloodstains and twisted bodies of dead ponies decorate the sides of the standing houses. Their torn limbs hung on hooked chains and their heads were shoved on pikes in the front lawns. It certainly wasn’t art.

I felt my throat tighten as the stench of it all finally wafted our way.

“I think I’m gonna be sick…” I moaned and fought the urge to look away from the houses. Whatever monster that did this to ponies may still be around.

“I think we should check it out,” Midnight said, holding a foreleg to his muzzle.

“What?!” I shrieked. “Are you bloody mad, mate? Don’t you see what happened to ponies who wanted to ‘check it out?’”

“That’s exactly why we need to see what caused this, I don’t wanna walk past only to be flanked by whatever creature killed these ponies,” he said and slowly began picking his way through the gore covered lawn.

“Luna’s moon, Midnight. If I didn’t depend on you staying alive, I’d kill you for making me do this,” I groaned and followed close behind.

We trotted toward the first bloody mess of a house to our right, rusted-out junk covered the front yard and organs of ponies decorated the edges of the roof. It was like a demented Hearth’s Warming display.

Misha carefully walked right up to the front door.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I whispered. “Why not look for the back door or something?” I shook myself off; fear was beginning to freeze my legs again.

“We’ll be fineee, when have I ever been careless?” he winked.

I rolled my eyes.

He grabbed the door knob with his teeth. It was caked in dried blood and rust, which looks the same, so I really hoped it was just rust.

Midnight opened the door nonchalantly and stepped in. We were greeted with the smell of alcohol and cigarette smoke wafting out the door.

I peeked around Midnight. He walked further in, but I couldn’t bring my legs to move. They were trembling as I fought to stay courageous. I stood outside and peered into the house from the safety of the porch.

Down the entryway was a lantern-lit room, it looked like there were a few ponies sitting around a worn out poker table. Each pony was wearing some form of Luna-knows-what for body armor: leather jackets, cooking pots, washboards, even a lampshade completely over one of their heads. Every single one had ridiculous spikes sticking out somewhere just begging to poke somepony.

The ponies themselves were all Transylvanian, their coats dark colored and their manes held up in fugly mohawks and spikes. I could see most of them; mares holding lewd positions on gambling stallions, some snorting questionable powder off the table, one chewing on a piece of raw meat. They all froze and looked at Midnight in unison.

Raiders. The words from Aurora Borealis echoed in my head as I felt my stomach drop.

They were all armed with the shittiest cared for guns I had ever seen. SMGs and pistols made from scrap and literally held together with bubblegum and duct-tape.

“So are you guys the talking kind, or the shooting kind?” Midnight asked everypony in the room.

A chorus of clacks filled the room as everypony grabbed a gun and racked slides, closed bolts, or shoved a makeshift bullet into a tube.

“Uh, I take it you’re-” Midnight began to shuffle back to the door.

*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG*

The room erupted into chaos as bullets flew in practically every direction. Midnight galloped down the hall and straight toward me. A line of bullets trailed off the hallway behind him as he yelled.

“Shooting kind! Shooting kind! Luna’s-fat-cake, shoot them Scarlet!”

I felt my legs freeze in place again. We were so screwed.

“RUN!” He yelled into my ear. Waking me from my fear and causing me to yell because he was yelling.

I lost my balance but quickly flapped my wings, taking off after Midnight who barreled past into the yard.

We bolted back down the road and across the street, toward the first house on the circle drive. I dove inside the wreckage, quickly followed by Midnight who jumped and rolled behind a mummified sofa. Our commotion caused the ash around us to kick up and fall atop us like snow. I braced my back on a wooden beam and shakily tried to peer out the hole in the wall.

I couldn’t help talking nervously, “Why do they want to fight us? Were we imposing on their festivities? Were they decorating a tree with guts? Oh Luna, I really hope they’re not celebrating Hearth's Warming Eve this early with guts… Actually, I really hope nopony would ever decorate a tree with guts.”

“No, Scar, there were no trees or holiday celebrations, though there were a lot of guts…” Midnight trailed in thought. He shook his head and continued, “There are five Raiders in that house, all armed, though their guns have seen better days. Get your carbine up and let’s take em’ by surprise when they come looking for us.”

Huh, for once he actually has a pretty solid plan.

