Fallout Equestria Omega's Trials

Omega’s Trials
Chapter 8

“Water,” groaned the tied up unicorn. He was covered in bandages from Beatrice’s interrogation; griffon talons are definitely more than for show. Even after all that, he wouldn’t tell who he was, or who he worked for. It was frustrating, and it was my turn to watch him. “Your friend didn’t get me any.” He was referring to Lucy, the griffon with the mini-gun that had last watch. The rest of the caravan set up in an old rest stop for the night. We were obligated to take watch. When told this, Beatrice said it was because they were a bunch of racists.

That wasn’t what was bothering Tick-Tock though; what was bothering him was the attack. He said that a few things were wrong with the attack; they were too well armed, too well trained, and not vicious enough to be raiders. Looking back, I had to agree with him. From what my mom told me about them, they were horrible, sadistic cannibals that thrived on torture and blood. Those ponies were obviously not them. Then there was their apparent leader.

“Too damn bad,” I answered, taking a sip of what was the last sparkle cola. I took my time with it, savoring the delicious carroty taste, a task he was trying to make as difficult as possible.

“Please,” he rasped, “I’m thirsty.”

“And I’m tired of being shot at!” I shouted, dropping my bottle on the ground. “Then you came along, and I get shot at again! See my barding? SEE IT? I JUST HAD IT FUCKING FIXED!” I hit him across the face with my hoof, knocking him to the ground.

“I’m sorry; I was just doing my job,” he whimpered. Luna, he was pathetic.

“So your job is to raid caravans? Shoot at ponies that haven’t done anything to you?!” He nodded meekly, and I lost all control.
I let out a yell and started to stomp him. I was taking all of my rage out on him, everything I had pent up over the last few days; getting shot, having to change my name, my appearance… I was taking it all out on him. I felt something break beneath my hooves, but I still kept going. He was barely breathing and coughing up blood, his face was swollen and smashed. I was about to stomp him again when a pony tackled me. Tick-Tock stood over the bloody pony, and poured a healing potion down his throat.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” He asked evenly, as the pony drank the potion. Tick-Tock tossed him a bottle of brown water from his bag. The pummeled unicorn drank greedily.

“Why are you helping him?” I asked angrily, getting up. I was a little sore, but nothing else. “He tried to kill us.”

“So?” He answered. “He’s beaten, shackled, there’s a magic cancellation ring around his horn, he can not doing anything.”

I was shaking with anger. No, I was beyond that right now. I was so far beyond anger that it was not even funny. I was in a blind rage. I charged Tick-Tock and waited for him to dodge at the last second like he did last time, but he didn’t. Instead, he delivered several swift kicks to my face and neck. There wasn’t much power behind it, but he hit me in the right spots the stop me for a moment. He then delivered a fury of kicks, stopping all of them less than an inch from my face. He finished by bringing his bladed wing out from under his coat and resting the cold steel on my neck. I watched a bead of sweat drip from my face and roll down the blade.

“We need him alive, Scythe,” He finished, keeping the sharp blade pressed against my neck. “He’s the Deuce of Spades.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a playing card like the ones we had back at the stable. It was a two of spades.

“Does that mean he has some princess-ordained right to try to kill us?” I answered, staring Tick-Tock directly in the eyes. Neither of us was wavering.

“You mean he’s a member of the Deck?” A familiar mare’s voice spoke out in disbelief, squinting at the bandaged pony through the filtered sunset. Crystal Bullet was standing barely in my field of vision, her telekinesis engulfing two of her shotguns.

“Yes.” He said flatly. “By the way, before I forget, what are you doing out here?”

“What are you talking about?” I interrupted exasperatedly. I would’ve tried to get Tick-Tock with my knife or make him back off with my gun, but unfortunately those were holstered, and his extremely sharp wing blades were still below my neck. It’s like he had forgotten I was there.

“The Triumvirate directly employs the house of Cards, and they don’t take kindly to anypony offing their staff,” Tick-Tock finished, and folded his wing back under his trench coat. “Sorry about that, sleep deprivation has really messed up my moods.” He pulled his pocket watch out of his coat. “Well, I’m off to bed. I need to be trying to catch up on my sleep. Be sure not to let them kill me or Deuce.” He popped a mock salute as he said this, and went into an empty carriage that had flipped on its side some two hundred years prior.

“Well, fuck. I was hoping I’d be able to beat the shit out of him, too.” Crystal Bullet stomped, staring at the buck. She hit him in the horn with the butt of her shotgun and trotted off, smiling. She started to set up a tent with a lot of problems.

“I hate this place.” I said brokenly, barely audible over the sound of the caravaners who lay back getting drunk, or taking care of injuries. It was truly a miracle nopony on our side had died. Tick-Tock made sure to do rounds with healing potions, taking them from his own personal stock. He gave out Med-X as needed, even applying the healing bandages to the pony that probably orchestrated the whole thing. They still hated him. He was really fucked up in the head. “Hey, Crystal. Do you need some help?” “No Thanks.” She grunted, trying to levitate some of the poles together to form the frame of the tent. “I can do this.”

“Are you sure?” I raised an eyebrow, less than convinced as she struggled with the tent. She turned to face me, but as she spun her hoof hit a rock and she tumbled up the small incline into her tent. “I’m taking that as a no…”
I stepped in and untangled her, and proceeded to set up the tent while she stood by grumpily helping me. Rather, making it worse. She was very bad at this. She was acting like a small filly that wanted to prove she could do everything by herself. She wasn’t nearly as confident when not in a fire fight.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why are you setting this up out here?” I asked, stepping away to look at the tent. I’m glad my mom took me “camping” in the atrium. Even though our tent wasn’t nearly this large, you could fit four full grown adults in this one easily. “The rest stop makes more sense, and there are other ponies in t-“

“They are a bunch of ungrateful racists, that’s why.” She hissed, and turned around to shout. “Pierce, Sure Shot, Buck Shot. Tents ready!”

All three of the foals cantered out of the building, hauling their various bags.

“I don’t get it?” Pierce, the youngest, asked. “Why couldn’t we stay inside?”

“Because, hon. Those ponies are jerk faces,” Buck Shot answered in an almost motherly voice.

“They seem nice,” he shrugged.

“Yeah, but you know that pony in the coat and hat?” She asked him and he nodded.

