Fallout Equestria: The Ranger of Seamane

Chapter 6 – Oakmare

“You think you are civilized just for living in a burnt out town of the past?” - Fallout 2, the Chosen One to Maida Buckner

As I woke up I distinctly felt the lack of the weight of Rose on me. I also felt about the same as I had yesterday, just not as sore. I opened my eyes and looked around the room. Rose was sitting in a chair looking across the table out the one window in the room. Well lets see if food helped, if that doesn't guess I would see if there was a doctor in town to help. I got up and walked over to the table, Rose slowly turned to me, with a tired smile on her face. I gave her a nuzzle and moved the other chair next to hers and climbed into it.

“How did you rest Rose?” I asked her as I pulled up a box of food and set it next to me on the table.

“Alright I guess, not the most restful sleep, you didn't wake up when the shooting started earlier today.” I looked at my watch, it was just about eight thirty in the morning.

“Shooting? Nothing we need to worry about right?” I really didn't want to have another fight on my hands.

“Maybe, it has died down for the moment.” She said and I gently hugged her, it earned me a smile.

“Well you should try to get some more sleep, I am still exhausted so I don't think I am going to be going anywhere for a while.” And if I went anywhere I was taking her with me.

“Alright, don't push yourself you look terrible,” she looked at me with a frown, “you certain you will be okay?”

“Just the down from buck is all,” I hoped, “it should be over with before we head out to Colt in a few days.”

“Weren't you going to go to the tower near here first?” She narrowed her eyes, “you aren't planning on going alone to it are you.”

I shook my head, “no, that slipped my mind. I guess I will see how far out it is, plan to go to it tomorrow? For today going to see about getting my helmet fixed, look to see if there is anything interesting for sale.”

Rose sighed, “alright, take my saddlebags with you as it has our money in it, leave my papers here.”

I nodded and returned to my breakfast as did Rose, we sat there in the quiet. As the silence dragged on I heard the music from Love Peddle. I felt Rose nuzzle me and I turned to her, and gave her a kiss. I hear gunfire on the far side of the town, couldn't really tell what was the cause thanks to all the buildings in the way. Even though we were on the third floor of the old hotel here I couldn't really tell what was going on. Maybe it was a fight outside the wall around the town. Then as fast as the gunfire started it was over.

“Hey Rose, I should check you over, I remember yesterday you got knocked out when that grenade went off next to the carriage.” I looked her over a bit, nothing on the surface looked major, so would need to break out the examination spell.

She nodded and I casted my spell, beyond the bruises and some scrapes she was alright. She did mention that she still had ringing in her ears so I gave her a healing potion. We had a good number left, and we could spare the caps to buy some more. After drinking down the healing potion a bit more life entered her features, her eyes looked brighter than they had in days. She laid back down on the bed as I double checked what we had in the saddlebags. We would need to buy food soon as well as water. Medicine we were good on, ammo was just fine, still had about four thousand caps, looked like our stay was costing us one thousand caps over all. I left a pistol and knife on the table next to Rose's papers.

“Alright I think I got everything sorted out, leaving the food, drink, and medicine with you, rest I am taking with me. Splitting the ammo half an half too. Your paper is under the pistol on the table, left your knife here too. Hopefully you won't have to use them.” I looked at her as I adjusted the saddlebags and put my armor away. “Anything you want or need me to get while I am out?”

“No, just come back around noon if you can. Just want us to check in with one another every few hours. I don't really like this town.” Rose said to me with that tired look in her eyes still lingering around. I nodded, it was a good idea.

“Alright, I will see you in a few hours, remember Ruby and her ponies are across the hall if you need anything,” with that I gave her a kiss on the forehead and I headed for the door.

Seeing things more clearly now and not being completely exhausted I was able to see how good of condition the inside of the hotel was. Those who lived here had made certain to take care of it so well. There were places that had bit of damage from blood or water, some places where there were patches to where a support had started to wear out. I had to admit the building was in great shape, much more so than the inhabitants of the town. I hadn't seen them last night but many ponies were in the street with inhalers by them or empty bottles of alcohol. This town had more problems than the slavers it looked like. As I wandered around I saw Ruby and two of the earth ponies that had come with us. I trotted up to them and joined them.

“Hi there, you don't mind if I tag along while I get a feel for where things are in the town do you?” I asked as I approached them.

“Oh, it is Moonlight, yeah we are headed to a few shops to set up some sales, nothing big. You looking for anything specific?” Answered one of the earth ponies with Ruby.

“Mostly looking to get my armor repaired or replaced, beyond that browsing for a few bits of supplies and weapons.”

“Oh that is easy, just stick with us, name is Topaz Lance, we are headed to pretty much the shop you want.” He held out a hoof to shake, I took it and he gave it a single hard shake, “glad to see you are upright again, hell of a day yesterday right?” He gave me a smirk.

“Yeah was a hell of a trip,  at least it didn't leave me as broken as my last trip.” I smiled, it was nice not to be laid up. I noticed myself absentmindedly rubbing my ribs remembering the pain from that long fall.

“Yeah, I heard about your tussle with Thunderlord. I have to admit that would have been a fight to see. From what people told me DJ Pon3 described the fight as it was something you don't see every day.”

“Don't know how well you could have seen it since it was two small dots falling from the clouds.” I rubbed my ribs more remembering the landing.

“Maybe, either way got to see you pull off some amazing feats of strength yesterday, so I don't think the DJ was exaggerating about your fight with Thunderlord. Maybe you will take out another raider leader in the area and we will get to see it.” His grin made me blush and I saw a hoof gently push against his shoulder.

“Yeah we want to have a raider lord show up while on the way to Colt, how fun that will be to deal with one of them and their whole merry band of psychopaths.” Said the other earth pony.

Topaz shrugged and turned back to me, “don't mind him, Bronze is just superstitious about saying certain things, thinks it incites bad things to come about.” He leaned in closer and whispered, “never say anything about how it can't get any worse or ask if things could get worse around him.”

“We’re here, Moonlight feel free to browse while we talk, once we finish our dealings with the owner you can buy and sell what you want. Got it?” Ruby said looking at me.

“Loud and clear,” I said, with how big the shop looked there was going to be a lot to look at.

“Be careful not to make a mess either, Aegis doesn't care for ponies damaging what he is selling or touching it without care.” Ruby said adding to the rules of the shop. I nodded slower this time, look with your eyes Moonlight, not your hooves.

She pushed open the door and we walked in through the double industrial doors into what was a rather impressive warehouse. Like many of the buildings in Oakmare it was in good condition, though I noticed more patches and stains in the floor. I looked up at the ceiling and saw signs listing off different sections of the warehouse. I also noticed the turrets that followed everypony who came in. I put them out of mind as they didn't start shooting right off the bat.

I headed straight for the armor section. What I saw was impressive, from what looked like slightly more protective versions of raider armor to the strange metal armor I saw around town and on those two pullers from yesterday. Then there was leather armor like my own, decently priced too, at least I could replace this set. I looked around more, and fuck me they had steel ranger armor. Damn near mint condition, well, except for the giant hole in the helmet laying next to it. That explains where it came from. I looked into the helmet to see if any of the electronics were still good, to my dismay it seemed to be that most of the systems where contained in the actual armor itself and the price tag made me sway a bit. I kept looking around, there was some Stable-Tec security barding as well as just regular Stable-Tec barding. Had to admit, I kind of liked the blue and yellow of Stable-Tec gear.

I thought struck me, what if they had a pipbuck here, I doubted they could get it working so they probably would have it on the cheap figuring it was broken. Oh if I could get it working I would be a very, very happy filly. Okay helmets first, check to see if they had one that I could get. I looked for a few minutes and found none cheap enough for me to get that were in good enough condition to excuse the price. So I left the aisle and headed towards tools. I figured either a pipbuck would be under tools or well I don't know where else, but, I would comb this place before giving up. Upon entering the tools aisle I saw kits for maintaining clothing, armor, and weapons. Various tools for lock picking, hacking, and even medical equipment. I noted the price on the repair kits, much cheaper than buying new equipment. I kept looking, at least the hacking tools would be useful, well everything here was useful to somepony.

