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Chapter Four

Dear Princess Celestia, Is Greed All We Know?

"If his monstrous ways you wish to impede, you must prevent him from practising greed."

SCHREEEeeeeeeEECHH!

A glowing light burned in the darkness and the green fire of irradiated balefire bathed everything in a putrid green glow. A 'glowing one', a ghoul that burned with irradiated fire; fucking hard to kill, engulfed in fire and erupts in green bale-flame upon death...they ain't nice. It's screech reverberated on the walls and it's glow highlighted the mass of clawing forms inside the dark chamber, they screeched like a chorus of damned souls in Tartarus.

Well,there was the likely radiation source we were trying to avoid earlier.

Hundreds of ghouls charged for their new exit, crawling like spiders over the ground and walls before standing up and charging at us like crazed monsters.

BANG! The closest ghoul's head exploded in gore as my pistol's bullet tore through it. This was NOT the place to only have a pistol!

"ZOMBIES! FUCKIN' ZOMBIES!" Aero squealed in panic. He shot his canons into the crowd, blowing ghouls apart into wet chunks.

Stranger took to the situation with his usual calm. He pulled out his damaged but functional rifle and shredded three of their heads with quick shots. How he could aim and reload the bolt-action that fast was something I'd never quite figured out. I watched as one got close to him in between reloads. I ran up, skidding down and under the tall legs of my comrade, sweeping the ghouls hooves from under it. The ghoul collapsed face first on top of me. I shoved my gun barrel into its mouth and a bite on the trigger painted the far wall and my own barding in radioactive congealed blood. I kicked off it's corpse and turned to fire at another. One got close to us, it's mouth wide as it screeched, it's spindly hooves raised to tear at us, but before it could, Stranger bucked it against the wall. Then blew apart its chest with a well placed shot. Despite the heat of the moment, my mind made me remember the filly, I turned looking for her in a slight moment of panic, hoping that she was okay before breathing a sigh of relief when I saw the crimson stallion and his 'dog' protecting her. I watched as the pooch tore down several ghouls with a single swipe, shredding their bodies like stringy taffy. Lucky was nearby, he'd barely moved from his position, casually shooting in the general direction of the ghouls. Every bullet found its mark, tearing through the ghouls skulls and putting each one down. When one got close to him, it was either taken down by somepony else or it tripped over its own hooves and became an easier target, its body parts soon painting the floor when someone pulled the trigger in its direction.

A sudden weight on my back drove me to the ground. I yelped as I felt a bite tear into my shoulder. A swift buck from Stranger tore the ghoul from my back. The ghoul's skull was wrapped in a telekinetic grip and smashed against the wall repeatedly until it cracked open like a gory egg, spilling its contents down the wall. Stranger gave me a look.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, 'pay attention'." I grumbled in reply to his unspoken chastisement. I forced myself to my hooves. Looking up, my eyes widened and I quickly raised my gun. Stranger, rather than being alarmed, ducked instantly as I bit down on the trigger and blew apart the head of a ghoul that had been about to take a chunk out my friends neck.

SCREACH! The glowing one's screech was lost in the filly like squeal of terror from Aero as the ghoul descended on him, sinking its teeth into his throat and tearing out a fleshy chunk. His eyes went wide and his voice became a strangled gurgle as blood poured down the pegasus's armoured chest. We all turned and bit our various triggers; bullets tore through the glowing one from all angles, tearing it apart. Its guts exploded and its head was ripped from its body as it fell to the ground.

"Keep them off me!" I yelled, hoping they'd listen. I ran to Aero's side and looked over the wound. It was bad; he was choking on his own blood and he was becoming pale. I pulled out a healing potion and shoved it down his throat. I watched as some of the healing potion leaked from the wound. Celestia damnit... his oesophagus had been torn! I watched as the wound slowly started to knit itself together. Slowly, he took a shaky breath and I sat back in relief. The gunfire died around me and I turned to the others. "Are we done?" I asked between pants as I surveyed the shrivelled corpses.

I looked to each of them, trying to find any sign of other injuries. One of Strangers hooves looked like it'd been used as a chew toy, but I was sure he'd be fine. I looked at Sonnet, she was covered in gore, pale faced and looking quite traumatised, but she seemed otherwise uninjured. The dog, 'Winter', didn't seem injured either and Lucky looked annoyingly unharmed. Hell, he wasn't even splattered with blood. His coat was perfectly clean. I turned to the red stallion, hoping it really was done now.

"I dunno, how good's the idiots bullets?" The red stallion asked, giving me a wary look. I didn't understand the question but I checked the battle-saddle and gave him the info anyway.

"308, Armour Piercing and...from what I can see they're also concussive rounds. Why?"

"Because that vault is two rooms deep." He answered and my blood ran cold when I heard more screeching from inside the dark depths of the panic room. "The other side was already closed off; somepony had locked them all down there. I locked the rest in the second room."

"How many are in the further room then?" I got the feeling I was really not going to like the answer.

"About fifty." That's a lot of ghouls...but to be honest, I'd expected much worse. "But the number isn't the problem." It wasn't? "The problem is how big those ghouls are. And that some of them are gonna be a bit difficult."

I really didn't want to ask this question, it was a question that in the Wasteland often provided fewer answers and more mysteries and more often than not it got somepony killed. But I had to ask it...because I just couldn't help myself.

"Why?"

"Because those ghouls were the inmates here."

Aero's coughing broke the conversation as he massaged his raw and still damaged throat. "So," Aero tried, his voice croaking horribly. "So what...they're all buff and stuff?" He asked, holding his throat as though he were afraid it would tear open again. He was shaking and still pale, he'd lost a lot of blood and I wasn't sure we had enough healing potions to fix him up fully.

"You wouldn't think so, what with ghoul degeneration and lack of bodily nutrition from a decent radioactive source." The crimson stallion began. "The place had a generator in the lower levels that malfunctioned and was heavily irradiated, it's what turned them in the first place but it died down over a hundred years ago. Power only works now because I've rigged up my own generators-"

"You're rambling." I chided quickly, the continued screeching from inside the blackness making me wish he'd hurry up with his explanation. "Why are these ghouls different?"

The crimson stallion collected himself and quickly apologised for going off topic. "Okay, well the inmates kept here were specifically those that had a history of chemical substance."

"It was a rehab clinic?" Lucky asked curiously.

"No, not rehabilitation, experimentation." He answered, giving us a shrug. "These were incredibly violent criminals; rapists, murderers; worst of the worst and all of them heavy chemical abusers. From the logs on the systems I found they were getting extra income by leasing the facility for chemical studies, testing to see what the overuse of certain drugs or a cocktail of drugs does to the body."

