Fallout Equestria: Third Time's the Charm (IC)

[Ozzy]

The three protectoponies were quickly caught off-guard by the sudden attack, closer inspection revealed they were definitely some form of obsolete military-grade units; particularly quadruped pony-like machines with horrendously bulky features, twice the size of AVI, and boasting laser guns from their cold lifeless red eyes. The robots were surprisingly defeated in under a minute; collapsing in piles of goo, ash, or twisted metal. The first kill went to Sapphire's laser rifle, reducing the bot to ash before it could inflict serious harm to the unicorn. The remaining two fell to Quiet, but not before responding with quite the deluge of small laser fire.

AVI smirked and gave the two mares an impressive look. "My my, I have quite the pair of guardian angels, mhmhmhm." AVI's attitude brightened up as she trots passed Quiet and Sapphire with a seductive (probably grateful) wink, salvaging the spark battery and ammunition from the downed robot that wasn't disintegrated. The bat mare was silently thankful that she wasn't some ugly blocky bot like most of Robronco's creations, instead, that normal sized sleek pink design whose robotic traits were defined by her rubbery joints and shiny sectioned carapace visage.

That was one thing she ever so appreciated being a robot.

Another thing AVI cared about, was the sense of companionship she was quickly developing for Quiet and Sapphire.... the robotic mare took extra care to acknowledge the burns in Sapphire's armor, hoping she will take off her armor to reveal her blue beautiful-

Okay, AVI quickly decided to not go there. Instead, starts with a simple question and put her rusty medical skills to good use if needed. "Good goddess, are you okay?"

[Fantrum]

I struck a majestic pose, head held high, weapons higher, "Just call me Sapphire Sands, robot killer extraordinar!" I grinned sheepishly, "Well, given current company, I think I'll just stick with Sapphire." I poked around the ashes of one robot and found a few MF cells meticulously undamaged. Score! I looked up from digging around in the ash pile as AVI started worrying over me. "Awe, you're concerned for me? I'm touched. Truly." I smiled at her, patting my trusty old combat armor, "Not all of us can be made of armor, but I do wear my own." I frowned, pulling up my duster's tail and inspecting the new holes in it, "Ah man, I just patched this thing too. How am I supposed to look badass with holes in my shit?" Come to think of it, all of my equipment was in dire need of repairing or replacement.

Next town we came across, I was gonna have to sell some stuff and get my clothes fixed up. I also really needed sleep, I had spent the day doing nothing but trotting along the road and looking forward to stopping. So it was needless to say that I was really very tired. Oh well. "Are you sure you don't just want an excuse to play doctor with me?" I do so loved tormenting people! "If you insist, you can take a look for me, make sure everything is in its proper place, you know?" I took off my weathered duster and neatly folded it into my bags, revealing my extensively modified suit of armor. I'd added plates and Kevlar so the armor, designed originally to only cover the chest and back, now protected my legs and flanks. I started the process of removing the pecies with practiced ease. Normally I wouldn't chance taking my armor off in a combat zone, but with Quiet here I was confident that we wouldn't be interrupted.

[The Flutterlands]

Stable 60

The guard grinned as he took whatever weapons the colt had. If the white pony ever tries anything funny inside, it'll be the end of him for sure. As a final measure, they stripped the stallion naked and searched his aromor and saddlebags before ultimately deciding that he was clean.
"Alright." said the lead guard, "You may enter and be escorted to the Master's office. Try anything stupid and you're dead. Got it? Good."
Two guards came out and escorted the white pony inside and through the halls and corridors of Stable 60, painted with the insignia of both The New and Old Black Fox Syndicate. The ceilings were modified with weapons, including turrets, added by Pitch Black for security. True it is, that Stable 60 is one of the greatest fortresses in not just the Rose Bloom, but in the whole of the Equestrian Wasteland. Eventually they arrived at the Overstallion's office and Pitch sat there eyeing the white pony.
"Welcome to my humble abode." said the ghoul unicorn, "My name is Pitch Black, leader and master of The New Black Fox Syndicate. How may I help you?"

