Fallout: Equestria- The Road Home

by MarcDaJohnson

Chapters

CH1: The Ambush
CH2: When It Rains, It Pours
CH3: Discovery
CH4: Reclaim
CH5: Time For Action
CH6: Recollection
CH7: A Night On The Town
CH8: Hidden

CH1: The Ambush

Fallout: Equestria

The Road Home

Written by MarcDaJohnson

Edited by QuackmanBrony

Chapter one: The Ambush

"The unexamined life is not one worth living."

Death. What a strange concept to grasp. All things that exist will eventually die and fade into the library of history. Could it be that a ponies sole purpose in life is just to eventually die? At one time, the land of Equestria thrived and life was good for not just everypony, but every creature big and small. But as I speak to you today the land has changed, a twisted shell of its former self. The seeds of hatred were sown and sprang into full bloom, speeding Equestria toward the end of days. Relations between nations became stressed as the lands natural resources dwindled. Before long, ponies clashed with the zebras, fighting with firearms and in hoof-to-hoof combat. The war raged and each side suffered massive casualties. Ponies worked nonstop to find an edge to stop the madness, as did the zebras. It all ended in a hail of magical abominations. Megaspells by the ponies, Balefire from the zebras. The pegasi closed up the sky and left their wingless brothers behind. After all the bloodshed, all the fighting and pollution that followed the Great War, the land fell silent and started to die.

But neigh that was not the end of Equestria's story, it was a new beginning, a chance to write a new chapter in the book of time. Massive underground bunkers called Stables were built and available to rich ponies and ones that gave up everything just for a spot. Their descendants would right the wrongs they had done and restore the land to its former glory, and not repeat their mistakes . It saddens me to say from atop this jagged clifftop the land has not healed and the hate and corruption that killed the world still burns bright to this very day.

I spied down the scope of my hunting rifle I bought back in New Appleloosa at Absolutely Everything. It was a quaint like store run by a mute ghoul pegasus named Ditzy Doo who seemed nice enough. She even gave me a copy of The Wasteland Survival Guide that had already proved quite useful. I would have missed her store completely if my employer hadn’t recommended stopping by and checking out her wares. He said to mention his name for a discount as his company worked with hers on numerous occasions. After leaving the stable, I was able to find work with The Crimson Courier Service. I was given a small package to deliver to a mare living on the outskirts of Ponyville in a red shack. He warned me that the area was crawling with raiders and to stock up on ammo and medical supplies before I made the journey, and boy was he right about that.

At the foot of the ridge, a group of raiders had set up camp. They had fortified their position with makeshift cover and defenses to protect from all angles. I noted that most were lightly armed; small caliber rifles, pistols, and shotguns were their main defense and were sporting light armor that looked like patchwork from various different sets. At that moment I saw a group of heavily armored bucks with rocket launchers and miniguns appear out of the main building. They were followed by a pony in some sort of power armor that immediately started barking orders to the rest of the camp. It appeared that this pony was the leader of the operation and was not to be fucked with. Then I noticed at the top of camp they had a mounted heavy machine gun that was very well hidden and had a mesh draped over the position to further hide itself from above. It was so well hidden that I would have missed it if not for a raider going back and forth with boxes of high caliber ammo to the emplacement. It struck me odd that raiders would have such heavy ordnance and a well-fortified base. Something big was about to go down and I knew I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of those rockets. It was getting dark so I decided to make camp on the ridge and move out in the morning not wanting to be attacked in the pitch dark.

I switched on my Pipbucks radio to see if there were still places out there that were broadcasting. I was greeted by the sound of some strange DJ giving their nightly report. “Good evening Wastelanders, it’s DJ Pon-3 with your nightly news! Reports coming in state that the area around Ponyville is swarming with raiders more than usual, so if you don’t need to be there, stay away. For those of you living under a rock, or maybe a stable, there’s a new faction out roaming the wastes. A group of steel rangers have defected and started up Applejack’s Rangers. These guys are devoted to protecting ponies rather than hoarding technology. These are the good guys so if you see them out wandering around or fighting raiders give’em a hand, I’m sure they’ll appreciate it. You can tell them from the Steel Rangers by the red markings on their sets of power armor. In other news, it looks like another stable has opened its doors. You heard me right, Stable 23 has opened up and reports show that two bucks have left the stable and are wandering the wastes as we speak. I don’t know what to make of them yet, but I think we can expect some big things from these two. That’s all we have for tonight so stay safe and stay classy Equestria.”

Damn. I hadn’t been out for two weeks and I was already famous. Whoever this Pon-3 guy is, he obviously has spies everywhere to keep tabs on the wasteland. Trying not to think about it too much I took out a box of sugar bombs and a copy of Zebra Infiltration Tactics I bought back at Ditzy,s to occupy my mind till I fell asleep.

*** *** ***

I awoke early in the morning to the sound of explosions and machine gun fire that shook the ground I slept on. I peered over the ridge to see what was going on down there. The firefight was raging below. It was hard to make out exactly what was going on down below besides each group hurling Rocket Propelled Grenades and machine gun fire at each other. I sighted in on the mystery group and saw that they were wearing power armor with the markings that the DJ spoke of. I immediately knew whose side I was on and readied my hunting rifle to start influencing the battle. I decided that the heavy machine gun nest was probably the main threat to the rangers. I aimed down my rifle’s scope and found the machine gun nest and took aim at the gunners face. The bullet hit one of the sand bags insulating the gunner. I readjusted my scope and prepared for the same shot. Damn. The shot went over his head by about 6 inches and he realized how lucky he just got, I saw it in his face. He continued to lay down suppressing fire on the rangers and did so quite effectively. I made my final adjustment and slowly pulled the trigger. The round flew fast and true towards my target and hit the gunner square in the face. The .308 round completely liquefied his head and left a huge red stain on the wall behind him. Some raiders just don’t know how to quit when they’re ahead. Haha did you see what I did there?

With the heavy gunner gone, the rangers were able to start pushing through the raider’s lines of defense. The battlefield was a mess of mutilated corpses and empty shell casings. Both sides were losing combatants but the rangers were clearly dominating with the machine gun down. Rockets whirred and mortars fell destroying cover and raiders alike. I watched for opportunities to eliminate raiders in the small gaps of time where the battlefield wasn’t covered in smoke. The battle appeared to be won with only 3 raiders left when I noticed something. The group of armored bucks I saw yesterday hadn’t been in the battle. At that moment the group burst out of the main building and proceeded to fire their payloads at the rangers. It became clear to me what was happening. The rangers had pushed into the camp while the reinforcements moved in behind them blocking their escape. The group of rangers had suffered major losses and been trimmed down from 15 to 8 and I watched in horror as the reinforcing raider group contained almost 20 small arms ponies. I did what I could to take down the reinforcing group. Bang. Hit. Bang. Hit. I rained down a lead shit storm on the group and in all killed 7 of them.

I looked around the camp to get a sense of how the battle was going. I looked at the ridge parallel to my position. I hadn’t scanned the ridge during the battle and was about to pay for it. I saw the flash of an enemy scouts binoculars and knew this was about to be bad. I tried to silence him before he could alert the rest of them but it was too late. He rose up and screamed “SNIPER!” and pointed in my direction before my bullet ripped his heart out his backside. The group of armored bucks looked right up at my position and the ‘buck not to be fucked with’ just smiled right at me. The group shot about 20 rockets in all toward me and they all hit within about 10-13 feet of me. The blasts flung me back against the rock face and smashed my head really hard. I felt the blood streaming down the side of my head and the world started to get darker and darker. I knew this wouldn’t end well.

*** *** ***

So I guess its time for some answers and you deserve them. How is this fresh out the stable buck so good with a rifle? Why does it seem like I know what I’m doing? Why did I leave the Stable? Well it all started back when I was a little colt back in Stable 23. My name is Crack Shot and I was born as a dark blue unicorn with a two-tone mane of green and aquamarine. In the wasteland this color combination screams ‘shoot me in the face’ but in the stable it was halfway normal. Stable 23 was built as a refuge for Equestrias greatest scientists and wartime generals making all of us descendants of them.

In the first couple years of school we learned basic stuff like writing, math, and history. When we got our cutie marks they were either to deal with science or combat and we were separated from the other group. We were allowed 3 hours a day to mingle with the other group and just have a little fun in the recreation area. When I got mine I was so excited. Mine appeared as two .50 caliber bullets crossing halfway down the base. My dad told me the meaning of my cutie mark after I got it. “ The first one was to get your bearings and the second was to blow them back to Hell.” By them he meant zebras; he still carried the hatred for their race, but I found it irrelevant as the war was over 200 years ago.

Once we were separated, we began radically different programs of study. The original Overmare was a smart one. She realized that whenever the stable was opened the outside probably wouldn’t be very nice. The ponies in the science division worked on computers and developing medicines to help us live a better life inside the stable. They also did experiments on radiation in a sealed off part of the stable to ensure it didn’t effect the stable. She ordered the science and maintenance ponies to develop a full virtual reality program to simulate combat operations for the combat group. The machine put us in a stasis pod and transported us to a virtual battlefield where we would be arranged onto random teams and would fight it out to the death. At the beginning we would visit an armory to gear up a discuss tactics for the upcoming battle. The winners were rewarded with extra bits to better gear up for the next battle. All the weapons handled true to life and had similar recoil and kick. When you were shot the system would administer a shock to your body, motivating you to not fuck up again. Obviously with how intense of a simulator that this was, rivalries were born. My personal rival was a young buck named Cherry Bomb or as I liked to call him ‘Captain Dickhead’. His coat was cherry red with a mane of black and red and his cutie mark was an explosion, go figure. In a straight firefight I would work him over everyday of the week but that wasn’t his style, he was a coward and would hide behind tripwires and cleverly placed mines. We constantly went at it and if we were on the same team we couldn’t work together to save our lives. When outside the simulation we would learn about the inner workings of our guns, how to repair them with spare parts, how to perform basic first aid for the field, and tactics to employ to outsmart and outgun your opponents.

During recreation time I spent most of my time hanging out with a buck about my age by the name of Lockout. He was a stout unicorn buck with a creme coat with a matching creme and grey mane. His cutie mark was a test tube and a computer with lines of code on the screen. His skills matched his name by having an uncanny knack for getting into a terminal on his last try, and if he was locked out he could find a way back in. It was truly amazing to me. We spent our time chasing the bad mares of stable 23 around and exchanging stuff we’d learned in our classes. I taught him basic shooting skills and how to repair armor and guns with different parts. He had a lot more to contribute being a scientist and all. He showed me different tricks and tips on getting into locked terminals and informed me about backing out before you get locked out, which wasn’t a problem for him. He showed me more advanced techniques for first aid but being a combat pony I couldn’t learn the major healing spells that they were teaching them. He warned me about the different drugs and reactions that they can have when taken together but assured me with moderation they can help you out of a tight situation. I valued these talks and knew that if I ever got out of this place, I'd need all the help I could get.

When I was about 14, my dad told me I would have a chance to leave the stable when I got a little older. I jumped so high that I almost hit my head on the ceiling and commenced to run around my room screaming in joy. Dad told me to calm down and not to tell anyone. He explained that the Overmare periodically sent out reconnaissance teams to check on the state of things in the outside world. He said it was against protocol to tell the young ones about it but felt I would work harder to get on one of the teams if I was aware of them. He warned me that of the teams they had sent about 15% actually returned but the information they provided for the stable was invaluable. Finally I would have a chance to go topside and breath the fresh, irradiated air and finally figure out what was really out there. As for why I actually left the stable that’s a story for a different day. Beside it looks like I’m coming to…

*** *** ***

I awoke on the side of the ridge lightly secured to a military cot. I had some thing over my face but there were holes for my eyes and mouth so I could breath. It was quite an alien feeling, like I’d been mummified with healing bandages. I looked around to see that all of my stuff was still here unlooted so I was pretty sure which side was victorious. I got up and pulled out some more sugar bombs and had a good breakfast. I then noticed a note had be left for me near my belongings.

Dear Mysterious Stranger,

This is Captain Star Bright of Applejack’s Rangers. After seeing the raiders direct their fire towards you we came to investigate what they were shooting at after the battle. We found you pretty banged up so our medic took a look and determined you just had a minor concussion and a flesh wound. She fixed you up with some of our healing bandages and left you the cot to rest on. By now the bandages have done their job and you can remove them. After further inspecting your camp we realized what a major role you had in the battle and would like to speak with you. When you come too, head down the ridge to the main building of the raider camp. We will be inside waiting.

Note: level up Guns(50)
Perk added: Sniper- For some reason you enjoy seeing pony heads explode. You receive a 10% accuracy bonus when aiming for the head

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Stats
Strength: 6
Perception: 7
Endurance: 5
Charisma: 6
Intelligence: 5
Agility: 6
Luck: 5

Tag Skills
Guns
Lockpick
Explosives

CH2: When It Rains, It Pours

Chapter Two: When It Rains, It Pours

“I don’t want to set the world on fire, I just want to start a flame in your heart”

I began to remove the bandages that were covering my face while my brain proceeded to do back flips inside my skull. The head wound I was recovering from was causing my head to pound viciously. I’d stopped back at the bar in New Appleloosa where I shared a drink with a cute young mare. We exchanged stories and just had a good time drinkin’ Wild Pegasus whiskey and getting away from the wasteland; if only for a couple hours. She gave me a pack of mint-als and said they’d help with the hangover in the morning. I slide the pack out of my saddlebag and popped one out hoping they would help with the pounding in my head and I felt the effects almost immediately. I felt like I was on top of the world. I felt like I could go to any shop in the wastes and have them pay me for their wares. With this new burst in energy I decided it was time to break camp and see what these rangers wanted. I packed up my bedroll, food, and other supplies that I’d taken out the night before and started to make my way down the ridge.

I reached the bottom and saw just how much carnage had ensued while I was out. All around me were mutilated carcasses and severed limbs strewn out across the battlefield. Those rocket launchers weren’t a joke and the raiders learned that the hard way. I scavenged what I could from the bodies that were still intact. My labor bore some 9mm ammo, two health potions, some Dash and an old prewar M.R.E.. Most of the weapons I found were completely useless, which was typical of raiders. I wasn’t sure if they just didn’t care about the condition of their weapons or they were too stupid to realize that they needed maintenance to function properly. It looked like they were getting jacked up on Stampede to try and outgun the rangers with their inferior weaponry.

I stepped inside the main building that was previously the base for the raider camp. I had taken two steps in the door and was greeted by a .38 special being pressed against my temple. The mare holding the pistol let out a sigh of relief and lowered the pistol.

“Sorry about the whole ‘gun to the head’ thing. You never know who gonna walk through the door and try to kill the whole squad.” The mare before me had full power armor on but no helmet. Her coat was a bright baby blue with a short chopped golden mane. “The civilian has arrived!” She shouted to her boss who was back deeper in the building.

“Well stop messin’ around and send him in,” he shouted back.

I walked in to find a buck in power armor with his helmet removed. His coat was brown with a dusty darker brown mane. He steadily puffed on a large cigar and the smell it gave of was very pungent. He stared at me with a pair of aviator sunglasses that shined brightly and showed my reflection. He sat behind an old desk that had an assortment of pre-war junk that obviously wasn’t his.

“Well if it isn’t the buck of the hour. Come on in and have a seat. I’ve been itchin’ to talk to you about the battle yesterday. I’m Captain Star Bright of Applejack’s Rangers. What’s your name, son?

“Crack Shot Sir,” I responded.

“Crack Shot eh? Well the name fits. That was some mighty fine shootin’ you did out there. Your cover fire most likely won the battle out there. That heavy machine gun had us pinned down with no way out without accepting heavy casualties. I’d sit here and thank ya all day but I’ve got a couple questions for ya.”

“Shoot”

“Why did ya help us out? I’ve never seen ya around and I know folk don’t just go around fightin’ other ponies’ battles for em.”

“Well I was listening to the radio last night and heard from this Pon-3 guy that y’all were the good guys and as far as I’m concerned anyone that’s takin’ down raiders is good with me,” I replied.

“Well we’re mighty thankful for the support. It’s not often that somepony will lend a helpin’ hoof. We were really gettin’ shit on out there.” He proceeded to pull out a bottle of scotch from the ragged desk he sat behind. ”Scotch?” he asked.

“Sure I’ll have one,” I replied.

I reached in my bag and got out a pack of Mareboro Menthols and lit one up. For the next two hours we drank good scotch and shot the shit. The buck explained the squad’s presence in the area and informed me of some of the natural dangers in the region. They had been hearing numerous reports of raiders traveling to the nearby towns and causing a lot of trouble. I enjoyed being able to relax and not constantly looking over my shoulder.

“As much as I’d love to sit here and get drunk all day, we have some business to deal with,” the buck said grimly. “My terminal technician was able to hack the numerous terminals in this building. It appears as though the leader of their group was keeping a log of the operations out of this base. This camps main function was to find and eliminate all couriers that were passing through the area. As of yesterday they had found 5 couriers in the region. Apparently they had not found what they were looking for on the five they had found and had orders to remain in the area. Their boss was looking for a package that was real important. 20,000 caps important.”

“Well I guess I’m pretty lucky that y’all came through and took care of them. I wouldn’t have had a chance if I’d run into them myself,” I said back.

“Well you’re not out of the woods yet. The terminals show that there are two more checkpoints on the way to Ponyville. If you don’t mind me asking what exactly are you delivering,” he asked.

“Couriers Honor. I’m not allowed to open the package to see. It’s a little rule that the courier companies enforce very harshly. The company put a protection spell on the package that will kill anyone that opens the package except for the sender and receiver. The only way I can open the package is if the recipient is dead.”

“Well whatever it is their boss wants it. Wants it real bad.”

“Yep that’s the life of a courier, delivering shit that you have no idea what it is and having ponies hunt you down to take it from you. It’s not an easy job but somepony’s got to do it.”

“Isn’t that the truth, but hey what are ya gonna do. Life wouldn’t be as funny without dodging a couple bullets here and there. But there was another issue I wanted to discuss with you. As you saw yesterday, we took heavy casualties in the battle. We lost a lot of good ponies and our fighting force has been hit hard. We’re heading in the same direction as you and were wondering if you wanted to tag along. I don’t have the authority to make you a member of the Applejack's Rangers but I can put in a good word with the elder for you. We could really use a buck with your skill sets. You’re a good shot and can operate alone to provide support to larger groups. As always we know cash is king. We can offer you 500 caps and something real nice for that rifle of yours. So what do ya say, ya in or out?” the captain proposed.