"So you're saying these ghouls, when alive, had been permanently fed cocktails of drugs that would fu-buck up their bodies and when they got turned into ghouls...they stayed that way?" I questioned.

"Oh no...they didn't just stay; they kept shooting up." He shrugged as though it were obvious. "With insanity setting in quickly after the change due to their already unstable condition, they kept shooting up despite being ghouls; ya know, running through the motions and schedules of their previous life, as some ghouls do." I immediately thought of the Canterlot Ghouls and tried to suppress a shiver. "They'd been shooting up daily for over a hundred years before their minds broke completely." At this explanation, a large roar that barely sounded human came from the direction of the vault.

"Let me guess...Aero's guns might have been strong enough to punch through this door and into the other one?" I turned to Aero, vowing silently, once again, to shove his barrels somewhere unsightly when this was all over.

"Unfortunately-" CRASH! "...Yes..."

"RUN!" I yelled as I grabbed the whimpering Sonnet who had spent her time clinging to my back leg. I slipped her onto my back, grunting at the pain from the shoulder bite I'd gotten from the ghoul, and turned, galloping towards the entrance. I could hear a cadence to Sonnet's whimpers. Not the time to sing!

"But my research!" The crimson stallion yelled. "I need to download it. Winter! Come!" He yelled and ran back into the Security room with his pet on his heels. I considered going back for him but there was no time. He'd have to get out on his own. Shame, it was nice having an intellectual conversation for once.

The rest of us ran back to the stairs. I glanced back and almost soiled myself as I watched a few thin spindly, spider-like ghouls crawl out of the hole in the panic room door, followed by a large hulking beast of a ghoul that was much larger than any pony had a right to be.

Canons up his ass! So far up his ass I'll make him choke on them!

We ascended the stairs, galloping up as the screeching of terrifying, psychotic, drugged up ghouls followed us. We were two floors up when they caught up. We turned a corner as ghouls swarmed after us. They clung to the walls like insects, their eyes were sunken, a light blue glow shined in their depths and their skin was so taut against their bones that they looked like a skeleton covered in plastic wrap. Their skin had long turned furless and black and their hooves and legs were as thin as sticks. They were like four legged pony spiders as they screeched towards us.

"In here!" I yelled as I burst through a door on the third level, everyone piled in. We were greeted with an office crammed with desks and computers. Dim red emergency lights lit the room. It bathed the area in a red glow that somehow made everything more sinister. Pitch darkness would have been less creepy.

We moved through the room. I was tempted to scavenge through the desks, sure that I would find something that would either be of use right now or for trade later. Then the stairwell door smashed off its hinges and into the desk, and all I could think to do was run.

"Through here." I ran through a door to our left and round a corner, the movement was too fast and threw Sonnet from my back. She squealed when she fell, smacking hard into the wall of the corridor. I reached the end of the hallway with the others before I realised what had happened. I turned back for her. "You go on ahead!" I shouted at the others, galloping back as fast as I could.

I wasn't going to make it in time. The door we'd ran through was thrown open, one of the little spider like ones tore into the corridor and went straight for Sonnet. I fired, Sonnet screamed as the creatures head snapped back and its brains splattered against the wall. Another one came through, I shot that one in the chest, it didn't die, I shot again and it stumbled. It scrambled on the ground in front of the filly as its chest wept green fluid and congealed blood. Sonnet squealed and slammed her PipBuck down repeatedly, she screamed louder with each impact before the ghoul's skull exploded. Another one got close moments before I could reach her; I bit the trigger only to hear a click from the empty chamber. Shit. I pushed myself into a gallop, dropping my pistol as I ran.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" I threw all my weight into the punch. My metal hoof buried into its face, slamming the ghouls head against the wall. I reared back for another blow when the hulk-ghoul (that my brain was trying to figure out a name for) suddenly tore through the door. Shit. I threw the screeching spider-ghoul to the floor, grabbed Sonnet -the filly puking up over my back- and dived. The large brutish ghoul's hooves smashed down, just missing us and crushing the screeching spider-ghoul I'd thrown to the ground. I charged away as fast as I dared with the filly on my back, glancing over my shoulder at the large ghoul as I did. This one still had most of its fur but patches of greyish-green cancerous skin covered parts of its hide. Its muscles were grotesquely large, looking more like tumours. One of its eyes was a pure white orb in its engorged socket, bulbous, while the other one was sunken in and out of sight with the same dull blue glow in its depths like the others. A word came to mind; Behemoth. What the fuck had these ponies been taking!

One of the spider-ghouls pushed in with the behemoth, jumping to the wall and galloping across it in insectoid fashion before it jumped at us. Sonnet squealed again but the ghouls head exploded before it could reach us. I looked ahead to see Stranger in the doorway. I nodded in thanks as we ran by him. I heard the rifle go off again and the behemoth ghoul screamed in pain. I looked over Strangers shoulder, hoping he'd taken it down but no such luck. The bullets aim had been true, but instead of a corpse we only seemed to have pissed it off more; one half of its its face had been blown off. To my surprise, a blue fire burned through its wound and the features slowly started to reform. It wasn't quite the same, the new flesh was pink and offal, like tumour cells.

I realised two things were quite certain at this point: these things don't die easily, and we were fucked!

*** *** ***

The office was a dull grey like everything else in this complex. I was surprised we had yet to come across any incarceration areas like the actual cells that would house the inmates. So far it had just been large office areas with stalls for workers. This particular office was smaller than the others we'd seen so far, though. It was obviously meant only for one pony. A desk occupied one corner with tables stacked against others, a barred window looked out over the prison yard and a large white board with a list of pony names and a status mark that said either 'N/R' or just 'R' sat snugly on the wall behind the main desk.

We were held up quite securely behind a locked door. We'd managed to escape out of sight and taken refuge in this room before we were seen, but I knew it wouldn't stay safe for long. They'd find us eventually.

"How're you holding up?" I asked Aero. He caressed his throat. The fur hadn't grown back and it was a burning red, but at least he wasn't drowning in his own blood. Ya know, small mercies. He shrugged in answer, before turning away, seemingly refusing to look me in the eyes. Well at least he seemed contrite. "I'll take that as a 'good', hopefully good enough for the requisite lecture for our situation."

He glared. "Spare me."

"Oh I'm afraid I can't." I shrugged casually. "So really; firing your weapons like that. Please regale me with your intentions at the time." I gave him a piercing look. He was going to make this difficult, I could tell.

"Do you need to do this?" Lucky asked me from the corner. He'd nestled himself under a table and seemed content to stay there.

"Yeah, because he needs to learn." I kept my eyes on Aero. "You worked for Steam Bolt. What was it like?" I asked him.

"What?" Aero seemed confused. "It was...alright I guess."

