Fallout Equeastria:Digital Shadow

Chapters

chapter 1:duple gangers
chapter 2:right on time
chapter 3:ain't that a kick in the head?
chapter 4:phantom stallion
chapter 5:a pang of guilt
chapter 6:reunited
chapter 7:hoofington
chapter 8:hoofington (continued)
chapter 9:Eli's griffon's
chapter 10:assassination attempt
chapter 11:close calls
chapter 12:fear has 2 meanings
chapter 13:fear has 2 meanings (continued)
chapter 14:Grim reaper's hunter
chapter 15:Medley little Melody [character chapter]
chapter 16:the enclave
chapter 17:crinis
chapter 18:the hamlet (short chapter)
chapter 19:back from the dead

chapter 1:duple gangers

star dust is walking through the halls of stable 92 as he often does every day, he has his helmet off since he refuses to wear it because it messes with his mane and the sounds of his hooves clopping on the floor are his only company aside from the occasional stable dweller or zebra he passes. As he passes the cafeteria he sees one of the zebras of stable 92.
"Hey, what are you doing here past cerf-" Stardust interrupts.
"...aaahhh like i give a shit." Stardust says as he trots in and leans on the vending machine the zebra is using.

"Patrolling as usual star?" the zebra with a sly smirk says in utter confidence as he browses the options.

"Do i know you?" Stardust says with a cocked eyebrow, wanting to hit the zebra for his attitude.

"No we don't know each other, but that means we can get to know each other." The zebra replies with a cheerful and slightly childish tone even though he has a deep voice.

"Ah I see..." Stardust replies back as he tosses his baton up and down.

"Well yea im patrolling, I do it every night...boring as hell though" he says before he gets clonked on the head by his own baton, making the zebra chuckle.

" Well since we zebras apparently don't have to do any work around here and it gets pretty boring...maybe i can help you." The zebra says as he turns his head to look at him "My name is Jerome by the way" He says before smiling.

"You already know my name, Stardust, and I guess being the only other Pegasus in this stable kind of makes it obvious who i am." Stardust says with a exasperated sigh and a stretch of his wing.

"Hehe, yea hey isn't your dad the computer specialist that hacked into the stable?" The zebra blurts out without thinking.

"Uhhh no hes head of security...that got in by blowing a motherfucking hole in the roof." Stardust corrects him before chuckling and getting up, punching the vending machine and making a bottle of sparkle cola come out, making the zebra smile and take it.

"Right, right and thanks for the soda." He says while popping the cap off and gulping it down happily.

"No problem" star dust says with a sigh." So about that whole 'coming with me on patrol' offer" he says but Jerome cuts him off.

"SURE,ITS BETTER THAN STANDING AROUND" Jerome blurts out excitedly.

"OK OK LETS GO" star dust blurts back,trying to out yell the zebra as he sighs and starts trotting to the exit of the cafetiere with Jerome. mid way through the patrolling star dust slows down "shh,stay quiet" he says with fear and panic in his voice as Jerome gulps and nods.

"come in...its time for dinner." a voice behind a glowing red door says with a satanic chuckle making star dust flinch as they both rush down to another hall.

"t-that door didn't used to talk."star dust says.almost pissing himself. "i remember the sound of claws but t-that...THAT'S NOT WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME!!!"

"W-what are you talking about?" Jerome says just as shakily as he shivers a bit but and curls up,clearly not used to any kind of fear.

"Remember that stable security pony that vanished? He went into THAT very room." star dust says and points a hoof at the door. "ok,thats it,were taking this to the over mare."

"WHAT?!?! you haven't told her?!?" Jerome says with worry and his heart races the more he thinks about whats behind the door.

"Yes we have,the door just has never talked" Star says just as he grabs Jerome and storms off to the over mare's office,his hooves becoming a rapid blur as he speeds up and stops with a pant the very instant he face plants into the wall and Jerome gets slammed into the wall with him.

"GAH,WHO'S THEIR?!?!" The over mare shouts out just as she bursts out of her bed and aims a pistol around the room then sees star dust flop onto his back and she rolls her eyes before groaning "Star dust you buffoon,get out of here,your supposed to be patrolling" She states as she puts her gun away.

"I KNOW MA'AM." Star says as he pulls Jerome out,making the overmare look at them both with a raised eyebrow "W-we have news of the mysterious door ma'am." He spouts out just in time to notice the sudden infuriated look on the over mare's face.

"YOU TOLD ONE OF THE ZEBRAS ABOUT IT?!?!? THAT IS CLASSIFIED INFORMATION YOU TWAT!!!!" The over mare yells out in fury and nearly punches star dust,making him flinch as she shoves him to the side and stomps her way to the shivering zebra and grabs him before pinning him to the wall "Listen here you little zebra motherfucker,you keep your mouth shut about this okay? now be a good boy and go back to your room." she snarls as Jerome nods his head rapidly and the over mare smiles before letting him go and he sprints around a corner and just hides their,out of the over mares sight. she rushes back in "Get back to your post,do not dare tell anypony else about this or i will have you EXECUTED!!!" She screams at star dust before shoving him out the door.

Star dust just stands their for a moment,not knowing what to do before mumbling "...I got to see whats behind that door." Before sprinting towards the glowing red door and Jerome sees him rush past and chaises after him

"Where is that psychotic pony going?" the panicking zebra mumbles to himself as he sees star dust buck down the door and leap in.

"...Mother of Celestia." Star dust says as he falls on his haunches and looks at the blood red room,the tape recorder playing the Erie sounds,the blood and guts in the bathtub in the middle of the room along with pictures of stable ponies and the ones that have a 'X' over them just happen to be ones that went missing and came back ether acting different or looking strangely off. "...W-what were they doing here?" star mumbles as he trembles as Jerome rushes in,panting and looking around before nearly vomiting,wide eyed and shaking.

"...T-this is what happens in this r-" just before the frightened zebra can finish a voice sends a chill up and down his spine until he felt like he'd turn into ice and melt.

"So,looks like you two found out our little secret." The voice of the over mare says from right behind them making them both gulp and turn around only to see the 'over mare' with two armed guards by her side and a devilish grin across her face "Well...might as well tell you...IM NOT THE OVER MARE!!!" she says while bursting into insane laughter. "We've been killing you fools one by one and you were none the wiser...well...good to get that off my chest...GET EM BOYS!!!" she says as she bursts into a cackle and the two guards grin and slowly approach star dust and Jerome.

"N-no...no..." star dust mumbles and something in his mind can be heard cracking as he feels himself lose control of his body and his blood starts swelling as he smacks the gun out of one of the guards grip,making his teeth chatter and feel like their coming off before grabbing it in his own mouth and aiming.

"S-STAR?!?! WHAT ARE Y-" before the zebra could finish...three loud blasts blare through the halls and the entire stable and star dust drops the gun,shaking looking at the 3 beheaded ponies that are now laying in front of him,each shot went straight through anything that was protecting them "...H-how did you?" again the zebra was interrupted.

"...I...I don't know..." star dust says shakily just as they both hear a little filly scream and run and just as she gets in their view,a bullet zooms past and goes right into the back of the little fillies head as her little green pupils become the size of pin heads and she hits the wall and falls down.

"GAH...n-no...w-what was that?" Just as he peeks his head around the corner he sees most of the ponies that died before and came back were duple gangers and screams and gun shots fill the stables as the ponies that were hiding in plain sight start shooting down everypony in sight and the remaining stable guards try to fight back but fail to do much.

"...We got to get out of here...theirs only one thing here they can be after...my dad's weapon schematics" Star dust says while trying not to hyper ventilate and takes the gun,putting it in his holster and gallops as fast as his legs can carry him to his room with Jerome fallowing not far behind and star jumps onto a terminal and rapidly speeds through typing things in as cold swet rushes down his head and he sees his mother asleep in bed,not even bothering to get up "...She can handle herself...shes not from a stable anyways." star says with a little less panic,knowing his dad and mom are going to be just fine and he downloads the weapon data files onto his pip buck before he hears a loud,male scream and sees Jerome shot in the arm,hissing from the pain.

"DAMN THESE OUTSIDERS!!!" Jerome blurts out in pain as he grabs a saddle bag and straps it onto his back,ignoring the pain and star dust does the same as he watches the door.

"Alright,im ready,are you?" star says quickly as Jerome nods and sighs "OK...we wont be able to come back...but we got to do this to keep the stable safe." star says as Jerome nods again,his eyes filling with water and he tries not to show it as they leave the room. "HEY YOU WANT YOUR FUCKING GUNS?!?! COME AND GET IT!!" Star yells as the raiders snap their attention to him as he runs and they all give chaise screaming swear words at the blue Pegasus and grey zebra all the way to the stable doors and as they slide open star dust makes sure he has the right file before sprinting out,towards the door to the surface as Jerome fallows behind and they both tackle through at the exact same time,splinters bouncing off their cloths as they jump up and star grabs his zebra friend and glides into a hiding spot.

"...ok i think were sa-...fe." Jerome says as he sees the horde of raiders gallop off and then looks up to see the grey clouds and ruined buildings...they were outside.

Author's Note

this is the first chapter to this series and soon if not already their shall be a cover photo so you may see the main characters and what they look like i'll keep updating this when i can and as often as i can,i hope the readers will enjoy this story as much as i'll enjoy writing it

chapter 2:right on time

As Jerome and Star dust look around,blinking and shaking at the new world Jerome nearly pisses himself if it wasn't for the reminder that their are raiders looking for them and he does not know if they can smell fear,or piss but star dust manages to stop his shaking,calm down and smacks himself in the face for not thinking this plan through,at all,in any way.

"Idiot idiot idiot IDIOT!!!" Star dust says as he smacks himself repeatedly "I JUST RAN OUT HERE LIKE THE DUMB ASS THAT I A-." Before he can finish Jerome shoves a hoof into his mouth.

"Considering the rest of the stable would have just pissed itself,i'd say you just saved the whole damn place,now stop hitting yourself,your smarter than you think." Jerome says reassuringly."Common lets get moving,we clearly are not safe out here." the zebra says with a smooth yet obviously horrified smile.

"Hehe yea i guess your right..." star dust replies with a light chuckle as he breaths in the murky and dirty air and gets up from the little hole,helping Jerome out of it as they both start to trot to a little hut that is surrounded by ruined chariots.

"What the hell happened here? it looks like- oh wait thats right,mega spells." Jerome says as he just now remembers that Equestria was bombed with mega spells.

"Well no sh-." Before star can finish theirs muffled struggling and crying that makes both Jerome and star dust stop and look at a shattered,golden chariot that has the sounds emitting from under it "Uhhhhh..." star says under his breath and slowly moves to the chariot and looks under it and just as he does...beep...beep...and the beeping slowly goes faster as he sees a filly and just as he is about to say something.

"GET AWAY FROM IT,ITS A BOMB!!!" A dark-ish blue pony in a grey duster coat and armor yells as he tackles star dust out of the way,making the ponies desperado cow pony hat go flying off as the bomb explodes into a fiery flash of red and yellow and shrapnel hits the ponies coat and Jerome's stable cloths as he looks away and tries to leap into cover as star screams a little and gets up before looking around,grabbing his gun and aiming at the pony "...Get that gun out of my face,i just saved your life..." The pony says with a sigh and fixes his already messy grey and brown short hair and star dust slowly puts the gun back into its holster.

"Well...thanks,i just didn't expect anypony on the surface to be decent enough to save another pony." star says and scratches the back of his head but the blue pony just smiles and catches his hat in mid air and puts it on.

"Well to be honest with you i'v been watching your stable for quiet some time ever since a friend of mine got in their,even sent me a message that he had a son...not sure how he got it to my fucking house though,just heard a knock on the door and their the note was..." The blue pony says while scratching the back of his head. "im James by the way" James says with a smile and holds his armored hoof out as he smirks.

"S-STAR?!?! ARE YOU OK!?" Jerome says,rushing out and galloping towards star,causing dust clouds behind him.

"Y-yea im fine" Star says 'we hardly know each other,why is he even concerned?' He thinks to himself.

"Good...wouldn't want the only pony who knows how to use a gun to get killed." Jerome says jokingly before chuckling.

"oh are you two friends?" James says as he looks at them both.

"hardly" Both star dust and Jerome say in unison before looking at each other.

"Ah,i see...well i guess since you two don't know your way around the wasteland you'd want to go to the nearest settlement?" Jame says as he raises one eyebrow and lowers his hat to get the light out of his eyes.

"yea,that would be nice,i know things are going to be harder but i think i'd prefer to start somewhere sa-." star says before stopping and looking up to see one of the debris from the blown up chariot was falling down near him and his ears flop down as he whimpers lightly then the debris gets blasted out of the sky by a thunderous boom shot by James and when star looks down he sees James holding a rather large pistol in his mouth that seems to be made out of thick silver and shines brightly even when in the shade.

"Rightio then." James says in a rather thick British accent that seems new to star and Jerome even though they haven't known him for long "lets get going eh?" James says while spitting the gun into his holster and begins trotting.

through the entire way their they do not say a word as James always says "quiet" the very instant they open their mouth,the sky gets dark causing panic and slight fear to go through star dust's and Jerome's hearts which get eased the moment they reach the gates of a unnamed and rather small town that is filled with ponies that have scars,burnt,bruises and guns that look ether hoof crafted or stolen from the hands of raiders.

"mind telling us why you wanted us to be so quiet all the way here?!?" Jerome says in the lowest shout he can at James who is unfazed.

"you wanna see?" James says as he turns around and suddenly shouts incredibly loud at the direction they came from "AAAAAAAHHHHHHH-" KABOOM most of the trail starts exploding into flames as James stops shouting and some of the special bombs go up into the air and explode mid flight "See? triggered by sound,whisper too close to them and they blow." he says as he turns to see star and Jerome's jaws nearly hitting the floor.

"...y-yea...thats a good reason." Jerome shakily mumbles as he turns and takes star dust into the small town as James fallows behind them and they all look around the makeshift town and its shinning lights and the ponies guarding the place all wearing heavy armor that can take any bullet star's pistol can throw.

"Welcome to the republic of the phantoms!!" James yells out,grinning. "Now where shall we go f-" star dust has already dragged Jerome to the bar. "HEY WAIT UP!!" James yelps out as he gallops after them.

star dust and Jerome both slowly enter the bar and look around as every pony slowly stops and looks at them,seeing star dust's wings and giving them both a blank stare before slowly resuming what they were doing as star dust and Jerome go sit on the rough leather stools at the counter.

"what would ya'll like?" the bartender asks them while cleaning the counter.

"just some sparkle cola pleas..." Jerome says awkwardly as he looks around,trying to ignore the gusts of bar smell and the faint whiffs of sex from behind the curtains near the counter.

"Some bear mixed with vodka and whiskey." Star says as both the bartender and Jerome stop and stare at him. "...what?"

"You drink?" Jerome asks,a little shocked.

"do you have any idea how strong the shit you just asked for is? and how insane it sounds comin from a stable dweller?" the bartender says to star dust and points a hoof at his pip buck.

"yes,i drink,not often but i do,and what i asked for is just a combination of all the things i drink throughout the week to get through it without losing my balls,now serve 'em up." star dust says while slamming one hoof onto the table and the bartender serves Jerome his and hesitantly serves star dust a shot of his and star dust drinks it down and shakes his head while grinning. "WOOOOWEE thats strong stuff!!"

"star...you are one insane blue Pegasus" Jerome tells him while sipping his sparkle cola,enjoying the carroty flavor he always liked in the stable.

"Yes,yes i am." star dust says with a smile as James runs in,panting.

"You two could at least WARN ME before running off like bloody twats!!" James says,out of breath and frustrated.

"...whats a twat?" Jerome asks to no one in particular.

"I have no idea." star says while getting off the stool and looking at the stage which is empty. "did somepony used to play here?"

"Used to,then the poor feller died,shot right in the head,haven't had much music since,or any for that matter,not like we NEED it but it was still a nice distraction from our...'troubles' that the town was going through" the bartender replies with a sigh.

"...i have a idea." star dust says with a smile as he jumps onto the stage and Jerome and James look at each other in confusion.

star dust puts in a record and goes to the microphone as everypony stops and looks up at him as he starts singing.

http://miracleofsound.bandcamp.com/track/the-day-the-world-died

as star dust finishes the song the crowd slowly starts stomping their hooves in applause and James and Jerome even applaud at his new found talent that nether of them knew about even in the stable.

"wow star dust where did you learn to sing like that?" Jerome says wide eyed and surprised.

"my mother taught me...she was a really good singer" star dust says smiling while thinking about his mom.

"well your mother must have been one hell of a singer" James says smiling and slowly stops his applause.

"well i think ah speak for everypony when ah say that was a mighty fine performance,not sure where you got the music though but who cares? drinks on the house for ya tonight." the bartender announces with a pleased smile and a tip of his hat.

"Hehe well thanks but im not that great,i just learned it from my parents." star says with a shy smile and a scratch of the back of his head as he grabs Jerome's and James's hooves and rushes out of the bar in embarrassment.

"So star...what are we going to do? we have your dad's files but...what are we going to do with them? we don't even know who was after it." Jerome says as he leans on a wall and looks at star.

"...I don't know...im no leader...just did what i thought would get them out of the stable." star dust says with a sigh."i guess we need to make a name for ourselves,or at least catch the attention of someone just enough so that the invaders know were still out here,and we still got the files"

"And i'll help,i saved you from blowing up and i know more about the wasteland than you do,so i'll stick with you two for now." James says with a smile and Jerome and star dust nod,agreeing that its best to take him along.

Star dust trots through the phantom's town with Jerome and James and goes to the gates as the guards let them through without hassle just as they let them in.

"hey...do you even have a gun?" James asks Jerome as soon as he notices the lack of guns on him.

"Hmm? no...i don't but i don't like them anyway...too loud...but i guess i better get used to it." Jerome says as star dust looks around the landscape,hopping to find something.

"Well here." James says as he tosses him a six shot revolver and Jerome grabs it in his mouth. "Its better than nothing,just try not to kill us,aim for the bad ponies alright?"

"Im a zebra from a stable,not an idiot." Jerome says making James chuckle.

"...NOW!!" a pony yells as 6 ponies jump out of cover wearing different kinds of armor (leather,reinforced metal,combat armor,merch,makeshift modified power armor) and all holding different kinds of small arms guns and aim at them as the leader comes out,meeting eyes with star dust. "hello,i would introduce myself but basically,you have 2 choices,ether give up like a good stable dweller and we become rich by selling you to the ponies that want you,or you don't g-" before the clearly greedy merch pony can finish his head gets blown clean off,showering star dust in gore and James goes wide eyed as he pulls out a gun and fires 2 shots at the ones wearing leather and power armor making their bodies splatter onto the ground and star dust seems to turn to the other 4 and as they are about to fire 4 thundering booms sends their bodies shattered and destroyed into the muddy ground behind them

"...Or option 3...you shut the fuck up and drop dead." star dust says with a smile before spitting his gun into his holster,making Jerome stare at them both for a second.

"...What kind of gun is that?" Jerome asks star as he stares at the large and dense 11 shooter that has a barrel the size of a foals hoof which seems oddly out of place for a stable ponies gun.

"its a high caliber heavy pistol,not sure how a stable guard like him got one" James answers for him.

"...How DID i get this gun?" star asks while looking at the heavy pistol but then he remembers...the ponies were not from the stable so they could have had better guns. 'yea thats it' star dust thinks to himself as Jerome shrugs and James just looks forward.

"im going to go scout ahead." James says as he spreads his wings and flies up and flies ahead.

"Alright...lets take a break Jerome,im starting to feel hungry anyway." star dust says as Jerome nods and sits down with them and star takes out some water and a few apples and gives one to Jerome and takes one himself. "...Hey...look." One of the ponies they shot and killed is still alive and they can see the body rising onto its hooves.