[Slorch]

It was an overcast day in the wasteland… just like the multitude of days before hand and after for that matter. Really what was up with the weather? It was always overcast and looking like it was about to rain. Which is did sometimes. So, what was she doing again? Oh, ya going to one of them old fangled Stables. She had always wanted to see one of those ever since she had heard about them since she was young. And this was the perfect chance to as she had heard of one that had recently opened from a few caravans she had passed along the road. ‘Hum, I wonder how far away… oh what’s that over there?’ she thought as she stopped and moved to the side of the road to examine something. There was a slight glint off of something metallic half buried in the ground. Star grinned as she realized what it was and started digging around it. Several, minutes later she was back on the road moving at a bouncy trot with her bags a bit heavier with several Sparkle-Cola’s. She popped one open, put the cap into her caps bag, and sipped at it as she continued down the road.

A few hours, and several miles later she finally arrived at what she assumed was stable 94. Something was odd however. From the description given to her this was supposed to be a pretty busy place, then she noticed the dead bodies, and then she heard the rather loud gun fire coming from inside the vault. Whatever it was some pony was trying to kill something very quickly. Star pulled her gun from somewhere inside her bags and taking one last look at all the loot she might be missing ran in through the stable door. And then stopped as she encounter the group shooting or not shooting apparently. Star took in the scene so 2 robots, some ash, and a partially undress ... unicorn. Defiantly one of the more exotic things she had seen. “Awww, did I miss all the fun?” she complained in a joking tone while making sure to seem unthreatening.

[Das Metro]

Stable 94

As the protectoponies fell, Quiet breathed a sigh of relief. With her heavily synthesized voice, it sounded more like static. Stepping out from behind cover, she was thankful to see that she was mostly untouched. Her robotic body was more resistan to bullets than it was magic weapons, but a protectoponies would of only left a scratch anyhow.

A small blush came to her face at AVI's words. Was that gratitude, or something else?.. Quiet didn't let her mind wander, and instead occupied herself with weapon maintenance. "We certainly make quite the team..." she said softly.

Quiet shot to attention at a voice behind her. The cyborg pony spun around. She blinked a bit when she saw it was just another wastelander. "What's your name..?" she demanded.

Stable 60

Opium offered little resistance as they stripped him down. As a matter of fact, he didn't mind being stripped by a couple of rugged stallions one bit! Once they were done, Opium pulled his armor back on, and followed them down the halls of the Stable. It certainly was impressive.

When he finally reached the Overmare's office... Or rather the Overstallion's office now, he smiled. "My name is Poppy Seed, and boy do I have an offer for you!" he said happily, "I come to you with a unique stock of chems! No sir, you won't find these anyplace else!.."

[Ozzy]

AVI faintly smiled at Sapphire's words, she found her to be very eccentric. AVI throws a few glances at Sapphire's way when she wasn't looking... typical of the bot to be such a fillyfooler. Though between the blue unicorn and shooting robots, she was kinda in a good mood now. Who cares about some dumb old Inn she had for multiple decades?

"Okay, so everypony is alright then...? I think we should proceed, from the sounds of the angry stallion on the speaker system, there's definitely a possibility that some stable dwellers survived." She definitely hated to be a bearer of bad news, but that's the worst case scenario, right? Stables seem to attract worse fates than pissed off robots, from what she heard from travelers.

AVI was so caught up in excitement, she nearly forgot that a traveler was sitting at the entrance now! "Oh hey! Come join us! We're probably about to be wrapped up in something we have no concern about!" She cheerily exclaimed to Armored Star, rather uncaring of her presence because her EFS said she was friendly. Better not rely on that too much though...

The pink robot pressed on into the Stable's atrium, unveiling the corpses of a few crumpled ponies in security barding- well at least she thinks they were a few, they are too unrecognizable. The poor ponies were stripped of their weapons as empty 10mm cartridges laid scattered throughout the floor, one distinct detail AVI took care to acknowledge was that some of them appeared to be trampled by something very heavy rather than blown to pieces like the ones across the atrium. Judging from the craters in the buckled steel walls of the atrium, they were definitely dealing with something much larger, something that decided to storm the place running ponies over and blasting whatever the fuck was in front of them. A couple more red blips appeared on her EFS through the wall and she promptly takes position next to a door closest to them, her rear hooves unfurl to finally disclose her close quarters ballistic weapons. Whatever was on the other side of the wall was something that demanded more than a beam pistol, and she'd be more than glad to show her friends that she too was capable of defending herself.

