Fallout Equestria: Ice and Soul

Chapter 4: The Rescue

An hour later every able bodied pony Remaining in Faribuck had gathered together. All the tables had been pushed up against the back wall and the chairs and stools were arranged in rows facing the bar. Pipe Wrench and I got there pretty early with a couple of other ponies who had watch the raider die. We sat in the middle off to one side as we waited. The last of the residents had finally filtered in among them were Syringe and the doctor. When the last few ponies had been seated and the murmurs had been hushed Longmare jumped up on the bar and addressed the crowd of ponies.

“So here is the situation everypony, earlier tonight we were attacked. At first we thought it was just an attack by raiders, but about an hour ago we captured one of the raiders and we discovered their true intentions. They were cannibals and they attacked and dragged off our people for food.” a rush of whispers and talking erupted from the crowd.

“what’s going to happen to my son?” screamed out a voice from the crowd. “What are we going to do?” screamed another. “What if they come back?” screamed a pony from the back.”

The Sheriff raised her hoof to silence the crowd. “I know many of you are scared and we have lost many tonight. I lost two good deputies but we have to keep calm. Now over the last hour I have spoken with my deputies and we have organized a rescue plan, but we are short on hooves and ammo so I’m asking everypony to spare what they can of either or both.”

A few stallions and a couple of mares raised there hooves to volunteer to go along on the rescue. A shop owner offered to supply all of the weapons, barding and ammo that was needed. “Thank you everypony for your help. Now by our count they took about seven of our people, but we don’t know where they were taken or even what direction. Does anypony remember anything about where they might have gone?” The sheriff asked.

I remembered back to when I was fighting the raider or cannibal with the knife. I remembered hearing a siren off to the north and the knife pony running north when the siren when off. I stood up and raised my hoof. “uhm sheriff.” I said quietly as all of the ponies turned to look at me.

“What is it Stranger?” the Sheriff asked. A bunch of the town ponies started whispering to each other when they realized that I was a blank flank.

“I remember hearing a siren to the north right before the raider I was fighting ran away.” I said before quickly sitting back down hoping the ponies would look back at the Sheriff/Mayor.

“Which direction did this cannibal run when you heard this siren?”

“North sheriff same direction as the siren.” I said.

“Did any pony else hear this siren he spoke of?” asked Longmare to the crowd as she pointed to me.

“I didn’t hear anything.” A pony said. “I think I heard it but I think it was from the south.” Another pony from the crowd blurted out. “I think I heard a bell Sheriff.” Screamed another. The crowd erupted in ponies talking about which direction the raiders left in. The sheriff tried screaming over the crowd to calm them down but her screams were drowned out by the rising voices of the crowd. I watched her magically upholster a pistol from under her coat and fired into the air. The room fell silent, Longmare stashed the pistol away.

“This arguing is getting us nowhere and we are running out of time. Now I need you all to think real hard cause if we don’t hurry our loved ones are going to food for a bunch of crazy eyed cannibals.”

Pipe stood up on the rickety stool she was sitting on and raised her hoof waving it back and forth to get the sheriffs attention. Longmare saw the little filly frantically waving her hoof. “Yes little one what is it?” the sheriff asked.

“Where did you find that cannibal you killed?” Pipe asked loudly and confidently. She clearly wasn’t afraid of ponies staring at her. I thought to myself as I stared at the brave little filly.

Sheriff Longmare turned to one of the ponies who was probably one of her deputies standing next to the bar. “We found her hiding in a hollow log just outside of town.” The deputy said.

“Which side of town, she was probably trying to head back home but had to hide when she was left by the others.” Pipe explained.

The deputy thought it over for a few seconds and said “The north side. We found her hiding north of town. I remember because we had to pass between the burnt out book store and the collapsed ice-cream shop.”

“Alright we will start out by searching the area north of town, hopefully we will pick up their trail as long as it doesn’t snow. So we’ve got about five hours till dawn, all those who are coming get some sleep and meet up in front of my office in the morning. Meeting adjourned.” She hopped of the bar heading towards the door. The other ponies began filing out of the building. Pipe and I were about to get up and leave when syringe stomped over to where we were sitting.

