Chapter Three: Suppress
“Eeyup. That wasn’t good. That wasn’t good at all.”

I’m not sure how long I was out. Two hours? Three hours? Somewhere around that time.

The sun was already setting, bathing the land in its orange light. When I woke up, the first thing I saw was dirt. My body was limp and I felt pressure on my stomach, while my body gently swayed to and fro. I looked to my left and found out that Belette, despite rejecting my request earlier, was indeed carrying me anyways.

How sweet.

I rubbed my eyes and craned my neck to stretch my sleeping muscles, when suddenly Belette tilted to the left and I found myself landing on my rump.

"What was that for?" I asked, rubbing my butt.

"I don't want to carry you any longer than I have to. My hooves are killing me." Belette complained, sitting down as she did so.

"I don't see why you couldn't have just used your magic the whole time."

"I did. Then I exhausted my magic."

"Oh."

"I'd also like to note that quite a bit of that magic went into healing a broken rib."

"Wait, what?"

"Relax. It was only one. But I healed it, even if it did take up an absurd amount of magic."

"Thanks..."

We both sat in silence as the sun continued setting I decided to take inventory while Belette massaged her hooves. As I rummaged through whatever was in my bag, I also took into account the items that were in Belette's magical locker. Then I noticed that something was amiss.

We'd forgot to pack one crucial item.

"Hey Bel?" I asked, pulling my head out of my saddlebag

"Yea?"

"Would you happen to have any armor?"

******

Thankfully for us, we found shelter after walking approximately seven times around the planet. Granted, it wasn't as good life sustaining supplies, but it was something.

It wasn't a singular, lone building, instead we had run into a small town. Which, from a distance, looked like it mostly consisted of buildings that looked like they were gonna collapse at any given moment and a couple of stores that had seen better days. I felt the ground beneath my hooves make the sudden transition from soft dirt, to solid cobblestone as we continued approaching the town.

We’d reached a junction. In front of us was a street, with a row of buildings on either side, all of them had signs on the roof or on the front of the building. The road that went left was another stretch of cobblestone that had a ninety degree turn to the right. This street, however, was filled with houses, all two stories tall and average in terms of area.

Directly to our left was a small, fenced enclosure littered with short buildings, each spanning no larger than two applecarts. Most of them were already half destroyed, revealing their insides. The small buildings that were closer to the town seemed to be in fairly good condition if you ignored the bulletholes. However there was one that caught my attention.

The little home was in relatively good condition. There was, of course, the peeling paint and rotting wood, but other than that, it was a-okay. Oh wait, I forgot to mention the moon sized hole on the side, how could I have missed that out?

"What do you think happened to that one?" I asked, tapping Belette on the shoulder.

"Only one way to find out." Belette replied, her horn lighting up with magic.

******

In my opinion, it probably would've been a tad bit easier to just hop over the fence, but apparently, somepony thought it was too tall. With the destruction of an innocent fence off our to-do list, we hurried over to the little house before we had to cross out "Get eaten by monsters due to unnecessary destruction of property".

Upon reaching the hole, I realized that there was actually a crater a few steps in front of the hole that had been blocked from view by one of the other houses. There was what appeared to be broken scraps of armor inside the crater. I decided to take a look at it later and hopped in the house to take a look inside.

"What in Celestia's name happened here?" Belette asked as she followed me.

It looked like a tornado had hit the place, a bookshelf had toppled, scattering its scorched contents all over the room. Remains of a wooden table were found from the ceiling to the walls. To my right was the kitchen, it's pots and pans in various positions. And straight ahead was what looked like a bedroom, which looked surprisingly tidy. A weird scent hung in the air, it was somewhat metallic, like wet metal.

I took a step forward and noticed that instead of being dusty and full of splinters like my previous position, it felt slightly smoother and somewhat sticky. I looked down and saw a puddle of dark red substance.

Dry blood.

I was about to point it out to my friend when I heard the familiar sound of a shotgun being loaded.

