Fallout Equestria: Sins of Retribution

Chapter 3: The Hunt

“Well, I don’t know what to say” Saving Grace gave a baffled sigh as I puked up another bag of rad-away.For almost five hours I sat on the table as Grace tried to find out just what was going on with my body. Every time I was given a rad-away my body would immediately reject it and ide be puking orange goo everywhere.

“I’m just a medic, you got a flesh wound or compound fracture? Sure I can fix you right up but this? This is something else.” I stared down at myself, the glowing had finally gone away and I didn’t seem to radiating anymore but my coat and mane were still bleached white.

“Do you think it has something to do with that?” Ambrose nudged the small emerald that had melted into my chest and I suddenly reared back as though she had just jabbed my heart with red hot needle.

“Can we please not touch that?” I gritted my teeth as the burning sensation in my chest subsided. So let’s have a quick recap on what exactly is going on. I absorbed enough radiation to make a ghoul pony jealous, had a family antique melted into my chest and had all my hair bleached white. Now let’s review all the possible explanations on how I am still alive: None.

“At this point it could be anything. Like I said before, if he really did absorb as much radiation as you ponies said he did then well he should be just a pile of melted flesh.” Grace stamped a hoof down in frustration and shook her head. “Your best bet at getting any answers as to what in the name of Equestria is happening to him would be going to Tenpony Towers.”

Grace sighed as we gave her the usual we have no idea what anything is out here sideways glance.

“Before the war for Equestria, Tenpony tower’s was a hub for MAS or Ministry of Arcane Science. When the megaspell destroyed most of Manehatten its protective shielding prevented the tower from being reduced to rubble. Tenpony has become one of the closest things to a normal life anypony could have if you’re lucky enough to become a citizen there. It’s also where the broadcaster DJ-PON3 broadcasts. Though they do have strict rules against ghoul ponies…” Grace immediately glanced over at me when she mentioned the word ghoul ponies.

“So they aren’t going to let me in?” To be honest, I couldn't blame her for jumping to the conclusion that I would turn into one of those things.

“Well you don’t appear to be a ghoul pony yet. With any luck your bleached hair is the worst of this incident in which if that’s the case then they should let you in without any hassle.” Ambrose quickly chimed in giving a small reassuring smile before glancing back over to Grace as she nodded her head. “Manehatten is still a pretty long way away. Might take you about a week if you don’t run into any trouble.”

Of course we all knew by now that there would be plenty of trouble for us to run into along the road.

“Well, if you’re going to walk their then you’ll need some new barding. Considering you already managed to destroy the ones I gave you earlier.” Grace motioned a hoof towards the tattered remains of the khaki colored barding, genuinely surprised it wasn’t burnt onto my flesh with the gem. “Loom can help you with any supplies that you need. You can find him down the street to the left. Just tell him Grace sent you and he should give you a discount.”

Should, I had been hearing that word a lot recently, never a 100% guarantee. Grace gave us a wave as we trotted outside.

Short of a giant metal wall around the town, Hoofstead reminded me a lot of Hope. Most of the buildings had been refurbished as best they could into new stores, bars and inns.

“You think we could live here?” Scarlet peered over at me as if she were reading my mind. We didn’t really have anywhere else that we could go, from all the things Buckshot had warned us about out in the wastelands this place didn’t seem like such a bad place to settle down in. Of course much like Hope, it wouldn’t be complete with a couple assholes…

“Look, we’re trying to be nice. Just have the doctor give us what is rightfully ours and we’ll go about our business.” A stallion was talking to who I was assuming was loom. He had a propane tank for a cutie mark and a machete on his back as he glared at the shopkeeper. It might not have been my personal business to interfere in other ponies business but when I saw this guy yelling at Loom all I could think about was Blue Roulette and his lug-heads .

“And just what exactly is your business?” I interjected, giving a harsh glare at the buck.

