Fallout Equestria: Due North

Neighvarro rose, its great cloud structures gleaming in the morning sun. It was a world away from where I sat, staring at it from the narrow windows of a sky-tank troop bay, the city slowly dwindling behind us as we raced away. Aileron Roll, the 2nd's dedicated pilot, had the engines at maximum, and a pair of dark contrails, quietly thundering, streaked all the way back to the airbase.

With twenty three of us in the troop bay, it was relatively cramped. I sat on one of the bare metal benches, sandwiched between Smoothbore, our sniper, and Red Glare. Across from me sat Crunch Time, loudly discussing our mission with Cream Pie and Snowplough. The turret was manned by Ignition Switch, our resident heavy weapons expert. The others sat or stood, checking their weapons and chatting amongst themselves.

We tore down towards the cloud layer, the billowing carpet of clouds rising to meet us as we plunged. Suddenly the sky-tank nosedived and we all nearly fell off our seats. Somepony yelled "Shit!" as an energy pistol sailed over my head and clattered to the floor. Red Glare snatched it up and threw it back.

"At least try and be professional guys. If that had been a solid ammo somepony could be bleeding out," chided Wishing Well, the squad medic. One of the squad muttered an apology as it was thrown back. I turned back to the window.

We were racing towards an odd structure jutting out of the barren land; it had once been a large hotel, constructed by the Ministry of Morale to serve the attached resort, but around a quarter of it had collapsed. This had left one quarter freestanding, and then the other half nearby. The gap had been bridged with rope bridges and corrugated iron plates. Ponies could be seen within the larger structure, and all of them were armed. On all of the walls a mixture of gang emblems and crude graffiti had been sprayed; hallmarks of raider territory.

Fires burned in old barrels in the rooms, and on the roof snipers peered downwards. Typical, they hadn't bothered to look up. The raiders would sooner or later hear our engines, but by then it would be too late. As we closed on the hotel, my thoughts drifted to the briefing.

======

"Alright ponies, listen up," Red Glare began, "One week ago a Steel Ranger caravan carrying unknown tech was ambushed by raiders near the Fun Factory Resort. It's a fucking raider nest, right on the Manehattan outskirts, and stars know why they didn't just avoid it. Thing is, whatever they were carrying's still in the crate. Only one problem; the bastards have it. They overwhelmed the Rangers' knights and took all the scribes back to their little camp along with just about everything they owned, including this technology R&D is demanding. So, what we're going to do is launch an attack from above. The whole squad this time, not just one or two flights. Got it?

"Aileron, you'll need to get us in close and lay down suppressive fire with the sky-tank, we'll take Peppy since it's packing missile pods. Smoothbore, I'll try and get you the perms for an anti-machine rifle, set yourself up on the top floor and give us covering fire. If these raiders can bring down a Ranger in full armour, we're going to need it. Snowplough, you're going to need some ballistic hooves if you can get 'em, same goes for Crunch. Your integrated power hooves aren't enough if we need to breach.

"I want everypony who's trained in full power armour, and the rest in Kevlar; no flight jackets. If you've got power armour, take Novasurge. Otherwise, Sunbursts'll have to do. Ignition, this one's your call, but I'd recommend taking either a Gatling laser or a plasma cannon. The hotel's unstable, so you'll have to abstain from explosives, but we'll need serious crowd control. Anypony in combat armour should try and get their hooves on a chainsword, okay? Raiders tend to like getting up close and personal. Meet me at the hangars in half an hour, ready to go. Everything alright?"

"Yes ma'am!" chanted the 2nd in unison.

======

A sudden, loud detonation drew my attention back to the present. The telltale dark cloud of an explosion, as well as the black trail of a rocket coming from the building, told me what had happened. One of the ponies on the roof had seen us and fired a missile. The projectile had missed by several feet, exploding off the right side of the aircraft.

"Arr! There be lubbers off the starboard bow!" yelled Aileron Roll, being his usual idiotic self.

"Can it! Professionalism ponies, alright? You're an elite fighting force, in theory at least," Red Glare rolled her eyes. Aileron was lucky; most officers wouldn't tolerate his level of disrespect, both for authority and for seriousness.