“I’m in, when do we move out.”

“We’re gonna load up and move out in two hours. You can go take a look at the terminals if ya want or get some rest; we won’t head out without ya. As I promised here’s that part I promised for your payment.” He pulled out a small box from his desk and tossed it to me. I looked in inside to find a custom bolt for my hunting rifle. The design was a dark grey that complemented the brown of the rifles finish. The piece was fluted to make the bolt slide through into the chamber smoother and reduce the likelihood of it jamming.

*** *** ***

I wandered off to another room a lit up a Mareboro and got to work on my rifle. Thank Celestia for my training otherwise I’d have no idea what I was doing and come to think of it would probably already be dead. I replaced the bolt, put the rifle back together and slipped it back over my shoulder. The room I had occupied had a terminal sitting on a desk similar to the one in the captain’s room. I sat down at the terminal and decide to take a peek. I found the logs the captain spoke of. There was 4 files, Dark Matters log day 1-4. I opened the first log and began to read.

Day1:

Boss sent us out to set up camp and wait for some fucking courier to make a delivery through the area. We might have better luck if he didn’t give me a group full of fucking retards to catch this buck. I’d much rather be getting drunk and fucking those whores over in Flank.

Day2:

One of the search parties came back with two couriers today. They recovered some packages from the bodies but when we opened them they were full of junk. Some fucking bobby pins, a box of detergent, and a toy dinosaur. Wonder why someone would pay them to deliver a bunch of junk.

Day3:

MORE FUCKING JUNK. They retrieved 3 more couriers and once again they had a bunch of random shit in their packages. This must be some kind of game that the courier company is playing. They were brought back alive so we decided to have a little fun with them. We gang-raped one and made the other two watch. When the whole camp was through we sawed the mares head off real nice and slow. By that time the other two were begging to die. We took the second one and shot it up with some ultra-dash and cut all his limbs off. He survived about 30 seconds afterwords and suffered every second of it. The last buck got of the easiest. We covered him in gas and told him to start runnin’. He got about 30 feet when he got hit with my flare gun. Man I love seein’ somepony light up like a Christmas tree. Wonder where that phrase comes from and on top of that what the fuck is a Christmas tree? Ahh who cares its unimportant.

Day4:

Haven’t heard a word from the search team Alpha today. Everything has been real quiet. Bravo team came back with word that a group of rangers was heading our way. Better get ready for their arrival. I got something planned that will ensure our victory. But those rangers are tough, better make sure the machine gun is loaded and ready to go. Can’t take any chances.

*** *** ***

I rummaged through the old building trying to find some useful salvage. One room near the back of the building had about 25 containers in it so I decided to head in there first. To my dismay the majority of the boxes were empty. My diligence paid off when I opened a grey footlocker near the back of the room. What a score! I found a 9mm pistol that has in decent condition and 40 rounds to go with it. The locker also contained two healing potions and a sweet combat knife. I gathered the new found loot and returned to the Captain’s room for the team briefing before we moved out.

I walked in to see the three remaining rangers seated in front of the captain. He had a map of the area posted on the wall that had a lot of different trails and rally points noted on it. These guys really knew their way around so it was good I decided to tag along. I took a seat beside the baby blue mare and gave my full attention to the captain.

“Good, you’re here. Now let’s get started.” He said. “Let me introduce the squad. This here crazy son-of-a-bitch is Rigby. He’s our squad’s demolitions expert and one hell of a cook. You’ve already met Golden, our team navigator. Little word of advice, don’t get on her bad side. And last but not least we have our team medic, SSgt Briggs.”

Both of the bucks he introduced were wearing full power armor so it was impossible to tell what they actually looked like. I'm sure I’ll find out soon enough.

“Alright so here’s the plan. Me, Rigby, and Briggs are going to start heading north from our current position. We’ll have about 5 hours til the sun goes down and will have to set up camp. Crack Shot, you’re with Golden on this one. Your jobs are to follow us up by about a 100 yards and keep in radio contact with us at all times.” I looked to my left to Golden and she gave me a faint little smile. She might be feeling a little guilty for putting a gun to her future partner’s head.

“If there are more camps like this one as the terminal states, we need to know about them before we walk right into another trap. We will regroup a rally point alpha and plan the next leg of our course from there. You two need to stay hidden if possible and if shit hits the fan you need to be close enough to do something about it. Any questions?”

“No sir,” the group of three replied back.

“Well lets saddle up and move on out.”

*** *** ***

Our group moved outside and started out towards Ponyville. The landscape was harsh and barren, not leaving many places to stay hidden. Golden and I moved in unison stalking the main group and trying to keep a low profile. We stuck to the ridge line and kept an eye on the sky. After about thirty minutes of walking, I started getting the feeling that we were being watched. Golden radioed Alpha squad and told them to hold up. With Golden acting as my spotter we scanned the surrounding area and checked the overlying mountains. Everything appeared to be calm but I couldn’t shake the feeling of eyes burning through my backside. After clearing the area we gave Alpha the all clear and we proceeded on our way. The next hour was rather monotonous. We arrived at rally point alpha with the rest of the squad to discuss our next move. In the distance were small puffs of smoke drifting over the ridge. Captain sent me and my partner up the ridge to get a better look at the situation. To our surprise the source was coming from a small group of raiders around a campfire. Looked to be six of them if they didn’t have someone else hidden from view. Beside them were heavy metal cages but I couldn’t see what was in them. I asked Golden to see what was in those cages as her binoculars had a high magnification setting. While looking down at the campsite she suddenly gasped.

“What’s up, what do you see.” I said.

She looked at me with a face that was less fear or surprise but more of disgust. She didn’t say a word and just handed the binoculars to me. I peered through them and the sight I beheld produced a gasp similar to hers. They were cooking a slab of meat on a spit over the fire. The cages beside them were filled with fillies and colts, two of each. Beside that were two small skeletons that had been stripped of their flesh very recently. We both looked at each other and no words were said. We both knew what was going on. They were eating them.

“Come in Alpha Squad.” She whispered.

“Alpha Squad here, what do ya got?”

“Alpha we’ve got a group of six raiders on the other side of the ridge. They’ve got innocents sir. Two colts, two fillies. Advise immediate termination of all hostiles.”

“Roger that, see any hole in their defenses?”

“Yes sir, keep heading north along the treeline. After half a klick. hook a right into the ditch. Looks like they’ve been shootin’ up so you should be able to get real close without alerting them.”

“Roger that, we’re oscar mike to the ditch. Hold your fire til we get into position. ”

We waited patiently on the ridge while Alpha team moved into position. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. The raiders sat by the glowing fire enjoying their grotesque feast. I lit up a Mareboro and kept a steady aim on the group feeling sicker the more I watched. I’d seen some fucked up shit in my two weeks out but this redefined fucked.

“Man these little ones is good eatin’. Nice and tender.” One raider said to another.

“Yea I just wish there was more to go around. They barely fill you up,” He responded.

“Well why don’t you go get one for us to split. We’ll find more out there tomorrow.”

The buck stumbled to his feet and started to make his way over to the cages. This is about to get ugly. He picked up an iron pipe on his way to the cages and proceeded to bang it on the metal bars.

“Here pony pony pony.” He smiled the most fucked, psycho smile in history. “Ain’t nobody gonna hurt you, we just wanna play.” The buck opened the first cage and grabbed one of the fillies by the neck and dragged her back towards the fire.

“Alpha alpha, come in!” Golden shouted into the radio.

“Alpha here, whats up?” The captain chirped back.

“They’re about to kill another filly. We need to take the shot NOW!”

“Negative Bravo, we’re not in position yet.”

“God damnit I’m not going to watch that filly die. That will not happen.”

“Alpha will be in position in 15 seconds. Try to hold off but if I comes to that take the shot.”

“Alright Crack Shot, game time. You need to make this shot count. We won’t get it again.” Golden relayed to me.

“Let’s do this. I’ll take the one with the filly and you take the mare with the grenade rifle.”

“Got it,” she replied.

Golden reached into her bag and pulled out a semi-auto assault rifle with a really nice scope. All the parts were black on black and came with a folding bipod and collapsible stock. Man that was a sexy death machine. I’ll have to run by Ditzy’s and see if she has one.

I gripped my hunting rifle and positioned my crosshair right on that wretched bucks face. I was gonna thoroughly enjoy this. As I watched the buck produced a large kitchen knife. A single bead of sweat ran down my face. He lifted the knife above his head and brought it down fast. He got about halfway down when my hunting rifles barrel flashed and my round was on its way. It soared, cutting through the hot air and made impact directly on his lower jaw. The force of the impact ripped his lower jaw clean off. Immediately the barrel beside me went hot. Golden let 5 rounds out of her rifle and I watch as four of them torn through her mark. The rest of the band looked around trying to locate their assassins but I think those hard drugs were making that a little difficult. As their leader dropped, the filly he was holding fell to the ground and hit it running. Another buck chased after her screaming obscenities. I adjusted my scope in front of him and when he entered the scope I slowly squeezed the trigger. The round struck him right under the kneecap and took him to the ground. He pulled a syringe from his pocket and stabbed himself with it in the thigh. He let out a devilish scream and struggled to get to his feet. Not today bitch. I fired my third shot and watched as it smacked him right in the middle of the head. Combat drugs or not, its kinda hard to keep fighting when your brains shoot out of your skull like party streamers.

Out of the ditch I see Alpha squad arrive and start blanketing the camp with automatic fire. The rescued filly had returned to the cages and was freeing her friends. The remaining three raiders retaliated against Alpha by chucking grenades towards their position. They were forced to leave the ditch and find new cover. Alpha team made a b-line for a small utility box and took cover. I watched as a mare pulled out two glowy green grenades and pulled the pins. Before she could get rid of them Golden’s rifle rounds tore into her torso and legs. She drops to the ground by her buddies. The two remaining bucks saw the grenades and made a half ass attempt to dive out of the way but it was way too late. The grenades shook the ground and made a loud ’wwwrrrhhh’ sound. They produced a beautiful green explosion and the only thing left of the two was a little bit of ash and bones.

“Alpha team, this is Bravo. Everything looks good down there. Ready to move in.”

“Roger that Bravo. Come on down. We’re gonna make camp a klick west of here”

“Roger”

We slowly made our way down the ridge to meet up with alpha team. By the time we reached the campsite Rigby was looting the bodies of the fallen raiders. All together we found 4 healing potions, some 9mm ammo, and a couple shotgun shells. The fillies and colts we freed were nowhere to be found. Must have headed back to their own community. I’d heard there was a band of young’ens that had made their own little gang to keep themselves safe. I think he said they called them The Crusaders. I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting them but I’m sure I’ll bump into them sooner or later.

The air was full of the aroma of fresh gunpowder and a weird chemical smell. I assumed that it must have been due to the glowy explosives. The smell was quite familiar. I remembered it from the science lessons that Lockout had taught me back in the stable. Most of his lessons went straight over my head but chemistry was a field I could really sink my teeth into.

The ranger squad rallied around the campfire and were exchanging high hoofs and messin’ around. The Captain pulled out his map and started plotting our next course. He scribbled down a note on the sidebar about the camp we ran into and pulled out some fancy navigation tools. It seemed kinda redundant to use a paper map when I had a pip-buck.

“Why don’t we just chart the course on my PipBuck,” I asked.

“Well that would be a good idea but pip-buck don’t think tactically about the routes they chose. You put a marker on that thing and it finds you the quickest route there. Most of the time quickest is also the most dangerous. You wouldn’t want to go walkin’ through manticore country to shave an hour off your trip, would you? ” He replied slowly puffing on his cigar.

“Yea since you put it that way, no. This might sound stupid but what’s a manticore?”

“They’re some bad mother fuckers. They’re some vicious creatures from before the war. They have the body of a lion with a scorpion’s tail. And on top of that the fuckers have wings and a real bad attitude problem. You see a group of them your best bet is to turn around and go another way. Unless your packin’ some serious heat if you know what I mean. ” He replied.

“Well in that case I’m gonna stay the fuck away from them. Is there any way to mark those places on my map,” I asked.

“Yea sure let me see it.” I held my PipBuck out over the map while the captain pressed a couple buttons on the main screen. A scanning animation ran represented by the pip buck looking around with a magnifying glass. These little animations always entertained me while I waited for it to process things. The pip buck icon disappeared and it alerted me to four new markers on my map. Two of them were for manticores and the other two were for hydras and feral ghouls. “I plotted our new course on your map too in case we get separated so you’ll know where to meet back up with us. On that note let’s start heading on out. ”

We sat out on our small trip to where we were gonna sleep for the night. Pretty uneventful trip. Saw a couple over sized geckos but they weren’t any match to our group. I pulled out my 9mm pistol and was about to fire when Golden grabbed the barrel of my pistol.

“Don’t shoot them, you’ll ruin the hide. Use your knife or a big stick or something.” She cautioned.

I had never seen such a graceful dance of death than the one Golden proceeded to do. She charged head on into the pack of four and pulled out her combat knife. She used a backhand slash on the first ones neck spewing blood all around. Immediately she spun around and slammed the knife deep into the lower torso of another one and ripped upwards instantly killing it. The third and fourth geckos came at her in unison. With her magic she pulled out five small blades and flung them towards the left gecko. The blades sunk deep into its hide and only poked out by about an inch. The last and largest of the geckos was in full sprint towards her. About 5 feet before impact Golden spun around and gave this gecko the hardest buck to the face I’d ever seen. The gecko was tossed to the ground and was stunned but not out. Golden jumped on top of the gecko and stabbed it multiple times in the neck and chest. Finally the beast stopped squirming and she sat up and let out a sigh of relief. That was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

“See, piece of cake,” she muttered with an exhausted look on her face. Her face and mane were covered in blood. She slowly trotted over to the third gecko and retrieved her knives. “Aright guys, come load these bad boys up. We’re eatin’ like kings tonight! ”

The rest of us loaded a gecko on to our backs and started back up on our way. We reached our destination after about ten minutes. We all dropped our bags and started setting up camp. Briggs started constructing a makeshift shelter for if it started to rain. Rigby got the fire going and we all gathered round for a little relaxation before bed.

“Hey Crack, you wanna learn something?” Golden inquired.

“Sure, why not?”

“Ight bring your knife over here. I’m gonna show you how to skin a gecko. First you gotta make a cut down here. Then you cut upwards to right here. Then we get a real good grip and start striping it off. It’s real important to take your time and do it right cause nopony’s gonna buy a shitty pelt. Now we just stretch it out with these sticks and let it dry. Simple as apple pie.”

I followed her instructions and harvested the pelt of my gecko. Made a couple little mistakes but nobody would really notice them. Might cost me a few caps but you gotta start somewhere right?

“Now that we’ve skinned em now comes the fun part. This meat right here is really good. With this breed all the meat is fair game but some of the other breeds aren’t so nutritious. There’s poison sacks you need to watch for and if you hit them you completely ruined the rest of the meat. ”

“Ight guys, let’s get cooking!” The Captain shouted.

We roasted the gecko steaks we had prepared over the open fire. I felt a strong sense of pride between this group, they were out there helping ponies when most are worried about only themselves. We played around and cracked jokes for a couple hours and had a great time.

“So Golden, where did you learn to fight like that. They might have just been geckos but the way you dispatched them was nothing short of amazing.” I asked.

“Well growing up in the wastes is hard and bullets don’t just fall out of the sky. My family comes from a long line of premium sword smiths. The old techniques for crafting those perfect blades have been lost but the art of swordplay has endured. My father taught me everything I know and passed down some well-kept secrets. Hell, play your cards right and I might show ya a thing or two. ” She said in a playful tone.

“That sounds good. I’m gonna keep you to that.” I shot back returning her playfulness.

On that note everypony decided it was time to get some rest so we headed over to the shelter. I pulled out the makeshift mat I had and laid myself down. I was a little nervous about hitting the hay because of the outcome this morning but the pure exhaustion of the day soon took over, slowing my thoughts and freeing my mind.

Level up: Survival (35)
Perk added: Trigger Discipline- You tamed that itchy horn of yours and your shooting shows it. Your shots are slower but your accuracy benefits greatly.

CH3: Discovery

Chapter Three: Discovery

"And I said oatmeal, are you crazy?"

I rose from my sleep to the smell of leftover gecko steaks. Rigby was roasting up some other meat over our campfire that looked to be from a different animal. I reached over to my pack and pulled out my box of Sugar Bombs and got out a couple hoof-fulls. Buck, what did they put in these things to make them so damn good! Even after two hundred years they were the most delicious food I’d had since leaving the stable. Briggs was using a hoof pump purifier to fill a couple bottles with some clean water. Golden and the captain sat at a rickety old table looking at his map. From the looks of it they definitely weren’t agreeing on something.

“If we take I-16 up through Quail Junction we’ll be there in two hours. We can’t take the trail around. That will cost us too much time,” the captain barked.

“You know that I-16 is infested with feral ghouls, there’s no way we’ll make it without a full team. And that’s assuming we don’t get caught by a group of manticores,” Golden shouted back.

“You’re right but we don’t have the time to go around. That’ll take an extra 4 hours and that path is still dangerous,” the captain responded.

“Yea, well I’d take a couple of hours of walking over getting force fucked by a maticore’s stinger any day.”

“Yea, I guess you’re right on that one. Why don’t we get a third opinion? Crack, come on over here.” The captain shouted.

I trotted over to the table and took a seat. “Well I overheard your options and I think we should go around. Better we get there a little late then not get there at all.”

“Well it’s settled then, we’re goin’ around. Everypony load up and let’s move out,” The captain ordered.

While everypony geared up I took the time to take stock of my saddlebags. Box of Sugar Bombs, some water, box of mint-als, some Dash, pack of Mareboros, my hunting rifle, 9mm pistol and some ammo. I tucked two clips from the pistol into my front pocket and got ready to leave.