She waits for them, the familiar sounds of a rubber tire treading through the concrete floor suggested it was definitely a securipony, or Securitron. Whatever the fuck the variant was, she just knows tires were generally their most common way of getting around. They definitely weren't the culprit of the deaths of these security ponies, but Robronco's Securitrons were still deadly mobile fortresses.

[Fantrum]

With my weapons still grasped in my magic, I pointed them at the newcomer with a smile. "You're just in time actually." It became apparent that no one else really gave a fuck about her, so I lowered my guns and quickly replaced my barding. I didn't really trust the red unicorn, but goddesses be damned, it felt good to not be the only normal pony in our little rag tag band. I left Quiet to deal with her and marched off to see what kind of trouble AVI had managed to get into.

Well damn, this was the scene of an epic battle. Bodies everywhere, spent brass, explosion holes, all the telltale signs of a massive fight. Whatever had done this was big, angry, and very very well armed. "What the hell did this? Did a tank just drive up into the atrium? because that's what it looks like." It could have been an ultra sentinel... but that was impossible. Ultras were very rare in the wasteland, and very deadly. I had personally never had the pleasure of meeting one on the field of battle, but I had heard many stories from other mercs. The resounding message I had gotten from those grizzled vets about meeting an ultra: Run. If you didn't have a balefire egg launcher or something seriously powerful, you didn't have a hope in the world to beat one of those monsters. They had onboard repair talismans, magical shielding, enchanted armor, plasma weapons, rockets, and a sensor package that could spot even an invisible enemy... or so I had been told...

I started turning bodies over and patting down pockets looking for anything useful. My fast search yielded a few dozen caps and a couple rounds of 10mm ammo, but no weapons. Damn. What was AVI doing over there? She looked like she had rocket boosters attached to her hind legs, "So Vivi, you going to the moon or something?" I trotted up to her, fully intending to continue speaking, when my ears perked and I heard what she was likely waiting for. It sounded pretty big, rolling around on its tires.

So I drew my weapons and pointed them at the door... when nothing came through, I took matters into my own hooves, "Ok, Im not patient enough for this bullshit." I sucked in a deep breath, then yelled at the top of my lungs "Hey fuck face! Come getcha some of this!" Well that seemed to have worked, the sound of rapidly approaching tires made me think that I may have alerted whatever was back there, maybe now something will happen.

[Slorch]

“Oh! So, I didn’t miss anything then!” She replies cheerfully ignoring the other robot pony for the moment. “My names Armored Star by the way. What’s yours?” She replies as she followed AVI, or at least that’s what her nametag said, and the other unicorn. “So, who are you guys anyways?” she asks as they walked down the hall and entered the atrium. She stops at the entrance…again…she really should stop doing that she thought. ‘I wonder what happened here. Looks like a bunch of Yao-guai ran through the place.’ She thought as she moved over to one of the body’s to search it and found nothing worth much. She would come back for the barding after whatever had done this was dead or gone.

What she could do now however was gather up the ridiculous amount of 10mm shells. She walked over to one side of the room and prepared to cast a spell. Her horn lit up a bright red the same as color as she; little portals appeared throughout the room and seemed to swallow up the casings. A few seconds later the spell ended and she walked back into the center of the room to inspect the floor and was quiet happy with the result. She had gotten all the casings this time. She was rather suppressed that little trick usually didn’t work out well. She still needed to find some way to do it to larger objects though.

Star was shaken out of her thoughts by somepony yelling “Hey fuck face! Come getcha some of this!". Ya, there was a battle going on or something. She should probably get back to that. She slid next to the door so that she was now across from AVI. “So, is you’re name actually AVI?” she asks as she pulls the hammer back on her revolver.

[The Flutterlands]

Stable 60

Pitch's green eyes glowed with greed at the sound of words ' unique stock of chems' and smiled. It's been a while since the syndicate had a new variety of chems.
"You don't say." said Pitch, taking out a cigar and lighting it before putting it in his mouth, "Show me these unique chems, handsome."

