Fallout Equestria: A brother's sacrifice

Chapters

A brother's loyalty
Weclome to the wasteland
Deep into raider territory
we're fraindly I swear
To The Armoury Once More
The Cave

A brother's loyalty

Chapter 1

QA brother's loyalty

It was a standard day at Forward operating base Cumulonimbus, a white Pegasus with a golden red striped mane stood watch nervously for the departure of his brother, he was nervous as Sabre his big brother had never been in actual combat before. "Just a standard patrol thought Lancer “pacing around the armoury, he was never good at waiting around, “he will be fine, I repaired his armour and weapon so they should keep big bro safe”.

Meanwhile Sabre; a charcoal black and gold Pegasus with a shield cutie mark sat in the darkened briefing room listening to a briefing about the upcoming mission, “ok so we will hit the gryphon base here and alpha squad will flank in through this canyon" commander Typhoon said as he pointed to the location on the map, he was a tall steel grey Pegasus with a pure white mane and tail wearing a standard Enclave officer uniform. Sabre was nervous about this mission as he had never fought the gryphons before in a combat situation but the newspapers claimed they were insane murders hell bent on killing every last Pegasus. “Ok you have your orders now get ready and be on the runway in 10 minutes you leave at 1800 hours".

Two days later Sabre was due back from his mission, Lancer got lonely in the armoury on his own tending to the weapons and equipment, as he sat down in his place of work Lancer heard the signature whirring noise of his brothers magical black power armour, a little more scratched than the last time he saw it, and the metallic clunking of his hoofsteps on the solid cloud floor, “you’re back” Lancer cried almost letting out a squee and diving towards Sabre

"Hay little bro I missed you" giving a hug to lancer " but I have some bad news I have to go on a last minute mission"

Lancer instantly deflated "but you said you where off duty for the rest of the week" pushing away from him

"I know I know im sorry but i can't just say no my nation needs me but after this mission i promise"

"I wish I could help you out there but no, I have to get a shit paint bush on my ass" lancer said turning a way

"Hey it's alright you are a hell of a good painter and trust me you don't want to be cannon fodder like a lot of soldiers I see" he said putting a hoof on Lancer’s shoulder. “And I don't need to go until 6pm so how about we get a drink and catch up" Sabre and Lancer walked down the white cloud Constructed Street until they found a two story building called the High fliers. The building was white like most cloud based structures and had two shiny polished windows on the front wall with the entrance between, a sign showed offers of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Upon entering they could see a big room filled with pegasi in Enclave military uniforms engaging in conversations of different topics. Lancer looked very out of place in the bar not having a military cutie mark in a military base but he was used to it." There's a free table over there" Sabre said pointing a hoof to the free tables. Just as the two sat down at the table a Pegasus walked up to them, he was light brown, had a similar brown on his mane, he was wearing a black uniform which covered most of his body.

"Hey Sabre are you ready for your first real mission tonight?"

"Of course I am and it is not my first real mission it's just my first one going against gryphons" Sabre declared "this is my little brother Lancer, Lancer this is Heavy Weight my squad mate",

"Oh this is the famous Lancer I have heard so much of, didn’t you repair my plasma caster? Nice to meet you" heavy weight said in a deep masculine voice giving Lancer a hoof bump "but anyway I best be off I still need to get my plasma caster back from the armoury" he said as he headed towards the highly lit doorway of the bar.

“So… Sabre what can you tell me about the mission?" Lancer asked.

“It’s classified so don't tell anyone this but we are starting to lose this war and this attack is vital if we want to keep this base from being destroyed" Sabre said in a quiet tone. "Commander Typhoon has stepped up patrols and it's starting to wear us down but there is nothing else they can do"

"You’re kidding me aren’t you? Maybe they will let join if they need the troops that bad" Lancer said in a hopeful tone,

"I know you want to join the Air force but it's not what you are meant to be in this world" sabre said sadly “anyway who else can put badass paintjobs on our armour and weapons?”, Lancer sighed

“You sound just like Dad only you complemented me instead of insulting me",

"Hey don't compare me to him I’m just saying you are meant for greater things than me all I will do for the rest of my life is serve in this military, or maybe retire somewhere nice" Sabre tried to change the subject to no avail ,

“Do you remember what he said when I first showed him my cutie mark? he said I might as well be called ‘Prancer’ and tried to kick me out of the house",

“hey Lancer, I’m pretty sure that was a ‘heat of the moment’ thing” Sabre said as he tried to grab the attention of a waitress, “yeah maybe you’re right, I tried to make Dad proud by becoming an armourer but I will never see combat, I need a drink”

A few minutes and glasses of cider passed, “T-Then you stepped in and w-walked out with me, T-thanks for that" the two sat in silence for a while drinking. Sabre was avoiding alcoholic drinks due to his impending mission,

"Lancer, I think you’ve had enough cider for today, so… how is work in the armoury?" Sabre questioned

"S-sometimes boring b-but it but I’m doing my bit and anyway I so get to look after my sweet Prototype sniper rifle, she is my b-baby, my girl”, Lancer loved the rifle, cherished it, he usually named his favourite weapons and gave them mares names, but for this one he had not decided.

“OH Damn it look at the time I have to be in the vertibuck in ten minutes meet me here at 10pm tomorrow" Sabre said with Galloping out of the door of the bar and into the sunset lit street.

"Be safe Sabre" lancer whispered to himself "I don't know what I’d without you" Lancer said to himself in a low tone, the two brothers where close to each other after the incident with their father.

The time was 10:30pm and Lancer was still in the bar, the sun had gone down and the moon was high in the sky. He was very worried about his brother because he was already over half an hour late, his mind theorised the worst case scenarios of him being dead or captured by gryphons and being subjected to their supposed tortures. as he attempted to clear his head of those thoughts a group of pegasi walked through the door, they all looked like they had just got out of a firefight, Heavy Weight who was among them was sporting a lot of blood and damage on his power armour "Heavy Weight where's sabre?, he better be okay!" Lancer said in a panicked voice.

“Your peace of shit brother went dashite on us" Heavy Weight said in an aggressive tone.

"Bullshit, what are you talking about? He would never become a dashite he's loyal as they come" Lancer cried out trying to redeem his brother. Heavy Weight walked up to him until they were face to face

"that traitor is a dashite I branded him myself" he said nose to nose with Lancer. Lancer didn't have time to think as he ran out of the door into the now dark dimly lit street of the base. He ran and flew as fast as he could towards the holding cells with any luck Sabre would still be there. The prison building was a one storey grey building with bars on each window. He busted though the doors bucking the guard as the desk unconscious leaving two large hoofs shaped bruises in her face, grabbing the keys off of her Lancer apologised quietly and ran out through a dark cloud corridor,

"come on Sabre where are you" he said to himself as he ran past some empty cells in a panic curious as to why the prison block was extremely under guarded,

“Lancer I knew you’d come " Sabre cried out from his dark cell through the armoured glass, still woozy from the sedation. Lancer wasted no time in unlocking the cell. As Sabre limped out of the cell Lancer got a good look at him it pained lancer to see him like this. Sabre had cuts all over his back, one of his legs was bleeding badly and most of all of his cutie mark was gone, it was replaced with a black cloud and lightning bolt still red from the burning hot branding iron. Sabre saw lancer looking at the dashite brand on his flank and grimaced "come on we have to get out of here” he said in a much deflated tone.