“OH! Mister Tick-Tock. Yeah, he’s really nice. He played with me while you all were busy helping them load the stuff the bad ponies had.”
“He did, now? That was nice of him.” She seemed taken slightly aback by the colts answer. “Well, those ponies in there want to hurt him, because he’s a pegasus.”

“Well, not exactly that.” Sure Shot blurted out, but caught the angry glare from her sister and nodded in agreement.

“Wow Crystal, you set that up by yourself?” The young colt asked in amazement. The other two looked at her, then me, and rolled their eyes. Crystal Bullet sighed and looked at me.

“No, he helped me,” she pouted, falling onto her hindquarters.

“Hey! I remember you!” He shouted, and I froze. There was a rustle from the cart Tick-Tock had fallen asleep in. “My sister was bugging you while she was drunk.” He stepped back and crossed his hooves, looking away shyly when he saw the shocked look on my face. “That was you, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, that was me.” I smiled as warmly as I could. “And don’t worry, she wasn’t bothering me.”

“Okay, cause she’s a feather weight.” He piped up, his voice cracked ever so slightly.

“That’s enough P-“

“Seriously, she can’t hold any alcohol.”

“Pleas-“

“One time, she had half a tiny cup of whiskey and we found her working at a bro-“ Crystal shoved a snack cake inside his mouth, and he devoured it happily.

“Time for bed, I’ll take first watch.” Crystal said, eagerly shoving the young colt into the tent. The rest of the family followed.

“You probably don’t have to take watch, the caravan guards have it and the griffons have a perimeter set up, I think.” I looked around and saw nothing but the blackness of the night, away from my pipbucks green light, and the camp fires.

“Cause they did a great job watching for those bandits.” I shied away awkwardly. That was my only job, and I screwed up. They snuck up on me and could’ve killed me, or Tick-Tock. I coughed to make the silence less awkward.

“So, what happened to their parents?” I asked, pointing to the tent. The purple mare lowered her head.

“Slavers grabbed them a few months ago...”
“Wow, and I was expecting another Angelo’ story.” I chuckled.
She glowered at me, and then continued. “We lived out on a rock farm. Don’t ask, I don’t think it makes sense either. One night, the slavers broke in. I took them to the cellar, my parents distracted them. I made sure it worked. They shot and killed my dad, and chained up my mom and drug her off.”

“Why are you taking them to Sanctuary?” I asked.

“It was a Ministry of Peace thing before the war. When the war ended, some of Fluttershy’s ponies stayed and tried to do what they could to help out.” She sighed. “Supposed to not care who you are, or where you come from. If you behave, they’ll keep you here. They take in orphans also.”

“Wow,” was all I said before going over to the Deuce. I had to keep an eye on him, or at least stay close while I slept. He was chained next to a rock, curled up asleep. I pulled my bed roll out of my saddle bag and tried to sleep, five feet out of his reach. I fell asleep.

‘This is a dream’ I told myself, staring at the bodies of the mercenaries. Just the ones I shot, just the ones I had killed, laying in the field where they fell. I knew for sure it had to be a dream because a pegasus in blood-stained black robes and serrated blades soared over and landed next to me. He looked over the field and nodded in approval. I backed away from him, reaching through my holsters, mouthing for a weapon. I kept telling myself this wasn’t real, it was only a dream. He laughed, as if sensing my apprehension. I saw a movie in the stable, an old prewar flick about an evil pony that killed little foals in their dreams in horrible monstrous ways.

“What are you scared of?” His voice was a high pitched growl, it sounded like a tortured chorus of other ponies. “I’m just here to offer you some pointers.”

“I know this isn’t real, it’s just a dream.” I kept backing away.

“So?” He looked at me, puzzled. “You are being chased as me. Then you might as well be me.”

“How can you help me, you’re just my imagination.” I kept backing away, trying to wake up. “I’m not you; I’m Omega Pi, not some horrible monster. I’m not even a hero.”

“Not yet,” he countered. I could tell he was smiling through the black hood. “I used to be considered the greatest hero in the Hub. Then I fell. If a hero falls so easily, what chance does a stable pony have?” He laughed. The princesses appeared next to me in their regal beauty. I tried to bow, but my legs locked up. “If we all fell, what choice do you have?”

“Shut up! I haven’t even seen what you really looked like!” I yelled glaring at him as the princesses faded into wisps of smoke. “You aren’t real!”

“True, you don’t know what I look like,” He grinned “However, if you think you’ll be able to survive out here, in this hell hole,” I was jolted skywards and given a bird eye view of the scarred landscape. “or face him” I massive suit of prewar powered armor towered before me. “without a bit of me, then my little pony, you are sadly mistaken.”