[Das Metro]

Stable 94

When AVI and Sapphire approached Armored Star as a friendly, Quiet relaxed. She didn't understand how her two compatriots could be so trusting... Then again, that might of been unfair of her. Quiet knew that AVI has put a great deal of faith in her in their first meeting as well, considering the circumstances. If it had been Quiet running away from a horde of slaver bounty hunters, she certainly wouldn't of been putting her faith in any strangers.

She followed the group into the atrium silently. Her eyes widened some when she saw the carnage that had unfolded. Bodies littered the steely heat of the Stable atrium like discarded trash. All the shell casings only told Quiet that whatever they were shooting at just soaked up all their lead like a bullet sponge.

The sound of a rolling tread made her ears perk up. That certainly wasn't a protectopony. "Stay on your-" Quiet was cut off by a very straightforward Sapphire. Well, if nothing else, it sounded as though she had alerted whatever was prowling the Stable's corridors. Quiet took a defensive stance and loaded another cell into her heavy plasma gun.

Stable 60

Opium couldn't help but smile even wider. He had the big boss' interest, and that was what he wanted. "Now... I hope you understand that I can't just give you these chems," he said playfully. A white hoof drifted back to his saddlebags and opened them. If all went well, Opium would be drinking hundred year old liquor from a (sorta) clean glass!

From inside, Opium pulled out what looked like an inhaler, and an angry looking syringe. "Here we got what I call second wind," he pointed to the inhalant, "Give this baby to your front line folks, yeah? They get seriously wounded? Take a puff off this, baby. Gets them back on their hooves long enough to scalp whatever knocked them on their ass, and seek medical help..."

"This one, I call appetite..." Opium pointed to the syringe, "You thought buck was scary? Well this is buck's psycho big brother. Jab this little number in your leg, and your ponies will be going after the bad guys like a pack of ravenous hellhounds..."

[The Flutterlands]

Stable 60

Pitch Black smiled as he watched Poppy Seed explain his chems to him. The affects of both of them sounded marvelous. Not only would these sell well on the market, but they would also serve well to his fighting forces. Though he was no fool and the slaver leader wanted to know more. If all goes well, this white pony could be quite useful to the black ancient unicorn.
"Very intriguing, Mister Poppy Seed." said the ghoul unicorn, taking puffs from his cigar, "How about we put these chems to the test? Not to mention I want to know how much you want for them. Perhaps you could... offer your services to me? I could use a another chemist, especially one capable of making new chems for the market."

[Ozzy]

AVI said nothing, though her eyes widened at Sapphire's provocative remark towards the enemy bot. The taunt would be unneeded, as one of the Securiponies activated the stable door to the atrium anyways. The bot would be promptly greeted with a powerful blast of shrapnel by AVI's strong buck, ballistic hooves swiftly turning the machine into a malfunctioning twisted heap of metal, falling backwards as smoke began pouring from the innumerable holes punched in its abdominal area.

The mare sighed in relief, even if adrenaline couldn't flow through her, she still felt intense apprehension from the securipony's sudden entry into the atrium. "Phew, that was fun..." AVI knew she couldn't get used to predictable patterns on the enemy's behalf, especially since the fallen securipony's friend began delivering suppressing fire with its miniguns. AVI panicked and bolted forward around the doorway to narrowly avoid a downpour of armor piercing 5mm rounds and a zooming missile. Damn, now that wasn't predictable!

The explosive projectile smacked into the atrium's metal walls in a dull PONG, shuffling the nearby furniture and corpses strewn across the floor. AVI cowers behind Sapphire with a soft indignant smile as she looks at Armored Star. "Er, yeah, I'm Avi... it's short for Advanced Virtual Intelligence. Word of advice, you might not want to go inside that hallway. It doesn't look like the enemy is moving on my Eyes-Forward Sparkle...."