“Oh what are you my shiny friend,” I whispered to myself, it was a pipbuck technicians tools, looking at the toolkit I was amazed, pretty much it had anything I could want, from hacking to lock picking. Oh yes, this was a buy as well as some regular tools for repairing my equipment. I quickly tallied up the cost of the equipment, about seven hundred caps. With that in mind I went to the weapons section. Might as well do some window shopping. I took a glance at to see where Ruby was, a good number of boxes laid next to her as Bronze and Topaz carried them in. Looked like it would be a while longer until things were freed up. So I spent the next half hour picking through the guns, one part of me wanted to pick up some more guns, but, I had my bases covered. There was also the fact that things that looked like they would be great replacements were so expensive that I would use up all of my caps and have a gun and no ammo for it. They only thing that seemed to fit with my price range was what they called a cowpony repeater as well as a point three fifty seven magnum revolver. They used the same ammo so they would work well together as I just had to hold onto one ammo type, but, the rifle didn't have a scope. It was very, very tempting to get one or both.

“Hey Moonlight,” I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned my head to see Topaz. “Our business is done, so anything you want take it to the counter when you want to. We are going back to the hotel for now. Suggest you head back as soon as you are done here, Ruby has a bad feeling about the fighting happening on the East side.”

“Alright, check on Rose when you get back, let her know I shouldn't be too much longer. If she gets worried about me... Stay put, we don't need to be running around town trying to find one another if things go south.” Now I was starting to worry about the fighting going on, Topaz turned to leave, “hey Topaz, how rare is the ammo for these?” I said as I lifted the repeater and revolver with my magic.

“Three fifty sevens? Not that bad, raiders out here use that ammo a lot, thinking of getting them?” I nodded, “Can't go wrong, though going to be hard to do that fancy sniping of yours without a scope. Might want to ask Aegis if he has any in back.”

“Alright, I will see what I can get.” I picked both up, I had ammo to trade, a lot of it as a matter of fact. “Hey Topaz, mind fetching my saddlebags, got a lot of ammo I won't be using soon that I can trade off.”

“Sure thing, be back with it in a minute,” he said and headed out, as he did I picked up the other items I was wanting to buy.

“I see you have a fine eye, I like a customer who knows what they want. So got anything to trade with or are we going to have to find you some work?” Aegis said as I laid down the various items that I had collected.

“I have caps, Topaz is bringing back some of my surplus ammo I won't be needing.” I pulled out a bit of the spare ammon I had on me and put it on the table. “So lets get to figuring out how much I owe you.”

He regarded me with a eye as he checked the quality of all the items I wanted, as well as the spare ammo I put on the table. After a few minutes of examining Topaz came in with my saddlebags on his back, he looked a bit nervous. Aegis saw the look in his face too.

“Topaz, what is happening out there?” Aegis asked, his voice a bit gruffer I saw his hoof slide under his table.

“The fighting sounds like it is getting worse. Love Pedal is empty, looks like the slaves have been moved as well. Something big is on its way.” I really didn't like where this was going and looked at Aegis.

“Then lets get this deal done fast, two thousand caps and for an extra hundred I give you two hundred rounds, letting this all go cheap just in case.” I didn't even hesitate and pulled the twenty one hundred caps from my caps bag.

I counted them as I grabbed pulled out my barding and helmet quickly patching them up. I quickly loaded up the revolver and repeater. I felt the ground quake, the three of us looked at each other, our worry showing clearly.

“Well, is there anything else you wanted?” Aegis asked as he put the caps into a very solid looking safe. “Because if not the shop is now closed.”

“Got a scope for the repeater?” I asked as I shrugged on my barding and strapped my now repaired helmet on.

“Five hundred caps, leave them here I will grab it for you. Don't let anypony else in.” He said his face darkening as we heard more gunfire. As he left I turned to Topaz.

“What is going on? Think there is a siege of the town on its way?” I said with a bit of worry as I slung the rifle across my back and placed the revolver in its holster.

“Maybe, but, once we are done here you are going back to the hotel with me and sticking with your marefriend until Ruby or one of us says otherwise.” His whole body language had changed from relaxed and inviting to that of caution and worry.

I finished counting out the five hundred additional caps and set them on the counter as Aegis returned. He had a box that had the image of a scope printed on it. I figured that it was the original boxing for a scope for the cowpony repeater. Seeing the caps he set the box down and went straight to stuffing the caps into his safe.

“Alright, shop is closed. Topaz get this mare back to where you guys are staying safely. Let Ruby know that she can count on me if she needs to.” He said as he escorted us somewhat forcefully to the front door.

 I didn't say anything and moved as quickly as I could.

“Will do Aegis, hopefully we don't have too much to worry about.” Replied Topaz, his warm voice had been replaced with cool professionalism.

I walked out the door and heard a burst of gunfire from across the city. I looked back at Topaz as he helped lock the front doors of Aegis' warehouse.

“Come on Moonlight, you don't want to stay out here too long. You may have been in a few fights, but, what might be coming is something else.” Topaz said to me as we began walking back to the hotel.

The entire walk back I was on edge. I didn't like this, a massive battle was possibly brewing and I was not at full strength. My brain was also still feeling the effects of Buck withdrawal which made it all the worse. While most of the effects of withdrawal from Buck was a decrease in strength and endurance while your body repaired itself there was also the fact that there was a bit of a mental dampening. This probably was due to the body spending a high amount of energy on repairing what you fucked up with taking the drug and diverting it from the brain. At least on the level of addictiveness Buck was pretty low unlike Ment-Al's or Party time Ment-Al's which were renown for their addictive properties as well as their mental overclocking.

It was a bit after noon when we got back to the hotel. I was slightly shaking from my nerves as we got back to our rooms. When I entered my own I noticed that Rose had removed her stuff from the table and the curtains had been drawn shut. I closed the door behind me and turned to see Rose's head pointing out of the bathroom. I blinked and looked at her.

“Expecting somepony else?” I asked her as I looked at her.

“Just nervous is all. All the gunfire is not making it easy to relax. Want to join me for a bath?” She asked, she looked slightly shaken as well.

“Go ahead and draw it, I will set down my stuff next to the bed.” I said and walked past her. I packed our stuff up and laid out our equipment next to the bed just in case we needed to get going quickly.

I listened to the sound of water filling the tub and sighed as I stripped out of my own barding. It wasn't uncommon for ponies to go a long time between bathing in the wasteland. Hay, it was actually more or less better to not bathe for an extended period of time so one would smell like the wasteland to the wildlife. Better than smelling of soap and clean pony. On the other hoof, smelling like your own blood was not a good idea. As well as it was not a good idea to not bathe after getting hurt. It was best to be clean so you lessened your chances of getting an infection.

With another burst of gunfire barely audible through the walls of the hotel I remembered about going to the MASEBS tower that was near Oakmare. As it was now there was no way that I would be going to it. In fact I would probably put it off until after doing to Colt and returning to Dune City. So definitely was going to be spending some good down time here in our room for tonight. Though I would have to make certain we were ready to go when Ruby told us to go. I got the feeling she might end up asking for us to go in the middle of the night if things started to heat up.

With my barding off I walked back to the bathroom to see Rose already in the tub. It was big enough for two but seeing her in there I had another idea for my lover. She had spent years with raiders enduring horrific things. As I looked at her I saw that her eyes were closed as she relaxed in the hot water. Her coat was patchy in many places, her mane, as well as I would wager her tail had been cut to remove clumps and knots. Even with how well she looked from just the few days that she had been free I could tell that in a few months until she didn’t have missing clumps of hair in her coat. She needed a good washing. Not to just wash my blood that had been most recently stained into her coat, but, she needed somepony to take care of her. To take care of her like she was trying to take care of me.

