Fallout Equestria: Sky High

They were here.

They travelled in packs.

And they wanted me, and me only.

I scanned across the five figures after they'd dragged me out of my tent and tossed me onto the dirt. Dirge and Ash I recognised immediately thanks to the morning light. The other three I was at a loss for. An earth pony stallion, and two unicorn mares. I noticed a pattern, wondering if that was just coincidence or not.

"Mornin' sunshine." The stallion said. "Name's Cenotaph. These two are Embalm and Aspirate." He gestured to the unicorns. "And you're already familiar with Dirge and Ash, so I heard." I nodded, not knowing what else I could do at this point.

"Now, we can do this cleanly or not so much. Cleanly is where we take you away and do with you as we wish. The other way is where we beat you to the edge of death, slaughter everypony else in this camp in front of you, take you to one of the radiation pits we spotted on the way here and leave you there to mutate and die." I did not like the sound of option two. Not a single bit.

"Why?" I said quietly, drawing his attention from planning a worse way to kill me. "Why all this?"

His smile faded. "Because you've offed one of us. In an arena we'd say all well and good, but out here the rules change, and the rules are everything."

"I didn't... Pyre..."

"Oh? He's alive then? Well where the fuck is he? I don't see him standing around here!" Cenotaph swung his foreleg towards the gathering crowd of ponies in the camp, all watching on with no intent on intervening. The silence was long enough that one awkward cough emanated from the crowd, snapping me back.

"He's coming. Red Eye said he'd be here today." I said with a bit of confidence that it would buy me time. Cenotaph only laughed, his guffaw making the other four laugh lightly as well.

"What kind of name is Red Eye? Is this some kind of joke?" The onlookers weren't laughing. They knew. "What would his talent be? Being tired all the time?"

"He has a cybernetic eye."

Cenotaph stopped laughing for a moment, his expression turned serious. I'd thought for a moment that he believed me finally, but his next words proved me wrong.

"That shit don't exist, filly. It's all just an' old fucking mare's tale. Didn't exist two hundred fucking years ago, won't exist in another two hundred fucking years. You lose a limb and you either live with it or you die by a fucking infection." I think I'd hit a nerve.

"Tear my right foreleg off." I challenged. Ultimately, I needed to stall them longer, and this worked wonders. "Come on, rip it off."

"With pleasure." He said as he advanced on me.

"Using magic." I added as he grabbed my leg. He paused, then pushed me down onto my haunches and huffed, trotting back to the group.

"Go on 'balm. Bitch is all yours." Embalm grinned and her horn started glowing. At first the glow surrounded my hoof, then it slowly worked it's way up, swallowing my foreleg. When the magic reached the upper part of the limb, it flickered, and Embalm seemed to be struggling. She regained her resolve and refocused, the magic strengthening again but at a cost, she was bleeding. I wasn't exactly sure where from, but her face was coated in her own blood so I had to assume everywhere.

Aspirate noticed this too and in a swift act to save her sister (biological or not, I couldn't tell), tackled her andcut offthe spell. Embalm was worn out, slipping in and out of consciousness while Aspirate tended to her to make sure she stayed alive. Everypony watched them in silence, Aspirate whispering things until finally Embalm seemed as if she was fine albeit unconscious. Then she turned to me, tears slowly drying on her cheeks.

"What the FUCK!? What the fuck did you do? Why would do something like that?" Her voice sounded more pleading than angry. "What... What kind of magic did this to her?"

I felt guilty now. Really guilty. I didn't know what it would do, and I really didn't expect her to push through whatever it was that'd happen.

"Starmetal." I said softly, and while three of them looked at me in confusion, Ash watched with curiosity. "I don't know what it is really, just that it's rare and does something around magic."

They four looked at each other, then went into a group huddle. They muttered stuff between them that I couldn't make out, and during that time a pissed off female gryphon had arrived carrying Pyre and a satchel. She looked at me standing opposite an unconscious mare and four more ponies muttering to each other and spoke to me.