"Welcome to Sunshine District, now you'd better have a damn good reason for destroying that fence."

******

"From Tortrotto eh? A little far from home. Where you two headed?" The sheriff asked us.

"Mareshigan. Or Chicacolt." I answered.

“Without armor and limited supplies? Are you two on a suicide mission? What kind of firepower are you two packing anyways?”

Belette summoned Mirage and placed it onto the table in front of us. The sheriff let out an impressed whistle as he first laid his eyes on the unique weapon. While that was going on, I went through my belongings looking for my weapon. I found it and placed it on the table. It was essentially a modified revolver, instead of having the cylinder right in front of the trigger however, the cylinder practically was the barrel. It was covered in rust, not a single speck of the original paint was on, but performance wise, it was more than good enough for me.

“A pistol?” He asked as he watched me take out my weapon.

“It’s a revolver but okay.” I answered.

Before we arrived here, there was a moment where my life flashed before my eyes as Belette tried to summon Mirage while I ended up tackling her. I’d also like to say that climbing stairs with a shotgun pointed at the back of your head while your friend threatens to murder the wielder of said shotgun is not easy.

The office itself wasn’t all that fancy. Windows allowed the sun to enter the room, little dust particles could be visible as they floated into the rays of golden light. In the center of the concrete room, was a table with two chairs positioned in front of it. Behind the table was a single chair, which was being occupied by the sheriff. To the far left corner was an iron barred door that presumably lead to the jail cells.

“What was with the hole back there anyways?” Belette asked as she levitated Mirage back into her magical pocket.

“Pegasus stallion fell out from the sky. Presumably hit the ground before bouncing back up and crashing through the wall. The blood on the floor was his.”

I shuddered upon thinking of how anypony could possibly go through that and still vaguely resemble an equine.

“What made him crash?” Belette inquired.

“I dunno. Nopony knows. He did have laser burns on him, might've been flying a bit too close than the Enclave would’ve liked.”

Ah, the Enclave.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Yes, the Enclave is Equestrian, so why then, are they found in Caneighda?

About a year and a half after the good ol’ Stable Dweller brought back the light, and gained the power to make the Enclave her bitch, they began to run low on food. No matter how they rationed it, no matter how much they planted, all she had to do was move the clouds, and just like that, it was more than likely that they would end up saying goodbye to a good number of crops. So, what did they do?

They found a loophole.

The S.P.P. only has control over Equestria and Equestria only, countries like Caneighda, Germaney and Faustralia still had their own self controlling weather. The Chineighse made an attempt at the S.P.P. and succeeded… to some extent. Ponies in their S.P.P. never lasted too long before dying. It was too much power, and they didn’t know how to control it. So, naturally the Enclave spread out, with various bases all over the world, one of them just so happens to be in Caneighda.

We’ve heard of what they’ve done, and quite frankly we don’t care. For the past four years they’ve been here, they haven’t caused too much trouble, so we didn’t have a proper reason to shoo them away. As for whatever they did in the war, Caneighda was more than willing to forgive them. Besides, even if we did hate their guts, I’m pretty sure they could wipe out half the country before we could do any significant damage, plus, what's stopping them from just sending more troops over?

Their main base is still in Equestria, all their planning, meetings and what not take place there, I don't know if it's true, but it's a what everypony else says, and it hasn't been proven wrong. Yet. Branches like these were usually used for agriculture or storage and what not. The food planted here is then delivered back to the base and everyone gets to eat, yay. However, just because all they do is farm, doesn’t mean the pegasi above those clouds are any less deadly. As peaceful as their job description sounded, they were more than capable of taking out any average pony without even trying.

