Foe Hie Odyssey

Raiders in the Dark 3: Morals

I rested with my head in my hands.  The only sound I could hear was the low breathing of the mare on the cot and the rain outside.  Approaching hoofsteps brought me out of my stupor.  I looked up to see Black Hawke slowly walking toward me.  “Can’t sleep either?”  I grunted the affirmative, but otherwise gave no answer.  The pegasus nodded, I noticed that she wasn’t wearing her battle saddle and her sleek form rippled with muscle.  “How is she doing?” asked my friend gesturing towards the cot where Willow was recovering.

“Not well.  She’s been out for a while.  I’m not surprised.  After all that she’s gone through,” I shrugged, “I’d have passed out too.”  My voice was hollow.  It would have been so much easier if this raider, Willow, had not spoken up for me.  Had just been an anonymous and seemingly androgynous unicorn.  Instead I had a person, who I could at least start to relate to.  Instead all the faceless evil raiders who took hostages and executed their prisoners suddenly were also people.

Black Hawke sat down beside me.  We were in the small clinic in the visitor’s center.  There was a yellow bench on one side of the room where I sat with my pegasus sister.  Opposite that was the bunk which held the comatose Willow.  She had passed out almost immediately as soon as the initial effects of the Steady drug had worn off.  Above us a bright yellow fan slowly twirled.  A breeze blew through the open window letting in the ungodly chill night air.

We sat there quietly for a minute or two.  I tried to take my mind off the fact that I would soon be leading every one of these ponies to an early grave.  I tried to focus on the first thing I could.  The covers of Willow’s bed kept my attention for a time.  It was the same three pink butterflies on a yellow field as my medical pack.  “What does that mean?” I asked before I even realized I’d spoken.

“What does what mean?” asked Black Hawke, confused, “Is this some kind of deep philosophical stuff?”

“No, the symbol on Willow’s blanket, I’ve seen it before, and want to know more about it.”  I clarified.

“Oh that is the symbol of the Ministry of Peace.” At my blank expression, Black Hawke explained, “Back during the war, there were six departments of the government that were created to help the war effort.  One of them, the Ministry of Peace, built hospitals, and researched new medicines.  It was run by Fluttershy.  Her cutie mark of the three pink butterflies became her ministries logo.  Most everything produced by or in any way connected to her ministry has it.”

I remembered the cutie mark lecture that I had gotten from Haywire.  Apparently these three pink butterflies were in some way symbolic of this Fluttershy mare’s special purpose in life.  I tried to wrap my mind around that, but it made my head hurt.  I couldn’t imagine how a grouchy warmongering head of state could have their purpose in life be defined by a trio of pink butterflies.  Perhaps this Fluttershy was different from the heads of state on my world.  Perhaps she cared for peace and the pink butterflies were meant to represent her huge and caring heart.  That made sense when you combined it with the fact that her branch of government was only focused on the means of fixing people rather than breaking them to pieces.  I felt a chill run through me that was entirely unrelated to the cold wind gliding through the still open window.

“Are you alright?” asked Black Hawke, “You look pale.”

“Yes.  I am fine.  I am just remembering, something.”  I said, not sure what it was I was trying to remember.  It was something about breaking people to pieces, or putting them back together.  Maybe it was both.

“If you say so,” After a moment’s thought she then said, “You look cold, why don’t I go close that window.”  She flew off for a moment and, standing upon her rear legs, used her forelegs to pull down the window.  With a crunch of old wood the window slammed shut and the cold slowly ebbed away.

I wanted to forget about my old world for a time.  This was my home now and I’d best get used to it.  It helped that I couldn’t really remember having any home on Earth.  I mostly just moved from place to place and city to city doing whatever it was that I was doing.  To take my mind off the gaps in my memory I turned to my companion, curious about her story. “So what is your story then?” I asked conversationally, “How did you wind up with the Silver Wing Slicers?”

