Fallout Equestria : Sundered Steel

Fallout Equestria: Sundered Steel

Chapter 3 Death

I don't remember being shot again but its possible that I was. I'm fairly sure I'm not dead because I'm... well I don't know I could be dead maybe this is what death felt like...its not so bad really it was painful at one point but now it just feels peaceful, feels a bit more like a dull throbbing ...no I'm not dead I've not lived long enough yet I'm not going to die not here not now.

Wait I can hear something…, it sounds like Sigil! He's talking...what's he saying? Does he think I'm dead? He's picking through my corpse, picking it clean isn’t he? No… it doesn't sound like that, it sounds like he's, trying to... save me. What is that colt doing! He's not a trained medical pony! He'll make a mess of it! I’ll end up stitched back together with my own entrails; he’ll also probably leave a fucking filthy-ass scalpel behind!

I then felt the blade of a blunt knife jam into my flank throwing me back to reality.

“For the love of Celestia! Holy shit Sigil! That hurt!” I screamed out at the sudden agony.

“Thank Luna that you’re still alive, I was worried that you were lost to the land of the living.” I could detect the sound of genuine relief in his voice.

I sighed, “I’m fine, so you can quit worrying about me, on the other hoof though, the mare that was being raped, is she okay?” I asked him. I really hoped she was alright, nothing some counselling and a bath or two… or Tweleve won't fix.

“Don't worry about her, she's fine.” he glanced over at the mare whose coat was heavily matted with blood and... things best left unknown and unmentioned. I can see some bruising has come through on her where her coat has been shaved back a bit... although it might have been I wasn't too perceptive, unlikely I may add, and didn't see the bruises, but it’s possible she inflicted them on herself but we have no way of  knowing for sure.

The light was beginning to dip down below the horizon shedding a near radioactive orange glow over the wasteland. Slowly my bullet-ridden body regained function and became more alert even through the pain that streaked through my body. I found myself lying on a mattress which looks like it’s been soaked in blood, other bodily fluids.

I find it hard to believe that raiders would enjoy sleeping on filthy beds, but it seems as though that might be the case out here, they may be sadistic, murdering, psychopaths but they should have some basic standards right?

It turned out that the pony with the huge gun saddle managed to get a few shots off into my chest while my blind fury and sheer rage stopped me from feeling pain. Well… until Sigil stabbed my damn flank like a moron seriously, does he know anything about medicine?! Knives are NOT used to remove bullets; you use either the specialised tool for removing bullets or a pair of pliers! A knife is the last resort jeez!

But I shouldn't be so hard on him; it was lucky he woke me up when he did, I was slowly losing blood and if I remained unconscious for any length of time longer, this story would have been cut remarkably short. Anyway I removed the bullets from my body using the proper tools from both the Medi-Saddle and my medical barding then took out one of the healing potions from an ancient saddle bag Sigil found amongst the rubble, now that I think about it, I never thanked him. I made a mental note while looking at the bullet holes close up in my body to thank Sigil for finding it for me.

“It’s so much better to not have holes in you.”

I looked around and saw Sigil rummaging through the detritus of the raider camp. I notice a deep feeling of fury that Sigil has been reduced to hunting for scraps in what can be effectively called a dung heap with a smell to match instead of helping a victim of rape.

“What are you doing Sigil!?” I snapped with a scornful look on my face

He flinched, but answered anyway “I'm scavenging, they don't need it anymore.”

“Yes I can see that, but what have you done with her?” I motioned to the mare.

His gaze shifted from the dead to me and he is looking at me somewhat quizzically “Her?”

“What am I going to do to help her? You’re the only damn doctor here!” he shouted.

“Well, that didn't stop you from playing doctor earlier! Whatever Sigil I'll do the right thing”

I struggled to my hooves, because the potion hadn’t quite finished its job, and half hobbled to the mare.

She tried to crawl away to a corner of the fort. She didn't seem scared even though she had been raped and the gunfight. I can also see that she'd been beaten very recently as in in the last half hour which seems odd to me at my best guess I was out cold at least an hour maybe two how would she have gotten bruises while I was out cold and Sigil was too busy making sure I'm not dead. Her cutie mark was covered in blood and dirt I couldn't tell what it was there was almost nothing to go by.

I continued approaching her

“Hey, are you alright?” I whisper to her softly.

“Y-y-yes, I’m a-alright.” The mare stuttered.

“Why don't you tell me your name?” I asked her.