"Sure thing Red!" he chirped, not meaning one word of it.

By now the snipers had turned their gaze to the skies, and at least one of them was lining up a shot. We banked hard and dove towards them, still at full speed. A couple of the raiders galloped away, but the others tried shooting the sky-tank's frontal armour. As we closed in on the roof, Aileron suddenly opened up with Peppy's side-mounted missile pods, raking the rooftop and turning several ponies to red mist. The unicorn mare who had been carrying the missile launcher gave up trying to desperately stuff another rocket into the weapon and dropped both, before turning to gallop away.

The sky-tank suddenly slammed to a halt, throwing me to the floor. I scrambled to my hooves, grateful for the sling attached to the holorifle. Without it the weapon would've been halfway across the troop bay. The rear door lowered suddenly, screams and gunfire ripping into the troop bay. Cream Pie hurled a grenade out onto the roof.

"Shit! Cream Pie! I thought I told all of y-" Red Glare was cut off by the detonation. Anypony who had remained on the roof was there no longer; several mangled corpses lay strewn out away from the aircraft. The door to the stairwell flew open, and several more raiders galloped out; they had regrouped, and the firefight had begun. "C and D flights, take the amusement park! A and B, out there and on me. We take the hotel! Move it!"

I galloped for the ramp, careering off the end and nearly falling over as my hooves hit the concrete. I stumbled over towards the stairwell as the sky-tank lurched upwards and shot overhead, headed for the park. Crunch Time barrelled through the raiders guarding the door, pinning one mare's head to the floor with his hoof and sending a blast of buckshot straight through her brain. He spun and bucked another off the building with his power hooves, sending the poor buck flying into the abyss.

I galloped down after him, following the rest of the flight. I tore blindly down the staircase. As I barrelled into a large open area, I was suddenly grabbed and thrown to the ground. A bullet tore through the air right where my head had been. I glanced up to see Snowplough. I muttered a hurried thanks. She brushed it off.

The squad had taken cover behind what had once been the buffet area of an all-you-can-eat restaurant. On the other side of the great room most of the metal tables where families had originally ate had been piled up in a makeshift barricade around the large archway that lead out of the restaurant, complete with a heavy machine gun emplacement.

Along the walls, thin plastic shapes had been attached, supposed to depict cartoonish pipes and valves; in keeping with the resort's "factory" theme. These had long faded and the raiders had added their own form of decoration; gang markings and vile scenes of rape and murder had been sprayed onto the walls in purple and green. Something was off though; there were no bodies. This was raider territory; there should have been dismembered corpses everywhere. Then it hit me; this was planned. The area had been set up as a trap for attackers, with a permanent barricade for the raiders to hide behind. I glanced behind me and realised that the main staircase ended on this floor, with the hotel's front entrance being on this side of the split.

Cream Pie tore another grenade from his webbing. He went to throw it and before Red Glare could tell him to stop a bullet ripped through his shoulder, spraying the area with blood. He hit the floor, clenching his teeth and breathing shakily. Wishing Well was there in a second. He set to work removing the bullet and dressing the wound.

The rest of the unit began firing back with small arms, it being difficult to bring battle-saddle weaponry to bear while sitting or prone. These were solid ammo; trophy weapons. Not one of them was carrying their energy pistol, the only weapon they actually owned in the first place. Olive Twist pulled out a menacing-looking pistol which somehow fired anti-machine rounds, Crunch Time blew the mare off the machine gun with a sawn-off shotgun, Razor Edge fired off a 9mm. One raider's head turned to a bloody pulp sprayed across the back wall. Another had her foreleg blown off by one of Olive's nightmare bullets. I took aim and fired the holorifle, but the shot went wide.

Suddenly Snowplough nodded to Red Glare, who responded in kind. Snowplough reared up, a couple of bullets bouncing off her armour, and charged. She cleared the buffet and galloped across the room.

"Yeah!" screamed Crunch Time. "That's my girl!" as Snowplough bore down on them. The tables flew aside and she slammed into one of them. She ran into the wall and crushed the screaming buck into a red mess. She turned and beckoned for us to follow, her armor slick with blood. Another raider tried to attack her with a buzz axe and she rammed him with her full body weight, sending the poor bastard flying through the archway and out of the room. She set off in hot pursuit. I heard his screams.