FM walked out from behind him and stared at the pony under the hood, then at me. She pulled the hood back and I woke up. It was still night, the deuce was asleep in his chains and bandages. I needed some caffeine. I walked over to the sky carriage where Tick-Tock was supposed to be asleep. He was gone.
I needed to stay awake, didn’t want to risk dreaming again. I decided to walk through the dark looking for Tick-Tock; at the very least it would help clear my head. I wasn’t going to be like him, not a hero, and definitely not a monster. I made a Pi promise. ‘Pi is forever, so is a Pi promise’, my mom once told me. I trotted through the darkness along the wrecked road, keeping a careful eye on my EFS, every minute or so doing a 360 spin to be sure it was clear. Then from the darkness came music, trumpets, cymbals, I think maybe an accordion, and a harmonica as well. A bar floated onto my EFS, and I drew my gun, readying myself for… a floating ball with wings and antenna. I breathed a sigh of relief as it fluttered by, performing the same function it had been doing for the last two hundred years, whatever that was, unabated.
I got closer to where the battle had been. It dawned on me that he may not have gone off in this direction at all, and that I may be wasting time and he had just gone out to take a piss. A friendly dot popped up on my EFS, and as I got closer I heard the sounds of digging. Creeping up to an old carriage, the sounds got louder. I glanced over and still couldn’t see anything. I dug into my saddle bags and pulled out a small bottle of stuff call Cat Eye that I had looted from one of the bandits. On the bottle, the label said “for the night prowlers” and a list of warnings and ingredients that didn’t really make sense. I popped one of the pills into my mouth and my eyes instantly adjusted to the bad light. Out by where the bandits had been killed, I saw Tick-Tock with a shovel.
Tick-Tock, was digging graves for the ponies that had tried to kill us. I could make out his lips moving as if talking to the bodies, but that wasn’t the case. He was singing. I could make out a certain rhythm to it, even in his steps and movements. I debated going and helping my friend who had threatened to kill me a few hours earlier, and who was in obvious distress. Even from this distance, I could see the twinkling of tears in his eyes. I stood up and cantered towards him.
“Hey Tick-Tock, need some help?” I asked, his back was to me and he didn’t seem to notice me walking up to him. He emptied another shovel-full of dirt. He had already buried five of them with wooden tombstones, and an etching underneath of what I could guess was their cutie marks. He didn’t say anything.
I started to walk off, assuming he was ignoring me, or this was some silent thing he did alone or something along those lines. “Omega, when did you get here?” He asked. I turned around and saw him pulling out some ear buds. “Wanna help? Should make it go faster.”
He tossed me a shovel, and we started to bury them. He said it’s best if we stick with shallow graves, in case they want to move them. No deeper than four feet. We silently dug through the night. After a few hours, I was tired. Forget that, exhausted.
“Why did we do that?” I finally asked him, and he shrugged.
“If you died, wouldn’t you want to know somepony cared enough to give you a proper burial?” He shrugged, putting the shovel up.
“Well yeah, but they tried to kill us.” I looked at him.
“Doesn’t matter, they’re dead now. It’s out of respect. If they had families, they may have a place to come visit them and know that a good pony beat them.” He stressed his words. I just nodded in agreement. “Besides, helps me sleep at night knowing I did something half-way decent. Makes the nightmares bearable.”
“Tick-Tock, I’m sorry.” He looked back at me, confused. “For dragging you into this Angelo’ mess.”
“I volunteered; I have to take some responsibility.” He smiled.
“Did you bury the other ponies? I mean the ones from the factory. I heard eighteen more died.” He shook his head, clenching his teeth. “How did you do it?”
“Just turned it all back on,” he said, chuckling. “Locked them in the plant room and flipped the switch, then bolted to get you to Tanglebones.”
We trotted off towards the caravan, me and my friend. He was completely insane, irrational even, but he still tried to be good.
There was a pile of Brahmin dung in the cart he was sleeping in. He laughed.
“That’s just pathetic, like I’ve never had that happen before.” He was wiping a tear from his eye like this was nothing new. “Seriously, I’ve had ponies poison me, beat me, and rape me, with varying degrees of success.” My eyes went wide at the last part. “I’ve come to expect more from a HERD OF COWARDS!” He finished, and chuckled.
Looking into the rest stop, I saw ponies move away from windows in my awesome night vision. I was seriously going to stock up on these things when we got to Sanctuary.
“Never heard you shout before,” I said, looking at him, puzzled.
“Scythe, in all honesty you’ve only known me for a few days, but I do not shout often. I hate to do it.” He popped his back and walked into another carriage and came out laughing. Then another, then another, each one the same result until he finally found one that hadn’t had a Brahmin shit in it. “My hats off to you, and I retract one of my insults. This one was pretty good!” He shut the door behind him and I saw a pairs of terrified looking eyes stare out of the rest stop.
I then remembered how tired I was. My body went virtually limp, and I flopped on my sleeping bag. I looked over to check on the bandaged pony that was doing something with his shackles. Oh well. We took everything from him earlier; every bottle cap, paper clip, bobby pin, and screwdriver. What was he going to do, chew through the metal?

“Alright, time to go,” Tick-Tock said, kicking me awake. I stood up and realized I was awake, I think.
“Please tell me this is another nightmare,” I groaned, wiping the dust out of my eyes.

“I don’t know, does that sign say anything?” I looked over to the rest stop and read it aloud.

“Rock Breakers Rest Stop,” I mumbled, pulling my hooves from my eyes.

“Alright, that means you’re awake and are really in danger of being left behind.” He rolled his eyes, before explaining. “You can’t read in dreams.”

“Okay.” Then the first part of his statement hit me, and I stumbled through the steps of putting my gear on, swearing to the princesses for not reminding me to set my alarm, or not having it do that automatically every day.

“Hey mister Scythe!” I glanced over to Pierce as the little colt ran up to me. “Do ya know what’s wrong with Tick-Tock?”

“No, he seemed okay .” I ran through a mental checklist of Tick-Tock and it all balanced out.

“He looked all mopey when he talked to me, said to make sure to tell you to keep in an eye on me.” He looked just as confused as me, only more frightened. “Do you know what he meant? Cause Buck Shot does that most the time.”

“No I do-“

“But I still manage to get past her and find her snack stash.”

“Peir-“

“Sparkle also takes care of us, but she’s not good at much cleanin stuff so she keeps us safe and fed.”

“That’s very.”

“Sure Shot also helps but she has a temper problem, worse than Sparkle’s.”

I ended up getting ready to the colts life story, including his many attempts to earn a cutie mark. There. Were. A Lot. I was never so glad to be the first one in my age to get theirs.

“How’d you get yours?” He asked after talking about his attempt to earn it by doctoring, ended with two fish hooks lodged in his hoof. I started to tell him about me helping with the stable harvest but then he interrupted me…again. “Cause I’ve never seen a cutie mark like that before. What’s it mean? I mean I saw it at some old building Sparkle said was a church but not to the Princesses. So I don’t think she knew what she was talking about, who else do you pray to besides Celestia in the day and Luna at night? It’s silly.” I could not get a word in edge wise.

“You know what that cutie mark is?” Lucy said slinging her minigun over her back, she had gone back to get her ammo. “It means this is one badass muther.” She patted me on the back smiling down at the colt. “He probably had to go Angelo’ Death on some ponies to even think he could earn that. Course, I’m a griffon and don’t know anything about cutie marks.” She looked at me smiling happily, completely oblivious to the hole she just dug me in.

“Wow!” The colt’s eyes widened, and he sat down getting ready to listen to what he thought was going to be a long adventurous story. “Were you an Angel?!”

“No he’s not an Angel.” Tick-Tock spoke up from nowhere sending me and Lucy jumping back. “And your sister’s looking for you; you can ask Mister Scythe his cutie mark story when we get to Sanctuary.”

“Okay…” he sighed and trudged to the caravan.