I nodded and propped my IS-4 next to his rifle. My carbine barrel only reached half the length of his. He could probably feel the nervousness radiate off me, but I still held my gun steady. I reached a hoof forward and flipped the gun’s fire selector from ‘auto’ to ‘semi.’ I needed to make these shots count.

The door to the Raider-cave opened and out stepped one of the bucks, donning a machine pistol of some sort. He wore a leather jacket and was the one with the mohawked mane.

“C’mere lil’ pegasus, I wanna show you how much of a good neighbor I am!” he sang into the darkness as the rest of his gang poured out, all armed with literal rubbish for firearms.

I lined up the rear peep sight with the front post of my carbine. It was a small aperture but I could barely make out my target. I held my breath, were we gonna shoot first?

“Oi, we don’t have all nig-” the leader didn’t get to finish his sentence as a .308 round promptly ruptured his head.

*KA-POW*

Midnight’s rifle roared next to me, the muzzle blast blew some of my mane into my eyes and rang my ears. I sputtered and tried to clear my vision.

Wait, my mane is loose? Where’s my bow? I felt my head. My mother’s bow was completely gone. I felt a pang of worry; that was the last reminder I had of my family.

Midnight lowered his gun stock and used a hoof to cycle the bolt, ejecting the spent casing and rechambering the next one from the internal magazine.

“Scarlet, we could use more shooting please!”

Right! I blinked and snapped down to my carbine.

*BANG, BANG, BANG*

The steady shots of my IS-4 followed up in Midnight’s absence. I kept constant slow fire suppressing the Raiders as they quickly dove for cover behind the junk in their front yard.

The brass casings steadily ejected out the open dust cover of my carbine and lightly bounced off Midnight’s side. He lifted his gun back up to the beam and searched for a target.

The foreleg of one of the mares popped out behind a huge steel rubbish bin. She blindly sprayed an automatic hail of lead toward our general direction, forcing Midnight to take cover as the bullets struck the beam in front of him.

I held my aim and quickly lined the sights up on her hoof, biting down on the bit repeatedly and rocketing bullets across the street. One of the small caliber rifle rounds ripped right through her foreleg and into the house behind her. The Raidess stood up screaming in pain, only to be silenced by Midnight’s incredible aim; his bullet piercing clean through her throat. She fell to the ground gurgling in her blood.

Midnight repeated the process of cycling the bolt and brought his gun back up to face the Raiders. The gang quickly learned from their fallen companions and none seemed to risk shooting back at us again.

We had a moment to breathe. I mentally berated myself as I shook fiercely around my grip on my gun. I promised myself I wasn’t going to freeze up and I did it again at the house. If I couldn’t control my fear it would get us both killed.

Now was my chance to prove to myself that I was capable. Right then, somepony needed to make a move. And it was going to be me.

“Middy, cover me, I’m gonna fly over to that building on the left and surprise their bloody arses,” I said confidently. Or at least I hoped I looked confident to him.

I dropped my carbine on its sling and dug into my saddle bag, replacing my near-empty magazine with a fresh one. I really needed a way to hold magazines out and ready.

“What? Are you sure?” Midnight’s glowing golden eyes glimmered with worry behind our natural night-vision magic.

“Don’t worry, mate. I’ll be back before tea,” I winked and spread my wings, taking off through the collapsed roof and I flew toward the building.

The sounds of my leathery wings noisily flapped in the air. They weren’t covered in feathers like a pegasus’s and unfortunately, it was a sound every thestral was very familiar with. The remaining three Raiders looked up at me and began to take aim. I felt my throat tighten in panic.

Well this was a terrible idea! I widened my eyes as I flapped harder to cross the street.

The buck wearing cooking ware as armor was the first to stand but just as quickly, a bullet sparked off the cast iron pot on his chest, causing him to tumble over but not kill him outright.

The single shot was enough to force the other two Raiders back into cover, but not before one of them fired a pistol.

My right hind leg kicked violently inward as what felt like a sledgehammer punched into it. I yelped and tumbled down into the wreckage of the house just left of the Raiders. I managed to flare my wings just before impact and rolled onto my belly, my head dazed and leg throbbing with a dull ache.

“Shit! Scarlet!” I heard Midnight’s faint cry, followed by two more large caliber shots.