"Shit…" I muttered. I had just witnessed two, no, more than that; four ponies brutally murdered. Red Glare gestured for the squad to move up. I set off at a gallop, past the blood splattered archway. I passed the body of the mare with the missing leg, her head trampled by Snowplough. I stopped as I passed through; whatever had been beyond the arch was long gone, the restaurant lead out into the collapsed section. It was bright, and I squinted as my eyes adjusted.

The ruins of the amusement park were separated from the hotel by a large wagon park. A monorail line swept across it. One end came out of the right side of the hotel, across the gap from me; the other served the park entrance. Along the line a train rattled, sparks flying from its undercarriage, onboard lights flickering, cars shaking violently. I was surprised that it was even running. Out of shattered windows raiders leant or peered. The vehicle had once been white with a pink stripe running down each side, but the raiders had painted numerous red stripes along it. I didn't want to know if it was paint or not.

"Olive! Secure the weapon!" bawled Red Glare. Olive Twist saluted and sat down by the heavy machine gun. She began to fumble with the bolt holding it to the tripod and I tossed her a wrench from my tool kit to help. She nodded to me and I galloped away after the unit. Most of them flew across the gap, but I had to use an improvised bridge. The final raider from the restaurant lay at the edge of the corrugated iron plate, his face pummelled by Snowplough's robotic scorpion tail.

"I'LL RIP YOUR FUCKING HEART OUT!" somepony screamed. A unicorn buck had dodged the squad and was racing down the bridge, levitating a pair of meat cleavers. I panicked and fired. He couldn't have been more than twenty yards away, but the holographic cubes flew right past his head. Suddenly a .50 caliber round turned his head to paste and ripped straight through his body, passing through the corrugated iron bridge. Smoothbore was lying prone on the roof above me, his anti-machine rifle smoking in a similar way to his cigarette.

I dodged around the pair of corpses and reached the other side. I could just see the others down the central corridor when floor began to vibrate. I headed for the corridor just as the monorail train entered the building at far above safe speed. A poor-quality recording of a train whistle played as it crashed through the station wall and across the corridor, falling partially through the floor. It stopped suddenly with a crunch and a squeal of twisting metal.

The front car had passed straight through the corridor and into the hotel rooms on the left, leaving the central car blocking the corridor. At one end it was just above the floor, but the front end of the carriage had about a third of it jutting into the floor below. The ponies on board galloped for the rear of the train, still in the station. I panicked and tore into one of the rooms, slamming the door shut behind me.

I immediately wished I hadn't. The stench of rotting flesh filled my nostrils. I turned to see the body of a Steel Ranger scribe who had been suspended from the ceiling by a noose around her neck. Her body had been sliced open, and her entrails had been pulled out and hung up like bunting around her. The hanging scribe had been used as target practice; bullet holes riddled the corpse, knives jutted out of her at various angles, and faecal matter was splattered across her tattered robe.

My eyes watered, and I had less than a second to react before my lunch surged up my throat. Luckily, it mostly missed my armour, spraying out across the floor instead. I stood there for a second, making sure no more was going to come up. I was physically shaking; I wasn't cut out for this. I had to get out of the room; I could hear raiders arguing outside, but the monorail train had demolished most of the wall between this and the next room. Hitting the wall had forced the front car's nose down, leaving one end resting on the floor below, the other connected to the middle car.

This left a large gap in the wall and the floor, with the only way into the next room to cross the train car's steeply slanting roof. I glanced at my Eyes Forward Sparkle for the first time; I'd never used a combat helmet before and I'd forgotten it. Four raiders outside, great. A single red blip was ahead of me; in the other room? For all the EFS told me, it could've been in the basement, five floors below. I chanced it.

I made it across the metal roof, using my wings to push myself faster. As I stumbled into the next room I felt a bullet graze my neck. I spun to face my attacker. Another bullet tore straight through my wing, punching an ugly hole. The raider mare giggled, nearly dropping her revolver. I swung the holorifle. The butt collided with her muzzle, bloodying her nose and causing her to stagger back. The revolver fell to the floor. Before she could recover I lined up and discharged my weapon, point blank, into her face. Her body dissolved in a blinding flash of blue.