"Explain." She said as Pyre hopped off his ride and levitated the satchel over to me. I wasn't certain he noticed his old allies.

And so I explained. I told her what happened to the mare, and who they were, as well as why they were here. She simply nodded with that gryphon like attitude. "Interesting. Name's Scarlet. Where's Sharp?" I froze. I forgot about that. My eyes wandered towards his tent, then to the group of ponies, then to Scarlet before making a hoof gesture that they killed him. Anger flashed across her eyes before returning to her original cool glare that seemed characteristic of all the gryphons. She grabbed a rifle off one of the guards and shot it in the air.

"Listen up!" Scarlet shouted as she pointed the weapon at the huddle of ponies who had since brought their attention away from each other. "You are getting the fuck out of this camp. I don't give two shits why you're here, but if you don't leave and leave quick your unconscious friend is dead."

Then Pyre finally realised. "'balm!" He shouted, running over to her. Scarlet was clearly unimpressed about being interrupted, but she let it slide. "What happened to her?"

"She, uh, overtaxed her magic." Aspirate lied obviously.

"This ain't a burnout, Asp." Pyre responded, unimpressed. "Just tell me the damned truth."

"She tried to tear my foreleg off, Pyre." I interjected, but I was met with a dismissive hoof.

"Sure sure, I've seen her do that heaps. Foal’s play. Quit sparing me the truth and fucking tell me already!"

"It's true, Pyre." Ash said. Pyre looked at her, then Cenotaph and Dirge, who both nodded, and finally his attention went back to Embalm via me. "I'd heard of starmetal, once, a while back. It does something to magic, interrupts the flow or something. Not being a unicorn I never really understood the details." She added.

“Mystery solved. Get out." Scarlet broke the mood and pointed at Pyre. "Orange, Red Eye has it you're good to stay, as with you Six. Rest of you, take your friend and fuck off. Kill her later, when she's useless to our cause."

The four of them looked to each other, then to Embalm, still lying on the ground, and nodded. Aspirate grabbed the unconscious pony in her magic and the group headed for the exit. Ash stopped and turned back to Pyre.

"You coming?" She asked. Pyre looked between Ash and myself before putting on his trademark smile.

"Nah, I'd better make sure Sixy doesn't get too ruined before ya come for her again. Gotta have a fair fight an' all."

"Keep calling her 'Sixy' and ponies will think you're from New Zebraland." She smiled back before turning away and catching up to her group outside the gate. Scarlet looked at me with an expression that shouted "Where?" and I just shrugged back at her, grinning.

.*.    .*.    .*.     *     .*.    .*.    .*.

"Red Eye sent this for ya, Hawk." Pyre said, tossing me the bag that was brought with him. We'd moved into the sanctuary of Sharp's tent after the group had left. Scarlet had decided to stay until another, more qualified gryphon was sent over to fill Sharp's role, but she refused to take his bed which Pyre jumped on the first opportunity he got (literally).

"Told me if I tried to put it on he'd have some pony called Doc Slaughter remove it as painfully as he could. I don't know who that guy is, but with a name like Slaughter he can't be good news." I opened the bag as he spoke, revealing the reflective black armour within, instantly recognising it as the power armour worn by the members of the Enclave.

"Slaughter's a nice stallion, really. Get past the fact he's a head on a robot and it's not all that bad that he's hacking into your flesh with a buzz saw." I said, distracted by my inspection of the armour. It was clearly built for a mare due to the curve of the barding, and it was in relatively good condition.

"Oh sure, stallions are all that much nicer when they’re ripping into your flesh." His tone was dripping with so much sarcasm that I could make tea with it.

"Well he gave me painkillers. Bloody good ones too."

"Then if I drug you one day, it's under the excuse that I'm a real nice stallion with good inte-" He was cut off by an empty bag hitting him in the face and me stifling a giggle. His deadpan expression when he pulled it away was only met with as innocent a smile as I could pull off.

"So," I said, turning the helmet around in my hooves. "Red Eye send instruction with this? S'much as I know about the Enclave, wearin' power armour ain't part of it."