“The Silver Wing Slicers have been the only family I’ve ever known,” said Black Hawke somewhat morosely.  I waited for her to continue, sensing some internal conflict.  She paused briefly as if deciding whether or not to share any more of her story with me.  At last she continued, “I was born in a Stable, a kind of shelter for when the bombs hit.  The ponies there lived safely locked away from the pain and troubles of the Wasteland.”

She swallowed before continuing, “When I was just a little filly, all of that changed.  The doors that had kept back megaspell detonations couldn’t keep a small band of determined ponies out.  The ponies that came were armed and armored.  They killed everyone and there was nothing we could do about it.”  Black Hawke sniffled slightly before angrily wiping a hoof across her muzzle, “I was six. I had just gotten my cutie mark.  I was the first in my class.  We were celebrating my Cute-ceañera in the atrium when they came through the doors.  They gunned down everypony indiscriminately.  They didn’t care if the ponies they were killing were small colts and fillies.  They didn’t care if they killed cripples and the elderly, or if their victims were foals.  All they cared for was death.  Death and technology.” A single tear escaped her watery eyes, but I saw something else in her violet eyes as well, rage.  “That is when I learned the truth about this Wasteland, if you want to protect those that you care about, it comes at the expense of somepony else.  It might be a manticore in the forest, it might be a centuries old ghoul psychopath, or it might be some poor townspony.  I know that since the bastards murdered my family, they gained a sustainable source of food, renewable clean water, and a virtually indomitable fortress.”

“How did you survive?” I asked hugging the mare to comfort her.  She resisted at first, before submitting to the embrace.

“The invaders thought I’d died.  I was dying, but I wasn’t dead yet.  That’s when Silver Wing rescued me.  He led a group of power armored pegasi in an attack against the invaders.” Black Hawke spoke of Silver Wing with obvious admiration.  She then went on to describe in near excruciating detail just how Silver Wing defeated the invaders and just how awesome he was.  I was surprised at how quick my companion’s mood had shifted from being depressed over the death of her original family and friends to fangirling over her new father.

“Loop-de-loop around and wham! Ten. Seconds. Flat,” Black Hawke had just finished a part of her excessively long story which apparently required her to go flying in circles around the small clinic to demonstrate exactly what Silver Wing had done, when she finally noticed that I wasn’t the only member of her audience.  Willow was sitting up glaring at me, “You just had to get her riled up, didn’t you.” I just looked at her with a shell shocked expression.  Black Hawke had nearly taken my head off in the past ten seconds alone.  I was about to respond when Willow just shook her head, “No, don’t say anything.  I don’t even want to look at you.  Out! Both of you.”

Black Hawke moved to protest, “But I was almost done, just eight more chapters.”

Willow gestured towards a clock on the wall, “No buts.  It is four in the morning.  Any sane pony would be asleep right now.” I hadn’t even noticed that it was so late. “Both of you, out now.  Don’t make me get out of this bed!” threatened the now hornless unicorn.  It was illogical, but the scrawny and injured pony mare scared me.  Apparently Black Hawke was also intimidated and we slowly backed out of the clinic.

“She is right about us needing sleep.” I said, starting to walk in the direction of the visitor centers exit.

We passed several rooms that had originally been used for families to spend time with their mentally unstable loved ones.  Inside were board games, a snack bar, and a couch.  Three of the rooms had been repurposed for holding prisoners, which actually didn’t require any change since there wasn’t anything in the room that could be effectively repurposed as a weapon.  The three ponies with the misfortune of guard duty certainly didn’t appear to be afraid of having their throats slit with bent playing cards or being stabbed with sharpened plastic game board figurines.

Black Hawke and I then passed through the twin glass doors and into the chill night air.  I shivered as we passed by the crucified zebra mare.  We at last came before the two brightly painted barracks.  “So which one will I be sleeping in?” I asked, “Is there one barracks that is only for mares and another for stallions?”

“Nope.” replied Black Hawke. “They used to be segregated, one barracks for Zebras and another for Ponies.  Now, you’re free to choose where you want to sleep.  Remember we don’t have any rules, only guidelines.”

