[FO:E] The Equestrian Wasteland 1

[Lycan 01]

Road to New Appaloosa

Lucky averts his gaze, and suddenly finds a nearby rock quite fascinating to stare at. "Yeah. I know. Bumped into a survivor. Celestia's Legion, bad juju and all that jazz," he grunts.

The pegasus then looks back at Heimdalr, a stern, nearly spiteful look in his eyes. "Word of advice? For both our sakes, if anypony from the Legion ever asks, you never met a Lucky Break or a Felix Confractus." He practically spits the last name out, venom audibly dripping from the words.

[Tag: Purity, Benson, Bob, Rebo]

[Chaotic Bob]

[Road to/from New Appleoosa]

"I think the various griffons and griffonkin would prefer to not be shot in the face.
But that's an assumption. I could be wrong. Feather-Duster and Heim are free to correct me."
Pretty sure they seem keen on not dying whenever bullets and violence appear, so Rusty/Tripod is confident in his assumption.

And then Lucky mentions not-meeting him!
He acquires a peculiarly triumphant look.
"Hah! I knew denying you was a good idea. And they thought I was being paranoid..."
What the heck is this guy babbling about?

"Oh hey, by the by. You two didn't find a pack of trinkets anywhere did you? Possibly next to a surly secretary? Kinda face-melty?"

[Benson]

Manehatten - Ministry MADNESS

Scoops takes a look around, trying to see if a friendly pony (like Nails) who also managed to hear the message is around, or at least the stairs. She doesn't want to talk too much too the griffons, since that would be a distraction in a combat area for them. Plus who knows if it'll get through clear once they're inside.

"Don't touch anything that looks like it's off in any way. We should take the stairs even if there's a working elevator... oh and don't mind the posters and parties and stuff pre-war somepony was a wacko."

Manehatten Ruins - 10:05 am

Fox Trot


"Yes, well, I a fine with the stairs, I have no desire to take an elevator in such a place," I said as I began to replace my 10 mm gun with the AP piercing rounds. Though, the fact there were alicorns involved doubted my belief on how effective they'll be here.

"Oh hey, by the by. You two didn't find a pack of trinkets anywhere did you? Possibly next to a surly secretary? Kinda face-melty?"

[Road to New Appleoosa]

"I did not, and you know that ghoul that was there?" Gwendolyn questioned.

[Tychris1]

Pondering Life

Lamianos thinks for a moment, tapping his hoof against the ground before saying "A combination of all three plans would be most succesful, but the only way we can be certain of it is if we have further knowledge of the town. I'll scout ahead to gather what I can about the town, my power barding comes with systems that should help me spy from a distance without jeapordizing anyone." he looks around "I'll bail out at the first sign of trouble, anyone opposed?"

[TAG the whole old appleoosa gang, except Lycan]

[MCerberus]

Manehatten

"Yes, well, I a fine with the stairs, I have no desire to take an elevator in such a place," I said as I began to replace my 10 mm gun with the AP piercing rounds. Though, the fact there were alicorns involved doubted my belief on how effective they'll be here.

Moving forward a bit, Whadda remains weary as she surveys the interior. This not being sniping range, the mare makes ready her katana. Though she was an earth-pony, one could expect her to be able to hold a conversation while using it... if only through practice of doing so.


Old Appleoosa

Lamianos thinks for a moment, tapping his hoof against the ground before saying "A combination of all three plans would be most succesful, but the only way we can be certain of it is if we have further knowledge of the town. I'll scout ahead to gather what I can about the town, my power barding comes with systems that should help me spy from a distance without jeapordizing anyone." he looks around "I'll bail out at the first sign of trouble, anyone opposed?"

Feeling that his warnings are going a bit unheeded at this point, Finder reasserts the existence of collars. "I'm really not sure I can do a hack job on the collars fast enough to get all of 'em out swiftly though, unless we find a master key. Won't be pretty."

The scavver motions over to our local stable-buck. "Unless that thing on your hoof is any use to us."

[Chaotic Bob]

[Manehatten - Gutterville]

Down watches from a respectable distance as Rye and Swiss Cheese do their digging.
She either doesn't trust them enough to get too close, or simply likes standing a healthy distance away from sources of loud noise.