"...Whoa...how did he survive?" Jerome asks as he gets up and gallops back to the bodies with star dust.

The surviving thug coughs up blood and looks around and as soon as he sees star dust he levitates a gun in front of him that instantly gets smacked away as star grabs him by the neck and pins him back to the ground.

"H-how did you...y-you killed them." The survivor thug wearing make shift power armor says shakily with blood coming from his nose and mouth. "i-i thought...stable ponies...w-weren't supposed to fight like that."

"...I may be from a stable,but i only hesitate to shoot ponies...innocent...ponies." Star dust says as he pulls out his heavy 11 shooter and aims for the thugs head and winds up looking down one of the barrels of a sawed off shotgun.

"...If im going down..." the thug smirks weakly. "Im taking you down with me."

"...then its just a matter of who shoots first." star dust replies...and as he is about to pull the trigger...blam...blackness.

Author's Note

well lets go through some things first:the song belongs to Gavin i do not own the song in any way but i sure as hell enjoy it,yes this chapter was a bit rushed,im sorry but im tight on time and want to get chapters out quickly,if you want me to stop rushing,just ask :3

chapter 3:ain't that a kick in the head?

"HOWDY PARTNER!!!!" A mare's voice yells.

"GAH,WHAT THE HELL?!?!" Star dust yelps and gets up and looks around and goes eye to eye with a red mare with a slightly lighter red mane that has a black stripe down the middle and has a cow pony hat on.

"Howdy,ahm starberry and you are one very lucky pony." the red mare wearing a caravan leader duster says with a smile while sitting next to Jerome and star looks around to see their on a caravan chariot and their are guards around them and James is sitting with him.

James looks him in the eye and smiles in relief. "I am not sure how you did it but you actually survived a shot to the bloody head."

Starberry giggles and smiles as she fixes her armor and coat. "Well thankfully it didn't hit the eye,it hit around it and his skull is so thick ah just had to pull out the lead." She goes through a duffle bag and takes out a container of straw berries. "Want some?"

Star dust looks at the container and nods slowly as star berry opens it and tosses him a hoof full as he catches them in his mouth then gobbles them down.

Jerome looks at star as he eats them and chuckles then turns to starberry. "Hey thanks for saving star,thought he was dead for sure."

She waves a hoof at his direction. "Ahhhh it was nothin,he was just lucky is all but ahm glad i could help."

Star dust gets up with James and star dust checks that he has everything and then theirs a whistle. "Hmm? whats that?" A rocket flies past and nearly hits them as starberry takes out a small box like object,aims and fires a blue magic laser at the raider pony who shot it,instantly burning a massive hole through his side before another magic laser vaporizes him nearly instantly.

"And that should remind em that you do not fuck with starberries caravan,no matter how good our shit is." starberry puts her magic pistol back into her hoof holster before hopping off and trotting next to a guard. "Go take what he had,it was something that shoots rockets so its gotta be good." starberry commands and the guard instantly nods and goes to the ash pile that used to be the raider and takes everything he can from the remains.

"...Hey star,remember those thugs? i got some info out of the one that was just barely alive before he bled out,apparently James and you have a price on your head,not a big one but still enough to get every god damn mercenary in the current area to want to kill you for your pip buck...and apparently James blew up a whole slaver town and he has a even bigger price." Jerome says while James gives a nervous chuckle.

"I uhh probably should have told you that,but yea the slavers pretty much hate my guts."

Jerome smiles and chuckles. "Its fine James,really,i actually feel better knowing im with someone who knows his shit."

"Hey,were about to go through suicide canyon so ya'll hang tight in their." Starberry spreads her wings and flies up as the guards seem to keep taking second glances at her as if looking for something their missing.

Star dust gulps and looks at her. "Suicide canyon? really? were going through a place called suicide canyon?" James and Jerome look at each other and both gulp at the same time,they throats forming little lumps of panic.

"Ahhh its nothin,mah caravan has been through here dozens of times."

"And by dozens of times,she means once,this is the first time"

"HUSH NOW SNAP SHOT!!!" Starberry blurts out at the guard leading the caravan as snap shot merely nods and star,Jerome and James look even more panicked.

Starberry gets in the chariot as they come across a wide canyon and the very instant they get past the sign saying 'suicide canyon' Jerome's and star dust's pip buck's start clicking.

"SHIT THEIRS MAGICAL RADIATION HERE!!!" Jerome yelps out as he hears the clicking.

"YOU HEARD THE ZEBRA BOYS,GIT TO IT!!!" Starberry holds on to the sides and grins as the guards and the ponies pulling the chariot gallop like theirs no tomorrow and try not to fall off what little land they have and not awaken the giant sleeping mutant flies that have nested at the entrance.

"WHAT KIND OF BLOODY TAKES THIS CELESTIA FORSAKEN ROUT?!?! IS THIS EVEN A ROUT?!?!?!" James aims his gun at some movement ahead as he yells at starberry for her insane and stupid ideas.

"HAHA,WELL THIS IS A PERFECTLY FINE ROUT TO ME!!" She replies as all the ponies make one big jump off a ramp and land on the other side but nearly fall off as the clicking of the pip bucks stop and star dust is clutching the sides of the chariot.

"That...was...AWESOME!!!" Star laughs. "OH WHAT A WAY TO WAKE UP FROM BEING SHOT IN THE HEAD!!"

"HAHA THIS STALLION GETS ME!!!" Starberry and star dust hoof bump as James and Jerome stare at them,wide eyed and jaws hanging open.

"...Seriously?...you know what? never mind." James fires his gun and theirs a howl as a strange wrinkly,orange pony shapped figures falls out of a rock and growls but just goes limp as its boney limbs hit the floor and the bullet went right through the skin of its neck and shattered its neck and wind pipe.

"Awww c'mon,lightin up,we alive aint we?" She lightly punches James's shoulder.

"Welp i personally think we need to get moving,we need to go piss off some slavers" Jerome says while getting up and out of the chariot

"Well ah know this place pretty well,ahm comin with ya'll."

Star dust puts a hoof to his chin a and thinks for a moment. "...Well she seems fun and we need all the help we can get sooo i vote for yes."

Jerome and James sigh as Jerome shrugs. "I guess theirs no harm to it,"

"Are you sure we should be letting somepony who just got shot in the head make the choices of whos coming with us?"

"HEY he may have been shot in the head but ah can tell hes got brains to spare...and a rather thick skull to go with it." Starberry scowls at James and gives him a good smack across the face.

"OW OK OK SHEESH!!" James stammers out when she smacks him.

Star dust smiles and looks at everypony. "Good,so we all agree that this crazy red pony is coming with us?" All of them nod as starberry smiles back at star and they all hop out.

"Ya know,pegesi aren't very common...and yer a stable pony...were their more of you down their?" Starberry walks next to star dust as he looks around captiously.

"no,i was the only Pegasus...what do you mean their rare?"

"Well most of em are ether in the enclave or are too scattered out,although ah heard of 3,dead shot calamity,mornin glory and some mare that no one knows but some ex-slave said she was like a...well she looked like a angel,but when shes pissed she goes from 'sexy and attractive sassy mare' to 'complete and utter walking death machine' ah aint sure weather to be afraid of her or not."

"Hmmm...sounds like a mare we don't want to piss off."

"OH YA DON'T SAY!?!" starberry says jokingly with a little chuckle. "but anyway ahm ex enclave myself...or ya could say i was never enclave,as soon as ah learned how to fly,ah grabbed a gun yelled 'FUCK YOU' to the enclave and flew down here,hehehe they were starring at me with eyes so wide ah though they put dinner plates on their faces."

"Wow...i would ask what the enclave is buuuuttt." Star dust points at a group of ponies that look skinny,limp,hairless and they look...zombied

"...Those aint ponies." She takes out her magic laser gun.

The ponies turn around as the group stops and starberry steps forward,aiming and the ghouls screech and charge at high speeds.

"C'mooon...c'mooooon." As soon as one of them reaches starberry she turns,trips it over before bucking it into the group of other ghouls before firing 3 shots,killing half of them easy before spin-jumping into the sky,using her wings and the winds to help her aim and lands on the head of one of the ghouls that got knocked down and crushes its skull. "STAR,SHOOT!!!" Star dust snaps out of his amazed trance and pulls out his pistol and fires 2 very loud shots and the last 2 ghouls screech as their heads get blown off

Star dust slowly puts away his gun. "...Where the hell did you learn to do that?"

"Well ah really just use the skills ah used on the farm to fend off big varmints."

"You used THOSE skills?...well damn those must be tough little things...hey...where did Jerome and James go?" star dust looks around and notices both James and Jerome are gone and he notices a small set of ruined buildings. "...This doesn't look good."

Author's Note

apologize for the short chapter but i actually got up very early to do this and not all chapters will be the same leangth,some will be short,some will be long,some will be 5 letters...only kidding but still :3

chapter 4:phantom stallion

Star dust and Starberry start trotting to the set of ruined buildings and gunfire. "Stay here." star says to starberry as he leans on the wall and peeks around a corner.

"EAT EXPLOSIONS!!" Jerome tosses another metal apple at the giant lizard like monster that is after him as it tries to grab him with its tongue.

Star dust goes wide eyed as another EVEN BIGGER version of the mutant towers over behind him and has starberry tied up in its tail."...Oh shit." star dust runs and runs into the one Jerome is facing.and now both lizard mutants turn and stare at star dust before hissing and rising,towering 20 whole feet above him and the mother towers 10 more feet than the regular adult lizard. "Oh fuck me."

"STAR,RUN!!" Jerome throws a metal apple at the mother but it doesn't do much other then annoy her and smack him with her tail.

Just as star is about to get chomped on 6 extremely loud shots ring through the roars and screeches of the lizards and with each shot one of them gets a new bloody hole in its neck and once the 6th shot rings out they both fall to their sides and starberry falls out of the mother's tail and gasps for breath.

"OH SWEET NELLY FRESH AIR!!!"

"Who did that?" Jerome jumps down from the second floor of the building he was in and he and star dust both notice a tan coated unicorn wearing a long black duster coat and a fedora on his head and is carrying a big heavy magnum in his green telekinetic grip as he spits out the cigarette he was smoking and a group of other ponies dressed in reinforced,bigger combat armor are behind them as a horde of smaller versions of the lizards come out screeching and sprinting towards the tan pony that has a brown mane and they all get gunned down by the ponies in combat armor.

Star dust looks at the corpses of the lizards before going to the pony. "Wow,uhh thanks." He says with a smile.

"Its our job,don't mention it." The tan pony puts his gun into his coat before lifting his hat slightly. "And i already know who you are,your star dust the pony who gunned down the road campers,nice job,my name is Douglass by the way,you can just call me Doug."

"Doug? thats a strange name." as soon as star finished that sentence Douglass gives him a look of annonce. "ssssorry."

"Its alright,listen,as much as i would love to help you find your other friends,i need to go." He says while relaying his team and runs off before his horn glows and he teliports.

Star dust goes wide eyed when he teliports . "W-what the fuck?!?"

"Wow he must have some pretty impressive magic..." Stareberry tries not to look impressed and Jerome is too busy looking for James to pay attention.

"ELLO?!?! IM IN HERE!!!" A wood cabinet is shaking. "IM STUCK!!"

Jerome chuckles as he breaks James out. "Their can you breath now?"

"Yea...yea thanks" James gets up and picks up his gun again.

Starberry chuckles then speaks up. "Alright everypony ah say we split up."

Jerome gives her a uneasy stare. "Why?"

She gives him a stare back. "Because...ah heard their were slaver and raider camps near this locations and if ahm readin the land marks correctly,stayin in a group means ether raiders jumped us we get rapped,or slavers jump us and we get ENSLAVED...then rapped."

"AND HOW THE HELL IS SPLITTING UP GOING TO HELP WITH THAT?!?" Starberry shoves a hoof into Jerome's mouth before he can shout again.

"They know where we are and soon their going to be comin here to see what the gun fire was about,they'd be able to tell if a group was here but not if we split up and confuse em...ya know what? lets just ask star."

Star dust looks at everypony,a little shocked. "M-me? why?"

"Well,ya'll are the security pony after all,didn't they teach ya how ta make tough decisions?" The red mare replies,hopping for good news.

"N-no they didn't...but they DID teach me how to improvise." Star dust sat on his haunches and began thinking. "uhhh...okay starberry and Jerome go east,Jerome will use his pip buck so while your moving,once you get out of the danger zone Jerome will use his pip buck to lead you toooo-." He pauses to check the map on his pip buck. "New applehoosa,i'll go west which is a further away approach and James will-."

"I'll go north,i already know my way around the wastes pluse i have wi- hold on one bloody second,your going alone?" James nearly goes wide eyed from the thought of a stable dweller that nearly died going through more danger alone.

Jerome looks at star a bit worried. "Star you know thats suicide."

"Yea i know...but remember this:i have the wings and armor here and from what i can tell west is closer to the phantom village so if im ever in a pinch...or just desperate,i can try running to their...besides its only for around a day,im sure you can last."

"Ahm not sure,west is where the lizards and raiders are most common,some of the raiders are even tammin em...not very good but still gettin close." Starberry looks west and has a look of worry.

"...Welp...if i don't see you in new appleoosa in 2 days just assume im dead and move on,ok?"

"First off:fuck no,i'll be coming to find you,we came from the same stable and i am not going to leave your body to rot and secondly:if your going alone at least take some of the stuff i looted from the ponies that jumped us." Jerome slips open his saddle bag making star dust go wide eyed when he sees:a hunting rifle in decent condition,3 metal apple,a pair of ballistic power hooves in usable condition but wont last long in a close quarters firefight,6 bottles that have a strange liquid in them that Jerome personally labeled "health potions" and the thing that catches his eye the most is a scope and muzzle attachment too big for any normal pistol. "take your p-."

"You stole from the dead?" Star dust nearly looks sick.

"...listen here star,ah know your from a stable but yer friend here has the right idea,to survive ya'll need food,medicine and good gear and the only way to get those without probably the worlds most amazing luck is by looting those who have em,its not stealing from the dead its looting what ya got from yer attackers,its the law of the wasteland,ahm sorry if it sickens ya'll."

"...No...no its alright." Star dust takes 3 of the health potion,a metal apple and the 2 attachments. "...What the buck are these things?...hey wait." Star dust takes out his pistol and puts on the attachments onto it and they fit perfectly. "Well well,a 11 shooting heavy pistol with a scope...whats the muzzle for?"

James smiles,knowing the answer to this question. "For most guns it reduces spread but for this gun it gives a slight chance the bullet will be flaming and makes it so the bullet doesn't drop off,not a one hundred percent chance to hit its target but defiantly a significant increase."

"Oh well holy shit this is going to be useful." Star dust examines the silver and blue muzzle that has a matching pattern to the rest of the gun and scope and the scope has the image of a moon and the gun itself,a image of the sun on their sides and the muzzle has a image of a lightning cloud,all of which made in blue,in the middle of patterns different kinds:a cloud of stars around the sun,butterflies around the moon and wings around the thunder cloud all on their respectable objects in blue with hits of silver of the gun around and between them. "Hmmm...this gun looks like its attachments are missing parts...if those ponies who jumped us had some...and i got this from one of the ponies that attacked our stable...aaahhh shit i think we may have attracted their attention then...good."

"Good? HOW IS THAT GOOD?!?!" Jerome hears star say that and panics before starberry shoves a straw berry into his mouth,making him chew on it and slowly calm down.

"Alright,lets get going,we'll meet at new appleoosa." Before anypony can say a word star dust is already galloping off to the west with his gun in his holster and pure energy in his heart from getting new useful attachments for his gun and now having a explosive he can use to blow something up.

Star dust finds himself sneaking around cover from a group of ponies that look like slavers and he can tell because they have some chained up ponies with them which makes star dust's blood boil to the point where his hooves nearly turn red and his body generates enough heat to boil up a fresh batch of tea.

"Stay calm,can't be seen,stay calm,can't be seen." He keeps mumbling to himself as he hides behind a destroyed automatic chariot that still has some old fuel in it. "Grrrr.AH FUCK IT!!!!" One of the slavers jumps as he sees a blue blur come out of the car and when he goes behind the car with 2 of the other 10 slavers all they find is a metal apple and before they can get the first swear word out it explodes taking them and 3 other nearby slavers out in the massive,magic explosion.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!?!?!" The leader of the slaver blurts out as he pulls out his gun with the rest and the slave ponies squeak in panic,thinking their about to get shot.

"...Hello." Star is behind a large boulder and all they here is his greetings before a loud thundering bang that sounds like a gun crafted by celestia was fired by god and it shoots pure lunar awesomeness causes one of the slavers entire torsos to be blasted into giblets,splattering onto the hill just like the limbs and guts of the ones caught in the explosion.

One of the more paranoid slavers gulps and curls up and screams."AAAHHH,PLEAS DON'T SHOOT US!!"

'how the hell am i doing this?...oh,right im pissed off and my best ideas and plans come when im pissed.' Star dust peeks around the corner only to find the two slavers gone. "Huh,did i scare them off?"

"...behind you" One of the slaves whispers.

"heh?" Star dust turns around just in time to move his head to the side before he gets stabbed and grabs the slaver's cloths from the side with his hooves and bite his horn,making him scream as he slams him down into the ground and immediately after that,before he can finish the slaver with a bullet to the head he gets shot in the back as it hits his armor and sinks in but doesn't do more then punch his skin only making him yelp,turn around and use his wings to propel himself backwards.

"Aaahhh sh-." Before the pony could finish his face gets hit by star dust's back as he drops his gun and falls back to the ground.

As star rolls onto his hooves with his gun in his mouth and the slavers gun directly under him,he faces the two slavers one with a knife and the other completely unarmed and wearing only the same cloths as the one with a knife. "I am the pony with a gun here,so i suggest you just drop all you got and give me the keys to the slaves." The slavers look at each other as the slaves gulp and shiver.

"...Alright were not stupid,we know when we've lost." The unicorn slaver says as he starts trying to levitate the gun under star dust as he uses the levitating knife to keep it from looking suspicious. "We'll go,just give me a...second." As he puts his knife down he aims the gun up at star dust's neck as he waits.

"UNDER YOU!!" A slave jumps up and points under him but before he can react 2 gun shots burst through the air and the slaves all close their eyes as they think it was the gun aiming for star.

"...what the fuck?" The gun that was under star stopped floating and star dust hasn't even pulled the trigger as he looks at the two headless stumps that were the slavers and the horn from the unicorn is laying next to the body,rolling.

"Rule 1:never trust a slaver,shoot to kill if you don't want to become a slave." The tan pony named "Douglass" says as he loads up his sniper and puts it on his back. "Only you nearly got shot,just be glad i saved your ass...again..."

"oh uhh thanks...im surprised to see you again." Star dust puts his gun in his holster as he goes to the bodes and hesitantly starts looting the knife and other supplies from the dead bodies of the slavers.

"Im not,i have a feeling were going to cross paths quiet a few times,im just hopping our paths have similar goals and nether will have bad intentions." Douglass goes over to the slaves and as star dust gets the key he starts working on the collars,deactivating them with such ease it makes star dust's jaw drop for a moment.

"u-uhhh alright...alright." He goes next to Douglass and unlocks the shackles one by one.

"T-thank you...both of you..." A slave mare says with a smile as she then gallops away and each slave gives them a thanks and all thats left is the shackles laying on the floor like a big metal snake.

"You did the right thing you know,i saw how you tried taking down those slavers to free the slaves...hehe i also saw how your face boiled like a tea pot when you saw the slaves." Douglass smiles and turns to star dust. "I hope you'll stick to the way you are now,if so then im glad the wasteland has a new hero..."

"Oh im no hero...but if thats what it takes to keep my stable safe then thats what i'll become..." Star dust smiles back at him as he nods. 'although...if i have to...i'll become the opposite if im left with no other choice.' he thinks to himself.