“Okay, so which barracks is Omega sleeping in?”

“The one on the left.” Said the pegasus.

“Then I will sleep in the right barracks,” I said and proceeded towards it.  Black Hawke followed me in as I held the heavy wood door for her.  She snickered at this, but said nothing, so as to avoid waking the half dozen snoring ponies in bunks lining the walls.  We walked through down the aisle between bunks, with each bunk being curtained off for privacy.  When we came to the end of the occupied bunks, Black Hawke turned right and plopped down unceremoniously onto the bed.  I noticed that the bed was notably untidy, and lying next to it was the mare’s heavy ordinance battle saddle, “Weren’t you just energetically flying about?  How can you be tired?”

“I’m always ready to sleep.” said the mare as she lay unmoving. “You can sleep in any bed that doesn’t already have somepony in it.”

I shrugged before plopping down upon the nearest bed, the one immediately next to Haywire.  I was surprised at how tired I felt.  I had been active since that morning and after the events of that afternoon I felt exhausted.  Haywire’s lengthy story was the final nail in the coffin.  Within a moment I was asleep.

That night I dreamed of Earth.  I was upon the prow of a ship.  It was setting out from the Tokyo harbor with the rising of the sun.  Throngs of people lined the docks to see our departure.  Many of the people were clapping and cheering, but many others held signs and shouted angrily.  It wouldn’t matter.  What was done had to be done.  It still bothered me that there were so many who didn’t see it that way.  Without even looking I knew that those signs cried out for independence.  I knew that those people opposed the emergency annexation.  Within a few minutes the dock and the people were out of sight, and the ship was hastening ever westward.

*****

The next morning I accompanied Black Hawke on a hunt.  Willow had still been asleep and we doubted that she would awaken until late afternoon.  Nobody bothered her as she slept, but Black Hawke and I did leave some food by her bed before we set out.  I hoped that Willow liked mutfruit and manticore meat.

Black Hawke and I set out along with Squid Face and the other pony that had ambushed me.  As soon as we’d cleared the facility we activated our stealthbucks.  I followed the faint outline of distorted air in front of me as we moved into the depths of the forest.  As we moved I got the feeling that I was being watched, and was often looking over my shoulder.  I didn’t see anything, but then I couldn’t even keep track of all of my companions.  I suspected that someone was watching us, and I was sure that I knew who it was.  Thankfully our invisible pursuit didn’t make himself known and we were able to hunt in relative peace.

Our quarry was a young manticore.  It had apparently passed near the facility the night before and had been injured by the sentries.  After the rain the day before, the ground around the facility had been turned to mud.  The mud still bore imprints of where the manticore had stepped the night before.  Occasionally we found spots of blood on nearby leaves and branches.  After an hour we found the predator collapsed in a clearing by a small stream.

I felt Black Hawke tap me with her wing.  I turned in the direction of the tap and was pulled down to the mare’s level by a strong pair of hooves.  “Last night this manticore ran after ponies started shooting at it.  Circle around to the other side of the stream and then signal me.  On my signal turn visible and start shooting.  That should get him to start heading in this direction.”  Black Hawke then repeated the message to our two companions.

The three of us carefully crossed the stream a few dozen yards north of where the beast slept.  When we were in position I lifted up a fallen branch.  As I lifted the branch, I saw the bottom half of it slowly disappear, starting from where It had come into contact with my hand.  I lifted the mostly invisible stick up and waved it about.  A stick lifted from the opposite side of the stream and started to disappear.  It was also waved about for a moment.  The message was clear.

I checked my weapon before deactivating my stealthbuck.  Around me the four other invisible creatures deactivated their stealthbucks and started shooting at the manticore.  The manticore was already injured from the night before and wasn’t too eager to stay around and fight us.  We continued to fire as the creature charged back the way we’d come.  Black Hawke rematerialized as she started firing her battle saddle.