"Probably better than 'alright'. If you got the caps to pay, Fillydelphia's the place to be, ain't it?" He was giving me a look now. "Best slave-tail in the Wasteland I hear." My tone was low.

"Do you have to say that in front of the filly?" Lucky snapped, his eyes glancing to Sonnet who had curled up under her own table, seeming to have copied Lucky in that respect, but this time as far away on the other side of the room as she could get.

"Make ya bloody point." Aero growled angrily. Or was it that his voice was so rugged after its damage that everything he said sounded like a growl? I wasn't quite sure.

"The slaves there are very well taken care of. They're expensive, valuable and Steam Bolt's property. He doesn't like his property damaged. So even though they're used for sex and raped Celestia knows how many times a day, they're still relatively safe there, aren't they? I mean, they're not likely to be killed." I reasoned.

"I suppose." Aero grumbled through clenched teeth, his brow fixed in a glare.

"Ya wanna know why Stable ponies make the best slaves, Aero? Because they give up quicker." I shrugged. "They can't survive out here. They don't have the experience. One or two try to escape the clutches of slavery, they end up dying out here and the rest see it ain't worth it. At least as slaves it's shelter over their heads and food in their bellies."

"And this has to do with our situation...why?" He challenged.

"Because you might as well be a Stable-born slave, Aero." I said his name snidely.

Aero's canons cocked and his helmet locked into place. He stared at me through those yellow bug eyes. "You sayin' I'm gonna die out here?"

A rifle cocked and Stranger's barrel was pressed to the side of the pegasus's head. I smirked, my eyes not leaving Aero's for a moment. "Yes, I am. You are weak, stupid, and you act impulsively. You are a cocky little shit and you have no idea how to survive out here." I glared at him. He was fucking pathetic. "So, I think a new understanding of our deal is needed." I smiled, turning away, moving to the office chair and sitting down in it, the swivel of it spinning me around on the spot. I smiled as I span in the chair like a foal, using it for a casual motion. Always good to make the idiots unnerved.

"What do'ya mean?" He asked, his helmet slipping back from his face so I could look him in the eyes.

"Okay, this is how it's gonna go." I stopped spinning and leaned forward in the chair to address him. "I don't like Lucky." I announced, pointing to the lime green stallion who's ears perked up at the sound of his name being mentioned. "He doesn't like me; but he'll stay with me for Sonnet. Sonnet herself doesn't like me either but she seems to be getting the picture that I'm trying to help her." I shrugged. "Both of them will probably stick around. But you are a wild card. I don't trust you and I don't like you much, but you could be useful, especially in helpin' Sonnet get her mother back. We need firepower and you have it. But all the firepower in the Wasteland won't protect you if you're stupid." I leaned back. "I can't guarantee you won't up and leave. I wouldn't exactly miss your company but if you are around here we may need to rely on your firepower from time to time, and if you suddenly vanish...that could get us killed. But if you do leave, you won't survive out there. So you need us or you're a meal for the Radroaches. So yeah, deal's basically the same as before, I help you with ya dad deal; you help us with Sonnet's mother. But with a twist." I jumped off the chair, sending it clattering against a wall as I approached the pegasus. "You're gonna stay with us, before and after the deal, you're gonna hang, you're gonna learn, and you get to leave when I say you can leave. Also you'll be doing exactly what I say, when I say it, and nothing more. You follow me now, like a good puppy."

He glared, his eyes glancing to Sonnet for a moment. "So I'm a slave too now?" He sounded very bitter about it.

I gave him my most winning smile. "Would you like a collar to make it official? I have a spare one lying around I'm sure."

He stared at me, his jaw clenching. I could hear him grinding his teeth together and by the way he was tensing, I knew he wanted to hit me. "No collar needed, thank you." He spoke stiffly.

I tapped his cheek. "Good boy." I grinned. "First order of business, if you ever fire your guns like that again unless it's to protect yourself, protect others, or with my personal permission; I will crush your throat. Is that understood?" He swallowed hard and nodded, still glaring as he did so. I do believe I just reached numerous-uno on his list of detestable ponies. So nice to reach an understanding.

Stranger put his rifle away as he and I moved to the door. We sat down with our backs against the door. It was a relatively comfortable place to relax and allowed us to hear outside the door in case of approaching assholes. I closed my eyes and eased out a heavy sigh before breathing in for seven seconds, and out for eight. I repeated for a moment. When I felt myself relax entirely I opened my eyes again and looked back to Stranger, my eyes running over his form. My gaze travelled to the bite wounds, as well as the other wounds he had sustained previously from the camp. "'You managing?" I asked softly so the others wouldn't hear. He nodded stiffly, then pointed a hoof at me, as his eye turned to look me over.

"Me? I'm fine." I shook my previously wounded leg at him. "It'll scar though." The bleeding had stopped long ago and the wound was starting to close. I checked the bite on my shoulder and saw that it too had started to get better, though there was a little puss from the bite infection. But that wouldn't affect me much. My gaze lowered as I looked over my prosthetic left hoof, noticing that it had become slightloy swollen and raw. "Might have to trim again soon, it's getting tight." I grumbled unhappily. His eye narrowed on me and I felt a turning inside my stomach. "I know." I said softly. "It's happening more quickly." I met his gaze and gave him a sad smile. "Remember when it took a year? Now it's every three months." I chuckled light heartedly, flexing the stubby fetlock. "I'll be fine." I dismissed. The absurdity of that lie was hilarious. I glanced at him, and though he didn't actually laugh, I swear to Celestia I saw a spark of humour in his expression. Maybe he did find me funny.

I sighed again, then glanced around the room, my eyes falling on the window that looked over the courtyard. Huh...maybe.

"You got the door?" I asked, not bothering to look at him. I saw him nod in the corner of my vision as I slipped away, trusting him to defend us if anything went wrong. I walked over to the window and looked over the bars. They were heavy iron, but the bottom of the window had been damaged at some point and moisture had managed to seep in through the cracks. The base of three of the bars were rusted. "Stranger, come over here. Lucky, by the door." I ordered. Lucky glared but he obeyed, displacing himself from his chosen spot before curling up next to the door. Huh, seems he was capable of moping AND listening out for danger, who knew the git could multitask.

I showed Stranger the bars and he gave me an understanding look. Light purple magic lit up his bandaged horn and gripped the bars. Stranger gave them a single firm telekinetic tug. The sound of plaster and rock cracking under the sudden force echoed out a lot louder than I'd have wanted. Stranger immediately stopped and we all listened in silence. I held my breath, hoping, but despite my silent prayers I heard a roaring screech sound in the distance.

"Good going." Aero grumbled miserably. His cannons cocked as he glared at the door.

Sonnet crawled out from under the desk. "What's happening?" Her voice was shaking. I wonder how much Wasteland adventure this filly could take.

