Fallout: Equestria - Wildfire

While I’d been outside the Stable before, that was a very long time ago, and only remembered bits and pieces about it. As soon as I saw the sky, everything started spinning. Everything quickly blended together, and I ended up losing my balance, falling to the dirt. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, taking a moment to get my bearings before trying to stand back up. Turns out, standing up was the easy part. The hard part was staying standing.

After a few minutes, things had stopped spinning and my vertigo had passed. Opening my eyes, I finally got a good look at my surroundings. I was standing atop an inclined hill that rose up overlooking what was at one time before the war, a lush forest. The dead trees of old however, now stood outnumbered by the new ones growing and thriving. Off in the distance beyond the forest, was a walled off town built around the crossroads of three separate lines of railroad tracks.

That town would be my first stop. I was sure that Charcoal would be there, or at least, somepony who’s seen him would hopefully be. One thing that did catch my eye though off in the distance, was a large metal tower with a broad communications dish atop it. The metal structure loomed like a lone sentinel, standing tall amidst a vast sea of green vegetation and greyish brown rocks.

The road down to the town, while long, was surprisingly safe and well worn. A few old overgrown rusted carts littered the sides of the path, the remnants of those who first entered the stable so long ago. Not to far from the cave did the path turn from dirt, into cracked and faded pavement. The forest’s trees towered high over me, and the ambient noise of birds chirping in their nests was the only sound to accompany my own hoofsteps. That is, until I got closer to the town.

Several loud noises accompanied a crowd of voices. Not quite the same hustle and bustle of a crowded stable, but it was most likely the equivalent, average sounds of a busy town. As I neared the wall made of train cars, A large painted sign overhead read JUNCTION 33. A fitting name considering how close it was to Stable 33. When I was a colt, my school teacher told me that when our Stable was opened for the first time since the war, many of the residents ventured out into the world and founded this town. Ever since, the relationship between traders of Junction 33 and the ponies who stayed in Stable 33 has been strong.

My eyes couldn’t help but wander between the several shops made from old trainyard buildings and train cars. Dozens of ponies moved about the town hurriedly, some of which were pulling loaded wagons and carts. A few did stop to look at me, but when I looked back they just went along with their business.

Since nopony has been out of my Stable, I can only assume that they think I traded for a spare jumpsuit. But what really caught my eye, was something I hadn’t noticed when walking here. Just outside one of the gates on the far side of town, sat what looked to be a large, old world yacht. It was an odd sight to see outside of town, being so far inland, but my only guess was that it had been dragged over here for its scrap.

On the inside of the town’s gate stood two very similar looking unicorns, both having tan coats and black manes, one of which wore a faded red bandana around his neck. The other unicorn bowed his head to the one with the red bandana and turned to leave. Moments later, a loud whine filled the air, and a gust of wind blew a wave of dust through the open gate. The large yacht slowly lifted up into the air, taking flight as all I did was stand there, presumably with my mouth hanging wide open. Tilting a bit, the flying boat turned toward the far off mountains and began to drift toward them.

With my brain just slightly broken from contemplating just what I’d watched, the other unicorn that had been at the gate turned around and walked right for one of the buildings. Turning my attention from the boat to the building, I found that it had a painted sign reading SUNSHINE CARAVANS OFFICE & SHOP. I shook my head and headed for the building, refocusing on my goal at hoof: find information on my little brother’s location.

As I entered the shop, the bell that had been hung above the door chimed softly. A lazy looking old ceiling fan spun slowly over the center of the crowded room. It wasn’t croweded with ponies, but instead with all sorts of junk and gear. Several shelves and displays around the place were lined with many different things, ranging from filled Sparkle Cola bottles to rocket launchers- wait, not Sparkle, it’s Sparple Cola? Wow, I’d known there were knock-off brands, but they really weren’t trying when naming that, were they?

At the back of the room was a counter. The unicorn I met earlier stood behind it, going over something on a clipboard. Okay, if my little brother snuck out in a shipment, maybe this guy’s one of the ponies who received him. As I walked up to the counter, the Unicorn looked up from his clipboard.

“Well well. Isn’t this a surprise. You’re from the Stable, I take it? The caravan we sent up there earlier did say that a part you fellas needed wasn’t with them.” The unicorn slid his clipboard to the side with a smile. “While I don’t keep that part in stock, maybe I can interest you in a few other things while you’re here?”