"Alright...be careful out their." Douglass's horn glows as he walks away and teliports ,amazing star again that he even knows such a spell,

Star dust keeps trotting west,checking his pip buck occasionally to make sure he isn't lost but then notices the sun is going down and he has nowhere to stay and he has also just noticed that their is a camp of raiders on a cliff just a little bit away from his path.

'...I could ether keep moving in the dark...or kill them and sleep their...KILLING THEM IT IS!!' He thinks with glee before stopping just as he pulls out his gun and gets ready to shoot the very first pony. '...Am i...excited about killing?...no no its not that their...their bad ponies,yea thats it.' He thinks to try and justify his motive to kill as he takes aim...bang

Star dust sits down next to a fire,near the bodies of raiders which he gunned down just minutes before as he looks into the fire and just thinks for a moment. 'i just gunned down a camp of ponies...they were hostile...my pip buck says so...they were raiders...my pip buck says so...and i didn't even give them a chance to fight back...i killed them all before they even drew out a gun...i-i can't be thinking about this kind of stuff,i need some rest.' He shakes his head as he checks the loot he got from the ponies that consists of:a shotgun with 6 shells,2 strange looking metal apples that are made out of something resembling magic,some food mostly sugar apple bombs and some apples and pears,2 bottles of magic water and some caps and paper money which he kept both because star dust hordes when hes nervous,he then looks at writing on the wall that reads "beware the phantom stallion" and under it is what looks like the outline of the tan pony that saved him twice before. "Phantom stallion? thats what they call him?...alright...goodnight phantom stallion." Star dust lays down,closes his eyes and falls asleep.

Author's Note

here is chapter 4 everypony and i hope you enjoyed this because im trying to get better i really am,tell me if im getting better or worse and what i should change to make it better...and honest and serious opinions please,not trolls because that is just a waste of both our times

chapter 5:a pang of guilt

As star dust wakes up the the crack of dawn his bloodshot eyes open as he groans loud enough to wake the dead he gets up and feels the sour taste in his mouth.

"eeeehh...i need a tooth brush..." He looks around then goes wide eyed. "That...all of that wasn't a dream...ahhhh shit..." He sighs in disappointment and picks up his saddle bags,checking everything is still their but he notices something,a note. "hmm? whats this?" As he picks up and reads the note he can't help but think its a mare and admire the neat cursive writing.

'Hello star dust,you may not know me but i know you,i know your on your way to new appleoosa so check behind the rock on your right,i left you something to help you use the bigger weapons you have or will get,i left more supplies through out the wastes for other ponies,if you find one check them,they'll have my mark on it ~Ashley' The note ends with a image of a heart next to her name.

"Ashley...huh..." He puts the note away and goes to the rock on his right which is big enough to hide a pony and behind it is a battle saddle,some instructions on how to use it and a glowing pink kiss mark above the battle saddle which indicates its one of "Ashley's" supply spots.

After reading the instructions,putting on the battle saddle and putting his shotgun on it he gets out from behind the rock. "This will defiantly be useful..." He grips his pistol in his mouth and notices that their was a massive smoking town he didn't see and its just a 4 minutes gallop away and his head rushes with thoughts of innocent ponies in danger. "AH SHIT!!!!" He starts galloping down the road and towards the town that is almost the size of a city.

As he rushes into the gates,his hooves burning from the none stop fast sprinting he sees ponies screaming in terror from a malfunctioning combat robot that is firing flames,rockets,bullets and magic lasers everywhere and ponies are trying to dodge it,and star dust with nothing available in his head takes out the blue glowing metal apples and throws it,catching the robots attention and making it get electrocuted for a moment as he runs up and bucks the massive robotic combat pony on its side.

"ERROR,ERROR,TARGETING TALISMAN MALFUNCTIONING!!!" The robot blares the same line over and over as star beats it to the ground and then it sparks,explodes in his face and stops working leaving burning metal and sparking wires on star as he hisses in pain and wipes them off,some of them scratching the surface of his skin leaving red marks.

"ITS OK EVERYPONY,I GOT IT!!!" Star says in relief ceremoniously as everypony looks at each other then to him.

"Great...now can you stay for dinner?" one of the ponies says with a uneasy grin.

"uhhh but its mo-." He notices their hammers and blades as they stare at him with insane grins and pupils the size of pin heads. "Ooooohhh your cannibals aren't you?" One of them charges with a jagged shovel. "Then i wont have a problem doing this." The moment hes about to swing star dust fires the shotgun in his face,sending his body flying back and his head in 5 other directions.

"GET HIM!!!" The ponies carrying melee weapons charge him but their stupidity makes him forget that he has a gun and they do not so Star dust repeatedly dodges with some close calls while using his pistol to get head shots in point blank range easily and once he has gunned down nearly the whole town he soon finds himself turning and aiming at...a little filly...a little tan and blond filly looking at him in horror.

"P-p-pleas don't kill me." The filly is shivering while hugging a teddy bear and the fact that their was a filly here at all surprised star and broke his heart and a horrifying realization hit him...he massacred this fillies home without batting a eye right infront of her.

"...I..." He puts his gone in his holster. "A-are you ok? did you live here?" The filly nods her head slowly.

"...You killed mama and papa...why?" The thought of what he did alone was enough to break star's heart but hearing the filly say those words nearly makes him cry but he held it in so as not to look too weak but he could not hide his look of horror and sadness or he would die trying if he did.

"...T-they were trying to kill me...you saw it didn't you?" The filly shakes her head and holds her teddy closer. 'Oh my celestia...what have i done?'

"...P-pleas leave me alone..." The filly goes to one of the first ponies star killed and its apparently her father and she holds him. "Pleas come back papa."

Star dust just looks at her,looks at the bodies and didn't pay any attention to the valuable loot they have,he didn't think he deserved it so he just went to the filly,left some of his food and drink behind her and walked out only whispering "Im sorry." as he leaves and his hooves shake before he goes to a big boulder on a hill outside the town and flops down next to it.

Hours later of star dust just laying their,slowly crying and occasionally whacking away a rad roach that got close to him he gets up. "I...i can't be like this...i need to keep moving...i can't lay here and cry myself to death...what would my dad think of me if he saw me like this?" He shakes his head and takes a deep breath as he starts trotting with determination in his eyes and a fire in his heart.

Almost a full hour of trotting and smacking away mole rats when they try to bite him he comes across a strange pony walking around in armor and seems to have scales and glowing sacks with a red stomic and grey scales and glowing yellow eyes. "what the? HEY YOU,ARE YOU OK?!?!" To star dust surprise the only response he gets is a roar and a hiss before the pony runs up,leaps at him and tries to claw and bite his face off making star dust jump back and fire 2 shotgun rounds in its eye making it run for a few seconds before flopping onto the ground. "WHAT.THE.FUCK?!?!?!" Star starts examining the strange creature only to find that it has eggs in its stomic and since he was attacked he shoots it with his pistol. "OK,what the fuck was i smoking before i saw this?" Star slowly steps away from the corps and starts trotting.

After hours of trotting and thinking,star looks as if he is about to pull the trigger on himself if he can't try to justify what hes done. 'It was out of self defense.' 'The whole town was trying to kill me.' 'I am not a monster,i am not a murderer.' star dust kept thinking these thoughts and kept trying to justify them.

"DINNERS HERE BOYS!!!" A raider blares out when she sees him but before any of the raiders can do anything 10 bangs and 10 raiders have bitten the dust and the last female raider stares at star dust,shaking in fear at just how fast and how easily he killed them...and on star's pip buck,shes green...and she runs away.

Star dust stops and looks at himself. '...i spared a raider because my pip-buck said so...i didn't pull the trigger becuse she wasn't a target...the filly wasn't a target...the town...was a target...' he shakes as he looks at his hooves and drops the pistol,then stares at it,the gun that took a towns life right out of it...as he picked it up...he looked at the town ahead,the town he was looking for...as he walked the broken road to the town...he felt a tear finally escape his eye...

Author's Note

oooohhh look i got 2 chapters in one day and this one has a bit of darkness and guilt to spice things up.and its a bit rushed since at some point,i lost my progress but im done now :3

chapter 6:reunited

As star dust enters the walls of new appleoosa he looks around but mostly sees random ponies ,most wearing cow pony hats and just as hes about to sigh and go drink himself to death he sees Jerome,his stable 92 outfit now with barding strapped onto it,a strap of metal apples and dinomite across his chest and other explosives in a new reinforced steel saddle bag and he even has a pair of sunglasses now.

"Hey.HEY JEROME!!" Star dust rushes to him as Jerome snaps his attention to him and smiles.

"STAARR ITS GOOD TO SEE THAT YOU ARE ALIVE!!" He says with a cheerful smile and they do a quick brohoof then a chuckle as star dust desperately tries to distract himself from his rapidly draining sanity.

"Yea good to see your ok too...where did you get all that?"

"Oh well starberry helped me fight off some raiders and they had a stockpile of this stuff so i decided to take it." Jerome looks at his steel saddle bags and opens them to show the massive amounts of explosives. "Pretty neat eh?"

"Hehe yea its nice."

"Hey did you get any trouble on your way here?"

"no i...didn't...no trouble at all." Star's eye twitches a little as he remembers the horrified face of the filly as he easily gunned them down.

"Like targets in a firing range." the sound of his dad's voice ringed through his ears.

"...Hey star are you ok? you look pale."

Star dust snaps out of his trance. "H-huh? oh yea im fine,really...wheres starberry?"

"Oh shes trading with a caravan,some of the stuff we didn't need so she took them to sell to him."

"Oh...hey whats the currency here?"

"Bottle caps apparently."

"OH,WELL THEN I SURE AM GLAD I DIDN'T THROW AWAY THE ONES I PICKED UP!!!" He says while both laughing and yelling in surprise that luck for once gave him a break and made it so something he did a while ago actually came back to reward him.

"Really? i didn't pick up some...which was stupid but i didn't know at the time."

"Well i guess we should wait here for he- where the fuck is James?"

"...OH SHIT I FORGOT WE NEVER SAW HIM!!!!"

"Are you two pan icing buggers looking for me?" James smiles as he comes through the gates with bullet holes in the back of his duster. "Yea i had a few close calls but most of em didn't have guns."

Both star dust and Jerome sigh in relief and smile and theirs a light cold feeling dripping onto star dust's nose. "What the?" Star dust looks up as water slowly starts drizzling little greenish droplets of water and it starts to rain. "AAAAAAAAHHHH WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?!?!?!?!?!"

"...Seriously?...you'v never seen rain?" James looks at him but then sees Jerome running around like a dibshit.

"AAAAAHHHHH WHAT WITCHCRAFT IS THIS?!?!?!" And the very instant Jerome finishes that sentence the entire town facehoofs so hard.

"...Right...stable dwellers." James sighs and grabs both star dust and Jerome and drags them into a allyway and after explaining to them what rain is and why they should not be afraid they both blush for acting like complete idiots.

James simply chuckles and takes them both outside again just in time to see starberry waving and calling them. "HOWDY,GOOD TO SEE YA'LL ARE STILL ALIVE!!!" She gallops to them as star dust smiles,feeling like hes just seen her sister after years even though he knows they are unrelated.

"Hey starberry." Star dust reaches out hos hoof for a hoof bumb and she gladly returns the gesture. 'I swear when i look at this mare i feel like im looking at a missing part of my family.'

Jerome lifts his left hoof (the one that has the pip buck on it) showing the map to everypony. "Alright,now that were all here,i went and talked to some ponies and i got the locations of some raider and slaver camps...if we want to give the wasteland a reason to remember us...maybe freeing some slaves is a good start."

"i think so to,we got 3 pegesi-."

"2 Pegesi." James stopped him before he could finish as everyone gives him a strange look. "I am not a Pegasus." He reaches up with his hooves and slowly moves a bit og his mane aside to show a horn hidding in his mane and it makes everypony who sees it go wide eyed.

"Y-y-yer an ALICORN?!?!" Starberry looks about ready to faint as James nods.

Star dust blinks and shakes his head. "Well...2 pegesi and one...alicorn..." 'A alicorn...just like my mother.' Star dust tries to think up a new plan that they can use the advantage of both magic and flight now.

"Sorry i didn't tell you all sooner." James hides his horn in his mane again. "I am never sure how people will react to a alicorn."

"I-its alright ya'll." Starberry is trying to comprehend how their is a MALE Alicorn considering all the alicorns she ever saw were female and even turned female when they became alicorns.

"OK...so we got 2 pegesi,a zebra who is armed to the teeth with things that explode and a alicorn who gets stuck in closets." Star chuckles at the tease he came up with.

James facehoofs. "ONE TIME,THAT HAPPENED ONE TIME!!!"

"Hehe yea i know im still going to tease you about it though." Both star dust and Jerome chuckle. "OK so i say starberry flies over head and draws their attention with shots and as their shooting at her,Jerome will plant traps for them,When all the traps are set off me and James will come in,me shooting at them with whatever i got and James using his magic to protect us as he also fires at them."

"Seems like a good plan." James smiles,knowing some good spells for the job.

"Ahm good with it,and who ever said ya didn't make good plans?" Star dust huffs a little and crosses his arms as starberry chuckles and playfully punches his shoulder which he can't feel much of because of his bardding.

"And all i have to do is plant traps?...i'll also throw in some bombs at them while you all are fighting." Jerome takes out a few different kinds of explosives he can use.

"Alright we'll meeeet." Points at a Large slaver camp. "Their,and don't hurt the slaves,were their to free them." Everypony nods.

As star dust,starberry,James and Jerome arrive just outside the back of the slaver camp they merely give each other a quick nod and look at how massive the camp is only to see that its bigger than any town they'v seen thus far.

"Well...ya'll wish me luck." Starberry pulls out her gun and flies up and does a quick dive,shooting at The slavers,making them yell profound swear words while shooting back and Jerome sneaks in while their distracted.

Star dust takes a deep breath and makes sure to reload the guns he has more ammo for and hes happy to see he still has plenty of ammo for his pistol as James warms up his spells. "3...2...1...boom." The sounds of screams and explosions ring through the air as the slavers begin panicking. "NOW!!!" Star dust burst into the gates,royal glory (his pistol) in his mouth and the crosshairs aimed directly at the head of one of the slavers just as James puts a big shield around them both and fires streams of deadly magic blasts.

Things seem to slow down as Star dust's heart beats faster,faster and his pupils focus on each and every slaver target in his field of vision...and with one pull of the trigger...boom...the head of one of the slaver gets taken right off as 2 of the ones near him look at the one who shot their ally only to get hit by starberries magic lasers making them instantly burn up into ash as Star dust gallops through with James,the slaver's shots hitting the shield as James helps with gunning down groups of slavers,no one even taking the time to be discrete about their actions.

"NO PLEAS WAIT!!" One of the slavers (a mare) star is aiming for,the last one in a particular group stops and drops her gun as she falls down and backs away. "P-pleas don't kill me,i'll stop being a slaver i promise,p-pleas." Star dust blinks as the light on his E.F.S shows shes green...and everything began to slow...as the slaves in the cells screamed for blood...and the slaver begged for mercy and star's heart beats rapidly.

'What...do...i...do?' He looks into the eyes of the horrified slaver then to the enraged slaves who want the slaver dead...he turns his head to the next slaver...and pulls the trigger as the slave in front of him assumes its a act of mercy and runs away. '...I'm not a executioner...im not a murderer.'

James looks at Star dust for a moment and smiles. "Star...you did the right thing their." He tries to tell star to make him feel better but it clearly didn't work because he just ignored him and kept shooting slavers in the head.

As soon as all the slavers ether gave up and surrendered or dead...Star dust goes to the cages and unlocks them one by one as one stallion says while Jerome takes his collar off.

"You should have killed her." As he walks off and the collar hits the ground star dust's ears flop down as he looks to the ground.

"Star? whats he talking about?" Jerome looks at him and puts a hoof on his shoulder.

"...Their was a slaver girl,she gave up and begged for mercy...i let her live..." Star dust sounds a little ashamed.

"Then thats not something to be worried about." Jerome gives a smile as Star dust looks at him in confusion. "You were merciful,thats a good thing...it shows that you at least still have the heart to let somepony live...its better than just killing them all without a second thought."

"Yea...yea i guess your right." He smiles. "Thanks...i needed that."

"Hehe no problem,were from the same stable so i gotta help you,your like my brother." They both chuckle and get up.

James goes to them with starberry. "So,what shall we do now?"

"...Ah have a idea." Starberry grins.

"What is i-." Sees starberries massive grin. "...Oh no."

chapter 7:hoofington

"YOU.ARE.INSANE!!!"

"NO AH AINT!!!" Starberry giggles at James's yelling.

"NO WE ARE NOT GOING TO HOOFINGTON!!!!" James looks both frightened and angry at starberry for even suggesting to go to such a place.

"Oh yes we are because ah said so." Starberry looks at star dust who is actually considering to go their.

"It.is.SUICIDE!!!"

Star dust smirks and turns to look at the two. "ITS SETTLED THEN...were going"

"YES!!" Starberry jumps up in joy.

"WHAT?!?!?!?!" James's jaw drops as he looks at him in amazement that he is willing to go to such a hell hole.

"We got nothing better to do and going to hoofington may get us noticed by the ponies after us...its the best chance we have."

"...Brilliant...looks like im going back to that place..." James says with a sigh,recalling his last visit their ending with him on a hospital bed for four days.

A blue unicorn with orange eyes that has no pupils and a grey and gold Mohawk walks up to star dust. "Excuse me...i just wanted to say thank you for saving me...i owe you allot...my name is sparks."

Star dust turns to look at him."Oh it was nothing,really and it was a team effort."

"I know...i still owe you so much,regardless." The unicorn bows his head for a moment before looking at a shack and his horn glows as he simply teleports away.

Starberry blinks when he teleports "Huh,well maybeh teleportation aint that big of a deal anymore."

Jerome rolls his eyes and walks outside the gates of the slaver town. "I am going to make my way to hoofington."

Starberry raises a eyebrow. "Do ya'll even know where hoofington is?"

Jerome stops and feels stupid all of a sudden. "Ummm no i don't."

"Then let me show ya'll where it is." Starberry smirks and spreads her wings and somehow picks up Jerome as Star dust and James decide its best not to question it and James starts flying and as star dust spreads his wings and lifts off...he crashes.

"Uhh are you ok?" James lands and helps him up.

"...Ummm...yes...just one thing...i never learned how to fly." The very instant star dust finishes that sentance James and starberry look at each other and look back to star dust.

"Seriously? they didn't even teach you in the stable?"

"MY DAD WAS THE ONLY OTHER PONY WITH WINGS!!!" Star crosses his arms from James's comment.

"Whoa their buddy,i didn't mean anything by it...aside from your stable is a total piece of cra-"

Before he can even finish what he was saying star dust shoots at the ground in front of him making him jump and yelp. "My stable is not a piece of crap you fucking idiot."

James gulps as he stares down the barrel of Royal glory. "O-OK then,i'll keep that in mind."

"Good." Star dust puts royal glory back in his holster and starts trotting as starberry looks at Jerome,they both shrug and fallow him,having nothing better to do since they do not want to piss off the stallion who sprung a trap on a ambush and managed to survive on his own for a day without any of their help which not even Jerome could do without proper gear.

After nearly a day in walking in silence and not even stopping for food because everypony would piss off the stallion with a really deadly gun who also has S.A.T.S and a really fucking short fuse,he starts calming down and becoming a bit more talkative around the time they are a mile away from hoofington. "OK...alright im calm."

"You were pissed off the whole way here?" James raises a eyebrow and furls the other.

"Yes,and if you piss me off again i will not hesitate to better aquatint your face with the floor using a very fast moving stream of lead."

"O-OK." James gulps,realizing that that its best to keep his mouth shut when dealing with angering subjects with star dust.