"We're getting out of here." I replied firmly. "It was a mistake to come here in the first place. Stranger; the bars." Stranger nodded and pulled with all his might. The telekinetic field tore the bars from the wall with a resounding crack. His field then wrapped around the window and tore that from its hinges before letting it drop to the ground outside. "We'll get out of here and head for Friendship; I have a friend there that might be able to help give us a low profile for a while. We'll wait for Steam Bolt's heat to die down, should only take a month or so, and then we figure out what we're gonna do from there." Then I grabbed Sonnet and began to lift her to the window opening.

"No."

I froze and turned back to Aero. He was wearing that fucking helmet again. "Excuse me?" I asked curiously. "Didn't we just have the conversation about you listening to me?"

"I am not leaving until I get what I came for." He growled. "You go if you want to." He turned to the door and Lucky who sat beside it. Lucky's eyes widened when Aero's guns span. The lime earth pony jumped out of the way as the pegasus's canons roared, blowing the doors off their hinges in a smoking blaze, shattering the wood and some of the wall to pieces. Was that REALLY FUCKING NECESSARY! "Get out of here if you want." He yelled before he ran through out the door, then down the corridor beyond. The resounding sound of canons firing soon joined the horrible screeching that came from the hallway. Fucking pegasus, feather-brained, half-witted, asshole, butt-fucking, cunts of the Enclave!

"Oh that fucking wanker!" I yelled, forgetting to check my language in front of the filly. "Fuck him!" I yelled and pushed Sonnet through the window. She yelped when I let her go and she thudded on the floor outside. Lucky went out next, landing beside Sonnet. I was halfway out when ghouls tore through the now open doorway. "Stranger!" I yelled, watching as they suddenly descended on him. He turned to me and kicked out with his hind legs, his buck struck my hooves and I yelped as I let go of the windowsill and crashed to the ground below.

I laid on the ground, momentarily dazed from the fall as rifle shots boomed. The window was too high to jump to from the ground, and we no longer had a pegasus with us. The one fucking time I needed a feather-brain around. Typical. I climbed to my hooves and shook myself. The gunfire was moving away now, which meant Stranger was leaving the room. "Come on, we're going round!" We moved around the complex to a side door that turned proved to be locked. Fuck. I looked back at my comrades and grimaced. Our power hitter had run off and our combat expert had thrown me from a window. So I had a mopy git and the weirdest filly in Equestria to work with. Oh goody and fuck me.

"Here." I pulled out an IF 9mm pistol. I offered it to a very apprehensive looking Sonnet who eyed the thing as if it would go off just by being near her. "Relax. Take it, and shoot at anything that isn't us, try to go for the head." I turned back to the door before I paused and turned back to her again. "Oh, and try not to shoot me this time." She gave me an apologetic smile. But hey, a smile is a smile, and seeing one on her face made me feel better. Wait...it did? When did that start?

I picked the lock, opened the door and aimed my rifle down the corridor. "Come on." We entered slow. There were doors on either side and the corridor stretched out before us. "Stay quiet, stay close." I ordered, moving with them. Sonnet was stuck behind me.

"Do you hear something?" She asked, looking around in alarm.

I tried to listen for what she might be hearing, but nothing stuck out. "What is it?" I asked as I looked through a door window on the left. It was a storage cupboard. I saw medical kits sat on a shelf inside, the pink butterflies on each one a familiar and inviting sight. I picked the door quickly (in my haste I broke a bobby-pin which was a tad annoying) and opened it quickly. I am not ashamed to admit that I yelped when the corpse fell from inside the door on top of me. Sonnet stifled a squeal. Pulling myself back to my hooves I straightened myself and looked it over. The body still wore the prison staff clothing. The name tag labelled them as the receptionist. She'd locked herself in the cupboard during...whatever the hell happened here.

"Is that the slut?" Sonnet asked, looking at the corpse fearfully.

I considered having a talk with her right then about the use of that word so casually but I figured, what was the point? I looked from the corpse up to the shelves where I'd seen the medical cases...except they weren't there. The shelves were empty, any sign of the medical boxes I'd seen before was gone. Shit, I must have hit my head harder than I thought. "Keep your eyes peeled, and stay as quiet as you can."

They both nodded, and we moved down the corridor to a turn-off. I glanced down it and noticing a few lumbering shapes at the far end. They hadn't noticed us yet. I turned to Lucky and Sonnet and checked our weaponry. It sucked but they were stuck with pistols. I hefted up my rifle. It wasn't too fancy, but it had a silencer (for further note, it should be mentioned that silencers do not in fact silence the weapon. They simply lower the decibel level to a range where the shots will echo with more reverberation. Basically, they wont stop the opponent from hearing the gunshot, but will stop them from being able to tell where the shot came from. This is especially useful against ghouls, as they mostly tracked prey by sound until they could sight their targets). I turned back around the corner, took aim, and bit the trigger firmly. The phew of the bullet sounded out in the corridor as a hole sliced its way through the spidery ghouls skull. I'd figured with only two of them, they wouldn't know which end of the corridor it came from, behind them or in front of them. Sadly...I miscounted and didn't take into the fact a basic process of elimination...if the prey wasn't where they were face...they might just turn round to look. The other ghouls immediately burst into movement. Others, plural, because I was sure there was only two before, but buck me if more didn't burst round the corner.

"Damnit." I yelled. "Go for the heads!" I flicked my trigger as fast as I could aim. I took another one down and struck the chest of the next sending it stumbling. 'Go for the heads' I'd yelled, bloody shit, I needed to improve my own aim! They were crawling on the walls and ceilings, and the damned screeches echoed down the hall. Was it just my eyesight or did it look like a shadow was following them? Like the lights were being blacked in a tide of darkness as they came.

There were gunshots beside me. Sonnet yelped at the kick of the gun in her magical grip. She blasted one in the kneecap and it sprawled across the ground. Not a fatal shot, but the other ghouls did the rest of the job for her as they trampled it.

"Stand back!" Lucky yelled as he pulled out a grenade. The pin flew out and he chucked it down the corridor. He dived on us both, driving us back round the corner as the explosion filled the corridor with incendiary fire. Body parts and rubble splashed around us, one piece of girding from the walls sliced into the wall where my head had been.

"Thanks." I panted as Lucky pulled himself off of us and I pushed myself to my hooves. "Why didn't you use that when we were down in security?"

"With my luck I'd have killed all of them, and all of you but myself." He shrugged. "Didn't want to risk it." I understood that logic. He turned back to me and looked at my shoulder where the bite wound was barely visible under the barding I wore. "You've almost healed." I didn't look shocked, he looked scared. With good reason.