“Actually, I-” I began to say. But for the second time today, I was interrupted.

“In fact, we just received a new shipment of reactor parts. Not usually cheap, but I’m sure we can work out a deal.” The stallion went on, not seeming to notice when I deadpanned at him. “We also have a stockpile of water talismans. Even if yours isn’t broken, they’re fragile little things, and it’s better to be safe than sorry!”

I shook my head. “Actually I’m wondering if you’ve seen a small colt around. His coat is black with grey spots, and he has a brown mane, almost like peanut butter. Oh! And he also has one red eye and one blue eye.”

The stallion blinked before his smile fell away. “Oh, you’re not here for supplies then? Alright…” He looked over toward a staircase at the far end of the room. “Sis! We’ve got a Stable pony here looking for some colt or something!” He shouted loud enough to make me cringe.

My eyebrows raised as I too looked over to the stairs. A mare looking almost exactly like the stallion I’d been talking to shuffled down the staircase. While it wasn’t odd for ponies in the same family to share a common palette, what was really odd was the fact that she wore a rebreather mask over her muzzle.

“This better not be a waste of time… Who’s he looking for, Joker?” Her muffled voice came through her rebreather, followed by a long, bored sounding sigh.

“A colt with a black coat and grey spots. Says his hair looks like peanut butter and he has heterochromia.” The Unicorn next to me, Joker, replied. “One red eye and one blue.”

“Oh, he must mean that kid that I caught hiding in one of the crates earlier.” The mare said in a rather annoyed tone. “Yeah, I’ve seen him. Chased him off after I found him. He steal something from you? Seemed like the type.”

“No, he’s my brother. I’ve come to take him home.” My eye twitched as I fought the urge to slap her. But, that would be rash, and since they did see him, I needed their help.

“Really? Good luck. He’s probably either in the hooves of gangers or halfway to Shatterpoint Ridge by now.” Once again, the mare made me want to hit her. How can she be so uncaring when there’s a young colt gone missing!? “Can I go back to polishing my rifle now?”

“Yeah, I can take it from here.” Joker simply sighed. Turning to me, he tapped his chin softly with his forehoof. “I’m supposing you’ll want to know how to get to Shatterpoint Ridge, correct?”

“The obvious answer is yes. I’m not leaving my little brother out here alone.” I could feel my patience wearing thin. “Just point me in a direction.” Never had I before met anypony so rude and blunt before. It’s almost like they understand just how much family could mean to some ponies!

Joker shook his head at me. “I’m not sure how things are in your Stable, but out here it’s tit for tat. You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch your back.”

“Fine.” All I could do was sigh and keep myself from setting this whole room on fire in frustration. “What do you want?”

Joker smirked and leaned on the counter. “There’s a mine to the north-east with an underground reservoir. It’s where the town get’s most of it’s water from since we don’t have any fancy reactors or machinery that works with our surplus of water talismans. Some ferals moved in recently and damaged the equipment we use to pump the water.” He moved out from behind the counter, going to look over some of his shelves. “You Stable 33 ponies usually know how to fix things. So, how about you put that revolver on you to good use, and clear out the ferals. If you can also fix the pipeline, along with the information, I’ll throw in some caps or something extra as a bonus.”

“Alright, if that’s what you want, I’ll take care of it.” I said, feeling a bit of hope that the task may be simpler than I thought. “Anyone who’s worked on anything in a stable should know how to fix a few leaky pipes.” Though… these things called ‘ferals’ might pose a problem. Could he be talking about wild animals? If so, I’ll just fire off a few shots and scare them off. Simple.

“Splendid! I’ll be waiting here when you get back.” Joker said as a broad smile pulled across his muzzle. “Try to come back in one piece, you hear?”

I nodded and turned to leave. The sooner I got this done, the sooner I could be on my way, and the sooner I’d have my brother back.

To avoid getting lost, I was told to just follow the train tracks that lead north out of town. I followed it when the line split again, assuming that the one heading into the mountains runs right to the mine. It was a bit of a hike, but it only took me about an hour to get up to what looked like an old loading dock. Passed all the rusting ore carts and railroad bits, was an old wooden exterior that covered the entrance to the mine. Once outside the rickety old door, I unholstered my revolver with my magic and opened the door.