“My business is to collect some property these lowdown degenerates stole from us…” He shoved a piece of paper in my face and let me read it.

We, the representatives of Shatterdhoof, have this day bargained and purchased from Deadeyes the exclusive rights to ownership and sale of the slave Ambrose Sky for the sum of one thousand bottle caps, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged. We warrant the slave to be sound, healthy, and slave for life. We covenant with the said, Deadeye, that we have full power to bargain and sell said slave. Payment of an additional five hundred bottle caps will be due.

I was just about ready to rip the paper to shreds and put a bullet through every part of his body had Scarlet not held me back when I tried to levitate my revolvers out. Ambrose was an escaped slave and this sick bastard acted like it was no big deal?

“Lowdown degenerates? Only degenerate I see is a disgusting excuse for a pony.” I growled through clenched teeth. If there was one thing I hated more than assholes, it was hypocritical assholes.

“Me? No I’m not her owner, I’m just a messenger.” He snarled, setting the deed down on the counter.

“The reaper Firebrand was out on…business…when she decided to make a break for it just a few weeks ago. It would be a real shame if when he came back his favorite toy was still missing. Just tell us where the zebra is and there won’t have to be any trouble, after all, is it really worth having an entire town wiped off the map just for one insignificant zebra?” The stallion walked to the door and turned back to glare at us. “You got till sunrise tomorrow. Should be enough time to find it.”

Loom simply sighed and shook his head before picking up the knocked over merchandise.

“Ah knew that zebra wasn’t nothing but trouble the day she stumbled into town. Saving Grace almost immediately took her in without even questioning what she was doing out on her own. Typical that a zebra would be causing all of us trouble.” Loom mumbled a bit more about how zebras ruined everything as he picked up a broom and started to sweep up.

“So what are you going to do about it?” Scarlet asked, helping him pick up the mess left on the floor.

“Well if it were me I would hand her right back over and pretend she never happened, but of course Saving Grace is too nice
a pony to do something like that.” Loom shrugged his shoulders before walking behind the counter. “Meaning it looks like I’ll be closing up shop when Firebrand and his gang show up, you two should head out as well unless
you think you can pull what you did back out at the ridge with Flintlocks crew.”

“What about the other townsfolk? You’re just going to leave them?” Scarlet arched a brow at Loom, who continued to act as though it were none of his business.

“If they want to leave they can, or just give Ambrose over to them and spare everypony the trouble.” Loom started to become annoyed with our constant questioning. Now I was the one that was holding Scarlet back before she shot somepony and to be honest, I didn’t blame her. Here was a pony that was willing to sell out another to save his own skin. Willing to let somepony else take the fall while he snuck off without the slightest hint of guilt.

“Do you have any ideas as to who could help? You got plenty of weapons, maybe we could raise a sort of militia?”

It wasn’t much of a plan but if we could raise enough support maybe we could scare them off. Though from what Eureka had told us about reapers…we would need an army to try and take on that.

“Half these folk here are like yourselves, they were raised in a stable. Forced out due to a radiation leak, never even held a gun in their lives. Even if I was willing to give my supplies away it wouldn’t do them any good.” Loom sighed and shook his head at us reluctant to help such a lost cause.

“There is a town not too far away called Trotton, more likely than not you can probably rustle up a band of mercenaries if you got the caps of course.” Caps…The one thing we weren’t in high supply of. Still Trotton had been where we originally planned on going to meet with Buckshot and his gang before I was well bleached by radiation. It wasn’t much of a plan but it was better than nothing. With any luck Buckshot and the others were still there and we could possibly recruit them without much hassle.

“We’ll head there immediately” I was already starting to head out of the store and to the marker on my pipbuck before being stopped by Scarlet.

“Shamrock don’t you think we’re getting a little too involved in other ponies affairs?” Her eyes darted around before returning to mine. Was she really having second thoughts about this?