"Yeah." I said glumly. "I'm aware." I moved past him down the hall. There were several doors down here. "Does this place even seem like a prison to you?" I asked him

"No." He grumbled. "It looks more like a-"

"-Medical Facility." Sonnet answered, surprising us both.

"I was gonna say a school, but why a medical facility?" I asked her .

In answer she pointed down the corridor to the ceiling where a large fan rotated and circulated air throughout this section. "This section is ground floor, there are doors and windows, the fan isn't needed. So it's not an air conditioning unit." It was times like this when I was acutely aware that for all the crying and whining that filly did, she was not a normal child.

"So what is it?" Lucky asked curiously.

"Air filtration." She stated.

"There's a difference?" Lucky asked, turning to me.

"Air conditioning," she explained proudly. "Is a system that circulates air, cools it, and allows it to flow to otherwise closed off areas of any facility, to keep them fresh and cool. Air filtration is a system used to purify the air. Primarily used in medical facilities. It stops the spread of nasty bugs and also helps with the smell." It was like listening to a text-book. Did the filly have any practical knowledge, or was it all book? Huh...Celestia I'm such a hypocrite.

"Smell?" Lucky asked, looking like he knew he wasn't going to like the answer.

I turned to one of the rooms and pushed open the door. The room was white, or at least it looked like it was supposed to be. Tiled walls and floors, a drains and a table slab set up in the middle were what greeted out gaze. All of it, top notch equipment, and all of it practically bathed in crimson.

"Blood." I answered.

This place wasn't a prison. That was just a cover used while they ran experiments on the long-term effects of drug exposure. Inmates were the test subjects of course. If that was true, then this place would have a hefty medical supply... hopefully.

I stepped into the bloodied room. Lucky followed me and wrinkled his nose at the coppery scent of blood that seemed to have permeated every nook and cranny of the room. "This blood is fresh." He commented, looking somewhat disturbed by the notion.

"Not quite." I said, looking down at how coagulated it was and stained and dried. "This is a few weeks old, easily."

"It_should_ be a two centuries old." He grumbled.

He was right. It SHOULD be two centuries old. But only a few weeks? Something was going on here.

"We should get out of here as soon as we get Stranger and Aero. It was a mistake to come here."

"Why Aero?" Lucky asked bitterly from behind me. I perused the contents of a medical cabinet. There were a lot of drugs here I didn't recognise the names of, it would have helped if they had short-hoof nicknames on them, but instead they were just lots of chemical names that were hard to pronounce. While I was a smart pony, chemistry was not my forte.

"It'd be better for us." I replied.

"Ya know, one of these days, you might want to preface your assholish meagre explanations with a miniscule amount of respective context." Lucky spoke quickly and clearly.

My brow raised in amusement. "Exhaust your vocabulary there?"

"Fuck you." He replied I think he had actually just tried to impress me. Huh.

I chuckled. "Well if you're done trying to sound smart..." That earned me a glare. "...the reason it'd be better for us, is because Aero found us easily before. We have no idea if he's really working with the Enclave, or for Steam Bolt. All we know is that for now he's trying to be helpful, that is, until the git ran off. If he survives, he could find us; if he doesn't, we could get hunted for his death. In either case I'd rather have him by my side as either extra firepower, leverage if they come after us, or so I can kill him as soon as possible if it becomes needed. If I take him out and the others are after us, at least we'd be one foe down and stand a better chance than no chance at all."

"So, keep your friends close and your...potential-enemies closer?"

"You put it so succinctly." I mocked as I opened the cabinet and began empting some of the more useful crap into my saddlebags. Even if I didn't know what they did, maybe I could get some caps for it when we got out of here.

"Tome-master-sir?" The filly called in a small voice. I rather liked being called Master, it made me feel fuzzy.

"Yes?" I asked, turning to her. She was examining the blood on the table slab. Which was surprising, I'd figured with her being a Stable dweller and all, she'd find the sight of such offal repugnant and disconcerting, but nope. She looked it over fine...clinically in fact.

"This blood, erm...it's from a normal pony. Not one of those...erm...things."

"Those things are called 'ghouls'." I informed her before stepping towards her, "and what makes you say that?"

"The rate of coagulation is concurrent with a few weeks after death, but the erm, 'ghouls', already have coagulated blood. In fact it seems to have broken down into protein and the base levels of soluble gel. Consistent with two hundred years of pressurised containment within a dead but otherwise functioning body. If this were a 'ghouls' blood, it'd appear black and wouldn't smell like normal blood, likely it'd smell of bacterial infestation rather than copper."

"How do you know what ghoul blood looks like?" I asked her curiously. In reply she raised her hoof, showing me her PipBuck. It was still caked in the blood of the Ghoul who's skull she'd crushed.

I looked at the small filly curiously. "How do you know about bodily decomposition?"

"We used them for compost in the Stable."

Well...that was a cheery thought.

Lucky looked to be about to say something about that statement when something clattered outside the room and down the corridor. "The plot thickens. Let's go." I ordered. They obliged immediately, which I was enjoying. It seemed the filly, even if she didn't like me, had finally fallen into line when it came to trusting me. And Lucky, well he'd stopped glaring at every order I'd given him, maybe he wouldn't contest any more. It was a futile hope of course, the git was every bit as stubborn as me; but for now we seemed to be working in synch. Which was a relief, because I was stuck with the one Stallion that could get us killed without getting a scratch on himself, and a filly who'd never used a weapon before today. Hurray for being the only veteran of the group.

What I wouldn't give for Stranger to just turn up already.

Down the corridor from the room we found an intersection; to the left lead to an exit, and the right went further into the complex. I didn't see any ghouls so we headed further in as quietly as we could. Moving from room to room on the way we managed to beef up our supply on a few notable chems that I'd finally been able to recognise; Psycho and Buck, as well of at least one case of healing potions, yielding one extra strength and two normal ones. In our collection that made five healing potions, one of them extra strength. Not too bad, considering how large our company had become. I figured we'd need to start sharing the supplies and gathering more. Such were the pro's and cons of groups in the Wasteland. The bigger the group the more safety, but the harder it was to stretch food and supplies. Personally I preferred groups of two or three, but I'd been saddled with a group of five. Well, not right now since I only had the grump and the filly, but the premise remained.

We moved to the end of a corridor. The floor number emblazoned on the wall. "How?" I heard the filly ask behind me. I turned to her looking at the large number '3' curiously.

"What's up?" I asked curiously.

"How did we get here? We were down on level five... we went up to level three, we went out of a window to the ground level, back inside and...we're still out on level three when ground level was...level...zero?"

That...was a good question. I'd barely noticed, but...how did...I...was that a three or a four? Why was that suddenly an important question. I...I couldn't really remember how we'd even got here...everything felt foggy.