“M-my name is Br..Bright Light.”

“Well, Bright Light, I'm sorry we didn't come to you earlier but all the raiders here are gone”

She just sat there tearless and cold.

“If there is anything my… friend and I can do to help you, all you need to do is ask.” The relationship between Sigil and I was hardly friendly, but it’s a hell of a lot friendlier than what I experienced with most of the Stable residents.

I talked to her while I walked back to Sigil, who had managed to gather a pile of supplies that included several metal boxes and a medical box which looks like somepony was bludgeoned to death with. He also pulled together the weapons off the corpses. I’m no gun expert, that’s one thing Sigil is useful for. He knows his way around a firearm, but even to my untrained eye I could tell, that from all the duct tape and rust, these weapons are in terrible condition. To be honest, I was surprised that these weapons didn't just back fire, break apart, or blow up.

Sigil pushed the locked boxes and medical box and set me to work unlocking them. The locks are a bit of a challenge, as they are in better condition, but with a little work they gave up their precious contents to me. The medical box contains a bottle of Rad-away, which will be very useful with all the radioactive puddles of muck I'll trudge through, Sigil won’t, because he can fly. There are also a few syringes of Med-X painkiller, damn, what I wouldn’t have given to have one of these a couple hours ago!

Inside the other locked boxes is some ammo for a number of slug throwers. Trying them with the guns he had found Sigil and I discovered the ammo was for all the weapons they had. I think after some more thought about being logical and insuring our own survival by not going to the mare and taking from the dead. Taking bullets over bodies doesn't excuse him in my eyes, but it’s understandable. The weapons he had found were 10mm SMG four smooth bore rabbit guns. Exactly why anypony would want to hunt a rabbit is beyond me, we don't eat meat, and I doubt blood sport is a logical reason. He also found a few 9mm pistols, but other than that, there is nothing here that is worth us using so Sigil and I just stored the guns inside our saddle bags along with the ammo and a pile of other odds and ends that may be worth something in barter.

Night is beginning to close in, before long it would be difficult to travel. But it’s not like we have anywhere to travel to right now, unless Sigil has some secret mission he's on, and wanders off in the night.

I set to work on unlocking more boxes while Sigil worked on starting a fire, and repairing his suit, which he had dragged goodness knows how far, I sat down by the fire its warm glow feeling warm on my coat against the cold of the evening.

“Sigil?”

He looked up from what he was doing on his armour “Can I help you Sawbones?”

“I've been wondering about a few things. Would you mind if I asked you about some of them?”

“You’re just a mountain of questions aren't you? Go ahead ask away.” He huffed at me then looked back to his work.

“Why did you come to my stable? Couldn't you have found another safe location? There must be enough ruins that could shield you rather than going to my stable, where there was no certainty of being let in?”

He paused for a second, looking a little confused by the questions. “Sawbones let me answer your questions with one of my own. “Why did your ancestors go to that stable in the first place?”

Before I could answer he cut me off. “They went because it’s near enough bomb-proof. It could take a balefire bomb to the door to even come close to failing to protect the occupants, that’s why the other stables I visited in the region either didn't open up or are filled to bursting with nasty gribblies.”

There are other stables? We had been told back in my old stable that we’re the only survivors of the apocalypse and it was our duty, when the world was ready, to emerge and repopulate the surface.

“So there are other stables out in the wastes?” I asked.

“Certainly there were more before the war. No pony save stable-tec actually knows the exact number of stables, but since none of them are known to be alive, the number may be lost to time now.”

“Okay next question. Is there civilization? Please tell me there are towns and settlements, not just wandering wastelanders.” I looked at him expectantly.

“Yes there are towns and settlements out there. Those are nothing compared to the city of Detrot.  A massive city built back before the war.”

“What?” Of all the things I expected, a whole city was far from one of them.

“Yep, a whole city, out in the wasteland ran by… well frankly nopony knows who the leader of

Detrot is.” Sigil explained.

“There must be rumours about him though, right?” I felt kind of bad about prying.

“There aren't many, the only thing anypony agrees upon is that he was there before the war.”

“Sorry, I think my ears need syringing. He was alive before the war?!” I exclaimed.

“Well that is the accepted idea.”

“Why doesn't he tell everypony the truth?”

“He never leaves the Casino Palace that’s downtown and nopony enters.”

“Okay let me get this straight. The city of Detrot is run by a single pony in his Casino that is downtown Detrot correct?”