Also keeping a careful eye on her suit's EFS.
This place seems like a problem waiting to happen.
"I assume it would be too much to ask that everypony simply fled the very-clearly-deadly manticore incursion?"
The Enclave pegasus seems almost like she's talking to children, yet is overall fairly patient with her tone.

Almost like she's rather used to doing this.

[Road to/from New Appleoosa]

Gwen didn't see the goodies, but saw the ghoul.
Hmmm, maybe Lucky had more...luck.

Rusty doesn't look disappointed in the least.
"Yes, ma'am griffin lady miss. I 'fix' her intercom."

[PurityIcekiller]

Lucky averts his gaze, and suddenly finds a nearby rock quite fascinating to stare at. "Yeah. I know. Bumped into a survivor. Celestia's Legion, bad juju and all that jazz," he grunts.

The pegasus then looks back at Heimdalr, a stern, nearly spiteful look in his eyes. "Word of advice? For both our sakes, if anypony from the Legion ever asks, you never met a Lucky Break or a Felix Confractus." He practically spits the last name out, venom audibly dripping from the words.

"Do you count? I mean, you quit and all, but you could've meant 'formerly from' there... I'm going to assume you meant 'still from', because pretending I don't know you to your face isn't polite, after all!"

"I think the various griffons and griffonkin would prefer to not be shot in the face.
But that's an assumption. I could be wrong. Feather-Duster and Heim are free to correct me."
Pretty sure they seem keen on not dying whenever bullets and violence appear, so Rusty/Tripod is confident in his assumption.

Bright Eyes listened for a response from the griffons, then nodded. "Looks like I was right!"

And then Lucky mentions not-meeting him!
He acquires a peculiarly triumphant look.
"Hah! I knew denying you was a good idea. And they thought I was being paranoid..."
What the heck is this guy babbling about?

"Oh hey, by the by. You two didn't find a pack of trinkets anywhere did you? Possibly next to a surly secretary? Kinda face-melty?"

"Trinkets? Probably not the ones you're thinking of. I mean, I've got a variety of trinkets from all sorts of places, but none from secretaries. What kind of trinkets were they?"

[Luka]

Old Appleoosa

Feeling that his warnings are going a bit unheeded at this point, Finder reasserts the existence of collars. "I'm really not sure I can do a hack job on the collars fast enough to get all of 'em out swiftly though, unless we find a master key. Won't be pretty."

The scavver motions over to our local stable-buck. "Unless that thing on your hoof is any use to us."

"....I have no idea what collars are you talking about, but don't think it would help if it works with keys, maybe the guards watching over the slaves have them, or is somewhere near there, but if there aren't then I guess Night Jewel would know how to unlock them"

[Tag MCerberus, PurityIcekiller]

[Rebonack]

[Manehatten - Gutterville]

The EFS doesn't note any hostile targets within range. Probably a good thing! Just two friendly-

Oh. Wait a moment. There's another friendly signature in a nearby shanty. Bit further away from where the sandwich duo are searching, though.

"Sorry flygirl, one of our friends had been injured. He was recovering here," Swiss replies as she sticks her head into another shanty and thankfully finds no pieces of said friend spread around. "And our other other friend was keeping an eye on him. So that's two missing friends! Were collecting old relics to sell to pay for Corned Beef's medical care."

...Corned Beef? Seriously?

So their other friend must be-

"And Sauerkraut was with him. And she's gone too. Along with everypony else."

...

Swiss Cheese, Rye, Sauerkraut, and Corned Beef. They must be Team Ruben Sandwich or something. But aren't they missing Thousand Island?

Rye gives a rather morose sigh. "Well, at least there isn't any sign of a struggle. Either Sauer and Corn go away or they were captured. And if they escaped we probably would have gotten a message over PipBuck."

Sure enough the Earth Pony has a PipBuck on her front right leg. "So... either they're somewhere they can't get a message through. Or..."

"No way, Rye!" Swiss retorts as she whirls to face her friend. "They aren't dead. I won't believe it until I see them," she stomps a hoof on the ground. "We aren't just leaving them behind. They aren't going to die alone like Thousand Island did!"

...oh... So that's what happened to Thousand Island...