When he was out of earshot and Lucy had gone. “What was that about?” I asked Tick-Tock. “What you told him.”

“I don’t know, I get feelings sometimes and well, have to act on them, this is one of those times.”

“If you were any more cryptic you’d belong in a Daring Do temple.” I groaned

“Thank you.” He answered holding his head high at the jest. “But seriously, promise me you will keep an eye on him.”

“Alright I will.”

“Promise me.”

“I promise.”

“Pi promise me that you will keep that colt safe.” He had a genuine look of panic and worry in his eyes. Tick-Tock read that mine were looking for an explanation. “You talk in your sleep.”

“I Pi promise to keep an eye on that colt.” I answered, he released the breath he was holding, but instead of his childish demeanor he became more depressed. Only for a second then he went back to his old self.

We finally caught up with the caravan and took point next to Beatrice. Some of the ponies were glaring at me, and others just seemed content to pretend I didn’t exist. This worked really well when I intentionally started to bump into them to get a response. The petite griffon just rolled her eyes, then handed me a note that said “Really?” I smiled and nodded. She face-palmed. Was Tick-Tock contagious?

The deuce was chained to one of the carts the Brahmin were hauling. Tick-Tock stood next to him, watching his gaze shifting from right to left.

“Keep a good eye on that thing,” Beatrice grumbled. “Cards never work alone, and with Angelo’ Death, there’s no shortage of hired guns.”

“Shortage of quality, though?” I asked hopefully.

“Likely. That group probably came from Baltimare. They were trained and armed so the only reason it worked was that they weren’t expecting Tick-Tock.” I looked back to my friend, who was drinking that weird blue drink. “They also weren’t expecting a fight.”

“Okay…” I looked at her. Yes, Tick-Tock was good in a fight, but I didn’t see him as an insane, death-machine.

“This may come as a bit of a surprise to you, but most ponies aren’t exactly trained to take on aerial targets.” She looked at me and nodded my head in understanding. “And Tick-Tock is pretty nasty to fight, I know he could take me and my squad.”

“Really?” I looked at her and she nodded. This would have to be something I see to believe. Yes, he was quick with his knife and guns with those slavers, but they were underfed, inexperienced and terrified. Against Sledge in the factory, from what I remember of it at least, he had fought her for a good while before killing her. The ones who came in afterwards, he turned the security system back on. The snipers, he had the help from the griffons. I didn’t see him as a bladed fury of death. “Yeah, he has all those knives and swords and stuff, but really?”

“He has a small knife tucked under each feather, a throwing knife with a weight coiled up in his tail, and most likely a few small surprises in his mane. That stallion is a walking arsenal of the sharp and pointy,” she finished, closing my slacking jaw. “Don’t tell him I told you that, and try to look surprised when he shows you. It’s one of those things he likes to do.”

“Show off his knife collection?” I joked.

“Kind of, yeah,” she laughed.

We walked along the highway, the carts rhythmically clanking behind us, with me routinely checking my EFS. Goddess, my eyes were sore from pointing out mole rats and dogs on the thing, and I was so bored. It did, however, prove to be extremely useful. Two red dots appeared on my EFS, I pointed it out, and Jerry came back with two unicorns.

“Please don’t hurt us.” One was short and fat, the other was tall and skinny. Both had guns that looked like they shot rust instead of bullets. They looked up to the griffon glaring down on them. Jerry was very good at looking menacing.

“Yeah, please… They just paid us some caps to go and find the caravan and tell them where it was. They said they wanted to do some business with it.” He grinned. In the name of Luna, these two bucks sounded stupid.

“Who did?” Beatrice asked, narrowing her eyes and looking a combination of menacing and seductive. Wonder if it was intentional.

“The Cards did,” the short unicorn with cracking voice answered immediately. Obviously, the look was intentional.

“Which ones?” She ran a talon down his face, and he half-froze and half-melted. “And where did they tell you to go and meet them.”

“The Three of Clubs, Deuce of Hearts, Three of Diamonds, and the Three of Spades.” He stammered, not sure if he was supposed to be terrified or attracted. “And at the old Angel Bunny Hospital. They have a bunch of other ponies up there. At first, I thought they were raiders, but the Cards said they were looking to join a caravan.” My pipbuck pinged with the new location being marked.

“Thank you.” She winked, and the buck collapsed, drooling. “Jerry, chain them up with our other guest.”

“Beatrice!” The old buck that was the head of the caravan had been looking more and more frustrated as the interrogation went on. “What in tarnation do you think you are doing?”

“What you hired me on for, you old fart.” She responded, calling Tick-Tock over.

“Why are we shackling those two up?” He stomped, “Just shoot them and be done with it.”

“Sorry, not going to happen.” She started talking to Tick-Tock.

“WHAT?! I’m your employer and you will do what I say!” She froze. Tick-Tock took a few steps back and tried not to laugh.

“Employer, not owner, and on the contract there’s a very fine line that says ‘I’ll protect the caravan however I see fit.’” She finished, waving the old pony off. “What I don’t see fit, is executing two obvious spies who have been sent here just for the sake of being captured.” The two unicorns who were trying to pick the locks to their shackles stopped, and looked at Beatrice in wide eyed horror. “You really thought I was that stupid?”

“The Cards were hoping you would shackle us up so we could get the Deuce out of here.” He chuckled, crossing his hooves. “During the ambush up ahead.”

“How many are there?” She put her talon on his face, this time starting at his forehead and then tracing it over the parts of his neck. Little drops of blood formed along the thin cut.

“Twenty, they’re in a hospital and some of the buildings around it.” He gulped.

“Stormy, that’s not right.” The other one spoke up, apparently oblivious to the fact they were in very real danger. “There’s twenty-four of them, counting those card ponies.”

“Thanks, Lead. How could I forget that,” Stormy answered, rolling his eyes.

“No problem.” Lead smiled like an idiot, trying to pat his friend on the back. He forgot his shackles and tripped instead, falling on him.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked, trying hard to look at the old road map and not at the two ponies who were trying hard to untangle each other, only making it worse.

“Simple,” Tick-Tock said. “You and I are going to go and clean out a raider nest.”

He said that like it was some small job that anypony fresh out of a stable can accomplish single-hoofedly. One does not simply walk into a two hundred year old town and kill every raider in it. That wasn’t the only thing that was bothering me. He said nest like they were some kind of animal, and not ponies. While all these thoughts were racing through my head, I ignored something, something important. Oh, EFS swarming with red bars. The job I’m paid to do.