The creature glanced behind it seeing five raiders on my side of the stream.  It couldn’t retreat.  For a moment we locked eyes and it held me there.  I saw the fear and the pain that the creature felt and knew that I’d won.  The manticore turned to fight with Black Hawke, but it knew that it was pointless.  For the young manticore, this was the end.

I turned to Omega and an earth stallion with a battle saddle.  I recognized him as not only the machine gun sentry from the roof, but also the pony who had almost stood up to oppose my joining the family.   Omega had his pistol pointed towards my chest.  The gryphon was only twelve feet away.  He wouldn’t miss.  “Hold your snakes tongue, Merican.  Squid Face, Black Guard, You’ve known me for some time now.  You know that I wouldn’t act against the interests of our patron.  This monster, I know he’s here to kill us.”

“You’re crazy Omega” said Squid Face.  He turned his pistol towards the gryphon, “Lower your gun.”

“Omega’s patron has done nothing but help us.  I know Omega.  I don’t know this cannibal.  Drop the gun Squid Face.” said the Machine Gun Sentry who now pointed his gun towards Squid Face.

“You didn’t let me ask my question from yesterday.” Said Omega a murderous look in his eyes, “What did the townsponies offer you to bring us down?  Food? Weapons? Asylum?  I suppose that it doesn’t matter.  Prepare to die Merican!”

If I stood still I was going to be shot, so I wouldn’t stand still.  If I didn’t help Squid Face then I’d be alone fighting these raiders.  This meant that I had to save Squid Face and myself.  These thoughts flew through my head in the instant before I leapt towards Squid Face.  Omega’s shot caught me in the side, but it was only a flesh wound.  The machine gun of the earth stallion erupted with light and noise.  A stream of lead followed me and my only ally.  From across the stream I could hear Black Hawke as she slew the injured manticore, but it was too late.  She wouldn’t get here in time.

Black Guard our only other companion saved both Squid Face and I by shooting the earth stallion in the head.  Omega shot Black Guard and the stallion turned into a pile of glowing green goo.  Then the gryphon turned to face me and my only surviving companion.  I looked into his eyes trying to make him freeze like what the manticore and the undead horror had done to me, but it seemed that my uncomfortable stare had no effect on the gryphon.  He shot me twice in the belly, but thankfully I didn’t turn into a pile of goo.  My armor seemed to have stopped most of the damage, but it still hurt like a bitch.

Suddenly I heard the sound of a sniper rifle and Omega stepped back.  A piece of his armor had been shot off, but otherwise he seemed unharmed.  Black Hawke finally arrived and nearly lost her head to the sniper.  She ducked, and as she did Omega leapt into the air and started flying for his life.  I turned to see that Squid Face had struck his head on a rock when I had knocked him out of the path of the machine gun and he was now unconscious.

Black Hawke’s hoof struck both my stealthbuck and the stealthbuck of my unconscious companion.  “We have to get out of here.  Did you see where that sniper is?”  I hadn’t, but I knew who the sniper was.

None of the townsponies owned a sniper rifle, and the only raider with a sniper rifle had an experimental energy rifle.  The only sniper rifle that used bullets and made loud noises was my sniper rifle which I’d given to Haywire.  My good friend was still watching over me.  I was under the impression that she was a lot less keen on watching over and protecting my new raider friends.

The three of us ran for our lives, or more accurately Black Hawke tried to run with her heavy battle saddle and a bulbous Squid Face on her back and I lightly jogged to keep up, my long legs eating up the distance between the clearing and the facility.  I’d grabbed the piece of Omega’s armor when Black Hawke wasn’t looking.  It was the plate from directly over his heart and bore the Scar Talon emblem.  There was a bullet lodged inside it just over the bisected eagle’s claw.  If Haywire had just aimed a quarter inch to the right than Omega would have died.  If Haywire didn’t already know that Omega worked for Scar then she would as soon as I got this to her.