I moved to the next intersection, trying to focus on the situation at hand, even as my brain began to feel like it was filled with bees. I glanced around the corner; it was clear. I turned back to the others to tell them to be quiet as we moved forward, only to stumble and press my back to a wall as my eyes widened in terror. The wall had a mouth! A FUCKING MOUTH! The wall was cracking and stretching and groaning before it began to shake; rubble began to fall around me and I saw the wall crack open wide with teeth of concrete; drooling with offal and blood. I felt something crawling on my skin, I looked down at my left hoof and watched as the prosthetic metal on my stump snapped and the scarred flesh burst open with blood and mucus, a tendril erupting from the stump of my fetlock and extending out as a new slimy part of my limb, moving of its own free will. I think I started screaming.

"Mister-Master--Tome-Sir?!"

Then I realised I was being shaken. I could hear gunshots and see the muzzle flare flash up the nearby walls. I looked up and the tendril was gone, so was the face in the wall... Lucky was firing at something that I couldn't see, but I heard the screeching. I looked down into the panicked eyes of Sonnet as she screamed at me. I could see the danger and her fear, but it seemed muted... somehow... distant... OW!

Sonnet had given up and decided to clobber me round the face with her PipBuck instead.

The world rushed back to me loudly, and the gunshots immediately became deafening to my ears. I pulled out my gun, my teeth chattered against the bit and moved up beside Lucky without hesitation. I didn't have time to think or collect myself. I shook. Every breath I took felt strained as blood pounded in my ears.

I looked down the corridor.

There were hundreds...

Hundreds of them...

We were going to die in here.

*** *** ***

Oh for the love of Luna...she was singing again!

My eyes opened up and a fresh slice of pain flashed across my face. I groaned as I held my hooves to my temple and forced myself to sit up. Everything was a bit blurry and I couldn't quite make things out. My hooves knocked something when I lowered them and I realised that the blurriness had nothing to do with what had happened to me. My glasses had just fallen off. I picked them up and placed them back onto the bridge of my nose. Then looked around.

I was in a cage. It had thick bars and the gate was fixed with prison bearings. I was in one of the prison cells. In a cell to my right I saw Sonnet -surrounded by a small bed of flowers that had somehow grown through the cracks of the concrete floor- and the cell to my left held an unconscious Lucky. How had we gotten here?

My hooves moved to my temples and pressed firmly. I recoiled in pain. My hoof came back slicked with blood from a head wound I did not remember receiving. I looked beyond the cells and around the room. It was a long corridor of cells on either side, all of them had electronic locks that were probably controlled via a master switch. Can't pick those. At one end of the room was a door and at the other was what looked to be a computer with a large tank filled with blue liquid. They were hooked together with all sorts of tubing and wires. At said computer was a chair, and sat on said chair was a certain red stallion, humming to himself as he worked.

I pressed myself against the bars to get a better look and my prosthetic clinked against the cell door. I froze as a shiver ran down my spine and a churning roiled through my gut. I looked down at my hoof. It was fine. No tentacle had sprouted from the stump. It was a little tight, but that could be dealt with later. I stared at it, turning my leg over, trying to find comfort in it's normalcy; but I was terrified... terrified that I was dreaming and I'd wake up into a fresh nightmare.

"Tome, glad you're awake." A voice called casually. I'll admit it, I jumped a bit.

"What happened?" I asked, trying and failing to steel my voice. My head still throbbed and I felt sick. I had no idea how long I'd been unconscious. I couldn't hear the sound of Aero's cannons or Stranger's rifle, which gave me a gnawing sensation in my gut that quickly grew into a sense of dread that I promptly tried to bury, hoping that the stallion wouldn't see it on my face.

"Oh, chemical build-up." He said nonchalantly as he stepped away from the computers and approached 'my cell'. "The ghoul's bodies are metabolising the chems they took. Slowly of course -ghoul metabolic rate being what it is- so when they exhale to screech or grunt, or even talk, they release a gas. It's an Ethylene Hydrocarbon, extracted and peptide-bonded with Carboxyl proteins, gathered by in-taking Nitrogen from their decomposition. The build-up was in the room your friend blasted open, in very high concentrations so at the breach the sudden pressure drop flooded the area we were in quickly. You all galloped out of there so fast you only got hit with a high enough dose for a delayed effect. Results are disorientation, hallucinations, and eventual unconsciousness. It's a very interesting chemical." He seemed almost proud. "I call it Pythia." At least the disorientation and hallucinations explained how we'd somehow moved in incomprehensible paths when exploring. We actually hadn't, our brains had just been fucked. "How are you feeling?" He asked sounding concerned.

"I'd be feeling much better if we weren't locked up." I commented, eyeing him suspiciously. "Why are we locked up?"

"You were in the way."

I really didn't like the way he said that, "'in the way'?" I heard a groan beside me and looked to see Lucky waking up.

"What happened?" He asked while holding his head between his hooves, likely suffering from the same headache that I did. Mine was a dull throb at this point. I was a little surprised he'd been affected at all, but I suppose there were limits to how far his 'situation' could take his luck.

"A gas apparently." I answered, "Breathed out by the ghouls. Not gonna repeat the science of it, but suffice to say that our _friend_here is responsible for our current 'locked up' condition."

"What does he want?" Lucky asked, idly testing the bars before narrowing his eyes at the red stallion.

"He was just about to enlighten us to that mystery." I commented, snapping my eyes back to our captor. I waited for the red stallion to respond, but he didn't. He was studying us for his own amusement, a slight smile adorning his face. "Are you at least gonna tell us your name? I never caught it before."

He sighed. "My name is Futurity Champron; now I have some more work to complete before I need you." He said as he turned away, heading back to the large computer. He sat down, restarted the monitor and began typing in commands.

"What are you doing?" I asked. It was a strange name, but I suppose it almost suited the crimson stallion. "Futurity, what do you need us for?"

He paused for a moment. Then he gave a heavy sigh. He swivelled around in his chair and locked me in an almost compassionate gaze. "Tome," he began. "We're a lot alike, you and I. We're both inquisitive by nature. And it was good having somepony I could actually talk to. But my investigations and experiments are important. If my Stable is to have a future, I need to do these tests. And that means having access to live samples. And you seem to have prime candidates." His eyes ran from me to Sonnet who was currently whimpering in a small patch of grass and flowers that had grown around her, "some very interesting candidates."

*** *** ***

I have no idea how long we were in there. I had pressed myself up to a corner near Sonnet's cell; she'd decided to accompany me, curling up as close as possible to me as she could. Maybe I made her feel safe. That was a depressing thought.