“Alright,let’s get this over with.” I said before firing off three shots into the darkness inside. I’d been hoping to scare away any wild creatures inside, but what actually happened was something that chilled the blood of even a full grown stallion like myself. Three glowy-eyed pony corpses sprinted out of the darkness, screeching and growling like mad.

Of course, like any sensible pony, I turned tail and ran.

“Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck!” I screamed as my legs carried me back toward the old loading dock. The hissing and screeching didn’t die down or grow distant. If anything, they sounded like they were gaining on me. I flipped my revolver around in my magic and fired the remaining three shots left in the cylinder. Once the clicking noise reached my ears and signalled that I was out of ammo, I went into full-on panic mode.

Reloading while running for your life was not as easy as old books and movies made it out to be. I probably managed to drop at least a quarter of one of the boxes of ammo I brought with me. But I couldn’t care about that now, just had to keep running and...

My hoof caught on something and I was sent tumbling end over end. I’d have scrapes and bruises to deal with later, but only if I could recover from this! Once I came to a stop, I quickly flipped myself over. By a completely glorious accident, I activated a mostly ignored function of my pipbuck.

S.A.T.s. Time slowed down to a crawl as the old world spell worked inside my pipbuck. The drooling maws of the zombified ponies to look even more horrifying in the altered time, but it gave me precious time to act. With a solid 80% chance to hit for each, I targeted each of their heads. My dad’s old revolver began to aim itself within my red aura. The spell guided my attacks, firing a single shot at the three creatures’ heads. Two shots hit their mark perfectly, blasting holes through two of the corpse’s skulls. One shot, however, missed completely and I soon found my hoof getting gnawed on by a snarling...thing.

I screamed out in both fear and pain. The thing’s teeth managed to take a chunk out of my Stable jumpsuit sleeve and dig gouging lacerations into my hoof. I manually pointed the revolver right at the thing’s noggin and fired the remaining three shots into it. The zombie’s jaw unclenched from around my leg as it slumped over. Blackened and putrid gore dripped down from half the remaining skull it still had. My heart pounded furiously and my lungs were working overtime thanks to my hyperventilating.

Valentine was certainly right, I wasn’t ready because this was nothing like training was.

After taking several minutes to calm myself and tend to my wound as best I could, I stood up and limped my way back towards the mine. Once I find my brother, I thought, we’re going back to Stable 33 and -never- leaving again. The sad fact that I wished I could ignore was, those things probably weren’t the worst thing I’d have to face before returning home. And if I could barely deal with them, what chance did Charcoal have?

Once inside the mine, I followed the old piping that hung along the walls until I reached a dug-out archway. Beyond was a large cavern with a murky pond taking up two thirds of the floor. Above it, sat an opening where a small waterfall poured fresh water if from somewhere else in the mountains.

“This would be a nice place to just rest. Too bad I don’t have time for it.” I sighed to myself.

The problem Joker had sent me up here for was immediately noticeable. One of the pipes had been gnawed almost in two. It was assumedly by one of those walking corpses, even if I didn’t know why it would, or how a creature like it even existed in the first place. Still, I got to work on trying to fix it.

I sighed and turned one of the valves to stop the flow of water before getting to the patchwork. My magical aura held the two halves of pipe together, while my horn acted as a makeshift welding tool. Since I didn’t have anything to shield my eyes, I simply closed them and hoped I did the job correctly. After a few failed attempts, the two halves welded back together. It was going to be a temporary fix, but I wasn’t hired to do anything more than fix it right now.

After making sure the pipe was sturdy, I turned the valve once again and the sound of rushing water met my ears. I smirked, contented in my work, and ready to get back to town. Alright, time to head back and get that information…

The journey back to town, while longer than it should have been thanks to my limp, was thankfully rather uneventful. The bell chimed again as I entered Joker’s shop. He was still sitting behind the counter, but had taken to reading a yellowed old world magazine. When I approached the counter, Joker looked up and smiled.

“Well, color me impressed. The wastelander in the making has returned. ” Joker looked at my sour expression and my noticeably bandaged leg. “I hope those ferals didn’t give you too much trouble. You’re lucky you aren’t missing more than part of your sleeve and a bit of flesh, you know.”

“You should’ve said they weren’t just wild animals…” My tone was of course, more than slightly bitter, but the ass deserved it.