*****

Again I sat inside of Willow’s room with my head in my hands.  She was awake and eating what we’d brought for her.  I was sitting on a chair that I’d dragged in from one of the visiting rooms, because Squid Face was lying on the couch still unconscious from his fall.  Black Hawke was explaining what had happened in the clearing to Silver Wing.

Since I arrived three of the raiders had died, Omega had deserted, and both Willow and Squid Face had suffered injuries that could keep them out of action.  There had originally been eighteen raiders not counting the prisoner in Plowton.  Now there were only a dozen members of the Silver Wing Slicer family still in action, not counting myself.

Black Hawke entered the room.  “My father wants to see you.  He’s not happy about what happened earlier.”  I could see wetness in the mare’s eyes.  She had been crying.  She turned her head refusing to meet my concerned gaze.

I simply nodded and proceeded to walk out the clinic door and towards Silver Wing’s office.  It wouldn’t matter if I lost his trust.  I had already done more than enough damage just by being here.  My presence alone had helped to bring the raider force down to more manageable numbers.  With any luck the Silver Wing Slicers would pack their bags and leave.  With a little more luck Haywire would also find a way to join the family and all of us would be able to live out the rest of our mortal lives in peace.  We could then find a way to heal Willow’s injury, or we might even be able to bring the surviving ponies from the raid on Black Hawke’s home to justice.  With a little more luck the world would fix itself.

It was useless to dream of such things, I thought as I opened the door to Silver Wing’s office.  He wasn’t wearing his barding and instead had it on a pony shaped mannequin behind his chair.  The silver medals gleamed in the orange light of a fireplace.  Silver Wing sat like a man in his rolling chair facing the hearth built into the wall.  “Whatever you think I did, I’m innocent.  I swear.”  I said a little too quickly.  I must be the worst secret agent in all of history.

“No my son, you do not need to be worried.  I know that you are innocent.  In fact I dare say that you’re the victim.”  He gestured towards another seat in the room, “Sit.”

I sat in the chair and said nothing for a minute.  Silver Wing grabbed a poker and began to prod at the fire.  I tapped my feet for a moment as an awkward silence descended over us.  At last I broke the silence, “It looks like Squid Face will be fine.”

Silver Wing nodded solemnly, “We still don’t know if he’ll make a full recovery though.  Head injuries are like that.”  He turned to me and looked towards my belly, at the place where I was shot.  “What about you? I heard Omega shot you twice, are you alright?”

“Yes, I believe I will be.  I drank a health potion after we reached the facility, so I should be fine.”

Silver Wing looked at me apologetically, “I should have killed that gryphon yesterday.  It’s my fault this happened.  I should have realized that Omega was going to bring trouble as soon as he started butting heads with my Hawke.”  He looked back into the fire, “Four dead.  Black Guard, Trample, Buttercup, Star Shot.”

“Four? What happened?” I asked, concerned that I had miscounted.

“Townies got Buttercup.  They’ll probably hang him if they haven’t already.  That’s what town ponies do to people like us.”  I looked at my feet.  At least Buttercup would see the sun before he died.  At least I did that much for him.

We sat for a time in silent mourning for the dead.  At last Silver Wing broke the silence, “I wanted you here, because I wanted to hear what you had to say about the fight in the clearing.  Black Hawke has told me what she saw, but I wanted to hear your side of it.  Black Hawke says that you spoke to Omega before he attacked you, but that she didn’t hear what either of you had said.”

I pondered where to start, and made a decision, “We set out early that morning to hunt a manticore that the sentries had shot at the night before.  Black Guard and Squid Face had accompanied us on the hunt. Unbeknownst to us, Omega and the pony with the machine gun,”

“Star Shot.” Interjected Silver Wing.