[Appleloosa Road]

"Can't say that I ever met anypony by either of those names. Shame, too. Sure he would have been a good pony if I had," Heimdalr comments idly as he sets off once again toward the ruins. No reason to keep chatting with ponies that don't exist, right? "Best be careful, stranger. Those Celestia's Legion folks don't buck around."

[Lycan 01]

Road to New Appaloosa

Lucky slowly turns his head to look at Bright Eyes. His eyes are not bright. They look rather frustrated and angry. And the right one is twitching. "No, Bright Eyes," he hisses. "I do not count as Legion. Thank you for clarifying to the nice gentlefolks what my prior occupation was." His sarcasm is almost tangible.

He then looks back at Heimdalr as he walks away. "Hey! I was giving you some advice, not telling you to buzz off," he growls impatiently. "And no, they don't, which is why I'm trying to warn you for future reference. Legion won't be happy if they find out you've been helping me."

Lucky then looks over to Tripod, stares for a second, and then sighs. "Pile of caps, pictures, and a couple of tools? Yeah, I grabbed the caps and some of the doodads. Didn't grab the tools. Here..." he grunts, unslinging his saddle-bags to dig through and toss out the caps and whatever else he took from the ruins earlier. "I ain't a thief."

Not no more, at least...

[TAG: Purity, Benson, Bob, Rebonak]

[Benson]

Manehatten


Moving forward a bit, Whadda remains weary as she surveys the interior. This not being sniping range, the mare makes ready her katana. Though she was an earth-pony, one could expect her to be able to hold a conversation while using it... if only through practice of doing so.

Manehatten Ruins-Horseshoe Tower-Minster of Morale - 10:09 am

Fox Trot

I followed the mare up and take my own survey of the room.

[tag Rebonack]

[Road to/from New Appleoosa]

Gwen didn't see the goodies, but saw the ghoul.
Hmmm, maybe Lucky had more...luck.

Rusty doesn't look disappointed in the least.
"Yes, ma'am griffin lady miss. I 'fix' her intercom."

"I see, well, I did pick up a pair of tools in of the rooms in of the other buildings before stumbling upon your friend. May I ask, if you know...what they're even doing there?" The griffon asked.

[tag chaotic bob]

[Chaotic Bob]

[Road to/from New Appleoosa]

Oh goody, it's Rusty's birthday and Lucky's playing the part of the gift-giver.

Or would be, if the amputee wasn't peering at the offering and wearing a somewhat peculiar smile.
"Just a secondary graverobber. That's all the stuff I rummaged out of the offices, you can take that. Didn't do what I wanted anyway."
As much as he'd like to lay claim to everything there at the moment, he can't hold onto it anyway.
So a little clarification for him and Bright Eyes.
"Mine should have been in a little bag, under a rather capable 'lady's' protection. Mostly more tools and a couple other knickknacks. I'm assuuuuming you didn't mug the ghoul, so you're fine."

Which sort of moves towards Gwen's question.
"And they were doing their jobs of course."
By supplying no answer at all.
Allergic to being forthcoming indeed.

"Assuming Friendly Pony #2 here didn't do a mugging when everyone else wasn't looking, I think we're all settled.

[Manehatten - Gutterville]

"Perhaps they are somewhere where they cannot get a signal out."
Or their pip-comms are broken. She's rather familiar with that problem.


Swiss Cheese and Rye can quibble at each other about their friends all they want, but Down doesn't seem particularly interested.
Or, at least, not as interested as the other life signature she's picking up.

So she leaves them to their devices and goes to poke over at the other shanty.
The EFS says its friendly...but that is something that is very easily subject to change, so she remains cautious.

With that in mind, the pegasus does the safest thing that comes to mind: march right on over to the shanty, point her weapons at the entrance and calls out.
"Whoever's in there, make your way to the entrance unarmed if able. If you are injured, and unable to move, make a noise instead."

[PurityIcekiller]

Lamianos thinks for a moment, tapping his hoof against the ground before saying "A combination of all three plans would be most succesful, but the only way we can be certain of it is if we have further knowledge of the town. I'll scout ahead to gather what I can about the town, my power barding comes with systems that should help me spy from a distance without jeapordizing anyone." he looks around "I'll bail out at the first sign of trouble, anyone opposed?"