I pulled out a brush that I had taken with me when I left Seamane, I hadn't thought about it in ages. I was going to clean up Rose and smooth out her coat. I didn't care if I didn't get washed tonight or if I had to bath in cold water. After all I had bathed a few times in nothing but the rain thanks to the long walk through storms. In all honesty, she needed far more than I did, I don't think she had been bathed in the past decade.

I trotted up to her with a smile on my face and the brush floating in my magic. There were some soaps still in the bathroom. I guessed somepony had remembered how to make it through the centuries and kept the hotel stocked with it. I grabbed it in my magic too. At the sound of my hoof steps stopping by the edge of the tub Rose opened an eye to look at me. With just her nostrils above the water she couldn't say anything as I stood there.

“I am going to clean you, you are positively filthy.” I said, getting a mischievous grin on my face as hers turned red. “Now be a good filly and do as I say.”

She gave the gentlest of nods to me as she rose out of the water enough for her mouth to breach the surface. I had to admit, with a bit longer mane she would look beyond stunning with a wet mane. As it was she was simply still the most attractive and beautiful mare I had ever laid my eyes on. Then again, it hadn’t been that long ago I wasn’t looking at anypony for attractiveness. Without another word I went to cleaning her. I spared not place on her. Much to her chagrin it wasn't a prelude to anything for now. I was focused on getting her cleaned up, there would be time later for fun.

After I had finished cleaning her she surprised me with grabbing me in her magic and shoving me in the tub of water with her. For a moment I thought she was going to try to drown me as retribution for cleaning her. Instead she returned the favor and cleaned me and brushed out the knots and bits of matted hair in my mane and coat. I played with her tail as she did. It was... soothing. I felt myself relax more than I had back in even Dune City when we had slept together. This was beyond just physical pleasure, this was us being a couple. I felt an odd sensation in my chest where my heart was. It felt like a warm liquid sliding down a little bit. Then I felt the warmth spread through me. That was it, that was the feeling of love. I loved Rose, and I loved doing something so innocent as this with her.

In the hour we bathed one another we escaped what had happened to us throughout our lives and from the cruel grip of the wasteland. One of the few things still left in the wasteland that could beat it was love. True love, not caps, not slaves, not power. Love was one of the greatest things a pony could have in this world. In that moment I knew Rose was the most important thing in the entire world to me. That leaving her behind would never be a option for me. Because this mare was my second half. Not that I couldn't live without her beside me, but, that with her near I would feel more myself than I ever could alone. Now I had a better understanding of Sunset and Violet as well as Mom and Dad.

We left the tub and dried of before moving to the bed and laying on it together. It was almost criminal how bad the thing smelled compared to us after bathing. Her mane looked far better than it had after I washed it. It was a slightly lighter color after the soap had apparently cleaned out some tough dirt. Her coat as well looked healthier to the point of having a slight shine to it. My own coat was looking better than it had in months. Honestly I had never really regularly bathed since water was so precious in Saint Clover. I generally only did it when I got a nasty cut or I had started smelling too badly, or after having gotten ill with something. At the same time I had forgotten how therapeutic bathing could be.

While I had wanted to cuddle Rose properly it was hard when I was of such a small frame while she seemed to be a bit taller than most ponies. Which lead to us deciding that at times like this I was the little spoon. When she said this I hadn't understood what she meant. Then I realized being held from behind by Rose as we lay on the bed I found it very relaxing and I was struggling to keep awake in her warm embrace. I looked up to see that she had actually fallen asleep not long after we had started cuddling. I simply rolled my eyes and then closed my own eyes. A nap was not a bad idea. We were to stay put while whatever was going on outside went on. As it was right now I could hardly give a logical argument to do anything else, but, this.

Waking up I found that I had turned around in Rose's legs and was firmly pressed into her. She was still asleep, but, she was holding me tightly. I felt a tremor pass through her. I looked outside to see that it had grown dark indicating we had been asleep for a number of hours. I didn't hear any gunfire so whatever was causing her trouble was in her head. I gave a quiet sigh wishing I had a way to help with whatever dream was harassing her. I felt a pang of guilt as I now knew a small fraction of the pain she felt when she had seen me get hurt on our trip from Dune City.

Though in her case she had seen me physically hurt to the point I could have had mortal wounds. A part of me wondered if seeing me hurt had also conjured up bad memories for her, of her time with those raiders. I gave another quiet sigh, I really knew so little about her, yet, she knew so much about me due to my willingness to open up to her. Her not telling me anything I took as a sign of not wanting to remember. Or maybe she didn't want to be seen as somepony to pity, she wanted my love not pity. Well I would figure this relationship thing out one day at a time I supposed. I closed my eyes again as she held me closer pushing my muzzle deep into the coat of her neck. I couldn't hear her say anything, but, she was trembling slightly. I couldn't tell whether it was from fright or joy in her dream. If this is one of the things she need me for I was more than happy to give up some sleep so that she could hopefully rest well.

I fell asleep in her embrace. I could only imagine it was much later when I awoke again. She was still asleep, but, the light outside was orange signaling that dawn had come. Except... the room we had faced south. It shouldn't be that bright or across the whole sky. I blinked again and realized that it was from fires not dawn. Oh... well shit, things got bad. I listened to hear if something had woken me up. I was rewarded with Rose again trying to apparently force me to fuse with her by hugging me tighter. After a moment she relaxed again. As things were I had no reason to wake her up yet. I figured Ruby would be very much on top of making certain to get us out the door if we needed to be going. Or awake if things were going badly.

So instead I lay there gently nuzzling Rose as she from time to time moved in her sleep. I would have stroked her mane or really anything else if it hadn't been for the fact that I had my legs tucked between us, and now thoroughly crushed under Rose’s vice like grip of me.. Now they were uselessly crushed between us. I figured the orange light where fires caused by fighting, or maybe I hadn't noticed them before in the night and they were from the buildings themselves. Whatever the case was I didn't hear reports of guns, screams, or hooves marching about. For now we were safe, and I had found a new love for nuzzling since it was all I could do. I also was really happy that we had bathed before. Though in hindsight we should have eaten before taking our nap.

My stomach growled loudly in response to my thoughts. Loudly enough that I heard and felt Rose take a deeper breath. I figured she probably got woken up by my rather rude stomach. Then her stomach growled in response to mine. Great, now our bodies were communicating on a deeper level than we had control of. I pulled my head back feeling my cheeks burning in embarrassment as I looked up at Rose as she blinked the sleep from her eyes.

“Sorry, didn't mean to wake you up Rose.” I said quietly before nuzzling her again.

She yawned and looked down at me, “no worries Moony.”

I blushed harder and cursed under my breath, what was with that being the pet name for me?! Whatever, she meant it in a loving way let it go. She noticed my reaction and licked my horn which completely banished my previous thoughts from my mind.

“Can we eat before we uh...” I trailed off as she did it again. Maybe her stomach's growl wasn't for food... Then I felt her loosen her grip and blush while looking at me.

“Sorry, I didn't notice I had you gripped so hard. You alright?” She said with her silvery voice only slightly tarnished by her still half asleep state.

“I am fine, just maybe a little sore. You know you are quite strong right?” I said as she loosened her grip and I pulled my legs out to wrap her in them as I resumed nuzzling her. Eating could wait, cuddling was better.

She simply blushed and kissed me, and we stayed that way for a while. Our stomachs had decided to let us enjoy each others company. Eventually Rose made the first move with licking my horn again and I let her go to town. This time though I didn't let her do all the work, she maybe bigger and stronger than me physically, but, that didn't mean I couldn't pull my own weight in bed!

