Fallout Equestria: Prospector

Fallout: Equestria

Prospector

By Shukin

Chapter 3 – Purifying Flames

“We’ll cauterize it.”

I looked to the sky through the cracks in the ceiling, noticing the orange light barely capable of crossing the shroud of clouds, signaling the start of the evening. Little by little, the light that crossed the cracks on the boards of the ruins faded, hiding us in the shadow of the day. My leg wasn’t that bad anymore, the healing potion making its part. To compensate, it used the same healing potion I’d drink for my ribs, the last one actually. Oh, well. I finished the sparkle~cola and got up, throwing the bottle away and walking (and I actually could do it, thanks to the healing potion) over Rosy Coral and Brilliant Prickle. They were at the wall ‘entrance’, looking at the distance and talking about what looked like nightsticks. Prickle waved his’ with his front leg cheerfully, animated with the conversation, when I simply interrupted them sitting beside Coral.

“You’re the worst cock block, man.” Prickle whispered, holding his laughter. Coral hit him some times after that, laughing as well. I smiled at them, remembering when we were foals, and went right back to myself.

“We need to get going. In the darkness, they’ll not see us approaching.” I said. “And I don’t think they’ll imagine we’ll still attack, despite knowing we’re around somewhere.” I checked my inventory sorter in the Pipbuck as I spoke, noting and accounting for every medic supply we had. It wasn’t much… Was it enough? By the looks in Coral’s face, it better be. She got up and checked the ammo of her shotgun. I had near fifty bullets; it should be enough to protect us.

“We need to do this, the Wasteland needs it.” Coral muttered, jumping over the dropped wall that earlier saved our lives. They weren’t that far by now, and I could see through the glass scope (something I’ll keep for a good time) that there weren’t a new sentry. I didn’t even strap Stitches in my back, it was only a little walk until the entrance of the city. “I’ll go through the south, Prickle goes through the north and Patchie snipes them over the hill, alright?”

“Who died and made you leader?” Prickle joked. The way Coral stared at him probably made him regret about that. I just nodded, giving a little dash to the top of the hill, which gave a good view of the city. “Try not to make much noise, at least. We don’t need the whole city in our backs.” I noticed the buildings, seven in total, one of them already burnt to a crisp. There were at least seven raiders in the streets and, by my E.F.S., a hell lot more inside the buildings.

“Hey,” I whispered to them before they moved away. “Be careful.” They nodded and I smiled, turning back my attention to my function. The two green dots slowly appeared in my vision, each by their own side. I used the scope to observe Prickle driving his newly-stolen spear impale a unicorn raider and drag the corpse behind one of the buildings. I turned to Coral and saw her choking one of them with a bandage. “C’mon, Coral, these are for first-aid…” At the balcony of a convenience store, it looked like one of the raiders noticed their approach.

The smile didn’t leave my face as the 5mm bullet splattered his brains in the wall before him, silencing at least one of them. Again, Prickle got a little bit of predicament, fighting two other raiders with rusty knives in their mouth. I took my time and timed my shot in one of the forelegs just before the attack of the white-colored pony, which drove the spear through the neck of that one and used the nightstick to finish off the second. Oh, look, another one in the rooftops. Looks like they’ve noticed the attack, as the red dots in the E.F.S. were crazy. I held my breath and shot the other sharpshooter, missing closely. “Oh.” He took a rifle and shot at my direction like the crazy pony he is, enough to stop my aim. I slid from the top of the hill while reloading back my rifle, with only two chambers full. My leg started aching again, so I took a shot of Med-X and sprinted to where Coral dropped the strangled body.

She’d be a pretty beautiful earth pony if she weren’t a raider, and I noticed her spiked cutie mark. Yeah, not a good pony, alright. I leaned off my cover, floating Stitches in front of me, searching for some- oh, I hit somepony with the tip of the barrel, and he’s not very happy with it. I jumped back when he swing the baseball bat he used, at least four rusty nails in its tip, all of them looking painful enough for me to want to dodge it at all costs. From my saddlebags, I pulled the revolver from that other raider and shot him in the chest, giving me enough time and space to finish him off with a bullet in the temple. The red dots disappeared one by one as I entered the building that raider came from.