"That sounds like it's just good sense. Go ahead."

"....I have no idea what collars are you talking about, but don't think it would help if it works with keys, maybe the guards watching over the slaves have them, or is somewhere near there, but if there aren't then I guess Night Jewel would know how to unlock them"

Night Jewel laughed. "Of course! Locks are my speciality, after all. I can pick a lock easily as most ponies can pick a flower!"

So a little clarification for him and Bright Eyes.
"Mine should have been in a little bag, under a rather capable 'lady's' protection. Mostly more tools and a couple other knickknacks. I'm assuuuuming you didn't mug the ghoul, so you're fine."

Which sort of moves towards Gwen's question.
"And they were doing their jobs of course."
By supplying no answer at all.
Allergic to being forthcoming indeed.

"Assuming Friendly Pony #2 here didn't do a mugging when everyone else wasn't looking, I think we're all settled.

"Of course not! I didn't even meet... Her, right? Am I using the correct pronouns? I'm assuming it's a her. Well, I certainly didn't mug any ponies lately. I'm an honest type!"

[Rebonack]

[Manehatten - Horseshoe Tower]

Finding the stairs shouldn't be terribly difficult. The access is right there next to the elevator. And upon opening the door? Our heroes are greeted by a dead griffon.

Oh boy is he ever dead.

His power armor has been fried and a fair number of holes have been punched through him. He probably won't be going anywhere any time soon. Maybe he was trying to escape?

Wonder what he was fleeing from...

The stairs lead up three floors before becoming blocked off by debris. Our heroes will have to find another stair well on the third floor if they wish to continue. Or they could try exploring the first or second floor if they rather. Up to them!

[Manehatten - Gutterville]

A rather wet, raspy cough sounds from inside the shanty.

Followed by an attempt to shout. And then more coughing.

Well.

That's an answer, right?

The sound seems to have gotten Swiss and Rye's attention.

[New Appleloosa Road]

Heim shakes his head. "Nothing personal. But if you're in trouble with the Legion I'm putting my Wing in danger the longer I stick around here. They're trouble I would rather avoid if I can."

That said, he starts off down the road once again. Two griffons following!

[Lycan 01]

[Road to New Appaloosa with a few less allies]

Lucky tilts his hat respectfully. "Understood. Take care, Heimdalr." He also nods to Tripod. "Keep the caps. Stay out of trouble."

And with that, Lucky turns and begins to trot back towards New Appaloosa, not bothering to look and see if Gwendolyn and Bright Eyes are walking with him. "Maybe I will get 'roaring' drunk. Whiskey sounds real good right now..." he mutters to himself.


[Tag: Bob, Purity, Benson]

[Tychris1]

We can follow the rooooaaaad!
(Road to Old Appleoosa)

Lamianos nods his head to Night Jewel and sets off down the path, turning on his systems to enact his plan. As he continues down the road, looks behind him, and makes sure there is no chance of anyone seeing him. Sufficiently sure that no one can he begins turning down some of his systems and walking with a quicker pace until Old Appleoosa is in sight.

[Tag Lycan]

[MCerberus]

Manehatten - Tower

Whadda, like anypony in the wastes takes a few moments to check over the griffon for some useful ammo or weapon stocks. Gruesome maybe, but one cannot be too shy about that sort of thing. If his comrades are holding out, they'd likely be carrying guns that would use it.

"Well here's where it's likely going to get a little more interesting. Keep an eye out."

Road to OA

Finder just kind of shrugs and goes along with the group plan. Lockpicking will be quite useful getting collars off, but they're supposed to be tamper-resistant. Making tech compliant with your wishes is something Finder is useful at. "Just hope they don't try and run off with 'em on," the stallion muses looking towards the horizon. He'd follow along well enough despite the pessimistic outburst.

[Lycan 01]

Road to Old Appaloosa - Plan Is Go!

Lamianos goes off to scout ahead.

The rest of the team is left to wait. And perhaps, get to know each other a bit better.