We set out back on our journey to Ponyville. A layer of clouds covered the sun but that didn’t change the fact that it was hot as fuck out here. Briggs was the teams’ medic and cautioned everypony to keep hydrated. I pulled out a smoke and lit it up. Damn, there wasn’t a feeling like firein’ up that first smoke of the day. Only had three left so hopefully I’d find some lying around. It was funny how you’d find smokes in the strangest places but I guess with the lack of ponies to smoke them they just stuck around.

“So what’s there to do out here besides make caps and try not to get shot?” I asked.

“Well you can head over to Megamart. They got plenty of merchants set up and there’s always a card game to play in. You could swing by Flank. They’ve got a brothel set up over there if yer lookin’ for some snatch. Besides that not really, everypony’s just tryin’ ta get by,” stated the captain.

“Well I guess I’ll be stoppin’ by there then after this delivery’s done. Been tryin’ to save up enough to get a nice assault rifle. Maybe pick up some armor or something.”

We carried on for around for about two hours till Golden stopped dead in her tracks. The squad and I followed suit and froze. From off in the distance I heard a loud snarling sound followed by a high-pitched scream. We moved slowly towards the source of the noise. As we started to move up the overlooking hill I started smelling the pungent odor of burnt flesh and rotten meat. As I reached the top I looked over to see a group of the ugliest fucking things I had ever seen. They looked to be ponies but their bare muscles and some bones were showing. They looked very malnourished but they still fought and bit at whatever poor soul they had caught. Through the hoard I could see the pony that they were eating was a mare, probably about my age. They viciously ripped pieces of flesh and muscle from her bone, obviously starting when she was still alive.

The team lied there giving each other those “What the fuck are we gonna do now?” faces. I guess we all were thinking of our next move. I readied my hunting rifle and looked down my scope to get a better view. It looked to be about fifteen to twenty of them and a few of them had barding on. As they enjoyed their meal, one of them raised its head up and started sniffing the air. I trained my sight on it and watched as not seconds later it turned and stared directly at us. Somehow I knew this would not end well.

The ghoul let out a blood-curling screech. A second later I watched my .308 round remove his head but it was too late. The rest of the ghouls had abandoned their meal and were coming at us in seconds. I squeezed off another shot before I fell back with the rest of the team. I pulled out my pistol and turned around every couple of seconds to let off a couple rounds. To my dismay if the round didn’t hit their face I might as well not be shooting them at all. As Rigby turned around to lay down some fire he tripped over something. They were on him like lightning. Five ghouls dog piled on top of him. His power armor protected his body but they were able to work his helmet off leaving his head exposed. The whole team turned around and started firing into the hoard. We watched in horror as parts of his face were ripped off and consumed. Golden took out what looked like a spray paint can with a Dash inhaler and took a drag off it. She then tossed to me and said to take it. I caught it with my magic and took a pull off it. I felt the harsh substance hit my lungs and burn them up. Then the world started to slow down around me. It felt similar to going into S.A.T.S.. Time was so slowed I could see the bullets leaving Golden’s carbine beside me. I pulled my rifle back out and started putting rounds into them. I squeezed off my last three rounds and received three headshots. I immediately pulled out my pistol and took aim for their heads. Pop, pop, pop goes the ghoul’s heads. We whittled them down to two left when the rush of sobriety hit me like a ton of bricks. Time sped back up and it was accompanied by a crushing headache. Two rounds crashed into the remaining ghoul’s heads and they went down.

The team trotted over to our fallen comrade with our heads hung low. We all knew it had been too late for him and we were right. The only thing left was his skull and a couple scraps of flesh. We had won the battle but there was no victory dance or celebration. Just mourning.

The captain conducted a quick service as Briggs collected his belongings and dog tags. He spoke of what a good buck and solider he had been and swore to look out for his family as best he could. The service was concluded by lowering his body into a shallow grave and burying him. This was the first time I had seen death close and personal. Death is a reality of the wasteland but when it happens to ponies you know it hits harder.

“You said you needed an AR, well here you go.” The captain said solemnly.

“I can’t take that. It should be given to his family.”

“Don’t worry about it. He would been honored to know that his weapon continued to fight the good fight.” He replied.

He handed me a well-built AK-47 assault rifle with roughly three hundred rounds. He had modified it to feature a red dot sight and had a fore grip for increased stability. On the side of the rail mount I saw that something was carved into its side. One word. Mercy.

We got back started on our way back to Ponyville. My head was still pounding from that drug Golden gave me. I was tempted to use a mint-al to kill the pain but decided against it. Might need them somewhere down the road plus Lockout said they had a high potential for addiction. I pulled out a cigarette and took a drink of water. The rest of our trip was kinda quiet. We made it to Ponyville in the early afternoon and everything looked pretty dead. From here I could see the hut I was supposed to be delivering the package to. Golden and I split off from the others and made our way towards the hut. It was very small and probably had only one person living there. I put my hoof out to open the door but Golden stopped me. She used one back hoof and knocked the door open. The open door was met with a single shotgun blast.

“Gotta be careful with doors, ya never know what’s waiting on the other side,” Golden cautioned. I might need to stick with her, she knows her way around the wastes.

Golden and I slowly walked into the hut. Before we even entered I smelled the familiar stench of rotting flesh. The inside of the hut looked like a bomb had gone off inside of it; a complete massacre. In the corner were a couple severed body parts stacked in a macabre fashion. Behind a desk in the middle of the room sat a figure slumped over in its chair. We cautiously began moving in when we heard a faint *tink* and suddenly the figure shot into life. I could now see that the figure was a buck but had been chopped up and sewn back together again. His lifeless body was being manipulated by small wires coming from the ceiling. The figure danced around the room and a recording started playing from the back of the room.

“Beware courier, you know not what power you have. We are watching. We will get that package. Resistance is futile. Leave the box here and we may let you live. You hold unspeakable power. Power nopony should have. We are everywhere. Do not test our power.”

We searched around the hut for clues and useful salvage. We found a healing potion and a sensor module but beside that just a bunch of junk.

“So what are you gonna do with that box? You leavin’ it here or are ya gonna keep it,” Golden asked grimly.

“Well if it’s that important to these fuckers then they’re gonna have to come get it. Besides, I’m a little curious to see what’s in it. The recipient’s dead so I guess it’ll be safe to open now. ” I returned.

I slowly levitated the package out of my saddlebags and placed it on the table. I delicately started to open the package and took a look inside. The package contained a small metallic device that slowly pulsed with a green glow. I picked it up and carefully rotated it around trying to figure out what it was. It seemed to be full of magical energy but it didn’t look operational.

Suddenly a large tremor shook the ground beneath me throwing us to the floor. Seconds later a large deep sound bellowed from outside the hut. We both got to our hooves and started for the door. Golden tactically peered outside to get an idea of what the fuck was going on. She quickly signaled for me to follow her and we made our way outside. I followed her about thirty meters to an old busted brick wall. Over the hill we could see Star Bright and Briggs in an intense fire fight with a large group of raiders. We both readied our weapons and started putting them down. We both got about three kills each when over the hill came at least forty or more raiders. This situation was going from bad to worse. The captain and Briggs held their ground and hit them as hard as they could. We watched as a familiar buck in power armor crested the hill. I recognized him as the leader of the base at the beginning of my journey. Looks like he must of escaped and regrouped with his troops. On his side he bore an automatic grenade launcher that just looked evil. From all the way over here, I could hear the engine in his weapon start spinning up. His weapon begun to spit out many 40mm grenades down towards my companions. It was strange; they didn’t leave large holes in the ground or cause a huge explosion, but shot out a blue glow that didn’t seem to do anything. One grenade landed right between the two and they stopped firing and moving all together.

“Fuck EMP grenades. They use an electromagnetic pulse to disable electronics. Those two are screwed for the moment. We have to disengage.” Golden whispered.

The battle was over. They were overwhelmed and out gunned. I watched as they loaded them up onto carts and started to pull them away. I watched the leader pull out a Med-X syringe and stab it into his leg then light up a smoke. Looks like I knew where my next pack was coming from.

As the group started to head out of the area, Golden and I quickly looked around the surrounding buildings for some salvage. A lot of the buildings had been booby-trapped similar to the hut. Golden found some ammo for her carbine and some Buck. I was able to find a couple loose smokes and some Sugar Bombs. We regrouped in the middle of town and started to track down the raiders. Honestly it wasn’t very hard; you couldn’t miss forty sets of hoof prints walking in the same direction.

We followed the prints for about thirty minutes until we reached the entrance to a plantation. The sign above us read ‘Sweet Apple Acres, 5 minutes that‘a way!’. Night was beginning to fall and I could see the glow of an encampment from over the hill. Nightfall would get us the perfect advantage we would need to take on this large force by ourselves. We got positioned on the overlooking hill to do surveillance and plan our attack. From our position we could see a large red building with a couple smaller sheds on the right side. I pulled out my binoculars and took a look.

“Looks like we got three sentries for counter intelligence. The main building looks like its being used for storage. Those smaller building look like where they sleep and congregate. First off we need to take out their sentries. You see those two guard towers? ” I asked.

“Yea I do,” she responded.

“Ok, I need you to get up there and take them out. If they see us its game over and in a hurry. Once you take out the first one ill start moving up the left side through the fields. Move on to the other two then we’ll meet up behind the big barn. I’d bet my bottom bit that their keeping yer friends in there.”

“Ok, sounds like a plan. Here take these. If shit hits the fan don’t be shy, toss these mother fuckers and hit the deck.”

Golden handed me three apple grenades with a green band around them and a piece of dust colored cloth.

“What’s this for?” I asked.

“No offense but that mane of yours is gonna stick out like a sore thumb, even at night. Wrap it around your head.” She said.

“Ok, got it.” I started to wrap up my head with the cloth and tied it off in the back. It might be a little uncomfortable but I had to admit, I felt like a total badass. I watched as Golden started her assault towards the first watchtower. She moved with such stealth and grace that it would be a miracle if they spotted her. She carefully climbed to the top of the tower and revealed her combat knife. With a quick slash I saw the life drain from the buck and Golden lower him to the floor. With the guard down I started to move towards the base. I tried to mimic the way Golden moved through the foliage but I couldn’t do it half as well. As I got closer to the camp, I stopped to see if she had removed the other two sentries. Right on time see dropped the other two and gave the signal to meet up behind the barn. We regrouped out back and Golden pulled out a rope with a four pronged instrument tied to the end. She tossed it up to an open window on the second level and we both shimmied ourselves up. In the top loft we could see down to the floor.

The barn held exactly what we thought. They used the barn as a storage facility. Down there was a small cache of small arms, a couple rifles and a pistol or two. In another corner was enough booze to keep Stable 23 drunk for years. In the middle was a set of four cages each with two ponies in each. One cage held our fallen comrades and the others just held random bucks and mares. Wait a minute. It couldn’t be. In the left most cage was a crème buck with a computer on his flank. Lockout! Now this shit just got personal.

Two guards sat opposite each other near the door watching the captured ponies. Golden and I arranged ourselves over the guards. I pulled out my combat knife and got ready to pounce. Golden gestured with her hoof a countdown. On the third wave we both dropped down onto our unsuspecting victims. Her decent was far more graceful; she landed on the mare and slid her knife right into the soft spot between her shoulder and neck. She quickly turned the knife and her mark immediately dropped to the floor like a bag of potatoes. As for me I hit the buck and knocked him to the ground. We rolled around for a couple seconds until I could get on top. I repeatedly stabbed him squirting blood every time I withdrew the blade. After about ten stabs he stopped resisting and the life slowly faded from his eyes.

“Not too shabby. Your technique could use a little work but it was effective.” Golden chuckled.

“Thanks. Ok lets get these ponies out.” I walked over to the cage that held Lockout and some other buck in it. “I see you’ve been having fun out here.”

“Yea I guess you could call this place fun.” Lockout replied. I looked around to see a couple things I had missed from above. The rangers’ weapons were sticking out of a metal box in one corner of the room. In another was a pile of gore, probably the body parts that even these sickos wouldn’t eat.

“Ok ponies if you want to live once we get you out we’re gonna have to come to an agreement. I don’t give a flying feather what you do once were clear from this place but until then you do what I say, got it? I want all of us to get the fuck out of here safely understood?” They all bobbed their heads in acknowledgment. “Good now that we’re all on the same page we’ll let you out.” I looked around and tried to think of a plan to get us out of this mess. Two ponies could sneak in but I doubted ten could sneak out.

“Golden get these cages unlocked and have Lockout get your friends armor back online. Give me any spare cloth you have, I’m about to be brilliant!”

I trotted over to the stash of alcohol and picked up a couple bottles. I opened them and went around the barn dousing the floor, walls, and anything else remotely flammable with the strong drink. Damn, if my dad knew I was wasting good booze he would beat me for a week. You know what they say; desperate times call for desperate measures. I took the spare pieces of cloth and jammed them into several bottles of whiskey. By this point Golden had freed everypony and had gathered them in the center of the room. Captain and Briggs threw their weapons back on and got suited up. Golden distributed the small arms to the captives as I continued preparing.

I got up on a small box and got everyponies attention. “Ok guys here’s the plan. Stay with your cage buddy and get outside behind the small buildings. Captain, you and Briggs follow them and get positioned so you can clearly see the door. I’m gonna run out and get their attention and lure them into the barn. Once they start coming in, open fire on them and try and push them in here. I will leave it up to the captain to make the call but when he does light and throw your firebombs. Just try and give me enough time to get out if that’s all right with you guys. We’re gonna burn this mother fucker to the ground.”

Golden got everyone out while I prepared my opening lines. Before opening the door I noticed the most badass looking facemask sitting on a box. This thing was awesome! I slipped it over my face and my PipBuck showed an alert. ‘10% rad resist’. Cool, good to know.

I bucked the barn doors open as hard as I could and it produced a large bang. I slowly walked out to see that the whole camp was looking right at me. “Heard you fuckers were looking for me. Well I’m right here so lets do this.”

“Get that little shit!” I heard one mare scream.

And just like that at least twenty-five ponies were in full sprint towards me. I pulled out my 9mm pistol and discharged a couple rounds into the hoard. I ran back into the barn and got to the second floor. Right on time I heard the small arms and heavy machine gun fire of my comrades pushing them into the barn. I slid down the rope after smashing a firebomb on the stairs, insuring that I wouldn’t be followed. I’m glad I put the captain in charge because right as I got away from the barn it lit up fiercely. I heard the agonizing screams and smelt the burning flesh from outside. I felt no remorse. They deserved this hellish punishment.

I got out front to see the captives in a raging fire fight with the remaining raiders. We were still out numbered but only by three. I pulled out Mercy and started to lay down suppressing fire. I watched as Briggs threw a firebomb right on top of two mares with hunting rifles. They both dropped their weapons and ran shrieking until their lifeless bodies hit the ground. The battle was over when we had taken their force down to three mares. Seeing that resistance was futile they ran for the front gate. They made it out of range when we heard an ominous beeping followed by two explosions. Their bodies completely disappeared in a shower of gore and blood. From behind the front gates booth stepped Golden with a tiny detonator in her hoof and a big smile on her face.

Level up: Sneak (35)

Perk added: Born Leader: Leadership runs in your blood. All companions will fight by your side more fiercely, equivalent to one extra point to charisma.

CH4: Reclaim

Chapter 4: Reclaim

“It’s plain that you’re lookin’ for trouble; trouble’s what I try to shun.

But if that’s want you want then that’s what you’ll get cuz cowboy we’re both packin’ guns.”

The morning brought with it a cooling breeze. The ground I stood on ran red with the blood of raiders and the poor souls that suffered at their hooves. Bodies lay scattered around the farm, some with bullet holes, others scorched by the burning flames of justice. A pony had told me once “Out here we just try to get by and attempt to do better,”. Well I wasn’t trying, I was doing. After last night’s battle I realized that Equestria was being plagued by unspeakable evil. There was no reasoning with raiders. They capture, rape, torture, and murder innocent ponies just for the fun of it. If that wasn’t enough, I saw firsthoof that most of them were cannibals. Something changed in me that night. I realized that the wasteland didn’t need a hero, it needed an executioner.

Most of the ponies we saved had left before dawn. Two had stayed overnight to get some rest and join the looting party in the morning. Everypony spread out to maximize our efforts. Lockout hit the sheds that had been used as shelters. There were a couple of locked containers but they were no match for his picking skills. The coals from the barn were still hot but that didn’t stop the rangers from sifting around in it for some salvage. I trotted off into what appeared to be an administrative building about forty meters from the barn. I walked into the lobby and saw a desk with a beat up terminal. Both walls were lined with grey steel filing cabinets. I picked through them pretty thoroughly not want to miss anything. Found some ammo for my pistol along with an extended magazine. I turned to the desk and started rummaging through it. What a score! I found three packs of Mareboro Menthols! I triumphantly slid one out and lit it up. Inside was a note attached to the packs.

Dear Apple Strudel,

I know that times are tough around here but you really need to stop this. You’re slowly killing yourself and I know how hard it is to put ‘em down. This whole thing’s been stressful on us all but I don’t want ta see ya die of cancer after we fought so hard to win this war. As always, all the best.

Your Cousin,

Applejack

Well it looks like Strudel followed her advice. I started down the hall towards the back of the building. I found what looked to be the manager’s office and tried to open the door. Locked. I pulled out my bobby pins and screwdriver and got to work. Wiggle here a little bit. Snap, damn it. A little to the left. The lock popped with a satisfying *click* and I was in. On the walls were many pictures of mares and bucks. One that struck me was the portrait of two mares and a massive buck. One mare was light orange with a blonde mane. In front of her was a crème filly with an adorable smile on her face. Towering above them both was the biggest pony I had ever seen! Damn I didn’t know they made ponies that big. Under the portrait was a gold plate that had ‘The Apple Family’ engraved into it. I rooted around the office and found more ammo, this time for my rifle. In the middle of the room was a desk with a terminal still running. I sat down in the chair and decided to give it a try. Great Celestia! This terminal had a twelve-letter password! There was no way I was going to get in it but I knew somepony that could.

I trotted back outside to see Lockout by the campfire fiddling with a small container. He looked to be having some problems getting the lock popped.

“Hey Lockout! Can you help me out with something real quick? Bring that box over too!” I shouted across the yard.

“Sure, be right there!”