Starberry gives star dust a sisterly smile. Well since ya'll in a bad mood why don't ya take it out on hoofington when we get their?"

Star dust looks back and smiles as well as he nods in agreement. "Yea...yea thats a good idea."

Jerome looks at James. "I highly suggest you think before you talk ok? otherwise you'll also have a pissed off zebra with bombs."

"OK OK Jeeze im sorry,calm the fuck down for celestia's sake." James looks down with a huff as the group comes across the shattered buildings...of hoofington..."Well...welcome to hell everypony."

Starberry trots towards the buildings. "Ah c'mon,it aint THAT bad."

"...Have you BEEN to hoofington? did i ever tell you MY.SKIN.FELL.OFF!!!"

"OK,both of you,calm the fuck down." Jerome was getting sick of their fighting over hoofington.

Star dust had already entered the city and his ears were ringing,aching as his eyes began burning but even with such early effects he kept moving forward,his pip-buck not clicking and a shattered mirror just down the street,he could see himself inside it...but it was not him...all he saw as he looked at himself getting closer...is the monster who massacred a crippled town.

"STAR,STAR STOP!!!" James gallops in after him,also hearing the ringing and aching as he grabs star dust's shoulder,pulling him back with little effort. "Not that way,thats the first direction i went,it just ends up with your skin falling off."

"By golly how many times are ya gonna remind us of that?"

"Until it gets through your THICK SKULL!!!"

"YOU CALLIN ME STUPID?!?!"

Jerome looks as if hes on his last nerves. "OK,NEXT ONE TO OPEN THEIR MOUTH FOR THE NEXT HALF HOUR GETS A METAL APPLE IN THEIR MOUTH!!!!" Jerome's sudden outburst was enough to get them both to shut up and stay quiet as Jerome sighs in relief."Oh thank celestia..."

"...C'mon,were going in." Star dust gets up with very little expression on his face.

"What? why don't we just wait for a bi-."

Star stops his zebra friend."We.are.going."

Starberry,James and Jerome all look at each other in worry for a moment before shrugging and decide its best not to question star when he has that look of both murder and determination in his eyes.

As the group makes their way into the city,trotting away from the ever growing ringing and the head aches,only continuing to trot forward when the ringing and pain decreases.

"Wait,you hear that?" Jerome stops the group just as he hears a loud snarl from a nearby alleyway and a strange round and orange object rolls out.

"...What is,THAAAAATTT!!!" Star looks at the egg before looking up to see a 20 foot tall,green,scaly,horned mother deathclaw which he could only identify because its what his E.F.S told him and the entire group nearly soils themselves from the over sized,over mutated monster and Starberry notices spores and strange mutations that are not normal for a deathclaw.

"BUCKING ELL THIS IS NOT GOOD!!!!" James couldn't hold his voice any longer,he blurted out his panic as he levitates out a sawed off shotgun and aims only to make the mother deathclaw roar and slash at him first,knocking the weapon away and leaving a incredibly painful claw mark on his side that bleeds and makes him scream.

Just as Star dust enters S.A.T.S and aims for the mother deathclaw that was turning to him he notices 6 other deathclaws coming from where the mother came from and he realized they probably aren't coming out of this alive...but he was going to go down fighting...so he planned out shots on three and just as he rapidly turned and pulled the trigger on each,not doing much of anything to them...he hears the strum of a guitar play in his head...and out of nowhere a blue unicorn wearing a fedora and a tan jacket and tie just...appears and pulls out a revolver with a smirk,he moved too fast to keep track of but 6 loud thundering bangs slam through the sky,with each one a death claw fell and only 1 was left...5 of the deathclaws...were dead,and so was the mother deathclaw and the last second of star dust exiting S.A.T.S the pony just smirks,tips his hat and teleports away.

"WHAT IN TARNAISHIN?!!?" Starberry spots the dead bodies of the deathclaws that she was going to aim at as she pulls out her laser pistol and aims for the last one,James levitating his sawed off point blank onto the monsters head as Jerome jumps over its head and rams a stick of dynamite right into its skull and flips off the cap and star dust pulls out royal glory,they all aim...and shoot...boom.

"OOOOHH YEA!!" Jerome cheers as he looks at the amazing explosion that blows off the neck and torso of the monster compleatly,splattering blood onto James and Jerome with just a little bit of blood onto star dust's barding.

"Ahm i the only one who noticed that 6 of em just dropped dead? and the really loud gun shots?" Starberry looks at everypony hopping she wasn't going insane.

"No...you aren't the only one...i saw him too...he looked familiar though."

"Yea...well he saved our flanks so ah guess we should thank em if we ever see him." Starberry pokes the dead body of the mother deathclaw,amazed that the mysterious ponies revolver even managed to pierce its skin much less just kill it in one shot.

Star dust and the others put their guns away as Jerome searches through the containers in some nearby buildings finding allot of untouched caps and ammo that ponies were too afraid to pick up in ammo boxes and desks and when everypony regroups they look at the path ahead of them.

"...Do ya'll think it was a bad idea to come'er?"

"OH REALLY?!?! IT WAS A BAD IDEA?!?!" James gives the 'o'rely?' face as Starberry crosses her arms and huffs.

"Ah just sayin that if theirs deathclaws this early on,maybe we should take a different path."

"I swear if this turns into a argument i am planting C4s on your fucking vocal cords." Jerome glares at them both. "OK how about this? raise your hooves everypony who wants to go a bit further before leaving." Starberry,Jerome and star dust all raise their hooves. "OK then were going since one vote can't beat three."

"...I am traveling with a bunch of psychopaths."

Jerome smirks and side hugs him. "Were all psychopaths my friend the only question is when we show it,and this is not being a psychopath this is called BEING BORED!!!" Jerome lets go of him and fallows star dust who has royal glory loaded and ready,in his mouth,ready to shoot anything thats a threat.

"...Welp if you can't beat em,join em...allons-y" James chuckles a bit as he trots after them.

Author's Note

level up:perk added:mysterious pony

you have your very own guardian angle occasinally in S.A.T.S a mysterious pony will come to assist you in combat

and can any of you guess who the mysterious pony is? :3 if you can comment his name bellow. and i hope this chapter tides you over until the next one.

chapter 8:hoofington (continued)

"So who else could that pony be?" Star dust looks at James.

"Well their were a few other unicorns that owe me allot of caps,i give them allot of time so maybe one of them is doing this to repay his debt?"

"Hmmm,maybe."

Their is a strange feminine sound from around the corner. "Do you hear that? their are other ponies here...they shall fall by the goddesses might."

Another,similar feminine voice speaks next as the whole group stops to listen. "Yes,as for why their are weak,pathetic mortals here i do not know but they shall be hunted."

Starberry shivers and whispers. "A-alicrons...shit."

Star dust peeks around the corner and sees two tall,black alicorns with flowing silver and purple manes and he whispers."I am about to do something incredibly stupid."

Starberry looks at him and gulps. "Uhhh wha-."

"HEY BITCHES!!!" Star dust shouts and comes out and pulls James out too as James gulps and the alicorns charge their magic. "You sure thats a good idea? we got a alicorn too." Both the alicorns pause and look at each other as James gulps and moves his mane to whos his horn.

"...Hmmm it seems thou is speaking the truth...fight by our side male alicorn or we shall not consider you a ally." The alicorns say in unison while glaring at James.

"Hehehe...no." As soon as he finishes his sentence James levitates out 2 guns,one a sawed off shotgun and the other a assault carbine and proceeds to start shooting both and the bullets kick up smoke from the ground and as soon as both guns run out of ammo and the smoke clears his confident smirk quickly vanishes when he sees that both of them had shields up and were not effected. "Ah shit."

"You are a fool to have done that." Both the alicorns fire powerful magic beams at James only for them to be blocked by a similar shield spell.

"Your not the only one who knows shield spells." James smirks with star dust as they are both in the shield.

"It does not matter to us." The alicorns say as one of them starts duplicating herself and flies up,each one firing a different spell,making James grimace as his magic weakens.

"...Hang on James." Star dust starts preparing his shotgun and pistol and looks around to see what he can do and once he has a plan he waits as James's magic flickers under the pressure of multiple attacks.

As soon as the magic force field comes down Star dust bursts forward towards the first alicorn,placing a shot that makes her shield flicker just enough for star to slide through and hear the sudden spiking tick on his Geiger counter and the alicorn looks at him,wide eyed as two thunderous booms send the alicorns body flying into the other as the duplicates stop to look at the falling alicorn.

"YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT!!!!" The other alicorn yells in anger as all the duplicates ether charge their magic or charge him head on in rage...and he just stands their...smiling as every tick he hears gets louder and louder as the alicorns get closer and closer...boom.

Jerome's bombs set off all around star making the real alicorn and all the duplicates ether lose their limbs or turn into a shower of guts and blood,but star dust didn't leave unsacaved,his plan wound up getting some shrapnel into his side making him groan loudly in pain.

"Hey star,you alright? my bombs weren't too close to you were they?" Jerome takes out one of his healing potions but star just raises a hoof and pulls out one of his own.

"I-its fine,we had to do whats necessary,their shields and magic would be impossible to go through so we needed something to go under them,you somehow knew what i was trying to pull." Star dust gulps down the healing potion,shivering a bit at the unfamiliar strawberry like taste.

"Yea,i could tell from that smile it wasn't because you knew what you were doing,you were just hopping i'd catch on in time and plant the bombs before you get killed." Jerome chuckles lightly as he turns to James just as star's wounds slowly close,the shrapnel not leaving his side however.

James groans and rubs his horn a little. "Ooooow that put a strain on my magic."

Starberry rolls her eyes. "And ya'll say yer a alicorn." She scoffs a bit.

"HEY i AM an alicorn but that doesn't mean i have limitless magic,im not natural made magic was used to give me a horn so im not particularly strong with it." James replies to the red Pegasus as he uses his hair to hide his horn again.

"Alright guys,i have a bad feeling that if we go any further we are going to become skeletons so take whatever you can and lets hope we can find the exit." Star dust says as he trots over to a destroyed shop that still has allot of stuff inside since it was left unlooted for quiet some time.

"FINALLY!! a pony with common sense." James almost celebrates the fact that soon he'll be out of this hell hole and goes to a police station which has a missing door,finding some police armor that he plans to sell or to give to the others,some ammunition and a rather shockingly large amount of guns,some in good condition but the others will need some repairs.

"Alright pardner." Starberry takes Jerome to a different building and within a hour the whole group goes back to where the alicorns died with allot of new stuff in their bags,some to sell and others to keep and use for later.

"Alright,theirs probably more but im not going to take anymore risks,im sure if i didn't notice that one flicker spot in the alicorn's magic we would have been really fucked so lets get out of here before more of them show up...no seriously i think i hear more of them ahead." Star dust says as the whole group hears female voices ahead.

"Ah buck,ah was hoppin to get some more loot outa this place...still the stuff i got is pretty nice ah guess." Starberry says as she looks into her saddle bag.

"Right...lets go." Star dust says a bit nervously as they all trot away from the voices,trying to ignore the growing ringing in their ear and back onto the road...but they all knew one thing:that place had stuck something to them,they just didn't know what it was.

Author's Note

sorry if this chapter is a bit short,i had to wake up early in the morning to do this and i shouldn't even be up right now,typing this so yea i am trying my best to get on this and update it as much as possible since i love writing this story,hope you all are enjoying it as well,well i hope NOW you are since the first few chapters were just a little bit shit but still

chapter 9:Eli's griffon's

James keeps looking behind his shoulder repeatedly,feeling as if something is watching the group,planning.

"Guys im telling you,i think something is fallowing us."

"Ya'll just being paranoid." Starberry says while looking around,too out of the thought of their being a threat to believe that something has been fallowing them.

"I know im not paranoid,i have had this feeling before,its the feeling that something is stuck to you." James looks back again and catches a glimpse of a piece of metal sticking out of a rock before it jets away,making James gulp.

"James,if their WAS something fallowing us,do you think it'd be stupid enough to take on 4 ponies that are fully armed?" Starberry looks back at him.

"...I guess not." Jams sighs and tries not to think about the spiky piece of metal he saw.

Jerome takes out a strange kind of metal apple that has a oddly larger pin and seems to have a string going in it as he examines it out of curiosity as Everypony but him suddenly snaps into attention as the sound of a gun cocking rings through the air,and seconds later they all stop,Jerome still examining the metal apple as griffons with battle saddles seem to come just out of sight and sorround them as the only one without a helmet steps forward.

"Look what we have here,the all mighty caravan leader,the 2 little stable dwellers and my old friend James."

"Was that you who was fallowing us just now?" James seems to have his gun ready to be pulled out by his levitation.

"Hmm? fallowing you? no,we weren't...and i believe you have a price to pay." The griffon puts a single claw onto the trigger of his Gatling gun.

"That is not a very good idea." As soon as the griffon turns his head to look at star dust he finds one eye looking down the barrel of royal glory and the other eye looking down the barrel of a shotgun.

"Hmmhmmhmm oh thats cute,you think you can take us all on with those puny things?"

"You want to test that theory you griffon bitch? i don't give a shit what your packing,i.don't.hesitate." Star dust scowls as the griffon chuckles at first but then realizes he is absolutely serious and that he is currently looking down the barrel of two guns and star dust is ready to pull the trigger at the first sign of weakness...and as the griffon looks into star's golden eyes...not a shred of mercy is shown in them.

"Eh...heh...umm how about we just leave and forget this ever happened?" The griffon slowly signals his other troops to get into a position to gun them all down.

"And how about i shoot your fucking balls off?" Star's eyes start burning red.

"Jeez star,you are acting strange." Jerome slowly pulls the pin of the metal apple out only to hear a zipper sound as a piece of string is attached to it and is still in the metal apple,making it stay off.

"I prefer to keep my balls thank you very much." Just before he can signal to attack.

"...Bye." In one giant bang star's shotgun goes off,sending the griffon's head going into 6 different directions and Jerome turns around,tosses the metal apple,a string coming out of it,making it fly and go towards the other griffons in a curve...and everything seems to slow...as the string hits the end of its line it stops for just a second...ting...and boom.

After the actual pin pings off the inside,the metal apple or "zipper bomb" explodes into a massive explosion is and after the first one,the explosions continue to blow forward,each explosion killing multiple griffons in their screaming agony as Starberry,James and Jerome all get sent flying back,as star dust falls down on his side,all of them with slight burns on their sides when the bomb went off.

As they all groan in pain,checking to see if the pain is caused from shrapnel or burns,thankfully not finding any holes in their bodies,Jerome is the first to say, "HOLY FUCKING SHIT THAT THING IS AWESOME!!!!" He proceeds to pull out more zipper bombs and looks at them closely,amazed at the ammount of destruction they do in such a short time,and only a single one too.

"Im just glad it didn't blow us all to hell." Star dust dusts himself off and wipes the rubble off the back of his barding.

"And im just glad i wont ever have to worry about Eli's griffons anymore,they have been a pain in my ass for a long bloody time" James looks at the bloody remains of the griffons. "Well...their leader was anyway...im sure the rest of them are still after my ass."

"Are ya'll sure we couldn't have talked em out of it? hell we just blew em up...it was bucking awesome but that just means we pissed em all off in a really awesome way." Starberry takes the magic weapons they were carrying.

"I say they got what was coming to them,lets just get moving before i- OOO SHOTGUN SHELLS!!!" Star tackles a bunch of shotgun shells with big sparkly eyes and puts them all in his saddle bag,glad that he has more ammo for his gun but still needs to be careful with them since its only about 4 clips worth that he found.

"...Well you are WAY too excited for that." James pulls star dust back up to his feet. "Its just ammo."

"Yea but i had so little of it i could hardly use it very often." Star puts royal glory back into his holster. "So yea im kind of happy i can use it without feeling like im trying to survive a fucking horde."

"Yea yea whatever you silly blue pony." James playfully punches star's side in a brotherly fashion as they all chuckle and start trotting away from the dead griffon's bodies.

As they trot,suddenly a stream of gunshots rings down as sparks on the ground get closer to them and they all leap out of the way before they get shot and above them is a griffon who is wearing full body armor and has a Gatling gun that is upgraded to the point where it shoots about as fast as a speeding laser.

"OH WELL FUCK YOU TOO ASS HOLE!!!" Star dust takes out royal gloryand aims as the griffon dive bombs and revs up his weapon just as star dust pulls the trigger and the shot hits the griffon right in the helmet but he keeps coming. "SHIT!!!" Before the griffon can fire.

KABOOM...in a instant the all powerful armored griffon becomes a bloodied mess of shattered bones and scattered organs from a metal apple blowing up mere feet from its beak as Jerome pants,having to aim for a flying target,that was moving with a metal apple. "As for how i successfully managed to pull that off,i do not know."

"Blimey,Jerome is on a griffon killing spree today." James chuckles as Jerome does a nervous chuckle and scratches the back of his head.

"Only issue is none of you are going to be leaving here to tell the tale." A female griffon wearing a battle saddle that has 2 magic weapons attached to each side says as she hovers in mid air,aiming for Jerome and James.

"And what makes you say that?" Star dust seems to challenge her.

"Me...and if you did not know,that griffon you killed earlier on? was a decoy...I am Eli..."

"Oh...well i didn't expect you to be a female griffon...that explains why your own men say your bitchy,because you are a bitch." James chuckles as Eli seems to get steamed very easily.

"SHUT UP YOU PATHETIC WELP!!!" Eli screams out as star dust,James,starberry and Jerome all chuckle.

"OK who wants to bet the only reason they fallow her is because she threatens to bitch at them to death." Jerome chuckles out.

"Hell i think they just fallow her because if they don't,she'll bomb the world with her bitchiness." Star replies,laughing now.

"SHUT UP,SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!!" Eli starts throwing a massive hissy fit as she starts shooting randomly,compleatly missing every shot and just as shes about to try to land a WHOOSH passes by,turns around and slams into her side,making her nothing but splattered chunks of dead meat,hitting the floor with a flop.

"GAH,THE FUCK WAS THAT?!?!?!" Jerome jumps behind a rock.

"...Ello." A voice says,off to the side...and everyone looks.

Author's Note

welp i hope this is longer than i think it is becuse i need to make up for the fact the last chapter was SHORT.AS.HELL

chapter 10:assassination attempt

As they all turned to look at the pony who fired the rocket another one gets fired right at them but mid way to the group a zap of magic blew it out of the sky coming from Starberry and she glares at the pony who fired it...and then saw his almost full body armor,bulking metal and platting from his neck down with large blue wings sticking out of each side and a dark hood over his head,covering his entire face but what she noticed most was that on his sides were two different,giant weapons,a Gatling gun on one side and a rocket launcher on the other,and just above the Gatling gun is a automatic metal apple launcher,now she was just glad he didn't fire all of them at once or she could never shoot them all down.

"Hmm,nice shot." The pony says as he is about to fire another rocket.

"Thanks." Starberry interrupts his reloading by zapping the weapon and nearly hitting the rocket as it reloads. "Now if ya'll want to keep yer limbs i suggest you hold her fire or the next round is blowin up that rocket...while its on yer side."

Jerome chuckles as he starts thinking about what it would look like."Ohhhh i would pay to see that."

"Not a chance,last pony who threatened me ended up with his head on a-." A loud snapping sound comes from star's head as in a mere two seconds the pony finds himself attempting to push star dust off before he eats his eyes. "HOLY SHIT WHATS WRONG WITH HIM?!?!?!"

James runs up behind him and pulls him off before hitting him in the face."WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!?!?!"

Star dust lets out a pained groan. "Sorry whenever i hear 'the last pony who threatened me' it reminds me of this bitch in my stable...i once tore his eyes out...and i would do it again if i could."

While star dust was telling his story the hooded pony stands up and starts warming up his Gatling gun only to find himself starring at a array of weapons all aimed at his face. "Shit..."