Shadow lets out a soft chuckle once the Steel Ranger is out of sight. "Heh. There he goes, the gallant Steel Ranger, off to play hero. Though the simple truth is, should the slavers spot him, it is unlikely they'll be dumb enough to initiate hostilities. Hopefully he is less trigger happy than some of his colleagues."

The cloaked mare then turns to the rest of the group. "So... what are your stories? This is quite the motley crew..."


[Tag: Purity, Luka, Cerberus, Dark Elf, Drowlord... Basically everyone EXCEPT Tychris. The stuff with Lamianos will be handled privately via PM.]

[Benson]

Manehatten - Tower

Whadda, like anypony in the wastes takes a few moments to check over the griffon for some useful ammo or weapon stocks. Gruesome maybe, but one cannot be too shy about that sort of thing. If his comrades are holding out, they'd likely be carrying guns that would use it.

"Well here's where it's likely going to get a little more interesting. Keep an eye out."

Manehatten Ruins-Horseshoe Tower-Minster of Morale - 10:12 am

Fox Trot


"Right.." I replied briefly, watching her rifle through the dead griffon's stuff. I then faced away from her and entered alert surveillance mode.

[tag rebonack]
-----------------

Gwendolyn sighed a bit as she followed Lucky in a low hover, she stayed behind several paces so that Bright Eyes could catch up.

[tag Ly and Purity]

[Chaotic Bob]

[Road Mostly From New Appleoosa]

Well, looks like the groups are separating once again!
That was mostly neat and tidy.

"Ah, well, if you insist..."
Those caps are scooted a little bit closer while everyone begins to leave.
"Keep being honest and nice and friendly and stuff. Buh bye!"

Just sorta...nudge the caps along the road as Rusty follows after Heim and Co. then.
Still has absolutely no way to carry these, and he doesn't particularly want to stuff them into his mouth.


[Manehatten - Gutterville]

Not...really the response that Down was hoping for.
Being required to go into tight quarters like that is never the hoped-for scenario.

Nothing for it now. The EFS has the target direction for her to keep an eye on, so all that is left after that is to make sure there's no weird traps.
"I am coming into the building. I intend to help."
Keeping her actions politely announced, to hopefully avoid any unfortunate trigger fingers, injured or not.

Off she goes, to make sure the door isn't trapped with a trip-wire or mine or something, then to find her newest stray to save.
Hopefully they aren't hopelessly dismembered or something.

That'd be a mood ruiner.

[PurityIcekiller]

[New Appaloosa's Road, Ze]

"Bye! Have fun exploring!" Bright Eyes waved, then skipped along to keep up with her companions.

"Awful lot of meetings lately, aren't there! At least there aren't a lot of awful meetings, though. You reckon we'll meet more ponies any time soon?"

[Lycan 01]

Road to New Appaloosa

[New Appaloosa's Road, Ze]

"Bye! Have fun exploring!" Bright Eyes waved, then skipped along to keep up with her companions.

"Awful lot of meetings lately, aren't there! At least there aren't a lot of awful meetings, though. You reckon we'll meet more ponies any time soon?"

Lucky sighs. "Not if we're lucky."

Har har, name puns.

"Never been to New Appaloosa? Nice place. Martini runs the bar, Sawbones runs the 'hospital,' and Ditzy runs a nice little mercantile. Word of warning - Ditzy's a walleyed ghoul, so try not to stare or scream or anything," he grunts. "She's nice, and should be treated as such."

He looks back over his shoulder, then back at the path ahead. "By the way, can we not broadcast my former Legion-ness to everypony we meet? I'd rather not make enemies with everything," he groans wearily.

[tag: Benson, Purity]

[Drowlord]

Road to Old Appleoosa

"Strange. Never thought you'd be the type to ask for stories."

Elestre breathed deeply, his eyes flickering in the light.

"I'm Eledwhen's cousin, as I think I've said. We were part of a family that lived in the empty lands, staying in tents for the night and roving from place to place, researching magic and history and so much else."

The illusion around him barely went down for a few milliseconds, making him wince.