Lockout gathered his stuff and started to make his way over to the main building.

“What’s up? What do you need?”

“Got a terminal in the back room. Its a doosy too. 12 letters.” I told him.

“Ha, that’s colts play, I thought I was gonna get a challenge!”

“Wow, way to make me feel bad. While your back there I’ll pop that container for you.”

“Ok, terminal here I come.” He said confidently.

Lockout tossed the locked box on the lobby desk and headed to the back room. I flipped on the radio on my PipBuck while I tinkered with the lock.

‘Yes, I’ve got heartaches by the number

A love that I can’t win

But the day that I stop counting

That’s the day my world will end’

“Good morning wasteland, its me, DJ Pon-3 welcoming you to another beautiful day in Equestria! Your forecast for today is cloudy like always with a 60% chance of raiders trying to fuck it up for you. I mean really do these guy ever take a day off? Maybe they should as reports have been coming in all morning. Remember the fire I told ya bout last night? Well looks like that was one of the raider strongholds outside of Ponyville burning to the ground. I for one couldn’t be happier. One down, a lot more to go. Bet there sittin’ in a cave somewhere lickin’ their wounds. See the question on everyponies mind is who’s responsible? One report says that a young buck out of Stable 23 is the buck behind the mayhem. About time too. Wasn’t sure if they would ever open their doors. Not sure how true it is but one things for certain; those raiders are as dead as dog shit. Well that’s about it for today’s news, and to the buck from 23, keep up the good work. The wasteland needs heroes’, even little ones. Stay classy Equestria.”

Once the broadcast was done, the most depressing song came on. So monotone and boring. Something about a buck named Johnny and his stupid guitar. I flipped my radio off and proceeded to get at the lock. To my amazement the box didn’t give me much trouble. It was weird, I turned my bobby pin slightly to the left and it clicked right open. I levitated the contents out and set them down on the table. By Star Swirls beard! The weapon was closer to a piece of art than a killing machine. It was a .38 special revolver; snub nosed, with the most stunning decorative engravings etched in its metal. The mouth grip was a bright red cherry wood finish. It looked spectacular! The pistol was accompanied by about twenty hollow point rounds and thirty regular ones. As I gawked at the amazing firearm I heard a triumphant “Got it!” come from the back. I placed the contents back in the box and started off to the office.

“Merry Celesmas!” I shouted upon entering the room.

“What’d I get? Tell me tell me tell me!”

“Take a look.”

He levitated his new gun out and a smile burst to his face. He wasn’t as awestruck as I was but he could still appreciate a quality firearm. Lockout happily trotted out of the office as I sat down at the terminal. There was only one file on the computer. I synced my PipBuck up to the terminal and watched the little guy do his work. The device let out a pleasant *ding* once the download was complete. On my map four new markers had shown up, all being marked as raider hideouts. Man, the idiocy of these guys never ceases to amaze me. Guess it’s time to hit the road.

“Hey everypony, come on over here!” I shouted.

In a few seconds everypony was huddled around a broken table in the center of camp.

“Hey Cap, let me see that map. Ok guys, so on that terminal was a map of the area that showed a couple raider hideouts. There locations are here, here, and here.” I took a small marker and put some X's for them. “Now this is the closest one, the Mega-Lo-Mare shopping center. If we leave now we can…” out of the corner of my eye I saw two yellow earth fillies with different styled pink manes standing beside Golden listening attentively. “And you two are?” I asked

“She’s Tip” one replied.

“And she’s Top” spouted the other one.

“And we wanna help you kill raiders!” The both screeched in unison.

“That all well and good but aren’t you two a little young for this stuff?” I said.

“O just because we’re little you think we can’t hold our own. Kick it Tip.”

Tip immediately flung five battered plates into the air. Top produced a 9mm pistol and quickly put a bullet through each plate. Then Top pulled out a coin about the size of a plum and threw it in the air. Tip readied her pistol and popped the coin making a resounding *ting*. The rest of my crew was surprised by this show of marksmanship.

“Well that was quite impressive, sorry I doubted you two. As they say, the more the merrier. Ok back to the plan. If we head out now we can be at the Mega-Lo-Mare in about an hour. If everypony’s ready we’ll head on out.” From around the table were nods of agreement as everypony slipped on their saddlebags and got suited up.

*** *** ***

As we reached the shopping center I couldn’t help but notice how deserted it looked. It was a three level structure shaped like a cube with an atrium in the middle. The parking lot was filled with pre-war vehicles lying idle. As we got closer, I started seeing the signs of a raider camp. Old campfires, used needles, and the occasional severed head atop a spike. They sure were keen to put a pony’s head on a spike. Guess they wanted to look like some hard asses, scare decent folk into not messing with them. Well they weren’t scarin’ me. As we got to the atrium it still seemed that the base was vacant.

“Ok guys. Looks like nopony’s home but I’m not taking any chances. Tip, Top, and Golden you’re with me. We’re goin’ hunting. Everypony else stay down here and look out for danger. If shit hits the fan regroup on the second floor, south side of the building.”

We started up one of the staircases into the main building. The whole place smelled like piss and vomit. I wondered if the paint flaking off the walls was from decay or the smell. I pulled out that bad ass breathing mask I got back at Sweet Apple Acres and slipped it on.

“No fair! Why don’t we get sweet masks!” Tip and Top said together.

“Well find one and there you go, problem solved.” Golden told them.

“Well its still lame and it smells like crap in here,” Tip wined.

As we made our way down the second story hall I heard a familiar sound. I remembered this sound from back in the stable when I was a little colt. I would sneak out after curfew and explore all around the stable. It was the sound of flanks rapidly slapping together. I slipped my mask down and lit up a cigarette. As we got closer to the room I could hear the vulgar banter of a raider couple. For the sake of sanity, I won’t elaborate but lets just say it was enough to make a porn star blush. I overheard something about “ramming Luna’s horn up her shitter”. About ten feet from the door I motioned for Tip and Top to stay there. I got right up beside the door and prepared for entry. “Knock knock”.

“What the --”

I bucked the door open so hard it almost flew off the hinges. I quickly spun around and engaged S.A.T.S. I queued up four shots with my pistol and exited. One bullet went straight through the mare’s head and left a bloody smear on the wall behind her. The second shot hit a gun that the buck was reaching for while the last two hammered into his hind legs. He let out a scream as he dropped to the ground in agony. I signaled for Golden to help me move him to a chair and proceeded to tie him to it. I needed answers and I was gonna get them.

I walked over to the buck as he muttered curses about how much of a whore my mother was. I stuck the barrel of my pistol right in his mouth and cocked the hammer back.

“Here’s the deal. You tell me where to find this fucker Dark Matters and I wont paint the wall with your brain. Sound good?”

I removed the pistol only to be met with a glob of raider spit right in my face. “I ain’t tellin’ you shit and when I get out of here I’m gonna fuck you till your dead. Then I’ll move on to yer lady friend,” he said with a jagged toothed smile on his face.

“Wrong answer.” I took the pistol and jammed the barrel into the fresh bullet wound in his leg. The sound he made was at least five times worse than his initial scream. I twisted and turned the barrel all around inside his leg. After about two minutes I pulled the barrel out and cleaned the blood off.

“You know I’m not enjoying this right? Wait… I lied. I’m thoroughly enjoying this. You ready to talk yet?” I pulled out a smoke, lit it, and stuck it in the raiders mouth.

“Ok, ok. He came through about three A.M. last night. Rounded up most of everybody and headed off to the west. Didn’t say where they were going, just said he was in a hurry.” I check my PipBuck and sure as shit there was a marker on my map to the west.

“Thank you for your cooperation. Know if you would excuse us we have some murderous fuck faces to kill.” I readied my pistol and shot three rounds right into his gut making sure he didn’t die but insuring he would bleed out soon. I holstered my pistol and trotted out of the room with Golden.

“Why did we have to stay out here? We wanna be in the action!” Tip said.

“You didn’t need to see that girls. I didn’t even want to see that.” Golden said in a motherly voice. Golden shot me a harsh glare but stayed silent till we made it back to the rest of the group. As we returned Lockout came up to me looking a bit nervous.

“Hey Crack, can I speak to you in private?” He asked.

“Yea sure. Want a smoke?”

“Sure.”

We both lit our cigs up and walked around to the other side of the complex.

“Something about these rangers doesn’t sit right with me. I feel like they’re hiding something.” He said grimly.

“Why do you say that? Golden helped rescue you.” I replied.

“I don’t know, it’s just a feeling in my gut. That’s not why I wanted to talk to you. It’s worse.”

“Ok well are you gonna tell me?”

“Well after you left the stable, Recon Team 4 returned. They brought back with them detailed reports about most of the factions in the area and the state of stability for each. The reports showed that things are going to shit all across the board. Some guy named Red Eye is mobilizing troops and I don’t know how they figured this out but so are the Enclave. With this new information the Overmare has decided to green-light Operation: Reclaim.”

Level up: Lockpick (50)

Perk added: Burning Justice – Your Intense disposition towards raiders can’t be ignored nor can your love of fire. This yields a 5% damage boost against raiders and 10% boost when using fire-based weapons.

CH5: Time For Action

Chapter 5: Time For Action

Hold on a second! Eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain, guys! Chocolate rain!

Operation Reclaim. The sum of everyponies efforts in Stable 23. When Stable-Tec started building, they promised a way out if an all-out megaspell attack came from the zebras. They promised a safe place for families to take shelter and wait out the destruction. For life to survive. This luxury came at a high price. Ponies sold everything they had, took out loans, and did whatever they had to get a spot in the treasured stables. They gave everything they had to insure that their name would live on, with the prospect of starting over when the world was ready. I say this quite solemnly; the stables were a lie.

The three heads of Stable-Tec were a group of tenacious young entrepreneurs, calling themselves The Cutie Mark Crusaders. They saw the horrible side to their own society and asked themselves ‘How did things get this bad?’. This made them realize, what would stop the survivors from just repeating the same mistakes they had? The answer was experiments. A few stables were designed as control stables, where no experiment was conducted and the main goal was survival. Most stables weren’t so lucky. Like most things, the tests were formed with all the best intentions. Some were less maliciously designed like Stable 102. It was sealed indefinitely for one hundred and fifty years, regardless of outside conditions. The test was to study the rate of DNA integrity degradation over several generations of in-breeding. Others were much more sinister. One of our recon teams determined that Stable 222 was subjected to large amounts of Olanzapine, a powerful anti-psychotic drug. It was in their water, food, even in the air. After awhile, the population started getting violent and it wasn't long before they began ripping the stable (and each other) apart. The pumps were still on when the recon team arrived, poisoning them every step of the way. When they returned one member completely freaked and slaughtered his wife and two foals.

Our stable was equipped with full virtual reality stasis pods to keep us living in the real world, but all our experiences were generated by the computer. Only two ponies were outside the pods, both being Stable-Tec scientists, Doctor Mobius and his assistant mare, Test Tubes. The stable would hang in stasis for fifty years to allow time to begin healing the world and would be revived when their expertise were needed. They did not know that once they were hooked in, they were at the mercy of Mobius and could not leave on their own. Time passed and Mobius started to become bored with his studies. He began conducting ‘experiments’ of his own, toying with their virtual lives as he pleased. He would control people and objects and force them to do sick things. If anyone died he would resurrect them and start his game once more. Soon Test Tubes caught on to what his was doing. Late one evening while eating the same Stable-Tec M.R.Es they ate every night, Test Tubes stabbed him forty five times in the neck with a sharpened spoon/fork combo. She promptly released the stable from their virtual hell and became the De Facto Overmare. The pods were reprogrammed to simulate combat situations through PvP and Bot combat, as well as adding many user settings and controllability. Since the stable was designed to hold ponies in stasis for fifty years before being fully operational, supplies started getting strained around a hundred years under ground. This led to the establishment of the first Stable 23 Recon team.

Originally developed for stable stability, they were charged with the task of getting crucial supplies to keep the stable running. Their first task was to find some parts for the food processor used to make the stables meals. After a month the population was getting nervous that they had been killed but were relieved when the team showed up right in time for Hearths Warming Eve. They were met with great honor and gratitude and these positions became the most prized position in the stable, besides the Overmare. It wasn’t long until the stable was back up to 100% stability leaving the recon teams without assignments. This lack of duties eventually lead to the conception of Operation: Reclaim.

Reclaim was the brainchild of our fourth Overmare, Iron Hoof. She dreamt of a world under one rule, her rule. She began having recon teams trained in different areas including speechcraft, espionage, and deception. She began to wage a secret war on all fronts by infiltrating the different factions and destroying them from the inside. The plan was very elaborate, but she clearly underestimated the tenacity of the major groups. The Steel Rangers proved to be true burden to the project, uncovering our spies before they could fully assimilate to a position of power. The more teams that came back, the more she learned about the wasteland and its inhabitants. All this information was highly classified and only the Overmare and the Head of Surface Operations knew what she was planning.

I became part of the prestigious 4th Recon squad on my eighteenth birthday. I was assigned to this team due to my expert marksmanship skills and overall good standing with the stables higher-ups. Our first mission was to find a factory that was producing large levels of an ‘unknown chemical agent’. The mission was simple. We tactically deploy five miles east, go in and find any documents about the chemical, and plant enough C4 to shoot the factory straight to the moon. Being my first time outside I was naïve to how much deception went into everyday life.

We arrived during the dead of night around 0100 hours. From the outside it seemed abandoned, its large brick walls riddled with bullet holes and missing bricks here and there. The building only had two main points of entry, a small rusted door on the front and a loading dock out back. Both entrances had a terminal linking to a card reader to make sure no one could go snooping around. As we overlooked the factory my spotter, Star Dust, saw a sniper posted on the roof. Star Dust was a little gray mare with a frizzy mane of orange. She was an excellent mathematician which in turn made her a superb spotter. Honestly, I didn’t see why she was accepted to the combat group instead of science but it wasn’t my place to question her life. She took out a note pad and started scribbling variables and equations while constantly rechecking her PipBuck.

“Range, seven hundred fifty yards, wind speed, six miles per hour. Temperature, sixty degrees. Recommend sight settings of -9.2 vertical, +13.8 horizontal. Round on target in .6 seconds. Fire when ready.” She said it so confidently, like she knew that with those measurements it would be impossible to miss. Those measurements combined with this beast of a gun I was behind were a deadly duo. In my hooves was the one and only Zeb-Tec .50 Caliber Anti-Material rifle. This thing has it all; 12X dual optic scope with night vision filter, padded stock, custom Never-Jam bolt, and a free floating barrel. This machine was originally developed to stop tanks and APC’s but its main use was being a power armor killer. While 5.56 rounds will more or less bounce off the heavily enchanted armor, this baby would rip through their armor like a tin can. Needless to say that hitting any pony with this thing would wipe them from the face of the earth. I chambered a round and readied my magic on the trigger. It was a strange feeling. When taking a long shot and being in control of the life or death of another pony, time seemed to slow down, almost to a complete stop. The round left my rifle and sped towards my target at break-neck speed. Star Dust said it would be .6 second before the round was on target but it felt like way longer. I couldn’t see where it hit him but the reassuring spray of blood was confirmation of a hit.

With the guard taken care of, our squad of four started making our way to the factory. Since the doors were secure, the only option we were left with was up. Tail Pipe retrieved a grappling hook from his pack and tossed it up to the roof. He was a jet black unicorn buck with a passion for automobiles and anything mechanical; hence his cute mark was a tail pipe. Here again was a strange addition to the team. Who gets a cutie mark for something that they had never actually seen aside from the books and would probably never get to use? It didn’t make sense but I wasn’t here to question my team, we were here to get results. I shimmied my way up the rope follow by Dust and Tail Pipe. Our demolitions expert, Short Fuse, stayed down on the ground to start rigging up the bombs. I never really liked him; he was part of Cherry Bomb's group of fuck tards so we didn’t see eye to eye. He had a coat of dark green with a swoopy mane of brown and beige.

Once we were on the roof I ditched the rifle on one corner of the building. We found the skylight over top of the main production room. We decided against going in guns blazing and found another one that was over an office. We carefully removed the window and slid down our rope in. The room was filled with file cabinets and the aroma of fresh fruit. This room was definitely being kept up by somepony. We left Dust in there to find what she could. A window from the room looked into the main production line. The room was occupied by massive machines filled with different liquids as diverse as the colors of the rainbow. One machine would pump a brownish liquid to another machine that would make it red, then to another machine that turned it green, and so on and so forth until the solution came out a bluish clear liquid at the end of the line. The liquid was filling up one drum every two minutes and the workers would load them into wooden crates. Tail pipe left the room and went down to the main floor and started setting his charges. I followed suit and set my charges near the south wall closest to the loading dock. I returned to find Dust neck deep in papers with a distressed look about her.

“Anything wrong?” I asked.

“Well what I’m reading isn’t matching up with what command briefed us on. They say that there aren’t any chemical agents in here at all. I found a ledger in the desk that shows sales to all the major cities in the area. I also found a manual for that machine out there. It says it can make a couple different chemicals but the system logs are on this terminal. They’re making water. ”

As the last word left her mouth the main floor erupted in gun fire. We both rushed over to the window to see what was happening. Tail Pipe was surrounded by enemies and looked injured. We both pulled out our assault rifles and started dumping rounds into the production floor. The workers quickly took notice and returned fire. The battle raged for about two minutes, a lot of pot shots and suppressing fire. As we tangled with the main group, I saw an enemy coming up behind him. I yelled up to try and warn him but it was too late. He was torn in half at the waist by the buck carrying a riot shotgun. I let out one round and watched it completely tear half of his head off as his body slumped to the ground. The fire fight continued for a bit longer. It was chaos. At this point, it was me and Dust verses eight well-armed ponies. We tactically retreated to another room and let the lead rain down. Bullet after bullet rained down upon them, tearing flesh and breaking bones, as we stood side by side blasting away.

I fell back in horror as a round torn straight through Dust's head and spraying blood all over the wall behind us. I was so close that when the bullet hit I felt the wind and got the whole left side of my head splattered with her blood. She dropped to the ground with a soft thump. From the other room I heard one shout “I got that bitch!” as they started closing in on the room. I quickly pulled a Med-X syringe out of my bag and jammed it in my leg. A little pharmaceutical courage never hurt anypony. I felt the drug seeping into my bloodstream and my body became more relaxed and comfortable. I set my last piece of C4 on the door and levitated two silver M1911 .45 caliber pistols from their holsters. If I was gonna die I was gonna go out fighting.