It was true, the securipony remained stationary inside the halls with guns focused on the battered doorway to the atrium, most likely waiting-out its prey. "Non-stable dwelling cunts, can't mind your own business can you!?" The robot blurted out, the TV screen in the middle of the large bulky T-shaped chassis showed a static black-and-white picture of a scowling ghoul pony with a cigar and beret.

Then something irrelevant suddenly occurred to AVI that she really needed to stop being so trusting of others.

[Das Metro]

Stable 60

Opium couldn't help but swell with pride. Naturally, the ghoulie liked his chems, what slaver boss wouldn't? These were very useful little chems. Of course, they had some nasty side effects, but they weren't important right now, were they? Hopefully big boss wouldn't be taking them, and Opium doubted that the junkies would have the motor function to declare buyer's remorse. Closing his saddlebags, Opium smiled warmly at Pitch.

"Well, I'm afraid that these samples aren't free..." he said with a giggle, "And I won't just sell them to you. I do that, then you can just have your own chemists reverse the formula, and then what do you need me for. No, no, I'm selling my services as a chemist... And I want a sixty cap payment for these two samples." Opium picked the syringe and inhaler back up.

He swayed his way to Pitch's side and rubbed his flank against the ghoul's. "I know that might seem like a lot you ask for, Pitchy Pie, but trust me, you're gonna like these," Opium assured him and batted his eyelashes.

[The Flutterlands]

Stable 60

Pitch's eyes glowed again, but this time with lust as Opium rubbed his flank against his own and flirted with him. It's been a while since anypony done that since not many are known to flirt with the likes of ghouls. However, he still wanted to know more about chems. He planned on giving them to his henchmen after all.
"Oooh. Oh my, how charming you are, Poppy Seed." said the black unicorn with a small chuckle, "Though, before I make any decisions, tell me more about your chems. There's nothing particularly deadly about them, right? I'm hoping to give them to my employees as well as sell them on the market. I just don't want my workers to get damaged because of some side affect from these chems. So be a handsome gentlecolt and tell your potential employer and possibly potential bed-partner about any negatives these chems may hold, please?"
Pitch smiled as he flirted back at Opium. He rubbed his flank against Opium's and gave him a seductive wink.
"And if they do, a smart pony like yourself," he added, "Would be able remedy those negatives, right?"

[Fantrum]

I stood calmly and whistled admirably as AVI absolutely pulverized the living daylights out of that poor robot. That was a pretty fucking cool move on her part, if I was being completely honest. A rocket swooshed past me, roughing up my mane as AVI bravely retreated into cover behind me. I looked back at her for a second, chuckling softly before turning my attention to the steady fountain of death the robot as spewing at us. "Its not about staying out of the hallway young padawan, but when to enter at the correct time. Observe." Patiently, I waited for my opening, guns drawn. Ah, there it was. A soft click signaled the robot had expended its ammunition and was reloading. I had about three seconds before its weapons were full of yummy bullets again so I wasted no time in stepping out of cover, blasting wildly downrange, and ducking back out of the firing line.

I didnt know how effective my short barrage would be since there was absolutely no way in Celestia's great green world I was standing in front of a rocket launcher long enough to make sure I killed it. "And thats how you pop out without getting your head relocated off your body. Its a difficult art to master, trust me."

What a weird bunch of assholes we were... Like the start of a bad joke, two unicorns and a cyber mare walk into a bar, they sit down and ask the robot bat pony bartender... You get the jist of it yeah? Id have to make an effort to not get shot in the back for a while, but I was getting the feeling that we would make one jolly band of merry men some day... what was a men anyway? Non-sequitur. I really should pay more attention in combat, might get me killed one of these blasted days!

[Slorch]

Star smiles back at AVI. “Well it great to know you AVI.” She replied as the other unicorn said something about “young padawan” or something. What was that even supposed to mean? What Star did know was what she was probably thinking. Waiting until the reload cycle on the robot was a good idea. And there it was a break in the fire and her pooping out of cover. Star followed suit and peaked out as well. She saw a target, slower her breathing, and fired off aimed shot before ducking back into cover just as the guns resumed firing. ‘Well that was close. Way to close.’ She thought. Though from the sound of it she had probably hit something.