Numerous bunks were aligned and distributed through the common room, blood riddled their sheets and huge bags of gore were disposed in its corners. That raider with a laser pistol hadn’t enough time even to blink before the golden bullet splattered bone and brain where his head was moments ago. I let out my breath and focused the S.A.T.S. Three dots, two of them behind the walls of bunks and another one surprised, turning in my direction as drips of blood splattered from his partner to her face. The red unicorn threw one of her sharpened rods against me, too slowly.

Another shot, another kill. I threw myself to the side and flipped one of the mattresses, using it for cover against the numerous bullets that sought my flesh. I felt more hot lead pushing against my barding, finally helping me with its protection, and used the revolver through the foam to suppress them.

Floating the mattress was too troublesome for me, and my racing heart made sure I breathed as fast as I could. I heard the faint click of an empty magazine and dropped the cover, with enough S.A.T.S. for one precise kill. The magic had to regenerate for a few seconds before I used it again, some seconds I couldn’t wait… Or I could, the other raider, an earth pony, looked like he was out of ammo and sprinted to the laser pistol of his former comrade. I just had to line my shot for an easy kill.

Then I felt my left hind leg failing on me.

The burning sensation I felt around the wound wasn’t common. It wasn’t a bullet. Something was inside me, still moving, tearing through my muscle and reaching my bone. I let myself to scream of pain. The red-hot metal sticking out of my leg dropped me and my aim, making me waste a perfectly-good bullet in the ceiling. I rolled to my right, my little pony constantly reminding me that my leg was at fifteen percent functionality, adorning a pretty red glow to it. I emptied Stitches in my attacker without a second thought.

A laser shot passed dangerously close to my head, followed by four others without the same luck. I didn’t have time to do anything. I couldn’t get up, not with that leg, nor roll under one of the bunks, the metal rod made sure of that. With a flick of magic, Stitches’ barrel opened up, raining six hot capsules in my torso. In a row, each chamber was filled with another 5mm bullet. I closed my eyes after a too-close-for-my-comfort shot burned the tip of my tail. Always with the tail!

Where once was a lavender earth pony head, now stood as a stump, the head itself rolling few foots across the room. I tried to relax and let my breath go free, but it’s impossible to relax with a damn metal rod through your leg. I opened my medical saddlebag and my magic bandages rolled through the floor. I knew better to just pull the makeshift spear. I wanted to say that I was pretty controlled with the whole ordeal, healing my leg and getting over it. I only noticed I was screaming bloody hell after my throat became sore and I was making the fourth row of bandages.

My display now showed thirty-five percent of use, enough for me to stand up on my own, not enough to keep fighting. Did I have a choice? I reloaded the two bullets used earlier to save my flank from the blind raider with the laser pistol and injected Med-X onto myself, my PipBuck gently informing me that I only had one more.

Without missing a beat, I sprinted to the last building, the one that was fuller of red dots, the same that both Coral and Prickle were directing themselves to. “What’s with the leg?” Prickle questioned, receiving no answer. It wasn’t time to talk. I told them of the sheer numbers inside that convenience store, at least twelve without counting overlapping dots. Before we went guns blazing, I reloaded the revolver and chugged down a healing potion. I couldn’t see any kind of blood on them beside not theirs.  I was clearly the worst fighter of the trio.

Without a word, we stormed the place. A kick from Prickle broke the door in pieces, both Coral and me emptying our guns in the three raiders that were expecting us. I turned to my left side while reloading the turning chambers in a single line of bullets. I heard bullet after bullet sliding Coral’s shotgun before the E.F.S. gone crazy. “How the he—They’re multiplying!” I stuttered, trying to make sense of the blinking red dots in the compass. My hearing tricked me, hoofsteps coming from every direction. I backed until colliding with both my friend’s flank, the Med-X slowly breaking its effect down.

There were two parallel rooms, one that leaded to a staircase for the second floor, the other leading to the basement. The raiders were coming from everywhere, including places where there wasn’t any door, like behind the counter. I couldn’t understand from where they were coming, and that made me frightened. “From where, Patchie?!”

“I don’t know!”

Well, at least they were kind enough to answer her, and a rain of steel, gunpowder and lead poured onto us. I couldn’t hear anymore, my first reflex to drop to the ground (and I’d regret that for hours, said the pulsation that came from my leg moments later) and activate S.A.T.S. I didn’t have enough bullet-time to look around me when two unicorns armed with rifles emptied their magazines over our heads. By sheer luck, one of my bullets hit the red one’s rifle, breaking it into pieces. I swear I could hear his screams and swears.