When we finished we enjoyed some more cuddling before our stomachs reminded us to the reason we had woken up. With one appetite satiated for now we focused on another. As always the flavor not the image of the food was what helped it go down. Whoever had figured out how to preserve food for over two centuries was a master at preserving the flavor as well. However little could be said with how the food looked. I had decided to try something that looked more or less like a steak. Though it said there was no meat in it. Tasting it, I could tell it was made by somepony who had no idea what meat tasted like or had the texture of. Then again why would they back then, they had plentiful grass and flowers to eat. Rose looked like she has no better luck than I with her own 'steak'.

I decided to check the time and saw it was about five in the morning. Yeah the light from outside was very much not dawn. It was late fall, hay, by now it was probably early winter. I looked at the calendar read out, it was very much late fall. I gave out a sigh as I finished my meal and dropped my left fore leg. Honestly in all of my years I hadn't been out much during late fall or winter. I knew it snowed here in the Seamane region, but, still I never had to deal with it much myself. Probably would mean that I needed to get some warmer equipment while up in Colt, figured since they are at both a higher elevation and further north they would need warmer garbs year round. Rose caught me thinking again and poked the tip of my horn with her hoof. I blinked and looked up at her to receive another kiss. We had nothing better to do so we went for another round.

Okay that was more than one round, I had checked my watch once we were done and both guzzling down water. I had opted to drink from the sink first to see how radioactive it was. Much to my surprise it wasn't that badly radioactive. We had gone for three and a half hours before getting a dire need for hydration. As it was we both where exhausted, Rose frustratingly not as much as myself due to her endurance. She must have a strong line of earth pony blood in her I thought to myself. That was the only possible way she had that much endurance. Then I mentally face hoofed realizing it was probably built from her time with the raiders and decided not to ask. I didn't know how much her time the had scared her and I didn't want to find out. On the other hand I had figured out a way to make up for my small frame with my magic. As I sat looking out into the distance I saw a large number of figures outside of the walls of Oakmare. Right, the city was being attacked this whole time we were having fun... I facehoofed as I realized at anytime in the past few hours Ruby could have come in seeing us. But, now seeing the situation my willingness for more fun was diminished. Because now that it was day a rather nasty fight was bound to unfold. So much for round three…

As I thought that Rose came back and laid down on the bed looking at me expectantly. Before I got a chance to join her and enjoy what little peace of the day was left a knock came from the door. I sighed knowing that this probably meant the end of anything fun today.

“I got it Rose, probably start calming yourself if this is what I think it is.” I said as I slide out of my chair and walked to the door, Rose had a very understandable frown on her face, I was fairly certain I was frowning too.

I had rather liked the idea of waiting this out in bed with her. Though a part of me knew as trying to be hero I should be out fighting already. Then again, part of me also said heros needed down time too. I opened the door to see Ruby standing there looking worried as I had expected.

“Get ready-” She began, but, I cut her off. My pleasant mood had gone out the window when I saw the amassing force.

“They are already at the gates, I can see them from my window. Whatever your plan is we need to get going as soon as everypony can.” I said flatly, Ruby's ears flattened as I said that to her. I wasn't certain if it was from not liking being commanded or fear of what I had said.

Whatever the case was I didn't have time or the care to worry about it. I closed the door as she returned to her ponies. Walking back I saw Rose at the window.

“So they really going to attack?” She simply asked me as I walked up to her and bumped flanks with her.

“Probably, they are raiders after all.” I nuzzled her, smelling the scent of sweat on her, our room must have smelt musky after all of our work. “Come on we need to get ready, Ruby has some sort of plan and I aim to be ready for whatever it is.” I said as I turned to our equipment.

We were both ready when the knocking came again. I took lead as I knew Rose could easily shoot over me, or drag me back if needed. Really she could do anything to me if she needed or wanted to. I mentally face hoofed at my own words, but, it was none the less true. I opened the door to be greeted with Ruby and her group.

“Moonlight, I want you and Topaz to go to Aegis' shop, Rose I want you with us. I know you probably hate the idea of getting separated at the cusp of a battle, but, we need you to do this.” Ruby said, I simply nodded and looked back at Rose who did the same. I gave Rose a kiss.

“Don't worry about me, keep an eye on everypony else. We both know I am a tough pony.” I said with a smile on my face. She kissed me back and nodded.

“I do, just keep your head down when the shooting starts. Your helmet is only good for one shot between repairs.” She said as she joined the rest of Ruby's ponies.

We left out the back of the hotel and at the first road separated. Rose and Ruby heading to another portion of the town which I figured Ruby either had friends in or some other vested interest. Topaz broke into a full gallop towards Aegis' warehouse, I did my best to keep up with him.

Upon getting to the warehouse Topaz knocked semi-rhythmically on the door. We stood there as I heard a distant boom and gunfire erupt to the south where Rose had gone with Ruby. I tried to squash my panic as we waited. I heard movement on the inside of the double doors before they opened fully and I saw a rather angry Aegis. When he saw Topaz the expression changed to a flat expressionless face. There was a history here, and I was not privy to it. Nor was I apparently allowed to hear what was being said. I didn't pry and just waited as I scanned the south where the fighting had broken out.

After a few moments I realized I was alone outside and turned to see the door had closed again and Topaz had apparently entered. I took a few steps towards the door then turned around keeping an eye out. As I did I put the scope onto the cowpony repeater and started adjusting it. While it didn't have the night vision of my varmint rifle it had a more powerful maximum magnification. I had to give it to Ironshod Firearms, the had made it so instead of manually messing around with the level of zoom you had a wheel that simply clicked to different levels of zoom. Though you had to adjust the lenses first so the image wasn't blurry to your own eye.

When I had finished I sat there waiting and ended up checking on my revolver. I then remembered that now Rose had both of our pistols and varmint rifles. As if having two varmint rifles would do her a whole lot of good. I then remembered I had also left her one of the SMG's. That would do her a lot of good if they got into a firefight. As I slapped the cylinder back into the revolver the door behind me opened again and I saw Topaz standing there with a stern expression on his face.

“Come on in Moonlight.” He said, I without question entered and followed him up to the counter. Then I felt a powerful vibration run through myself and the whole store.

“That didn't feel like an explosion” stated Aegis as he walked out in a helmet-less suit of steel ranger power armor. He had at some point dawned the power armor and from the looks of it was giving it a shake down before the fighting got to us. Loading the battle saddles, a rocket launcher and grenade machine gun. He set his helmet on to his head and I heard a soft hiss. “You two want to get paid?” He asked his voice now more metallic thanks to the helmet.

“Defend your store, make certain it takes as little damage as possible?” I asked as finished double checking my weapons and tightening my barding. I also remembered the SMG I still had in my saddlebags and loaded it.

“You got it, if need be feel free to use the heavy weapons, ammo is half off for this.” I heard a hint of a smirk on his face as he said that.

“Topaz you good for this or do you want to sit this one out?” I turned to the teal earth pony.

“I don't have a death wish, but, if the town is under attack I will help, just don't expect me to help you if you go rushing out that door.” Topaz replied as I saw him putting on a new suit of combat armor, “always wanted a suit of this stuff.”

“Moonlight, correct?” I heard Aegis ask I nodded, “mind peaking your head out and giving me a report of what you see.”

I simply nodded and carefully moved to the front of the warehouse as I did we all felt another rumble. I felt my eyes go wide as I looked at Topaz who was returning the look half way into equipping a duel light machine gun battle saddle. I got to the door and opened it slightly, looking out to the east the wall was on fire, and I couldn't see anything through the smoke. I heard shouts from the south towards where the slaver compound was, then gunfire for a few seconds then more shouting.

“East wall is ablaze and the smoke is keeping me from seeing anything, south I hear sporadic gunfire and shouting!” I shouted back to the two.

“Alright, Moonlight, keep an eye on the situation, Topaz, you stand where you can get a good line of fire on the door. I am going to secure the rest of the building.” I gave a glance back to Aegis as I saw him move into the back.