“Pipe Wrench what are you doing here. I told you to go back to the room.” She said scowling down at the now scared little filly.

“I’m sorry Miss Syringe I was but then the cannibal showed up and the Sheriff Longmare told every pony to go to the meeting.” She said timidly looking down at the dirty floor.

“Go back to the room now Pipe Wrench.” Syringe said firmly pointing a hoof out the door. Pipe climbed down off the stool and quickly ran out the door not wanting to get in anymore trouble. “And you,” She said pointing the hoof at me. “You brought her here didn’t you, what is wrong with you?”

“The sheriff said for every pony to come here for a town meeting.” I explained to the furious mare. I don’t know why she was angry with me I didn’t do anything wrong.

“Foals don’t count, when they say every pony they don’t mean every pony. Foals don’t go to town meeting to talk about rescue missions and cannibals.” She screamed at me. “And how did she know that the sheriff found and killed one of the cannibal ponies?”

“Because she was there with me when Sheriff killed the cannibal pony.” I explained to Syringe. When she heard this her face showed shock then immediately went to anger.

“You were there and you let her see that. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?” her screams caught the attention of the few remaining ponies left in the building.

“Look I’m sorry but she must have followed me when the ponies brought the cannibal to town.” I said trying to explain that it wasn’t my fault Pipe was there.

“Just stay away from Pipe Wrench. If I see you near her again I will… I will…” her horn started to glow and spark. “I don’t know what but it won’t be good.” She said turning around the tip of her tail whipped me at the tip of my nose as she stormed out of the building. I rubbed away the stinging sensation on my nose as I watched her leave.

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The next morning I woke up and threw on my saddle bags. As I walked out of the hotel onto the main street. The townponies had already been cleared away the dead bodies and were boarding up broken windows and cleaning up the mess from the night before. It had been light for a couple of hours and I heard my stomach growl so I reached into my saddle bag and pulled out the last snack cake I unwrapped the pastry and bit into it and a fruity flavor spread over my tongue. I looked down at the wrapper and read that it was berry flavored. Throwing the wrapper into a burning garbage can I trotted towards the doctor’s office to go see how Nickel was doing.

I entered the office and saw that neither Pipe nor Syringe were sitting at the front desk. I could hear the doctor talking to some pony in one of the rooms. The door was closed so I couldn’t hear what he was saying. I walked to the room Nickel was staying in and pushed the door open.

Many of the beds that were occupied last night were now empty. The ponies who were still there were either sleeping or laying in their beds listening to the radio that was playing soft music. I saw Nickel laying on his bed with Pipe wrench sitting next to him neither of them looked to happy. I remembered the look on Syringes face but before I could decide what to do I heard Nickel call out to me. “Hey there son we’ve been waiting for ya.”

Pipe ran over to me, she was clearly troubled. The image of Syringe’s face flashed in my mind and I said to her. “I’m sorry Pipe but Syringe doesn’t want me to be around you anymore.”

“I know she told me to stay away from you too but I need your help. Miss Syringe went with the Sheriff Longmare to help rescued the ponynapped ponies.” She said.

“What why?” I asked shocked to hear that Syringe would go on a rescue mission.

“Last night she said that if anypony was hurt she needed to be there to help them. She left this morning with Sheriff Longmare and the other townsponie. I need to go help her.” Pipe said frantically.

“But why me?”

“Because you’re the only pony I know and trust. Please Mister Blank Flank she needs my help.” Pipe said pleading.

“Syringe will be okay Pipe she is with the Sheriff and the others. I’m sure they can handle it. Plus Syringe got really mad when I brought you to the meeting last night I don’t think she would be any happier if I brought you to a place full of cannibals.” I watched the look of betrayal and pain spread across the young filly’s face.

She walked past me and stopped before leaving the room. She slowly turned to me and said “I thought you were my friend.” She turned away from me and walked out of the room slamming the door behind her.

I felt like I got kicked in the stomach again, it felt like I might throw up the snack cake. “Don’t worry about her son she just worried about that pretty nurse friend of hers.” Nickel said behind me. I walked over to his bed and sat down next to him.

“How are you feeling today Nickel?”

“Oh im doing alright be better in no time.” He said but he looked tired.