"Why are you trying to kills us?" Jerome gets ready to toss his zipper bomb at him,specifically aiming for inside his hood.

The pony sighs and Star dust notices something on his hoof...a pip-buck. "It was a assassination contract OK? im a assassin...i may not be the stealthiest but i am damn deadly."

"...You have a pip buck." Star can't tear his eyes away from the pip buck.

"Hmm? yea so? im from a stable." The pony crosses his legs.

"...Whats your name?" Star dust gets up,still starring at the pip buck.

"...Bass lightning...and normally i don't talk with soon-to-be piles of blood."

"And i don't often talk with ducks in a targeting range but im still talking to you." Star dust smirks and Bass lighting does not move a muscle.

"Sooo uhhh ya'll gonna start tryin to kill each other or are we gonna keep moving?" Starberry steps between the two.

"...Hes coming with us BUT i want James watching him at all times."

James does a little solute. "No problem captain." James and star chuckle a bit as Bass lightning grumbles as James puts a sawed off to his head and makes him fallow star dust and starberry as they continue down the path with Jerome right behind James,looking bored.

As they all keep trotting and looking around star dust keeps looking at his pip buck making everypony give each other glances until starberry finally spoke up.

"Uhhh star,not to question yer leadership-."

"Im not the leader,just the pony who walks ahead of everypony."

"Er,right,but where exactly are we going?" Instead of stopping and thinking like starberry expected star to do he just blurts out the name of the place hes planning to go.

"Its a place called 'flank' we are going their,and we are going to stir some trouble."

"Flank? i remember going their once,lot of nice mares their." Bass says while thinking about his favorite mare he met their and chuckles.

"Hey maybe we can try listening to the radio as we go?" Jerome suggests,getting tired of hearing nothing interesting.

"Alright,alright fine." Star dust turns on the radio on his pip buck on the first station on it and sweet music plays through the speakers and Jerome almost celebrates the fact that their is finally good music playing.

After a few minutes of hearing a strangely sweet voice of a old world singer sing the music slowly goes to a stop as a DJ's voice starts going through. "Hello everypony its DJ-pon-3 here and i have some news for you today,the one that im most excited about is that theirs some new stable ponies out,or A stable pony...because the other one is a zebra,thought ponies were the only ones in stables? you thought wrong,and the best part is that they seem to be fallowing the footsteps of the stable ponies before them,what are all stable ponies coming out to try and save the wastes? hehe not that im complaining,i would like to give thanks to these two." As the rest of the news just goes through their ears,Jerome and star dust look at each other in a little shock.

"H-...He was talking about us?"

"Yea i guess so,but whats pissing me off is that he says its JUST us,we have a group and we DID fuck up...or...i did at least." Star dust looks down as he remembers the little filly and the ponies he slaughtered.

"Yea...i want to meet this pony,if he already knows about us then he may know more about the wastes and what we can do."

"DJ-pon-3 is in tempony tower..." Everypony stops and looks at James.

"And you know this how?" Star dust cocks a eyebrow.

"...Hehehehe...as my old friend says,'spoilers'."

"Ya'll such a tease James." Starberry glares at him. "Why did ya even mention em if you aint gonna tell us anythin?"

"Because i want to."

"Will you two idiots stop arguing and start trotting?" Bass lightning says through gritted teeth.

Just as Bass lightning finishes what he was saying a red dot appears on his shoulder and a bullet pings off his armor as the sound of a pony springing rings through star dust's ears and he pulls out royal glory and as he turns...he goes eye to eye with a pair of green eyes glowing through a gas mask as the pony rapidly puts the sniper point blank at star's head,only to get the side of his armor shattered from a powerful buck from starerry and then his neck cracked when James slams him into a rock,making the sniper fire into the air.

"NOT SO FAST!!!" James snarls at the pony.

"SHIT,GAAAAHHH THAT HURT!!!!!" The pony clutches his neck and side,groaning in pain. "P-pleas listen,i mistook you for someony else,i didn't realize it until aiming."

"Thats no excuse." Bass lightning says in a dark,grim tone.

Star dust sighs. "Alright fine we'll help you."

"T-thank y-." Before the pony could even thank star...Bass just slams the ponies head into the rock,splattering it into pieces,making star dust's jaw drop a bit as everypony else backs away.

"...W-why would you do that?" Star's eye twitches.

"Because he attacked us,it does not matter why,he has to die,if he doesn't mean to now,he will later." Bass wipes the blood off and seconds later hears the sound of a gun cocking and as he turns hes looking into the barrel of royal glory...and he can even see the bullet ready to be sent into his eye. "...Star...put the gun down."

"You...murdered him...because of a misunderstanding?...then i guess THIS is a misunderstanding too then." As Star's pupils seem to shrink into insane levels...he pulls the trigger...bang.

Author's Note

sorry,i woke up later than i wanted so this may be short

chapter 11:close calls

The shot star fired whizzes into lightning's hood,leaving a hole in the back of it...but leaving lightning himself unharmed. "Listen here you little shit,i don't care how you do it out in the wasteland,its bad enough as it is...i am not letting my friends become monsters...and you being one...is endangering that...so watch yourself."

"Fine...just keep that gun out of my fucking face." Lightning scoffs and turns around as Star scowls.

As the group continues down the path,keeping an eye out for any kind of danger,James still keeping a gun to lightning's head,especially closer now they all come across a long canyon that has a stone bridge.

"This...does not look good." Jerome pokes the start of it,seeing if its going to crumble.

Starberry steps onto the bridge and trots regularly across it. "Ya'll are too paranoid,c'mon lets go."

James slowly fallows her. "Don't jinx it starberry."

Lightning bass and Jerome just look at each other,gulp and slowly fallow after James as star dust walks next to Jerome...crack.

"What was th-" Before Jerome could finish the bridge crumbles under them,making Jerome shriek and Star make a little 'eep' sound as they both grab the ledge and look down at what is awaiting them underneath.

"BUCKIN HELL!!!" Starberry gallops to them and slides as she grabs star and Jerome's hoof...then she lost her grip,making both star and Jerome start falling with a loud scream."NO!!" She reaches to no avail and Star dust Grabs Jerome and puts himself under him as a crash and with a bone chilling crunch star dust screams as his spine fractures from the impact,his barding not doing anything to protect him aside from stopping Jerome's body from crushing his ribs.

Jerome coughs. "S-star,you alright?" Jerome gets up,flipping star dust on his back as he hisses in pain. "Damn,you hit your spine didn't you? fuck."

"YA'LL ALRIGHT DOWN THEIR?!?!?!" Starberry screams down at them,hopping the two moving dots are them alive.

"Y-YEA WE'ER ALRIGHT!!" Star screams back half as a reply and half in complete agony.

"ARE YOU KIDDING?!?! STAR ALMOST BROKE HIS BACK!!!!" Jerome screams up.

"Shit..." Starberry mumbles to herself. "ALRIGHT,JUST KEEP MOVIN TILL YOU GET TO SURFACE LEVEL,WE'LL MEET YOU THEIR!!!" She gets up and rushes back to the rest of the group.

"A-alright,you heard her Jerome...lets get moving" Star dust tries to get up,only to fall down again.

"No,you can't walk,i'll carry you...you did save us both from getting a broken back so i kind of owe you one since you took the fall..."

"No...i can handle myself..." Star tries to get up again with a pained groan and his eyes become moist and water as the pain strains each bone and nerve in his back and limbs almost to the point where its unbearable,making him collapse on the ground in pain. "O-oooowwww."

"...Yeeaa sure you can." Jerome picks star up and puts him on his back as Star tries to get off. "Stop that,im trying to get you through this without you breaking your fucking limbs."

"F-fine you stubborn zebra." Star begrudgingly lets his zebra friend carry him.

As Jerome carries his fellow stable dweller through the valley a loud pang hits the floor in front of them,making Jerome jump back and hide in a rock as a psychotic cackle starts ringing through the air. "Come out my little ponies,i just want to MURDER YOU!!" A scaly,lizard like mare comes out with a stinger tail and using her mane to hold a gun as her reptilian green eyes dart everywhere and search for the zebra and pony she just saw.

"Shit." Jerome whispers as he slowly goes from rock to rock,trying not to get caught.

As star dust groans the lizard mare's head snaps to the large boulder that Jerome is hiding behind as he lets out a 'eep' and cover's star;s mouth. "Ohhh little ppoooooniiiiesss." As she trots slowly to the rock,cackling and loading the last bullet in her gun...ziiiiiiip "What was that?" She turns her head back only to come face to face with a metal apple attached to a string,temporarily stopping right in front of her...boom. "GRRAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!" As two of the blasts tear at her like deathclaws she screams and Jerome jumps up with a cheer,thinking he killed his opponent...he celebrated too soon...the lizard mare glares at him through the smoke,panting and scowls before grinning. "Hehehehhehe YOU CAN'T KILL ME!!!" She proceeds to charge and tackle him to the wall of the valley.

"GAH s-s-shiiiiiit." Jerome struggles against her grip as she slowly chokes him.

"Any last word little zebra?" She cackles and snickers as the pony she forgot about rises slowly behind her,as star dust falls forward onto a rock for support he holds royal glory in his mouth and aims.

"Hey.bitch." Star says through royal glory's grip,making the mare turn...bang,a bullet tears through her eye and rips through the scales on the back of her head and the bullet hits the wall right next to Jerome's head,luckily missing him.

"...N-no...you can't kill me." she drops Jerome and chokes as she falls forward and starts leaking blood as her torn up brain leaks out with the help of a waterfall of blood and the gaping hole in her head...and finally...she took her last breath and went cold as ice.

"T-thanks star." Jerome says through little coughs and gasps of breath before getting up.

"No...probleeeeem." Star falls onto his side and groans as Jerome goes back to him and picks him up.

"I'm starting to think i need to keep score of who saves who the most." Jerome chuckles and continues up the newly developing hill. "Good,a hill,going up,that means were getting closer to the end of this...i hope."

As the hill comes to a end theirs the sound of guns being cocked and hoof steps clopping in different directions,setting up a ambush...and Jerome is setting up a ambush for them,as he plants land mines a pony ahead of them starts approaching them as he holds absolutely still,holding star dust on his back.

"Don't try talking star." Jerome whispers to his fellow stable dweller as he just nods and plays dead.

"Howdy their." The pony smiles through the hat and has his holster strangely close to his mouth. "You uhh,up for a trade?"

"No thanks,we got what we need." Jerome looks around,noticing the shadows of other ponies as they slowly creep out and he even sees a large camp behind the pony.

"Well we'll be taking em off yer hooves then." The pony grins as other similarly dressed but dirtier,muddier ponies come out,holding guns and aiming...and they are right ontop of Jerome's traps.

"Hmmm nah were good." Jerome smiles,making the thug's smile to vanish...beep.

"What are ya'll talkin about? we got ya'll surrounded,if ya don't,ya dead." The thug steps forward...beep.

"...Look under you." As the other thugs look under them they all go wide eyed...beep...beep...beep beep beep BEEP BOOM.

Explosions of shrapnel and blood blast the thugs into pieces as each mine links into the other and scattering their limbs everywhere and making a complete bloodbath. "N-no way." The lead thug falls back as he tries not to get hit by the shrapnel,Jerome just standing their,smiling as star and Jerome get sprinkled with shrapnel but it just rolls off of them.

"Now,what was that you we'er talking about?" Jerome grins as he glares at the thug,taking out a zipper bomb.

"Y-YOUR A MONSTER!!!" Just as the thug is about to get up and run away his head gets blasted to pieces,but nether Jerome or star flinch...the shot was towards their fleeing enemy...they had nothing to flinch about.

Star dust groans and lifts his head and looks up. "...Phantom." Star smirks weakly,trying to ignore the still growing pain as he sees the familiar,cloaked pony with the black hat and mask around his neck.

"I prefer 'Douglass' thank you very much." Douglass the phantom pony leaps down and jumps from rock to rock and landing safely on all 4 hooves,his gun still in his mouth and he proceeds to spit his signature revolver into his holster.

"Hey didn't you save me from the giant lizard things?" Jerome puts his zipper bomb away.

"Yes,i did and im about to tell you your about to make a wrong turn,theirs a split in the rode,one goes up one goes down...take the one that goes down,the other path is a deathclaw nest."

"Thanks for the tip...although that would be Jerome's choice...i kind of have a injury." Star dust tries moving only to hiss in pain,that fall had really done a number on his back and he is not one to recover quickly,only live through the injuries.

"Yes i saw that,and damn that looked painful...but you did it to make sure your friend doesn't go through it...so at least one good thing came out of it." Douglass starts trotting ahead of them as Jerome starts fallowing them.

"Yea,i guess he did save my ass,and in a way saved his own...kind of."

"I really never gave a shit about myself did i?" Star looks back on how many times he simply did not give a flying shit about himself even in the stable.

"I guess not." Jerome smiles back at him and it goes from a smile of comfort to a smile of relief as he notice star seems a bit less strained when smiling. 'OK...smiling makes it hurt less...well fuck logic but what works,works...i guess.' Jerome silently thinks to himself as he trots down with their new phantom pony friend.

Eventually after Douglass leads them through a dark,Erie tunnel,making sure nether of them shoot anything in their and coming out the other side with nothing but a bit of cold water on their shoulders.

"Why did you make it so we can't shoot anything in their?" Jerome looks back at the cave while trotting up.

"Because not only will we get swarmed by shit we can't see but we will also wind up trapped in their because once a sound reaches into their,it will collapse all around us,maybe even on us." Douglass says without missing a beat or batting a eye making Jerome stop talking completely.

Star dust had fallen asleep a while ago...and he wakes up just in time to see 3 pony shaped figures standing in the light ahead of them and one raises a hoof...and waves and Star nearly shoots up but gets stopped by the crack in his back and making him fall limp again...the figures start showing detail and he sees starberries face,smiling as James is next to her smiling as well as they trot down for their 2 friends and to greet the new,familiar pony as lightning stays behind.

"Howdy ya'll good to see to see ya still alive." Starberry goes to Jerome and takes star dust off his back.

"And who is this?" James looks at the phantom pony. "...Phantom?"

"Good guess,but i prefer 'Douglass'." James nods and makes a mental note not to call him phantom pony if he can.

"I guess we really need to find star a doctor,that fall couldn't have been easy." James comments getting a 'YOU DON'T SAY?!?!' glare from everyone. "Ugh."

"C'mon ya'll,he doesn't look like he'll take much more." And as soon as starberry finishes her sentence...Star returns to sleep.

Author's Note

SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG,MY COMPUTER ACTED LIKE A BITCH AS I TRIED WRITING THIS hopefully this will be longer than the last two

chapter 12:fear has 2 meanings

As star dust opens his eyes he sees a light that blurs his vision even more and he shakes his head with a groan as the sweet smell of strawberries and apples enter his nostrils making him blink a few times to get the remaining blur out of his eyes,and he looks up to see a ceiling fan over him and as he slowly moves his head around the room,he sees a medical office...a strangely clean medical office and it even has a desk and a terminal and he sees a plate of fruit and berries on the table.

"Unnnngggh...how long was i out?" Star manages to groan out and as he lifts his head,expecting a surge of pain...nothing,no pain,no aches just a little stiff feeling in his back which he manages to stretch out with a satisfying crack. "Oh that feels strangely good." He twists a little again and another crack gets the rest of the stiffness out of his back,and as he gets up and goes to the plate to start eating he hears hoof steps clopping outside the door,yet that did not stop him from starting to eat the almost frighteningly fresh fruit and berries.

The hoof steps stop as a deep male voice sounds from outside. "I did some simulations and so far,its not looking good,his back was almost shattered and it doesn't help th-." Star chuckles and realizes who their talking about and puts the food out and bursts out the door.

"ALMOST BROKEN YOU SAY?!?!?!" He blurts out with a grin,getting into the doctor's face,making his blue eyes bulge out of his almost hairless face.

"STAR!!!!" Starberry leaps up out of his face. "YOUR UP?!?! BUT THE DOCTOR SAID-."

"Screw what doctor's say,remember this is the stallion who was lucky enough to NOT.DIE from taking a sawed off to the face." Star says while standing tall,glad that his luck managed to save him yet again.

"Right...ah forgot about that...and ah didn't know ya were so cocky." Starberry smirks from realizing that.

"HEY i was in pain for hours because my spine was almost shattered,i think i deserve to feel glad that I AM NOT DEAD!!!" Star says mater of factly and with a little bit of happiness,then he notices the others aren't here...and he has no idea where he is.

"Heheheh,ah guess yer right." Starberry smiles and looks at the doctor. "How much will that be?"

"OK,for the 30th time,i don't charge ponies,im more like a...charity doctor,i have no use for caps so keep them...seriously,i don't need them,i have enough of a mountain thank you very much." The doctor says with a little smile and a cross of his legs.

"Heh,thanks ya'll" Starberry grabs star's hoof as he realizes his stable barding isn't on him as he gets dragged out of the office.

Star dust examines his hoof and bodies,not used to seeing himself so...exposed."Hey starberry...where's my armor?"

Starberry stops in the middle of a hall lined with doors and looks at him."Ah gave it to James,hes holdin it for ya,sorry if ya didn't want me to take it off but the doctor needed to get to your spine SOMEHOW."

Star dust just nods understandingly as he trots ahead of her and also notices his saddle bag isn't on him or his holster and looks down to see that Starberry is holding him,making him stop.

"What is it?" Starberry cocks a eyebrow in confusion.

"Can i have my stuff back too?" Star dust gives a smirk and it takes a few seconds before starberry remembers she has his saddle bag and chuckles while giving his saddle bag back and watches him put his holster back on."Thanks."

"No problem brother." Starberry chuckles again as they trot out of the office,stepping into a small city with hoof made buildings,rust and all kinds of ponies...even some scaly lizard ponies,similar to the one star shot in the valley,and when he sees them it makes him gulp in remembrance of the psychotic monster.

"Ulp...lets keep going." Star dust looks down from the medical office that was one of the taller buildings towering over the small city and it was one of the most cleanest buildings too,very little rust and rather professionally made,he took note of this as starberry takes him down to the shopping center.

"Oh and James also has yer battle saddle,yer shotgun is in yer saddle bag though." Starberry remembers his battle saddle.

"Considering my stable armor had it attached to the battle saddle i guessed that." Star says while getting a roll of eyes from starberry.

"Yea,yea ya smart ass." Starberry and star dust chuckle together as they go towards the walls of the city,getting some looks from different ponies.

As star and Starberry reach the exit they see Douglass,James and Jerome all gathered around,talking with lightning on a tree branch,asleep.

"I'm sure star dust will be fine,he survived falling down a valley,spine first." Douglass the phantom pony says,unaware of the 2 ponies approaching behind him.

"I don't know h-."James sees star smiling as he approaches them. "OK your right."

"Seriously? w-." Douglass turns around,almost going muzzle to muzzle with star. "GAH don't sneak up on me!!!!"

"Heheheh oh fine." Star says with a light punch on Douglass's arm,making him get a confused look at star's oddly happy attitude.

"Well you sure look happy for someone who has been out for 4 days." Jerome says with a compleatly straight face.

"Huh,not so happy to see me?"

"Its not that...its THAT!" Jerome says before pointing a hoof at a little shinning light in the distance. "Whoever or whatever it is,it looks like its looking at us."

"Ummm its just a le-." Star stops and starts thinking about what a lens flare meant before going wide eyed. "SHIT!!"

Theirs a loud pang and everypony looks at the floor to see a small brown and blue metal apple like object and with one loud BANG light flares into their eyes as their ears ring loudly and Star goes from side to side,looking around,compleatly confused and when the flare clears he finds himself being grabbed by a pony in combat armor as he puts a gun to his head.