I blinked and wiped the smear of ash and sweat from my eyes, looking in horror down at my leg. Blood was pouring steadily just above the hoof but the bullet didn’t go all the way through. Oddly enough, I didn’t feel much pain. But I knew that was just the adrenaline talking and I was about to be in a world of pain soon.

I was about to be dead soon if I didn’t buck up.

I gulped and brought my gun up, looking out of the wreckage. The Raider who shot me was flopped over a post box. Midnight’s crack shots seemed to be working.

The other two Raiders gathered themselves and began pushing toward my position. Unfortunately, Midnight didn’t seem to be shooting anymore and I was about to be overrun.

I quickly flipped my fire selector to ‘auto’ and let out a long burst toward the pony with a lampshade over his head. I must’ve shot at least fifteen rounds but one finally found its mark. The dumb stallion didn’t see it coming, literally, and flopped over ungraciously.

The last Raider mare paused briefly at her companion’s death but stood still for just a moment to point a pipe at me. A literal pipe.

*BANG BANG*

Two shots rang out simultaneously.

The Raider’s pipe erupted suddenly as buckshot flew into the roof above me, miraculously sparing me as her aim buckled upward and showered me with rotten wood.

The mare crumpled to the ground as Midnight’s Tidus 11 ripped a hole in her chest.

That was the last of them. I sighed as I let my carbine drop, my legs still shaking but I couldn’t tell if it was from fear or pain.

“Scarlet! Are you okay?” I heard Midnight’s panicked voice approach.

I wearily stood up and began to crawl out a hole of the wreckage. Midnight suddenly jumped through the hole and nearly tackled me over. I unintentionally let out an ‘eep’ in surprise.

“I- I’m fine mate, don’t worry,” I groaned and pulled myself up to all fours again. I tried to sound calm but hissed as I put weight on my rear leg.

“Don’t worry?! You just got bucking shot in the leg!” Midnight exasperated as he reached into my saddlebags and rummaged around, finally pulling out our only healing potion from the medical kit. “Here drink this, it will still be sore and itch a lot, but it should stop the bleeding,” he said, holding the healing potion in his mouth.

I sat back and grabbed it with both hooves, wincing in pain as my weight shifted back. I popped the cork off with a fang and chugged it down. I scrunched my face as a… lemon… flavor kicked in.

“Blegh, that’s bloody awful…” I scowled and set the bottle down.

“I kinda liked em’,” Midnight smirked as he packed up the medical kit and saved the empty bottle.

I felt a warm sensation grow around my leg and I slowly stood up and looked back, watching as the wound stopped bleeding and a bullet slowly pushed itself out of my skin and onto the ash covered floor. The wound closed up entirely, leaving nothing but a pink spot on my skin where my fur was taken off by the bullet.

“Bloody hell… that’s amazing,” I stared wide eyed and gently set my rear hoof down. It was still sore but nothing compared to before.

“The pain goes away in an hour or so,” Midnight nodded. “Luna above, Scar, I thought you might have gotten seriously wounded back there.” His voice wavered as he looked me over.

“Midnight, you don’t have to worry about me all the time. I can handle myself,” I waved a hoof. I could be a tough mare! Even if I didn’t feel like one.

Midnight looked at me for a moment more, his eyes reflected genuine care and concern for me. It was a look that made my face warm lightly.

“Okay, you can worry a little bit…” I pet my mane absently. “Thanks for saving me… Again.”

I mentally kicked myself for feeling the way I did. If every damned fight ended with me giving this colt a nuzzle or whatever, then ponies might get the wrong idea. I was just thankful, okay?

Midnight snorted in amusement and slowly began climbing back out to the road. “You’re the one who charged head first into battle. I should thank you for being a war hero.”

“Trust me, I won't be doing anything Iike that again,” I mumbled.

We climbed out and back toward the battlefield. The ground was littered with fresh bodies joining the grim and bloody decorations.

I felt a complicated pang of guilt knot in my stomach. We killed these ponies. Not ghouls this time, but ponies just like us. Our kind. I knew I should have felt worse, but I also knew it was out of self defense. Not to mention the horrible things these ponies clearly did to others.

Midnight began to nose his way around the bodies of the Raiders. Flopping them over and going through their pockets.

“Uh, Midnight, what are you doing? That’s probably not very sanitary…” I scrunched up my muzzle in disgust as he used his mouth to pick up a makeshift revolver.