“Are you sure? Maybe I should get the doctor.” I moved to stand up but Nickel stopped me.

“Sit down boy there is no need to bother the good doctor. This is nothing, why I remembered one time I was down near Manehattan when I got stung by this manticore.”Over the next few hours Nickel told me stories of his travels and the places he visited around the wasteland. He told me about Friendship city, a city built inside a statue. Then he told me of a place called tenpony tower which was filled with rich snobby ponies. Then he told me about the place called hoofington and how it was a prewar city that was sealed off becoming a impenetrable fortress. He then went on to talked about Whinneapolis and where we would be going when we left.

“Now we are gonna be heading north of here towards a place called laketown that would be the next stop. From there it on towards the Mall of Equestria.”

I stopped Nickel to ask “Uhm Nickel what’s a Mall?”

“A Mall was a prewar place filled with shops and restaurants for ponies to spend their money at,” He explained. “Then once we are done up here we can head on down south. Show you a little bit more of the wasteland than just ice and snow.”

Just then Doctor Suture burst into the room. “Has any pony seen that filly Pipe wrench? Misses Dandelion is about to give birth and I need some help.” He said frantically looking around the room.

“We haven’t seen her in a while, not since this morning.” Nickel said to the frantic doctor.

“Celestia Dammit where did that little brat go.” The doctor said scowling as he left the room.

I sat there thinking to myself. She didn’t go after Syringe by herself did she? Nickel laid there looking at me and confirmed my fears. “She went after that pretty nurse didn’t she?”

I nodded my head. “I have to go make sure she’s okay.” I told Nickel.

“I know son. You go get that silly filly. I’d hate to think what that pretty nurse would do to you if she knew you let that filly go off on her own.”

“Yeah but she also told me that if she saw me with Pipe again she would do something.” I said remembering the scary face Syringe gave to me the night before.

“I wouldn’t worry about that too much, but you better go after her she has short legs so she can’t travel that fast but she’s got a few hours head start.”

I looked at my ailing friend he had gotten paler since this morning. “Are you going to be okay?” I asked worried.

He waved his hoof and said. “I’ll be fine just go find that little friend of yours and bring her back safe and sound.”

He gave me a reassuring smile and I smiled in retuned then headed out of the doctor’s office. I ran to the center of town and tried to figure out which way Pipe must have gone. I started asking some of the ponies around town if they saw her at all. A pony who was boarding up windows said he saw her a few hours ago heading north. I asked him why he let her go and all he said was “What do I look like a foal sitter. Now leave me alone I have a lot of shit to do.” I left in the direction he pointed me in. As I headed north I soon found little hoof prints in the snow. Thankfully it hadn’t snowed all morning so the track were still easily visible.

I followed the hoof prints for about an hour. The snow was deep about up to my knees as I trudged through the snow as quickly as I could. I found Pipe sitting on a fallen tree. Her saddle bags were lying next to her as she sat on the tree looking at the thing on her left foreleg.

“Pipe!” I said running up to her. “You’re okay.” I said happy to see her unharmed.

She looked up at me and said “What are you doing here?” her voice was bitter.

“I came here looking for you.”

“Well you found me. Now if you will excuse me I have to go help Miss Syringe.” She said stepping down from the log and putting her saddlebags back on.

“She’s fine Pipe. Plus how are you supposed to find her I don’t see any tracks around here except for ours.” I said pointing out the undisturbed snow.

“With this,” She said holding up the large bracelet on her foreleg. ”I have Miss Syringe’s Pip-Buck tag I can find her anywhere.”

“I’m sorry Pipe but I can’t let you go. I don’t want to risk I don’t know what If Syringe finds out I let you go on your own.”

“Then come with me. Please Mister Blank Flank please.” She said as she held her hoofs together pleading.

“No Pipe, I’m sorry but we have to go back.” I was cut off when I heard snow being crushed under hoof.  I looked into the wood and saw one of Sheriff Longmare’s deputies walking through the snow. He was swaying as he walked and would stumble every few steps. His barding and coat was covered in splotches of blood.

He saw us and quickened his pace then collapsed before us. “Help them please.” He said weekly. I prop him up against the fallen tree pipe was sitting on and asked him what happened.