Star rolled her eyes at the other unicorn’s statement. “So, any bright ideas?” she asked her as she thought about some herself. While they were thinking she turned to AVI “So, um why are you bright pink? And that thing you did what was that?” she asks curiously.

[Das Metro]

Stable 94

Quiet watched AVI with a small static giggle as she smashed the first securipony to pieces with a buck. That was certainly impressive, and perhaps a design oversight on Quiet's part. She didn't have any sort of special close quarters weapons. The cybermare did have extensive hoof-to-hoof training, but that would only be so effective when faced with robots of this size.

She was caught wholly offguard by the sudden woosh of a missle. With a startled, though none the less powerful flap of her metal wings, Quiet took to the air, narrowly dodging the missle by a hair. Protectoponies were nothing, but securiponies were something to approach with caution.

The metal mare landed gracefully and dove into cover. She leaned out of cover, and fired her heavy caustic plasma gun blindly. All Quiet knew was that it found its way down the hall.

Stable 60

Opium pouted a bit. Why did he care about the side effects? He was a slaver boss for cripes sake, footsoldiers were a dime a dozen. Still, it was his job to make a sale here... Taking a deep breath, Opium smiled up at Pitch, showing him a set of well taken care of, filed teeth.

"Side effects? Ooh, the usual!" Opium swished his tail, "I don't think you really need to worry about the side effects. Chems are chems after all! Nothing good comes without a price, but I promise you, I can fix all the wrongs." More often than not, it'd require a bullet, but that was how Opium solved most of his problems.

The white stallion nuzzled Pitch's neck playfully, "Second wind might cause heart failure... And the pony might drop dead spontaneously once the high end... After all, it doesn't do any actual healing... And appetite can cause... Well... Insanity... But let's not dwell on the details~!"

[Ozzy]

The enemy securipony cussed in a fit of rage after Sapphire's bold attack, her short range fire barely placed a dent in the moving fortress. A quick glance down the hall at the ferocious machine would reveal it was planted between two downed tool lockers. It was dug in for defense.

"Nice try cunts, any of you try to get through that door and I'll cut you into little red ribbons... damn, I am sure I had something clever for this..." The enemy bot crackled and grumbled, saving its ammo and remaining still.

AVI was exploring the stable, looking for a path to flank the machine from behind. She had no luck and more red bars awaited her near the maintenance wing, there were also friendlies down there with them, amber bars were intermingling with the red bars. The pink bot spots a gangway to an automatic door with a destroyed access panel next to it, the override was ruined and the door itself was welded to the floor. Something that seemed to have lead to their dug-in foe. AVI frowns and groans in frustration, but the open ammo boxes next to the corpse of a security mare caught her attention, and a quick search later and her award was a couple of roughly surfaced apple-shaped devices with blue stems on top. This stable definitely had a serious robot problem in the past. Convenient, but not good.

AVI knew what she found was grenades, EMPs to be exact, she knew what came of being hit by them, a brief sting and a rendezvous with an instant hours-long unconsciousness. AVI rushed back to the atrium, just in time for the enemy robot to fire one more missile through the doorway, slamming into the same place as the last one, thank goodness she wasn't any where near it this time.

"Uh... gals? I think I may have found something useful..." AVI levelly exclaimed through her teeth, two EMP grenades hanging from her mouth.

[The Flutterlands]

Stable 60

"Interesting." said Pitch as he listened to Opium, "I hope that you'll be able to remedy these side-effects, particularly the lethal ones. Dead customers and employees are bad for business. I'll provide you with slaves if I have to for test subjects."
Pitch chuckled as Opium continued to rub his flank against his. He was beginning to like this pony. He seemed like a good chemist and was coming off as a good fuck buddy.
"You know what?" said Pitch Black, "You're hired. I'll be providing you with a room to live in and a lab to do your work. How does that sound?"

[Fantrum]

Ooooo, shiny! I excitedly snatched one of the blue banded apple shaped grenades with my magic and levitated it around my face to inspect it. Yep! A magical spark grenade! This would do wonders for our robot problem! "Where did you find these?" Magical grenades were incredibly hard to come by in the wastes, though I supposed this was a stable so they would have some old world widgets the rest of us weren't privy to. Oh well, we had them now, and thats all that mattered.