And why don't they just move their base elsewhere? Because it's the Equestrian government silly! You can't just put the Equestrian government in Neighpan or Marexico. So, as cumbersome as delivering carts full of corn from country to country was, it had to be done. And why is their main base unaffected by the S.P.P.? Rumor has it, that the Enclave managed to produce an artificial cloud, one that was not bound to the Lightbringer's control. But it took too long, too many resources to produce it, so they only reserved it for their HQ. Another theory is just that she doesn't want to let them off that easy, like a cat playing with a mouse. But hey, they're just theories.

“He did have something else on him however, might be a clue.” The sheriff added.

He went below the table and popped back up with a yellow piece of paper, it looked like Belette’s, that is if Belette’s didn’t look like somepony had already used it as toilet paper and gum wrapper at the same time. it was a map covering the entirety of Equestria, except for the fact that it had several areas that were circled. Two of the circles were crossed out, leaving four more left, all of them were more or less equidistant from each other..

“He was dead by the time anypony could go to check out what the noise was about. Nopony knows what the circles are supposed to be marking, and nopony will be trying anytime soon. You can have it if you want, it’s not like it’ll be doing us any good.” He said as he slid the paper over to us. Belette used her magic to roll up the paper and stuff it into her bag, where it would most likely suffer a tragic death of being crushed under the last few AK magazines she had in the bag.

“Now, I couldn’t help but notice the both of you are missing something.” The sheriff said, raising an eyebrow as he looked at the both of us.

“Armor?” I said with a sigh.

“Yup.”

“Thanks, I thought we weren’t unprepared.”

“So, I have a proposition for the both of you.” The sheriff said, planting his forelegs on the table and leaning forward. “You complete it, I’ll give you both a total of one hundred caps, should be more than enough to get you both some protection.”

“What do you need us to do?” Belette asked.

“There’s a raider nest not too far from here, they tend to wander over here from time to time, and every time they do it’s never good. But, they crossed the line when they killed a couple of our hunters, hunters who just so happened to be transporting a whole load of medical supplies we need. Of course, we do have medicine stashed, but I’d rather save them for emergencies. There’s no guarantee that they haven’t touched any of it at all, but if you could bring what’s left, you’d be doing the town a big favor.”

“I dunno. Could you maybe bump it up to two hundred caps?” I questioned.

“I dunno…two hundred caps is a lot…”

“I’m sure you have caps to spare for a pretty mare." I said, fluttering my eyelashes.

"Fine. Two hundred caps it is. But I must warn you, there's a reason why I’m willing to pay this much."

"So, where is this nest?" Belette inquired.

"It’s Northeast from the town. Somewhere around that general area. Should be able to make the trip in less than half a day. But then again, I don’t know exactly how far away this thing is.”

“So, uh, which way is Northeast again?” I asked.

“Don’t you both have a compass?” The sheriff replied.

“Nuh-uh.” I said, shaking my head.

“With no Pip-Buck either?”

“Nope.”

“If you want to get anywhere, you’re going to need one. Normally, this would cost you, after all, they aren’t that easy to find. But I’ll just take it out of your pay.” The sheriff said before ducking under his desk again, rummaging through one of his desk drawers. He came back up with a small, black, circular compass in his mouth, and placed it on the table before us. Belette levitated it to eye level for a closer look

“There. You should be set to leave anytime you want. Though I wouldn’t recommend leaving right just now. All the nasty things come out at night.”

“You have a common house? A place we could stay?” I queried.

“The whole town only uses up less than half the buildings here. Just look for any old house. Might find a radroach or two, but other than that, should be fine.”

“Thanks for everything!” I said, flashing a smile. The sheriff simply nodded.

“You two take care now.” He said as I got up from my seat. As I did, I noticed that Belette was still staring at the compass. She lowered it and zoned out for a brief moment before her eyebrows furrowed and she glared at the compass, effectively forming a scowl.

“La vache.” Belette cursed.

“Wut?” I said in confusion.

“North wasn’t where I thought North was.” She said dejectedly.