Just before the pony can pull the trigger Star slides into S.A.T.S and aims his shotgun,royal glory unavailable due to the fact their is a gun in his face,he notices their are ponies with metal armor trying to grab and shoot his friends...but one is dragging starberry away,making him go wide eyed as he sees her limp. '...No...' As star's eyes twitch in a mix of anger and fear for her death,or worse he places one shot to the one in front of him and one for each that are after his friends...but he doesn't have enough charge to save starberry,As star dust slides out of S.A.T.S 4 loud shotgun blasts blast each pony away except the 2 with metal armor which get gunned down by the mysterious pony who,again,came out of thin air.

Star dust turns and looks for starberry only to find her gone. "Starberry? STARBERRY?!?!" He looks for traces of where they took her only to find a trail of drag marks and her hat.

James coughs from the surprise of a flash bang and nearly getting shot. "Holy celestia what was that?"

"I-." Jerome shakes his head. "I think it was a flash bang apple."

"GUYS STARBERRY IS MISSING!!" Star seems to say in a shaky and worried tone and cracks of fear echoing through his voice.

"Hey,Star,its OK,we knew this was going to ha-." Before Jerome could even finish his comment Star almost bursts into flame.

"I AM NOT GOING TO LET IT HAPPEN ON MY WATCH!!!!!" Star shouts out in a voice so loud it'd put the royal canterlot voice to shame and has almost literal fire in his eyes,and tears slowly leaking out.

Jerome closes his mouth and shrinks back a bit like a frightened foal as he decides its best to shut up and try not to further piss off the demon he accidentally woke up. "Y-yes sir."

Star dust sighs and calms himself down. "S-sorry...it just came as a shock."

"...AS A SHOCK?!?!?! you look like you were about to rip all out spines out." James steps forward,confronting star with both extreme concern and a little fear.

"All of you...shut up." Everyone's head turns to lightning who is just looking out from under his hood. "If Star is really THAT concerned about this pony...i'll help get her back."

Star just gives a slow nod as he fallows the drag marks and Lightning bass walks past both James and Jerome as they both decide not to fallow star until he comes back with starberry so their would be a lesser chance that he'll brutally murder them both.

Star keeps fallowing the drag marks,without a word,lightning just trying to choose what kind of ammo to use just as they come across the gates of a small town that has strange armored ponies with orange eyes in it and the gate guards stare at them as they enter.

"This is where she was dragged off to." Star whispers to Lightning as they both load their guns,Star out of anger and Lightning out of habit.

"We gonna kill em?"

"Not until we get starberry and plant a bullet between the eyes of the pony who took her."

"I like how you think."

Star just nods as he fallows the fresher tracks to a shack where it stops and tries to open it only to find it locked. "...Blow the door open." Lightning eyes go a bit wide at Star's command,expecting a desecrate and sneaky way in unlike blowing the celesita damn door down.

"...Alright." Lightning grins as his mini gun revs up with explosive rounds and rapidly blasts the door down with a quick couple of booms,immediately setting off the towns alarm as the sun goes down...and all the lights go out,sending both Star dust and Lightning into darkness with nothing but their pip buck lights and the glowing eyes of the ponies and their muzzle flares as the only things they can see aside from the little area their pip bucks illuminate.

Lightning turns back and starts firing all his guns at once with a little satisfaction at each explosion and flare of shattered ponies,Star not stopping him this time,nor caring about any of those who beg for their lives...he just walked in and let Lightning do his work.

As Star dust walks into the darkness of the shack he hears growls just as the door slams behind him making him jump. "...Shit." As the growling gets louder as it begins turning into a laugh,making Star shake but he keeps going none the less. "I'm not leaving her hear." He keeps activating S.A.T.S but never goes into it,just hearing a clicking sound,using this as a "scanning tactic" that he learned from his dad in the stable.

"STAR,STAR!!!!" Starberries voice echos through the shack,which is much bigger on the inside...and her voice comes from underground.

Star's eyes go wide as he goes to some nearby stares and looks down to see Starberries figure and smiles but as he hits S.A.T.S one more time...it wasn't starberry,as it zooms in the pip-buck somehow identifies it as a "multiemare" which quickly makes star's smile vanish as he reaches down and pulls out royal glory.

"Whatcha doin star? its me,Starberry." The shadowy figure smiles.

"...Your not Starberry..." Star pulls the trigger but the figure vanishes and appears behind him.

"Well yer smart." The mare who has taken the form of starberry grows and becomes a hideously miss matched mare made of all different kinds of mare with a snake like tongue and dagger teeth...with the voices of all different kinds of mares. "And here i thought killing you was going to be easy."

Star's eyes go wide at the horrifying sight but he manages to hide his fear. 'Face Everything And Rise." His father's voice echos through his head. 'That is what fear is star dust,never forget that...when everything is against you...face everything...and rise above it all.' The sound of his dad's voice brings a tear to star's eyes as it rolls down his voice,the multiemare noticing and laughing.

"Oh is little star cr-." Before her hideous voices could finish Star turns and bucks her off her hooves as he hides the fear in him,locking it in and using it to his advantage,making him move faster out of fear but Towards the multiemare as she rises and hisses just before being tackled into the wall and thrown back towards the stairs by Star as he growls.

"Give starberry BACK!!" Star's eyes almost shoot out fire as his heart beats faster making him tense up as sweat drizzles down his face and he aims his gun.

"Grrrr." The Multiemare rises to her hooves and lets out a ear tearing screech that makes the walls crumble but Star doesn't move...his anger was boiling his blood already and his need to save the closest pony he had to a sister pushed him so far that not even death himself could take him away until Star knew Starberry was safe. "JUST DIE LITTLE PONY!!!!" The multiemare slams her hooves down causing a shock wave towards Star dust.

Regardless of the feeling of chilling fear going through every bone in his body,Star just stood their,looking at the Shock wave,his father's voice repeatedly echoing in his head until finally...snap...boom.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" The multiemare screeches in sudden agony as she looks to her side only to find one of her limbs are missing and one of her wings was blown off just before Star get pushed back by the shock wave.

"You pissed off the wrong little pony bitch." Star walks up and bucks her down the stairs before slowly descending down,royal glory back in his holster and the look of anger in Star's eyes now replaced with a merciless gold flare as his sanity slowly slips away as he doesn't realize.

"G-get the fuck away from me." The multiemare crawls to a corner and cowers,hopping that the fresh stable pony would just leave so she can heal...he didn't leave,he stood over her,looking down with half opened eyes that seem to be filled with nothing but hate. "Y-your not the kind to kill a begging pony are you?"

"...you?...your not a pony." The very instant he finishes his Sentence the stable securities hoof slams down with such force and speed the head splatters into a clump of mush on the wall. "Your just a target." As star slowly returns to reality he blinks multiple times and shakes his head,putting the bloodied hoof to his head before looking at the shiny blood...he saw himself in the blood...only it was a mere monster in disguise.

Star stood their in silence for a second before putting his hoof down as his ears can still hear the incredibly loud sounds of Lightning blowing every pony in sight into the sky,almost literally...but thats not what he was here for,he had to find Starberry...and he has found her.

"S-star? i-is that you?" The figure strapped to a table says shakily as the light comes on showing the cut up face of Starberry with heavy eyes and tears.

"STARBERRY!!" As Star dust rushes to her...he freezes...she was cut open,he cringed and slowly went to her. "What...did this to you?"

"A-a m-mare...she looked...freaky." Starberry says shakily with a bloodied cough.

"Yea...i think i dealt with it." Starberry takes out a health potion and helps her drink it and looks around the room and sees her saddle bag and gear laying on the floor as he goes and helps get them back while he undoes the binds.

"A-ah thought i'd die here."

"I thought you were already dead,glad i was wrong." Star dust smiles as he takes out a doctor's bag,thinks a bit and tries his hoof at trying to heal her.

After a few minutes he had sown up the opened up section of her torso,disinfected it and eased her over with some pain killers. "Their,any better si-...Starberry?"

"Yea...thanks...ah didn't know you were such a good doctor." Starberry gets up with a fresh new smile.

"Heh,im not to be honest,it wasn't as hard it looked...i just had to make sure nothing touched the organs...its all quick combat healing really,but it looks like it was less than a combat wound so you'll be fine."

"Yea yea sure,lets get outa here." Starberry points a hoof at the stares as they both smile and nod before galloping out only to find lightning relaxing on a gigantic pile of corpses with a smile and cigarette.

"Before ether of you say anything,star ordered me to and it was out of self defense,plus i saw them beating up their kids SO DON'T HATE ME FOR DOING MY JOB!!!" Lightning says immediately after he sees them.

"Well...ya'll certainly did a good job cleanin this place out...lets just get outa this place before somehow more of them come." Starberry starts trotting to the gate as Lightning and Star both fallow with a little hoof bump and a chuckle.

Author's Note

HELLO i believe this chapter is longer than the last few,i hope,i worked hard on this one :3

chapter 13:fear has 2 meanings (continued)

As Starberry,Star dust and Lightning all make their way back to James and Jerome,Star gets a uneasy and wavy feeling in his mind like something bad is about to happen,making his ears twitch. "Why...do i feel like things are about to go down hill?" Star dust looks at Starberry in the eye.

"Get used to it,ah get that feeling allot but ah never pay much attention to it." Starberry reflects on the past times where she felt like bad things are going to happen and she was mostly right.

"Alright i guess..." Star dust sees the large city his friends were at...only to see fires and the sounds of gunshots. "...No." Starberry,Star dust and Lightning all gallop to the city as it slowly burns.

Star dust coughs as he rushes through the fires and gunshots from unknown sources,occasionally rolling under falling ruble before it hits the ground,Starberry and Lightning flying over head,scouting out the area. "What the fuck happened here?" Star dust pants and his eyes dart around and he sees James galloping away from gunfire as he fires back at the invaders with his sawed off. "JAMES!!! JAMES!!!!" Star dust yells while galloping towards him.

"NO,STAR,WAIT!!!" James tries using his magic to stop the bullets from hitting him and manages to just muster up the energy to cause a flicker of protection from a bullet before it could do any harm to star or hit his barding,letting star slide over to James.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!?!?!?" Star takes out royal glory and aims,firing at whatever is in the smoke.

"THEIRS NO TIME TO EXPLAIN,JUST RUN!!!" James grabs Star's hoof and gallops to the exit,dodging gunfire and trying to avoid being crushed by ruble.

"WAIT,WHAT ABOUT JEROME?!?!" Star looks around...then everything freezes as he looks into the small white eyes of the thing he fears most...insanity in its physical form was starring at him...right in the eyes,its bone molded mouth and grin sticking out of the shadow of his psychotic hood,the flesh of other ponies who lost their sanity forming grinning and screaming faces on its body,its cloak mocking star with a image of himself trapped in it...and right in insanity's arms...was Jerome,it was not just star's imagination...his deepest fear was standing their,holding the pony he came out of the stable with,insane and laughing in sync with the laughs in star's head. 'Run.' All star could think about is getting away 'Forget Everything And Run.' He kept wanting to save his friend but his mind knew better...he couldn't even do it if he wanted...all he could do was run,run and keep his eyes away from it...so he did.

As James looks back,hopping Star was fallowing,he sees Star burst out of the smoke,with utter fear in his eyes,his pupils so small they resemble pin heads. "OH SHIT!!!" James falls back as Star dust rushes past him and pants while clutching his head,hopping that he didn't somehow go insane just by looking at the creature.

"FORGET THAT SHIT,NOPE,SO MUCH NOPE!!!!" Starberry and Lightning land.

"Star? where's Jerome." Starberry looks around,hopping to see the zebra.

"NOPE,as much as i want to be the good guy and save him HES ALREADY DEAD AND I DON'T THINK ITS POSSIBLE TO SAVE SOMETHING THAT'S DEAD!!!" Star shivers and curls up into a little fluffy blue ball of shaky fear.

"...Holy buck ya'll look scared...ah aint gonna push ya then." Starberry hugs Star dust and tries comforting him with reassuring him.

"...You sir are a pussy." Lightning nearly laughs if it wasn't for the fact he feels a gun being pressed up to his head.

"Say that about mah brother again...and ah'll have yer head removed." Starberry glares at him.

"Wait,hes your brother?" Both Star and Starberry stop and look at each other then to Lightning.

"Uhhh no,he aint mah brother," Starberry facehoofs so hard Star can hear a 'Smack.' 'Why did ah say he was mah brother?' Starberry thinks to herself,feeling a little bit like a idiot.

Star dust gets up and sighs as he stretches his wings and shakes off the fear as he tries to bring down the fluff of his coat,wondering why his coat even fluffed up only to have it poof more. "Ugh." He brings it back down again. "Hey where's Dou-."

"I'm right here." Douglass seems to come out of the shadows,unharmed and just leans on the wall without a word.

Star raises his hoof to question him but decides its best not to question the teleporting gun slinger with the body armor under his coat.

"Ahlirght,now where are we gonna go? we can't put out fires...at least not with what we got...and most of them ponies their already got out." Starberry scratches the back of her head as she tries to think of somewhere to go,allot of the places she knows are ether too far or would get them all killed without their bomb throwing friend.

"...I have a idea." James says causing everypony start starring at him. "Why not go to one of the stables near here? i heard stable 49 is pretty close."

"Hmmmm,ah fuck it,SURE!!!" Star throws his arms into the air,knowing nowhere else to go at the moment as Douglass just stands their,his eyes still hidden under his hat and his duster still flowing.

"Ah screw it,sure,lets go." Starberry looks at the flaming city as the buildings heat up with fires and embers,bringing down the city and its buildings one by one. "S-should we help these ponies before we go? ah think they could use it."

"Nope." Lightning lands and crosses his fore legs and looks at the flaming city with nothing but spite in his eyes and the tip of his Mohawk sticking out of his hood.

"But what about the kids in their? ya'll think they'll be fine?" Starberry starts sounding worried as she looks back at the city.

Doug finally speaks up,his often motionless mouth feels strange to watch move when hes saying something. "Listen,Starberry,im worried too but theirs nothing we can do,if we try then it will get us all killed plus them,were no use to anypony dead and we may not be able to do anything now but we will make up for it later,okay?" Starberrry looks at the strange pony,not expecting something like that to come out of him then slowly nods. "Alright,now lets move."

Star dust looks at Doug,then to Starberry then to James and lightning as they all look back with their eyes sparkling with a mix of understanding and confusion before they all simultaneously shrug and fallow Star dust as he walks ahead of Douglass and starts leading the group once again.

As they walk along the road,Star keeps thinking back to the little filly,her tears rolling down her face,her heart broken from seeing her whole town dead in front of her...he could only hope for the best and pray to Celestia she can survive on her own. 'Celestia,Luna,pleas help that poor filly...pleas...im so sorry...' Star tries holding in his tears,not hearing his friend's conversations as his inner voice seems to beat at him too much to be able to listen.

"Star? ya'll alright? ya look like yer going to cry,ya miss Jerome?" Starberry raises a eyebrow as he gets closer to Star...he forgot about Jerome...and being reminded just made it worse.

'Shiiiiiittttt.' He now had both the image of his stable friend,dead and the little filly looking at her dead family,making him stumble mid-trot and his vision goes blurry making him nearly fall on his side.

"Star?" Starberry quickens her trot and helps him up again. "Ya'll alright? ya look a bit...pale." She notices Star's eyes are watery as teardrops slowly drip from his eyes. "...Star?" She slowly wraps her hooves around him as James,Lightning and Douglass all stop and look at Star,wanting to question whats happening but not saying anything. "Its gonna be alright Brother,ah gotcha."

'This may be the first time i'v seen Star cry...im not sure weather stable ponies cry allot or something really bad happened.' James thinks as he takes a step forward only to get stopped by Doug who shakes his head,making James step back into line.

"C'mon,tell me whats wrong." Starberry lifts Star's chin up as she feels his cold tears dripping onto her hooves. 'Ah'v never seen a pony cry like this...was losing Jerome that hard on him? no no he was close to this before then,ah could tell...Jerome just pushed him over the edge.'

"I-im...im fine Starberry...t-thanks for your concern." Star dust rises to his hooves,his tears slowly stopping as he trots onward,making the rest of the group fallow him.

"Uhhhh okay then...as a distraction:any of you heard of the reapers?" James tries to strike a topic to distract Star and the others from what just happened.

"Yea,i have,not very tough." Starberry,James and Lightning all nearly stop but manage to keep moving,starring at Douglass,wide eyed.

"Are you shitting me? their the most bad ass of the bad ass,how do you think they got their title?" Lightning the heavy weapons alicorn says a bit shocked that something doesn't think the reapers are tough.

"Luck." This time...everyone did stop and they all turned to look at the pony who got the title of 'Phantom' "Life,fighting,everything you can think of is all just a roll of a die,how it turns out is not based on skill,or guns,or armor just chance...and i never roll snake eyes...never...thats how i survive...a roll of the die,click,boom."

"...Well...that uhhh...is a intreastin way of seein things Dougy." Starberry thinks about it as she comments on Doug's thoughts.

"Well it makes sense to me." Now everypony turns to Star. "It makes sense to me at least,i survived a shotgun blast to the face,a ring of explosions and falling into a valley...on my fucking spine and Luck is what saved our asses many times,all luck is is the roll of a pair of die,right?" Douglass nods with a small smile,glad somepony else understands his point of view.

"Alright...i guess im with you here." Lightning sighs and scratches the back of his head,now thinking that their right...even he could probably take down a reaper.

"Right then,im convinced as well...sure as hell makes more sense on how i became a alicorn." James looks around and thinks about how he even became a alicorn...which is a story for another time.

"Well ya'll believe whatever,ah never liked reapers,their just idiots with big ass guns or too buckin stubborn for their own good." Starberry scoffs a bit as she resumes fallowing Star along the road.

Star and the others slowly trot off the road,to a cave entrance.

"Well,here we are lads,stable 49..." James trots ahead of Star dust,opens the make shift wooden door and sees the entire stable door rammed into the side of the cave. "Holy bucking shit." James,Star dust,Lightning and even Douglass all stare at the stable door.

"...Mother of celestia what the fuck did THAT?!?!" Douglass out of all of them is the first one to speak up for some reason,this was probably the first time any of them have seen him shocked because something.

"...Ah have no idea..." Starberry blinks as she is astonished that something managed to pull the door out and ram it into the fucking wall.

The whole group slowly passes it,seeing no sign of explosions,only the rust and overgrowth of stable 49 as Erie creaking sounds and strange scurrying sounds rush through the halls.

"...James,this idea is both the best and the worst idea you have ever had."

"I would question you Star my friend but i have learned never to Question the logic of a blue Pegasus who has survived falling on his spine." James and Star both look around as they walk around the dark,rusted,mucky halls.

"...I...i need to go to the living quarters." Lightning seems to just trot off before anypony could even respond.

"Aaaaalllrrright?" Star raises a eyebrow at the strange act.

"Don't worry about him,hes got a gun that shoots metal apples...he'll be fine." Douglass says as he peeks into a room only to see some strange shape standing up in the darkness,its nothing but a faint outline...and its head is twitching and moving rapidly in all directions,when its at one side it instantly moves to a different like its a strange twitching zombie on seizures while high and suffering from the shakes. "Uhhh hello? are you alright?"

Star moves to him as James and Starberry stand back. "Ummm hello?" Star slowly moves into the room and as he looks closer...the creature grabs his head,its head still twitching everywhere...its a pony,a stable pony with one eye with pupils as big as its whole eye and its red and the other the size of a pin head and blue and the mare screeches into star's face...click...boom,her head gets blown off as soon as Douglass's bullet shatters her brain. "GAH FUCKING,FUCKITY,SHIT,BALLS,FUCK!!!!!" Star quickly falls back and scoots away from the body. "BY CELESTIA'S HORN WHAT THE SHIT?!?!?!"

Douglass rushes in and helps him up as James and Starberry look inside in a hurry,wondering what happened. "Are you alright Star?" Doug tries to keep calm himself,wondering what the fuck he just saw as he tries to stop Star from freaking out.