“We got company!” I shouted, grabbing my assault rifle. The griffons and the guards followed suit. Tick-Tock took off his coat and hat. We got the four carts into a square and got all the ponies that couldn’t fight safely tucked into them. Then we waited as they surrounded us, staying just out of sight.

“What are we waiting for?” I whispered to Tick-Tock as he paced on top of the cart, staring off at the ponies that had surrounded us. You couldn’t see most of them just occasionally one would pop their head up, or dart from the cover of some shriveled black tree or peak out of a ditch.

“Their move. We have too many injured and not enough ammo to fight our way out.” He looked to the Deuce. The pony was standing up, looking a combination of relieved and nervous. The other two were lying on the ground, cowering, with their hooves over their head. “Besides, we have something they want.”

I nodded, and watched them from inside the Kevlar reinforce cart. More than twenty, thirty at least, and none of their weapons looked worth a damn. There were even a few spears, and bats with spikes driven in them. From the line emerged an earth pony mare in a red suit, with a white overcoat. The suit had been sewn in such a way that it was angled and sharp, but still looked to fit her. Behind her were three more, each in a different yet similar suit, each sporting high powered rifles on their battle saddles. Except for the earth pony in a black suit with white over coat. He had what looked like a sword, like Tick-Tocks but bigger, like way bigger, easily longer than himself, and he wasn’t a small pony either. Its blade was thick and upon closer inspection I realized it was made out of a piece of a cart or sky chariot. Another thing was, they all looked well groomed and clean.

“Give up the Deuce and we’ll be on our way!” The one in the red and white suit shouted. “We don’t want any trouble.”

“Well, he caused us some trouble. How do you plan to reciprocate?” Beatrice answered, pulling the hammers back on her revolvers.

“Hey c’mon, we’re all mercs here. Can’t be holding any grudges,” she said with a smile, then her eyes drifted up to Tick-Tock, he was still pacing along the top of the cart. “That’s not a particularly safe place to be, my winged friend.”

I breathed a sigh of relief that I wasn’t the only one weirded out by his behavior.

“I’ve been in worse.” He answered, continuing to pace.

“Oh, I get it, ya think yer some kind of badass,” she chuckled. “Well, let me tell you what, just because you are one of the few pegasi that survive, and not get killed by the other ponies don’t make you that good.”

“I know.” He said in calm confidence. “And just because you all wear cheap hand-me-down suits doesn’t mean anything either.”

“True, but we can back up what we say. You, on the other hoof, well… I’m just not sure. All it takes is one lucky sniper.” She answered, and the sound of weapons loading filled the air.

“It would take an awful lot of luck to hit me.” He smiled, kicking his own battle saddle to load it.
“So does the idjit pegasus know how to use a sword?” The pony in the black suit and white overcoat asked, taunting him. “Or is it just fer show?”

“How badly do you want to find out?” Tick-Tock asked, not trying to hide his joy. Beatrice groaned.

“You wanna spar wif me?” The pony asked, and somehow I knew Tick-Tock’s response before it came.
“Of course, my friend, shall we go til first blood?” I face hoofed, as did the rest of the ponies in the caravan, and the griffons. I think Beatrice was beating her head against one of the carts. I heard his battle saddle hit the roof of the cart.
“Ya got guts, I’ll tell ya dat.” I lowered my hoof from my face, and saw the Three of Spade’s look of shock melt to one of cockiness, the rest of the cards were trying to maintain their composure. Apparently, they did not expect him to accept.

“So, house rules?” Tick-Tock chuckled, hopping down from the roof of the cart with confidence.

“Yea, til first blood.” He said smiling, everypony else was left baffled, his cohorts signaled the raiders to stand down, much to their shock. This was actually happening. Right before a fire fight was going to break out, with guns, two ponies were going old-school on each other with swords.
Beatrice gave me a quick briefing on who they were while Tick-Tock stretched. The card that had called him out was the three of Spades, you could tell which suit they belonged to by their suits. White coat, black suit was a spade. Their suits also appeared to be more business attire. Black coat, white suit was a club, more leisurely. White coat, red suit was diamond, looked like it was more valuable than a diamond. Red coat, white suit was a heart, their suits looked the most relaxed. Each of them had their own jobs to do in the house, and had their own specialties. Clubs were typically the business-minded ones that got things organized and knew how to make things happen, they were not fighters but could use a gun if need arise. Hearts made sure the towns under the Triumvirates control stayed happy, or at the very least in line. Diamonds were the ones that specialized in making something theirs, whether a piece of scrap, a piece of prewar tech that was in a steel ranger vault, or a pony. And finally the spades, they were the specialist. From what I understood, they did the fighting when it came down to it, and they were very good. Tick-Tock was going to fight one.

Tick-Tock drew his sword, and the Spade’s grabbed his off his back. Tick-Tock’s sword was long, thin and curved. An elaborate, curved guard covered his muzzle up to his eyes. Somehow, I could make out a smile underneath it. Or was that my imagination? Once he drew the sword, his entire physical demeanor changed, his body slumped to look borderline rag doll, his movements were jerky as if he was being pulled along by some unseen force, his eyes dilated. The Three of Spades charged.

He narrowly dodged the first swing, he leapt over the second, trying to take to the air but the spade swung at him forcing him down the makeshift sword cutting through his mane. Tick-Tock didn’t even have a chance to counter before dodging again, damn this buck was fast.

Tick-Tock rolled away from the vertical swing of the bumper sword. He swung back, but the orange pony parried it easily, continuing his relentless assault. Then I blinked. The Spade just barely avoided having his head taken off by ducking under Tick-Tocks blade, but instead losing an inch off his well-groomed mane. Tick-tock was fighting back. Actually, it looked more like a drunken pony stumbling through the motions of fight, but it was working. The earth pony was staring in wide-eyed horror, as each of his parries started to come a bit later and he recovered less each time, being continually back-pedaled around the caravan’s protective square.

“He’s just being mean, now,” Beatrice spoke up somberly, shaking her head.

“What do you mean?” To me, the fight had looked pretty even. Yeah, Tick-Tock was on the offensive, but still he had to dodge a few swings when the other pony got lucky.