When I heard the sound of hoofs coming closer I blew the door. The explosion sent dust and debris all around and the door became a flying mass of shrapnel. I bolted out and saw that two unlucky bucks had been filled with wooden fragments. I rounded the corner and was met with two more hostiles. I squeezed both triggers until I heard the click of empty magazines. Both bucks lay dead on the floor, bleeding from an array of inch-wide holes in their chests. I retrieved two more clips from my suits pockets and slammed them home. A mare came walking up the stairs carrying a 12 gauge shotgun and tossed a blanket of birdshot at me. My barding protected me a little but I felt the burning sensation of hot lead pellets all over my body. I quickly returned fire, putting two holes in her foreleg and one right through the side of her neck. For a brief moment, blood spewed from her neck, showering the hall in blood like an old timey garden sprinkler. She dropped with a resounding thud and rolled back down the stairs. I stopped and looked down at my body to see it ridden with bullet holes as well. I dropped down and used what power I had left to grab a healing potion out of my bag. I gulped it down fast and quickly felt it working its magic. I looked at my PipBuck to see that all the hostiles were eliminated and let out a sigh of relief. From behind my back I heard a soft *Crunch*. I immediately spun around and opened fire with both my pistols blind firing into the hall. My PipBuck said there were no hostiles but I saw the clear outline of something moving. I saw three of my bullets hit and cause the figures energy field to be disrupted. The field recovered and the figure quickly darted down the hall and jumped full speed out a window, not missing a beat as he hit the ground running and didn't look back. This whole OP was getting weirder and weirder.

I went back to the room with our fast rope set up. After retrieving the documents from Dust’s bag it was time to go. I clenched the rope and pulled myself back on to the roof and retrieved my rifle. Short Fuse was standing on the ground signaling me to get my ass down there. I grabbed the rope and quickly slid down to the ground.

“Short Fuse, we need to disarm these charges. We found out that our Intel was compromised. There are no chemical agents being made here. This ledger proves that they’re making water and selling it to the neighboring communities.” I said.

“Well I guess all there is to do now is tie up the loose ends.” He muttered.

Before I could react, Short Fuse levitated his 9mm submachine gun and filled my body with a hail of bullets. Round after round of searing hot metal entered and exited my body, ripping chucks of meat out with every hit. Who knows how many shots he hit me with, but he didn’t stop till the gun went click. I fell to the ground seeping blood from everywhere on my body and accepted my fate. My vision started getting fuzzy as I watched that bastard trot off with my rifle humming some show tune. I watched as he produced a detonator and pressed the big red button. His press was follow by a massive BOOM that shook the ground beneath me and sent hot air all across my backside. I stopped fighting to stay awake and slowly drifted away.

*** *** ***

The next couple days were an almost psychedelic blur. It all felt so surreal, like I wasn’t in control but merely along for the ride. The ordeal began with me being dragged by figures that were too distorted to make out. They weren’t dressed like most ponies in the wasteland. I could see that they wore some kind of tribal gear and had strange marking all across their bodies. I was taken to a cave and set in front of a massive grey buck that wore the skull of a deer over his head. He mumbled some words that sounded like more of an incantation than dialog. Over a fire placed in the middle of the cave was a pot brewing a strange bright pink liquid. The buck grabbed a ladle fashioned from an animal’s skull and scooped a bowl full out. He walked over to me and poured the magical potion down my throat. The concoction tasted somewhat like carrot cake and paint thinner with the consistency of a bowl of cereal. As the brew hit my stomach my bodies natural enzymes kicked in and started to attack the foreign substance. I fought to keep it down as my stomach heaved and burnt. Finally it all became too much and I threw up all over the cave coating the ground in front of me with pink sludge.

As my head rose I saw that they world had become more vivid and living. The walls breathed on cue with the beating of by heart. The stalactites that hung from the top of the cave were now swaying back and forth, like a crowd of people waving to me. Everywhere I looked the colors were changing, lush greens, neon pinks, and all the colors under the rainbow. Some of them I was sure that I had never seen before and they changed constantly. I looked to see the leader surrounded by his tribe, all them changing different colors right in front of me. They started chanting loudly, the sounds echoing off the walls amplifying the intensity of the experience. At first the sounds assaulted my ears, their words melting together confusing my brain. Soon the chanting became soothing in a way, calming the multiple sensory overloads I was having at the moment. As the chanting grew lower I slowly felt myself drifting away from reality…

*** *** ***

Blocks. Lots and lots of blocks. I was sitting on my flank playing with blocks. The tiny orange unicorn I'm assuming is my sister is sitting beside me gnawing on a rubber chicken. Looking around I can see cakes, lots of cakes. Honestly, just a ridiculous amount of cakes. On the main counter sets a 3 tier chocolate cream cheese cake. One thing I know for certain is I will have that cake. Being a pegasus I just walked right up on to the counter. I proceed to bury my head inside this monster. Out of the corner of my eye something outside grabs my attention. Ponies at the market, buying fresh produce and hats and such. The sun comes up and goes down many times in a matter of seconds. The scene has changed. Barely anypony is outside. Anyone I saw was sneaking around, looking real shady. The sun rises and sets quickly again. The outside was in complete chaos. Ponies screaming, running for their lives. Foals crying loudly while their mothers try and calm them. A group of hooded figures entered the town with assault rifles. They spread out, mowing down anypony that came into their sights. As one walked by my window it turned and stared right at me. Its yellow glowing eyes pierce through me like a razor sharp javelin.

Falling. Now I’m falling in complete darkness with hot black fires scorching my skin. I hit the ground with the force of an asteroid. All around me is the smell of death and gunpowder. A mortar lands ten feet from me and sends me flying. In the air, I see a blue mare with a rainbow mane. Her grace and speed is like no other. She shot through the air, dropping grenades and raining death upon the zebras. I heard her shout ‘Hold the line damn it!’ as I rise to my hooves. I stick my head out from behind the trench to see a wave of zebras coming at me. I get on the heavy MG and start to hammer them with hot lead. It wasn’t enough, they came too fast. They reach the pillbox and start flooding in. I contemplate killing myself with my sidearm but decide not to die like a bitch. A large zebra comes in and hind kicks me right in the head. With one fatal blow of his dagger he ends my life.

Now I’m in an office. Me and nineteen others sit at an oval table in the middle of the room. A pissed off bright pink pony walks in and goes bat shit crazy.

“It’s all secrets and lie with you ponies. And to think that I would have zebra sympathizers in MY MINISTRY! WHAT THE FUCK! I will find out who you are and I will have JUSTICE! You think you can just worm your way in and sell our secrets do you?” She abruptly ended and stormed off out of the office. The mare beside me gave a chuckle and an ’A Okay’ symbol with her hoof. She was a light brown with a darker brown mane. The name tag on her blazer said Milk Chocolate.

*** *** ***

I awoke on a rather comfy feeling mat in that empty cave. My immediate reaction upon waking was to throw up all over the wall beside me. My body felt stronger but my mind felt weak. My barding was gone but my saddlebags laid on a flat rock to my left. I reached out for it and poured the contents on the floor. Just great. The only thing that fell out was two cigarettes, some sharpened stones fashioned into knives, and my stable ranking patch. The patch was blue with yellow writing, starting with a large 23 at the top. Below it was one silver bar with the word 'lieutenant' under that. I unsteadily got to my hooves and started walking in a random direction, hoping it was ‘out’. As I stepped outside, the brightness caused my eyes to become strained. Who knows how long it had been since I had been outside? What the fuck was the dream about? Who were those strange people? What hell was that thing back at the factory? Well one thing is for certain, I was about to go lookin' for some answers. I lit up one of my last smokes and started on my path back to Stable 23.

level up: Wait a minute, he didn't do anything. No level

CH6: Recollection

Chapter 6: Recollection

"Now, a lesser person might want that kind of overwhelming force on their side, but you know - where's the challenge in that?"

So there I was, standing in front of the massive, silver stable door. Our secret tunnel was very well hidden and an excellent deterrent for outsiders. The only way to access the shaft was by performing a very unique series of actions. A lone statue stood in the remains of what was once a lush flower garden. The statue towered high above a pony’s head and shown the figure of a fierce-looking unicorn mare. To access the stable one must kick the bottom right hoof corner, hop around the statue three times, and then dig at the ground ominously for an undisclosed amount of time. I could tell you the last step, but then you could just walk right in and we can’t have that, can we? I can tell you this, an anti-zebra song originally coined by one of the ministry mares must be recited in front of the statue along with a short dance to go with it. I imagined how funny it would look if anypony were to see someone do this ridiculous charade but if you want in you’ve gotta do it. Once in the cave you had to get passed the booby traps. I knew where they were placed so I didn’t worry too much. As I trotted along, a small strand caught my eye right before I hit it. This was new. A thin piece of fishing line stretched across the otherwise safe path. Upon further inspection I found the source of the trap. A small wiggly section of the wall housed an assortment of different grenades all tied together with Fuse’s faction-colored cord. Classic Short Fuse. I disabled the wire and harvested the grenades and any mines I could find lying around. All together I found three frags, two blue-banded EMP grenades, and three frag mines. If my intuition served me right; this was going to end well.

I stared at the shiny metal door with ‘23’ and ‘Stable-Tec’ emblazoned across it, mentally preparing myself for what lay ahead. I walked over to the door controls and wired my PipBuck in. The machine began accessing my Piptag and running its various verification software. With a *ding* my PipBuck was cleared and the controls became operational. I grabbed the longest lever and forced it down. Man, that thing needed some oil! From above the door mist began to pour out accompanied by a sharp hissing sound. The mist faded out and the stable door began sliding open revealing two security bucks watching anxiously.

I slowly trotted in as the bucks just stared at me in amazement, like they had seen a ghost or something. The stable seemed to be business as usual. Same gray walls, same ponies rushing through the halls trying to catch up for lost time, and the same old boring music that played all day. At this point I only had one thing on my mind, find Lockout. I made my way from the main entrance down into the commons area. As I passed room after room I heard obnoxious conversations revert down to muffled whispers. I hadn’t taken a look in the mirror so maybe I had something on my face.

*** *** ***

The cafeteria was packed with ponies cheerfully eating their dinners, laughing about their friends misfortunes and talking about which of the opposite sex they’d be taking back to their rooms tonight. Like a virus, I watched them stop talking and start turning their eyes towards me table by table. Some started to cry. Others looked at me like I had just kidnapped their foals and were holding them for ransom. All was silent, aside from a few coughs, as I trotted up to the chow line. I was starved from my journey back and this whole thing was starting to weird me out. I grabbed a tray and started sliding it down the pickup line. I levitated a Sunset Sarsaparilla and a bag of hay chips onto my tray and walked off. Not a single pony had taken their eyes off me. I’ll admit it wasn’t the return I was expecting, this was just creepy as shit. I started making my way back down hall B towards my room. I was almost there when from up the stairs came Iron Hoof accompanied by Cherry and Fuse. The three stopped dead in their tracks, Iron Hoof having a mixed look of confusion and anger on her face. Fuse and Cherry had a different look to them. Fuse seemed like, at any moment, he could jump on top of me and rip my head off. Cherry was angry but not just at me but also with Fuse.

“Crack Shot, what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be dead,” Iron Hoof spouted.

“I thought so too. I’m not sure how I did it, but here I am. I trust you’ve seen the report, Fuse did what he had to do to protect the stable.” The words felt like poison leaving my mouth. The look of anger flushed from Fuse’s face and was replaced with confusion.

“Yes yes…” She trailed off for a moment. “The report told the whole story of your little stunt. The sabotage of your mission. How you found incriminating documents and destroyed them right in front of the team. How you murdered Star Dust and Tail Pipe! I can’t believe you have the audacity to show yourself in this stable! Cherry, Fuse, take this traitor to his room until we can have a trial for these crimes against my stable!” With a wave of her hoof the two were descending on me. Fuse slapped my tray away while Cherry repeatedly kicked me in the diaphragm, knocking the wind out of me. They dragged me down the hall kicking and shouting. We arrived at my room and they tossed me against the desk I used to study my rifles at. They proceeded to mercilessly beat the living shit out of me. Fuse grabbed a lead pipe I kept in my room and started bashing my hind legs. With each hit I could feel my bones fracturing and breaking, leaving them completely useless. They went on for what seemed like a lifetime, snickering and cheering each other on. Finally they stopped out of pure exhaustion. They both lit up a smoke and reveled at the fine beating they had given me. They both rose and begun to exit my room but then stopped right before the opening.

“Hey Crack, do yourself a favor and stay dead,” Cherry said with a snide grin on his face. Delivering the final blow he stomped my head as hard as he could. The hit rattled my brain and blurred my vision. The world was getting darker and for the second time in less than a week, I was dying.

*** *** ***

“Crack!” A hard slap followed by a cup of water to the face jarred me from my sleep. “Crack, wake up!” Another slap followed by some cursing. “Damn it, get up. I know you’re in there!” I slowly opened my eyes to see my best friend, Lockout, looking worn and disheveled.

“Damn, you look bad off Lockout; I guess somepony around here is getting worked too hard.” I coughed, with a nasty combo of blood and mucus coming up.

“You look pretty bad off yourself. You look like you were hit by a boat, then the boat fell on top of you. What the fuck happened?” His eyes looked full of questions and pain.

“Well long story short, everything went according to plan. Fuse rigged the exterior charges and the rest of us went in. We infiltrated the facility and found the paperwork we were looking for but it wasn’t right. The documents claimed the facility was for water production and was distributing large quantities to the wasteland. Tail Pipe was spotted while placing his charges and took a 12 gauge shot to the midsection. Dust and I fought it out with them but in the end they got her. As for Fuse, he double crossed me. I got out and told him to disarm the charges and he filled me with 9mm rounds. Left me for dead.”

“Shit, I knew something was fishy when only Fuse came back. His report said you went crazy and killed Dust and Tail Pipe. He said he took you down and finished the operation alone. Made him look like a big damn hero. Also, what’s with the brand?” He asked.

“What brand?” He pointed down to my left shoulder blade and I saw what he spoke of. I don’t know why I hadn’t noticed it earlier. I had a large black tattoo of an eagle ripping a cockatrice apart. “Damn, I don’t know but it does look really badass. It was probably the things that saved me.”

“Huh?” he said.

“After Fuse left me bleeding out I was sure I would die. Then some pony things dragged me back to their cave. They gave me some sort of brew that healed me but distorted my reality. It was like being a spirit. I went back in the lives of ponies from the past. I saw the war. The horror of Ponyville being invaded. I even saw a vision from inside Pinkie’s ministry.” I told him.

“Shit, that’s one crazy trip. I think I might know what they gave you, but don’t worry about it. Let’s get you fixed up.” Lockout pulled three potions and a hit of Hydra from his bag and started administering then. The cuts on my body started to seal up and I felt my bones slowly moving towards their correct places and reforming. The feeling was quite alien but it was for the better. The potions had a sweet strawberry taste and went down real smooth.

My bones felt like they could move again so I crept over to my bed and lied down on it. The sheet on top was blue and yellow with Stable-Tec stitched in the middle. The soft feather insides cushioned my battered body and gave me some relief.

“You have level 3 security access, right?” I asked.

He looked at me one eyebrow raised with an inquiring look. “Yeah I do, but what could you possibility need from that low in the stable? The only thing down there is the mainframe and storage.”

“I need the mission logs from as far back as you can find. The only place I think they could be at would be on Iron Hoof’s personal computer. Since walking right up to her door and asking nicely is out of the question, the only other option is to access her terminal through the mainframe. I need to know as much about Project: Reclaim as I can. If I can prove she’s doing something dirty ,I could organize a riot and overthrow her.”

“Well, I’ll see what I can do but I’m not making any promises. If they find out I hacked Iron Hoof's computer I’ll be court marshaled. You need to stay here and get some rest. I’ll go see if I can find anything but whatever you do, don’t leave. I’m sure you’ve realized that you’re not very popular around here anymore,” he said with a short smirk on his face.

“Shit, no kidding. Before you leave, you gotta smoke?”

“I thought you’d never ask.” His horn glowed and levitated a pack of Mareboros out and laid them on the table along with another pack with a strange decal on it. “I also got some of that good stuff Green Thumbs been growing over in the botany sector.” We both pulled out a funny smoke and fired it up, savoring the rich, fruity flavor. The room was bombarded by the most delicious smelling fragrance as the room started to fill up with thick white smoke. I reached out and turned on the air ventilation for my room. Thank Celestia for our air filtration system, without it smoking would be suicide down here. Both of our eyes started to droop and become blood-shot as we laughed at a holotape of South Field, a popular adult cartoon show in pre-war times.

“Well I guess I need to be going. I’ll see what I can do about those files. Stay safe.” He said.

“Will do Doc.”

A smile broke the look of concern on his face as he slowly trotted out of my cramped room. As the door closed, I couldn’t shake the feeling I was being watched. I slid open my desk drawer and levitated out my pocketknife. It was a small blade, only about four inches, with a black casing to lock it in place. Like everything else in the stable, 23 was carved into it. My dad had given it to me on my tenth birthday. I slid the blade open and tucked it behind my pillow, keeping it in reach. If somepony was gonna take me, it wouldn’t be without a fight.

*** *** ***

Once I slipped into the dream world, the nightmares returned. Scenes from the Great War played out in my head, ponies being ripped to shreds by machine gun fire, zebras being vaporized and reduced to ash. Figures being hit with high caliber weapons, the force being so strong they erupt into clouds of blood and gore. Griffons soared high above the battlefield, dropping high explosives on the killing fields below. My perspective gradually shifted from an overlooking view to the body of an earth pony solider. Before me stood the massive red buck I had seen in the apple farm’s office, radiating confidence and morale through the whole room.