"That's part of what I'm here for." The third voice drew my eyes to the door where Scarlet was standing. "Gryphon power armour might be different, but it's the same concept."

I nodded, setting the helmet down.

"Then let's get a move on."

.*.    .*.    .*.     *     .*.    .*.    .*.

By that evening I'd gotten through the basics of the training, which was essentially the three most basic features: E.F.S., the radio and how to actually wear it without falling.

The radio had seven channels I could listen to, but only four of them piqued my interests, specifically DJ-Pon3's broadcast, Enclave Two-Way, a special channel between Red Eye and myself which was always quiet until he needed to give orders, and the Grand Pegasus Enclave channel. I'd spent a lot of the time training with that last channel on, but they only ever played the same repetitive marching song over and over, frequently broken up by a message that told me nothing. Eventually it got too much and I turned it over to DJ Pon3, the few individual songs much nicer to listen to and the odd, up-to-date newscast providing me with a few happenings around Equestria, the main one being about the camps around Tenpony that I was currently part of.

The E.F.S. was a nice touch though, as the target finder was great to tell me if somepony would attack. Thankfully everypony in the camp was friendly, or at least neutral, towards me, though it would have been useful earlier with the Undertakers, as would the armour itself.

I had stumbled across an inventory sorter later on, and that took a lot of getting used to as it baffled me how it had a name, value and weight for everything I had, mainly my rifle, Bolt. I also had less caps than I realised. I had to, or rather wanted to, blame Tenpony Tower for that, but deep down I knew it was that slaver's fault (Which, ultimately, was my own).

I put the armour aside in my temporary room and crawled onto the bed. It'd been a long day, and I would rather be rested up when Red Eye tossed whatever task he would at me.

Through the thin wall I heard Pyre talking to somepony (What about I couldn't quite make out), which was followed by the soft giggle of not one, but two mares. I tried to shut them out of my mind and get to sleep before they really got started, but even after the long day it avoided me.

By the time the moaning started I had my head buried under what I used for a pillow to muffle what I could. Sharp was right, there was absolutely no soundproofing in this camp. I grunted in frustration and swung my forehooves to the sides of my bed, one colliding with something metal and making me rear back in pain. I turned to see what I'd hit and when I saw the faint reflection of the power armour I grinned. I took the helmet and put it on, turning on to the Enclave Radio channel and making it as loud as I could. Soon my mental images of Pyre rutting turned into ones of him being in a marching band, and sleep found me much faster than I'd expected.

.*.    .*.    .*.     *     .*.    .*.    .*.

I woke to the sound of static and fragmented sentences. Of the words I could hear, "Balefire" was of the most common, and that didn't put me to rest at all. I sat up and scanned the room, letting my E.F.S. get the know on the situation. There were a lot more blue targets than what seemed normal, and they were all clustered together so I couldn't count how many there were.

I took off my helmet and got up, peeking into Pyre's room quickly. He was asleep and the mares were gone. Good. I silently snuck past him and was about halfway across the room when I heard Scarlet's voice ring out across the camp. "Alarm!" was the word, and I wasted no time in leaping towards the door of the tent and out into the cool night air--

--to see fifteen alicorns surrounded by shields watching a unicorn and Scarlet wrestle. I'd never seen an alicorn before, not physically, and the sight of so many of them was astounding. I skulked around them, taking in their features while the unicorn got the gryphon in a headlock, not noticing the onlookers until one of them pointed a hoof at her.

The unicorn didn't even look scared, not in the slightest. She took a pull from a bottle of Wild Pegasus, and that's when I noticed the claws, and in turn the legs. Cybernetics! Real cybernetics, not just some metal bones like mine! One part of me was jealous, and the other part felt sorry for whatever she had to go through. The unicorn and the alicorn at the front were silent for a good time, and when that small grey mare who I kept forgetting the name of exited the radio tent, the alicorn picked up the other unicorn and shook her violently, causing her to bring all the whiskey back up and onto the dusty ground.