”b-but first we need to stop by the armoury” Lancer said worryingly, his heart beating furiously from the adrenaline. “Why” Sabre questioned “there’s gonna be guards EVERYWHERE”,

“yeah, but we need supplies first, the Enclave will kick us of the clouds for this” Lancer said trying desperately to remember the pass code for the armoury door and trying to think of the safest route.

Upon reaching the armoury door through a utility passage Lancer immediately opened the door revealing a large highly illuminated room filled with shelves upon shelves of shiny weaponry and armour. “Good, they didn’t change the code” Lancer said gawking at the prototype stealth rifle,

“yeah, because you’re the only one that comes in here and they don’t know you’re a traitor yet” Sabre said in a pained tone.

“YES! She’s still here” Lancer cried bucking the generator powering the force field around his cherished gun that he had worked on for the past two months. “There’s healing potions in the first aid box in there” Lancer stated pointing a hoof at a small dark room containing a desk, a chair and a coffee maker, Sabre limped inside and took a swig from a plastic bottle containing a healing potion.

“Feeling better already” Sabre said, His wounds starting to heal over, when he returned Lancer had already filled a set of saddlebags with equipment and medical supplies. Suddenly a blue flash of light whizzed passed them both, a single Pegasus officer carrying a magical plasma pistol in her teeth, she had been off duty in the next room,

“DASHITE! Stop right there or I will be forced to use deadly force!” she said with a muffled yell, obviously not noticing the stun grenade at her hooves,

“come on Lancer follow me”, a few moments later Lancer and Sabre learned why there were no guards around, all of the Anti-gryphon turrets fired orange arcs of magical energy into the night sky randomly at no apparent targets. “There’s a vertibuck hangar nearby just through here” Lancer followed Lancer through the darkly lit cloud corridors. “Lancer you stay here, they don’t know you’re a traitor yet and that stunned officer won’t remember a thing”.

“No I’m coming with you, we’re in this together” Lancer protested refusing to stay behind. The corridor was engulfed in green flames almost burning the two brothers,

“Stop Right There” a Pegasus in Enclave power armour stood in the corridor with a double magical plasma rifle battle saddle.

“Oh shi- Lancer go, GO” Sabre yelled as the two galloped down the corridor towards the hangar “they know you’re a traitor now bro”

The two scrambled into the cockpit of a half fuelled vertibuck, the engines making a low rumbling sound, “Sabre GO GO GO GO GO GO” Lancer cried as the vertibuck flew out of the closing hangar doors taking heavy fire from three pegasi armed with magical battle saddles, “phew” Lancer said wiping his brow, “would you like to tell me WHAT IN EQUESTRIA IS GOING ON”,

“The enclave lied to us are entire lives” Sabre said, the vertibuck ducking beneath the clouds, still too dark to see the ground,

"What!" Lancer said shocked

“well-“ suddenly there was a flash of orange, the vertibuck had been hit by an Enclave Gun turret rendering the two occupants unconscious. The vertibuck plummeted engulfed in brightly coloured flames.

Weclome to the wasteland

Chapter 2

Weclome to the wasteland

The two brothers woke up in the wreckage of the vertibuck "Hey bro are you ok" Sabre said coughing as stood up and started walking toward the hole where the aircraft’s door used to be.

"Yeah I’m fine but I don't think we will be using the vertibuck anytime soon" lancer said looking into the cockpit through the cracked windows, the magical instruments were either offline or destroyed.

"Oh…You have to see this" Sabre said standing next to the wreckage of the vertibuck. Lancer trotted outside and saw it for the first time. The Equestrian Wasteland was scattered with baron plains with hills and mountains in the distance rising up into the grey sky. They could see a pink cloud surrounding some sort of city

"wow, umm shi-" Lancer said in shock he had never seen the wasteland before. The two brothers had some knowledge of the Great War but only the propaganda and lie infested Enclave version of it learned in school. Sabre had only seen some less devastated areas in combat but had no time to ‘admire’ the scenery. The area contained only a couple of ruined buildings and a long stretch of cracked road going leading over a nearby hill.

"Come on, let’s follow the road, there must be a town or settlement nearby" Sabre said taking flight and flying for the road. “Watch yourself down here, from what I have seen and heard from reconnaissance there are no laws, no hierarchy, most ponies become soulless raiders and all manner of unnatural creatures”.

"Ok so everything down here wants us dead or something? So… you mind telling me why you’re a Dashite?" Lancer said catching up to Sabre.

"They told me the base we were attacking was full of insane gryphons getting ready to attack us but when we arrived everything went to shit ,A group of gryphons tried to leave and we were told to shoot them so we did" sabre said in an angry tone, tears almost welling in his eyes. "we fired on them, killing them but when we got closer we got a good look at them" he then took a deep breath "the ones we shot were innocent Women and children just trying to escape from the fighting, there were so many, they had no chance, Heavy Weight v-vaporised a family w-with his battl… AND STARTED LAUGHING THE SICK BASTARD and when I radioed it in they told me something along the lines of “so what…they’re gryphons make sure they don't get away” so I told them to go fuck themselves and I made sure that the other gryphons got out by creating a diversion and sure I can be a plot sometimes but I will NEVER kill unarmed children”. Sabre had to land and sit down for a while.

"Shit Sabre, what kind of diversion?” Lancer asked. "I took a few pot-shots at the Raptor and started shooting at the others not to kill just to distract them, all I did was scorch the paint on the Raptor and burn the tails of some of the soldiers" Sabre hunched over.

"Damn, they brought in some heavy firepower then, why they didn't just kill you right there?" Lancer said sitting down next to Sabre.

"I think they wanted to make an example of me or something"

"Hey are you alright bro? I know it must be tough” Lancer questioned reassuringly.

"Tough that not the half of it, I have wanted to serve the Enclave all my life, my cutie mark even a shield which shows I was meant to serve as ‘a defender of the great Pegasus race’ and as soon as I try to protect some children they brand me a Dashite" Sabre said looking at his sore flank.

“That’s probably because they weren’t pegasi, heh, so much for ‘restoring the glory and beauty of Equestria’, sorry about your cutie mark” Lancer said looking at the clouds.

"It doesn't matter now, it's gone and it's been replace by a constant reminder of what we need to do" sabre said with a tear in his eye.

"What would that be" Lancer asked looking towards Sabre nervously.

"Now we get revenge on the bastards who branded us Dashites" the veins in sabres neck almost visible. They had set of trotting down the road at a brisk pace.