******

I wiped the sweat off my forehead as I finally set my saddlebags down before leaning back and crashing onto the old, dirty bed. Belette entered the room shortly afterwards, she was just as sweaty as I was. Scrunched eyebrows and a slight pout was more than enough evidence to convince me that she was not a happy unicorn

“One or two radroaches my ass.” Belette complained as she got into bed.

“Oh give him a break, how could he have known?” I said.

While the skeletons we found in our new and probably temporary home were a nuisance to say the least, I was actually relieved we didn’t have to deal with radroaches. They were always so fast and disgusting and just ew. That’s not to say I like dealing with dead ponies…

Belette’s solution however made sure that we cleared out the remains soon enough. How you ask? By throwing them out the window of course. And thanks to her, I get an eyeful of dead stallions and mares should I happen to look down while gazing out the bedroom window.

“You really think we should do this stupid quest?” Belette asked me.

“Well, we could use the extra caps.” I said as I climbed up next to her.

“That’s if we finish the quest. We don’t know what kind of firepower they’re packing, we don’t know how many of them there are. And what if they already used all the medicine up?”

“Well, we don’t know until we find out now don’t we?” I replied.

While Belette started slipping things out of her little pocket dimension, I couldn’t help but think about how it worked. Where did the items go? Could you store a pony? Exactly how much magic does it use up? Why didn’t she bother telling me about it when all along I could’ve just let her carry my stuff and not have unnecessarily carried all that weight?

“Hey, Bel?” I asked, turning to face her.

“Yea?” She said, doing the same.

“How does your magic locker doo-hickey work?”

“Uh, you kinda just send your stuff to another place and then you take them back out when you need them.”

“No, like, how does it feel? Does it take a lot of effort? Does it hurt?”

“Honestly, there’s no way to describe it. The closest thing I can compare it to, is like shoving food down your mouth, but mentally. As for effort, think of it like this. Magic is like a gas tank that regenerates over time, most unicorns have pretty quick regeneration. A completely drained unicorn should take a good five to six hours before they could ever do any kind of magical shit.”

“Does your locker have a limit?”

“Yea, it does. But it depends on the unicorn’s magic I guess. The more magic she or he has, the more stuff they can cram in there. Depending on it’s weight, the cargo could burn up quite a bit of magic. But there’s more to it…. uh, think of it like this. Let’s just say for example, my magic, fully rested, can lift five hundred kilograms. Now, if I add in an item that weighs say, two kilograms, putting it in the magic locker for whatever reason, makes it four kilograms. Probably to compensate for the space it takes up. After I place this little item, I can only lift four hundred ninety-six kilograms. But hey, don’t take my word for it. I just know it lets me keep shit, and that’s what's important.”

“Could you put a pony in there?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Why not?”

“The dimension is essentially, pure magic. A realm of energy if you will. If a pony went in, they would breathe in the magic, it’d go everywhere, and they would be incinerated inside out. It’s like inhaling fire and electricity at the same time. But then again I tried it with a radroach so I dunno about ponies. Aside from that, it would automatically drain my magic, the radroach alone made me take a three hour nap.”

“So… how do you get stuff out of the locker again?”

“You gotta concentrate on it when you’re opening the portal. Then it kinda just appears and you pick it up.”

As Belette finished up her lecture about the unicorns and the mystical powers they possesed, I nodded and rolled onto my back again, staring at the ramshackle ceiling that looked like it was going to rain down on us any second now.

“This is gonna suck. I can feel it in my gut already.” Belette groaned.

“Don’t be so negative.” I scolded as I turned to my side, snuggled the pillow and closed my eyes.

******

Early next morning, we set out on our quest following a hearty breakfast of cherries and oats. The cloudy sky cast a sort of grey light over the land as we travelled towards our destination. As we walked, I would stop to look around from time to time, and by time to time I mean every five minutes.

"Lightning doesn't strike twice April." Belette said as she continued walking.

"Easy for you to say. You didn't get hit to the sun." I retorted.

“Look at the brightside, you’re still alive. That’s what matters.”

“Well I wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for you!”