“This is it soldiers, the moment we’ve all been fighting fer. We secure that bunker and the day is ours. Bravo, y’all are gonna hit the left machine gun nest with everything you got. Delta you’re with me. While Bravo is suppressing, we move up and take the bunker. Simple as pie. ” Big Mac said without the slightest ounce of doubt. I had to hand it to him; he sure could get a squad pumped up. The whole room was filled with ponies with and without power armor chanting and rallying together. We all exited the bunker and collected our first class tickets straight to Hell. The buck I was in stomped out the door and started to open up his assault rifle on the incoming zebras. They attacked with such ferocity, taking multiple kill shots and still galloping just as hard. This buck’s other weapon on his battle saddle was a grenade rifle. He bit down and a sight popped up over his left eye. With the sight set on a group of three zebras, he bit down again and sent a 40mm grenade right in between them. The grenade hit the middle one right in the chest. He was completely ripped apart and sent a shower of red mist over his fellow soldiers. The left over shrapnel was still enough to kill his companions and as Big Mac moved up the rest of us followed suit.

We pushed forward as a shot rang out that could be heard clearly over the other small arms fire. The unicorn standing beside me was flung back and hit the ground hard. I ran over to see that his head had been completely removed along with a good portion of his chest. From down in front I heard somepony shout “Anti-material rifle on the ridge!” just before he met a similar fate as the unicorn. We continued to push on losing ponies left and right. We were making our final push toward the bunker when a zebra squad appeared atop the structure. Each held a rocket launcher and in perfect synchronicity, began pelting us with explosives. All around me my friends were dying, most turning in to showers of red mist. The shrapnel from a nearby hit dug into my left side, sending a burning sensation all through my body. The explosion also showered me in the blood of its victim, leaving my coat damp and nasty. Our rocket team retaliated and cluster fucked their position with high-explosive rockets. A skinny buck reached the bunker and placed a package of C4 at the base. With a resounding *click* he triggered the explosives and left a huge chunk of the wall missing.

The remaining troops spilled into the base gunning down any zebra that crossed their path. It was pure chaos as the bunker shook each time an explosive detonated. I fought beside another earth buck clearing room after room. We stumbled upon a locked room and blew the lock off. Inside sat a crying zebra colt sitting on a dirty straw mat. He couldn’t be more than five but nonetheless I aimed my sights at the little zebra. My partner stopped me from shooting and trotted over to the child.

He leaned down and told the little zebra “Were here to help, just stay calm.” He reached out his hoof to comfort the colt. The colt jumped to his feet and slapped the buck on the back screaming “Gotcha!” and darted out of the room. A faint beeping started and sped up rapidly. The beeping ceased and flames engulfed the entire room, throwing me against the metal shelf hanging on the wall. I dropped to the ground and felt as if something was terribly wrong. I attempted to move but my body wouldn’t respond. The only thing I could feel was a sharp pain in my back and the fire that was burning fiercely throughout the room. I tried so hard to rise to my hooves but my body would not listen. As the flames burnt brighter, my host accepted his fate. It was over.

*** *** ***

I awoke feeling a thin cord secured around my neck starting to tighten up. I opened my eyes to see Crater, one of Cherry Bombs goons pulling both sides of the cord as hard as he could. I gasped for air, but was denied as I pushed Crater off the bed and wrestled him to the ground. We rolled around exchanging hits and stomps until he lost his magic grip on the cord. I shot up and caught a deep breath before attacking again. He revealed a combat knife and gripped it with his magic. I stumbled backwards and found my knife to counter attack. He had a four-inch advantage with his big boy knife compared to my dinky little pocketknife. Crater lunged at me with all his might. I hopped left and barely avoided his hit but still got sliced across the side. I retaliated with a few quick slices to the body only superficially wounding him. I would have to get a good hit to take him down. He came at me with a hail of high stabs, a couple of them chopping pieces from my mane. On his last swing, I slid under it and sliced a sizable gash into his front right foreleg. He let out a yelp and fell to the ground. Seizing the opportunity I jumped on his back and repeatedly drove the blade into his mid-section. Crater moaned and cried and was dying quickly, and after about fifteen stabs he stopped struggling. As the blood poured from his chest, he let out one last groan of pain as his body went limp. I tried to clean myself off as I hopped up and gathered my things. It was of no use; I was drenched in a mix of Craters and my own blood. As I dried my mane, my PipBuck flashed that an incoming message had been received. I tabbed over to the messages and opened the file.

Crack, you have to get out now. I have the files and I’m sending them to you. I was able to decrypt one of the three files before they locked me out. The door is sealed and they’ll be here soon. I’ll try and help you get out from down here but they locked the system down. I can see from the cameras that they’re on their way to your room so you have to leave NOW! If I get out I’ll find you. Good bye and good luck.

Wasting no time I made a B-line for the stable door. I looked down one hall to see a group of security ponies running my way. I rounded the corner and threw down a frag mine and kept running. A few seconds later the mine went off, the shockwave shaking the ground below me. I galloped as hard as I could, knocking over anything or anypony that got in my way. I tossed the rest of my mines while running down the main stretch towards the door. I tossed two frags in the main lobby to dispose of the guards. With a resounding *boom* I knew the job was done. As I approached the stable door, I could hear yelling and hoof steps close behind me. My PipBuck synced up with the door and it began to slide open. I quickly accessed the outside terminal and started the closing sequence. Through the gap, I could see Iron Hoof was infuriated and breathing heavily. With a wide grin on my face I tossed one of my EMP grenades right beside the terminal. The grenade went off like a blue supernova, sealing them inside until they could replace the terminal.

With a triumphant spirit, I lit up a smoke and started heading out into the wastes. That wasn’t the outcome I was expecting but at least I made it out in one piece. One thing is for sure; once they get that door open I’m gonna be on the top of their shit list.

*** *** ***

“So what happened after I escaped?” I ask Lockout eagerly.

“Well I stalled them for as long as I could to try and break those codes. I was almost done with the second one when they blew the door open. One of the ponies from medical hit me with his damn immobilize spell and carted me off to the brig. They stripped me of my rank and said I was conspiring with you against the Overmare for control of the stable.” He spoke very lowly with the same pained face I hadn’t seen since my escape. “They used the level three interrogation spells.” A single tear slid down his face as he finished.

No fucking way. Now I wanted to watch Iron Hoof die as slowly as possible and suffer every minute of it. Level three interrogation spells were created by the Ministry of Morale to deal with prisoners that ‘Conventional’ methods of torture would not suffice. This method was never to be used against a pony as it was very painful and had severe psychological effects on the subject. It was a heavily debated issue before the Great War, having almost equal support for both sides. Pinkie and Applejack felt it was necessary to insure homeland security and for counter intelligence purposes, Fluttershy and Twilight were both appalled at the techniques being used. They felt that ponies were better than that regardless of the equally insidious methods being employed by the zebras. Rainbow Dash was off doing whatever it was she did, something probably cooler than debating ethics while Rarity was preoccupied sweeping the whole situation under the political rug. Towards the end of the war, Equestria outlawed their use but I’m sure that didn’t stop anypony from using them.

“Dude that’s seriously fucked and I’m responsible for it. I’m sorry it turned out that way.” I said.

“Don’t be. I knew what would happen and I helped you anyway. After what you said, I knew it needed to be done. I saw enough from the files to know what we did was right. Have you had a chance to look at them and get them open?”

“Well I’m not as skilled as you with computers so the last two were way past my skill range. I looked at the first log but everything in there was before Iron Hoofs time. Everything seemed to be by the books and legitimate. Retrieving water talismans and new parts for various systems.” I replied.

“Ok well let’s sync up our PipBucks so I can work with those files when I get a chance.” Lockout pulled a small wire up from the base of his PipBuck and connected it to mine. Ours could receive files wirelessly from a mainframe but pip-to-pip file sharing was for the more pricey models. ”The second file is where things get juicy. Near the beginning of her rule, the stable was running at 90% efficiency with all systems operational. Within two months, she was sending out squads to find the last things we needed. Shortly afterward she starts to mention Operation: Reclaim. It originally began to retrieve luxury items like sodas and candy along with other things that couldn’t be made in the stable. These commodities helped boost research and training by being used as incentives to do well. As her power grew so did her sense of entitlement. She started new sectors for combat and the research & development teams. Most of the scientists assigned to wasteland cleansing and botany were diverted into new projects. The three new ones for science was megaspell research, biological warfare, and magical regeneration. That was as far as I got before the door flew off. I don’t know exactly what she planning, but I know it won’t be good for anypony.”

“That’s for sure. We need to break those encryptions and figure out what she’s planning. So how did you end up getting out?” I asked.

“Well those security ponies aren’t the pick of the litter intelligence wise. I was being transported to my treason hearing and requested to stop by my room. They followed me there and allowed me in without them watching. I went over to the ‘My Little Chemist’ set I had and mixed up some pretty nasty stuff. I cooked up a flask of Necktorium and one of Dartium. The Dartium is very peculiar. When in liquid form, it can be splashed on a pony and cause intense burning and impaired respiratory function, sometimes leading to death. Here’s the cool part, when mixed together they produce the same effects but they convert into a gas. I splashed the guards in the face and made a mad dash for the stable door. They had fixed the door by then so I didn’t have to worry about it. I mixed the two chemicals and left the flask in the last hallway before the door. I made it out and was promptly captured by those slavers after being outside all of about three hours.”

“Damn, I’m surprised an egghead like you didn’t get picked up sooner.” I said in a playful tone.

“Shut up, you might be able to dance around shooting bad guys but can you tell me the square root of six thousand four hundred and forty eight?” he challenged back.

“My point exactly.” I returned.

RATATATAT! The resounding clack of submachine gun fire followed by return fire thundered from around the corner. Lockout and I galloped back towards the rangers who were hoof deep in a fierce firefight. “Crack, we got incoming raiders advancing on our position!” bellowed the captain from behind a blown out camper. The captain hopped out from his cover and sent a 40mm grenade jetting towards a pair of ragged looking earth ponies. On the horizon I could see a swarm of raiders descending on the shopping complex, snarling and shouting war cries and various obscenities. The crowd was pushing through heavy gunfire moving from cover to cover. The landscape was riddled with chunks of concrete and abandoned cars that were proving quite effective at stopping bullets.

“Everypony, get to defensive positions! Golden, come with me up those stairs! Lockout, help the Rangers keep those explosives going downrange. We have to hold the line!” I screamed over the the howl of an enemy’s minigun. 5mm rounds danced across the wall behind me leaving small cherry sized hunks of the building missing. Golden finished the clip in her marksmen carbine and quickly ran to the base of the stairs. We ran to the second level and found a room with a south facing window. This section appeared to be a break room for the maintenance workers. A tray of untouched cookies lay atop a plastic table with a card saying ‘Happy Birthday Rusty!’ along with a stack of perfectly wrapped presents. A Sparkle-Cola machine sat in one corner of the room, its back lights still glowing after all this time. They must run on some kind of spark battery but it still struck me odd that its charge could keep for so long. I grabbed two bottles that were lodged inside the pickup door and had Golden help me flip it on its side. We both grabbed our weapons and set up shop atop the flipped vending machine. From the sobering clarity of this angle, I realized how royally fucked we were. And just when I thought we had missed the party, the party found us.

The attackers had been thinned out from roughly sixty down to forty five but they had made excellent progress in their advance. I centered my scope facing the mob and began marking targets. A couple targets stuck out from the rest of the group. It appeared the strike was organized into groups lead by the most savage looking raiders they could find. One massive pony wore a bison skull for a hat and had thick metal armor covering the majority of his body. “Golden, switch to armor piercing if you haven’t already. See the bison head behind the red car? Take him down” I said.

“Got it.”

TAT TAT TAT. Golden’s rifle spat out three rounds at break-neck speed, two of which plowed into his chest. The last bullet smacked him in the side of the head but miraculously he didn’t go down. The hit did faze him though allowing me to deliver the final blow with my rifle. The round caught him right above the shoulder, ripping a sizable chunk out of it. The demoralizing factor was evident the moment he hit the dirt. The remaining enemies in his group attempted to push forward but without guidance were dispersed out into the parking lot battlefield. Golden’s carbine let of a series of bursts taking down raiders as they tried to flee. The other three groups were still coming strong, ignoring their probably fatal wounds due to being jacked up on combat drugs. Through my scope, I noticed Tip and Top scurrying between busted cars holding 9mm pistols in their mouths. A pair of raiders were taking cover behind a white car with a Pegasus Painters decal running down the side. While the raiders laid down fire from their assault rifles the pair slipped in through the front side windows.

“Peek-A-Boo!” they shouted as they delivered a round directly into each of the raiders fore heads. Their victims slumped to the ground like a sack of potatoes as the two darted off giggling with glee. A raider caught my eye with a bright green mohawk, carrying a semi auto riot shotgun, advancing fast on our position. I slowly repositioned by gun until my cross hairs were leading him about five meters. I gently pulled the trigger and watched the round strike him in his right knee. He dropped to the ground as I slammed the rifles bolt back preparing for the kill shot. The moment before my shot Golden’s rifle rang out with a volley of lead. The mohawked raider was torn to shreds along with the three bucks following him. I turned my head to see Golden with a smug grin.

“Hey that was my kill!” I said jokingly.

“Just a little payback and I didn’t think we were keeping score,” Golden teased.

“Well I guess we are now. Drinks are on the loser.” I said with a challenging tone.

“Deal. I hope you’ve been saving your caps!” Her rifle let out two shots and both hit their targets dropping them to the pavement. “Looks like it’s two to zero!”

Ok now it’s on! The raider’s fighting force had been significantly lowered but about twenty more raiders were still coming strong. From the corner of my view I saw Lockout in a frenzy, pulling pins and lobbing grenades out into the parking lot. One landed right beside a stack of cars three high with four raiders hiding behind it. The wall of metal protected them from the initial blast but the force of the explosion caused the top car to tumble over on top of them, crushing them into pony shaped stains on the asphalt. Through a narrow pathway, I saw a group of four enemies advancing. I let a round fly, hitting the first in line and traveling into the second. I cocked the bolt and repeated, hitting only the third one this time. Seeing his buddies were being slaughtered, the fourth turned tail and started to run. I carefully put a round right into his leg, completely blowing it off at the knee. With a deep breath, I delivered the kill blow right to his noggin.

Golden hadn’t stopped firing since the challenge had started, aside from stopping to reload. “Chalk four up for me.” I said.

“Way ahead of ya. I’m up to six.” Damn I need to hurry up.

With my rifle empty I retrieved Mercy from my saddle bags. I lifted out the beautifully crafted weapon and loaded a clip. I flipped the fire rate switch down to semi to help with the recoil and began laying down controlled fire on the remaining raiders. From behind an RV, I saw a large black pony aiming a rocket right at our window.

“Golden get down, rockets!” I grabbed her with both hooves and slung her to the ground under me. The rocket whizzed through the window and detonated on the back wall. Shards of hot metal and busted concrete dug into my back. I flopped off of Golden and let out an injured cry. She quickly retrieved a health potion from my bags and held it up to my mouth. Damn what would we do without these things? The shrapnel began to push its way out and start repairing my backside.

“Fuck, we need to get out now!” Golden yelled loud enough to hear over the deafening effects of the explosion. The building felt a lot less stable after the detonation so we raced for the stairs down. As we made it to the stairs, the building suffered another rocket hit. Golden shot down the stairs before me and as I reached them I heard a familiar voice behind me.

“Not so fast courier.” Before I could turn around, a piercing feeling shot up my spine. I was thrown off my feet and started being reeled in. To my horror a strange claw-like object had dug its way into my back and was tugging me along. In the distance, I heard another rocket hit. That was the last straw. The floors above the staircase and break room caved in, blocking my only exit. In a panic, I fired Mercy off towards the chain trying to free myself. After almost a whole clip, I finally hit my mark and popped one of the chain lengths loose. I rose to my hooves and lifted Mercy to my face. Down the hall I could see the sick fuck I’d been looking for, Dark Matter.

As the remainder of his chain reeled in, the buck bit down on a small silver stick hanging from his side. At that instant the shaft pulsed with a blue light that quickly formed into a semi-circular blade at the tip. With the flick of his head the weapon came flying towards me sideways. I ducked down behind a thick metal desk but to my surprise the axe went right through it, passing just a few inches above my head. I lifted Mercy and myself above the cover and let out a short burst toward Dark Matter who quickly avoided the shots. How could he move so fast in that heavy ass armor? There must be some enchantment on it or it’s a lot lighter than I think it is. Dark Matter had another axe in his mouth and reeled back to toss it. I let out another burst as I jumped to a new piece of cover. The axe came so close that a piece of my tail was chopped off and filled the hall with the smell of burnt hair. Becoming frustrated with my inability to hit him, I pulled up S.A.T.S. on my PipBuck. The diagram showed I had an 80% chance to hit with shots to the body so I queued up three. To my dismay, when I fired my three bursts not a single one hit! What the fuck is this buck, a ghost or something? While preparing for my next shot, I noticed the numerous cans of spray paint with Dash inhalers affixed to the side lying at his hooves. ‘Of course he wasn’t playing fair, he’s a raider!’ I thought to myself. Well I guess I’ll have to show him just how unfair I can play.

The buck was down to one remaining axe so rather than throwing it he started to charge towards me like a bat out of Hell. He was significantly larger than me so if it came down to melee combat I was done for. I only had one chance and I prayed to Celestia to not fail me now. As he entered within five meters my horn began to ignite and pulsate with a dark blue glow, bringing a small bit of light to the tight corridor. The magical field began to form over Dark Matters head, bringing a confused and scared look sweeping over his face.

“What are you doing! STOP, STOP, STOP!” The buck began to thrash wildly throughout the hall, knocking desks over and crushing anything in his path. ”STOP FUCKING WITH MY HEAD!” He screamed as he tore through the room bashing his head against walls and random objects trying to loosen my grip on his mind. “YOU’RE NOT WELCOME THERE! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!”

“What was that?” I shouted over the sound of his tantrum. As my spell reached its third and final stage, I felt my eyes get white hot and begin showering the hall in light. “I’m always welcome in your head? Ok, if you insist.” The bright light coming from my eyes engulfed the room but quickly died down to its original brightness.

Meanwhile…

“We have to get this rock moved!” Golden shouted over the raging firefight and the roar of high explosives. “He’s trapped in there and he needs our help!”

“Well if you didn’t notice there are about twenty raiders closing in that want to literally fuck us till we’re dead,” the captain snapped back.