"We need to find a town or something and get some supplies like food, water and Ammunition before we do anything" Lancer said though his saddle bags. ”I was only able to get a few water bottles, healing potions and MREs, these vests I got only stop low velocity bullets from small firearms, I didn’t get much combat training, also my rifle only has three spare magazines with special ammunition but is completely silent. Your magical plasma rifle regenerates its supplies after a while but is susceptible to burnouts. These pistols have plenty of power cells”

"Please stop that high-tech gun talk, I think I see something up ahead it might be a settlement or at least it might have some supplies" Sabre said flying high in the air to get a better look. The two flew towards a small town surrounded by a damaged metal and concrete wall. The wall looked to be made out of everything from bits of other houses to scrap metal that has long since rusted but looked like had been in a fight, from what they could see the town was peppered with holes straight though it which looked like it had been made by some sort of explosion. As the two flew towards the town Sabre powered up his magical rifle and Lancer drew his sniper with his mouth as a precaution, they walked up to the gates two guards wearing some sort of armour that covered their entire bodies jumped out from behind a wall, one pointed a magazine fed shotgun at them, the other pointed an assault carbine

"What do you pegasi want? The guard on the right questioned in an aggressively, “we’ve done nothing to upset the Enclave now, so why don’t you take your business elsewhere?” the guard on the right said, “leave now or we will fire on you!” another guard wearing much more armour yelled in a feminine voice as she pointed a chain-gun at them.

"Whoa calm down! We’re not Enclave, we just need some supplies when we will be gone" Sabre said showing them his Dashite mark

"Oh, then you can come in but if you so much as look at your gun we will shoot you like the scum you pegasuses are" the guard on the left said. “Also to be safe remove the Enclave symbol from your clothing”.

“Yeah uhh, sure, by the way, it’s pegasi” Lancer said as the two walked through the gates they could enter the town the guard giving a frown under his helmet.. It had five buildings on each side and it was full of earth ponies and unicorns wearing makeshift armour and wielding old looking weapons. The two brothers had never seen so many ponies that weren’t pegasi. "What was all that about?" lancer asked.

"Apparently they hate for closing the sky a few hundred years ago and if we were wearing power armour they probably would have shot us on sight" Sabre said.

"Look mommy they have wings, can I have wings, can I go play with them” a small filly bearing a cardboard box as a cutie mark said to her mother.

"Yes they do, no you can't and I don't want you going near them" the mother said not missing a beat. She had good reason to fear Enclave and pegasi in general, especially ex-Enclave pegasi.

"Not everypony" Lancer said looking at the filly with a smile.

"There’s a general store over there" Sabre said. The two trotted up to the building. The building itself was a two story wooden shack-like building with burn marks around the windows.

"Can I help you dearie?" A female elderly green earth pony said from behind the counter. Evidently the wasteland isn’t all savage.

"We need some food and medical supplies" Lancer said She placed a bucket of strange looking apples on the counter

“how many do you need?” she asked, “uhh, all of them if you can, how much? “Lancer asked looking at the other items in the store, “Two caps each “she stated.

“Umm…caps, I have Enclave credits”,

“sorry, those have no value down here, I can’t sell you anything until you have caps”. Lancer walked outside to find his brother. “Sabre we need things called Caps, they’re the currency down here”.

“Oh, well we’ve been offered a job; we protect the town and we get money and a place to stay” Sabre said considering the guard’s offer.

"Why what happened here" Lancer asked

"We have been getting attacked by raiders, normally we can hold them off but as of late they have been using missile and grenade launchers.” The guard said removing his helmet. He was a stone coloured unicorn with a green mane. He offered a hoofshake “I’m Night Vision sort of a second in command of the town, I apologise for the encounter at the gate, last time the Enclave were here it turned ugly so you’ll have to earn the resident’s trust”,

“I’m Sabre and this is my brother Lancer, also what are caps?

"No offence but have you been living under a rock? You’re new to the wasteland aren’t you?" Night Vision said. “Caps are bottle caps found on unopened bottles of sunrise sarsaparilla or sparkle cola, they’re plentiful so we use them as money. If you two help us out with the raider problem you can have a shack an-“Night Vision’s sentence was interrupted by gunfire The two brothers ran out of the shop front and head toward the gate where guards were shooting over the wall.

“RAIDER ATTACK, GET DOWN!” somepony shouted. The brothers approached the assault carbine wielding guard from earlier.

"What are you two doing here? We don't need yo-" the guard was cut off by another guard; she was a dark grey earth pony wearing a sheriff badge. "We need all the help we can get, you two, the raiders are in cover in a ruined building and if you attack them from above they won’t expect that, we need you to attack them from the air" the guard said.

"Are we really about to do this for some fruit?" Sabre asked. "No we are doing this because it is the right thing to do, and we need some money and accommodation” Lancer said in a near frustrated tone. "That’s what my commander said" Sabre said in a low tone. The two took flight and straight away where shot at by the raiders, bullets rushing past them. "You remember the flying manoeuvre I taught you" Sabre said as they flew toward the ruined building.

"Most of them" lancer said nervously.

"Good because it will only take one missile or bullet to bring you to the ground" Sabre said flying up to doge a missile. As the two got closer to the building the gun fire got more extreme. "Trust me on this" Sabre said and without waiting for a response he flew into one of the windows on the first floor and tackle on of the raiders. After a small hesitation Lancer took a few missile launcher wielding raiders down with his magically supressed rife, holding it in his teeth he fired four times the rifle only making a small click. Three bullets hit traveling straight through the raider’s chests the fourth missing. The rifles scope had a targeting spell similar to that of a Pipbuck. Lancer stowed the rifle on his back drew his Magical pistol and flew into the building.

"You’re insane" Lancer said joining Sabre. As lancer flew through the window he saw Sabre shooting on of the raiders in the neck burning a hole straight through, then instantly turning toward the door and gunning down two more. "Where did you learn that?" lancer said in shock.

"While you learned to fix guns, now stay close and try not to shoot me”

"Come on there are upstairs" a voice shout from under them.

"Lancer stay back and try to shoot them, my gun is acting up" Sabre said. He hit the side of the gun ejecting a small hot cracked crystal, “Damn it, burnout”

“Stop firing so quickly then…" Lancer yelled as he ran out of the door shooting anything that moved taking cover in the alcoves at the sides of the corridor. Lancer took up position at the window and lined up his shoots at the last raider wielding a missile launcher. Sabre wasn't acting right he normally wouldn't dive into a building full of hostiles even if he were wearing power armour instead of a combat vest but lancer couldn't think about that now he had to concentrate on his shots, the first passed through the missile launcher and into the raider’s head. Meanwhile Sabre rushed downstairs stepping over the corpses and ash piles that remained of the raiders he had gunned down.

"Survive this shitstick" said a raider wielding double grenade launcher battle saddle pointing at Sabre.

"Shit" is all Sabre could say before the explosion blasted him through a wall narrowly missing him.

"what the hell was that" Lancer said before he saw that most of the building where staircase was now completely gone . "oh no, no no no" he flew down to the bottom floor and saw scorched remains on the floor to burnt to even tell it where the battle saddle ended and the pony began "Sabre" lancer shouted out.

"Over here" sabre said coughing and wheezing, he was in the floor in a small room which looked like it used to be a kitchen his armour was burnt and covered in shrapnel entry holes. As Lancer helped him get up he still had ringing in his ears and had grazed his hind legs. "Lancer I need to breath" Sabre said.

"Don’t do that again" Lancer said letting go of Sabre "I think the building coming down! Let’s get out of here" Lancer said as part of the roof collapsed. Sabre limped out of the building with Lancer’s help just as the building fell in on itself.

"Look at them run do you think they will be back?" Sabre said.