I could hear, or barely, the shotgun beside me kicking its pellets against soon-to-be corpses, and I could clearly feel Prick’s flank touching my wounded leg. I slide one of the pistols of our previous encounter alongside me, giving him something to do in that chaos. “Point to pony, pull trigger!” I was sure he wouldn’t listen to my words, but I said them anyway. Couldn’t lost a joke, see? Well, so is the universe, as the second bullet for the red unicorn hit only his ear, blood as scarlet as his spiked mane running down his ‘armor’.

I aimed Stitches to the wall beside the arch they used as cover when the brown unicorn started reloading, oblivious to what would hit him. I shot through the wooden wall, hitting him somewhere between his torso and flank.  Just to make sure, I shot more three times, emptying its chambers. What would be my surprise when a metallic apple rolled through the door I killed both the unicorns, crossing the shop to our direction? I questioned what would be theirs when I rolled it back, the explosion creating a new arch for us to walk through over wood, splinters and body parts.

I sprinted to the open wall, noticing I didn’t give any ammo to Prickle. I wouldn’t stop to float my gun for every cap in the whole world, so I threw it the nice and old way: Bit inside my saddlebag and flicked my head in his general direction with two clips of twelve bullets each, one of them lacking seven.

I couldn’t stop for a second, already shoving down bullets in a raider upstairs, and his limp body rolling them down. It keeps on happening, I laughed to myself. Two grenades, I noticed, strapped to his armor. By the pins. Who the hell does that? As I unstrapped them using the rest of the wall as cover from the bullets that failed to find their original targets, I noticed the raider’s cutie mark: A bent nail. Well, somepony for everything, I thought.

One of them I gladly rolled to Coral, while the other I kept to myself. Limping up the stairs, I found two more earth ponies with the same red-hot metal rod that got me unprepared earlier. I’m not up to let that happen again. I dropped the metal apple and shot two times against the closest one, blood dripping from the wounds in his chest and his body comically dropping, dead. The other, though, were in a full-sprint with the crude weapon, forcing me to activate S.A.T.S. just to dodge, throwing myself against the wall and letting he pass through me. Without missing a beat, I shoved a bullet in each hindleg. I finished him off with the revolver before he had time to scream.

I was interrupted through my reloading when the ground shook underneath me from the explosion. Probably Coral found the apple. There were two rooms in the second floor; I kicked the first one down the corridor just to encounter a ruined bedroom. Before my first step, a stray bullet went through the wooden floor and broke down a mirror. Yeah, I’ll not enter it before everything settles down.

The second door was open, containing three more grenades over a workbench. I took them quickly and went back to the first floor, having a clear shot in an earth pony that I could not miss. Myself had killed five raiders, plus the five Coral and Prickle took out, or they killed some more with the grenade because… well, their bodies were everywhere, so I’m cool with it. “Still, the E.F.S. didn’t stop… Why would it?”

“I don’t care… Let’s do it.” She said, grabbing one of the whiskeys from behind the counter and biting off its cork.

“There’s still ponies under us, Coral, we can’t just burn th—“

“Are any of them friendly?” She interrupted me, staring blankly. I sighed. “This is a wound in the face of Equestria, and they only deserve what will be brought to them.” And kept throwing the orange liquor everywhere, dousing alcohol in the building.

“…This is a wound, right?” I looked at my wounded leg, my little pony kindly telling me it’s just 27% functional. I sighed. “Well… We’ll cauterize it.”

=-=-=-=

I saw each red dot flailing around the compass as the flames consumed the whole building. From time to time, little explosions were heard from inside the burning convenience store, blinking many of them out of existence. I sighed, mending a bullet wound to Prickle’s chest, a pellet lodged near his shoulder. The golden glow grew solid as I strapped back his barding.

Coral stood dangerously close to the fire, just waiting, staring at its destructive force. She finished at least two ponies that tried to run from the hell of flames. “What about the pistol?” I strapped the revolver to the holster in the security barding, as he was getting more and more useful for fast kills. We couldn’t even catch the ammo from those raiders we killed in the now-burning building.