“I gotta idea!” Tip squealed as she fired her pistol wildly towards the enemies. ”Come with us Goldie!” Golden raced off behind the twins toward the east side of the building. “Watch what I do so you can do it for me.” Tip stated.

Tip readied herself about ten hooves from the shopping centers wall directly under a window. Top set off into a full gallop and jumped right before she made it to her sister. Tip reared up as Top was descending and bucked as hard as she could when their hooves met. This perfectly executed maneuver launched Top into the air, flying right through the open window.

“Impressive” Golden said.

“Yea, we call it the Tip and Top springboard. You think you can manage that?” Tip asked.

“I’m sure it shouldn’t be too hard; I’m not the one flying through the air.” She said playfully.

“Ok lady but you better not mess up or I’m gonna call my lawyer!” She jokingly replied as she started off on her gallop. Golden executed the buck perfectly but not knowing her own strength sent Tip flying into the back wall inside. Tip got up with a groan and looked towards her sister.

“Stupid grown ponies, always overdoing it,” Tip griped as she and Top started out into the building.

“Why does everywhere we go have to stink?” Top complained as they made their way through the halls. “Why can’t we ever go to a flower factory or a muffin dispensary?”

“I don’t know but there aren’t many places out here that don’t smell like poop.” Tip stated.

“Good point but I still think we should go into the air freshener business. We would make a killing!”

“That’s for sure. Wait did you hear that.” As the fillies got closer, the agonizing screams of Dark Matter got louder. They finally rounded the corner to find Dark Matter flailing around the hallway running into everything he could. They then saw Crack Shot lying on his stomach with his eyes radiating with the eerie white light. At the sight of the raider, the fillies burst out into laughter and fell onto their backs.

“Ha ha ha, that is rich!” Tip exclaimed.

“What is that silly buck doing?” Top chuckled.

After pulling themselves together the twins contemplated what to do.

“So should we break it up and shoot him or let Crack have his fun?” Top asked.

“Well I’m not sure but it doesn’t look like he’s in any pain so maybe we should leave them be.”

“Yea I guess so.” The twins settled down on the damp floor and began laughing hysterically as Dark Matter reentered the hallway with a metal bucket stuck on his head.

*** *** ***

Being inside of another pony’s head is a quite surreal feeling. Imagine a long, winding hallway with small doors lining each wall. The walls decorations vary for each individual, showing their greatest victories as well as pieces from their darkest hours. From this perspective, a lot could be learned about an individual and the Ministry of Morale realized this. My team leader told me that some very powerful unicorns could actually alter memories and distort a targets sense of self. You would have to be a mule to not realize how much potential such a power has for abuse, especially in a war-time situation. For better or worse the interrogation methods have been passed down and retaught, generation after generation.

As I strolled down the twisted hallway, the grotesque trophies that lined the walls were enough to make my stomach turn. Dark matter was a truly twisted individual, the heads and flayed bodies of innocent ponies affixed to the walls, blood still flowing down the wall seeping into the black carpet. Every few seconds the world would shake, probably in tune with the brain trauma he was inflicting on himself. Upon passing each door, I poked my head in to find a memory worth watching. The first door I opened revealed Matter sitting beside a campfire with some of his raider friends. Across the fire was a large hunk of meat roasting to a golden brown. Nearby a lone filly was weeping softly from behind thick iron bars, clutching a small stuffed dragon. On the owners tag ‘Property of Mango Tart, THAT MEANS DO NOT TOUCH SIS!’ was scribbled in the writing of a young schoolcolt. From nearby, a raider claims that the roast can’t feed everyone. The door to the filly’s cage shoots open and she becomes caught in the snare of a unicorn’s magic. The little one is dragged off kicking and screaming, digging at the ground viciously trying to resist the magical force. Knowing that this tragedy was in the past I retracted my head and moved on, trying not to think about the horrible fate of that innocent filly.

The next couple rooms were a compilation of the most atrocious sex acts I had ever had the displeasure of viewing. Nothing was sacred to these guys, desecrating the bodies of their victims and torturing ponies till the point of insanity. The foul odor of death and sex lingered throughout the memories, complementing the despair of those who suffered at his hooves. It made me wonder what could cause ponies to behave like this. Was it genetics? Maybe a virus of some sort? The question was intriguing but ultimately unsolvable at this point. What I could do right now was see where Dark Matter’s heart turned cold as ice.

I strolled down toward the childhood section, located towards the end. The farther I went back the less sickening and gory the walls became. Finally I reached the point where the walls were bare, occupied by only the most complex mathematical equations that stretched many meters for each one. One door stood between the gap spanning both decoration schemes. As I approached the door it swung open, almost as if I was being invited inside. I slowly stepped through the door and it shut behind me right after.

The scene began with a bright orange unicorn mare tapping rapidly on a terminal keyboard. The room was a light grey with many different scientific devices crowding the room. Down the wall ran clear pipes pumping different colored liquids through the facility. From the other room bursts a young Dark Matter, not even old enough to have his cutie mark. He runs directly to the orange mare and spouts off some undecipherable gibberish before being wrapped in the mare’s warm embrace. The room grows darker and the lights began to flicker. The scene has changed and Dark Matter has grown up a little. From outside the room small patches of gunfire break out, echoing deep into the facility. Three armed bucks with shotguns enter the room and begin moving towards the orange mare. The mare runs for the other exit but is stopped by two more bucks. They grabbed Dark and the mare and started to force them into the hall. The mare lifts a heavy textbook with her magic and hurls it towards Dark’s keepers. They lost their grip on Dark and he hit the ground running. While he sprinted away, he took one look back to see his mother for what may be the last time. Looking back, the last thing we saw was his mother with a shotgun barrel stuck deep in her mouth. With a sharp *bang* the shotgun roared and sent the majority of her skull splintering out through the back. With tears in his eyes and a burning hatred slowly building in his heart, he swore that her killers would pay.

*** *** ***

*Wuzzaz* With a burst of magical energy, the memory came crashing down. The burst left my ears ringing and my body coated in sweat. I watched as shell casings littered the ground in front of me, the soft metallic *ting* barely audible. The fighting ceased and my friends began to crowd around me. Golden tried to tell me something but all I could hear was muffled gibberish. She retrieved a healing potion from her bag and slowly pouring the magical concoction down my throat. My hearing slowly came back and my wounds began mending themselves.

“Are you alright? Say something!” Golden shouted not realizing I could hear again.

I coughed up a bloody snot ball and spat it on the floor beside me. “I’m fine, and it looks like drinks are on me tonight.”

Level up: Guns (60)

Perk added: Run n’ Gun- This perk significantly reduces accuracy penalty for shooting while moving.

Quest perk added: Thought you were dead- Let’s face it, you shouldn’t be alive. These various attempts on your life have resulted in a heightened sense of danger. Enemies have a hard time putting one over on you and show up on the pip buck compass earlier.

Spell added: Frenzy- This spell will make even the most shy and docile pony turn into a crazed lunatic in ten seconds flat. Note: Frenzy is a very taxing spell and can only be used once every two days.

CH7: A Night On The Town

Chapter 7: A Night On The Town

"Feed a buck for free and he'll be back again for more. Feed a buck a bullet and you won't hear from him next time."

As I took a long swig off my Buckweiser the delightful smell of grilled iguana drifted across the room, finally making its way to my nose. The bar was bustling with ponies of all shapes and sizes, some celebrating with friends while other stared down sadly into an empty glass. A short chocolate brown mare with a smooth white mane stood behind the bar juggling drink orders and manning the large metal grill. To my left Tip and Top sat in a busted red booth with Lockout and seemed to be having a lot of fun at his expense. Tip would keep him occupied while Top threw all sorts of small objects while his back was turned. Tip would do the same right as he turned his back to her. As with all little filly games, it soon became boring and the two sisters hopped up and out the door, no doubt to go cause some mischief elsewhere. Across the bar a group of mercenaries sat quietly, nursing a bottle of scotch and eyeing my ranger friends.

The captain sat with his team in the booth two spaces beside the mercs. As he did quite often, the captain steadily puffed on a fat brown stogie, the pungent odor mixing with the fragrant scent of the bar food. Golden stood outside the booth, sipping on a mixed drink and carrying on with her squad mates. This was my first time seeing her without her power armor and I have to say her body matched the degree of stunning excellence she shown in combat. She wore a tight black one-piece suit that looked tailored for a spec ops soldier rather than for under armor protection. I wondered earlier what they wore underneath their armor and I guess the mystery’s solved now. The suit looked almost painted on and showed every detail of her figure, from her cut shoulders all the way down to her beautiful plo— hold it right there. I got a little bit carried away right there so please excuse me.

A cute green unicorn mare gingerly trotted over towards my table levitating a serving tray close over head. With a smile she sat down the tray and presented me with my food.

“Here’s your iguana on a stick and an extra Buckweiser. That’ll be ten caps,” the waitress said in a flirty voice.

“Thank ya miss,” I replied as I retrieved a sack of bottle caps from my saddlebags. “Go get yourself something nice,” I said as I pulled out fifteen caps and sat them on her tray.

“Thanks mister, I’ve never got a tip before!” It was clear I made her day as she skipped off back towards the kitchen to retrieve another tray of food. I reckon the normal patrons of this bar must be pretty stingy if a mare like her had never received a tip. I lifted the grilled iguana to my mouth and took a big bite. One thing I couldn’t understand; if ponies weren’t supposed to eat other creatures then why did Celestia make them taste so good? Upon finishing my meal I retrieved a smoke from my bag and watched as an old gray buck slowly walked toward the jukebox in the far corner. With a monkey wrench in mouth, he beat the machine a couple times until the speakers began to play. Over the sound of the bar a soft voice filled the bar accompanied by a guitar and harmonica. The voice was quite familiar as my father was a huge Marety Robbins fan. He had every record on holotape and would play them for me when I was younger. The sweet melody enveloped the room as the sad song poured out from the rusty old jukebox.

As I walked out in the streets of Laredo

As I walked out in Laredo one day

I spied a young cowboy wrapped up in white linen

All wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay

I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy

These words he did say as I proudly walked by

Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story

Got shot in the breast and I know I must die

Go fetch me some water, a cool cup of water

To cool my parched lips then the poor cowboy said

Before I returned his spirit had left him

Had gone to his maker, the cowboy was dead

Oh, beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly

Sing the death march as you carry me along

Take me to the valley then lay the sod o’er me

I’m a young cowboy and I know I’ve done wrong

With the conclusion of the song a familiar stallion’s voice boomed from the machine.

Good Evening Wasteland! This is your official voice of the wasteland DJ-Pon3, bringing you the news no matter how bad it hurts. My little ponies have been really busy recently so get ready for some news! Well children it’s official, Stable 23 is open for business. Me and my expert news team don’t know what to make of it but the reports of this young buck keep coming in. I’m tellin’ ya kids this buck must have balls of steel. A local scavenger out near the Mega-Lo-Mare shopping center saw the buck along with a few others walk right in like they owned the place. He was nice enough to give us a full interview.

“It was ahmazin’ I tell ya. I was out lookin’ fer some good scrap out near the shoppin center. Looked like the raiders were out on a picnic or sumthin and them boys just walked on in like it wasn’t nuthin. Looked like they was bout to leave when the whole camp came back. Needless ta say they were pretty pissed at their unwanted houseguests. That was when all hell broke loose. Bullets and explosives was flyin through the air an they were heavily outnumbered. Somehow they came out on top after bout ten minutes of fightin. I tell ya what, thems some tough sons of bitches if I ever seent one. If you’ll excuse me I’ve got a magic lesson with cave rat to get to. He’s one gifted young rodent.”

You heard it here first kids, Mega-Lo-Mare is up for salvaging, just watch out for any stragglers that think the place still belongs to em. Well that’s it for tonight’s broadcast and I want everypony to remember one thing; the only good raider’s a dead raider.

From across the bar my comrades were looking at me, smiling and giggling, as I felt my face get a little warm. Lockout hadn’t even noticed the broadcast and was feverishly typing away on his pipbuck. As I took the final drag from my cigarette and mashed it into the ashtray, Golden began making her way over toward me carrying a bottle whiskey and two shot glasses.

“Now that you’re done sippin’ your brew, you ready for a real drink?” She said as she placed both glasses on the table.

“Double or nothin’” I spat back, knowing Golden wasn’t one to turn down a challenge.

“Ooo, looks like some bucks got their big boy pants on tonight. Fine, you’re on,” she said while grabbing two more fresh shot glasses from the bar. “I hope your stomach is made of lead cuz that’s the only way you’re gonna drink me under the table,” Golden boasted confidently.

“Well I guess we’ll just have to see. Let’s hope you haven’t written a check that pretty plot can’t cash,” I teased. Right after a swishy blonde tail swung around and slapped my face, leaving a few red marks. She looked at me and giggled while pouring our shots. After she finished we both raised our glasses and toasted to the good life, because everypony knows in the wasteland you’ve gotta enjoy the small things.

*** *** ***

Two hours and Celestia knows how many shots later the bartender sounded the last call. Most of the more depressing patrons got their last drink for the road and started to clear out leaving Golden and I alone with the mercenaries and the bar staff. By this point we both were a mess, a small mountain of liquor bottles and beer cans waited to be cleared from the table beside us.

Earlier tonight Golden had introduced me to an earth pony game that was a load of fun. She called the game ‘Darts’ and might as well have been the creator with how good she was. Like most bar games my drunkenness made the game exponentially more fun but also much more difficult. The game was played with six darts and a circular board that hung on the wall. The board had quite a few different interlocking rings with point values stamped beside them. We both took turns tossing our darts at the board and tallying our scores each round. If I was allowed to use my magic I might have been able to put up a fight but one of the rules was no magic. My first toss was a complete miss going half way across the bar and hitting a bottle of vodka (which I had to pay for) and spilling its contents on the shelf which produced a chuckle from the mercs in the far corner. Golden claimed it was a ‘mulligan’ and said I could redo the shot. After three rounds the loser had to drink and I think we all know who was doing the losing tonight.

“Well guess we better be headin’ out,” I slurred before letting out a belch that could have shook Canterlot Castle to its foundation. Golden gave a displeased look before her face cringed at the foul odor my mouth was radiating. I guess hard liquor and iguana didn’t mix very well.

“Yea we need to get your drunk ass home. You look like you could pass out at any minute,” she said before chuckling for a moment. I lit up a smoke as we rose up and headed for the door. While we walked by, the leader of the mercs uttered a distasteful comment from their booth.

“Hey little filly, why don’t you come over her and let some real bucks show ya a good time,” He said with a smug smile on his face. This buck was one big son of a bitch. His coat was a deep red with a short brown and black mane shaved into a mohawk. He was an earth pony and stood almost a full head above me and had three scars running down the side of his head. Full of liquid courage I spun around and gave my best tough guy stance that I could manage in my drunken stupor.

“What the fuck did you just say to her!” I shouted across the room. At this point I had already realized this was a bad idea but there’s no backing down now. The buck rose up from his booth and trotted swiftly towards me.

“I was just telling yer lady friend to drop your ass and get with some real bucks. What are you gonna do about it?” His voice boomed through the small bar despite him not elevating his voice like I just had.

“I’m gonna buck your fuckin’ teeth in, that’s what!” I yelled before charging toward him. My advance was slowed by the sound of a shotgun being fired. I stopped and from behind the bar the chocolate mare was floating some kind of shotgun with a drum magazine in front of her.

“It ain’t mah problem if’n you two wanta kill each other, but ya ain’t doin’ it in mah bar,” she said as she kept the gun trained on the buck and me. We both nodded to each other and made our way outside.

When outside I took my position a couple meters from the huge red buck. He stared into my eyes as if he was trying to burn a hole straight through me. A few puffs of breath shot out of his nose in an attempt to scare me. Our friends stepped aside and watched eagerly to see this hoof-to-hoof battle. With a single nod the fight was on. I charged toward him and swung my back end around trying to buck him in the face. Due to my lack of coordination I ended up throwing myself into a summersault and crashed to the ground. From the sidelines I heard his two mates having a good laugh at my expense. I got to my hooves and saw the buck having a laugh as well.

“What in the filly fuck was that shit. You should really learn ta hold yer booze,” he taunted before making a thrust towards me. The buck launched an over hoof blow that caught me on the side of my head and rattled my brain around by shear force. I stumbled away and struggled to make the world stop spinning. I made a mad dash in his direction and tried my spinning buck again. This one made contact but he caught it in his forehooves and tossed me away. I fell to the ground with my face and scraped across the ground, picking up a good amount of dirt in my mouth. I got up and spat the mixture of dirt and rocks from my mouth and centered back up. Direct attacks weren’t working; I had to think of a different plan.

The large buck barreled towards me at high speed and tried to knock me to the ground. I narrowly avoid his tackle only to be caught off guard when he bucked the shit out of me right afterwards. I already felt battered and beaten as I rose once more. Think Crack Shot, think! He must be telegraphing his moves some way. The red buck was hulking towards me again and fast. As he got a few hooves away, I jumped to the left and planted my back hooves deep in his stomach as he passed by. He tumbled over and rolled on the ground then quickly shot back to his feet unfazed. I took the opportunity to strike first as I ran toward him. As I got closer, I faked like I would try the spinning buck for the third time and watched as he prepared a high counter. I slinked down and did a sweep kick that caught him completely off guard. He rose to his hooves and shot me a look of pure rage.

“I’m gonna fuck you up little buck!” He said as he withdrew a short sword from a sheath that was tied to his barding. I quickly reached for my saddleba--- What? Where the fuck are my saddlebags!? That’s right, I’m a dumb ass. I must have taken them off inside to get comfortable during our darts game. Note to self; 1. Don’t ever take off your bags. 2. Don’t get this drunk ever again. I frantically searched my surroundings for something, anything I could hit this mother fucker with. I spied a short piece of rebar sticking out of a pile of cement fragments. I reached out with magic to grab it but was only met with a short *Pomf* from my horn along with a small fizzle. Well isn’t this just spectacular, no weapons, no magic. It must be my lucky day.