“It was just a broken rib.”

“Oh yea, sure. I could’ve walked my way to town if you ignore the fact that I would’ve passed out and been dead meat.”

“Well, sucks to be you then.” Belette snorted.

The next few hours that followed were filled with nonsense and debauchery. Should anypony have been in the vicinity, they would have been lucky enough to catch two mares arguing about alcohol, whether or not to turn around, and of course, who got to eat the last marshmallow. All in that order.

******

The raider nest was… larger than I thought it was going to be I’ll admit.

I thought it was just going to be an old, run down little store or a tiny town. I honestly thought we were going to be lucky enough to get that. Instead, what stood before us far exceeded my expectations. It was essentially a little city of towers and apartment buildings, all old and dirty, some of them possessed blast marks and even missing chunks. Of all the buildings, only one seemed to stand out.

Said building would've been the tallest of the buildings in the city, if it weren't for the fact that the top half had collapsed and was now leaning on the structure next to it. Various corpses and severed limbs hung on the building, blood splatters were also visible on various areas of the tower. The upper half, although collapsed, was not left untouched. Various rotting, mutilated bodies could be found being hung from bloodsoaked chains, swinging in the wind.

While I looked over the demented, broken edifice, I couldn’t help but think about how many raiders could possibly be in there, all waiting hungrily for a new victim to torture. The very thought had caused my heartbeat to quicken and the first few beads of cold sweat to gather up on my forehead.

Before we arrived at the front of the tower, I made the wise decision to take out my gun beforehand, gripping it with my mouth. The familiar taste of rubber and rust greeted my tongue as I did so. Which admittedly wasn’t very good, tiny stuff like that tends to hurt a pony’s gunmanship, not by a lot, but it does. I, was no different, I could never hold the gun for too long before needing to drop it and instinctually spit at the ground in an attempt to get rid of the metallic taste.

As I stood before the doors that led to inside of the massive building, I couldn’t help but notice the gut-wrenching stench that hung in the air, a little taste of whats to come when we set foot into the nest. Ignoring the foul odor, I decided to focus my attention on the white words that were printed onto the glass doors, which were believe it or not, still standing. Sure, one or two of them might have a hole or two and it was too dirty to properly see through, but besides that, it was alright. Oh right, almost forgot about the skull they hung above the door. My bad.

A couple of letters were gone from the door I was inspecting, the remaining letters spelled out: “ST I HO EL “.

I did one last look around at the streets behind us to make sure we wouldn’t be receiving another surprise attack, again. Unsurprisingly, the scenery remained unchanged, the streets were still cracked and broken with wild grass everywhere and various forms of debris littering the path. After ensuring our safety, I pushed the door open and entered, while Belette followed.

The inside of the building was without a doubt one of the most disturbing things I ever had the misfortune of laying my eyes upon..

Rotting bodies hung on the walls and even from the railings on the floors above, bound by rusty chains, one or two of them were even impaled, their cause of death varied from spears to daggers, most of them still very much stuck inside them, pinning them to the wall like papers on a notice board. Skulls, ribcages and other bones also adorned the walls, accompanied by crude graffiti and various vulgarities painted with blood. The horrifying sight, even so early on in our quest was testament to their unnerving presence.

I groaned as I struggled to keep my breakfast inside of me. Belette simply gave a look of disgust.

Besides the mutilated corpse ornaments, the place looked somewhat grand. At the far end of the room was a reception counter, with a wooden flight of stairs on either side that lead to elevators, and probably stairs. The wooden stairs had a couple of steps missing, but they looked navigable. To the left was an open hallway where I could see a bar and a sign for a restaurant, and possibly more.

“Alright, I think I have a plan.” Belette said, as she continued to look around.

I spat my gun out before responding.

“Really?” I said with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m gonna go look for their water pumps, pipes, electronics, anything really, and mess with it. Should keep them distracted while you go and sneak up to wherever they keep their loot.”