“Yes, Star Shot and Omega followed us.  We only knew that we had been followed after we started shooting at the manticore.  While the manticore was distracting Black Hawke, Omega started making wild accusations against me.  Squid Face tried to confront Omega which provoked Star Shot to threaten to shoot Omega.  Omega then started shooting before I could say anything.  I did what I could to save Squid Face, which ended with him striking his head against a rock during the struggle.  Black Guard shot Star Shot.  Afterwards, Omega murdered Black Guard.  Then a sniper started shooting at us while Omega ran away.”  I took a deep breath to steady myself, “Then Black Hawk and I high tailed it out of there with an unconscious Squid Face.  I did what I could, but it wasn’t enough to save Black Guard.” I at last concluded my story and observed Silver Wing’s reaction.

Silver Wing also took a moment to steady himself before saying, “You did what you could.  I just wish that Black Guard had died a better death than being back stabbed by a psychopath.  What about this sniper?  Black Hawke says that he was probably a townspony.”

I shrugged, despite knowing the truth.  “Black Hawke is probably right about that.”

“Do you think that Omega might have been working with the townies?” asked Silver Wing and I was shocked to hear Omega’s accusations against me being thrown right back at him.

“I don’t know sir.  I didn’t see the sniper, but I know Omega wouldn’t have gotten away if the rest of us weren’t cowering trying not to be shot.” It was true that if Haywire hadn’t started shooting than Black Hawke might have killed Omega.  Of course I’d have been killed as well, so I wasn’t going to complain.

“This job will be the death of us.” Spoke Silver Wing somberly, and then he surprised me asking, “What would you do, Ulysses, if you were in my place?”

Surprised at the sudden turn of good fortune, I almost forgot that I hadn’t been told what the raider’s job was yet.  I decided to improvise, “I’d get the job done as soon as possible.  We just need to deliver the blue dagger to some kind of patron right?”

“We have to do a little more than that.  The dagger is one of two relics that we were sent to collect from this asylum.  It turns out that the townies had already beaten us to the other one of the relics and now have it hidden somewhere inside their town.”

“I’ve witnessed firsthand the destructive power of these relics.  If I were the townsponies I wouldn’t want to keep a dangerous artifact like that ceremonial knife inside my home.  Instead I’d keep it in some kind of public area like a warehouse or a church.”  I added the part about the church to hopefully keep Silver Wing from suspecting that there was a trap.

“Why?” asked Silver Wing sounding surprised by my answer.

I continued to improvise, “It would be easier to hide the relic inside a larger area.  It would also be easy to guard it from thieves since because of the wide open space it would only take one person, or in this case pony, to look after it.  If it were in a house, because of the halls and tight spaces you’d have to guard all of the back doors and windows separately.  It would also be easier to keep a large number of ponies around the relic.  You’d have trouble fitting a dozen or so ponies inside of an improvised shack.  Even with a Church, you could still bar the doors and nobody could get in without great difficulty.  Lastly in both a church and a warehouse you’d have a lot of cover that you could use to defend yourself, while a firefight inside of a house would be more like shooting fish in a barrel.”

Silver Wing shrugged, “Well, it could be worth a shot.  There are two warehouses in the town and one of them has an unusual number of guards.  At midnight we’ll sneak in, take it, and we’ll finally be rid of this damnable place.  I’d suggest that you get some sleep now, because you’ll be coming with us.”

“Goodnight then.” I turned to leave, but turned back remembering my question from earlier about Silver Wing’s flank mark, and the lack of flank marks on any of the other raiders.  “Sir if I may,”

“Not if you keep calling me, sir, my son.  Either call me papa or Silver, but I won’t have anyone in the family calling me sir.”  Silver Wing said giving me a sad smile.

“Well Silver, I was wondering, why don’t any of the other Slicers have those flank marks?”

“Any of those other Slicers, implies that there is an exception.  None of us have a cutie mark.”  I was confused and I think that Silver Wing saw the confusion on my face, for he soon clarified, “My cutie mark was branded off when I resigned from my old job, so I could finally become a stay home dad.”

“Now I’m confused about why you need to be branded to become a stay home dad.”

Silver Wing laughed at my comment, but his laugh was a quiet laugh tinted with the recent sorrow and half remembered woes.  “My child, I was not branded because I wanted to become a stay home dad, but because of who I wanted to be the dad of.”