“Wert kernd of reverver ers ders?” he asked as he held it up for me to inspect.

“Thirty-two caliber, Neighmington, maybe?” I tried to identify the make but it was in such bad shape I couldn’t even tell. “Why?” I looked at him in confusion.

He placed the crappy piece of junk in his saddlebag and turned back to the next Raider. “We’ve gotta make caps one way or another. If we collect these guns from the Raiders, maybe that Stalliongrad buck will have mercy on us and give us enough to buy our stuff from the Night Watch,” he replied, shoving the dead Raidess’s SMG into his saddlebags.

I sat on the curb and let Midnight raid the Raiders. I didn’t exactly have the stomach to put those things in my mouth. I lifted my PipBuck and checked the map, we were close, that large building at the other end of the neighborhood was undoubtedly our destination.

I peeked up at Midnight as he went about collecting scrap from our fallen foes, “You handle guns better than I imagined mate, how’d you do it?”

Midnight paused and looked at me, “I used that S.A.T.S thing. Isn’t that what you do?”

“S.A.T.S?” I annunciated each letter of the acronym.

“Yeah, like, the targeting spell from our PipBucks.”

I stared at him for a moment then looked down at my PipBuck. I scrolled through the device and eventually found a setting called ‘Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell.’ The setting was blocked behind an Overpony permission code.

“Huh, well whatever that is, keep it up I guess,” I shrugged. I wouldn't know the slightest thing about that, but whatever it was, it obviously helped the clumsily pegasus kick some serious tail.

I scrolled through the tabs of the device, landing on a ‘Radio’ page. I bit my tongue curiously as I selected it and remarkably found a station labeled ‘Moonlight Serenade’s Sweet Sounds.’ I huffed in doubt and clicked on the station. I didn’t think there would be any kind of working radio out here.

Smooth big band jazz suddenly crooned out of my PipBucks tiny speakers, followed by the sultry voice of a mare singing about being ‘fly like you;’ something about a unicorn being upset with a pegasus.

I smiled brightly, “Hey, Middy! I found a radio station on my PipBuck, who’da thought there would still be radio stations out here?”

I swayed to the sweet sounds of the mare’s voice as I watched Midnight finish up his foraging, more than content with this new discovery. Eventually, he sat down beside me and caught his breath from cantering all over the front yard collecting various things.

“I’m pretty sure both my guns are empty…” he said lamely as he reached back and grabbed both his rifle and pistol, laying them out before him.

“I burned through two mags too,” I sighed in agreement.

We both began the painstaking task of reloading our magazines. I was careful to stick them in my winter coat pockets which would hopefully be much faster than digging in my bag each time.

When we finished up our reloading, we got on all fours and trotted down the road toward the intersection. I highly doubted anything else in this town wanted to kill us, otherwise they would have joined the battle earlier.

When we came to a crooked stop sign, we hung a left and proceeded down the main road into the parking lot of the Ironshod Firearms warehouse. The rusted-out barbed wire fence and dilapidated roadblock was hardly an obstacle as we crossed into the lot.

We passed abandoned security booths meant to police chariots entering and exiting the property. Midnight curiously peeked into a broken window, stopping and motioning for me with his right wing.

“Hang on, Scar, let’s check this out really quick,” he trotted into the small one-room sized building.

“You know, last time you said that, we got our arses blasted by some Raiders, yet here I am following you again,” I sighed as I trotted in behind him, barely fitting us both into the same space.

Inside, a small desk before a thick window held a single computer terminal. Remarkably it was still powered. The office chair had rotted away and fallen over, laying next to a peculiar looking black square on the ground. Along the walls, faded posters displayed various pre-war slogans, all made by a supposed ‘Ministry of Image’:

Let the Bats show em’ where it’s at! A picture of a thestal soldier manning a machine gun.

Princess Luna wants YOU to join the Transylvanian Pals Battalion! Several thestral mares and bucks marching proudly down a road with a dark blue flag sporting a moon proudly waving behind them.

“Lot of good that did for ‘em all, eh, Middy?” I scoffed.

I watched as Midnight poked the ancient terminal keyboard with a hoof. Surprisingly, it booted up to where it last left off two-hundred years ago. The green monochrome screen flashed to life and a series of commands came up into place.