Joker tilted his head and looked confused for a moment. “When did I ever say they were wild animals? Surely that Stalker fellow in the stable has told you ponies up there about feral ghouls.” While I did somewhat remember being told about something similar, how was I supposed to know what they looked like or how they acted? None of us in the stable ever thought that anything in that old stallion’s stories would actually help anypony at some point.

“Whatever. ” I grumbled, looking and feeling rather defeated. I hadn’t even been out here for the whole day and the wasteland was already getting exhausting. “How do I get to Shatterpoint Ridge?”

Joker smiled and leaned forward on the counter “South-west, though you won’t make it there before nightfall. Trust me, you don’t want to be wandering about out on the plains at night.”

“And why’s that?” I tilted my head with a grunt. “More ferals?”

“Yes and no.” Joker moved out from behind the counter and headed the back room, raising his voice again as he left my line of sight. “Packs of feral ghouls are only one part of the problem. There’s groups of gangers, roaming bands of hellhounds, scorpions and manticores… you name it, it’s out there at night. While we aren’t cursed with the cloud cover of the north, unless there’s a full moon out, it’s still harder to see at night here in the south.”

After about a minute in the back room, he trotted back out, carrying an odd looking weapon in his magic. “Besides, it’d be quicker to just catch a ride from one of the trains that pass through here every morning. Not exactly cheap, but it’s a hell of a lot safer than going on your own, and faster to boot.” Joker set the odd weapon on the counter and slid it towards me. “Here’s the bonus I promised you. It’s an old crossbow that some Zebra dropped off to be repaired a while back. He never returned to claim it, so it’s just been collecting dust in the back room.”

I looked the crossbow over. “Don’t crossbows require arrows?” I asked, not seeing a single arrow on the counter.

“No, they require bolts, which I can sell you. Lucky for you, I even have a special saddlebag/quivver combo I made myself. Was thinking of wearing it and using this beauty myself, but found out I can’t aim one of these to save my life.” He cupped his chin again and rubbed at it. “It’s yours for, let’s say... thirty caps.” Joker said before his muzzle was split again with a grin. “Ah hell, you’ve been understanding so far, so I’ll even throw in the bolts for free. But you’ve gotta come back and do some shopping here once you find your brother or whatever.”

All I could do was deadpan at that. “So, you’re giving me a weapon for doing a job for you, but you will make me pay for what I need to even use it?”

“Oh that’s not true.” Joker shrugged and rolled his eyes. “It still makes a decent club if you don’t have arrows. And I just told you, I’m throwing in the bolts for free, didn’t I?” He laughed. “Tell you what. You pay for this, and I’ll even throw in a place for you to stay tonight, as well as a ride on one of the cars…” Pausing, he gave me a look that downright made me uncomfortable. “however, if you agree to be in debt to me, and I’ll be able to call it in at any time.”

I facehoofed. “Fine, I’ll take the deal.” Even merchants back in the Stable weren’t this shifty. Still, I could deal with doing another job, and I could pay off any caps I owed. All that mattered to me was finding my brother, everything else was secondary to that.

“Good boy.” Joker grinned and floated the saddlebag and quivver onto the counter. As he did, he raised a hooffull of bolts up and stuck them inside the quivver as well. “You know, has anypony told you that you’re kind of cute when you’re pissed?” All I could do was groan at that. “Spare room’s upstairs and to the left, make yourself at home.”

Choosing to ignore his comment about me being cute, I nodded with a sigh and grabbed everything in my magic. I limped my way up the stairs, and turned left down a short hallway. The room I’d be staying in for the night had one musty old bed, a bedside table with a filled oil lamp on it, and an old desk pressed up against the far wall. While I didn’t like the idea of delaying, me running off into the wilds tonight and getting myself killed wouldn’t help anypony.

I flopped onto the bed and lay there, staring up at the wooden ceiling. My mind was restless, and it wouldn’t be night time for at least another hour or two. I tugged off my stable jumpsuit, choosing to just lay it at the end of the bed for now. Flopping down to lay on the bed, I used my magic to unhook my things and float them over to the desk. Might as well try to get some rest at least. If I’d thought this place was exhausting in this short amount of time, then I probably was going to have the more tiring day in existance tomorrow...

I woke with a start as I heard a loud whistle ring through the air. Wait, did Carbon get a new alarm clock? I rolled over and reached for the mare of my dreams, only to be met with the musty smell of my empty bed. I opened my eyes to see that I was not in Carbon’s apartment, or back in Stable 33. I was still in the spare room Joker had lent to me.