"Cloudburst? Where the fuck are you?!" the voice of Red Glare crackled over the radio. I swore and galloped out into the corridor on the other side of the monorail. I set off at pace, catching up to the squad by the lifts. A large and ominous steel double door, locked, lead into the maintenance areas of the building. The unit had taken defensive up positions around the lift lobby, waiting for me. The scattered ashes and body parts on the carpet told me what had happened. Red Glare nodded to me as I collapsed, exhausted. I was glad for the break.

Snowplough readied herself; as the squad's close-combat specialist breaching was her job. She loaded a pair of 12-gauge shells into each ballistic hoof. She reared up, flaring her armoured wings, and galloped at the door. The simple steel doors flew off their hinges as she collided with them. She barrelled straight into the room beyond. All Tartarus broke loose.

A trio of proximity mines set behind the door detonated, catapulting her back into the lobby. The worn carpet was stained with fresh blood as her mangled body landed near me. A shard of what had been the door ripped through my foreleg. Pain surged up my leg as blood trickled down my hoof. As I called for a medic I heard Ignition Switch's Gatling laser open up. A hail of lasers filled the maintenance area, turning several raiders to dust. Cream Pie screamed and threw another grenade. The others opened fire into the room.

Smoothbore and Olive Twist flew down the corridor, dodging over the monorail train. One of them must have dropped a grenade, because a second later something detonated behind the car. It fell through onto the floor below, dragging the rear car half way into the corridor.

I could hear the clop of raider hooves as more of them raced to investigate the commotion. A few stray bullets cleared the doorway before the raiders were gunned down, but nopony was hit. Olive had brought the machine gun, and before Red Glare could object the weapon was on the other side of Ignition Switch's battle saddle. As he reloaded both weapons, Crunch Time stood up.

He had been crouching by Snowplough's corpse, cradling her between his forelegs as the life faded from her. His armoured hooves were soaked in blood, both the enemies' and hers. His visor was up on his forehead, and he had torn off her helmet. Tears ran down his faceplate: Crunch Time, the pony who had spent the last year trying to make my life hell, the pony who had the longest string of criminal offences in the military on record, was sobbing. He clenched his eyes shut for a second, before loading the shells from Snowplough's ballistic hooves into his own. His wings flared as large as they could go, and his scorpion tail rose up behind his head. With one great wingbeat he was off into the room, screaming obscenities.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKING BASTARDS! I'LL KILL EVERY ONE OF YOU!" he bellowed. What few raiders were still in the vicinity ran. I glanced around; nopony had expected that. Red Glare's jaw was as wide as mine. I didn't even notice Wishing Well patching my wound until he passed me a healing potion.

"Try not to put pressure on it," he chided. I set off into the room, and immediately ground to a screeching halt. The stench was overwhelming; the maintenance room had been turned into an abattoir. The corpse of a lavender mare hung from the ceiling, suspended from meat hooks speared through her limbs. A large, jagged incision ran the length of her body, and the poor mare's entrails dangled out. On one wall a dark blue stallion had been nailed with railway spikes through his forelegs. His hind legs were missing, and his lower jaw had been violently hacked off. Knives had been driven into his eyes.

Several other corpses dotted the room, similarly mangled. I went to throw up, but my stomach was empty. I stood there for a second, retching violently. As I looked around, I caught sight of a shut door, with a sign which read 'Parts & Service', on one side of the back staircase. The rest of the unit was on the floor below, in the wake of Crunch's rampage; I was alone to investigate. Something about it drew my attention, and it hit me; what if the Steel Rangers' cargo was in there?

I crept up to the door, and gave it a push with one hoof. It creaked open; the lock was long gone. Inside a single flickering light illuminated the shape of a vast raider buck. His coat was a darkish green, with a black mane. His cutie mark was a skull, blown completely out of proportion so as to have a massive jaw beyond anything a pony could grow. He wore tattered leather overalls, with metal plates… screwed into his body?! He stank of a bizarre mix of blood and urine, and he hadn't noticed me. He was standing with his back to me talking to something.