"I doubt it now let’s get back to the town" Lancer said then took fight. As the two got back they were greeted by the sheriff.

"Thanks for your help here take this as a reward" the sheriff handed over a bag containing a few hundred caps” And there is a saloon at the end of the street I’m sure they will give a room for the night"

The two brothers sat on the jury-rigged beds in a small room inside the saloon, the walls appeared to be welded and nailed together. Lancer was repairing Sabre’s armour, cleaning their weapons and Sabre was preening his rustled feathers. A knocking came a sound from the door then the sheriff walked through the door "uhh, Hey sheriff can we help you" Lancer asked looking up at her.

"Please call me Bronze Swirl, but anyway raiders aren’t normally this organised or this well-equipped and I want you two to go to their hide out north of here in and take out their leader, we believe they have raided a nearby armoury”.

“Armoury?” Lancer gasped

“we think so, you like guns or something?” said Bronze,

“Yes, I worked in an armoury back in the Enclave” Lancer replied,

“Could you fix some equipment of us then, we’ll pay you” Bronze offered, sabre took the offer without hesitation.

“Why can’t your guards do it?” Sabre questioned,

“Because you have special tactics and reconnaissance skills, and you can fly” she replied "And because all the guards I have are needed to repair the wall and the buildings” Bronze Swirl said.

"Sure we’ll help" Lancer said.

"Thanks I knew I could count of you two" Bronze said walking out of the rusted door.

"Don't you think we should talk about this before we head off to get are selves killed again" Sabre said.

“Well, yeah, I need a new gun too, this one uses rare ammunition, and there were only three bullets of the correct calibre in the shop “Lancer said sighing, “can’t you modify it?” Sabre asked.

“Nope, the magical suppression spell is on the barrel and the barrel is what I have to change” Lancer replied.

"egghead" Sabre said.

“It’s getting late so I’m going to sleep”. Lancer said turning off the light.

Deep into raider territory

chapter 3

Deep into raider territory

It was early in the morning, the sun was just starting ti rise bathing the whole town in a pink light. Sabre was waiting outside the saloon for Lancer "come on, Lancer we need to go" Sabre said quietly so not to wake the whole town.

"Yeah, yeah 'm coming" Lancer said with a yawn "how are you even awake it's like 5am?”

"After you go on a few morning patrols you get used to getting up at this hour" sabre said trotting to the gate “Now, let’s get going we should be able to get to the raider hideout by sunset". As they approached the gate they could see that there were a lot less guards on the gate than usual.

"You two leaving already it's a bit early" the guard posted at the gate said.

"We need all the light we can get it's going to be a long journey" Lancer said. The two walked out of the gate and took flight heading towards the Raider controlled territory.

The two had been flying for nearly an hour in silence just looking the ruins of Equestria "So how are you holding up bro" Sabre said breaking the silence as if it were glass.

"Well I could use a break" Lancer said flying a few feet away from Sabre panting for air.

"No I mean like being a Dashite and everything it must be stressful. We weren’t pampered but down here its harsh"

“Oh well yeah I’m fine it's a bit weird knowing we'll never see the sky again and that most our friends want to kill us but at least I’m probably doing some good down here instead of being stuck in an armoury all day. Up there I had no one to impress"

"You know Lancer, you didn't have to come with me. I would have been fine and they wouldn’t of given a flying feather about you"

"You’re kidding you won't last ten minutes without me. You don't have any first aid training and you probably would have tried to shoot the vertibuck to get the engine running"

"Yeah I probably would have done that. Hey, how did you know how to fly that thing anyway?" Sabre inquired

“Oh, one pilot wanted some cool pattern painted on his vertibuck and in return he showed me the basics”

The two finally made it to the raider armoury and landed on a partially crumbled building a few hundred yards away. As soon as they landed Lancer collapsed to the floor exhausted. "Oh come on we have not been flying for that long" Sabre said flexing his wings.

"Hey it's not my fault that my job didn't include long distance flying" Lancer in defence getting up from the floor panting heavily. The two sat down on the concrete roof, Sabre pulled out a pair of binoculars from his saddlebags and Lancer looked through his rifle scope. The armoury was a small compound with a large concrete building in the centre surrounded by smaller buildings ranging from offices to storage sheds. One wall appeared to be used for executions; the concrete wall was full of bullet holes to the point where the internal rebar was visible and was covered in blood. The sight of it made Sabre gulp in worry and made Lancer very uncomfortable about what the Equestrian wasteland was really like. Judging by the size of the compound and the number of raiders the rest of the base was underground. Surrounding it where a dozen ruined buildings like the one they were sat on. Lancer used the SATS targeting spell in his rifle scope to count the raiders “There are about twenty raiders. There’s one wearing a funny hat that looks like the leader. I only have thirty bullets tops, so what’s the plan?" Lancer said looking at Sabre.

"Well it looks like most of the raiders are around that hangar-like building maybe if…I'll fly to the hanger you'll cover me" Sabre said Lancer pulled his sniper rifle scope to his eye and inserting the magazine into the weapon. Lancer nodded and Sabre flew to the ground. Sabre moved low through the concrete gravel ruins towards the hanger. As he got closer to could two raiders standing around a mutilated copse, too mutilated to even tell what it was. The smell made Sabre gag.

"What do you think of my masterpiece" the raider wearing tattered leather barding said to the other.

"Beautiful, now can I fuck him!" the other one said with a grin, the expression on his face looked like he meant it.

"The sick bastards what next killing kittens?" Sabre thought to himself. He moved up behind one and pointed at the other indicating to Lancer to shoot him. “Surprise motherbucker!” Sabre whispered as he stabbed the first guard in the throat, there was a loud splat as the bullet from Lancer’s rifle passed through the raider’s right eye, the blood dripped onto the floor coalescing into a puddle. No one had heard that but from the looks of the copse screams where normal around here.

As Sabre got closer to the hanger he could see the raider leader which was a huge earth pony seating on a seat made out of scrap metal, bones and unidentifiable body parts. Lancer had shot several more raiders with pin-point accuracy. There were five raiders around him which looked like they were moving equipment out of the hangar. Sabre took position behind a charred crate, aimed and fired a shot into the back of one the raiders carrying a large metal box on his back; the shot turned the raider to ash in a flash of bright green fire.

"Let's do this this" Lancer yelled to himself shooting one of the raiders near Sabre, splashing blood on him. The raider leader got out of his chair and charged into the crate smashing it throwing Sabre to the floor.

"Time to die birdy" the earth pony raider leader yelled. Sabre scrambled to his hooves and fired his plasma rifle at him at point blank, even though it was so close the shot only burned the raider’s barding and green coat, the only apparent effect was that his attacks became more aggressive. He charged towards Sabre, as the raider leader charged a bullet went through his leg causing him to collapse a few seconds before ramming into Sabre. Sabre trotted up to the leader and finished him off by shooting him in the chest turning half the body to ash. Lancer finished off the big hat wearing raider. Seeing the death of the apparently undefeatable leader caused the other raiders to flee in random directions. Lancer flew down to Sabre who was looking through a crate for loot "Hey nice shooting bro"

"Thanks, find anything good. Also pass me any scrap metal you come across"

"okay, all I found just pre-war Junk or weapons and barding" Sabre said with his head in a create "let’s not stay long I want to get as far away as possible from this place"

"But, but... there are so many weapons, amour and stuff we have to stay for a while" Lancer said pleading with wide eyes holding his hoofs together.