"What a waste.." I muttered to nopony in particular.

"Mare needs t' learn t' hold her liquor. She should come south with us one day." Pyre added, making me jump slightly. "Oh, and your helmet's beeping. Might wanna check it." He levitated the helmet in front of me and sure enough, it was beeping softly. When I put it on, the display alerted me that Red Eye was trying to contact me, so I switched to our radio channel and wandered away from Pyre.

"You rang, Bluey?" I said as soon as the connection was established.

"I did indeed, Six, for I have a use for you. Complete this and I will see that you're relieved from Stern's contract and free to do as you wish, so long as it doesn't interfere with myself or my plans." The smooth sound of Red Eye's voice had slightly less impact over the weaker signal, but it still felt as if I would comply to whatever he'd asked.

"Whaddya need done?"

"I want you to follow the alicorns at the camp back to Tenpony Tower to retrieve the balefire bomb for LittlePip” So that was her name! “Make sure you do not arrive with them, as it is in your best interests to not be associated for it could compromise any disguise you may use in the future.”

"Yeah no worries. I'll just take the regular entrance then, guards there love me."

"And remove the armour before you go, the Enclave isn't well received by any faction down here other than themselves, if that."

"Aight, I'll let ya know when it's done." I cut the transmission and took off the helmet, turning to Pyre.

"Oi! Daisies! Got something t' do." I shouted at him. His face held his confused expression as he trotted over to me.

"Daisies?" He asked.

"Y'know, like a sandwich filling."

"Huh? Oh! Uh, did ya hear all that?" He responded nervously, looking away and running a hoof through his mane.

"Yeah, me and the rest of the camp. I only caught the first half hour though, 'cause it got boring. I tuned into the Enclave's music."

"Got boring?"

"Well, frustrating. Ya kept me from sleeping."

"So you-"

"Alright I was pissed off! It was a long day, I was tired and I didn't want to dream of you getting a root."

"Jealous..." He muttered just loud enough for me to hear.

"Fuck up, ya whore." I said, pushing him away gently. "Now ya distracted me. D'ya wanna go on an excursion to Tenpony? Filled with the high society snobbery that hates raiders and pretends the wasteland doesn't exist. Y'know, your type of crowd."

"Sounds beaut. Can't wait." He gave me the largest grin he could.

"Oh relax, I need somepony to distract an entire bar, and you're it, bud. Free booze though, so you should be right."

His face lit up "I heard the words ‘free’ and ‘booze’. I'm already keen! Let's get going!" He said as he dashed forwards to me, making me backpedal in surprise.

"Hold on! Hold on, I need to sharpen up, can't have my guard buddies thinking I'm with their enemy, right?" I ducked into the tent, putting my wing-blades on before hovering my way outside while fumbling with my hoofclaws. I'd managed to drop them a couple of times before I got them all on securely. "Alright, I'm ready."

Pyre just looked at me blankly before turning towards the camp entrance. "Mares." he said. "Always taking forever to get dressed when you try to take them to nice places."

"Oh shut up Daisies." I called out to him before flying to his side and out the camp gate.

.*.    .*.    .*.     *     .*.    .*.    .*.

I need to make a list of things Pyre doesn't understand, and put "upper-class ponies" right at the top. Of course I didn't either at first, but watching Pyre interacting with the place (from afar, of course) made me wonder how bad I was when I got here. He went between the crowds, joining in to conversations and attempting to shake the hooves of all those who weren't turning away from him. Once in a while he'd come across a trader or traveller who'd return the gesture and the look on his face when it happened was priceless, like a foal receiving the besterest toy in all everness.

In a moment between his greetings I nodded at him and gestured to follow me. Quickly he stopped his meet and greet and caught up to me, taking a place at my side as I trotted towards the bar.

"So, what are we here for again?" He said before I opened the door.

"You're here to distract the bartender, owner and anypony else who might be here. I'm here to get a balefire bomb out of the basement and deliver it to a small, grey mare who's going to use it in a plan to kill some malevolent being that controls all of the alicorns in the world."