I took a moment to process this before asking, “Were you branded because you had a natural born child?”

“No, I have not had any children of my own.  Instead I adopted.”

“So did you adopt some kind of public enemy, like a communist?”  I asked grasping for any possible reason why somebody would be branded just for adoption.

“Close enough, although I don’t know what that has to do with Marexism.  I got branded because I adopted a tribal.”

“I sense a story.”  I said genuinely curious.

“I’m sure you do.  You see I was born in the Grand Pegasus Enclave.  Most every pegasus in Equestria lives in the Enclave.  When I was old enough I served in the armed forces just like any other young pegasus.  I quickly rose through the ranks and distinguished myself as a capable and much beloved leader.  That is when calamity struck.  One of my fellow pegasi, a stallion called Deadshot Calamity started making waves with his talk of helping the poor ponies of the wasteland.  Until that point most ponies in the Enclave thought that the wasteland beneath us was only inhabited by savage mutants that were better pitied from a distance.  Naturally the young Calamity disappeared a short time later.”

Silver Wing paused his rant for a second, before continuing, “The reason I’m telling you all of this is because Calamity started something.  Even though he disappeared there were some ponies who continued to make the argument for intervention, myself among them.  We knew that it would only bring us trouble, but ponies like me stand up for what we believe is right, no matter the cost.  Several of my fellow rebels disappeared, but I was too well liked to just disappear.  Instead I was moved to a remote post away from the ponies that were loyal to me and to a place where I hopefully wouldn’t be able to cause any more trouble.”

“I assume that that didn’t work out.  Otherwise I do not think you would be here.” I said smirking.

“You would assume correctly!” laughed the ex-military pegasus good naturedly.  “Their plan completely backfired.  The out of the way outpost I was sent to, also happened to be built right next to a Stable.  One day a group of power armored ponies came to the stable and broke down its door.  They made quite a lot of noise doing it so naturally I was sent with a search party to find out what was causing the ruckus.  We discovered that there was a fight going on between the armored ponies and the Stable dwellers, a rather one sided fight.  When my team finally caught up with the invaders, they’d already killed most of the Stable’s populace, and were finishing off the last of the defenders.  My team fought well and we lost only one soldier, a mare by the name of Wind Rider.  In the end the surviving invaders were sent running with their tales between their legs.”  Silver Wing was grinning as he relived his past glory.

“Did you ever find out who the invaders were?” I asked.

The grin was gone from Silver Wing’s face as quickly as it had come, “No, and the only survivor of the massacre was Black Hawke.  She was just a little filly at the time and had lain dying among the corpses.  My team rescued her and brought her back to our base where she was treated.  When the Enclave High Command found out they again separated me from my subordinates.  The new pegasi had orders to make Black Hawke disappear before the public discovered her, and started clamoring for the government to start helping Stables.  I wasn’t about to let anyone kill an injured filly, so I tried to steal her away during the night.  I also decided to steal away the best liquor on the base.” And at this Silver Wing brought out a bottle of whiskey from underneath his desk, and proceeded to pour two cups which he’d also taken from beneath his desk.

“But they caught me as I was leaving and branded me with this.” said Silver Wing gesturing towards his flank, “It’s the mark of a dashite, a traitor to the Enclave.  They made Black Hawke watch too, but otherwise didn’t try to hurt her.  I suppose that they thought that with both me and her leaving, we were as good as dead.  I wasn’t going to take any chances, so I led her as far away from the Enclave as I could, to find a new home.  Along the way we met other destitute ponies, many of them no older than teenagers, and adopted them into the family.  Black Hawke started the tradition of burning away the cutie mark as a kind of way to honor my sacrifice and the others hearing my story removed their own cutie marks.  And that is the story of why none of us have cutie marks, and also the story of how the Silver Wing Slicer family started.” Silver Wing smiled as he ended his tale and took a sip of whiskey.