"Wot? Yer tellin' me dis 'otel ain't de fanciest in da 'ole world?! Yer wrong!" he shook a hoof violently, prompting something in the darkness to whimper, "See? I told ye ye'd love dis place! Da boyz 'ave put weeks of dere time into makin' it da best fort in da wasteland. Now all da gangz know da Nightmare Moonz are da greatest!"

Nightmare Moons, that was the raiders' gang name? The mountain of a pony continued his little rant; by his speech he was clearly some kind of leader. That made sense, at least for the dog-eat-dog hierarchy of raiders. I glanced upwards, his mane all appeared to come out of one point of his head, as if he had a second tail glued up there, rather than regular hair.

I peered between his legs, trying to see past him. A pair of large blue eyes peered back from the darkness beyond, watching me. A filly? How long had she known I was there? Was she who the raider was talking to? I became aware of a slight shimmer beneath her eyes; the light from the door reflecting off her tears. I felt a surge of righteous anger; the hulking buck was keeping the poor girl captive. My teeth gripped the hilt of my chainsword.

It was an early model; a Ripper-Pattern. The weapon was short and fat, with a blade more akin to a kitchen knife than a sword in shape. Around the blade a toothed chain ran, powered by a clunky motor attached to the hilt. The Enclave's emblem was engraved into the motor housing, along with a few long-irrelevant identification numbers.

I drew the weapon slowly, quietly. How long had I been standing there? Finally, I gripped the ripcord with a hoof and let rip. The weapon revved up, reaching maximum RPM quickly. The monster raider grunted and spun around, much faster than he should have been able to.

"Oi! Wots dis den?" he roared. "Ah, fresh meat!" He rushed me. I swung the Ripper even as his armoured hoof collided with my stomach. I hit the ground, landing on my injured leg. The weapon clattered to the floor next to me. I cried out in pain, he just grinned. A large piece of metal had been shaped into an improvised jaw for him, screwed into his original. He had apparently tried to make himself look more like his cutie mark.

He galloped towards me, threatening to crush me beneath his hooves. I snatched up the Ripper and used my wings to help myself up. I darted out of the way, just as he tore past. I had a stitch, my leg was aching, and he had at least bruised some ribs. There wasn't a chance I could take him head-on. A thought came to me.

I raced for the doorway, galloping straight through. I threw myself against the the door frame, just to the side of the doorway. He barrelled past me. Before he realised I was there I leapt onto his back and drove the Ripper deep into him. The weapon spluttered, fighting to keep running. He kicked and bucked, throwing me off him and across the lobby. My vision blurred and my eyes teared up as I hit a wall and fell to the floor. He reached up with a hoof and pulled the bent chainsword out of his back, grinning.

In desperation, I pumped the Holorifle and tried to get him in my cross-hairs. He got into position, ready to charge. I pulled the trigger. In slow motion the holographic cubes hit his chin, like a buck to the face. His head jerked backwards, half tearing off. He collapsed, dead, next to the broken Ripper.

Without a second thought I stumbled to my hooves, wincing in pain. My whole body was aching, and it felt like needles were being jammed into my leg. I limped back into the maintenance area, to the Parts & Service. The filly was still there, cowering at the back of the room. For the first time I got a proper look at her beyond her bright blue eyes.

Her coat was a light cream colour, with an ugly, blackened patch over her flanks. Her cutie mark was yet to appear; which meant it now couldn't, ever. The area where it was badly burnt, the skin scarred too deeply. Her mane was a darkish brown, relatively messy, although with a straight fringe. A deep cut ran along the length of her right foreleg, roughly from knee to hoof. It was relatively fresh. Her eyes were the most noticeable thing about her; a pair of bright blue orbs which seemed to somehow be taking in everything at once. An old length of rope had been tied loosely around her neck, with the other end connected to a nearby shelf. I reached out to untie it and she flinched.

Another surge of anger washed over me. I hadn't even moved quickly, yet she'd assumed instinctively that I was acting in aggression. I glanced over at the dead raider, lying by the door. In my peripheral vision a pair of displays fizzled, threatening to cut out. I realised that I was still wearing my helmet; the filly only saw a pair of compound eyes, set within a blood-splattered visage. I reached for the clasp and unbuckled the strap. I tore off my helmet, but she didn't move. She was still cowering. Okay, so it wasn't my appearance.