“Oh, that means…” Damnit. It wasn’t all just a horrible dream then. My brother really did leave the Stable, I really did get attacked by something called a feral ghoul, and I really am in debt to some asshole that owns a shop.

“Wake up sleeping beauty.” The filtered voice of a mare caught my ears. “Your Train Car leaves in ten minutes. I wouldn’t miss it if I were you.” I rubbed my eyes and sat up, finding that Joker’s sister was sitting in the open doorway. “Don’t let the caps my brother wasted on you actually be wasted.”

“Yeah yeah, let me just get dressed…” I replied, looking around for my jumpsuit. Once I noticed it wasn’t where I set it on my bed, I frowned. “Where’s my Stable barding?”

“Joker has it downstairs. Said he wanted to make some modifications.” The mare said with a roll of her eyes as she stood up. “The name’s Trapshot by the way.” As she was leaving, she glared at me. “Just so you know the name of the mare who’s gonna kick your ass should you break your deal with my brother.” Lovely family. One’s a shifty salespony and one’s a violent bitch.

“My name is Ember Blaze.” I said as I focused on collecting up my belongs. “Pleasure meeting…” I paused my sarcastic response to find that she’d already gone. Whatever.

I got up and gathered the rest of my stuff into my new saddle bags. I didn’t plan on putting it on before I had my barding back however, so instead I headed downstairs. Joker was sitting behind the counter, still reading the magazine from yesterday. My Stable barding lay on the counter with, as Trapshot had said, some new additions. Along the forelegs and shoulders, he’d attached metal plates held on by various leather straps. The hole that the ghoul had torn in my sleeve was stitched up, though it was quite noticeable that there had been repairs done to it.

My aura wrapped around the barding and levitated it up over my head. I pulled it on. The straps were surprisingly straightforward in their placement. Tightening the straps only just a bit made sure that the armor plates wouldn’t shift around at all when I moved. Lifting everything else up, I slid on my saddlebag, quivver, my back leg holster for my revolver, and lastly my new crossbow, strapping the new weapon onto my back. Again, it’s leather strap was easy to adjust, and I tightened it to the point where it wouldn’t slip over my saddlebag and get in the way of my legs.

“Good luck, don’t die.” Joker said through the magazine his muzzle was still buried in. “Come back soon, or I’ll have my sister find and drag you back.”

Without saying anything, I left the shop. Seriously, once I paid this guy back, I was never going to deal with him or his sister again. But none of that mattered, not until I found my brother.

In the middle of town, an old Train boxcar with a motor attached to the back sat being filled with crates and other objects by worker ponies. The odd vehicle was quite big and boxy, but didn’t look like the trains that I learned about back in school. Other than the obvious makeshift nature of it, it just seemed to be this one car long.

The few ponies who looked like they were passengers, seemed to be hopping aboard without waiting in a line or anything. Following their lead, I trotted up and hopped aboard. Once inside, I saw that at one end of the cart, the crates had been stacked quite high, leaving very little room for anypony to sit or stand on. On the other end of the train however, a few skycart seats had been bolted into the floor, and the ponies who got on ahead of me were taking their seats in them. Unfortunately, there weren’t enough seats on here, and being one of the last on, I found myself having to stand for the journey.

Just past the chairs was a chair and electronic console. Past that was a cutout section in the metal of the boxcar’s front. The scratched and blotchy glass pane that had been sloppily epoxied to the metal over the hole, meant that the seat there was where I assumed the driver of this train would be sitting. Overall, it was… disconcerting how rickety and slapped together this train felt, but Joker was right in that it would probably be safer than walking.

Last to board after me, was a pair of ponies. The first of the two to climb on was a very white unicorn mare with a messy blue mane, who was quickly followed by a purple pegasus stallion with a black mane.

“...I’m just saying, taking this job is just suicide!” The pegasus said with obvious distress in his voice.

“Chill, big bro. We’ve taken harder jobs, Hunter.” The unicorn replied as she stepped away from the edge.

“But to clear the Wildmanes out of their own home base?” Hunter quickly responded, raising his voice enough to call the attention of those in the seats. “That’s insane, Dusk!”