There was a commotion in the hall followed by a gunshot.  I leapt to my feet and drew my pistol.  Silver Wing did the same and quickly started slipping on his barding, “Go, I’ll be right behind you.” He said calmly despite the impending crisis.

I ran from the room and saw with great horror just what was happening.  Two of the guards were holding one of the hostages at gunpoint.  They’d already shot him once in the leg, but that wasn’t what horrified me.  One of the other hostages a young mare, who couldn’t even be a full adult, was being held down by an Earth Stallion, the same Earth Stallion who had accompanied me into the asylum and been injured by broken glass.  The stallion was whispering something into the mare’s ear like, “Nobody wants to fuck a lifeless corpse.  If you don’t stop resisting and don’t start at least pretending to enjoy this, than your friend over there will pay the price.  Do you want that?”  The mare rapidly shook her head, tears in her eyes.  She swallowed her dignity and will to resist and with her only free hand, which she had previously been using to fight the Earth Stallion, wiped away the tears from her face.  I looked into her eyes to see such pain, such humiliation, such shame at the indignity of her situation, and such resolve to do whatever it took to protect her loved ones that I felt myself called to immediate action on her behalf.

My vision was tinged with bloody crimson.  I was so angry at the inhumanity of the evil before me that I don’t even remember much of what happened.  I was mad with rage.  I remember shooting the would be rapist.  I remember standing in a pile of burnt and bloody bodies, my sword in one hand, and the other being used to help the mare to her hooves.  I remember Silver Wing shouting as he held me pinned against a wall, an energy pistol at my throat.  I remember mumbling something and then being struck in the face hard with a hoof.  It was hard enough to snap me out of the temporary madness brought on by my righteous anger.

“You will bury these bodies, now.” growled Silver Wing furiously, and then solemnly added, “And you’ll think about what you’ve done.”

I did think about it and for a long time afterwards I thought about all that i'd done.  As I dragged the bodies outside I passed by Silver Wing’s office, and saw him drinking straight from the bottle, with both the glasses already emptied.  I wondered if I wasn’t the only person who was disturbed by the raider’s actions. As I brought both of the bodies out to the center of the facility, and I saw the crucified zebra mare, I resolved to bury her as well.  It seemed wrong that a rapist would be given a better grave than their victim?  Unfortunately these three raiders were my first victims whom I’d buried.

As I buried the bodies of the four before the wooden platform and bloody cross, I thought about what I could possibly do now.  Now that I knew so much more about the raiders, I was uncertain if I could kill them.  Now that I had lived and fought alongside the raiders, and knew the truth about their existence, I lacked much of my earlier resolve and zeal.  I now saw the raiders as people and as friends, and I was about to betray these people, these friends.  I wasn’t sure if I could do it.  I also thought that there was nothing that I could possibly do to stop it, short of telling the raiders that it was a trap.  Grimly I realized all that would do is get me killed and prolong the conflict.  I decided that one way or another this small scale war between the raiders and townsponies would be decided before sunrise.  I decided that I would follow orders and let events play out without any further interference.  I hoped that I was making the right decision, but still thought of myself as deserving of no better a fate than the raiders whom I was about to get killed.

End of Chapter 4

Ulysses

Level 4 Turncoat

Insanity 27%

Energy Weapons 25 + 3/100     Melee Weapons 25 +5/100      Sneak 30 + 4/100   Medicine 23 + 5/100

Squid Face

Level 1 Silver Wing Brother

Special

Strength 4 (+1)

Perception 7

Endurance 4 (+1)

Charisma 5 (-2)

Intelligence 9 (+1)

Agility 7 (+1)

Luck 4 (-1)

Small Guns 17+20 / 100

Traits

Tentacled Visage –You look like Cthulu’s love child.  You gain the Tentacle Grape attack, get +1 agility and -2 charisma.

Star Touched – The stars have given you an unknown fate and their blessing.  You will be their instrument upon this Earth until such time as they have no further need of you. +1 endurance +1 strength +1 inteligence -1 luck