"So... I get to drink, right? That's my role?" I sighed and put my forehooves to my temples.

"Yeah, sure, we'll go with that." I pushed open the door and lead Pyre into the emptiness of the building. "Pils! Olive! I brought a guest!" My voice rang out in the empty room, with no response. "Hello?"

I made my way around the room, inspecting the doors and the rooms behind them. There was nothing left, not even a single empty bottle or a stray bit of scrap metal.

"Sixy? There ain't no booze for me to drink so what's the new plan?" Pyre called out from another room.

I chose to ignore him as I left the bar and headed towards one of the guardsponies.

"Excuse me?" I said, grabbing his attention. "Can you tell me what happened to Pilsner?"

"Arrested. Locked away in jail, waiting for his execution. Same goes for his mare, too, which is a damned shame. She was a fine one, but always hung around the old guy. Don't want to know why." Jail huh? I wondered why.

"And where is this jail?" I asked, and he gestured me towards it.

.*.    .*.    .*.     *     .*.    .*.    .*.

Walking in to the jail wasn't as unpleasant as I'd expected. It didn't feel cold, nor did it smell any worse than the rest of Tenpony. The jailer sat to the right of the entrance, reclining on his chair nonchalantly, and there were three cells on the opposite side of the room, one of which contained Pilsner and Olive.

I cleared my throat, getting the jailer's attention. "Why is Pilsner in jail?" I asked as I trotted to the desk he sat behind. He pushed a few buttons on the terminal before looking at me.

"Reports say that he had possessed stolen goods, indirectly acquired from that bastard Red Eye and his slavers. At Tenpony, affiliation with raiding is punishable by death." I almost choked at the fact it was my fault.

"And Olive?"

"She failed to alert us to the goods and is guilty by association."

"And... there's no way out? Nothing I could say to change it?"

"Your word, the word of a pony who's been here thrice and spent all their time in his bar, against the investigation of the guards, means nothing. So no. You are allowed to speak with the prisoners, but any attempt to free them will result in you meeting their fate as well." Great. There goes my plans. I trotted over to the occupied cage and sat down by the bars as Pyre inspected the room around us in an attempt to busy himself.

"So you came to save me, Six? I appreciate the thought, but it's too far done to turn it all back now." Pilsner said quietly. I opened my mouth to speak but he cut me off. "And I don't blame you for this predicament. It’s the guard's fault for their pointless laws." His voiced raised enough on the last sentence to draw the attention of the jailer.

"Shut it Pilsner, you'll only make it worse for yourself."

"Make it worse? How could it be worse?"

"We'll toss you over to the Legion and coax them into crucifying you."

"Oh sure, crucifixion's a doddle. You hang around in the fresh air for a couple of days before you eventually nod off and don't wake up. I'd prefer that to spending my last moments in this waste of resources."

The guard just grumbled in response and Pils cooled himself down before turning back to me.

"Now that that's out of the way, I wanted you to know something. Seeing as there was no definite victim to my crime... Aside myself... My possessions belong to Olive. Unfortunately she's also in my situation, thus passing it on to you. What this means is that if you can get that lazy jailer over there to lift his game, you will have a suite and a business here in Tenpony. Of course, the business I feel you have no interest in, so if you choose you can pass that off.

"Now, in return for this I only request one small thing; that the citizens of Tenpony do not get a drop of any of the liquor you get back from these guards, if they haven't already drunk it all."

I nodded at him. It was the least I could do. "You have my word, Pils." This made him smile as he turned back to the ever quiet Olive to attempt to make her last moments slightly warmer. I turned away from the two and trotted over to the jailer, slamming my hoof on the desk to gain his attention quickly. His eyes snapped open and he sat forwards.

"What now? Can't you see I'm busy?" I looked at the desk, then to him, then to everything behind and around him. He was in no way busy.

"No, I can't. I want to know where you're keeping Pilsner's possessions as apparently they're now mine." He grunted and gestured to a door on the other side of the building.