“We owe them for saving us Ambrose especially. We can’t just sell her out who knows what they will do to her.” I gave a determined frown. Considering the vile things I heard the last group of raiders shout at us during the shootout I didn’t even want to imagine what they do to prisoners let alone slaves.

“This is suicide Shamrock, I know Ambrose is a nice mare and so is Grace and all the other ponies there but we have to think about ourselves. Even if we got a couple mercenaries it wouldn’t be enough to take on a reaper. We don’t even know how many this Firebrand guy has.” Scarlet continued to plea to me as I kept trotting down the road.

I sighed but continued trotting. I didn’t really care what the odds were, my mind was made up. I would help them anyway I could even if it meant I was on my own. “We have to at least try, we already lost our home. I don’t want to see these ponies lose theirs.”

Scarlet’s voice rose a bit more with frustration and stood in front of me. “You’re not some super hero Shamrock! I want to help these ponies as much as you do but I’m just facing the facts, we can’t save them. You can’t save them.”

I stopped dead in my tracks looking down at the ground. I had saved Grace from the ambush those raiders had set up. That had been at least a dozen or so pony’s right? Even then Eureka had gotten killed because of it.
No, not again. I’m not going to let this town be destroyed by a bunch of gun toting bullies. Not without a fight at least, no matter how short a fight that may be.

“You don’t have to come then, you can go your way I’ll go mine.” I pushed her aside and kept trotting.

Scarlet stamped her hoof into the ground and cursed to herself before catching up to me. “I’m going to regret this decision later…let’s just get to Trotton.”

Well there was one willing soul for the cause. There were some interesting things along the path to Trotton, apparently all bugs were turned into giant nightmare spawns. From giant ants to rad-scorpions, you would think they would have developed some kind of giant killer bug spray by now.

“Hey! Over here! Can you help me?” A pony cried out he was limping in the middle of the street a trail of blood behind him. His left hoof was clutching his chest as he looked up at us. Something just wasn’t adding up here.

“What happened?” Scarlet began to open her saddlebags and was reaching for a healing potion.
My mind screamed at me to draw Reprisal as I levitated it out and pointed it at the wounded pony. “Shamrock what are you d-“

The supposedly wounded pony shouted and pulled a knife from his mane charging at Scarlet.

Blam

Scarlet shuffled back staring at the now headless body of the mugger, blood pooling beneath him. Aside from a missing head, he had no previous wounds to speak of.

This was a set up…lure ponies to help him and stab them when they were close enough.
I wasn’t sure how I knew that would be a trap, the E.F.S. showed him as yellow up until he pulled the knife out. Guess yellow doesn’t always mean mellow? Had I waited for it to turn red Scarlet would have been impaled before I even drew my revolver.
Unfortunately for us, he wasn’t alone either. Four more raiders emerged from the bombed out ruins and rushed forward. This took bringing a knife to a gunfight to a whole new level of sad. I slipped into S.A.T.S. and lined up the shots.

Blam
Blam
Blam
Blam

They just dropped like bags of sand. Raiders were what everypony called them. Insane ponies that lost all sense of reasoning and decency. We call them raiders instead of ponies its more humane that way I guess. Go around saying you killed a bunch of raiders, you’re a hero. Go around saying you killed a bunch of ponies, you’re a psychopath. Yet weren’t these ponies too? Once young colts and fillies with dreams and hope like the rest of us?

It hadn’t been a full week since we left Goodspring and already I was a hardened killer. They were mindless and wouldn’t show any mercy to us, it was only right that we gave them the same treatment.
Still, what were they before this? What were the raiders before they lost their mind? Or perhaps an even better question. How long would it be before I became one of them? Just another mindless killer preying on innocent ponies for a quick cap or just for fun. The name from my nightmare…Reprisal. I stared down at the silver words inscribed into my magnum before shaking the horrible thought into the back of my head and focused on the task at hand.
Finding a way to recruit a small army to defend a town from an army of raiders and their psychotic leader. Simple.