“Ambushed, they somehow knew we were coming and attacked us in the trees. I ran but I think the others were caught. Help them please.” His breathing was becoming labored.

“Its okay, we will get you back to town.” His body was riddled with bullet holes and he was shacking violently.

“No, I’m done for. Please help them, please you got to help them.”

“Is Miss Syringe okay?” Pipe asked worried. The Deputy nodded his head then closed his eyes and exhaled. He became still as life left his body.

I got looked at Pipe and said urgently “Come on pipe we have to get back to town and get help.”

“Didn’t you hear him he said there was no time. We have to go save Miss Syringe and Misses Sheriff Longmare.”

“What are we, just the two of us going to do against a group of cannibal ponies?” I asked trying to convince pipe to come back to town with me.

“But we just can’t leave them. They are going to die if we don’t do something. What are you scared or something?”

Of course I was scared, what pony wouldn’t be scared of cannibal ponies. I thought to myself.  I looked down at the young filly and said sadly. “I’m sorry pipe but I just don’t think there is anything we can do not just the two of us.”

“But...but I just can’t leave Miss Syringe,” years began to fill the little filly’s eyes. “Please Mister Blank Flank I just can’t leave her. I got to try if not then my stable, my friends will die.”

I looked down at the Pipe Wrench with her big sad eyes and sighed clearly this little pony would do anything for her friend it kind of reminded me of my friendship with Nickel. “Okay we’ll go after Syringe and the others do you still know where she is?” I asked.

Her eyes immediately lightened up and she looked at the pip-buck and pointed to where Syringe and the other were. I quickly looked over the fallen deputy’s body and found some ammo but no gun to go with it. I put it in my saddle bag hoping it would fit my revolver.

We set of in the direction Pipe’s pip-buck told us to go towards. The snow was too deep for pipe to walk through so I made her sit on my back and just point me in the direction to go. She was a bit heavier than I expected her to be but she didn’t slow me down in any way.

I ran through the snow covered forest with Pipe sitting on my back till Pipe told me to stop. We came to a large clearing in the woods. Pipe jumped of my back and stood next to me.

“Okay my pip-buck says that Miss Syringe is right across this lake.” She said pointing across the large open area. In the direction she was pointing I could see on the other side of the lake a large building sitting just of the lake.

“Okay lets go around the lake hopefully we can sneak up on them.” We slowly walked around the lake. Other smaller building were in the wood around the lake as well. As we got closer to the large building Pipe had us stop and hide behind a fallen tree. I was going to ask her why we stopped but she just shushed me. That when I heard voices not too far off and they were coming closer.

“Ugh it starting to get cold out.” One of the ponies said.

“Not as bad as the last place we hunted at, remember I had icicles hanging from my nose whenever I went outside.” Responded a second pony.

“This is bullshit, why does the chief always have us do patrols? I would like some fresh meat every once and awhile.” Said the first pony. There only seemed to be two of them out.

“It’s because you complain about going on patrols. And don’t worry there will be enough for us plus probably a second and third helping.” Answered the second pony.

“Yeah I don’t ever remember having so much food at one time.” Said the first pony.

“Ever since that Black pony showed up thing have been great.” I could hear them just on the other side of the log. I held my breath and slowly reached for my axe when the second one continue to speak. “You know we can probably head back now and if we are lucky we could still get some warm meat.”

“Sounds good to me.” The first pony said as I heard the snow being crushed under hoof fade of into the distance.

I let out the breath I was holding and heard Pipe do the same. “How did you know they were coming?” I asked Pipe as we slowly and as quietly followed the direction the two ponies head towards.

“My pip-buck,” she said holding up the device on her leg. “It has Eyes Forward Sparkle it’s a spell that lets me know who friendly and who’s not before they can see me.” She explained.

We made our way to the large building that Pipe said was holding Syringe and the others. It was a large rectangular building made up of whole logs stacked on top of one another with a steep roof. The front of the building had large windows overlooking the lake. We could see lights and ponies moving inside. We circled around to the back of the building and found an unguarded door. I tried to push the door open but it was locked.