I raced over to retrieve the rebar pole from the pile. I clenched it in my teeth and tasted the rust and dirt that coated its length. It was such a strange feeling gripping a weapon with your mouth instead of a horn. The buck came towards me with a few short slashes, which I blocked with the bar. Every time the weapons met I could feel the pole grinding away at my teeth. At this rate I’ll look like I have a raider for a dentist by morning! While he charged towards me I held my ground, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. The buck sent a volley of slashes low towards my legs while I made a big jump to avoid them. He was getting sloppy and I could see it in his form. As I landed I swung the pole around and slammed it into his hind legs. I made great contact but didn’t cause any significant harm as he stumbled and regained his footing.

We danced around each other for a few moments, being careful not to get too close. I noticed that one end of my pole had been sharpened some how, and I could probably use this to my advantage. The buck approached me with another volley of swings; these aimed more towards my mid section. I blocked and jumped back, prepared for my counter attack. I swung for the fences and cracked him square in the mouth causing him to stumble. He quickly dashed at me as I hopped to the side and cracked him across the back. He turned around and I could swear I saw fire in his eyes. The furious buck raced towards me as I falsely telegraphed a low attack. He got about five meters from me when he shot into the air to avoid my low attack. Hook, line, and sinker. I stood the pole up with the sharpened end facing the buck. I saw the look in his eyes as he landed atop the shaft. It pierced through his mid section and shot out his back, bringing pieces of organs and raw tissue with it. I released the pole as I watched the buck fall to the ground and began to bleed out rapidly; jerking rapidly for a few seconds like a fish out of water then abruptly stopping. His fellow mercs raced to his side but they knew he wasn’t coming back from that. They both rose to their hooves and trotted right up to me.

“You just fucked with the wrong company. This isn’t the end of this; not by a long shot,” one said as they hoisted him on to their shoulders. From there I watched as they wandered off carrying the fallen buck while I lit up another smoke.

“Thanks for that,” Golden said as she trotted towards me. “But you didn’t have to do it. I can handle myself just fine.” She said as wrapped some bandages around my fresh wounds.

“I know but that buck had it coming,” I said between puffs off my victory Mareboro. “And besides didn’t you enjoy the show?”

“I suppose it was quite a fight. You didn’t look so good at the beginning. And it doesn’t help you just pissed off one of the strongest mercenary companies in the area,” She said in a slightly scalding tone.

“Well I never was one for makin friends so I doubt I’ll lose any sleep over those goons. They seemed like a bunch of two bit thugs to me,” I said proudly.

“Well at least they’re better than raiders. Speaking of sleep, I think I should get you home before you try to fight the whole town,” she said with a giggle before giving me a small peck on the cheek. My heart pounded vigorously like Pinkie Pie herself was throwing a party in there. I guess I was right about it being my lucky day.

Note: level up Unarmed (35)

Perk added: Squirmy Little Bastard – Like a rat you’re hard to catch and manage to work your way out of some sticky situations. When an enemies STR is higher than yours by at least two points you receive a two point bonus to agility.

(A special thanks to Kkat for creating this amazing universe and QuackmanBrony for helping out with proofreading/editing)

CH8: Hidden

Chapter 8 : Hidden

“Destiny is not a matter of chance, but of choice. Not something to wish for, but to attain.”

The ground shook underneath my hooves viciously. I was in a small valley, filled with broken remnants of bunkers and bus sized craters. The sky is red, filled with hate and flying creatures ripping each other limb from limb. All around me lie the mangled corpses of my brothers and enemies. I am alone. My brothers are starting to stir, thank Celestia! As each one raises their head, they take a .50 caliber round to their upper chest, removing the head and a large portion of their torso. Slowly, their bodies begin to stitch back together and repeat the same fatal action, over and over. The ground is literally pooling with blood. The level has risen up to about half way up my legs. From above, a team of pegasi drop their payload on the zebra sniper position. The roar of tanks behind me grabs my attention. They fired off their massive main gun and slam the zebra position overlooking the valley. A large chunk of concrete falls from the emplacement and lands on a group of zebra commandos, turning them into red, white, and black stains on the valley's floor. The tanks are trying to advance but are getting bogged down in the blood. I watched in horror as a creature at least twenty meters high formed from the red liquid and ripped the tank's top open like a tin can. The creature expelled some of itself into the tank and set it down at its feet. The tank soon burst into flames. A few moments later three creatures similar to it came out, howling fiercely and overpowering the sound of gunfire. They proceeded to grab my comrades and claw at them viciously. They tore a buck not twenty meters from me into pieces in a matter of seconds. I tried to run but the blood had formed a hold and hardened around my legs. So much blood. The height of the salty red liquid continued to rise as the creatures grew closer.

From beyond the valley a deep, ominous sound bellowed and caused the whole battle to suddenly stop. The creatures stopped advancing, my enemies guns went silent. The sound thundered two more times before I noticed four figures standing atop the southern peaks. They appeared to be ponies but much larger than any I'd ever seen before. The first one was white with a bow floating beside him and wore a crown of gold studded with gems. The second burned brightly like a torch and had a long sword in a sheath to his side. Beside him was a black horse surround by a dark aura floating a pair of scales close in front. He placed a lump of coal on one side and a drop of blood on the other, and to my surprise the side with the drop fell as the coal rose. The fourth and final figure stood to his left and was a sickly green. It appeared to be rotting and produced a horn from nowhere. It blew into the horn and the thundering sound shook the valley once again. From behind them I saw the crest of a wave rapidly approaching; the same dark red of the blood that had me trapped. I thrashed wildly trying to break its grip, but it was no use. The wave finally hit the peak and crashed down into the valley, flooding the battlefield and tossing heavy machinery around like rag dolls. The blood rushed towards me and threatened to pull me from my rut. I took my last breath and tried to hold out till the liquid recessed, but to no avail. Before I had the chance to drown, I felt razor sharp claws plunge into my chest and rip a few ribs out as it left. I let out an inaudible yelp before feeling my organs ripped out my torso in a sick feeding frenzy.

***

I woke flailing in fear and rolled off the bed onto the ragged shag carpet, hitting my head on the nightstand before flopping to the ground. The scene broke Lockout from his fixed gaze upon his Pipbuck.

"You ok?" He asked.

"Yea, just a bad dream was all," I said while rubbing the new knot forming on my head. "Where is everybody?"

"Well I haven't seen the girls all day and the rangers were reporting back to their commanders for debriefing. I heard from Golden that you had one hell of a night," he said with a grin.

"Yeah, remind me never to drink again." I laughed while searching for my saddlebags. Sensing my confusion, he pointed his hoof toward the nightstand that previously assaulted me. I slid the bottom drawer open to see my bag along with a thick hardcover text book. On the front was a picture of a purple unicorn I recognized to be Twilight Sparkle casting a powerful looking spell. Across the top The Well-Rounded Unicorn: Your Horn And You was emblazoned in a shiny purple font.

"I thought we could both use that one. I never got to learn any spells beside levitation and my terminal one. Ditzy said it was a bestseller."

I carefully eyed the book up and down then sat it on the bed. "Thanks, this looks good." After sifting through my bag for a smoke and soda I climbed onto the bed and cracked the guide open. The pages were in great condition for being from pre-war. On the first page was a picture of the studious purple mare standing beside a green chalkboard.

Hi, I'm Twilight Sparkle and I'm here to be your personal instructor in your magical journey. Most unicorns think they can only learn magic associated with their cutie mark but this couldn't be farther from the truth. With hard work and dedication practically any spell is within your grasp! First things first, we need to learn our basic magic exercises. Find three circular objects around the same size and levitate them about one meter above your head.(If you cannot perform basic levitation spells please refer to Magic For Foals)

I searched around the room to find some suitable objects. After a few minutes I found some old pool balls. My Pipbuck had to tell me what they were, I got the two, three, and eight ball which apparently had some significance. My horn gave of a faint blue glow as they slowly drifted into the air.

Good. Now this part is important. Make up your own pattern of motion and practice spinning them around. Make sure they don't touch and start off real slow. Once you have the pattern down, increase the speed gradually to a speed that is comfortable for you but still challenging. Test out other techniques to find which one is best for you.

The first method I tried was a simple circle. It worked well but got boring really quick. I tried putting them in random orbit and quickly had a collision. The eight ball struck the three and shot across the room hitting the wall beside Lockout. He shot me a sharp glare and went back to reading his book and clacking on his Pipbuck. After almost an hour I had a cool pattern down. I focused on an invisible point and placed the balls in orbit around it one at a time. Once all balls were present they would narrowly miss each other but wouldn't hit no matter how fast I spun them. Lockout had relocated to the other room to avoid a pool ball induced concussion. I couldn't blame him.

Ok now that you've got your rhythm down keep it up while your reading. The point here is to keep your horn working even when not actively casting magic. Whenever your horn gets tapped take a break and come back later.

No kidding. I was already starting to get a headache.

Now the first spell we're going to learn is manipulation. Don't be intimidated by the name, it's a big word for a simple concept. This spell allows you to make a ball of energy and change it around as you please. To start off, we're going to imagine a small ball of light a small distance from your nose. Focus on making the ball as compact as possible with as much force as you can.

I sat my pool balls down and got ready to try my new spell. My horn let off a dim glow as a piece of light formed and quickly fizzled out. Well that was disappointing. At this rate I'll be a master by the next century! My exercise had already given me a crushing headache so I closed the book and slipped it back in my bag.

"Hey Lockout, I'm gonna head over to Ditzy's. Wanna come with?"

"Na, I'm just gonna stay here and keep working on these files," he shouted from the other room.

"Suit yourself."

It was a quick walk up to Ditzy's shop. I walked in to see her packing some boxes along with three stout bucks. She shot me a smile as I entered and pointed a hoof to the specials board. Her shelves were lined with everything a pony like me could need. Rifles, boxes of grenades, healing potions, and a gratuitous amount of random objects. There it was, lying beside a scorched piece of electrical equipment. The pistol I had become so attached to back in the stable's simulation. Its chrome finish shined like a diamond in the sea of useless junk. My .45 caliber pistol. I floated the pistol up and cocked it back. It slid back like butter, as did the magazine. My mind was made up; I must have this gun.

I brought the weapon over and sat it down on the counter. Around Ditzy's neck was a chalkboard which she sat down and started to scribble on. When she finished, she revealed '500 caps' on her board. Dissatisfied with that price I retrieved my 9mm pistol along with half my ammo for it. She erased the number and countered with '200 plus I'll throw in 100 .45 rounds'. Now that was an offer I could live with. I counted out the caps and grabbed a few healing potions, along with some grenades with a red band on them. She upped the price back to the original five hundred, to which I accepted. Happy with my purchase I started to load up my new pistol as I headed for the door. On my way out the bounty board that hung on the wall caught my eye.

Wanted: Somepony to clean out Tortecca Tower

Threat Level: low

Notes: Tower needs to be cleaned out to be salvaged for medical supplies. Tower should be relatively empty aside from a few animals.

Pay: 800 caps

Well this looks interesting. I tore the flyer down and a marker appeared on my map as I strolled up the door.

***

"How did I let you talk me into this!" Lockout shouted before rising up a popping off two rounds toward our attackers. This little job had turned out to be a little more difficult than planned. We figured out whoever wanted this building had competition. Three pegasi is some strange black armor were here rooting through some rubble when we stumbled upon them. Without a friendly 'how do you do' they immediately opened fire towards us with energy weapons.

"Well I thought, being a smart pony, that you would have talked me out of it!" I shouted back before laying down a short burst from Mercy. We both had set up defensive position near the end of the hall, as did the pegasi. The desks we were behind were blocking their shots but were starting to chew our cover to pieces.

"Yeah, no kidding. So do you have some plan to get us out of this mess?"

"Nope, I guess we're just gonna wing it!" Wow what a horrible pun. I rose up and put a few controlled bursts toward the pegasi and saw one make contact with one of their legs. The injured pegasi was quickly dragged back behind cover while the other provided cover fire. From behind us down the hall I heard the sound of fast approaching hoof steps. I swung Mercy around and trained my sights on the corner. To my amazement, Tip and Top came prancing out into the hall. They ran up to Lockout and practically tackled him to the ground. After he threw them off they skipped on over to me and plopped down to my right.

"So what's the big idea. You guys trying to sneak off without us?" Tip said in a teasing tone.

"Yeah, you didn't think you could get rid of that easily did you?" Top added.

"Well this was supposed to be a simple get in, get out deal. No one said anything about spec ops pegasi." I replied.

"O, you mean the Enclave. Yeah they don't take kindly to us ground ponies." Top said.

"Yeah they're a bunch of meanies. They can't just leave anypony alone." Tip added.

"So were you guys planning on sitting here all day or are we gonna get out of here?" Top questioned.

"Well since you two are here you wanna make yourselves useful?"

"Yay we get to have some fun!" They both screeched in unison.

"I thought so." I pulled out some of the red banded grenades I had and shoved one in each of their mouths. "Ok, so I know quiet isn't in you twos vocabulary but you need to be sneaky for this to work. Backtrack through the hall and take the third door on the left. Keep going straight and you should pop out behind them. Pull those pins and try to make them land at their feet, got it?" They both nodded before dashing off back down the hall. Lockout had been keeping the enemies occupied laying down fire from his pistol. Green energy bolts whizzed over his head but he stood strong. For a science pony I couldn't help but wonder how well he would have done in the combat field.

I lifted my head only to have a red beam flash by my head and singe a good chunk of my mane. One pegasus took to the air and flew towards us, but quickly fell back after meeting with a hail of 7.62 rounds. Before I could lay down another burst I watch their position become engulfed in hot flames. Shortly after the filly duo stepped up from behind their cover, Tips left side covered in a thick coat of black soot. With a quick shake the majority of the soot fell off and drifted into the air.

"What did you do that for!" Tip shouted at her sister. "I said we were gonna throw them on three!"

"I did! You said 'Throff' and I threw mine!' Top shouted back at her.

"No, you threw yours on 'twoff', I saw you!" Tip returned.

The fillies continued to argue as Lockout and I trotted over to the crispy Enclave soldiers. Lockout inspected their weapons before letting out a defeated sigh.

"These guns are really cool, but I don't have the right tools to get them off their battle saddles." He said. I shot him short smirk before bucking the shit out of the bars connecting the weapons to their saddles. Three bucks later the bars were broken and stowed away inside Lockout's bag. "Well that was completely savage but overall effective. I'll have to remember that one," He said before trotting off back down the hall.

One of the pegasi's weapons caught my eye. The one that had appeared to be their leader had a small, glowing red and black bracelet at the end of his front legs. They appeared to be energy weapons that could be fired without being in your mouth. I unlatched them from the Enclaves armor and started off back down the hall. Tip and Top were still fighting and Lockout was digging through an old locker nearby.

"Calm down you two, I've got presents for both of you!" The word presents immediately snuffed their petty argument and they both rushed over and crowded at my hooves. I gave them both one of the bracelets which they both slipped on and shrieked with glee. They both shot off a few charges and let out another shriek of joy.

From behind I heard the distinct sound of a clip being loaded and whipped myself around to face it. Down the hall I saw a faint shimmer and immediately drew my .45 pistol and and let three rounds fly. The shimmer was too quick and turned the corner, which I followed. I raced down the hall trying to catch a glimpse of whatever I was chasing. I rounded another corner and galloped as hard as I could to catch It. I passed by a set of doors and out of the last one came a shimmering shape. It was too quick and smacked me in the head, knocking me to the floor. I believe I got pistol whipped but I couldn't say for sure. I felt a strong leg wrap around my neck and drag me into the room. I felt the blood from my fresh head wound dripping down my face as I struggled against my unknown attacker. The more I struggled the tighter its grip became upon me. A grizzled voice spoke softly in my ear.

"Stop struggling you fool. If you'll just calm the fuck down I'll release you." The voice said. Hoping that it was being truthful, I stopped struggling and felt its grip slowly loosen up. Finally it released me and I stood up and holstered my pistol. I stood across from the slightly sparkling shape and slowly it disappeared to reveal a large brown earth buck with tribal tattoos similar to the one I had.

"So who are you and why have you been lurking around?" I asked the buck while sparking a smoke.

He stood silent a moment before responding. "I am Lanos of the Burning Tides clan. I've been charged with observing and tracking your recovery. We are the ones that gave you new life. We must make sure you use it well. You're a very important pony, whether you like it or not. I've been trying to make contact for quite sometime but you've made it very difficult. The chieftain has requested an audience with you and it would do you well to attend. This paper will tell you all you need to know to attend. Any other questions you have will be addressed by the chieftain." After he finished, his cloaking system reactivated and he exited the room, leaving behind a small note on the desk.

Be at Bloodrun Peak at midnight sharp three days from now. Come alone. Come unarmed aside from melee weapons. Failure to abide will be seen as an act of aggression.

***

I regrouped with everyone after my strange encounter and set out back towards town. It was a short hike back and hadn't been very eventful. Lockout and I talked a little while the sisters argued excessively about who’s bracelet was better. I still couldn't shake the feeling something wasn't right. Since we’d left, I hadn’t heard a single gunshot or explosion, which is quite out of the ordinary. I diligently scanned the skies and adjacent ridges looking for any signs of opposition. The whole situation had me on edge so I lit a smoke to ease my nerves. I could see New Applelossa from here and was glad to be back. After that little encounter, I needed a brew and a bite to eat before heading back out. A few moments before reaching the front gate a flash from the ridge caught my eye. The flicker was trademark of a sniper scope and I did my best to keep composed.

“Everyone, don’t look now but we’ve got company. Stay casual. If they think we know, they’ll take the shot for sure.” The group followed my orders remarkably well and trotted up to the front gate like it was business as usual. The guards let us in and I ran a short distance over to the sheet metal barrier which surrounded the town. I found a small hole and lifted my hunting rifle scope up so I could see through the loophole. There they were, right where I saw the flash. Two members of the Stable 23 Recon Team, not counting how ever many else not in view. The only thing identifying them was a small spot of blue and yellow on the spotter's shoulder, which i recognized as the Recon team patch. They were too far to tell who they were, but I knew if the Overmare was sending a squad to take me down, she’d send the best.

Note: level up

Perk added: Twitchy Eye- You know what its like to be on the other side of the scope. You're more likely to notice the little things that would give away an enemy's position.

Spell Added- Manipulation [LV 0.5]- Hurray! You can make a ball of energy. It gives off a faint light and that’s about it. Good for you.