“Hey Topaz, out of the frying pan and into the oven right?” I joked with a smile on my face as I pulled the hammer back on my revolver.

“No kidding Moonlight, keep an eye out for anypony coming our way.” I heard a faint wurr from his battle saddle as it automatically loaded the machine guns.

I looked back out, more was burning and the smoke darkened the sky already, the streets were bathed in a hellish orange as I heard more shooting and yelling. I also saw Ruby, Rose, and everyone else running from the hotel to here. I had guessed whatever they were after they had moved to the hotel. I heard a roar of some sort from the eastern wall and saw a massive head swoop down and eat a chunk of the wall with a few ponies shooting at it.

“Topaz, what large, and I mean monstrously huge, scaled things live around here?” I was probably going to have to use a rocket launcher for this one…

“Um... What color was its scales?” He asked, I could hear the fear in his voice.

“Brownish white, and Ruby and the others are galloping over to us.” I opened the door and waved a hoof to Ruby and the others looking to see if any other threats had shown up.

“Oh fuck, that is a Hydra, I heard that Slate's raiders had captured one, even tamed it. I thought it was just some dash induced hallucination.” Topaz was suddenly at my side as we saw the huge head of the hydra strike from the smoke again and eat a few more ponies on the wall.

“That is no hallucination. Topaz, I am getting the biggest gun here and turning it on that monster even it Aegis charges me for ammo. At least he will still have a warehouse.” I turned back into the warehouse and made three steps when Aegis himself rushed past me to the door.

“They have a Celestia damned Hydra,” I heard Aegis say in a flat annoyed tone.

“Yeah, you got something to shoot it with?” Asked Topaz.

“I do, good thing we have a unicorn here to use it, come with me.” Aegis turned and galloped up to me where with Topaz behind him, “Moonlight, get everyone in here, and make certain to not burn your magic out, you are going to need it.”

“Will do,” I turned and ran out the front door switching to holding my revolver in my mouth.

It took a few moments more for Ruby and the rest to make it to the warehouse I pointed them in, when the hydra roared they didn't bother asking questions. I pulled back and shut the doors. If anything at least nothing would immediately know we were in here.

“Moonlight where did Aegis and Topaz go?” Asked a breathless Ruby.

“To get me a really big gun, something about good thing they had a unicorn to use it with. Ideas?” I raised an eyebrow as I kept to wall next to the doors.

“Don't know,” she turned to face everyone else, “alright, we hold up here until either that Hydra is dead or the town stands no chance of surviving. I will give the call to abandon the town and we will grab the carriage and loot what we can and take who we can. Don't get left behind we aren't coming back.” With that she slide back the slide of her large caliber pistol. Everyone else was reloading and patching their barding if not simply pulling on new barding.

I felt another rumble and heard the hydra roar again, I crept to the door and cracked it open slightly and looked. The hydra had just stepped over the wall crushing what wall remained and any ponies on it. It turned and moved to the south where a constant chatter of gunfire was sounding. I slide back in and closed the door turning to everyone else.

“Hydra is inside the wall and headed south to the rest of the fighting. I don't think this fight is going to last long with it around.”

Ruby just nodded, she accepted my assessment of the situation. At this point Topaz and Aegis walked back in the room, carrying between them some large thing. I couldn't tell how the thing worked. As they got to me I opened the door for them and the 'front' end of this weapon was pointed out the door. With a resounding thud they dropped it on the floor and then it put out some feet to secure itself.

“Moonlight, I am assuming you are not familiar with energy weapons. How are you with portable artillery?” My jaw dropped, I could feel the his smugness radiating out of that armor of his.

“How do I even operate this thing?” I said as I slowly approached the portable energy artillery.

“You get in it, from there it should be pretty simple. Aim for the heart.” As he said this a hatch pulled down for me to enter.

“So long as it doesn't shoot me at the hydra I think I will be fine.” I set a hoof on the metal, it was very cool and I could feel a small hum within it.

I took a deep breath and climbed the rest of the way in. As I finished climbing in the panel I entered through slide shut with a soft hiss as I felt the walls close down around me. I started to panic as I felt the ceiling press down along my spine and for a second I tried to flail before I found myself unable to move. It was like being in a memory orb again. The wall in front of me resolved itself into what would have been the front of the machine. A flash of three symbols appeared before me. The Ministry of Wartime Technology, the Ministry of Arcane Science and one that I knew to be that of the Office of Interministry Affairs. The last one I only knew from an article about its director being charged with treason.

I saw a panels next to the view had opened and I felt a tingle go through me as something clamped down on my horn. Various information came to life on the view in front of me, two warnings about my health both indicating Buck withdrawal, the rest seemed to be data about the machine. I also saw briefly something about my overall health and various biometrics. I saw a bar filling as the tingle built within me with the pressure in my horn built with it. I focused on the view I had looking for the hydra. It wasn't hard to find as it was in the middle of ruining the buildings next to the church. I focused on the center of its body. As I did I felt a jolt go through me and a wave of exhaustion as a bright electric blue light built to my left.

Red words with a red line boxing them in appeared in my vision 'Firing'. I felt what could only be described as every part of me getting hit full force all at once. I saw a blue light lance out from my left and strike the hydra, its scales started to blacken where the beam was hitting it. I felt myself become more drained as the beam continued to strike the hydra. With a loud roar the hydra spun around and started to move towards us. I focused on its left leg and was rewarded with the beam moving and blasting into its leg. The hydra howled as the leg crumpled under the beam of light and its own weight. The bar indicating charge dropped to zero and the light petered out, but, it had done its job, the hydra was laying down on the ground snapping at everything that got close to it. However, it was no longer crushing everything in it's path or even on a path in general. I had crippled it and it could not advance.

I saw everyone else move out around the contraption as I felt a sharp pain jab into the base of my skull. They started firing what they could at the hydra where its scales were blackened. It bellowed in rage as a rocket tore into it. I watched as they kept firing at it, I saw that they were hurting it. The charge bar was nearly full again as I felt a rush go through me as something hit my system.

“Almost charged again!” I called out, at that Aegis ordered everypony back in. As Aegis exited my view it read '100% charged, fire at will'. I focused again, I aimed for where I felt its vital organs would be. As the light built the heads of the hydra started to just roar at me, directly at the light. The bean lanced out again and struck an open mouth, a wall of steam came out as I heard what could only be described as a death scream. I just kept it focused the other heads were now writhing and trying to get away from it's body. I kept the beam focused on one spot as the charge drained. When it was over I saw the entire head and neck that had tried to intercept the beam was gone and now a large black crater was left. I felt something pull off of me as the vision before me closed up and I slide out the way I came. I landed in a heap at Rose's hooves. I tried to move, but, couldn't. I heard the panel seal again as gunfire erupted from outside.

“Stay here Moonlight, they are going to finish that off, the drugs should be out of your system soon from what Aegis said.” I saw Aegis and Topaz moving the energy artillery back to where they had gotten it. “Apparently it is something Aegis got his hands on a long time ago, prewar tech for dealing with the monsters Zebra's had on their side. Said something about melting a Zebra tank in ten seconds flat. Whatever a tank is.”

I tried to smile, I don't know how it looked because I couldn't feel the muscles in my face. I heard the foosh of rockets launching from outside and tried to look, Rose helped move me so I could watch as Ruby and the others fired rockets at the hydra, each one landing home in the hole I opened ripping, it apart from the inside where its scales meant nothing. Even with the impressive regenerative properties of the Hydra the constant barrage of high explosives as well as the massive damage I had done was overwhelming its natural regenerative abilities. I felt something wet on the back of my neck and tried to move a hoof to it, I instead smacked myself in the throat. I really want this stuff to wear off soon. Rose looked at me worriedly.