“He’s dragging it out.” She looked at me. “This is how he gets his kicks, finding anyone who claims they’re that good and beating them, look” she pointed to Tick-Tock who just executed a back flip over the stallion. “He’s not even using his wings.” The scary part was she was right.

Tick-Tock knocked the Three’s desperate block upwards with enough force to break the unicorn’s concentration. He struck twice. The first was to slice his mane off. The second one was in the same fluid motion; he slashed his sword across the ponies flank, then spun around, and plunged his sword through the ponies back legs, the other end coming out where his cutie mark, a bulldozer, was. He then twisted and tore the sword out, spraying himself with the blood as the pony let out a horrific scream, before collapsing into shock. I for once didn’t feel sick to my stomach.

The other Cards looked at Tick-Tock, who would’ve normally given the poor bastard a healing potion, or some Med-X, in horror. He was staring at the rest of the Cards with a near vacant look, as if he was weighing if they were to live or die.

“I win, and thanks for the mane cut, it was getting in my eyes.” He finally spoke before walking back to the caravan, wiped and sheathed his sword, and put his coat and hat back on. Then the bullets started flying.

The griffons took off and started to strafe the ponies as bullets and swears filled the air. The majority of the caravan locked and loaded or got down, including the captives. The Card’s high-powered rifles were easily punching through the Kevlar carts and they knew what they were doing, unlike the raiders that were just there for cannon fodder.

“How many you got, Scythe?” Tick-Tock said stoically. He landed on the cart and started putting his battle saddle back, then sidestepped to avoid a bullet. He was keeping score. These weren’t robots, these were ponies. “How many of them are there? Why else do you think I drew out that fight?”

“A lot, sorry I got distracted.” I answered, secretly kicking myself for thinking that. He nodded and flew off.

One raider threw a grenade into the caravan, and I activated SATS to try to get the bastard so he couldn’t do it again. The first thing that lit up was the grenade. I smiled and targeted it three times. It blew up on the second shot, covering him with shrapnel and knocking him back. A sniper’s round went through his chest. I looked next to me and saw Sure Shot, her rifle fired. Another red bar gone, another shot, another one down. Buck Shot dropped one anytime they got too close. Together with Crystal Bullet and her floating shotguns, they had this entire flank under control. Then the most peculiar noise, a dull thud followed by a whistling sound. I had just enough time to look up the hill and saw some raiders around a small metal tube that had smoke billowing out of it.

The cart I was standing in exploded. Bits of flaming wood and metal rained down, showering us with splinters. The raiders came charging through the smoke, guns blazing. I dove behind a wagon wheel and tried to shoot. There were just so many of them. I tried to activate SATS and pull the trigger, to drop a few of them before they started killing everypony. The raiders were gutting and shooting them at point blank range. They freed Deuce and shot the two spies who claimed that ‘this wasn’t the deal’. I cowered there under a wheel, next to a dying Brahmin asking why his other head wasn’t talking anymore.

The fires were put out, the survivors were helped, the dead were buried, and I was feeling like a foal… a poor helpless foal. A total of five caravan ponies were going to survive the night. At least, that’s what Beatrice said. I didn’t know if it was true, their injuries were beyond me. I lay there, still cowering. What Beatrice hadn’t said was, it was my fault she lost two griffons; Lucy, and her sister Victoria. Lucy died while reloading, Victoria died trying to get to her. Jerry wasn’t looking good. He had several bullets through his armor, but he was alive and stable. Crystal Bullet survived, and so did her sisters. Her brother though, we weren’t able to find him. Jerry made a half lucid joke about raiders taking captives, he received a concussion from a floating shotgun. I didn’t even see them grab him through the smoke.

“I’m sorry.” Tick-Tock said from behind me, his voice low and monotone. “I thought you could do more, I thought you were tougher.”

“I just froze. I had the training, the weapons, the position, but I knew if I hid, I’d be fine. They wouldn’t get me, that I’d make it out of here alive.” I cried into my hooves. Goddesses, I was so tired of crying. So sick and tired of tears.

“It’s called being a pony.” He said, “Are you going to let this kill you though, Omega?”

Hours passed. Tick-Tock was listening to the music in his ear buds, staring at the fire like his gaze could put it out. Crystal Bullet was crying next to her sister. We had already buried Buck Shot. I still sat next to the wagon wheel. I looked at my pipbuck, I had never really paid attention to its map before. I fiddled with the knobs, finding my way to the map, and I looked at the distance I had covered in the last week. I had to zoom out a few times to find home on it. I smiled, but that moment of joy was replaced with rage.
These ponies had made me break a promise, I said that I would keep an eye on Peirce, and now he was in danger. My rage steadily boiled within me when I looked at the raider corpses we hadn’t bothered to bury. Tick-Tock said they didn’t deserve it. Nopony would look for them. They had ears, pony ears, around their necks. Some had more some less. They all looked small. I stood up on unsteady legs thinking of what I was about to do.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Tick-Tock asked, barely audible over the crackling fire.

“To a hospital. I have a feeling somepony needs a lead injection,” I finished, and he just rolled his eyes.

“Something tells me I was glad I had my music playing so I couldn’t hear that,” He said, and turned back to the fires. Mumbling something in the language he spoke with Beatrice earlier.

I’m glad he didn’t hear me either. This was insane. I had no plan, just guns, lots of bullets, and a heart set on tearing the earth apart to make sure a little colt made it back to his sister. Something in my gut told me this was something I had to do alone. Even though it sounded oddly heroic in my head, I knew it wasn’t. If I rescue Peirce, it’s just a bonus.

The Angel Bunny Hospital didn’t look like any building I had ever seen before. For starters, it was a massive tree. Outside hung all manner of horrors and mutilations, of everything from small woodland creatures to ponies. Their corpses were bloated, their skin was flayed, heads were torn from bodies and mounted on pikes, limbs had chains inside them, and torn out for some extra fun as they died. The sight was almost as bad as what Angelo’ Death had done in the Hidey House. Almost as bad. These ponies at least killed them, not leaving them hanging by barbed wire. But the smell of rot and decay was still awful.