"We were happy until they came. Raiders, too many of them, led by an alicorn. They murdered our family, every one, in our sleep. When we were awakened by the crackling of the fires that were burning down the tents, I attacked the alicorn in my rage. She didn't even react, throwing me to the ground easily and commanding her raiders to use me as target practice, which they did. Ellie escaped into the Everfree after getting hit by a few raiders. I was on the brink of death, but my magic saved me. My body hasn't recovered; my spells are much harder to maintain, since my horn is shattered, and my body needs more rest than normal to keep functioning. That's just the practical applications. Just suffice it to say that I don't think anyone would look at my true form with anything other than surprise or disgust."

He put a soothing hoof of Eledwhen's mane, his eyes flickering.

"Since then, I barely survived in the empty lands long enough to find New Appleoosa, where I made my living off cheap card tricks and illusions. I saw my cousin with Luka here, followed her, and joined them. That's my story, as of now."

[MCerberus]

Road to Old Appleoosa

Finder kind of winces a bit with the mention of the 'a' word, though there only being one seems a bit odd. When it comes to his turn, the unicorn simply states, "Scavver, rest of my life is my business."

His wrapped, layed, and patched clothing/armor and head covering seems to corroborate this. "Lockpicking, jury-rigging tech to do what I want, and guns are mostly my trade."

[Rebonack]

[Manehatten - MoM Hub]

Hmm... the griffon seems to have been stripped of his weapons, ammo, and the more valuable and portable pieces of his power armor. The rest of his Wing probably didn't see fit to leave any loot behind. Makes sense, all things considered.

Pick a floor, heroes. One, two, or three.

And pray to Celestia you pick well. Wouldn't want to get caught unawares in a place like this.

[Manehatten - Gutterville]

As soon as the door is popped open Down will find that the shanty has been ransacked pretty horribly. A hole has been caved in through the roof and most of the furniture is smashed. Bits of a mostly eaten pony are spread all over the place.

From the cages along one wall this looks like it must have been a prison of some kind. And that nasty hacking sound? Coming from a pony in one such cage.

An earth pony mare, her coat the color of dead grass. Yellowed eyes are constricted to pinpricks. Froth about the pony's mouth. That ricktus grin and unstable giggling. Obviously a Raider.

"Hehehehe... You would look better in red!" the insane pony titters. "Just a bullet in the brain-pan. Squish! Then we can decorate with your insides!"

Rye peeks over Down's shoulder and scowls. "Ugh... A Raider is the only one that survives? Of course. What else would the Wasteland allow?"

"Do you think she'll tell us what happened?" Swiss asks curiously.

"Come close and I'll whisper it to you!" the mad pony giggles.

Wait... The EFS had indicated a friendly target. This Raider doesn't seem very friendly. Then what is...

[Road to Ruin]

Akwellen is more than happy to pick up the caps!

No doubt he'll remember to give them to Tripod later.

...

...right.

Anyway! On to the vault!

[Chaotic Bob]

[Manehatten - Gutterville]

"Possibly."
A brief twitch and a lance of energy launches itself at the raider.
"Don't care."

Without batting an eye, Down turns away from that part of the scene and resumes the hunt for the "friendly" target.
Her hopes aren't particularly high at this point.

"I sincerely hope there's an actually injured, friendly individual in here."
That could have a hopeful tone to it.
But for some reason, it seems to sound like more of a threat. Wonder why?

[Back To The Smiling Ruins]

"Right then. Someone's a little richer today."
Rusty doesn't seem bothered by Akwellen taking the caps...mostly amused.
"She should still be in the building over there. Depending on how much you trust me, I'd prefer to head in alone and avoid confusing her.
But I won't be too offended if you tag along."

He does claim to already have a rapport with the ghoul. Trust in that, or get more involved?

[Rebonack]

[Manehatten - Gutterville]

The Raider glows bright pink before collapsing into a heap of ash. Welp. So much for her. The 'friendly' reading is still inside the building somewhere, but where?

There comes a thumping from below the floor. Followed by a muffled, "Help! The trap door is stuck!"

Probably has a bunch of rubble heaped on top of it. And that sounds like a stallion! The other two living ponies perk up instantly.

"Corn!" Swiss cries out, her horn glowing cheery red as she begins pulling planks of wood and scraped sheet metal away. "Come on, help me!"

Rye is at it already, shoving heavy bits of debris away! Before long a trap door will be revealed!