“Just don't move let your body work it out on its own. Ruby and her group are going to clear the  rest of Oakmare, Topaz is staying here while Aegis goes with them, it will be over shortly.” She smiled and that was enough to reassure me everything was going to be okay.

“Close the doors Rose, or drag me off to the side so we have something between us and the fight.” I felt Rose grab me by the mane and drag me to the side.

I saw Aegis gallop back out and bark orders to everyone, then heard everyone gallop off and the sound of distant gunfire and shouting filled the air. While my body was still recovering, my magic was at full strength so I levitated out the repeater and the revolver, it felt a lot easier than it had in days. I saw Rose pull out her pistol in her mouth.

I continued to listen to the fight for the city as they day dragged on. There was no telling who was winning from here, but, one side was winning as the gunfire dropped off over time. When I could finally feel my own limbs again I checked where something had leaked out of my neck, it was some very strange looking rainbow colored fluid. I put a bandage over the spot and hoped that whoever designed that weapon didn't consider the operator expendable. By the time anypony came to the door I had control of my body again and could walk around half decently. When they came through I nearly put a round through Ruby's head, she and the others were beat up, but, alive. As soon as the last one was through the door and Aegis standing watch of the door with Topaz I rushed to start taking care of the injured. Rose joined me taking clipboards and pages from ruined books going and doing triage for me. I was now very glad for whatever had been given to me in that machine, with my magic completely refreshed I was able to treat their wounds pretty quickly. They had seen some serious fighting, a lot of lodge bullets, broken or fractured bones, all of them were covered in cuts. This had been with all of them wearing decent armor. After a long time of hard work everyone was back on their feet, it took a lot of everything to put them back together. I even had resorted to using the limited healing spell I had on them which seemed to be working better as well.

“Are they okay to fight again?” Aegis asked walking up to me as I rested drinking a sparkle cola.

“Physically they are good to go, but, they are probably exhausted from that fight and their injuries.” I explained before taking another drink. “Give them some stimulants they should be good, but, no food, not if you are going back into a hard fight.”

“Alright, continue to guard the warehouse, we have to secure the wall while it gets patched up.” He then left to gather some things from the medical aisle.

Ruby walked up to me next, “thanks to us putting down that hydra rest of the town got the nerve to fight back against the raiders. Seeing that monster probably scared half the town to death, seeing it die by our hands rallied them. Should have known something was up when we got attacked yesterday. Raiders don't ride in carts unless they are moving from one base to another.” She wiped her brow, “got to say, been more of an adventure than usual this trip.”

“So you usually don't get ambushed by well armed and armored raiders on carts, and don't usually have to deal with magic wielding earth ponies. And you certainly don't have hydra's attacking the town you are staying in regularly?” I said with a grin on my face.

“No, and to be honest, rather it was boring like usual, if you call getting shot at from time to time while on the road boring.” She then pulled her armor back on, “alright folks we got more work to do, so get on your hooves!”

Aegis walked back over and handed out shots to each of the ponies he was taking back out. Without a word they used the shots and got back on their hooves and into their barding. The bit of rest from when I was working on them had done wonders for them, the shots helped more. I watched as they walked back out the door as orange light bathed them from the fires. I walked over to Topaz to see how he was holding up.

“You doing alright Topaz?” I asked as I got close, I started to look him over to see if there were any signs of fatigue.

“It is hard watching them walk out there without me. When the fighting started I wanted to rush off to the rest of them, but, Ruby asked me to take you here and help Aegis.” He didn't move his eyes from the door, keeping his hooves firmly planted on the floor, ready to bite the trigger for his battle saddle at a moments notice.

“Well thank you for not running off on me then,” I said. He was just nervous from the looks of it, and I could understand that, and I turned to check on Rose.

“Moonlight, are you still planning to go to that MASEBS tower?” Rose asked me as I got to her, again the trip to the tower had slipped my mind.

“Honestly I don't know, I will have to see how things look in the morning, at this rate I might see if Ruby is willing to drive us out there when we leave instead.” I gave her a once over, she thought I was eyeing her up and decided to pose. I turned my head fighting the rush of blood to my face and other parts.

“Oh that is good to hear, more time for us to spend in bed then?” She purred at me with that silvery voice of hers.

“Rose, not now, and I wasn't looking at you like that!” Well now I was, “or wasn't, point is, how are you holding up?”

“With you here just fine, I was scared when the fighting broke out. We had rushed straight into it and were busy guiding ponies out from the shelters in the south and moving them to the hotel. I was stunned when I saw the walls alight. Apparently they use that as both a warning to others on their way to the town and as a way to defend.” She was slightly shaking and I put a hoof around her and nuzzled her.

“Don't worry, the raiders played their ace, we took it down. Just relax the town will be secured in a little while.” I gave her a kiss on her muzzle, she looked up at me with tears in her eyes.

“Just stay with me until then, okay?” Her voice was small and frightened, I could only imagine what it was making her so scared.

Then again we had just fought a hydra and she had been outside with probably very little cover as it rampaged south to where they had been.

“Don't worry, I am not going to leave you,” there was no point to leaving we needed to hold this place until Aegis and the others got back then I would go help the injured as best as I could.

I heard gunfire erupt from about where I would place the breach in the wall. I moved to the door to look out, I saw what looked like ponies in heavy metal armor charging through as Aegis was pushing rubble with the help of the twins unicorn magic. I pulled out the repeater and took aim for the one closest to him and fired. I saw the blood of the first would be attacker paint the hooves of Aegis. I quickly pulled the lever with my magic and fired again taking down the second attacker with a shot to his front leg with broke upon his next step sending him sprawling and screaming. I fired another round into his head cleanly hitting through his eyes. Even if he was alive he couldn't move or see. I took a breath that I didn't know I was holding and reloaded quickly.

“Moonlight how is the wall looking?” Called Topaz up to me.

“Good, looks like a few more minutes until it is at least closed up.” I racked the next round in the repeater, “going to sit here and pick off anypony who gets though.”

“Alright, if you see any group of them coming let me know I will mow them down.” He said and I heard him fidget with his battle saddle.

I stood there in the doorway, keeping an eye for anypony who got through the breech. It probably was the longest ten minutes in my life as I felt every part of me tense up watching for any movement. Several times I saw movement and moved to shoot to only recognize it as a member of Ruby's group or a resident of Oakmare come to help. It didn't help to keep hearing bursts of gunfire from all around town. I saw the fires start to be put out to the west as gryphons showed up and started to rain death from upon high. Looked like this was going to get mopped up quickly now. With a number of gryphons over us more of Ruby's group hopped down the wall and started to help push rubble into the breach sealing it. I breathed a sigh of relief and pulled back the repeater and slipped back inside.

“The wall is closed up, and gryphons showed up and are picking off the remaining raiders.” I said as I sat on my haunches and took a deep breath as I felt the tension go out of me. I saw Topaz do the same, he had been standing in the same spot in the same position since we took the hydra down. I felt Rose wrap me in a hug from behind.

“This mean we can go back to the hotel soon, Moonlight?” I could hear the exhaustion in Rose's voice.

“Once Ruby or Aegis say we can. Me and Topaz have this covered so just rest for a bit,” I felt her release me from the hug and watched her go to the armor aisle and lay down behind the empty suit of power armor.

Ruby's group was pulling back to us, the gryphons giving them covering fire from what looked like a good number of raiders. I saw lances of light coming from those raiders. Energy weapons? Where the hay did raiders get energy weapons from? I pulled out my repeater again and pushed open the door as I saw one gryphon turn red and then into glowing ash.

“We got company Topaz, raiders with energy weapons, Ruby is falling back to us!” I called out as I fired and was rewarded with a raiders head splitting like an overripe fruit.

“Alright, pick what you can off, try to pin them down so they can't get close.”

That was easier said than done, the raiders had enough numbers that they just poured forth over any wounded of their own. Aegis was the last to the door and I closed it behind him and ordered Topaz to get ready.