Or not…The sign on the road had been ripped from its hinges and tossed to the ground. There was nothing but complete silence as we neared the town of Trotton. Not even the wind was blowing, just a still silence before the scent hit us. The coppery stench of blood and sulfur from a very recent battle.

Everything was so organized though, the fires in the buildings kept to only to the ones closest to what looked to be town hall. A neat line of corpses strewn up on stakes, I turned away and covered my muzzle from the odor of burnt flesh before regaining my nerves to look once more. They weren’t random civilians, at least from what I could tell by the burnt barding and appearance. Most were burnt beyond recognition but two of them stood out…

“This is…fucked up on every level.” Scarlet murmured before our heads turned on a swivel guns already drawn to fixate on a zebra standing at the steps of town hall.

“I think it’s very…artistic” He smirked underneath his hood as four other zebras stood at each side of him. I was a mixture of confusion, anger and disgust…mostly angered with disgust being a very close second as he sauntered forward. His barding was black with spikes on each side. His hood appeared to be some kind of dog like creatures pelt with its teeth parted equally on each side of its mouth.
This was where my previous knowledge of zebras being bloodthirsty killers really began to come into reality. “Don’t worry though, you won’t be sharing these heathens fate…as long as the Praetor’s orders remain true.” He glanced to Scarlet now as his crooked smile grew. “You two do not appear to be raiders, or mercenaries. Who are you? What brings you here?”

I was about to ask him the same thing.

“I’m Scarlet Blaze…this is Shamrock and no we aren’t from here…what about you? What are these “Orders” you’re praetor gave you?” Scarlet glared skeptically at the zebra as he gave a curtsey to her with a smug snicker.

“My name is Venator, as for our orders. We are in search of the bastard ponies that stole what our Praetor holds nearest to his heart.” He sat back and awaited us to ask what that was exactly.

“Which would be?” I finally asked after the pause. Venator stood back up and trotted to us removing his hood. He had royal blue eyes, or eye at least.
His left eye was pure white with a scar running down the side of his face.

“His precious daughter of course.” If I wasn’t already pale I would have probably gone full circle and become a rainbow as I began to run a worst case scenario. He wasn’t talking about Ambrose, he couldn’t have. Of all the zebras in the world what would the odds be?

“You know who we are talking about don’t you?” He scowled as Scarlet fished through her security barding and pulled out the proof of purchase the raider had shown us earlier.
Venator snatched up the piece of paper and quickly began to examine it. “Ah I see…you’re one of the slavers collectors?” He snarled lifting a hoof as his guards swarmed around us.

“No! We’re not collectors! We came here to get help! We’re friends of hers!” I backed up slightly as I felt one nudged the tip of his carbine to the back of my head.

“Friends? Well then perhaps you will be able to clarify to him personally.” He sneered. I had the strangest feeling that clarifying wouldn’t be as simple as it should be.Venator pushed us along about a mile up the road where we found more ever so pleasant stake decorations. Seeing them back at the town made my skin crawl, seeing as how these ones were empty made it even worse. Seeing as how there were only two stakes set up…well it wasn’t exactly hard to guess what they were trying to tell us.

“Looks like the hunter has brought Atlas some new chew toys.” One of the guards chuckled as we were marched at gunpoint through the camp. All I could reiterate in my head were what Sandstorm had told us about Atlas. Even as we walked to his tent I still couldn’t believe anypony could be as large as he described. I was quickly proven wrong yet again. The tent was about as big as a normal room, filled with various trinkets and trophies of his. Guns, makeshift swords even. Oh goddesses

On one of his tables sat an ornate array of hoofs neatly lined up with the head of their owners. Zebras really knew how to make their guests feel welcomed.

“Praetor, my liege, these ponies believe to know of the whereabouts to your beloved daughter.” Venator bowed as the largest figure in the room stepped forward. His head nearly reached the top of the tent as he looked down at us.