I yanked the pin out of the grenade but kept the plunger depressed to keep it from going off. With a sheepish grin at the two mechanical mares in attendance, I spoke softly, "You two might want to step back for this." Plasma rifle on one side of the door and grenade on the other, I popped out and sprayed plasma down the corridor for a split second before flinging our present downrange. I had never been very good with explosives, but the best part about them; I didnt have to hit him with the grenade for it to still work, just had to get it close enough.

I didnt see exactly where it went, since I was desperately dodging return fire, but it looked like I had managed to get it pretty close. A stinging pain blossomed on my left cheek as a bullet grazed it, damn, I almost got away with it. "Ahhhh! Ahhh! My face! My beautiful face!" It was only a graze, a small trickle of blood ran down my cheek and around my hoof as I held it to the insignificant wound. Thinking quickly, I took out a healing potion and put a drop on the gash, closing it without a scar. "Crisis averted!" I happily proclaimed, my moneymaker still in one piece.

[Slorch]

So, AVI ran off to do something. And there was some down time to just sit around and wait for something to happen. There tended to be a lot of waiting during gun fights. ‘This was ending up to be an interesting day,’ Star thought for the maybe 10th time today, ‘Oh look AVI is back.’

“So, what is it?” Star asks as she grabbed one from AVI. ‘Hun, this is interesting.’ Star thought as she looked it over. The other unicorn obviously knew what this thing was, and from the look on her face it was something that would be useful. So, Star just pocketed the strange apple looking device, and watched the unicorn do a thing. And it was an interesting thing. ‘So that’s how they work.’ She thought as the unicorn pulled the pin off and threw it at the robot.

And then the unicorn started freaking out at this little tiny mark from a bullet on her face… Star chuckled as she walked up to the unicorn and said, “It would be a shame to see such a beautiful face ruined. I never did get your name though.”

[Das Metro]

Stable 94

Quiet watched AVI with a little smile. The pink bot knew what she was doing, and Quiet wasn't going to worry. Not after seeing her turn a securipony into scrap with those ballistic hooves. These halls were narrow, and anything playing hide and seek would have to step in pretty close to have a go at her. Quiet would much rather just focus on the lead slinging, missle spewing mission complication in the other hall.

She popped out of cover a few more times to fire some quick bursts from her heavy gun. Couldn't do sustained fire, or else the barrel would overheat. Molten metal was no skin off her back, but when it was spinning, it could become a problem for her more fleshy companions.

Bullets whizzed past her head, and a few even dinged into her metal hide as she peeked out of cover. AVI was returning. "EMP's," she chewed her lip, "Don't put us out of the fight, Sapphire..." Quiet galloped back a ways and slid into cover. She wanted a minimum safe distance from that EMP field.

Stable 60

"Sure I will! I take this stuff all the time!" Opium said pompously. Of course, the chemist had a remarkable tolerance for chems, but again, irrelevant details! Big boss had just offered him a lab after all. Breaking into a big grin, Opium just packed the ghoul on the cheek, ignoring the taste of decay and the tang of what could only be radiation, "Thanks~"

Butcherbrooke

Viscera grinned as she peered down into the space cleared in the middle of the theatre. The stage had been torn down, and the open air theatre converted into a small colosseum. Like the old Empresses of the old, old, old world, she had a seat in the very top booth. At her side was her loyal bodyguard, Hook.

She was a bright orange mare, coat pockmarked with flecks of blood. Viscera's mane was a neon green, far too bright to be natural. Her mouth was full of razor like fangs, enough to make a hellhound envious. Normally the matriarch of the Slaughterhouse Road was wearing her bloody smock, but this was a special occasion after all.

This was initiation day for family aspirants. They had come to Butcherbrooke, the scrap metal village built around the Personae Globe Theatre, looking to join the fiercest raiders in the Rosebloom Wasteland. The Slaughterhouse Road Family boasted a hundred strong fighters, and a hundred only.

The fight below was a fierce one... And unique, in that it was two foals fighting. Viscera had no qualms welcoming children into the ranks of the Family, as long as they could make the cut. She absolutely squealed in delight as one of the two fighters finally broke the stalemate. One of the spectators had thrown a grenade into the pit.