“Moonlight, this way, you are going up on the roof, everypony else keep your guns aimed at the door, I have to get more ammo.” I followed him without question, reloading as I walked.

He pointed me to a ladder that led up to the roof then he headed deeper into the back of warehouse. I climbed as I was told to. Honestly ladders were not easy to climb, but, far better than a long series of stairs. Upon getting to the top I pushed open the hatch and climbed out. The air up here was hard to breath from the acrid smoke coming off the walls. I put on my goggles as quickly as I could and fumbled with the respirator, by the time I had both on my eyesight was so bad from the tears I had to crawl so I wouldn't accidentally fall off the roof. My lungs were also burning, thankfully that was going away faster than my tears thanks to the respirator.

After a few blurry cough filled minutes I made it to the edge of the warehouse. Three of the five gryphons who had been covering Ruby's group as they fell back remained. I took general aim at the crowd which was down to about eight raiders now taking cover. From the marks on the ground and the corpses Topaz and Aegis had laid down some heavy fire and now the rest of these raiders were hiding in cover. Well trying to hide in cover. From my vantage point I had a good number of shots I could take. I took my time just like the gryphons were doing, these raiders were cut off and risked moving. We could wait them out if we wanted. I choose the other path though and pulled the trigger. This was too easy, they couldn't make out my shots from the rest of the gunfire around town, and with being on top of a building with the smoke bellowing around me it would be hard for them to spot me. After the third shot the raiders started to try to find cover against me, as they did the remaining gryphons swooped down and blasted them away leaving none of them alive.

I felt a weight land on top of me and something sharp dug into each of my legs.

“Well what is this, some raider thinks she can pick of my boys?” Said a deep voice above me as I felt the pain in my legs get worse as my skin broke.

“Your boys being the raiders or the gryphons?” I asked using my magic to ready my revolver.

“The gryphons you fool, now then, what limb should I rip off first?”

“I was targeting the raiders,” I turned my head up to see a very powerful male gryphon on top of me pinning my legs with his talons and paws. His tail firmly holding my repeater. “Go down stairs and talk to Aegis he sent me up here to pick off the raiders.”

“Shut up, and don't move.” I felt the weight go off of me as the gryphon leaped off the edge. I heard three more sets of talons land on the roof and the cocking of guns.

“Not going to move just like your boss said to.” I let my magic implode on my revolver that was still resting in its holster.

“Good pony, now lets get a collar on you,” said one of the gryphons as they started to walk towards me.

“Can't do that, that would break your slaver license.” That stopped them dead in their tracks.

“What, seriously, that wasn't in the contract was it?” Contract? As in signed legal agreement contract?

“What do you mean wasn't in the contract?” I asked.

“Shut up you cunt, slap the collar on her now, ask Helgrim when he gets back up here. Probably could sneak off with her anyways, Red Eye always gives a good price for unicorns. Maybe there are a few more that we can grab and no one will notice.” I heard the other two chuckle with him as he walked up to to me and slapped a explosive collar around my neck.

I had lost just my only opportunity to take out these feather brains when I let one get close, now they could see if I tried any magic, and with that pop would go my head. Damn it.

“Well either way one of us will have to carry her, how about this, one who carries her gets her stuff too, sound fair to you two?”

“Yeah sure, says the one with the lightest load and strongest wings. Take the caps for her.” Said the one who had yet to talk. She had a tone of annoyance more than anything else.

Out of the frying pan and into the oven I thought to myself, oh how accurate that phrase was now. The one who had put the collar on me started to remove my gear sorting it and stuffing it into my saddlebags.

“Hey this mare is loaded, got a couple thousand caps still on her and a lot of gear in good condition! Looks like jackpot for me.” Beamed the gryphon above me.

“Oh shut up Bryn, just loot the bitch and get her ready to fly.” Said the annoyed female gryphon.

“You're just upset you didn't have the idea first Astra, or were you hoping it would be a buck?” teased Bryn, I heard Astra just give a humph and took a few steps away.

“You three!” Okay gryphons could fly without a sound apparently which gave me a shock as Helgrim shouted at them, “Get ready to go, we need to meet Slate, take her with us, maybe we can use her as a way to make up for his pet hydra getting killed by her.”

“She said she had protection from slaving,” said Bryn.

“Yeah and they think she is dead, no move your tails and get flying east in two minutes, leave what you can't loot.”

With that I was striped of everything but my pipbuck zero, all that I had put into my former saddlebags and that was used to bind my legs together. Then came the sharp talons as Bryn grabbed a firm hold on my chest.

“Hope you like pain, because this isn't going to be gentle, of course nor will Slate if we end up giving you to him.” Said Bryn as he gave a powerful flap of his wings lifting us from the roof, his talons digging deep into me.

“I am going to surf on your body down to the ground and use your feathers to make a dress for my marefriend.” I growled up at him.

“Can't wait to see you do that.” Bryn said with a smirk.

*                *                *

This wasn't the first time I flew, but it hurt a lot more than the first time, I did however get a good view of the destruction around Oakmare. There was a trail from where the Hydra had come in from and with the smoke cleared on one side I could see that many fleeing raiders had encountered slavers and other ponies on their way back. In the end what was to be a wholesale sacking of Oakmare turned into a slaughter of the raiders. From the few things I had heard all the raiders were part of Slate's group, a apparently very big and very tough stallion. I also gathered from the sounds of it there was more going on than I had thought. Bryn had been yelled at by Helgrim for his loose tongue and told him to make certain to keep me from getting free and let anyone know what was going on.

What was going on from what I could piece together is Red Eye had set up some sort of deal for protecting Oakmare in return for slaves. At the same time Red Eye had brokered a deal with Slate to attack Oakmare and any place else. For what and how they got paid for this I didn't know. I also knew that this Red Eye was taking every slave he could get his hooves on. Apparently he also really liked unicorns a lot to the point of having a personal bonus on their heads. Maybe he was some sort of really powerful raider lord whose way of getting off was doing something to unicorns. I shuddered thinking back to what I had seen when I rescued Rose and the others.

“What's wrong Moonlight, air too cold on you?” Bryn said as he felt me shudder.

“A bit, if I had my barding back I would be just fine though. Nothing like having cold air rushing over you while you are being held by the tail of a gryphon upside down a thousand feet off the ground.” I rolled my eyes, I had gotten used to the blood having gone to my head and my hooves going numb, but, it was a bit chilly.

“Maybe you should figure out how to make fire with your horn then!” Bryn said then swung his tail up and down making me feel ill.

I stayed quiet as did the gryphons for the rest of our flight. I was stunned at what I saw, we were flying to the base of the tower I had been meaning to go to, and there was practically a city built around it. The place was made of various scavenged parts having a large metal wall around it. I had to admit, Slate had a impressive fortress in his hooves. Helgrim fired off a flare gun announcing our arrival and we landed a minute later at the pried open doors of the MASEBS tower. The guards here were wearing heavy metal armor that looked like it was made from gutted Steel Ranger armor. Damn they had to be strong to walk around in that stuff.

“Bryn you stay on the ground floor while we go talk to Slate, don't want that bitch to hear anything.” I saw Helgrim pointing a talon at me.

“Alright sir, I will stay here and entertain myself with our guest. Don't worry she will be in condition to give to Slate if he wants her.” Bryn then smashed me into the floor face first making the whole room spin.

“Good,” and with that Helgrim and Astra walked into the elevator and ascended.

The other gryphon I remembered had stayed back in Oakmare to coordinated dealing with the remaining raiders.

“Well lets have a little fun, you and I,” I hated the grin on Bryn's face.

“Sure what do you want to play, Go Fish, Blackjack, Tarot?” I asked at him with a condescending tone.

“Rock, paper, scissors, win and you go free, lose and you shut up and do as I say.”