"Ok we can stay a while" Sabre said defeated. They both started going through the crates putting as much loot into their saddle packs as they could.

"Bro do you want this" Lancer said pulling an automatic shotgun out of a crate.

"Nice gun, want this one? Now we have got as much as we can carry so let’s get out of here" Sabre said putting the shotgun into his saddle pack and passing a sub machine gun to Lancer. The two got back to town near sunset, the clouds glowing orange. If they could see the sun from down here I would have been beautiful.

They walked up to the sheriff who was helping to repair the breach in the wall with scrap metal. "Sheriff we took out the raider leader and cleared all most of the raiders" Lancer claimed.

"You didn't tell us he was massive" Sabre said.

"Sorry it was rumoured he was big but I thought it was just that" the sheriff said "I have your reward in my office if you just follow me"

"I need information, sheriff like why were the enclave here" Lancer said following her.

"Well they wanted us to stop trading with the gryphons so when we refused they got pretty pissed and threatened to kill us"

"So why didn't they?" Sabre said.

"I don't know maybe they figured it wasn’t worth the firepower to wipe a small shanty town off the face of Equestria" the three stepped onto a porch and the sheriff levitated a key out of her overcoat.

“Do you know where the gryphons are?" Sabre asked.

"Yeah I shouldn't be telling you this but I guess I can trust you given what you did for us earlier. If I get attacked ill kick your asses” the sheriff gulped “there base is down south built inside a mountain; the tall one that breaches the clouds. Why do you want to know anyway?" The sheriff said stepping inside her office and handing a large paper bag of caps to Lancer.

"Because we are going to join them" Sabre said. The sheriff stepped back in shock.

we're fraindly I swear

**chapter 4

we're freindly I swear**

“What?!" Lancer said, shocked.

"Well the way I see it, us two attacking the enclave base is suicide but with an army of gryphons we can!

"Wait who said we were attacking the base, I Thought we were just going to set the records straight or something, I’m still not sure why you have such a grudge and what makes you think they will want our help?” Lancer protested.

"Come on bro, The Enclave won’t listen to a Dashite and why would they even care! They have lied to us our whole lives and they said the air down here was poisonous" Sabre stated.

"I know but we need to try to stop them one way or another, I know they were our friends"

"I don't know if they'll help you, they will probably have you executed for being pegasi but you can try" the sheriff said showing an extreme level of concern.

"Uhh…Thanks for the information sheriff” Sabre said.

“We don't have to go just yet do we? I think there is a cafe around he somewhere" Lancer said looking around trying to shake off his anxiety.

"There is one just down the street there, the sparkle cola is pretty good there too" the sheriff said pointing a hoof down the street to a simple two floor shack like building.

The two brothers silently trotted down the dirt street dreading the future to come.

"This place rebuilds fast! I thought it would take weeks to get the place looking better. I guess that’s and advantage of it being built from scrap metal; if it's damaged they can just put more scrap over it and you can't tell the difference" Sabre said trying to lighten the mood as they arrived at the café, it had tables and chairs around the entrance stretching out onto the street that had obviously been scavenged from different places since none matched. It had a cracked flickering neon sign atop the entrance.

"Welcome to my cafe" said a blue unicorn wearing stained ragged clothes that covered most of his body walked out of a storage room meet them "what can I get you two"

"Errr… I have no idea, what do you suggest" Lancer asked.

“How about a squirrel on a stick? They are pretty popular” the unicorn stated assuming his position behind the counter.

“What’s a squirrel?” Lancer asked Sabre quietly.

“It’s a small furry thing that runs up buildings” the unicorn interrupted

"What? You can't be serious! It’s an animal" Lancer protested giving an uncomfortable look to his brother.

"Just eat it you…flutterfluff" is all sabre said before being given it and taking a bite seeming to love its warm fleshy taste.

"Do you have any kind of fruit or vegetables?" Lancer asked.

"Yeah if you want irradiated ones or two hundred year old canned ones or two hundred year old irradiated ones” The unicorn snickered.

"Canned I guess" lancer said. The two brothers sat down and ate even though lancer couldn't look at Sabre eating meat without gagging.

“At least the Enclave has nice-ish food” Lancer said staring at the unappetizing paste remnants floating in the can.

“DON’T MENTION THE ENCLAVE!” Sabre shouted hitting the table.

“shhhhh you are drawing attention, sorry, I know you hate them…allot, I’m not sure why you hate them so much but wherever you go I’m still with you…unless it’s a place where I have to eat squirrels” Lancer reassured Sabre.

“I-I’ll tell you why when we get home” Sabre sighed.

"I am never eating there again" Lancer said walking away from cafe towards the saloon with Sabre.

"Well you choose to have two hundred year old food"

As they entered the room Sabre dropped off his saddle bags, and sat down on the bed next to his beloved brother. “I’ll tell you what happened, Lancer. When I saw them firing on the innocent something inside of me awakened…i-I, I don’t know what but…I filled with rage…wanted to kill them…wanted to see the blood pour out of their eyes!” Lancer shivered, he had never seen this side his brother before.

“Sabre... You need help” Lancer said, worried.

“Every time I see that black Carapace armour I want to pull the trigger and not let go…L-Lancer help me”

“I-I don’t know how…” Lancer collapsed, a tear dripping down his face. The reality had hit him, he could never return to the cloudy plains he once called home. “I’m gonna die and I know it, if the shitty raiders don’t do it, the enclave certainly will. How are TWO PEGASI supposed to take down the most powerful military to ever exist?” Lancer curled up on his bed facing the rusty metal wall.

“Lancer, I don’t know…”a bolt of hopelessness shot through his soul. Sabre picked up his plasma rifle and pointed it at himself “we could…you know”

Lancer rolled over, leapt across the room and knocked the glowing gun on to the floor.

“I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO DO THAT” he then slapped Sabre across the face. “That lets them win” Lancer looked into his distressed brothers eyes “we are not killing ourselves, but if we have to we’re gonna take those fuckers with us”

"I...I need some air" Sabre said as he brushed himself off and left the room. Lancer just sat back down on his bed with tears in his eyes.

The next day the two brothers where walking out of the general store after selling some spare equipment and scrap from the armoury. The sky was still crammed with ominous clouds and the sun was nearly impossible to locate behind them. The two had not mentioned what had happened the night before or when Sabre stumbled home clearly drunk. "Okay, we are done putting this off, we have to go now" Sabre said.

"Are you sure it's a really long flight" Lancer protested. He wanted to stall as long as possible but to no avail. Sabre could make out the worry stabbing into the back of his brother’s voice.

"Yes now" Sabre said taking flight into the dull sky, Lancer forced to follow.

"Why does everything important have to be so far away" Lancer complained.

The two had been flying for the best part of a day, it was early in the morning when they left and it was dark now. There had been no resistance since everything else in the wasteland never usually needed to look up. When they finally made it too the foot of the mountain they could see what appeared to be the Gryphon base which looked like it was nothing more than a blast door sticking out of the solid grey rock. “Do you think this is the right place?" Sabre asked looking at Lancer.