““C’mon, it’ll be fun!” Taking a seat on one of the crates, Dusk smirked at her pegasus companion. “Besides, it pays well.”

“Paying well or not isn’t the point!“” Hunter facehoofed “Shatterpoint Ridge is very defensible.” Wait, Shatterpoint Ridge? “One pegasus and one unicorn won’t be able to take on an entire gang. Even if we can surprise them, they have the high ground.”

“Excuse me, did you say Shatterpoint Ridge?” I moved up and asked the pegasus known as Hunter. That’s where Trapshot said Charcoal was going. Maybe I could enlist them to help me!

“Yeah...” Hunter blinked and eyed me up and down. “My insane sister thinks it’s a good idea to take a job that involves wiping out the gang that lives there.” Squinting, he looked to freeze up for a moment with a nervous smile. “Uhhhh… you aren’t one of them, are you?”

“Do you think it’s possible I could tag along?” I smiled. “My brother supposedly went that way, so I could help you with your job, no need for a share of the reward or anything..” If Shatterpoint Ridge was full of ‘gangers’, and they’re as dangerous as Joker had made the ghouls out to be, then I’d definitely need the help of these ponies to deal with them and find my brother.

Dusk slid off of the crate she was sitting on, narrowing her eyes at me. “Never met a pony who’d not want part of a reward.’ Hesitating, she glared at me. “What’s your game?”

I frowned “Game? I’m not playing any game.”

“Then why do you want to help us with our job?” Hunter asked, wearing the same expression his sister had.

I sighed. “As I said, my little brother went that way. He might even be there, and if these Wildmanes are as dangerous as everypony makes them out to be, I could use all the help I could get.” It’s probably not a good idea to give up info about one’s goals to strangers, but honestly, I could really use their help. And of course, the easiest way I was going to get that, is if I was honest with them. Well, I’d hoped it would be the easiest way, as I didn’t have much else to offer them.

“That barding isn’t just something you bought, is it?” Dusk raised an eyebrow at me. “You’re a Stable pony, aren’t you?”

I blinked “Just because I wear a jumpsuit-”

“It’s not because of the jumpsuit. It’s because you’re quick to tell total strangers your goal.” Dusk sighed. Welp, I should have figured if I knew it was a bad idea, then they obviously would’ve caught on to that. “But we’ll help you out. Besides, maybe having the extra gun will put Hunter here at ease a little bit. Worst case scenario, we can use you as bait.” While not reassuring that I could be used as bait, I was glad Dusk had agreed to help.

One of the worker ponies slid the car door shut with a slam, and shortly after the motor on the back of the boxcar fired up. Soon, the driver had the train car moving down the tracks and picking up speed. A window had been cut into the door of the car, and I walked over to it as we started our journey.

Rolling past outside, I saw green hills stretching as far as the eye could see away from the mountains. Way off in the distance, several more towers like the one I saw just south of Junction 33 could be seen. Just under them however, was something… odd. A vast expanse of blue ran all the way from between the green hills, stretching itself all the way far off on the horizon.

Dusk nudged me with a smirk “That’s the ocean by the way.” The… ocean? Huh, I guess that made sense. The old equestrian map did have oceans around it, but I never thought that Stable 33 was so close to one. “Bet it’s cool to see for the first time, considering where you come from.”

I had to agree with her. While I couldn’t agree with Charcoal leaving, I was now starting to understand why he left. For the better part of my life, we’d been content living in a Stable, oblivious to the wide world out here. Honestly, when this is all over, part of me knows that I’m going to miss all of this.

Though, the feral ghouls I could really live without missing one bit...

After a good half an hour of traveling, the green soon gave way to more and more brown and red rocks. The only plants I could see outside now looked blackened and dead. Instead of grass everywhere, there were boulders littering the ground. When the train car began to slow down, I turned and trotted up to the driver’s seat. “Are we there already?”

“No. There’s a bit of a problem on the track ahead.” The driver pony just looked at me.

I did my best to squint through the glass window the driver used to see what was ahead of us, but found my attention pulled elsewhere when ponies opened the door behind me.

The train car door rattled open, and a few worker ponies hopped out. Wanting to find out what had us stopped, I headed back to the opening and hopped out as well. In front of the train car, about five ponies wearing odd barding had dragged the wrecked husk of a skycart onto the tracks. One of them walked forward, a grin on his face exposing several rotted and black teeth.