Robronco Industries Terminal. Serial: 14B6A7
Command executable:
-Open main security gate.
-Unlock floorsafe.
-Contact police headquarters, Vanhoover detachment 14.

“Well considering the main gate doesn’t exactly exist anymore,” Midnight said, looking out the window to the hinges of where it once stood. “And I reeeally doubt there are any police still in Vanhoover, we might as well go for the floor safe?” he offered and used a hoof to guide the selection box down to the appropriate line and hit the ‘enter’ key.

A soft ‘beep’, followed by the sounds of a lock disengaging came from the black square on the floor. It gently popped open a few inches. Green letters wrote ‘unlocked’ in my vision as my EFS spell did some crazy unicorn stuff.

“Huh, is your EFS saying that too?” I tilted my head.

“Nope, I turned that shit off the first chance I had,” Midnight shook his head and reached for the safe.

He opened it up and we were surprised to find… a bobby pin and some bubble gum.

“Seriously? Who the buck locks up bubblegum and a single bobby pin?” Midnight skeptically looked at the pathetic treasure.

“Hey, maybe it was meant for a mare like myself to find because somepony oh so kindly gave me a manecut,” I sarcastically smirked and took the bobby pin.

I placed the bobby pin in my mane, effectively keeping my bangs behind my ear again. I smiled and turned to Midnight.

“Well, what do you think? Does it work?” I tilted my head each way.

“You look ghastly, as usual,” he replied and turned to leave the room.

I began to frown slightly but caught his sarcasm and rolled my eyes instead. “We may as well take that bubble gum too, I mean, it probably has just as many preservatives as anything else in this wasteland. So it’s probably edible,” I said, reaching in and taking the bubblegum in my hoof.

I unwrapped a piece and popped it in my mouth, Yay, generic bubblegum flavor.

“Want a piece?” I offered Midnight, who nodded and took one as well, promptly chewing on it.

I waited for just a moment, deep down hoping some crazy thing would happen to us from taking the special bubble gum from the safe. Hoping that since we spent so much time in that room and there was so much narration involved for such a small object, that the bubble gum obviously had importance to what we were doing, or perhaps would change something in the future, drastically altering our story.

Nothing happened, it was just plain bubblegum.

Welp, I thought to myself as we made our way out of the security booth and across the abandoned lot.

We approached the huge chariot that was parked in front of the open warehouse loading bay. From here, I could barely make out ‘Ministry of Awesome’ painted on rusty light blue paint.

What a presumptuous name, I huffed to myself.

When we rounded the abandoned vehicle, I took a peek inside the cargo container. It was relatively empty, save for a few pallets here and there. But a few crates stacked toward the back caught my eye.

‘S.P.P Transylvania Division’ was written on them in black ink.

The crates were busted open and clearly ransacked of whatever the hay that stuff meant. It looked like this place had been picked clean of all the goodies it once held.

“Well, this isn’t very promising,” I grimaced, looking back at Midnight.

“Starline said things were still up and running inside,” he gestured up the loading ramp with his head. “Based on that terminal still running, this place still has power. I’m betting there’s more to find. We just have to disable the security system.”

“The Security System doesn’t sound too friendly to me,” I frowned and followed him out of the trailer.

We clambered up the steep rusted steel loading ramp and entered a huge interior room of the warehouse. Empty shelves lined the room and various cracked and toppled-over metal crates littered the floor. Overhead, a few fluorescent lights flickered occasionally as they barely illuminated the abandoned structure.

My PipBuck’s pathetic speakers softly played a song about not wanting to set the world on fire. The cheerful song echoed ambiently around us as we walked down the center aisle.

At the back of the room, a single door was illuminated by a spotlight. It looked shut tight and probably led further into the warehouse. A lone terminal sat next to it. As well as some peculiar looking scraps of metal littered around it. They kinda looked like metal ponies. Like cyborg ponies…

“That terminal is our ticket in. Let’s check it out,” Midnight smirked and began trotting down the center of the room.

“Middy, wait-” I tried to grab his shirt but it was too late.

A bright white spotlight suddenly clapped on and lit Midnight up like a stage performer.

“INTRUDER DETECTED. DEFENSE PROTOCOL INITIATED,” an ominous automated voice echoed around us.

Midnight slowly turned and looked at me, “Well. Shit.”

XXX