“I don’t know, maybe we should knock” Lancer replied jokingly. Just as two gryphons jumped out of the clouds and pointed there battle saddle’s at them "I'll take that as a yes"

"Stop right there enclave pig" one of the gryphons yelled, his battle saddle mounted minigun spinning ready to fire.

"We aren’t Enclave" Lancer yelled back. Sabre had advised him to put his front hooves in the air so he did so.

"Sure you’re not" the other gryphon argued. Another gryphon descended to see what was going on

"You! That black one, bring him here” the newly arrived gryphon demanded. ”What is your name, pony? “He asked as the minigun gryphon pulled him higher into the air. The new Gryphon seemed calm of the situation. Lancer remained silent as sweat poured from his brow.

“S-sabre, no last name” Sabre had abandoned his family name after the incident with his father.

”Sabre, you were the rouge Enclave pony from the massacre who assisted us, are you not?" Sabre nodded.

“Ha, he went batpony shit crazy, or so I’ve heard” one of the gryphons said to the other.

“Bring him, and the white one, but keep an eye on them, the do anything suspicious drop em” the gryphon said, the two gun wielding gryphons grabbed Sabre and Lancer by the back of the neck with their claws and escorted them to the entrance to the main part of the base. The huge steel door began to open, creaking and groaning with strain. The two brothers where blind folded and striped of their guns for security purposes and taken inside, the door sealing behind them. As they were walking forwards they could here sounds of mumbling and a few boo's, evidently Pegasus ponies were not very popular. After about five minutes of walking through what seemed like concrete and steel corridors the blind fold was taken off. they were in a small concrete room.

"And just like that we’re prisoners" Sabre said.

"Being in this room is either really good or really bad" Lancer said to Sabre as the door slammed shut.

"Well at least they didn't shoot us on sight, or stab us, or hang our corpses on the walls…yet" Sabre said.

"So, what now?” Lancer was anxious of the intentions of the gryphons.

"Well they’ll probably want to interrogate us to see if what we say is true" Sabre said. Lancer knew allot but he didn't know much when it came to war time situations or combat. Just then the metal door opened and a sapphire blue Pegasus mare walked in.

"Ahh, Sabre and Lancer. It’s good to finally meet you two" holding out her hoof.

"And you are?" Sabre asked. Both of them wondered what another Pegasus was doing here, Lancer’s wings awkwardly sprung out causing him to blush.

"Sapphire” she stated “I'm the reason you were able to escape from the enclave, I stopped them from hunting you down after you landed"

“uhh… nice to meet you?” Lancer said trying not to stare at her flank.

"Sorry for being putting you in this in a cell but they don't get many visitors, especially EX Enclave Pegasi, you must see my concern. I never thought I’d see another Dashite after me, never mind two!” She said having noticed Sabres scar.

"It's alright it has happened allot recently" Sabre said.

“How do you know us” the brothers said simultaneously.

“The Enclave isn’t as secure as it thinks it is, walk with me” Sapphire said as she left the room. The Brothers followed. “I want to know how you even found us" Sapphire asked as she started to walk down the corridor into a room with a large map showing most of the Equestrian wasteland.

"We asked…it’s a mountain full of Gryphons! Sompony’s gonna see it!" Sabre said.

"So why did you come here anyway?" Sapphire inquired.

"To join you and maybe see if you can help us destroy enclave bases or give us a chance to damage the Enclave government…or something” Sabre said trying not to look insane.

"Yeah you and every gryphon in this base" a black and white gryphon said.

“Artemis, I'd like you to meet the pony who saved your life" Sapphire said pointing towards Sabre.

“I’m Sabre and this is my brother lancer" Sabre said, holding out a hoof which Artemis shook with a claw.

“So you’re the one who went crazy and attacked his own team well thanks it helped us allot" Artemis said gratefully.

Multiple Gryphon voices could be heard in the background. They seemed to be monitoring multiple terminals each, some occasionally called out. The map in the centre showed locations of some Enclave cloudships, mostly raptors.

“ma’am, Raptor designation: 45- Nacreous” is on patrol, it will come within three miles of the base” one of the gryphons called out to Sapphire.

"Leave it be, call back all outside forces, we don’t want to piss it off” once she had given the order the Gryphons returned to their workstations.

"Why don't you attack them?" Sabre asked.

"We want to but we don't have the equipment to take the base on" Sapphire said, “We can’t even drop a Raptor”

"We could help you out there, there was a raider base in an armoury they might still have some equipment left, I’m sure there was a missile launcher” Sabre said.

"Ok we'll send a team to the armoury in the morning, right now you are guests for the help you gave us" Artemis said. “We will send messages down so you don’t get, you know, murdered" Artemis said awkwardly.

To The Armoury Once More

chapter 5

To the armoury once more

The morning after, Lancer, Sabre and Artemis were Walking towards the rusted bunker door inside the gryphon base "So that's the plan, three people going into a pre-war bunker full of celestia knows what and hope for the best?, the three of us" lancer questioned.

“Basically, yeah” Sabre replied optimistically.

"We can't spare any gryphons to help without putting the bunker at risk, and anyway, if raiders and get into it without dying I think we'll be fine “Artemis explained. Lancer still looked nervous as they came toward the massive steel door.

"Going without me?" sapphire inquired as she trotted up behind them.

“Ma’am, it’s too dangerous for you” Artemis Protested.

“Oh I can handle myself" Sapphire replied as she fastened her saddlebag.

“I don't doubt that but if something happens this place would fall apart”

“The generals know what to do, and anyway, I haven't been able to stretch my wings in a while" sapphire said as she flexed her wings.

An hour and a half later when the four reached the armoury they landed on one of the ruined buildings

"You sure this place with have the weapons we need it looks destroyed and looted already" Artemis said as he checked the area for hostiles.

"Well when we came here first we found some raiders dragging crates out of some underground bunker so all the good stuff will probably be down There" lancer explained.

“Okay so where is the bunker?” Sapphire questioned. She too was checking for potential enemies. Just over there surrounded by that pack of mole rats" lancer trailed off.

"This should be fun" Artemis said swooping down towards the bunkers doors followed by Sabre. Lancer simply rolled his eyes and followed with sapphire. Artemis and Sabre approached the mole rats “I’ve got this” Artemis said confidently as she cracked her knuckles. Artemis dived at the mole rats and with a single slash of his claws he killed all but one, the last mole rat ran off. Sabre stood still, stunned.

“Gryphons are predators… so… yeah” Artemis reassured Sabre.

The four rendezvoused at the bunker entrance, the building was the same as last time, the concrete was cracked and warn and the roof had caved in long ago. Sabre took the lead with Lancer behind him, Sapphire and Artemis followed closely. Inside the gloomy dust filled bunker they could see the bodies of dead raiders and robots alike.

"Well that's reassuring" Sapphire said sarcastically.

“Let's hope the rest of the security suffered the same fate” Sapphire said walking inside; she made her hoofsteps as light as possible. As they stepped inside they could see a long artificially lit metal corridor full of rubble, multiple blood stains coated the floor and walls. Lancer had fight to keep his breakfast down; the smell of decay was overwhelming. Corridors split off in multiple directions, there were signs on each corridor but seemed to have faded with age.