"Yea...yea im fine." Star dust pants as Starberry and James go and look at the body.

"...What in the buck?" Starberry turns the body onto its other side and examines the body,seeing what happened to the poor pony to make it go this psychotic.

"Ummm guys,we have company." James peeks outside only to see a strange creature covered in slime,about the size of Luna herself,using its claws to go through the halls,its green eyes blending in with the rest of its green scaly body and it seems to hiss with a snake like tongue and teeth so sharp they can penetrate power armor like a ripper through butter. "And hes pretty big."

As the others are about to get up to go look at whats coming their way the creature itself teleports and appears in front of Star dust. "HOLY SHIT!!!!" It hisses loudly and slashes at him only for him to drop-dodge it,making it knock back Douglass and spit some kind of strange green goop at Starberry,tying her up before back-clawing James into the wall as its hiss turns into a roar. "FUCK!!!" Star rolls out of the way as it turns to hit him with its spiked tail.

"...Target acquired." A robotic mare's voice rings through the room as out of nowhere a mint green mare shaped robot with a greenish blue mane and tail comes out of nowhere with red and black glowing eyes and it rushes to the creature,tackling it down before its hoof turns into a blade,ramming it into the creatures eye making its blue blood splatter all over her,making the blade turn into a ribber,tearing its head apart. "...Goodnight." It picks up the whole creature,regardless of its size and throws it through the fucking wall before trotting up to hit and hits it with a pair of pulse hooves that she made from her own hooves. "Target ter-." She hits it again. "Mi-." Hits it again. "Nated." One last hit making its head splatter onto the floor.

Everypony stares at the machine,wide eyed and jaws hanging open. "...What the fuck?" Star says while getting up,amazed that a robot just destroyed such a large and fast creature.

The robot turns to him and the red in her eyes turns into a pink as she doesn't have a mouth she still makes a cheerful voice. "Hello mr- data unavailable,pleas enter name."

"Ummmm...Star dust?"

The robot processes the data. "Hello Mr Star dust,i am:Medley,i am programmed to protect you."

Star just stands their,silent. 'What?!?! something 200 years old is programmed to protect me?' "Ummm show information?"

The machine brings up a holographic image of somepony that actually looks allot like star but with a much lighter coat,greener eyes and a hat and vest,for a moment Star thought they may be related...they may be. "This is your Image is it not Mr Star?"

"Umm yes thats me..." 'Not really but its a robot made to protect me so im good with it.' Star dust gets up,examines the new robot as it looks at Him in the eye.

"Well...looks like you got your own body guard." James smirks at Star...then their was a bone chilling screech.

Author's Note

im planning on making each one longer from now on becuse of my friend :3 and i already have the next story planned after this one.

chapter 14:Grim reaper's hunter

As everyone except Medley cover their ears in pain from the pain inducing screech one of the doors down the hall burst open and swarms of what can only be described as deathclaw-ponies burst out,screeching so loud that it could crack glass.

"SON OF A BITCH!!!!!" James cringes as he takes his hooves off his ears and shakily raises his sawed off off as the horde of strange mutated ponies swarm at them.

"Get...the...fuck...AWAY!!!!" In the split second before James could fire his gun Star dust pulls out Royal glory and has already pulled the trigger...and the screeching stopped as the rest of the horde storms forward. 'Aim.Focus.Shoot.check.switch.' Star repeatedly goes through the training process his dad gave him in his head thats supposed to help him be a better and faster shot.

As Royal glory blasts 11 shots at a time,whenever it runs out of bullets Doug and James use their sawed off and quick shot revolver to keep the closest ones away as all 3 slowly create a barrier of corpses that just get crushed into a bloody mess under the hooves of the rest of the oncoming horde,Star keeps reloading rather rapidly like the adrenalin rush makes him faster in every way...and royal glory aims at the last 12...6 shots were fired from S.A.T.S and the 7th was left with nothing but a "click"...then the strum of a guitar again...and with a flash of a pony as Star comes out of S.A.T.S the last few fall to the ground with 6 very powerful bangs and the blue pony just glances at Star with a quick flash of orange in his eye,only their was something wrong with it...his eye was...cybernetic.

With a flash of light the pony vanishes and Star had realized Starberry has not fired a single round. "Hey Starber-." As he turns around he sees his sister figure cowering behind Doug who didn't notice her at all. "Starberry?"

"N-no...no no no...let me go." Starberry whimpers and mumbles out as she has mental flashbacks to past moments in her childhood.

Star almost says something but decides to do what she would do...he hugged her,didn't say a thing,just held her in his arms as a brother would to a little sister,tightening his grip as she cries. "Its okay Starberry...i wont let anything hurt you." Star whispers to the little red pony as she slowly calms down.

Doug crosses his legs and leans on the wall. "You know,you two are shockingly caring for each other." Doug's comment gets ignored by the two ponies as Star's heart beats faster,faster and faster until he feels like Starberry's heart is beating equally fast.

Theirs a zombie like groan and Star does not hesitate to look down the scope,to the far side of the hall and takes aim at the deathclaw-pony as spores grow on it...he aims for the spores as he reloads Royal glory. "Just die you piece of living shit." with a pull of the trigger one spore pops open,sending a explosive gas spreading around it...another bullet...and the monstrosity screams in pain as it becomes engulfed in fire and pain.

"T-thank ya Star." Starberry rests her head on Star's chest,just glad she has somepony looking after her.

"No problem Starberry." Star dust smiles then looks at Medley who is looking around the halls before sitting down. "I guess she didn't want to get caught in the crossfire...c'mon lets get lightning."

James puts his sawed off into his holster and nods as he looks at the corpses of the ponies...then shivers as he sees the stable outfits under the scales. "Yea,lets just go fast,i don't think these things are going to stay down very long...it looks like they were artificially made."

"YOU DON'T SAY MOTHERBUCKER!!!!!!" The voices of dead scientists from beyond the grave shout at him.

"...What the fuck was that?" Star flinches a bit from the sound of dead scientists talking.

"I...think its best we forget about it and move on." James trots around the corner as Medley fallows closely behind Star like a really protective body guard as Starberry stands right next to him with Doug on her other side and Medley behind them as they trot through the halls and stairs.

As the group goes into the living quarters,they hear a slight cry from one of the nearby medical rooms put their in case of emergencies and they instantly look at each other in question.

"Uhh...ah'll go check to see who it is." Starberry trots to the door...theeeen realizes she has no idea how stable doors work. "Ummm how do ya open stable doors?"

"OH FUR BUCKING-." Star pulls out Royal glory and shoots the console next to the door causing the door to open.

"EEK!!!" Starberry jumps back from the sparks before slowly looking inside...and sees Lightning crying.

"I-im sorry...i...didn't know my own strength...p-pleas." Lightning whimpers out,not noticing Starebrry or anypony else. "Pleas come ba-."

"Lightnin?" Starberry takes a step forward as he jumps up and clings to the roof like a extremely frightened cat.

"GYAH DON'T SNEAK UP ON ME!!!!!!" Lightning drops down a moment later,

"Heheheh well ah gotta say that WAS funny." Starberry and Star dust chuckle,James hitting himself in the face in annoyence and Doug just standing their,wondering how Lightning clingd to the roof.

"Shut up,both of y-." Click. "What was that?" Click.

"Ah hear it too." Click. "Ya'll know where thats comin from?" A loud stable like door seems to screech open nearby,making the whole group cringe and cover their ears in pain.

"GYYYAAAAHHHHH!!!!!" Star falls down clutching his ears as high pitched frequencies surge through his ears from a nearby speaker making him instinctively pull out Royal glory and look around,noticing a radio that seems to be gathering figures behind it,and as Star aims...his mind goes blank,he can't pull the trigger,he can't move...but the gun fires anyway. 'W-what the?' Royal glory seems to fire on his own without Star dust pulling the trigger as it it knows that He can't move...and once the radio is gone,the figures drop one by one until royal glory finally runs out of ammo and star dust regains control of his body.

James groans and rubs his head in pain,hearing the same high pitched noise. "Ugh...n-nice aim Star."

"...I...I didn't shoot that." Star says while slowly putting royal glory back in his holster after making sure to reload it and everypony looks at star wondering what he means by that,he clearly ha the gun in his mouth and it clearly fired.

"What ya say? That makes no sense Star,didn't royal glory fire?" Starberry goes to him and looks at his gun.

"Yes it did fire,but im not the one who pulled the trigger,I couldn't,i was paralyzed and...the gun fired on its own." Star looks at Starberry.

"...I say we just keep moving and not question the mystical power of a gun that probably saved our asses." Lightning trots forward towards where the radio and figures were...and he freezes in place out of fright.

"Something wrong lightning?" Star dust walks next to him then nearly vomits at the sight. "W-what is that?" He stares directly at the face of a pony...only it wasn't a pony...it was scaly,black,the eyes were those of insects,its horn was crooked,curved and filled with holes,its teeth were jagged and sharp as daggers,its black tongue hanging out and its ears resembled two claws and its green blood was pouring down its neck and onto its moth like wings which are twitching and covering most of its side.

"...That...is disgusting." Lightning shivers at the insect like creature and backs away from it.

"What are ya'll talkin bou-." Starberry goes and stands next to Star only to take one look at the creature and shiver intensely. "OK,NOPE,NOPE,NOPE SO MUCH NOPE,WE ARE GETTIN OUTA HERE!!!!" Starberry grabs both Lightning and star and begins dragging them away as Doug and James just fallow,confused. "NOOOOOPE THAT IS ONE TALL GLASS OF NOPE!!!" She leads them all out of the stable and forces the door shut.

"Did she ju-" Before James could finish Starberry somehow picks them all up and carries the whole damn group out of their. "WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!"

As soon as they get to the wasteland Starberry pants and drops them all onto the floor and collapses. "OK...im done..." She says between pants.

"...Should we question this?" Star dust looks at James and Doug.

"I have learned from experience that whenever something strange happens,never question it,just accept it and think nothing of it unless its aiming a gun at you." Douglass says with the worlds greatest poker face.

James looks at Doug."Agreed."

"I am just going to do what Doug here said and accept whatever this is" Lightning just sits down.

"Alright then." Star gulps a bit,not wanting to know what other strange occurrences are going to try to stick their dicks in his life. 'Ugh this is not going to be fun,is it?' Star mentally groans and looks at Royal glory.

Starberry gets up and sighs as everypony stares at each other in a awkward silence."...ARE YA'LL GONNA SAY SOMETHIN OR AM AH GONNA HAVE TO SMACK YA'LL TO TALK?!?!?!" Starberry blurts out,getting tired of the silence.

"OK OK WE'LL GET MOVING!!!! Alright,hmmmm...lets go to...hmm? a town named...Requiem?" Star cocks a eyebrow and looks at his pip buck closer.

"Ah don't think its a good idea to go the-." Starberry gets cut off mid sentence.

"WE ARE GOING THEIR!!!!" Star dust blurts out with a stupid grin.

"OH WHY OF COURSE WE ARE,WHAT A GREAT IDEA!!!!" Starberry facehoofes at why she even bothers telling him where not to go when theirs no changing Star's mind.

As the group continues along a path,Star keeps inspecting royal glory,none stop,for hours,to the point where Starberry wants to smack it out of his hooves. "Hmmm..." Star looks at the trigger,hopping for a clue. 'How the hell did it fire without me pulling the trigger?' He looks closer at the trigger only to find nothing but a clean shine from the whole gun itself and nothing else,making him sigh in exasperation,wanting to crack the mystery.

"Why do ya'll keep starrin at yer gun?" Starberry look back at Star,her pony tail flipping to the other side.

"It fired on its own,i didn't pull the trigger,remember? but somehow it knew i wanted to shoot...and somehow knew i couldn't...so i want to figure out how this works."

"...That IS strange...but ah say get a professional."

"Oh fine." Star dust puts Royal glory back into his holster but keeps a eye on it.

As a town Comes in sight making Starberry shake in fear.

"Whats so bad about that place anyway?" Star dust asks while turning his head to Starebrry.

"...Its...where Ashley lives." The very instant Starberry mentions Ashley's name Lightning stops,turns around and cowers behind a rock.

"NOPE,NOPE,NOPE I AM NOT GETTING ANY CLOSER TO HER,I DO NOT WANT TO BECOME A WOODEN DUCK!!!!"

"...Wooden duck?" Star cocks a eyebrow up in confusion.

"Its what she calls her targets,whoever pisses her off becomes a 'wooden duck' to her we are all just duck hunt targets flying around waiting to be shot and caught by a dog...and she literally feeds her victims to a dog." Starberry shivers thinking about what would happen if she met Ashley personally.

"Aaaand lightning is afraid of her?" Star chuckles a bit thinking of the heavily armored,highly feared lightning fearing a mare.

"Yes,i am,im not a reaper and even if i was i'd still be afraid,to her a reaper is just target practice the only pony who could ever challenge her is a Pegasus named 'Dead shot calamity' And even then he wont be able to kill her...but at least he has less of a chance of getting hit in the head...hell for all we know Ashley could be lining up her sights on us right now...lets just hope shes in a good mood." Lightning gulps hopping its the actual 'Ashley' and not her pissed off form which the wasteland named 'grim reaper's hunter'.

Star dust puts a hoof to his chin. "She wont shoot if shes in a good mood?"

"Correction:she is less likely to shoot on sight,and hopefully shes actually 'Ashley' because thus far we got 2 sides of her,Ashley the sweet,kindish,smart,fast moving mare who helps ponies...and then theirs her pissed off side...we call her 'grim reaper's hunter'...not because shes the bringer of death...but because when shes pissed any and all reapers,slavers,death claws and any pony in general who thinks its a good idea to pick a fight with her will be shittin themselves while bein hunted down,no escape,no killin her and ya can't see her comin,shes too darn fast...and those eyes." Starberry cringes and shivers when she remembers a photo of Ashley when shes pissed...the flaming,glowing red eyes...starring at her through the picture like saying 'Your next little duck.'

"Well...LETS GO TALK TO HER!!!" Star dust grins while going full sprint to the town making both Lightning and Starberry facehoof so hard they leave bruises on their foreheads.

James looks at Doug for a moment. "...Aaaaahhh bollocks to it,ALLONS-Y!!!!!" James proceeds to do the same ridiculase sprint forward,fallowing Star dust.

"...If you can't beat em,join em i guess." Douglass smiles while looking back at Starberry before galloping full speed behind James.

"...OH FUCK IT AH'V LIVED A FULL LIFE!!!!" Starberry fallows,giggling a bit from the slight ridiculousness.

Lightning just sits their and blinks for a moment then looks at you,yes you,the reader. "...What? oh you think im fallowing them? oh buck no,keep scrolling,im not fallowing them." Lightning sits and crosses his arms then looks at the screen."...Oh fine...but only because your cute." He proceeds to get up and gallops after the rest of the group.

The whole group stands at the heavily guarded gates,getting patted down for any suspicious items as the guards find nothing. "OK their clean,let em in." The guard searching them with his horn says as the two heavily armored ponies step aside and let Star dust and James in as Doug and Starberry fallow closely behind.

"Well...were here...CAN WE GO NOW?!?!?!" Starberry instantly panics and looks around.

"No,not until we meet a few ponies." Star dust looks at her with the worlds most annoyingly cocky yet cute smirk.

"...Ah would say ah hate you but that would mean i have to shoot ya...and ah aint gonna shoot ya."

"Awwww look who cares." Star dust chuckles making Starberry snarl like a dog. "C'mon,lets get go-."

"Hellooooo my dear swans." A angelically beautiful yet horrifying voice says to them...and its only horrifying because they all know it must belong to the one mare who the wasteland knows not to piss off.

A tan coated mare flies down with a long,beautiful black mane and tail and the very instant Star,James and Lightning look at her their pupils become pin pricks and their wings all pomf out at the same time as their jaws nearly hit the floor as they look at the incredibly good looking mare in front of them,her eyes sparkling,her smile looks like one you'd only think of in your dream mares,even her dark-tanned hoodie and tight blue jeans help make her look even better...the only thing stopping them from trying to kiss her...was the fact she was aiming both her battle saddles...at them.

"U-u-u-u-uhhhhh." Star dust tries to talk but can't even muster up a word.

Starberry facehoofs. "He says hi." She tries out her best smile and mentally sighs in relief from seeing Ashley giggle and smile back at her then to the others,Doug just starring at her,trying to keep his mouth from dropping.

"Nice to see some new ponies around here,im Ashley." Ashley's voice seems to flow through Star's ears and he almost has a literal ear-gasm if it wasn't for the fact that he heard that Ashley is supposed to be feared,making him wonder if its a bad idea to even think about it near her.

"Y-yea...we know...so...your the mare with the title of 'Grim reaper's hunter.' ?" Starberry flinches back a bit.

"Hmmm...is that what their calling me these days? i don't see what so scary about me,as long as your not evil or incredibly stupid you wont have a bullet in your head,same as every other pony...hang on for a second." Ashley walks past Star,James and Lightning and aims her left rifle,focuses and with a single pull of the trigger a trail of smoke gets sent straight into the head of her target. "Boom,head shot." Theirs a trail of smoke from the bullet and she fires 3 more shots and then gets up. "Hmm,2 slavers down and 3 slaves free using only 4 shots...my skills are getting rusty."

"THAT'S RUSTY?!?!?!?! YER A BETTER SHOT THAN MAH BROTHER,AND YOU DON'T EVEN USE A SCOPE!!!!!" Starberry suddenly shuts her mouth when she realizes that she just yelled at a pony who can easily kill her.

"...Yes,i consider that rusty,especially considering i was trained to use the fewest shots possible." Ashley smirks,making Starberry roll her eyes a bit.

"...Wait...guys..." Star dust goes wide eyed and then everypony looks at him. "...We forgot Medley." James,Doug,Starberry and Lightning all go wide eyed and look at each other.

"Oh shit." They all say at the same time as they realize they never saw their robot friend meet up with them.

Back far back on the road Medley can be heard letting out small robotic whimpers and looking around,hopping to find a familiar face to lead her somewhere. "...In-...Spec-...Tor?" She slowly says,hopping for a response from the pony she thought was the inspector...and eventually...she learned she could cry.

Author's Note

yes these chapters are getting longer,yes i know not by much but don't bitch about it

chapter 15:Medley little Melody [character chapter]

Author's Note

here is what a "Character chapter" basically is:its a chapter thats dedicated to a character to get to know them and see their past,see the world through their eyes,every character will eventually get one and they most likely will be ether shorter than a normal chapter or around the same length most likely only over a few hundred words.

chapter 15:Medley little Melody [character chapter]

As Medley felt nothing of her oily tears slowly going down her metal,metallic cheeks she keeps trotting,searching for the pony she called "The inspector." to complete her mission,hopping that he hadn't left her on purpose.

"The moddle:K-36 is the first robot we have made to feel real pony emotions." The voice of her creator starts talking in her head...she didn't listen,the only thing on her mind is finding the blue pony she was programmed to protect and do her mission.

"Now whats this?" A dirty looking pony wearing makeshift engineering cloths comes from over the hill and trots to her,almost immediately Medley jumps into a combat stance and growls. "A robot? and it doesn't shoot magic?...i could use you." The creepy pony smiles and approaches her but as he raises a hoof...snap...crack...splat.

"...Threat exterminated." Medley announces to no one as blood slowly drips from her platting as she stands over the pile of blood and guts that used to be a pony. "Resuming sea-...oh." Her mechanical ears flop down as she looks at the blood and remembers the one she was looking for...now she was not only crying about losing her objective,but she was crying over the fact that she killed a pony that she and only she considered a threat,for all she knew the pony wasn't ever a threat...but her programming tells her otherwise. "...I...am...I a...pony?" She shakes slightly as she starts remembering things from a past time.

"W-whats going to happen to me?" She hears...herself say,but it wasn't the mechanical voice others would hear,it was the voice of a pony,a real air breathing pony...the pony she was before she became a guardian.