“Fine, so I just pick one and you pick yours then we just say what they are?”

He nodded, “on three. One, two, three, PAPER!” he held out his talons with claws spread. “You lose, because ponies can only do rock, pity you don't have fingers.” He grabbed me by my throat and squeezed and I felt myself start to pass out as drops of blood ran down my neck. Damn bastard cheated…

I came to later sore and on the floor, Bryn was sitting on top of me reading one of my books. I also noticed on the table across from us had  my collar sitting on it. The bomb collar was coated in my blood. From where my skin burned he took pleasure in torturing ponies in many ways. He had yet to notice I had woken up and I started to look around the room. The only thing worth note was a terminal and it just happened to be behind us where Bryn wasn't looking. I grabbed it with my magic and floated it above Bryns head, took my time in rotating the screen so it faced Bryn and getting the wire that powered it near his throat. With one simple move I pulled the power cable tight around his throat then smashed the terminal down on his head.

If he had tried to call for help it was wasted as the power cable crushed his throat and then the terminals capacitors discharged into his head. He fell over twitching slightly as he, hopefully, died. I quickly gathered my saddlebags and Bryn's battle saddle. I pulled on the battle saddle and quickly reaquainted myself with how to reload and fire.. I then headed to the elevator in the previous room. From the look of outside it was now evening. I decided not to take the elevator and go with the stairs. I doubted that they wouldn't have someone watching the elevator or someone would notice it getting called.

Taking the stairs had been a bad idea, my body was still under the effects of Buck withdrawal as I made my way to the broadcasting floor. When finally there I cracked the door open to see if anypony was in there. From the layer of dust and the black monitors I would say nopony was. I slide in and quietly closed the door. I checked around for a few minutes before working my way back to the broadcasting room. All I had to do was turn on the broadcast feature and it would be on and I could get out of here. I found the button, same place as before and pressed it, the monitors came alive like last time. I didn't see Homage this time so I guessed she was away at the moment. I decided, since this place is held by raiders, best to turn off the monitors. I powered each of them off and then scanned the room for anything else. Perfect. there was a first aid box like the other tower. Gotta love mass produced buildings, layout is the same every time. I checked it to find that it was unlocked and I opened it. Inside was a intact first aid kit with two extra items. A memory orb, and a letter.

‘To whoever finds this, I am Meadows, I have shut off this tower in response to the Pegasi closing up the sky. I was with the Equestrian armed forces stationed in Hoofington when the world ended. I have walked all this way helping those I could and taking the memories of those about to die. This orb contains some of those memories. Memories that shows why I decided to strike back against the last bit of what is left of our government. A government that failed us and has left pony kind to die here on the surface. Be it the Stables or the cloud curtain, those fuckers left most of us to die on the surface. Since I can't even dent the door on a stable I am doing the next best thing. I am going to take down these towers around Seamane, my home, in hopes that will stop the cloud curtain. And if you are one of those fuckers who abandoned us to die on the surface make certain you watch the memory orb.’

I looked at the memory orb, I was going to view it later, when I felt safe. Whenever that would be again. A shot shattered the window next to me and grazed my cheek. I turned to see Astra hovering in the air outside of the tower.

“So this is where you ran off to you bitch, Slate wants you dead, and I want you dead. So do me a favor and stand still.” She opened fire with my cowboy repeater.

I dodged into the hall and pulled out my revolver. I kicked the door to the stairwell open and started to run up. She would expect me to go down where I could freely run into the raider city and lose her. But, I knew she would get to the ground before me and wait for me there. Instead I had a very bad idea, one that would probably lead me to a very painful and sudden death thanks to gravity. Still liked the idea better than getting ambushed at the door by two heavily armored earth ponies and a gryphon.

Okay, so stairs are always going to be my mortal enemy, drunk or not, I hate them. They go on for far too long and easily outstay their welcome. By the time I reached the top I was physically exhausted but my mind was still fresh. I had managed to not run across any guards or have Astra fly up from the bottom and find me. I opened the door at the highest floor I cared to go to. The door was marked as camera access. As I walked through the room I saw where the cameras that each tower held were housed. I moved outside into the cold air, it had started to rain again. I heard one of the cameras move behind me and I turned to face it. I watched as its lenses moved and I could tell it was focusing on me since I moved in front of it. I smiled and waved, then I leaped off the tower spreading my legs and focusing my telekinesis on myself propelling myself forward as much as possible.

First came distance with horizontal speed, then, I would focus on slowing myself vertically and glide my way to freedom. Without some pony trying to punch me to death and being prepared to do this, it was a lot easier. While it was freezing as the rain and wind stripped me of heat it was manageable. I smiled as I managed to slow my fall as much as I did. Those below me would see nothing against the rainy night sky as I flew. It hit me, this was flying. I may not be able to go up, but, I was, for all intents and purposes, flying. All it took was not falling faster than I moved forward. I then felt talons grab my fore legs and paws on my hind legs and a tail wrap around my throat.

“Thought a little bash over the head would kill me you cunt! Thought you could just fly away from a gryphon! Guess who is going to ride who down to the ground and be used as a pillow!” Bryn yelled into my ears.

I dropped my magic forcing him to take all my weight which made him let go of me besides his tail. I felt my throat getting crushed as I grabbed for his tail with my hooves.

“Oh you rather hang than be my bitch again, too bad!” I felt his tail let go of me and I entered free fall. I pulled down on the trigger for the battle saddle sending bullets up at Bryn, he turned and got out of my line of fire as I coughed. He smashed into my chest stabbing his talons into me completely ignoring my barding and gripping my ribs. I gave him a kick in the stomach trying to knock the wind out of him, it did nothing than earn me a punch to the face with his free talon. I tried grabbing his wings in my telekinesis only to have them easily move out of my grasp.

“All out of tricks? Give up and I will teach you a few more fun ones before we toss you to Red Eye!” He cackled over the wind his voice sharp with malice.

I to think and say a snarky comeback, but, just succeeded at rasping and glared up at him, I turned to look at where we were going, he wasn't taking me back to the raiders we were flying north towards Colt, the Equestrian Heartland, towards Fillydelphia. What, was he going to fly me all the way? Then once in Fillydelphia sell off my stuff to get me patched up as well as himself then enjoy my 'company' for a few days before selling me to Red Eye directly? Either way I wasn't going to find out if I could do anything about this situation. I noticed where his talons dug into me burned like crazy. Okay I have to do this now or I am as good as dead. I turned my head and grabbed my revolver in my mouth and shoved it under his beak.

“Huh, really, you that crazy bitch, you would shoot me and fall to your death with me?” I stared up at him not moving a muscle. “You are, even though it gets you nothing, you are fucking nuts. Well then just do it. You know what is going to happen otherwise. Or maybe you are interested in where this will all lead. Maybe you wouldn't mind getting to see Fillydelphia.”

I struggled in his grasp again, I wanted to kill him, but, I was far too weak now to live through the fall. I could feel the black seeping into my vision and I holstered my revolver. He wasn't going to kill me yet, he knew it, and I knew it. I had personally hurt him and he wanted his revenge to be slow and painful. I would get plenty of time to get free.

“Good choice, now then just let me do the flying and you will live through this.” Bryn said, his grin annoying me.

“Only because I shoot you and I know I won't survive. Trust me Bryn, hope we are not on the ground or alone when I wake up.” I held onto my consciousness as long as I could, I felt the holes in my chest close as he forced a healing potion down my throat and held me by my legs with his tail. The next few hours would pass in silence as I tried my best to pay attention to the geography for my return trip.

Footnote: Level Up!

New Perk Added: Toughness; after getting beaten up by what the wasteland has to offer your skin seems to be tougher, or maybe that is just your nerves deadening. Whatever the case you are now more resistant to all forms of physical and magical damage. Note this does not affect resistance to taint, radiation, or poison.

Skill Note, Speech 50, Barter 50.