[Road to Ruin]

"I'll let you handle that. We don't know how pervasive this ghoul's dementia is. Best not to push the issue if we can avoid it. The last thing we need is our only lead going feral," Heim replies.

[MCerberus]

Manehatten - Ministry of a-Morale

Meantally marking down the griffon corpse as [empty], Whadda takes a little look around. She tries to figure out which way to go, generally deciding to do as little backtracking as possible. "Let's go find some more stairs."

Of course, she might drag her hooves keeping an eye out for landmines, snares, and the like. It would be a nice time to run into Nails if he's still around.

[Dark Elf Bard]

Spoiler

Show

Road to Old Appleoosa

"Strange. Never thought you'd be the type to ask for stories."

Elestre breathed deeply, his eyes flickering in the light.

"I'm Eledwhen's cousin, as I think I've said. We were part of a family that lived in the empty lands, staying in tents for the night and roving from place to place, researching magic and history and so much else."

The illusion around him barely went down for a few milliseconds, making him wince.

"We were happy until they came. Raiders, too many of them, led by an alicorn. They murdered our family, every one, in our sleep. When we were awakened by the crackling of the fires that were burning down the tents, I attacked the alicorn in my rage. She didn't even react, throwing me to the ground easily and commanding her raiders to use me as target practice, which they did. Ellie escaped into the Everfree after getting hit by a few raiders. I was on the brink of death, but my magic saved me. My body hasn't recovered; my spells are much harder to maintain, since my horn is shattered, and my body needs more rest than normal to keep functioning. That's just the practical applications. Just suffice it to say that I don't think anyone would look at my true form with anything other than surprise or disgust."

He put a soothing hoof of Eledwhen's mane, his eyes flickering.

"Since then, I barely survived in the empty lands long enough to find New Appleoosa, where I made my living off cheap card tricks and illusions. I saw my cousin with Luka here, followed her, and joined them. That's my story, as of now."

Eledwhen shudders at the memory.

Uh huh... my mommy and daddy and me traveled around before we moved to Everfree Forest. One night when we were sleeping, some horny ponies and a big horny pegasus burned our treehouse.

They broke all of Daddy's bones, so he looked like Elestre does. Then they... did stuff to Mommy, stuff that they weren't supposed to. I don't know what the name of it is.

Then I got my wing cut and the other one broken, and then I met Luka and Lamia and Finder in the other parts of the forest.

Eledwhen looks sullen as she relives her memories.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Manehatten - Gutterville]

Feeling sorry for a raider is equivalent to feeling sorry for a sick bug.
Down doesn't plan on doing it.

Once upon a time, perhaps...but she's learned better in recent times.


She's standing back from the trapdoor. Let the death-courting ponies take care of all the loud noise and labor, as always.
The Enclaver will just keep one eye on the door instead.

[Smiling Ruins - Off to See the Ghoul]
The wonderful ghoul of MoM.

"Okedoke then. With some luck, this will end at worst with no fatalities."
Something bad will probably happen. But hopefully nopony/griffin will die.

Although, Rusty does have on particularly grim theory about today.
But we'll see if that comes to pass.

Off the tripedal pony goes, back towards Building C.
It'll be mere moments before he reaches the door of a certain ghoul.
"Miss Mark? It's Coil again."

And almost immediately, the sounds of a very grumpy ghoul answer.
"You! This intercom is still broken, you did a terrible job!"
"Now now, that's why I'm here. Your side is in tip top shape, I promise. There's a few faults at the other end though that I need to fix before you can actually use it though."
"Then go do that, instead of wasting my time here."
"Well, first I need that equipment I left in here...ah, yes, that bag there.
There is also the slight matter of...security clearance?"
"You need to speak to Miss Redleaf about that."
"Er, well...she's...down there?"
"Oh. Well that would explain why I haven't heard from her all day then. Must be personally seeing to that latest shipment.
In that case, you will need external administrative clearance or you can wait. Only Miss Redleaf is cleared for such dealings at this facility."
A few moments of silence from within, while Rusty considers that.
"...oh yes. The phone is out as well. So I suppose you shall have to wait after all. Perhaps in the meantime you could go look into that little problem. Get going."

Well that didn't sound like it went very helpfully at all.