Futurity Champron. Interesting name. 'Champron's' were ancient armour pieces worn by battle stallions, 'futurity' was a prophetic notion of the future. A defender of the future? Was that some prophetic titling or just the results of overly dramatic parents. Probably the latter. But whether or not such a name was deemed prophetic by Futurity himself was the big question. Those with a bloated sense of their own importance to the future tended to be the ones that were the most dangerous. Thankfully, they also died quickly. The Wasteland did not suffer fools.

But the issue was that I had no idea if the stallion was villainous or not. I mean yeah, he'd locked us up for his research, but maybe he'd let us go when he was done. Maybe his research was important. Maybe he knew something we didn't. Or maybe he really was just a mad scientist and he was going to harvest our organs for his own amusement and experiments... Who said I couldn't think positive?

"I want to talk to you." Lucky announced from the cell next to me. I turned to see him looking at the red stallion. Futurity looked at him from his seat by the machines and smirked to himself before he slipped from the chair and approached Lucky's cell.

"Yes?" He asked, his brow raised in curiosity.

"What are you going to do with us?" Lucky asked casually.

"Nothing to you, you're an Earth Pony, I have no need to study you. You're in here to keep you out of the way. Her however-" He pointed to Sonnet as she lay curled up against me. "-I'm going to be taking blood and keratin samples from her."

"Keratin?"

"Horn samples." I interjected from behind them. "He's going to file some shavings from her horn." I sighed, looking to Sonnet. She'd long since fallen asleep, which I was grateful for; it meant she wasn't singing and making more flowers. Her cell looked like a bloody garden.

Lucky turned back to the red stallion and looked him over. "How did we get here?"

I'd been wondering that too. The last thing I remember was the ghoul horde.

"Concussive grenades." He said. "Knocks normal ponies unconscious, but ghouls skulls are a tad more fragile, they tend to pop." He chuckled. "You were near a particular one, I'm surprised you weren't injured. You must be very lucky."

I was about to remark on that when a battle-saddle announced itself. A loud boom came from the other side of the door and the entire room vibrated. The moment presented an opportunity. Lucky seized it. He turned and kicked out hard, bucking his back hooves against the bars. This would usually do nothing to such a sturdily designed cell; but Lucky was a very lucky pony. Futurity Champron turned in surprise when the bolts pinged out of their bearings, and his expression was utterly delicious as the door fell off its hinges. The poor sap tried to run but the metal crashed down onto his back, slapping him to the ground with a whinnied yelp.

Lucky stepped from the cage casually and looked down at the now unconscious stallion. "Lucky? Huh, you have no idea." He grumbled as he trotted to the control area. He searched for a label, and when he found none he just pressed a random button. The cell doors opened.

I stepped out and Lucky headed for Sonnet. I quickly stopped him. "You've tempted fate too much today." I warned him. He thought about it for a moment then nodded agreement. I moved into the cell and nudged Sonnet. She woke up with a light grumble.

"W-what is it?"

"We're getting out of here. Come on." I said warmly, nuzzling her onto her hooves. "Onto my back." I urged her. She obeyed quickly and climbed on, her slave-collar clinking a little as she climbed. I had the momentary urge to take it off of her. But... not yet.

Then the doors burst up and Aero flew in, keeping low to the ground. He landed in a shower of dust. "Let's go." He said through his suit's distorted voice

"Where's Stranger?" I asked quickly.

"Buying us time." Then I heard several blasts from a high powered rifle on the other side of the door. Aero looked back over his shoulder then announced, "we have to go, now."

"Lucky, carry Mr Champron." I ordered as I searched for our stuff. Handily, I found it in the first box I searched. I gathered up our weapons, threw Lucky his pistol and threw on my own gear. I cocked my rifle and headed for the door.

Lucky blanched, "you've got to be kidding me, Tome. Why?" He asked as he looked down at the unconscious and injured red stallion.

"Because he may have locked us up, but he also saved us from the ghouls." I stated. "Besides, I have more questions for him." I had a lot of questions for him.

Lucky grumbled and lifted the stallion onto his back.

"And what if I get him killed?" Lucky asked, sounding hopeful.

"That's fine too. But do try your best." I replied, heading for the door; then Stranger was running through it. Ghouls were not far behind him.

I fired and two of them dropped. Aero's rifles proved capable of crowd control as his blasts unhinged the doors and blew the ghouls apart, tearing limbs and skulls from their rotting bodies. Lucky pulled out a mine, clicked it on and skidded it across the floor. It popped under the fallen doors and we all got down as it erupted.

Then everything went quiet. I breathed a sigh of relief as I dropped my rifle from my mouth to my hooves. "Let's go." I'd barely spoken before a huge hulking figure filled the doorway. The behemoth.

"Oh fuck!" I cursed as I scrambled to bring my rifle back up. The huge ghoul lashed out and struck Aero painfully hard, knocking him off his hooves entirely and into the nearby wall; the sound of his armour crashing against the concrete wall was sickening. I caught the briefest glimpse of his armour before I turned to fire, it was horribly dented in such a way that I was certain his ribs had suffered.

Strangers rifle blasted and tore half the beasts face off in a single blast. My own rifle joined the fray, unloading an entire clip into it until I saw the jaw tear from its features. It's right fetlock also sheared away as our bullets tore into it. The behemoth fell to the ground and laid still.

We all panted in exertion, taking a moment to catch our breath. I watched it for ten seconds before I ran to Aero.

"Aero, lower your helmet." I ordered. He was still but not dead yet. His armour whirred and the helmet retracted. "Oh buck." I whispered. He was pale and blood spat from his mouth every time he coughed. His armour wasn't just dented, it was entirely bent inwards. I'd be surprised if he had any ribs left intact.

"Metal." He croaked out, coughing up more blood.

"Yeah, I think it's in your side, it must of shattered the inside of the suit. I can't give you a healing potion till it's removed, we have to get you out of that suit." I told him, looking for a way to release the occupants. "How do I do this?"

"No." He croaked out, coughing again, a splatter of blood painting the floor nearby. "Metal... back compartment, put metal in it." The back of his suit gave a whir and a compartment opened up on his flank. I hesitated for only a moment before I ran around, collecting what scrap I could find.

I looked around the machinery and found some cables that were labelled 'c-systems' which I assumed were the systems for the camera's. They'd been hooked up in this room too. I found at the base of it a strange machine box that was patched into a junction. I grabbed it and tore it out. The cameras on the screens fizzed and died before turning back on again, but this time they were either entirely dead, or only showing the immediate area rather than the towns they'd been able to monitor before. Weird.