“Oh? Do tell me how these ones offer more hope than the others” My stomach churned when his deep voice mentioned others as I turned to stare at the hoofs once more.
Venator nodded and gave the behemoth Scarlet’s stolen note. Atlas frowned at it as he read it to himself slowly before his scowl wavered for an instant. “Ambrose…” His scowl returned as he boomed at us. 'You have seen her? Describe her.”

Well shit. Being told on the spot to describe somepony? As much as I stared at her back in the stable and at Hoofstead all my mind could do is draw blanks.

“She um uh well…she had stripes and uh.” My stammering didn’t seem to be found very useful to Atlas as he growled at me.

“Is this suppose to be humorous, pony?” He looked to Venator and gave him the same glare, causing him to shrink away and back up. “If you cannot describe her then you clearly must know nothing of her and therefor have wasted my time…Venator please escort the mare out. I will continue to interrogate this one.”

Yep I was dead, no doubt in my mind.

“I have wasted enough time with countless sources on where my daughter is pony…I have wasted twenty years in a futile effort to find her.” His hoof shook the ground beneath me as he stamped it into the dirt. I swallowed hard as he stared at his table of “collections” as if trying to see if there was any more room for another set of insignificant pony hoofs.

“H-how exactly did you lose her in the first place?” That alone should have been enough to seal my fate as he glowered at me before sighing.

“Our camp was attacked by raiders…more specifically those of Shatterhoof. They had hired reapers to kidnap and enslave the able and to kill off the stallions.” He adjusted his bronze colored armor and removed it to reveal various scars and gashes across his hide before putting it back on him. “The reaper known as Deus wiped nearly half of my centurions out in the first few minutes of the battle before I got to him.” He practically spat out the name Deus as he continued with his story. “Typical of a pony to fight without honor…he grabbed hold of my daughter and forced what was left of my camp to surrender. Rather than kill me they simply left me bound and bloodied till I eventually broke free.” Atlas motioned to the heads and hoofs on the table. Each of them with looks of horror stitched to their faces eternally. “One by one I have hunted them down, rebuilt and renewed. Yet two things have managed to slip by me every time. Deus and my daughter.”

The more I listened to his story the more I thought about my own story. Aside from a few differences in details, ours weren’t that different.

“For twenty years I have told myself that she was alive, that somewhere out there she was still breathing. Until I either find her corpse or her blinking eyes I will not give up my hunt for her. And until I have Deus’ corpse or unblinking head I will not give up my hunt for him and every last reaper in this damnable wasteland we live in.”
So the infamous warmongering zebra legend known as Atlas, was really just trying to find his daughter this entire time? Wow talk about father of the year. “So as you can see, I am not one for having my time wasted on false leads…”

I sat back and thought for moment before I nodded calmly.

“I’ll lead you to your daughter on one condition.” I murmured. Atlas stood up and glared about ready to squash me like an insignificant bug. “She’s been living in a small town to the south of here. A group of slavers lead by somepony known as Firebrand stopped by recently looking for her. You want your daughter, then I’m going to need your help in defending that town from Firebrand when he shows up tomorrow morning at sunrise.”

He stepped back and began to think over the arrangement tapping his hoof on the ground while he thought. “And what is to stop me from simply taking my daughter and leaving?” My heart stopped as he mentioned that little crack in my plans. There was no way in Equestria we would last against Firebrand without him, and there wasn’t any chance in forcing him to stay short of holding Ambrose hostage which again would most likely lead to a fight we couldn’t win. “I already lost her once, I won’t risk her again for ponies that would never do the same for me.”

My eyes widened at the sudden thought in my head. “They already have though, they’ve been taking care of Ambrose letting her live with them. These ponies hid her away from her kidnapper, the least you could do is protect them like they protected her.”