“Bingo.” Sigil came back without missing a beat.

“He doesn't leave the Casino or let anypony in to see him for any reason?”

“Right” Sigil nodded.

“Also, the only thing anypony really agrees on is that he was around before the war?”

“Yes” Sigil cracked his neck and looked back at his work.

“Does anypony know his name?”

“From what his robots say his name is Mister Trotter”

“He has robots too?!”

“Yep, and also reformed tribals.”

“Okay, this story is officially entering the realms of bullshit right now.”

Sigil looked up from what he was doing. “Belief is optional Sawbones”

With that I left him to his repairs. I'm exhausted after today's fighting, between that and the blood loss I could use a good long—my thoughts were interrupted by what sounded to be a medium explosion.

“What the hell is that?”

Looking around I can see that the mare had scarpered and Sigil was ducking down behind a trailer attempting to get his armour on. I heard a light clink and looked down to see that an apple like object landed in front of me. While I was backpedalling from the surprise the apple exploded, throwing me back with a face full of shrapnel, my flimsy stable barding offering next to no protection – what a day this is turning out to be, shot up and now blown up, I checked my body to see if anything was broken, my ears were bleeding, but my Medi-saddle seemed undamaged. I can see Sigil is hovering above the camp skirmishing with the attackers, his armour causing the bullets to ricochet harmlessly off. Unlike the ones in the stable who used weapons mounted on their armour, he was using his beam rifle in his mouth and firing into the enemies. I hauled my battered body to the entrance and peered outside, my vision hazy.

Outside is about seven or eight raiders really hard to tell in the darkness and haze but a, reasonable guess would be they are other raiders that live here. Several of them are tossing more of those metal apples at Sigil. My vision is darkening at the edges, different than that of the darkness of the night. My mind battled through the haze while I brought up SATS, I lined up four shots with the beam mounting aim at several of the raider’s heads. In my wounded state, SATS dictated that the bullets only had about a 27% chance to hit, so my chances of hitting them seemed to be dropping.

By a wonderful vein of luck I shot and killed the first raider turning him to ash. *zwishh* the second raider went down in a glowing ash cloud. The last two shots missed, flew into the night, and quietly illuminated the wastes. Sigil, his aim somewhat off, fired at several of the Raiders one bouncing off of one of their guns and hitting another raider in the face, instantly turning the raiders to ashes. Their return fire was deadly accurate, 4 bullets lodging themselves in my chest, knocking me down to the ground, blood spilling out of me. This was it… I was truly going to die now, death feels so, calming.

Opening up my eyes for probably the last time, I can see Sigil fighting hard against the raiders, but being forced back out of my vision, raiders in their horrific armours and barely functioning guns moving up. One of them dropped their gun and pulled out a knife from a scabbard on her barding, the blood of her last victim caked on it. My vision slipped away and the next time I opened my eyes the female raider stood over me, her yellowed eyes staring down me, between her teeth was a large knife. She tried to talk, but I couldn't make out what she is saying.

“New yook hasty…”

Before she could start to butcher me she was shot in the head with a beam of magical energy causing it to burst apart, splattering my face with skull and brain matter. Once again my vision faded.

Opening up my eyes once again I could see a Sigil towering over my body, worrying about me and patching me up with some bandages. Before he could finish, a pair of familiar legs connected with the skull of the Pegasus knocking him out cold/ but the legs look sort of familiar ...they belong to the mare that was being “raped” earlier she wasn't being raped, she was a part these sick and twisted ponies! She now stood over Sigil, picking up a sledge hammer off the ground and began pummelling him. His armour being the only thing preventing him being beaten into a pulp. I can't let him die like that. That’s no way to die, being betrayed and bludgeoned into a bloody mess.

Forcing some clarity through the blackness, dragging my bullet and blood covered body up off the ground. Shakily and with purpose I made my resistant body put one hoof infront of the other.

I made my way over to the mare, picking up one of the weapons of the raiders, a single barrelled kind of long arm that looks like its reloaded at the stock. I put it in my mouth and held it to the base of the traitorous mare’s head before she could turn to face me and hit me with that heavy hammer. I just eased my tongue on the trigger blowing the back of her head through the front, instantly killing her.

Letting the firearm fall from my mouths grip I allowed my body the luxury of blacking out properly...

I remember this I was like it happened just a few hours ago. I think I'm going to die. It’s okay though I saved Sigil...once again but I can die happy knowing I saved him.