"Maybe we should split up" Sabre suggested.

“Well that can only end well" lancer said sarcastically.

“Do you have any better idea? it could take us hours if we go in a group"

“He's right but we should at least go in pairs” Shipphire.

"I'll go with sapphire" lancer said instantly. Artemis chucked.

"Alright coal boy you’re with me" the two groups picked a random corridor and followed it. Lancer couldn’t help but stare at Sapphires flank, Sapphire noticed but said nothing. Sabre and Artemis followed the dim corridor in silence, they could hear sounds of mechanical hooves nearby.

"Hey Artemis" Sabre whispered.

"What? “ She replied quietly.

"Why are we sneaking?" Artemis was silent for a second then answered.

"In case there’s some big thing with a big gun in the next room" and with that both of them continued to sneak down the corridor.

As lancer and Sapphire walked down the silent corridor they found a metal door that seemed to have been pried open with a small faded sign Above the door that read; "armoury"

"Think that's it?" lancer asked.

“Let's hope so" Sapphire said as she cautiously stepped through the door. Inside was a large room, filled to the ceiling with crates some of which had been opened and emptied.

"Radio the others to come back and-" Sapphire was cut off by the sounds of gun fire rapidly approaching them. “

Fuck" lancer said as his jaw dropped as he watched Artemis and Sabre sprinting down the corridor being chased by what seemed like 50 mechanical ponies wielding various types of bullet and energy rifles on their side. Sabre and Artemis bust into the room.

"Get behind something and load your weapons, they will be here any second!” Sabre yelled taking cover being a crate. The others did the same and waited for the robotic ponies to arrive. When they did due to the small door frame they could only get though one by one but that didn't stop them firing in every direction as they flooded the large room.

“Fuck, Roboponies! Or Ponybots!... er..Whatever” Lancer said as he readied his rifle. Sabre was able to put bullets through the heads of at least five of the mechanical ponies before reloading. Only a few shots headed his way since he was the furthest away. Sapphire however was up close and personal; gunning down the robots at point blank with her submachine gun without taking a single hit. Sabre and Artemis continued firing until the doorway was full of broken robot parts.

"How are we still alive? “Lancer asked.

“Because robots are bloody stupid” Sapphire replied.

“No I mean we are in a room full of guns and ammunition and if a single bullet went through a crate it would have blown us all to Tartarus" Multiple rumbling and groaning sounds came from the end of the room where the robot ponies had been killed.

“What was that?” Sabre Questioned. Without warning the broken robot pieces glowed and were pulled together forming a huge wolf shaped machine that filled that end of the large dim room.

“Shit, it looks like a pre-war… umm.. Timberwolf!” Sapphire yelled.

“WHAT IS THAT?” Sabre yelled.

"A metal timber wolf, a robo wolf" Sapphire questioned rhetorically

"YOU KIDDING ME WE HAVE KILLED ROBOTS AND RATS TODAY ISN'T THAT ENOUGH DEATH FOR ONE DAY" Lancer screamed at the robo wolf who seem undeterred.

The mechanical beast lashed out with a plasma attack, the energy weapons from the broken robots had formed a single weapon in its mouth that was bigger than a pony. The magical multi-coloured plasma filled the room and instantly melted an empty crate. The four opened fire on the Robowolf to no avail, its armour was too strong for their bullets, Sabre was able to melt some pieces of its armour with his plasma rifle but it wasn’t enough. One slash of its giant paw sent empty and full crates flying through the air, one struck Artemis causing her to yelp and fall to the floor with a crack.

“Artemis!” Sapphire cried out “damn it, there isn’t enough room for us to fly in here so-“Sapphire had to quickly dodge a plasma attack, the multi-coloured magical fire passed under her and burnt her tail and her left hind leg.

“Agh… Sabre, Lancer keep shooting, ill check Artemis” The robowolf fired again, this time at Lancer. He dived out of the way but not before the blisteringly hot plasma hit his sniper rifle turning it to a puddle of goo at his hooves “Ahh Shit, HOT! They got Octavia! Sabre, I’m out of useable weapons I’m gonna check the crates. Cover me” Sabre relocated and continued to fire on the robowolf while Lancer rummaged through the crate, “C’mon Lancer, im running out of ammo” Sabre yelled as he loaded his last energy cell.

“This should do. Get down Bro!” Lancer yelled back as he pulled a missile launcher out of one of the crates, loaded it and fired at the robowolf. The missile veered and hit the beast in the throat and exploded in its mouth. The robowolf let out one last roar before exploding tin a huge plasma explosion that burned Sabre, melted the intact parts and sent empty crates across the room one landing on an unfortunate Artemis.

“Come on, Artemis, Breathe, don’t you bloody dare die on me” Sapphire pleaded, there was a large cut across Artemis’ breast and she was unconscious “shit, all of my healing potions were lost in the fight i-“Sapphire sat down next to Artemis, a tear rolling down her cheek.

“I’ve got one, Sapphire, had it on me for ages “Lancer said urgently. Sapphire snatched it from his grasp and drained it all into Artemis’ beak.

“She should be okay… I hope”

A few horurs later Artemis inspected the crates which had indeed. Been shot multiple times.

"Reinforced, you ponies got some things right at least"

"Load them creates onto the trollies and take move it all outside" Sapphire ordered.

“who’s gonna take all there's back to your bunker?" Sabre questioned.

"We have some civilian gryphons so with a sky chariots who will take them" Artemis said as she helped pick up a crate and put it on one of the trollies. After three hours of loading and unloading crates finally the room was empty.

"Well I'm beat can we hitch a ride on your caravan" Lancer asked one of the gyhpons Sure but we will be stopping at driffield on the way.

"Didn't you say you came from there" Shappire asked.

"Huh we never did ask the name of that town" Sabre said.

The Cave

Chapter 6

The Cave

While flying back from the armoury the group flew into a large climbing column of smoke "Hey what’s with all this smoke? I can't even see where I’m going" the Pilot of one of the sky-chariots said.

"We’re flying, you’re not going to hit anything” Lancer said.

“Sabre make yourself useful and check it out" Artemis ordered from her bed made out of blankets and crates.

"Well nap times over I guess" Sabre sighed stretching his wings and jumps out of the carriage closely followed by lancer.

"just a little Bit dramatic" said Sapphire. As Lancer and Sabre reached the ground they could see exactly what caused the fire.

"Uhhhhh… what is that and why is it on fire?" Sabre questioned.

"SHAPPIRE THERES A MASSIVE TWO HEADED PONY THING" Lancer shouted to the chariot.

"A what, I need to check this out " Sapphire said, gliding down circling the fires smoke "that’s a Brahmin, have you really never seen one?"

"Nope! I guess it's not meant to be on fire?" Sabre asked.

"Definitely not, must have been part of a caravan or something, It’s strange that there are no bodies. It could have been slavers come on let’s get going before they come back" Sapphire said taking to the skies.

"Wait so we're not gonna try to save them?" Lancer questioned.

"that won't end well trust me, they’re either dead or wishing they were dead right now"

"Still gotta do something"

"Okay, okay we'll wait for you back in Driffield don't be too long" Sapphire said flying back into formation next to the carriage.