"In there. Take it, it's just wasting space. 'sides, we can't drink on the job anyway." I rolled my eyes at him and wandered over to the door, opening it to reveal a small storage room filled to the brim with alcohol. I took it all, passing it off to Pyre when it started getting heavy, but I made sure that the bomb was firmly settled at the bottom of my bags before I did. As we left the building, I beamed at the jailer, who grunted dismissively in return, and headed towards the broadcasting station.

.*.    .*.    .*.     *     .*.    .*.    .*.

"You're sure about this?" I heard Homage say to LittlePip as I approached. "It could be a trap, we don't know what Red Eye is planning."

"It'll be fine, Red Eye wants this to happen as much as we do." Pip responded. When I stood in front of them I bowed. We were in the studio of the M.A.S.E.B.S. as it was suggested it'd be the safest place without onlookers knowing what's going on with the bomb. If anypony had seen it, we'd all be kicked out of Tenpony for good.

"G'day. Bluey sends his best wishes and so on."

"Bluey?" Pip asked, and I smiled.

"Red Eye, y'know? You telling me ponies don't do nicknames up here?"

"I... Just... Never mind." She seemed to be straining to comprehend it. It was simple, right?

"Oh, and I've got your bomb." I looked in my bags, then back at her. "Somewhere in here, just gimme a sec." I begun to remove everything from the insides of my bags, namely an excessive amount of alcohol and a couple of caps. From the corner of my eye I could see Pip's jaw dropping at the sight of it all and Homage suppressing her laughter. Finally I reached the bottom of the first bag, realising that it was in the other all too late. I flipped that one open as well to pull yet more grog out, much to the disbelief of the small mare.

I plucked the balefire bomb out from the bottom and looked at all the booze I had to store again, sighing before holding the package out to Pip.

"Where's that other unicorn friend of yours? The whiskey soaked one. I reckon she deserves a fair bit of this lot." I said as she took the bomb in her magic.

"I... Don't think she'll be wanting to see alcohol for a while after that."

I shrugged. "Would your pegasus friend like some WP then?" She seemed shocked at that. "What? I ain't gonna drink it all."

"How do you know Calamity?"

"You mean he's Calamity? Like, the Deadshot Calamity? High ranking Enclave officer who suddenly went Dashite? Fuck me, I spoke with my family's hero outside Fillydelphia and didn't even realise it!" I smacked my face with a forehoof. "Shit, ain't nopony at home gonna believe that."

"I could go get him if you'd like." Homage said. "You sound like you have a lot to talk about." I held up a hoof to stop her when she started to move.

"Nah, I reckon shouting him a couple Wild P bottles'd send the same message." I pushed three bottles towards them, along with a myriad of other types of alcohol. "Tell him it's from Hawk, hopefully he'd remember." I started packing the rest of the alcohol away, which was a lot easier now that I'd removed about a quarter of it.

"What about the rest of this? I don't think Calamity could drink all this." Pip asked, concerned.

"That's for you four mares, have yourself some fun." I turned away from the two to face the door. "I'm sure being unicorns you could find a world of ways to do that." As I picked up my bags and trotted out the door I could hear Pip muttering "Why?" over and over again until something made her silent. I didn't turn to see what until I reached the elevator, spotting the two kissing briefly before the elevator doors closed and carried me away.

.*.    .*.    .*.     *     .*.    .*.    .*.

"Beer any good, Pyre?" I asked as I entered my new-found suite. It was nice for something it's age, and came equipped with a workbench, chemistry set and vending machine-slash-beer fridge. Pyre was sitting at the chemistry set, making various concoctions that all looked the same to me.

"Suck it and see." He responded, levitating his beer over to me. I grabbed it in my hoof before his magic dissipated from around it and took a long sip, holding it in my mouth to really get the flavour. That was hard because the beer was weak, either from age or production.

"Mm, just like making love on a raft." Pyre burst into laughter as I trotted over to him and placed the bottle on the bench. "So, watcha making?"