Pipe came up next to me and nudged me out of the way. “Let me try something,” She said as she pulled out a screwdriver and a bobby pin from saddle bags and inserted them into the lock. “Back in the stable my friend and I would sneak into the cafeteria after bed time to steal snacks. He was teaching me to pick locks before I came outside with Miss Syringe.” Pipe said as she used her hoof to adjust the bobby pin while holding the screwdriver in her teeth. She fiddled with the lock for a few seconds then I heard a little snap as the bobby pin broke off in the lock. Pipe tried again and broke another bobby pin. She sighed and fished more bobby pins out of her saddle bags. After a few minutes and several failed attempts to pick the lock she sat down in the snow defeated.

“I’m sorry but I couldn’t get the lock. It’s too hard.” She said tears welling up in her eyes.

“It’s okay we’ll find another way in.” I said trying to reassure the little crying pony.

“But how I'm out of bobby pins and we are running out of time.”

I looked around the back of the building looking for maybe another way in. there were some windows broken windows to what looked like the second floor of the building. I pointed to them and said. “Maybe we could find some way to climb in through there.”

“Yeah that could work, or you know what could be better if we knew some pony who could fly up there.” She said sarcastically.

I looked back at my wings then down Pipe unsure. “Uhm… yeah about that I never actually flew before or don’t remember flying.” I said somewhat embarrassed.

Her eyes grew wide and nearly screamed. “YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO FLY!” I quickly hushed her by sticking my hoof in her face and listened for any pony coming to check on the sudden screaming. After a while once we were both sure nopony heard I removed my hoof and pipe continued at a lower volume. “What do you mean you don’t know how to fly? You’re a Pegasus all you do is fly.”

“Well I don’t ever remember flying and I haven’t really had the chance to learn since I woke up.” I explained.

“Try now it’s not that high and maybe a Pegasus never forgets how to fly.” She said encouragingly.

I nodded and had her back up to give me some room. I extended my wings and flapped them as hard as I could. All that I ended up doing was blowing snow up into my face. I closed my eyes and tried flapping harder. I felt my hooves leave the ground I opened my eyes and saw the ground start to fall away from me. Flying felt good, no not good awesome. It felt right flying and it started to feel familiar. Suddenly I felt a twinge of pain in my head. My wings faltered for a second causing me to slam into the side of the building and fall to the ground.

I fell into a snow bank holding my head. “Are you okay what happened? You were almost there.” She asked as she helped pull me out of the snow bank and onto my hooves.

“I don’t know my head just suddenly started hurting.” I explained. The pain had left as quickly as it had arrived. “I don’t think I should try that again. We should try and find another way in.” I suggested.

Pipe inspected the side of the building and pointed out a small grate right above the locked door. “There, I bet I could squeeze through that vent.” She said running towards the door. “If you boost me up I could get up there and unlock the door from the inside.” She said hopefully.

Pipe climbed onto my head as I got up on my rear legs and propped myself up against the door stretching my neck out as far as I could getting pipe as close to the grate as possible. She pulled a tool out of her saddle bag and started removing the grate. My neck started to ache from the stretching and Pipe’s weight.

“Hurry up Pipe I don’t know how much longer I can hold you up like this.” I said urging her to go faster.

“Imph goimhp, imph goimph.” She said with the tool in her mouth. She finished and placed the tool back in her saddle bag before grabbing the grate and throwing it into the snow. She climbed into the metal tube and said “Okay, wait here I’ll unlock the door.”

“Okay, just be careful in there.” I said.

“Don’t worry I will.” She said reassuringly before crawling deeper into the vents.

I stretched my neck relieving the pain caused from having a filly stand on my head. I suddenly heard a click and the door opened inwardly. I fell forward caught off guard from the sudden disappearance of my support. I fell on the hard tile floor my front legs sprawled out in front of me. Pipe couldn't have been that quick could she I thought to myself before realizing that there were three sets of hooves in front of me. I looked up as three cannibals looked down at me in surprise.

“I told you I heard something hit the back wall I told you.” One cannibal said to the other two. I quickly tried to reach for my revolver when one of the cannibals grabbed something off a nearby table and smacked me on the side of the head. My head started spinning I shook my head trying to compose myself when something dark and round came at me smashing into my face.