Atlas glanced around the room for a second longer before nodding. “Very well, I will aid you in defending your town. However if I find out that you lied to me”

He stomped out of the tent and left me with his collection of heads to let me fill in the blanks as to what he was implying.

I calmly trotted outside to find Scarlet sitting calmly next to Venator.

“Well? What happened?” Scarlet cocked her head and arched a curious brow.

“They are going to help us protect Hoofstead.” I smirked at her with a little wink.

At least that was the deal we had, I wasn’t exactly sure whether or not we could trust them to not just run off once they had Ambrose.
Even if they decided to do that, we wouldn’t be able to hold them to their word. With any luck I was able to convince Atlas to stay true to his agreement to help.

After a few minutes of waiting, Atlas returned once more fully prepared for war. His bronze armor was freshly polish and he was now armed with a massive saddle mounted cannon. Even his hoofs had large retractable blades strapped on their sides as he looked to Venator.

“Ready the centurions, we move immediately.” Atlas looked down at me giving a small reassuring nod as Venator rushed to arms.
I had my doubts about defending a town from an army led by a reaper earlier; but seeing this strike force assembled? Well for once I felt things would go smoothly.
About twenty five zebras were standing at attention: all of which were armed with striped carbines, sniper rifles or traditional throwing spears.

“Lead the way pony.” Venator commanded as Atlas stood at the front of his forces while we marched back towards Hoofstead. I could hear my heart beating once more as Hoofstead came into view. Another shootout, another bloodbath, another brush with death. Yet before we were even in town we could hear gunfire from below, smoke and flames were rising from the distance.

“They weren’t supposed to be here this early!” I shouted in frustration. For the love of Celestia can a plan ever go right?!? At the sight of the flames Atlas immediately growled stamping an earthshattering hoof into the ground and giving the charge order into the town. The ground trembled and shook as Scarlet, myself, Atlas and his legion raced down the street into Hoofstead.

The first two fights I had been in were pretty hectic but even then we had a clear enemy that we could see: On one side was us and the other side was the bad guys. Once inside the town that was completely different.The now familiar sounds of gunfire and screams of death were around every corner as I had to rely on my E.F.S. to determine good from bad fast enough.

Yellow? Turn and keep moving.
Red? Pull the trigger and don’t stop until the marker is gone.

As trusty a gun my revolver was, having to stop and reload them after six shots was ineffective as I switched to the All-Equestrian.

Aside from the occasional messy headshot, the All-Equestrian wasn’t as powerful in terms of stopping power compared to Reprisal, but its larger magazines definitely made up for it as I slipped into S.A.T.S. and fired off several rounds into four raiders in ten seconds flat.

Scarlet and I stayed close to one another as we fought our way through the streets. This must have been what it was like during the Great War; no time for rest only moving and shooting.

“We need to find Ambrose and Saving Grace!”

I could barely hear my own voice over the constant chorus of gunfire and explosions as we managed to duck into Saving Grace’s office.

“Scarlet, Shamrock! What’s going on?” Saving Grace looked around us petrified as we entered.

“They’re looking for Ambrose, where is she?” I looked around her office for any sign of her.

Saving Grace shook her head and gave a shrug. “Loom offered to look after her when the fighting broke out. I haven’t heard from either one of them since.”

I nodded and turned for the door before dropping down and letting out a shriek. The adrenaline began to fade away long enough to point out the wounds I had sustained. I really was getting a nasty habit of being so caught up in the moment that I failed to register that guns were constantly aimed at me as well.

The only notable wounds were a few cuts in my side and some shotgun pellets that wedged into shoulder.

“How good are you at picking lead out?” I gritted my teeth as Saving Grace began to get to work on patching me up, one by one she dug into my shoulder plucking out bits of lead and metal pellets and within a few minute: I felt like complete shit still. Of course how I felt didn’t really matter at the moment as I was bandaged up and given a couple healing potions.

“Where the fuck did all these zebra fuckers come from?!?!” A raider spouted in rage before his tone changed from anger to terror.