The colt in the pit jumped on it and the filly gasped. Pulling the pin, the colt threw the apple shaped bauble at the filly... But with surprising grace, the filly scooped it up and threw it back at the colt like a bullet. The grenade cracked him in the side of the head. He dropped to the ground with the bomb beside him.

A loud boom filled the theatre, and the crowd went wild. The filly was curled up on the other side on the theatre, trying to protect her ears. The colt was... Well, there was no more colt.

"Bring that little sweetheart to me..." Viscera purred to Hook. Her bodyguard nodded obediently. The filly, a little tan colored earth pony with a black mane came up a moment later. She was bruised terribly, but still managed to smile weakly at Viscera. Viscera knelt down in front of her, "That was very impressive, little one... What's your name?"

"Shortstop," she said and kicked at the floor.

Viscera pet her head with an excited little giggle. This one would do nicely.

[Ozzy]

AVI looked on with mild curiosity, not moving an inch when Sapphire and Armored Star moved to engage the enemy securipony. Several things crossed through the robot mare's mind, though her first and foremost thoughts from the blue unicorn's close encounter with the bullet was that she found mares with scars sort of attractive. Unfortunately, Sapphire's grenade failed to kill the thing, the red bar persisted on her EFS after a bright blue flash smacked the gray steel walls of the hallway. Possibly a miss.

AVI stood next to the doorway with a mirror in her mouth, a memento of a partly destroyed makeup booth within the stable, something else she didn't think too hard about. Mainly because she was busy wondering if she was always this good with finding convenient stuff. AVI peered around the corner with the mirror to get a good look at the mechanical monster down the hall, it was unknown how much damage Quiet's attack inflicted. AVI's very brief observation ended as the enemy responded with gunfire that broke the mirror and caused the pink mare to stagger backwards with a surprise sounding "Eeep". AVI could have swore the ghoul on the securipony screen broke into an even wider grin...

Then it was Armored Star's turn to face the fearsome thing, her grenade seemed to have done the trick. The bright blue flash repeated itself, and the red bar was no more, succeeded by a thunderous clang of the bot toppling on top of its makeshift fortification. "Good job, ponies!" AVI happily exclaimed, promptly gutting the machine for scrap metal before it could obtain the off-chance of restarting; she didn't know if the securipony was equipped with any ammunition that was compatible with her companions' weapons, but she left the ammo there anyways.

The bot held 5mm rounds, missiles, and energy cells.

[Fantrum]

That was one armored robot! Or I just sucked at throwing grenades blind... Probably a combination of the two honestly. "Sapphire Sands, is the name, don't go wearing it out!" Happily I bumped hooves with Armored before trotting down the hall to the now defunct killer robot. I quickly hoovered up the energy cells, pocketing something like thirty shots worth, score! Since I didn't have a rocket launcher or a filthy combustion firearm, I left the other ammunition for whoever wanted it.

Yawning heavily, I remembered just about how tired I was. My joined ached in protest as I moved and my eyes threatened mutiny if they didn't get rest soon. "So I'm not sure if I missed the memo or not, but can someone fill me in exactly what we are doing in this creepy stable full of big scary death machines at this time of night?" Now that I thought about it, there wast much reason for us to have charged into the depths of this hellpit. We had found a bunch of dead ponies, normally that warned people away from exploring further. But not us! I could tell this was going to lead either to riches and a wonderful friendship or all of our horrible deaths. I personally hoped it wasnt the second one, but I was a merc, first and foremost. I needed caps to survive, and rolling with this bunch didnt seem like it would put food in my stomach or caps in my bags. Oh well, I guessed that was just a bridge Id have to burn when I got to it, if I got to it.

[The Flutterlands]

Stable 60

Pitch blinked when Opium kissed him and smiled. This colt would make a valuable member of thr Syndicate and most definitely a wonderful sex partner. He wanted to learn more about this handsome fella. In meantime though, the ghoul had other things to think about.
"How about you join me tonight for dinner?" asked Pitch, "Then perhaps... we can 'fool around' afterward if you're interested."