I reached slowly over to her and undid the knot keeping the rope around her neck. She looked up at me, the faintest hope flashing across her tear-stained face. The edges of her mouth curled up in a slight smile, and my heart melted. I had finally lived up to Sky's wishes; I had made the wasteland a better place. In all honesty it wasn't anything in the grand scheme of things, but back then I felt amazing.

The filly froze. I spun around just in time to see a unicorn mare, wearing a bloody apron, run into the maintenance area from the back staircase. She stopped dead; she'd seen the body.

"Speed Freak?! No, no, come on; you've got to be alive," she stuttered. "Okay. I-it's okay. Bone Saw can fix this, can't you?" There was nopony nearby, so who was Bone Saw? The mare continued. "Oh, of course I c-can. It's just a few stitches." So she was Bone Saw? Raiders were crazy. "Wait…" she began, "Where's Sunny? Oh, ha ha, she's where she always is, right?" Bone Saw's voice took on a forceful tone, and she glanced into the Parts & Service. Then it hit me; she was looking for the filly. Instead she saw me.

"Wha- WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!" she screamed, turning to face me properly. From a pocket in her dirty apron she levitated her namesake; a bonesaw. "MURDERER! I-I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!" she bellowed. I leveled the holorifle and pulled the trigger… click. Nothing, it was empty. Four shots: one shot in the restaurant, one on the bridge, one by the monorail, and one at Speed Freak. I readied it in my hooves, I'd have to use it as a club again.

Out of the stairwell shot Crunch Time; his armour was badly scratched, caked in blood. One of his power hooves was damaged, and both of his ballistic hooves were empty. What looked like a chunk of flesh was speared on his scorpion tail. His visor was up, and in his teeth he gripped something. The weapon was long and thin, with a handle on one end. It resembled a fire poker in design, but with a large, flat end instead of a point. He had flown up the staircase, and now he slammed into Bone Saw. She dropped the saw as they careered across the room. I limped to the door.

He gripped her head in between his forehooves and screeched to a halt by one of the fire barrels. Suddenly her head was in the flame, pressed against the burning scraps by a pair of armoured hooves. She screamed and thrashed, desperately trying to escape. She kicked out at him, but only chipped her hoof against his power armour. As her screaming went from violent threats and cursing to unintelligible shrieking, I noticed Sunny standing by my side, peering around the door at the brutal scene. She was crying in fear.

Finally, Crunch Time pulled Bone Saw's head from the fire. He grinned; her head was just a skull with a few scraps of charred flesh clinging to it. He set down the unknown melee weapon, so that the oddly-shaped flat end rested in the flames. He then dumped Bone's corpse into the barrel.

"That's the last of the fuckers," he grunted, "Teach them to fuck with my girlfriend. Hey, hang on, you killed this one?" He pointed a hoof at Speed Freak, I nodded.

"Yup, sure did." I beamed, finally, I was getting some respect from him.

"Nice. Bastard had it coming. How'd he get up here?"

"He was in here all along," I said quickly, "Asleep." I didn't want him to know about Sunny, not now anyway.

"Wouldn't it've been a better idea to kill him in his sleep then, rather than wake him up?" Crunch Time asked.

"Trust me, I tried," I said, "Ripper woke him."

"Ah, gotcha," he grinned, "Welcome to the 2nd. Hey, who's that?" My heart stopped; he'd noticed Sunny.

"The raiders were holding her captive," I blurted out, "I rescued her." He looked me up and down.

"You went out of your way to help a wastelander?! You do know that's grounds for exile, don't you?" he said slowly, glancing over to Speed Freak and back, "Wait, he wasn't asleep, was he? He was a guard. Look at you, you've gone bright red." I tried to utter a response, but none was forthcoming. A lump formed in my throat. Crunch Time spoke again, menacingly. "What if… I were to tell Red, huh? Like the sound of that? What will the squad think when they hear the news? The new tech a closet Dashite. Luckily for you, I'm willing to overlook it."