“Howdy! Don’t know if y’all got our memo, but frankly, I don’t care.” The stallion gave a pat to the holster he wore on his side and gave a little laugh. “Ta pass beyond this point, y’all gotta pay a toll. So, give up any caps y’all might have an’ leave a few of those crates ya got in there.”

One of the worker ponies walked to the front. “You can’t do this. These supplies are for the Sidney-” The pony was interrupted when a gunshot rang out and a sizeable hole was made in the guy’s head. The other passengers screamed, and I jumped as my jaw fell in shock. The stallion’s body thumped to the ground, and his blood dribbled out onto the dry, cracked dirt. One of the ponies standing next to the lead stallion racked the bolt of a shoddy looking rifle before aiming it at me.

“That ain’t tha answer I want ta hear.” The smirking pony gave another amused chuckle. “Either y’all pay tha toll, or y’all get dead.”

Another gunshot rang out, but this time it wasn’t any of ours this time that fell over. It was the prick that killed the stallion.

“Sorry, but we’ll have to decline.” Dusk had said from behind me. “Now, how about you move that large hunk of metal out of the way so we can get going?”

Honestly, what happened next was to be expected, and I found myself standing in the middle of a warzone. Several of the remaining worker ponies either climbed back inside the cart or got shot and fell over. I, however, managed to scramble behind the boxcar along with Dusk. I quickly drew my father’s old revolver and tried to calm my breathing. My second day out in the wasteland, and of course, I was already in another fight! Today was going to be a long day, if I survived it at all that is.

Hunter, it would seem, had taken to the sky. He was making long swooping arcs, and was firing down at the bandit ponies who had taken cover behind their skycart. Meanwhile, Dusk looked like she was having the time of her life sitting next to me. She kept peeking around the cart and firing back, shouting all sorts of profanity and insults their way. Me on the other hoof, so far, had only been cowering with my gun out.

I quickly peeked my head around the corner. I only saw that two ponies were exposed a bit before I had to duck back behind the car. Sparks flew as a bullet pinged off the metal where my head had just been. If I was going to fight, I’d have to be quick about it. Lucky for me, I had just the thing to help!

I quickly popped back out from cover again. Activating S.A.T.S, I queueing up all six shots, and divided them equally among the two that were currently exposed. Two for each head, and one in each chest. When I released the spell, my revolver moved into place and fired. The first two shots missed, but the third hit home. The round punched right in the chest of the first pony I had targeted, and his outline faded away from the spell.

My revolver swung it’s aim over at the other pony. Again, the spell fired. All three shots zipped out, punching right into his neck and, to my surprise, lighting poor bastard on fire. The third shot landing in his chest only saved him the trouble of painfully burning by stopping his heart right then and there.

Once the spell ended, I quickly pulled back behind the car and looked at my revolver. Now I understood the weird flame markings on the side… this thing must have been enchanted! Oh, am I glad nopony in my family lost this thing throughout the years!

It was about then that I looked up from my gun, noting just how quiet it’d become. From the sound of hooves hitting the ground, and the sudden appearance of Hunter joining Dusk and I, the fight must’ve been over.

“Nice shooting, for a Stable pony.” Hunter patted me on the shoulder as I quickly stood up and holstered my revolver. “Maybe we’ll stand more of a chance with you around after all.”

From behind me, Dusk nudged me “How’s about you and I help the workers to get that skycart off of the tracks so we can continue?” she asked with a smirk. I nodded my head and followed her to the front of the now bullet hole ridden train car.

While Dusk and I helped the still living workers slowly slide the rusting hulk off of the tracks, Hunter was moving the bodies of the bandits. And then… going through their stuff? Not what my first thought would be, but I did remember that Stalker said something about wasteland ponies having to scavenge to survive. Plus, it’s not like they were going to use any of that stuff anymore. Once the skycart was off the tracks, the three of us walked back to the train car.

“You know,” Dusk nudged me. “I just thought you were all talk and no bite. Glad I was wrong.” she said with a wink.

I rolled my eyes and stepped into the train car. Soon, we were moving again through the countryside towards Shatterpoint Ridge. Towards Charcoal.

--Chapter End--

“If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.”

Quests Finished: Junction Blues

Quests Started: Shatterpoint

Levels Earned: 1 → 2

Perks Earned: Rapid Reload - You can now reload your firearms at a faster pace!