“What if I run into them on the way up?”

“Shoot them.”

“It’s gonna be way too loud.”

Belette thought for a moment before walking up to one of the walls, encasing one of the daggers on the wall in her magic and pulling it out, causing the body to fall to the ground like a sack of potatoes with a sickening squishy thud.

“Here, use this.” She said, dropping the dagger in front of me.

“Why don’t we just wait for them to come down first, and then I go up?”

“And how long until they send another guy?”

“But what if I get caught?”

“Don’t you worry your little face, I’ll go and get you if I think somethings up.”

I gulped as I picked it up with my mouth, almost immediately I taste the dried blood and dust. I spat the blade out, sending it crashing to the floor with a clatter, gagging while Belette simply watched me.

“Yea, you’re gonna have to get used to that. See you when I see you.” Belette said as she walked to the hall with the bar and the restaurant.

I spat out saliva a couple more times before reluctantly taking the handle of the weapon in my mouth once more. Again, the bile-inducing taste washed over my tastebuds as my mind told me to drop the blade. However, I had a mission, and I doubted things were going to be any more different in the future. If I wanted to make it out here, I needed to buck up.

******

Let me just be the first to say that I was never the best at melee weapons.

I knew how ponies generated power, there were two ways to go about it. Either you could use the force from turning your neck, which wouldn’t kill anypony anytime soon unless you broke your own neck or you were seriously jacked up, or you could rear up and let gravity and your body mass do the work. Being a mare who rarely ever worked out much meant that neither of the two options would work for me.

As I climbed the stone stairs, my heart pounded against my ribs, sweat poured down my forehead as I clenched onto my dirty dagger, my teeth digging into the old, used rubber. Every step I took, it was not without caution, I made sure to keep my steps as quiet as possible so as not to alert any possible raiders in the area.

The whole journey up, I stopped every flight to listen out for any of them, however, the rapid throbbing courtesy of my heart wasn’t helping, at all. Every time I stopped, I was greeted with the ringing sound that always accompanied deafening silence.

Eventually, at the fifth floor, I could make out the faint sound of a door being slammed shut from the upper floors, accompanied by what sounded like angry grumbling and the clopping of hoofsteps. Next to me was a red, rusted door, I instinctively tried it, luckily for me, it worked. The downside, there was a large hole right behind it.

At this point I shouldn’t have been surprised. The other floors were more or less the same.

First floor, besides a small area, debris closes off any sort of access, second floor yielded the same results. Third floor was barricaded, and I doubted I could remove the furniture without alerting them of my presence. Fourth floor wouldn’t budge, at all.

“Always has to be me doesn’t it? Fuckin’ me.” A gruff voice said from above.

I panicked as I was forced to make a decision, do I go to the fourth floor and try my luck again? Or do I try to make the jump? My vision started to blur, all I could concentrate on was the hole in front of me and the hoofsteps which grew louder every time they sounded.

“Screw it.” I thought to myself.

I pushed the door open as wide as I could, backed up and charged. However, I failed to notice the crucial fact that the door had a door closer installed.

As I barrelled towards the open door, I could see it slowly closing on it’s own, to which I made the smart decision to continue running anyways. My reward, a nice door to the side which botched my jump, causing me to fall through the hole. It all happened too quickly for me to process anything, all I saw was the fifth floor, and next thing I know, I was sprawled out on the fourth floor, groaning in agony while my saddlebag landed elsewhere.

All could hear were my own moans of pain and the sound of dirt as I got back up to my hooves. I brushed myself off and looked around my new environment.

The place smelled like the ground floor, maybe not as strong, but the smell was more or less the same. The putrid stench of death flooded my nostrils, once again coaxing my breakfast to find it’s way out of my stomach.

It didn’t look as bad as it smelled however, holes from the upper floor and the walls granted rays of sunlight access to the room, revealing tall piles of rubble and old furniture with wild grass growing. Directly in front of me was a hallway that led to a railing, most probably the ones I saw back at the bottom. I walked over to where my bag had landed and bit on it with the intention of putting it back on.