I looked over the device. Despite it being technically excellent in design, I could tell it had an element of crudeness to it. It made me wonder if this was just a prototype of some kind rather than the finished product. I yanked the microchip out of the device. Then carried it over to the pegasus and placed it on the floor. I stamped the device into the ground with my prosthetic before shoving as much scrap as I could into the compartment. I watched as the compartment on Aero's armour closed. Then it whirred and crunched as it chewed on the metal. With a loud pop the armour buffed itself out and Aero took a deep ragged breath. He began to shake and his mouth foamed a little. I shoved a healing potion into his lips. I held his nostrils closed and forced him to gulp it down. I watched the shaking stop and he soon began gasping for breath eagerly, as though he'd never had air before. It wasn't long before he stood slowly to his hooves on shaky legs.

"Self repair features." I commented, actually impressed. "I know Steel Ranger armour had it, didn't think Enclave did."

"They don't." He panted, stroking his throat. It was still raw from earlier, but this second healing potion had healed that up a bit too so it was much better. "But this one does." He mumbled as he walked past me while wiping his mouth.

Then screaming exploded in my right ear. Sonnet was scrambling to get away without getting off my back. I turned to what had scared her... fuck me for the third time today. A blue flame was burning through the massive ghoul and I watched, terrified, as it struggled to get up. It barely had a fucking head! A new limb sprouted from the visceral stump of its right foreleg, and its jaw and face began to reform. Watching that hoof regrow had my whole body shaking.

"FUCKING MOVE!" I yelled. We ran for the door as fast as we could. Our hooves galloped on the floor and my prosthetic hoof clinked loudly on the metal tiling. Lucky carried the red stallion, I carried Sonnet, and Stranger and Aero led the way. I was the last through the door and I only stopped long enough to plant a mine on the floor. I looked back at the behemoth and the ghoul now had a fully formed leg; but it was stringy and muscly, like twined noodles. Its tip wasn't a hoof, instead it looked like a meaty claw. It dug into the floor, rending metal tiles with ease. The creature screamed a sound that should never come from a pony's lungs.

I ran fast. I watched the others turn left at a corridor and Aero's cannons fired to clear the way of ghouls. But ghouls were gathering behind us now too. I could hear their screeches. The ground vibrated as they thundered down the hallway. Then my mine went off. At least we didn't have to worry about that THING. Then I heard it roar again. It hadn't been killed. Fuck, Fuck, FUCK!

I had no idea how long we were running, or how many twists and turns we'd navigated before I was running out into the open air. Our gallop had burst us into the main prisoners yard.

I had expected ghouls to be waiting for us in the courtyard, but it was surprisingly empty. Stranger and I hung back to set up the last of our mines. I was grateful I had pocketed the mines earlier at the minefield outside the fence. We had a lot of them. I laid them out quickly, but made sure they wouldn't activate all at once. I needed them to go off individually so distance between each other was important for the makeshift field to stay effective, but not stupid. I set two near the door, another one ten paces away and one ten paces near that. Together we began setting up a quick perimeter, It took less than thirty seconds since Stranger could place multiple mines at once with his magic.

We had just got out of the way when the first set of ghouls ran through the door to erupt the first set of mines. The ghouls blew apart wonderfully. I was intensely glad the spider like ones weren't capable of putting themselves back together again. Stranger and I stepped back as we fired. Using our rifles to pick them off as fast as we could so that as the mines erupted we weren't overwhelmed by the group that would follow the now clearer path in the minefield we'd hastily constructed.

Then the door erupted and several smaller ghouls were torn apart as the behemoth ghoul tore through into the yard. It was the same one as before, at least three times our size still, tumorous and vomit inducing to look at. But now it had two front claws, and its face was somehow more grotesque. The smell of necrotic flesh washed over us. My insides twisted and I became sick as I imagined the claws tearing us apart.

"WHY WON'T THIS THING FUCKING DIE!" Aero screamed as he blasted it with concussive rounds. The creature ran towards him, smashing its claws/hooves into the ground, unperturbed as chunks of its body blew apart with each blast. The pegasus dodged out of the way. He flew up above it and peppered the beast with shots. The behemoth reared it's claw back to swipe at Aero but the ghoul's entire hoof/claw was blown off by two rounds from Stranger's rifle. A blast from Aero's cannons knocked the brute back into the minefield. Huge chunks of its body tore apart as the mines went off. I felt hopeful before it caught fire once again. The blue glow spreading over it's body once again.

"Why won't it die?!" Aero screamed again as he flew over to it in a rage. His cannons blasted into the creature with a barrage that ended with a dust cloud that obscured the area. Aero continued screaming in rage and fear as his cannons tore at the hulk. Then a claw swiped out from the dust. Aero tucked a wing to do an aerial roll, but a deep gouge was rent through his armour and into the flesh of his right hind leg. He whinnied in pain as he flapped his wings furiously to put some distance between him and the brute. Then a siren started to blare.

"Aero! Fly lower!" I yelled in panic. Aero suddenly plummeted to the ground as the magical energy turrets blasted at his previous location. Shit! He'd almost been incinerated...wait. That's it! "We need to get him into the air!" I yelled. "Stranger! Sonnet! Lighten it's weight as much as you can!"

"I...I'm not good at that." Sonnet replied in a shaky whisper.

I whipped my head around to look at her. "Sonnet! Fucking do as I say now before we die!" She whinnied in terror as she looked over my shoulder, I turned back in time for the behemoth to ram me with the force of a train. Several bones crunched, I'm pretty sure most of them were mine. The ground was a sweet embrace when I finally stopped tumbling and came to a halt. Agony tore through me. I watched through blurry eyes as the ghoul charged at me again. Sonnet screamed and her horn erupted with a yellow glow that surrounded the beast, it was joined with a purple overglow from Stranger.

"AERO NOW!" I screamed through the pain. Aero swooped down low and aimed right up at the beast, blasting it with his cannons for all he was worth. The concussive blasts forced the behemoth into the air, with the help of Sonnet and Stranger's magic. The complex alarm sounded again, the turrets fired and the ghoul erupted in magical light before bursting into dust.

Then I fainted.

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Hail to the King - You kick arse for Celestia! Your adventures have granted you extra damage to those of an undead nature! 5+ points to damage when dealing with Ghouls.

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(Authors Note: Chapter Four!!!! I hope you all have enjoyed it. This ones out muich quicker than the last one thankfully and I hope you like what you've read so far. The next chapter should be especially interesting, so remember to keep reading! Also, thank you SO much for Kkat for making the original 'Fallout: Equestria', and thank you to my amazing editor who actually got this one done by the deadline. XD

Comment and subscribe. J)

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(Editors Note: Woo! Hello everyone. I actually made a deadline that Almanac set! Amazing ain't it? Anyways, I'm getting hungry now and all this talk of bones snapping and death makes me want some chicken legs. You know you want some too Almanac!

No secret code this time, sorry about that!)

(Authors Note 2: Mmmmmm, chiiicken.)