I marveled for a few moments as Atlas stormed through the battlefield: His armor and thick hide were shrugging off bullets as though they were a minor inconvenience to him as he literally crushed a raider’s skull under his hoof with a wet crack and splatter. Many of the townsfolk had boarded up their homes yet a few were out in the streets with what firearms they had to fend off the seemingly endless flow of raiders.

Finally we busted through the door of Loom’s shop quickly searching around for any sign of them. Empty; we looked high and low through his shop before stopping at the click of a guns hammer.

“Not another step! You two fuckers have ruined everything!” Loom pointed a sawed off shotgun at us: Ambrose’s shotgun.

“Where is Ambrose?” All bets were off now, I was going to get my information and then tear the sleazy scumbag apart.

“Long gone buddy.” Loom sneered waving another deed in the air before keeping the shotgun aimed at us. “The zebra slut belongs to Firebrand and Deadeyes. I was going to be paid two thousand caps for her return once they had their fun with these wastrels until you showed up!” Loom was practically frothing with anger as he glowered at the two of us. “Do you have any idea what you have done? You ruined everything for me! EVERYTH-“

Blam

I jumped back as Loom’s head was splattered across the counter, his body dropping to the floor with a thump. The barrel of Scarlet’s rifle trailed a wisp of smoke as she spit on his corpse. “Sick bastard.”

Then came the chilling bray of zebras from outside.Even if they were on our side, hearing that fill the air gave me the creeps as we walked outside.Of the twenty five zebra that aided us in the battle only about a dozen were still standing, four of them were being carried to Saving Graces while the remainder that were found were place neatly in a line next to one another as Atlas immediately turned to us. “Ambrose…where is she?”

We were dead. All I could think about were those hoofs set neatly on his table: picturing mine as his latest addition.

“She’s. She’s gone, Loom sold her out to Firebrand during the fight.” At that very moment I thought for sure Atlas was going to turn my head into a gooey paste as he raised his hoof then slowly put it down.

“Find her. Dead or alive bring my daughter back to me. I cannot leave my people without a leader while I go on a maddened goose chase any longer.” He sounded. Heartbroken: this was the closest he had been to his daughter in twenty years and once again the chance to find her had slipped away from him.

“I will be back with her, I promise.” Atlas didn’t seem very convinced but at least he gave me the benefit of the doubt instead of just blowing me away. “She was most likely taken back to Shatterhoof, it’s a common area for slavers and no doubt we’ll find Firebrand as well.”

Of course I would because he couldn’t have you know had his head crushed by Atlas during this massive firefight.

“I would send my zebras with you, but that would only alert them and simply move Ambrose to another location.” Atlas murmured. So basically two stable ponies with about three days of actual combat experience were supposed to hunt down a reaper, possibly even kill him and find the daughter of a zebra chieftain?

“We’ll go as soon as possible.” Scarlet glanced to me and gave a reassuring smile.

“We’ve lasted this long right? What’s one more suicide mission?”

Scarlet began heading back to Loom’s shop and immediately began to sift through his inventory.

“I don’t think he’ll be needing any of this anymore.”
Ammo, canteens, pistols, grenades: Just about everything we would need this guy owned. Normally I would have felt guilty for stealing from a random pony but then again, he wasn’t any better than a raider was. Not to mention after having slug rounds plucked out of my shoulder just a few minutes ago, a little bit of barding would go a long way for me right about now.

“Hey Shamrock, look at what I found.” Scarlet turned to me and lifted up an armored variant of an old Stable 24 utility jumpsuit. It was better than nothing and to be honest, it felt good to be wearing stable barding again. I guess the trip to Tenpony Towers was going to have to be put on hold for now. With our saddlebags fully restocked and rearmed we turned down the road.

Next stop: Shatterhoof.

Footnote: Level up.
New Perk: Toughness +3 DT Permanently