“Anypony there?” A somewhat feminine voice called out.

Once again, my mind kicked into panic mode as I looked around for another spot to conceal myself. After a quick look through, I dragged my bag over to a pile of rubble and prayed that I could get through this unseen.

“Come out come out…” The voice called out as I picked up the familiar sound of hoofsteps once again.

My heart continued thumping, making me feel like it was going to jump out any second, I trembled in fear as I lay against the broken stone and wood, my sweat causing the dust and dirt to stick to my fur. I tried to steady my breathing, making sure to keep my breaths a silent as possible.

While I tried to prop myself up instead of leaning on my cover, a piece of stone broke off, falling to the ground and causing me to yelp as I fell onto the rubble.

“Pleaseignorethatpleaseignorethatpleaseignorethat.” I desperately thought to myself.

Before I had the chance to do anything else, I heard the sound of metal slicing through rock and looked up to find a dagger impaled on the wall, causing me to jump. If my cover wasn’t blown before, there was no doubt now.

“It’s time to die shit for brains!” My aggressor taunted as she ran towards me, running off the walls and doing all sorts of other acrobatics.

I stood up from my cover and wildly swung my head, letting go of the dagger as I did so. I watched as it tumbled through the air, end over end, before completely missing her. I cursed and ducked again, sticking my head into my bag in search of my gun. I rummaged through my inventory before finding the grip, I bit into it and pulled it out, only to find the raider mare standing over me, a crooked, rusty sword in her mouth.

I yelped and rolled out of the way while she sliced the ground where I once was. While I laid on my back, I tried to aim my weapon at her, unfortunately for me she was smart enough to get out of the way. I watched as she ran off towards me, zig-zagging and jumping off a pile of debris as she did so, which really didn’t make things any easier.

Once she was within reach, she decided to forgo the fancy maneuvers and charge right at me. I shut my eyes and wildly fired, the recoil from the gun bashing the back of my head into the floor. After my head stopped imitating a cotton ball in a tornado, I looked at where my attacker last stood only to find her dead, on the stone floor, in a puddle of her own blood.

I dropped my gun before resting my head on the stone floor as I took heavy breaths. While I rested, I silently prayed that the others weren’t as agile and quick as she was. Stationary targets, I can hit seven times out of time. I don’t think I need to say anything when said target is bouncing around the walls like a supercharged rubber ball.

As I was about to get up, the sound of hooves tapping against the floor alerted me. I shot back up to my hooves, looking down the hallway I was greeted with the sight of two stallions walking towards where I was. As soon as I did, I ducked back down and cursed myself for not taking caution.

“Wonder if they saw me?” I thought to myself.

“She’s over there!” I heard one stallion call out.

“Great job, April. Great job.”

As I was about to switch covers, I heard the sound of a rifle being fired, followed by a number of bullets whizzing over my head before smashing into the stone wall. As soon as the bullets stopped coming, I stood up and fired at the raider, who just so happened to be running towards me. One of my two shots hit him as he clutched his neck where he had been hit, falling over, his momentum forced his dead body to tumble forward a few steps before coming to a halt, blood spilling onto the floor.

His friend however, remained unfazed. He was still making a beeline towards me, using the same acrobatics the raider mare had used. I aimed in his general direction and pressed my tongue against the trigger, only to hear an empty click and the cylinder rotating. The loud *BANG* and flash from the barrel that usually followed were absent, a sure sign of a lack of ammo. I cursed myself for not reloading when I had the chance.

I backpedalled as the raider got closer, too panicked to do anything else. A metal pipe was present in his mouth as he rolled and jumped his way towards me. Eventually, I managed to back myself up against the wall while he closed the distance. I made one last ditch attempt and tried to run off to the side, only to feel his weapon strike me on my temple. I crumpled onto the floor as pain flooded my mind, dark spots danced around in my sight as my eyelids grew heavy, the sound of the raider’s taunting sounded muffled.