"Well some things will be harder to do and your new brain will have some new memories in it,and i'd like to thank you for your donation to our project miss Medley." The voice of a obvious scientist speaks out in her head,Medley's memories starting to become more vivid as she sees herself before she was a machine attached and strapped down to a bed,the scientist pony with one milky white eye and a charming hair style as he smiles and talks reassuringly to the pony in front of him.

"No problem,i wanted to help in one way or another because this war has to end,weather it'd be by ponies or machine...i wish we could all just stop fighting...is it really that hard?...anyway i heard the one my brain is going to is going to be protecting my colt friend?" The memories Medley looks at the scientist.

"Ah yes,the inspector,what is his real name though? you MUST know,he can't keep his name from everypony." The scientist eagerly hopes that she knows his name because it started becoming a mystery.

"Hehehe you really want to know his name? well Okay then,his name is Marius Mars,the reason why he keeps his tux on all the time is to hide his cutie mark...never seen the whole thing,all i know is that theirs a gun and a sword in it and i saw a few star's on it...but keep calling him the inspector okay? he doesn't like being called 'Marius'."

"Got it miss." As the scientist gets the anesthetic the memory begins to fade from Medley's mind.

"...Memory...not...deleted..." She looks down again,not being able to delete the last of her memories...already have deleted her other memories of herself,now all she could feel is pain,pain in her metallic non-beating heart and pain in her organic brain,the only part of her she knows is of another pony,she can't let it be gone now no matter how much it hurts knowing what she was before she was a machine,before the world changed so drastically,she always thought the world she was in was the world it always was. "N-no...programming...does not compute...with memories." She begins clutching her head and crying heavily as she falls down onto her side with a loud CLANK enough to wake the dead...she slowly began to put herself to sleep. "...Sleep mode,activated.

Medley slowly goes through the steps of reactivating,slowly opening her mechanical eyes...only to find shes being dragged with a explosive collar around her neck.

"Hey the robots awake." A pony dragging a cart says.

"Was the collar really necessary? shes a robot,i don't think she will f-. " Within a second the slaver pony next to Medley gets slammed into the floor by a metallic hoof and a explosive collar falls and lands in the dust in front of his eyes.

"H-HOW THE FUCK DID IT DO THAT?!?!?!?" The leading slaver pony nearly screams in terror,seeing the machine they captured has broken out of its binds and somehow deactivated and removed the explosive collar.

Medley looks at the pony and even without a mouth...he can tell she was smirking. "Explosive collars do not function on this unit." As she finishes her sentence multiple bullets ping off her armor plating like BB balls pinging off bullet proof steel. "...Wrong move,bitch." The slavers all go wide eyed as they hear a frighting cackle coming from her non-existent mouth as she forms a long Rapier like blade from her hoof...and soon the slavers all find themselves packed into the cart as Medley cheerfully whistles a Melody as she drags them as they shake in fear.

"H-how the hell did this happen?" One of the slavers shakily turns his head to his friend,trying to avoid setting off the fresh new slave collar on his neck.

"...I don't know...we were just enslaved and became the bitch of a robot...ulp." The other slaver responds as he looks up at Medley.

"...Goodnight little ponies." Medley looks back at them and chuckles as they go wide eyed...as she bucks the cart their in down a cliff and sets off the slave collars making everything i the cart thats explosive explode along with them in a beautiful display of fireworks.

"MEDLEY?!?!?" Star's voice can be heard as the blue Pegasus rushes to Medley.

Medley smiles and then her memories come back. "...Hello...Mr Marius." And as she says the ponies name...she becomes the first to realize her own mistake on why she mistook Star for Marius...Marius is Star's great ancestor...the very one who gave Star his skills this day.

chapter 16:the enclave

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

chapter 17:crinis

As Star looks up at the strange griffon-pony-thing smiling at them,he had heard of what these were but he never thought they existed...nor that he would ever meet one one or if they were even friendly.

"...Ummmm...h-hello?" Star sputters out. "What are you?"

Just before the creature could speak up a robotic voice speaks out. "She is a hippogriff."

"What the hay you talkin bout? thats when a pony and a griffon do it and use magic,ya'll sayin that a pony and a griffon fucked now in THESE times." Starberry steps forward along with her head and James looks at her with a roll of his eyes as lightning just looks at the supposed "Hippogriff."

"Yes,it is the only explanation in my data files." Medley just blinks and trots over to Star and looks around,noticing their missing Douglass and that Ashley seems to be looking rather mentally unstable.

"Yup,that thing got it right." Everypony suddenly freeze in place and slowly turn their head to the smiling hippogriff. "Hi,im Crinis,im a hippogriff." Her smile widens as she raises a claw and waves it.

"...Wait...so...ya'll a...hippogriff?" Starberry questions a bit shakily and slightly lowers her hat.

"Eyup,arms and head and wings of a griffon,pony body,very simple really...i don't like simple,its a bit boring." The hippogriff giggles and sits down.

"Sir." Medley turns to Star. "It seems Douglass isn't here."

"Wait,wha-." Just as star is about to finish his word around 9 incredibly loud gunshots ring through the air the first one making the Hippogriff,Starberry,Star dust and Ashley all jump,getting startled.

"BOOM,HEADSHOT!!!" A phycotic pony screams out as everypony turns to see a raider with a assault rifle and Doug hiding in cover with his hat shot off and the pony thinks hes dead.

"SHIT!!" Star whips out his pistol as the Raider aims his weapon only to get it shot out of his mouth by Doug's revolver.

"Drop.the.gu-." The raider pony compleatly ignores Douglass and pulls out a knife,charging at him like a complete dumb ass only to get riddled with around 16 shots from both Star dust and Douglass and the shots blow the raiders head and limbs off. "I warned you."

"DOUG!!!" Star dust shouts at him all of a sudden as he spits his empty gun into his hoof holster. "WHERE THE TARTRUS DID YOU GO?!?!"

"You want to know? Well i went to a raider camp to scout it out and one fallowed me back." Douglass responds without even flinching.

Medley makes a beeping noise. "According to my calculations,that was a high risk mission." Her eyes say that shes mentally facehoofing.

"HEY!! Perhaps it would have been a better idea if you informed your team and took somepony else with you instead of being a illogical wannabe hero and thinking your stealthy enough to sneak around a whole camp of spread out raiders." The hippogriff frowns a bit as she stares at Doug who suddenly winces and looks away,scratching his head with his hoof.

"Eeehh...i guess your right...whats your name anyway?" Doug lifts his hat slightly to look her in the eyes as the she gladly smiles.

"My names Crinis,pleasure to meet you all." Crinis extends a claw as Douglass hesitantly reaches out and shakes it. "So might i ask what your group is doing?"

Star dust was about to open his mouth then thinks for a moment.'...What ARE we trying to do? im trying to protect the stable,James feels responsible for me for saving me,Starberry saved me as well,Douglass...well...he just pities me,Medley is a robot whos mistaken me for her previous master and lighting is basically our hostage...'so...i guess what were all trying to do is...' Star dust looks at Crinis and inhales a moment. "Were trying to make the wasteland a better place as we survive...whats the point of surviving if your not going to do anything to make the wastes better?"

James,Starberry and even Douglass look at him in slight surprise,they expected him to say something else,or say something about his stable but Crinis stares at him with a small smile,knowing that wasn't what he was originally going to do in the wastes. "Thats very nice,i'd love to join you but i can only help if you need something a bit less...violent...i enjoy discovering things and you guys are...well...armed to the teeth." Crinis lets out a small laugh.

"Well we may need that kind of help...you any good at decoding?" Star points at his pip buck.

"Yes,i am,but i need to get to my office first." She takes Star's arm with a claw and does something on it. "Its riiiight their." She puts a claw onto where the location of her office is. "Take me their,i may be able to decode your file."

"Thank you." Star smiles warmly. "So,shall we get going guys." Everypony in Star's group looks at each other for a moment. "Guys?"

"I sort of made plans to help some ponies out of a slave camp,i was hopping we'ed go their first." James scratches the back of his head.

"And ah need to make sure mah caravan is still movin,so ah was kinda hoppin we could check on em." Starberry lets out a nervous smile.

"And i really don't want to go walking around with a hippogriff." Douglass receives a glare from Crinis at his comment.

"Racist." Crinis spits out.

"Multie species freak." Douglass snarls back at her.

Ashley simply trots over to Star and Crinis. "I can come with you two,the others could just do what they need to." The others all look at each other and give off a small shrug.

"Ah guess i could go on mah own,see ya,we'll meet up back here." Starberry spreads her blood-crimson wings and flies off.

"And i guess i could always take Doug to help me." James lets out with a sigh.

"And i'll help starberry,that way none of us are alone." Lightning spreads his wings through his armor and flies away at high speeds.

Ashley looks at Star dust and Crinis. "I guess its up to us then." She smiles warmly,making Star dust return the smile.

"Than shall we be off?" Crinis spreads her wings and begins hovering right above Star as he nods and begins trotting alone the road which he thinks leads to Crinis's marked location and Ashley and Crinis fallow closely,Crinis in the air,looking for any form of danger.

Author's Note

sorry this is short and its been a long time,still in recovery and too tired to think and write

chapter 18:the hamlet (short chapter)

"FUCKING HELL!!!!" Star gallops with Ashley right behind him and Crinis panicking a bit while flying above them as they run from a strange Entity that seemed to have just appeared next to them.

"WHAT IS THAT THING!??! IS IT A GHOST?!" Ashley grabs Star and Crinis and leaps behind cover,hopping they are far enough for it to just pass them.

Star begins to think and look at his pip-buck,turning it off to make it so their all harder to see in the darkness of the night and he and Ashley both suddenly hold their breaths as Crinis freezes in place as a Tall pony shaped creature towers above the rough stone they hide behind,a corrosive ooze slowly ejecting itself from its skin,its fur not being able to be seen and only one eye showing from the cracked and broken piece of its mask.

"...Where...did...they...go?" A deep yet hallow voice slowly whispers out,making the air cold as it leans in,showing its drama-tragedy mask that has its upper left part missing as if it was shot earlier.

As the pony blinks a few times it seems to start melting the grown then plummets under ground and the corrosive goo starts spreading and moving away as if its still moving under the ground.

"W-what was that?" Ashley hesitantly peeks her head out as Star dust looks down at his pip buck.

"...A...Hamlet...its a Hamlet." Star finds the name in the pip buck's data banks and he himself starts questioning how in Equeastria do pip buck's know all these things before he does.

"Huh,fitting name,especially due to the mask." Ashley pants and gets up,fixing her battle saddle. "Is it kill-able? it actually looked sort of solid for a mo- where the hell is Crinis?"

"I am currently being frightened shit less." Crinis is still half frozen and shaking in the air. "Ether that or it just made the air REALLY cold." Crinis lands and tries using friction to warm herself up.

The whole group's breaths start showing as a nearby puddle of goo from the creature starts getting iced over Just as Star starts noticing a faint gas emerging from it which shakily makes his eyes sigh smeared as Ashley's faint voice can be heard screaming in his ears as Star collapses on the cold,dry,icy floor.

Star found himself in darkness,unable to move,his muscles feeling dried and stiff,the air chilled in his head but certain parts felt warm and wet just as he sees himself in a mirror,his stable suite was clean,he was smiling,nothing seemed wrong and he wanted to smile back at its reflection...But the mirror cracked right down the middle,splitting him in half,one side happy,still from the stable,no blood on his hooves.

And the other:torn up,scowling at him,pained and crying with the blood of others splattered on him,the Stable's number torn off and Star's gun gripped in his mouth...As star saw this,he felt something remind him,he was slowly becoming part of the wasteland,something didn't want him to yet,he can't let the other half to be corrupted half get any worse...but how can he even stop it?

'Star?' As his name echoed through his head the mirror cracks again,but no other changes. 'Star,get up ya blue idiot.' The voice starts clearing up then it suddenly screams a paining loud screech through his skull that causes the mirror to shatter. "STAR,WAKE UP!!!!"

"GYAAAAHHHH!!!!" Star's eyes shoot open as he tries getting up but hits Starberry on the head,making him receive a glare for bonking her on the head.

"Do ah ALWAYS gotta save yer sorry plot?" Starberry seemed as healthy and alert as ever aside from her new bruise which she dabs with a wet cloth. "And this time,ya'll fainted...like a little frightened filly ah might add." She gives a small smirk at him.

Star dust just blinks for a moment before getting up in silence,examining the room,feeling like hes seen the set up before:medical table,bed,bedroom decorations,it resembled his Mother's clinic only without the stable add-ons. "Where are we? And why does this look so familiar?"

"Well...its a long story..." Starberry gives a chuckle. "Ya'll may wanna sit down."

Author's Note

I AM INCREDIBLY SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT,LAZAYNESS,LAG AND SCHOOL SLOWED ME DOWN IMMENSLY AND SORRY THIS IS A SHORT CHAPTER,SORRY description for "the hamlet" (the creature at the start of the chapter):the hamlet is one of the very few of its kind,it (as the chapter says) wears a Shakespearean mask,the tragedy mask to be more specific,its skin is covered in a corrosive goo that it has some but not complete control over,it can only be killed in one way due to the goo being sticky enough to get blades and hooves stuck and bullets to melt (how you kill it will be told in a different chapter) and its origins are from a stable near Manhattan,their are only 4 masks thus far:drama,comedy,anger and blank which their is only one of,the hamlets all hunt separately and kill anypony that is close to them,all other information about them is unknown

i did not create the name,the creature i did create but all credit for the name goes to "Cyclone Flashie" if you haven't read his stories,read them,hes a good author much better than me,but he helped me come up with the name so big thanks to him

chapter 19:back from the dead

The sound of galloping hooves and rapid panting echos through the quickly changing halls of the building as Star dust panics through it,blood oozing down the corners of the walls as the laughter behind him intensifies. "FUCK YOU,FUCK YOU,FUCK YOU,FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!" He repeatedly screamed out as the halls start twisting and turning in completely insane ways.

The smell of rotten blood and rust starts filling the air,stinging Star's nose and somehow making the enraged psychotic laughter behind him get louder. "YOU CANNOT ESCAPE YOU BLUE FOOL,I'LL KILL YOU!!!!!!!" Starberry's mixed and familiar voice is completely dis-formed and merged with millions of other voices as the slamming of hooves on metal makes the ground shake just as Star dust tackles into a door,turns an slams it shut again.

'Pleas don't find me,pleas don't find me,pleas don't find me.' Star whispers under his breath,this time he didn't have anger fueling him to fight back so his fear started to get to him,making his heart beat rapidly as cold beads of sweat running down his face an cheeks as the familiar voice starts altering into one more recent but still twisted and monstrous.

"Come out come out wherever you are..." Now its Crinis's voice creeping through the halls as the stench of rust and blood being the only thing blocking Star's smell of fear as he curls up in a dark corner,not being able to see whats in the darkness but the moist and rough corner was always more preferably than the monstrosity outside that calls itself a pony.

As the halls and Rooms slowly descended to silence the only sounds that remained where Star dust's shaky breathing,the sound of Large cogs turning and the creaking of rusted metal moving. "I-is she gone?" Star asks to no one in particular as he opens the door letting out a small creek from the rusted knob.

As he exits the room he feels the air chill him to the bone and the soft mossy like surface under him moves around with his own movements as he reaches for his pip buck and switches on his pip buck light so he can see a little bit further in the growing darkness.

Star dust begins a soft mumble to comfort himself slightly. "Let go my limitations...let go my self control." He keeps mumbling but it lowers to a stop as he notices a dark black shadow ahead of him. "Hello?...somepony here?" The moment he stops and his words echo through the room the shadow turns and looks at him...a moment later Star dust's eyes were widened with fright from seeing the shadow grow a large white grin and two circles of white as eyes.

It's mouth doesn't move but it's haunting face speaks regardless. "Somepony their?" It's twisted,deep,dark voice mimics star as a moment later theirs a Star dust shaped puff of smoke where he was standing.

"NOPE NOPE NOPE FUCKING HELL NOPE!!!!" Star screams out slamming every door behind him in a cartoonishly quick fashion before throwing himself into a dark corner and begins cowering like a little frightened filly as he keeps whispering to himself. "What the fuck was that?" He says as his voice shakes and the door to the room hes in creeks open making him freeze in place,trying to act like a lump as his mouth slowly opens and moves his head towards his hooves.

"...Swwwweeeetttiiieee~?" The crooked voice of the Multimare echos through the halls as the mixed creature wobbles in,grinning with rows of different kinds of teeth and skin looking like it was cut off from each mare and sewed onto her,save as the mane,wings,horn and limbs like somepony or something tried to take every female in Equeastria and force their parts into one creature,the only symmetrical part of the Multiemare were the wings that look like a rainbow with much more colors,some dark and some light and some look messy or dirty. "I'm home..." The Multiemare chuckles as furniture starts to form as she enters,a table and a chair,made of metal,rust and blood as she cracks her neck and looks into each corner of the room and once her left eye thats split into 4 colors,Red,Blue,Orange and magenta, lands onto Star's corner...She grins even wider.

Click.

"Huh?" The grin gets wiped off her face.

Click

She turns to the corner as she starts approaching the outline...then Star's eyes open as the familiar pissed off golden look in his eyes is shown.

BANG!!!!

A loud blast from Star's pistol lights up the corner as the shell goes flying out of the barrel and the shot tears through the Multiemare's torso and a multie-voiced scream shrieks through the halls as her blood splatters behind her. "Miss me,bitch?" Star grins as he pulls the trigger again,trying to get his aim to her head but just winds up spraying on her torso and limbs as each bang lets out another shriek from her.

Finally after the 11th blow the gun clicks making Star look at the empty barrel and gulps as he looks up to see all the ammo he used to shred her up only made her grin in the end. "You know,theirs a reason im still alive." The holes slowly begin to close making Star dust's ears flop down and his gun droops down to his holster. "To kill me,you'll need balls...something you clearly don't have."

Clachunk.

"Again?...wait...you didn't-" The Multiemare turns to find herself starring down the barrel of a sawed off shotgun.

James is standing just as tall as her levitating the gun to her head. "But their is something we've noticed,we can always keep you down long enough to figure out how to deal with you permanently."

The Multiemare's eyes go wide as two loud BOOMs ring through the halls and rooms as the once complete head of the Multiemare becomes a spine stump and she becomes a standing fountain of blood as the blood of what feels like millions of mares splatter and rain onto James and Star dust,making them cover their eyes.

"Well,should i ask how you got here?" Star dust opens his eyes,his face and mane now crimson with the blood that stained a large part of the already bloody and rusted room,making the stench of death even worse than before.

"Well,yes you should,because i don't know myself,Everything went black then i woke up with some Shadow pony in the room and it phased through the celestia damned wall." James looks out the door as Star's ears flop down again as he gulps.

"I think i saw it,that thing is not a fucking pony,its a demon straight from Tartrus,and shut up if you say its not BECAUSE NOTHING CAN GRIN THAT WIDE AND HAS THAT MANY TEETH!!!" He then covers his mouth as a growl and chuckle from outside as James's ears go down as well and he slams his back into the wall,trying to get out of the field of view of the door.

Minutes pass like hours in silence,only the sound of hooves stomping on rusted metal and gravel being coupled with the laughter of a deep booming voice that no normal pony could make without straining their vocal cords and then eventually it all stops,the creaking comes to a halt,the laughter slows to nothing and the hoof steps wither away.

"Is it gone?" Star dust peeks his head out as the rust and blood seems to slowly scrape off and the walls start becoming clean,all the rust and blood sliding off and gathering into a ball,making a sickening ball of blood,gore and rust. "...Ew..."

Author's Note

well i got this chapter out faster than i thought,sorry for the very abrupt end,this chapter was basically to show that,yea,multiemare is going to be a re-accruing villain