I knew what he was doing; he wanted dirt on me. In theory, I hadn't violated any laws. The raider buck had been an enemy, and rescuing her had been a by-product of that. But I had undone the rope. I stepped back; okay, I wasn't entirely clean. It didn't matter anyway; I couldn't afford to become ostracised by the unit, not after being friendless for my whole school career. My hoof stole to the holorifle.

"C'mon, let's get outta this shithole," Crunch Time said, feigning friendliness, "C and D've cleared out the park, no sign of the target. Not here either. Still can't believe Snowy died for fuck-all."

"No." I snarled, moving out of the Parts & Service. Internally, I was screaming at myself to stop; I could still salvage this situation. And leave a helpless filly alone in raider territory? Fuck no, I wasn't going back. I'd boarded this crazy train when I'd untied Sunny, and now I was going to see it through. Crunch Time's eyes narrowed.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," he snarled, "Now get moving!"

"I. Said. No," I stomped a hoof, pointing to Sunny. "Not without her." He snatched up the weapon from the fire, and as the end glowed I suddenly realized what I was looking at; the familiar lightning bolt and cloud glowing bright red. His face contorted into a smile.

"Aha! That's treason. Article 17; Any pegasus of the Grand Pegasus Enclave who has been found to have put the wellbeing of an inhabitant of the Equestrian Wasteland over the wellbeing of any inhabitant of our fair nation or above the orders of their superiors in any form shall be branded upon their flanks and exiled permanently from the territories of our nation, and forbidden from ever returning. See? I outrank you, and you've disobeyed me to help her," he pointed to Sunny "So, you get the brand. Pretty glad I nabbed this off of Red." He rushed me, leaping on top of me and pinning me to the floor, "You sure you want to do this?"

I tried to push him off, to get up from under him, but he was too strong. He had me right where he wanted. As I tried to throw him off he reached down and undid part of my armour, enough to give him access to my left flank.

"I'm waiting." he chuckled. I twisted around enough to look at him.

"Fuck you." I spat in his face, he just grinned even wider.

"Your call," with that he positioned the brand right above my flank; I could feel the heat radiating off it. Without warning, he pressed it against my flank. My cutie mark evaporated under the hot iron. My flank was on fire, the brand burnt deep into my flesh. Crunch Time chuckled as a I winced in pain, tears forming in my eyes. After several agonising seconds, the pain subsided, leaving a horrible itchy sensation and a dull ache. My cutie mark was gone, forever.

He moved over to my other side, releasing my armour and lining up the brand. No, I couldn't loose my cutie mark entirely. I started to kick and thrash. I knew it was no use; I'd seen a pony far stronger pinned down by the same buck, but I couldn't give up hope. The heat was right above my flank, ready to go, but my struggling and twisting distracted him. He pushed down harder, to the point where it was painful.

A bolt of energy flew out of nowhere, burning a ragged hole in Crunch Time's wing. He grunted in pain and leapt off of me. I rolled into a sitting position. Standing in the Parts & Service doorway was Sunny, an energy pistol, my energy pistol, was gripped in her teeth. I snatched up the holorifle as he walked towards her, slowly.

"Trying to be a hero? That's cute. Too bad; won't do an ounce of good." he grinned. No, this wasn't happening. I fumbled with the Holorifle, trying to fit another microspark cell into it. As I fought with the weapon he was slowly backing Sunny into the Parts & Service, daring her to shoot him. She still had the energy pistol. I should've shouted to her or something, but I wasn't thinking. He entirely obscured her by this point, and I was craning my neck trying to see her.

"AIRPONY CRUNCH TIME!" somepony bawled, and I turned to see Red Glare hovering by the staircase. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?! I could have you out of the Air Force by tomorrow for this!"

"H-he put her," Crunch Time backed away so she could see Sunny, "Before my orders. My actions were entirely justi-"

"I know exactly what happened. Came over the fucking radio. You're lucky the rest of the squad're out of short-range signal distance. As the commanding officer in this unit, I and I alone am permitted to administer disciplinary actions. You won't hear the end of this."

"B-but ma'am-" Crunch Time spluttered.

"No. I want you on the sky-tank, NOW!" she commanded, he scampered off, "Cloudburst? Are you alright?"