“Deja Vu.” I mentally grumbled to myself.

And then I blacked out. Again.

******

When I regained consciousness, the first thing I noticed was the fact that my head felt like a melon that had been dropped from twenty stories high. After much groaning, I looked around and found myself on a dirty queen sized bed in an old room. To the left of the bed was a door which probably led to the bathroom. The floor was covered in pebbles and splinters, the walls weren’t any better, however they instead bore blood stains.

As I tried to get up, I found myself being yanked back to my original position followed by the sound of metal clinking. I looked up to find both my forelegs bound by a pair of cuffs that were chained to the wall.

“Well, shit.” I said to myself.

I kicked my legs up and over my head to try and kick the chains loose. Unsurprisingly, I fail to get enough power, and ended up kicking off the chains and sending the lower half of my body crashing into the bed. Each of my attempts failed miserably and did nothing except hurt my hooves, cause a good bit of noise and move the bed a couple of inches. None of which, was going to aid me in my escape.

Eventually, I gave up and instead resorted to just randomly thrashing about. About fifteen seconds later I ran out of energy and laid on my bed, panting. As I did, I debated just swinging my legs over the bed, but then decided that the chains were too short to let me do so and I would probably end up hanging myself by my forelegs, which really didn’t sound fun.

My only hope now, was to pray that Belette could make her way up here.

******

Waking up, the first thing I heard was the muffled sound of a grenade going off somewhere in the vicinity, followed by dust raining down from the walls and the ceilings as the building shook. I blinked the sleep out of my eyes and tried to regain my bearings. Looking around, I noted that I was still in the same room, with the only difference being the fact that I could hear gunshots and battle cries.

The sounds of chaos started to grow louder, less muffled, sounds of bullets going through walls and hitting through metal rang through the corridors outside. The only thing that was separating me, from whatever kind of bedlam that was ensuing outside, was an old, wooden door. I struggled against my shackles in a desperate attempt to break free, only to end up achieving the same results as before.

I yelped as bullets began to riddle the walls, a line of bulletholes suddenly appearing. Straying off course, some embedded themselves in the floor, others hit the bed, causing fluff to burst out. While that went on, I made the smart decision to curl up into a ball and shake in fear.

Bullets sped through the air, whistling as they did so. I was showered by shards of broken wall and splinters, which did nothing if not worsen the situation for me. Over the sound of the transpiring pandemonium, I could make out the sound of the raiders threatening their assailant.

“Hold still so we can eat you already!” I heard one raider mare bellow before letting loose a barrage of bullets.

Suddenly, the thud of a body falling to the ground was heard, followed by the ceasing of gunfire.

“Hold her down, I want to kill this one myself!” A raider stallion growled.

The sound of an assault rifle emptying it’s magazine was soon heard. I uncurled myself just in time to catch a glimpse of blood splattering through the holes in the wall, the muzzle flash of the weapon illuminating the hall outside.

For a solid few seconds, I froze, paralyzed with fear. My jaw hung open as my heart continued to pound in my chest, the absence of any kind of sound from outside only caused me to panic even more than I should have.

Suddenly, the door swung open and slammed against what was left of the wall, at the doorway stood Belette, covered in blood. Straightaway, I noticed the bleeding gash just above her right foreleg and the irritation and anger that the very, very pissed off expression on her face radiated. She walked over to me and shot off my chains with Mirage, ignoring the fact that the bullets could very well have deflected and killed either me or her. Fortunately for me, it worked and nopony died a stupid death. The cuffs were still on and still very much chafing my hooves, but at least now I could move.

“I am not having a good day.” Belette growled as she walked out of the room.

Author's Note

“La vache” more or less translates to: “Oh crap”.

Also, I kinda don’t have prereaders.

So, if you’d like to help, that'd be great.

Just message me or whatever.

K bye.