"Oh, just regular stuff. Buck, Rage, Dash, all the favourites."

"Could ya toss up some Bloomberg?" He seemed confused. "Uh, Buck, Med-X and... A bit of Hydra I think it was."

"Fuck no! Ya don't mess with Hydra, Six, that shit will do more damage than good. The Taint in that will mutate ya into fuck knows what if ya use it too much." He scolded me. How could I have known?

"A small amount is fine though, right?" I fought back the fear in my voice.

"Ehh, I'd stay away from it altogether but... Yeah, I guess a smidgen is alright. Look, I'll make you one dose, nothing more. I don't give two shits about how much pain you're in, outside of this I ain't giving you a single drop of Hydra, I'd much rather fix you up m'self."

"You can do that?" I asked, surprised at the mere mention of it.

"What, you think my talent's burning shit? Dunno if you picked it up but my name ain't actually Pyre." He pulled off his duster to reveal his cutie mark, which looked like a an empty syringe. "It's Antidote." My look of shock was obvious thanks to my open jaw which I didn't notice. "Oh come on, it's that surprising? Who d'you think kept you alive after Dirge got ya. Quack's good at fixing bones but he wouldn't be able to tell a health potion from Stampede."

"Sorry, I just never thought-"

"That I was smart?" He interrupted. "Or that they'd let a doctor fight in the arena?"

"The second one." I said quietly, and he chuckled lightly while turning back to his chemicals.

"Father loves it when ponies screech in pain from being burnt alive, and I developed the perfect slow burning fuel for it. Course I also had to learn how to hold m'self in combat, but once in a while he'd request the special."

"How... Horrible."

"Maybe for them. Anyway, were all stocked up on drugs now - including your suicide injection - so what's the plan?"

"You ain't never gonna let that go, are ya?"

"Not for forever and a day, Sixy." I groaned.

"Well, we might as well get my stuff from the camp and head home. Can't go on avoiding Father forever, can we?"

"Well we can. Just head east to the Hoofington region - heard their arena has gang favouring which could be fun - or dead south to Dise. Also heard of this place called Neighwhere when I was at that arena you stole me from, and it sounds like the elites at that arena were all from a stable, so they all have this funky hoof technology. I wonder how they'd hold against us Ausneighlians."

"Are arenas all you think about, Pyre?"

"Of course not! I also think about how to fight to the top of them, grog, drugs, mares and how to get on top of them, too." I whacked my face with my hoof so hard I swear it drew blood, but on inspection I saw it didn't.

"Whatever, pack your stuff, we're going home." I turned to the door and trotted out, leaving Pyre to finish up.

.*.    .*.    .*.     *     .*.    .*.    .*.

We left Red Eye's workers to pack up the camp as we headed off, back towards home. It would take us a while, and the camp was nice enough to supply us with a bit of food in return for alcohol. At least we had some kind of unofficial currency.

I was fully decked out in my Enclave power armour, Bolt slung by my side and wing blades equipped. It was tough getting them on under the armour, but I managed, with just enough sharpness poking out to do some noticeable damage. I couldn't get my hoofclaws on over the top however, so they were firmly nestled at the base of my bags, wrapped up in rags so I wouldn't cut myself when I rifled around in them.

We must have been a sight; An Enclave pegasus and a raider unicorn trotting side by side across the wasteland. We'd come across a bloatsprite every now and then which held no restraint in trying to punch through my armour plating to no avail, but they were quickly dispatched with a precision shot from Bolt.

By nightfall we were at the Equestrian border, accentuated by the rising mountains ahead of us and a small metal grate that lead into a tunnel underneath them.

"We should rest here... Dunno if we'll get another chance." I said to Pyre who was inspecting the gate.

"Sounds like a plan, Sixy. I'll sort our bags out, give ya the food and meds and m'self the grog. I reckon I can handle that weight better than you." I glared at him, hoping the armour gave it extra effect. "'sides, I don't want ya to break any bottles and go wasting it."

I sighed, defeated, and lay down by the gate. "Sure, you do that. I'm gonna get some rest."