“Crap.” He threw it back to me and I floated it back to my saddlebags. “I prefer the good ol’ stick.” Prickle punctuated with a little pat in his spear. We observed her obsession to the flames struck with awe and a pint of fear. Looks like not even Prickle understood her reasons to be so angry with that. I took one for the team and yelled at her:

“Coral, come here a second!” She didn’t listen. I approached her cautiously, the heat coming from the building making me sweat profusely. Still, I had to ask her. “Why?”

She just repeated me. I didn’t know if I still wanted the answer. “Mom. She died around here. Those monsters probably… ate her…”  I could hear the shock in her voice, punctuating the end of the conversation when she bit and threw a Molotov cocktail to the next building. I looked to the pile of whiskey bottles with rags dripping in alcohol made by her and, without a second thought, I helped her. It was arson… but just.

From inside the common room, I could hear Prickle’s voice calling for me. I let Coral alone for a moment, in her own kind of treatment, and limped to his encounter. Inside one of the parallel rooms of the common house, a dusty terminal with broken monitor waited for my PipBuck. “She told me you could help with these.” Prickle gave a light tap to its side. “It’s functional, but the monitor is beyond repair.” I didn’t even need to examine it to see why: Somepony had thrown a brick through it.

“Stable-Tec does pretty sturdy tech, huh…” I glanced back to my PipBuck, connecting it to the terminal. It demanded a password, and, just to complicate things, it only had one remaining try. I scrolled through the terminal, searching for a pair of brackets, just to realize any existing one was available… And, without a screen—“I only have one chance. If I turn off the terminal to restart the tries, it’ll probably not turn on again…”

“So do it already.”

“Working on it.” I glanced to the anterior choices. There were five possible words still in the screen, three of them finishing in ‘ING’. This time, one of the anterior choices negated that. Two words… I wasn’t the luckiest pony around, and I didn’t want to screw everything because of a poor choice… So to blame somepony else! “Prickle, ‘CANTERLOT’ or ‘EVERYPONY’?” He muttered something in the lines of ‘canterpony’… “’CANTERLOT’ it is, then!” I pressed the button.

Well, I already expected being locke—wait, it worked! “It worked! Nice try, Prick!” sarcasm dripped from my words, hiding part of my own anxiety to read whatever contained in the terminal. What could it be? An impressive blueprint of an ancient awesome weapon? Instructions for an ancient, impressive and awesome treasure? An answer to life, universe and everything else? It slowly opened up and… “It’s a map. And a grocery list.”

“You’re kidd-“

“I kid you not.” I showed him the information. Much maize was brought to the place marked in the map, huh? It was marked at least a day of trot north, with the conspicuous name of “Delivery Site”. “I think it’s worth a check, it’s more than a ton of food that might be edible…”

“If, and only if, somepony else didn’t get to it first.” He answered.

“Well… Did you get their weapons?” I looked around, noticing the whole bunch of corpses everywhere. Not only those raiders were occupying a cannibal ghost city, they were following its old costumes. He just nodded positively. “…Let’s burn this down, then. Nothing should remain. I’ve already downloaded it, no need to keep this terminal intact.”

The whole city. Everything was put into flames, from food (specially pony meat) to weapons to shelters. Nopony else would use that place, nopony would succumb to its sins. Well, maybe the skies were happy with our act of purity… Because it fucking opened itself and two Enclave ships flew in the flaming city’s direction.

It was hard to not notice a brand new light suddenly flashing in our heads and going out again. “Damn, Enclave! North, Coral, north!” I pulled her from her trance with a bite to the saddlebags, literally pulling her to the right direction. I drank down an anesthetic potion while running away, hoping the wall of flames and smoke would cover our exit.

“What the hell are the Enclave doing here?!” Prickle pushed his shoulder into mine, forcing me to lean over him and helped me to run. I threw away the bottle and took a big breath.

“Whatever it is, it’s not a good thing!"

S: 3

P: 4

E: 3

C: 4

I: 9

A: 5

L: 5

Tags: Medicine, Science, Guns.

Traits: Trigger Discipline, Heavy Handed.

Level: 3 (Level Up!)

Perks: Rapid Reload, Quick Saddlebags (New!)

**Quick Saddlebags:* The pony is twice as fast to manipulate items inside his saddlebags.*