I had no idea what I was thinking as I slid into SATS and slit the sleeping raider’s throat with my knife. He was a shitty guard, despite a spotlight cutie mark. I drug his body to a ditch, and covered it with a branch. I opened the door to the hospital and wanted to relish in the smell of the outside. The smell was beyond repulsive, and if I had had anything to eat in the past two days I may have thrown up then and there. My EFS was swarming with red, which made me feel all the better. Meant I didn’t have to track them down.

I walked around a corner and saw one of the raiders walking with his back to me. He had a tire over his shoulder, a falling apart spear, and a fire fighters helmet. I slid into SATS and slashed the tendons in his ankles. The helmet muffled his scream as I slit his throat and hid his bloody corpse in the broom closet, only to find it occupied by two ponies in the throes of passion. I stabbed the male in the back, and tore with the knife as I yanked it, only a yelp escaping his lips. Before the female could cry for help, I activated SATS and slashed her throat open, ensuring the only sound she made was a gurgle. I continued walking, clearing the first floor. I found four more at the nurses’ station.

I bolted around the corner, assault rifle in my mouth and triggered SATS on three of them. Each of them equaled 70% for the heads. I smiled as I took the shots on the farthest three. The one closest had her head behind a wall. All three of the shots ripped the head off the one on the left. The middle unicorn had all three rounds drill through her skull, exploding out the back, and the last one had the three shots tear through his jaw and neck. The mare sat there in shock. I couldn’t tell you why I waited for her to turn. Time crawled as her head turned, a look of horror in her eyes. Her mouth formed a single word, “Angelo’”. I fired.

The empty clip clattered to the ground, splashing in the pools of blood. The raiders heard, nopony missed it. I was almost happy they’d all come to me. I loaded a clip of explosive rounds. I wasn’t Scythe or Omega right now. These ponies had wronged me. They were filth, horrible murdering rapists that got off on torture. I was doing the wasteland a favor. Their lives were forfeit, and right now I was Angelo’ Death.

I had fought my way through the first two floors. My armor was shit from a grenade, my assault rifle was destroyed by the second grenade, and I was out of pistol ammo. I was sore, bleeding, crippled, and they didn’t know it. My knife broke off in the eye of one of the raiders. She rolled on the ground screaming, and I threw the hilt at the pony charging me with a sharpened shovel. The broken knife hit him in the neck, but it did little to stop his charge. He collided with me at full speed, jamming the shovel into my torn Kevlar armor. He pinned me against the wall and slashed at my face, my vision flooded with red, and a sharp pain prompted me to bite his cheek. He jumped back, screaming various profanities and dropping his shovel. I picked it up and charged. I laughed through the shovel. Even when torn to shit, my armor was still better than his. I twisted, and he let out an agonized scream as blood spurted into my face, not that I could tell. I yanked the shovel out and turned to face the next pony coming. I didn’t turn fast enough, and caught a load of buckshot in the chest, knocking me to my side, and the shovel skittering away. I struggled to my aching hooves as the unicorn struggled to load the other shell. I screamed and charged at him. He leveled the shotgun on me with a look of terror. There was a bang, and his head exploded. Then I felt the all-too-familiar feeling of a gun barrel pressed against my head. I turned to face it, but found it to be just floating there, wrapped in a purple glow.

“Friendly.” I shouted, struggling to stand. When had I fallen again? Crystal Bullet walked out, her eyes a mixture of tears and rage. Hell was easily three steps behind this mare, if not closer.

“I followed you. Sure Shot’s stable. I’m going to get my brother back even if he’s a-“ I waved her off. She took it as an ‘I understand you don’t need to continue’.

She tossed me a healing potion, but I didn’t drink it. I’d need to dig out the various amounts of lead and shrapnel that had gotten into my body. Besides, the pain kept me going, and made sure my blind rage stayed fueled. We nodded to each other. We both knew why we were there, to kill the members of the deck of Cards if they were still here. From what Tick-Tock did to the Three of Spades, they were, ‘cause even an unsanitary operating room was an operating room. We walked through the hallways, clearing them out as they came; Crystal Bullet wrapped me in healing bandages after I nearly passed out.

We came to a hastily made barricade of old, rotting desks and chairs. The raiders had started shooting as soon as we came around the corner. I dove into an office with the words ‘Director’ etched on the door. The bottom words had been carved out. Inside was a destroyed office, with an adorably small desk with matching office supplies. I almost laughed at the tiny stapler. I heard a massive explosion, with a blast that slammed the door shut. I looked out and saw Crystal Bullet dragging a mangled, bloody, and screaming buck across the ground with her telekinesis.

“WHERE ARE THEY?!” She hit him in the face with her shotgun, shattering his teeth. She dropped him onto his back and kicked him over as he tried desperately to crawl away, screaming for help. She took her shotgun and shoved it up his ass, forcing a terrified shriek out of him, not that it was that hard. She racked the shotgun. That was enough to make him talk. “WHERE ARE THE CARDS?!”

“Upstairs! Top Floor in the operating room!” He cried, tears mixing with the blood on his face. She turned away, her stare just as angry, just as intense. There was a moment where he looked relieved, then she pulled the trigger. His top half exploded in a slushy mixture of blood and organs. I grabbed one of the weapons, an old bolt action rifle from one of the corpses. It was the one with the most ammo, and in the best condition.

The top floor was by far the cleanest, with little foal’s doodles on the wall. Still, it smelled awful. A mare with a knife lunged at us. I slid into SATS, targeted her head with one shot. The bullet tore through her cheek and teeth, nearly dislocating her jaw. However, she kept coming. She stuck the knife into my torn armor, the remains of the Kevlar blunting the stab. Simultaneously, Crystal Bullet stuck her shotgun under the mares chin and pulled the trigger. Wow, you can become numb to that.

I motioned her right, heading towards the red on my EFS. She followed me, watching my back. Neither of us spoke in the dim light as we crept closer and closer towards the operating room. Two more of the raiders guarded the door, but they didn’t see me coming. As I brought the knife up his neck, I slit his throat vertically. The other one received a quick apple buck to the face, knocking him against the wall and shoving the handle of his gun down his throat. Before he could recover, Crystal Bullet started pummeling him with the butt of her shotgun until his head was a smear. I picked up his gun, it was a colt .45 revolver. In good condition too, the pony also had the ammo to make it worthwhile.