"No worries Sixy, I'll take first watch while I do this and wake ya up eventually." I nodded and put my head down, closed my eyes and very quickly drifted away to the sound of rattling bottles.

.*.    .*.    .*.     *     .*.    .*.    .*.

"he wants ya just as bad as I do. You can take however long you need, but some ponies here ain't as patient as I." A voice through my helmet woke me up. "This message will repeat: 7 more times. This is Colonel Gum Tree of the Grand Pegasus Enclave: Ausneighlian hub. The Enclave is searching for a Pegasus raider mare known as Six Hooves a.k.a. Hawk Eye." I snapped to attention and scanned around the area. There wasn't a pony in sight, and that included Pyre, which caused me to worry. "This mare is a traitor and enemy to the Enclave, and is a danger to everypony in Ausneighlia. If you locate her, the best course of action is to capture, restrain and report her to the Enclave.

"This next message is for the mare in question only. If anypony is caught near a spritebot, they will be shot. You have twenty seconds to clear off." The moments of silence were filled with my shouting every curse under the sun. I was kicking anything and everything nearby, flailing in frustration. I suppressed my anger when the voice came back.

"Alright, formalities aside now. Hawk Eye, or Six Hooves if that is how you wanna be called, we ain't enemies. Not unless ya aim to be. We have your mother and your buckfriend, and they'll be publicly executed if ya don't comply. You're to go through the mountain range, on hoof. Any sign of you flying above ground and they will be executed. The way should lead ya to a mountain peak. Arrive any other way and they will be executed. You'll be picked up from there and taken to me, where we'll have a chat with civility. Any attempt otherwise and they will be executed. I'm sure we can make a deal to benefit both of us.

"That raider boss, Father I think he's called, is also hunting ya. He's a lot more brutal than I, so watch your back. Every scumbag in Ausneighlia listens to him, and he wants ya just as bad as I do. You can take however long you need, but some ponies here ain't as patient as I. This message will repeat: 6 more times.” Silence. I cut it off and turned to the gate, staring it down as if it would melt under my gaze, the only thing holding me back was a final call I had to make before I left. I scrolled through my radio channels and selected the one I wanted.

"Bluey? You there?" I was met with silence on the other end. "Red Eye? Can ya hear me?" More silence. "Fuck! He cut me off!" I huffed and sat on my haunches, blankly watching the gate.

"Don't be so sure about that, Six. I never let such a wonderful aid go to waste." Red Eye's smooth voice worked it's way into my head, surprising me. "Now what is it you need of me?"

"I... The Enclave's got my mum, and I've gotta go after them. Is there anything ya can tell me about this armour? Weaknesses, weapons, anything."

"Ah, of course. I had your power armour equipped with two miniature gatling lasers. They are small in size to not hinder your flying and remain hidden in your armour, but that in turn means they are weak too. You need not worry about the ammunition, for your armour can regenerate it. Slowly, of course, far slower than you'll use it up, but it is something.

"As for weaknesses, all power armour suffers the same fate against pulse grenades and mines. It will power it down and require rebooting from a PipBuck, terminal or another suit of armour. You'll have to locate any of those yourself unfortunately, and watch out for them too. Anything with a blue band you should avoid unless you are certain it's safe. That's all I know, unfortunately, and I am unable to spare any aid as this is the time where my plans are coming into fruition. I'm sure you understand."

"I get ya, Bluey, and thanks, it helps a lot. I swear I'll make it back to ya if I come back."

"No need Six, you've done more for me than I could have hoped. It's the least I can do. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have plans to operate."

"Of course, I'll let ya go now. Thanks again, and possibly goodbye."

"Farewell." The transmission went silent. I switched over to DJ Pon3's station briefly for a last touch of music as I opened the gate and stared down into the darkness of the underground tunnels.

I took one step, then another, into the infinite darkness.

Level up!

New perk added: Power Armour Training

Your knowledge of your customised power armour grants you access to perks and S.A.T.S., if you can figure out how to use it.