"Time to play hero again huh" lancer said jokingly.

"Yep come on there’s hoof marks going this way" Sabre said as he followed them.

"When did you learn to track?" Lancer questioned.

"Believe it or not but I was a good scout even if I only went on one mission" Sabre replied.

"One mission in which you disobeyed" Lancer said. Sabre pretended not to hear the last part and moved on.

"How do you track anyway? I was curious about learning it" Lancer asked following behind his brother.

"Well tracking on clouds was more of waiting till they landed then you could clearly see hoof or claws marks and see that the clouds were normally deflated and stuff, on dirt there’s more to work off on but the theory’s the same just look for irregular things" Sabre explained.

"But everything is irregular it's the wasteland! Nearly everything is mutated" Lancer replied.

"Well you know what I mean, see that bush at 10 oclock?" Sabre pointed with a hoof to a bush that seemed to be made up of dry twigs.

"somepony or something jumped over it coz the middle part’s been snapped a bit and there are drag marks around it" Sabre pointed out.

"Okay I’m starting to get it, so while some slavers where dragging the ponies off one jumped over the bush and seemed to have failed"

"Basically, good to see I get to teach you something for once! Now come on it seems to lead to that rock formation over there” The track lead them to a dark cave in a cliff face with bloody cages scattered around the entrance "Well that just screams friendly" Sabre said sarcastically.

"Before we go in we should probably have a plan" Lancer suggested.

"Like what? step one shoot bad guys step two something step three profit?"

"No seriously we need to sneak in maybe find a way to free them without getting us or the slaves killed" Lancer whispered as they neared the entrance.

"It's gonna be hard to sneak with an unsilenced weapon you know” Sabre whispered back.

“Then what do you suggest we use? A knife?” The two brothers bickered for a moment before deciding on a bottle cap toss which may have not been the most responsible thing to do given the circumstances.

"Fine, logo down: we use melee" lancer said as he flipped the coin landing logo down "Ha come on lets go" Lancer said. As they entered they could see a two passages both being equally dark, menacing and full of cages, some cages containing bodies in various states of decomposition. The smell made the brothers gag.

"Lets spilt up gang" Sabre said taking the left root.

"Remember knifes only" Lancer called out to him.

"Yeah yeah" sabre said troting off.

Mean While on Lancers side of the caven "Hey white guy can you get us ot of here" one of the slaves wispered.

"Yeah just wait, need to take out the gaurds first"

"But wait no"

"I'm sorry getting you out would make alot of noise just wait till i get a key or somthing" Lancer said troting off. As he troted down the row he could see a gaurd going toward him slowly he pulled out a knife gripping it in his mouth he stabbed him. "one down" lancer said as he grabbed theys off the body.

"Are you for real, your just gonna let us go" a small filly said as her cage was unlocked.

"Yeah no go on find your family" Lancer whisphered as the filly ran off. As he moved down the rows of cages he saw a two ponies wearing scrap metal looking clothing and had keys around there necks, as he moved closer to them getting ready to prounce he saw a bright flash of light from the shdows next to him followed by a large gunshot sound.

On Sabre's side of the cave it seemsed to be more lit up and instead of cage it seemsed to be empty beds, tables and chairs great Lancers probably saving ponies and I get beds Sabre thought as he troted though the passage way.

As the passage way began to open up more he was meet a frigile set of stairs, as he climbed them he could see over the cave and more importanly the slaves. Some slaves where unlocking other cages and free there freinds while others simply ran for it none the wiser of the gaurds Maybe he was right this is easier but not as fun he thought as he watched it unfolding looking for any slavers.

He stopped looking when he saw a white pegasus trying to be sneaky no releasing he was bright white he never did seem to remember that fact even with his dad calling him rarity, he could barly remember who she was somepony important he learn't in school but he never piad much attension in history class. While lost in his thoughts he watched his brother move up to three ponies and watched as he began to sneak right infront of one of them "shit" was all he could say before swooping down infront of the slaver. He went to fast and overshot his mark landing infront of the slaver and his shotgun.

The sound echoed around the cave and caused somepony to scream in the distance. Sabre's oustenched wing absorbed most of the shell and cause his wing to almost explode as black feather got flown up by the inpact. Sabre took on look at the damaged wing and seemed to be outraged by it, with his adrenaline pumping he quickly fired two shots with his battle saddle and killed the one slavers while mortally wondering the other Lancer had attemped to kill, then without missing a beat turning and shooting the raider that had shot Sabre. Lance stood there shocked his brother had took a bullet for him but that wasn't what shocked him Sabre didn't look himself his wing looked like a mix of red and black.

"Heh heh I probably look worse than I feel" Sabre shaking.

"Bro your in shock just lay down let me g-"

"No you heard that echo everypony will have heard that just....... lets keep moving and take out the rest of them"

"But your wing" Lancer said staring at the mess of his right wing.

"The feathers took most of the impact, some rusty old shotgun won't keep me down" Sabre said lightly kicking the dead slavers battle saddle.

"Okay but where going to find you a healthing potion" Lancer said worried. The two troted further down the row of cages, Lancer not looking away from his brothers wing for more than a few seconds.

"You heard that, I told you everpony would hear it sounds like there coming this way we can probably hold them off while the rest of the slaves get out then......run maybe" Sabre suggested.

"Or we could just ask them for help" Lancer said pointing at five slaves who seemed to have picked up some makeshift weapons.

"Yeah they killed our brahim for shits and giggles we'd like to get our own back" A large brown earth pony stallion said with the others nodding in agreement. Sabre was supprised to see that any of them had stuck around.

"Good quick get in empty the cages and lie down, wait for our signal" lancer said and the others nodded, they waited wwhile the hoof steps got louder and louder until a group of slavers came running past.

"NOW" Sabre said firing his battle saddle into the group of ponies. The others joined in jumping out and bludging the remaining slavers. The slavers tried to fight back manging to shoot one of the slaves but where surrounded and gunned down.

"Do you think they'll be anymore?" one of the slavers asked.

"Nah this looked like all of them, lets look if they had a medical room of some sort" Lancer said.

The group of ponies moved deeper into the cage until reach a mess hall with food still on the plates "huh so thats why this place was so un gaurded we came at lunch time" Sare said. Lancer looked around for medical supplies until reaching a first aid box which was surprisingly well stocked and set it next the two injured ponies "Wait have you ever done any first aid?"

"I was a first aider at school i know the basics, here dink this" Lancer said giving them both healthing potions.

"What no a healthing potion might be okay for him his went stright though but if i drank one i'd have shotgun bits stuck in me forever give me them tweesers" Sabre explained.

"You gonna pluck each one out by yourself"

"Yep just like preening but more blood now go sit down and get somthing to eat and for the love of clestria stop looking at my wing"

"Okay I'll be over there if you need me, we'll head out once your finished"

Lancer watched the newly freed slaves left some goinging in groups and other on there own "well i'm not going to be flying for a while" Sabre trotting out of the cave to join Lancer.

"Why not you got the bits out and drank a potion"

"I don't know why i just tried in the cave but it couldn't support me for more than a few seconds maybe pegasus magic needs more than a healthing potion to get back to normal" Sabre explained.

"Well looks like where walking then"