We burst into the operating room, shooting anything that was red. We didn’t care if they were injured. It was from attacking us, and they deserved what they got. I shot ponies that were operating, ponies that were under anesthetic, ponies that were rushing us, screaming with tears in their eyes. One injured mare jumped in front of my gun as I pointed the barrel at a stallion. Only cost me an extra bullet. We found one who was still alive, huddled in a corner crying. Desperately trying to put as much space in between her and us, she bolted for a knife, but Crystal knocked a cabinet on her hind legs and they gave with a satisfying snap and a scream.

“WHERE ARE THEY?!” She pointed her shotgun at the terrified mares face. She shook in terror, begging for Celestia to save her. “WHERE ARE THE CARDS AND MY LITTLE BROTHER?!”

“The Cards are on the roof,” She sobbed, covering her head. Didn’t prevent the buck to her face.

“WHERE IS MY BABY BROTHER?!” Crystal levitated the mare up to face her, and held the agonized mare with the shotgun at her chin.

“I don’t know!” She sobbed.

“WRONG FUCKING ANSWER!” She hit her across the face, and she spat out blood.

“With the other foals!” She screeched, as her hind legs were strained by the weight of the cabinet. “In the maternity ward!”
She pulled the trigger and stomped off.

“Where are you going?” I asked, following her, not really caring. I was heading to the roof regardless.

“The maternity ward.” She said, cold determination in her purple eyes.

I heard gunshots and screams as I walked into the stair well. I loaded my revolver, the taste of the copper fresh in my mouth as well as the iron. I should’ve stopped, my body was screaming as the adrenaline wore off. I should’ve just let them go, track them down after my father, then go and hide in my stable. The funny thing about blind rage is, you just don’t give a fuck. Each step I took up the stairs was a new experience in pain; I took a brief look at my front right leg, then wish I hadn’t. I took a step onto the roof and gawked at what I saw through the rain.

On the emergency sky-chariot landing pad, I saw a machine with a giant propeller, and pedals and gears and chains. It had seats for five, and along the side in bright yellow cursive paint was ‘Griffinchaser V’. The five seats were set up in a ‘V’, with pedals underneath the seats, chains and gears leading up to the massive propeller. In the point seat was a pair of handlebars. Five ponies were loading it, or at least four were. One was sitting in a wheel chair, giving orders. I jumped out and activated SATS, but when my vision zoomed in on them, they were nothing but dummies… stuffed mannequins. I rotated the targeting spell around and found them, all around me. If the time spell allowed for it, I would’ve kicked myself. I was surrounded by all of them. Diamond was on top, Heart was on the other side of the door, Spade was on the other side of the wall, his sword drawn. The Clubs were nowhere to be seen, even on my EFS, and I was beginning to have serious doubts with that thing.

I rolled out of the way of the gun, the bullet just grazing me. I slid into SATS and targeted the pony on the roof. It gave me a disturbingly low thirty percent. Was I shooting at Tick-Tock? Then I found the source of the problem. The little flashing pony in the upper left-hoof corner of my vision was fully covered in crippling injuries, including my head. I had a chilling realization that I was facing five trained ponies, with a falling apart body. I took a shot at each of them, trying to keep them pinned down as I shambled to the elevator. I wasn’t going to die here, gunned down on a roof top. I activated SATS every moment I could, to try to dodge the bullets and to give my mind a brief break from the pain. Finally, I made it to the elevator and got my hooves kicked out from under me. I hit the button with SATS, but then I realized how stupid an Idea that was. There hadn’t been any power in two hundred years. Hell the lights were flickering. Celestia damn it, why would the elevator work?

“Hey, TS. Not sure if I should, well y’know, pull the trigger on him.” Two of Hearts yelled up the stairs, a gun barrel pressed into my head. That’s another thing I was getting a little too familiar with. “I mean, clean him up, get him to Patchwork. He’d make a nice trick pony.”

“Hon, that buck just fought his way up through a hospital full of raiders to kill us.” Three of Diamonds laughed. “I don’t think he’s one of those ponies you want to keep alive.”

“True, it’s a pity. Well, plenty of fish in the sea.” I struggled to get my gun, bite her, anything; I wasn’t going to die like this. The elevator ‘dinged’ and the door slid open. There was a brown pegasus with a scraggled, long mane, wearing a dark green outfit that was covered with buttons, with a round bucket hat.

“Top floor, scenic view. Emergency landing and triage, mail deliveries, and Cards shooting a brash stable pony.” He said in a matter of fact tone, and he bucked the mare, grabbed me by the collar, and dragged me into the elevator just as the others recovered from the shock. Diamond fired at him.

“What…took…you...” I wheezed, my injuries catching up to me. Goddesses, it hurts to breathe with broken ribs.

“So long?” He finished. “Well I said ‘hold on. I’ll go with you, just give me five minutes.’ But when I turned around, you were gone. So I had to go out, find the hospital, track you down, and put on the elevator operator uniform.”

“Why?” I coughed up blood. That’s not good, definitely not good.

“I’ll explain later.” He sighed switching the lever off as we came to a stop on the 2nd floor. He struggled to lift me onto a crash cart, and wheeled me down the hall, avoiding the bodies to a room that read, EMERGENY OPERATIONS: FULL BODY INJURIES ONLY.

"Don’t know why it had to be that specific, I figured emergency operations were emergency operations." Tick-Tock stated pushing the cart down the hall. I did not feel like getting into the explanation with him.

He wheeled me under an auto doc, stepped behind the control panels and…started to read the manual. Sweet Celestia, kill me now before he does.

“This would be easier if somepony hadn’t shot every medical pony in the building.” He said, reading through the manual. I was in too much pain to defend myself, and to point out this was something he was talking about doing a few hours earlier. “Oh! Good here we go, input patients injuries, yadda yadda yadda, do not interrupt auto doc while in the middle of run cycle, be sure there is ample power supply of, some big technical term, and something about warranties expiring.” He smiled and typed some stuff in. “Well, here goes a nothing.” He pushed the button then laughed maniacally, rubbing his fore-hooves together.

Level Up-Berserk 1-Like the warriors of old times when you get worked up into a frenzy you forget about pain, and injuries, and your general well being. Ignore crippled limbs for a few minutes.
(I’d like to thank my friends Sara and John for editing this and making it grammatically correct. Also like to thank them for giving me the vote of confidence in this chapter because I was having serious doubts about it. Also like to thank Kkat for creating FoE in the first place.)