"Ugh," I winced in pain as the adrenaline drained from my body, "I'm alright, just about. Not sure about my ass though."

"Don't try and be a smartass," she said half-heartedly, hanging her head, "Unfortunately, this is out of my hooves; you'll never get into Neighvarro with that on your rump. I know it may not seem like it, but you've done the right thing. I'll be honest; I didn't think you would. Hey, put out your hoof for a sec."

"Wait, wha-" I muttered, confused. Then I realised; she was talking to Sunny; Red Glare had moved over to her. She pulled out her emergency first-aid kit and set to work dressing the filly's wounded foreleg. Sunny beamed at her.

"Th-thanks miss." she said softly.

"It's alright, uh…" Red Glare turned to me, probably expecting me to know her name.

"Sunbeam, it's Sunbeam." the filly smiled. How Red Glare was so good with her I'll never know.

"Okay Sunbeam, I want you to go with Cloudburst here. Okay? That's a good girl." she finished. Sunbeam trotted over to me, limping slightly, and I staggered to my hooves. Red Glare looked up at me, "You sure you're gonna be alright? You've taken one hell of a beating."

"I'll be fine, uh, ma'am" I sighed. Great, not even the captain trusted me.

"If you say so," she looked unsure, "I'll make sure your honour stays intact at least; Crunch may soon have to explain to a court martial why he let a certain technician die in the field."

"Thanks," I said, blocking out the part of my brain that screamed about what Golden Heart would think, "Well, I guess it's goodbye."

"Don't sweat it. See you. Too bad we didn't find the crate."

"Wait, you guys are looking for a crate?" Sunbeam asked, "Like, from the Steel Rangers?"

"Yeah."

"C'mon then!" she wore a fake smile, trotting into the Parts & Service once more. Behind where I'd found her was a metal shelf dotted with damaged technology; a Steel Ranger helmet with a large hole through the visor, a battered laser pistol broken into two halves joined only by wires, a pip-buck with the clasp sawn open. I snatched up the last item and tossed it into my saddlebag before the others noticed.

Beneath the shelf was the objective; a large wooden crate with the Ministry of Wartime Technology logo sprayed onto it. Red Glare looked at me expectantly, and I reluctantly pried it open. Inside was a weapon that I'd never seen before. It resembled a Tesla cannon, but the trio of prongs on the front were thicker and larger, and wires and lights were exposed along the outside. In the central chamber eldritch, orange lightning bounced around.

"The Tesla-Buckton prototype, cool huh?" Sunbeam giggled.

"Sure is," I replied, "You'd better take it, ma'am."

"Alright then, good luck to you both." said Red Glare, slinging the weapon across her back. She took off, flying out of the room and up the staircase. I picked up my discarded helmet and wrapped the strap around my saddlebag buckle, gesturing to Sunbeam to follow.

======

I trotted slowly along the cracked road, chatting casually with the filly on my back. The resort was about an hour behind us, though my helmet's internal display wouldn't give me a straight answer. Right now my only plan was reaching civilisation, and the Manehattan suburbs' ruins had seemed as good a place as any to start.

We mostly talked about me, and my life above the cloud layer. Sunbeam was fascinated by the idea of seeing the sun every day, the idea of running water and constantly having food to eat even if it was rationed. She tended, however, to dodge questions about her previous life. She also had a slightly unnerving habit of correctly guessing things. According to her she was just good at it.

"Hey," she asked, "How'd you get your cutie mark?"

"My cutie mark? Must've been, what, ten years ago?" I began. "So, my mum bought us this model plane, for me and Sky Strider to mess with. It had a little electric motor, and you flew it with a remote. All well and good, until Sky Strider managed to fly it into the wall one too many times and broke the wing. Mum glued it back, but we couldn't get it to fly again. Sky was ready just to write it off, but I took the wreckage up to my room after a couple days and managed to get it working again; turns out the broken wing was on backwards. My mum'd just assumed that it was a flat piece of plastic. Thing is; wings only work one way around. So I fixed it and went to bed, and when I woke up my flanks weren't bare any more! Mum made pancakes to celebrate and I ate way to much chocolate afterwards."

"Cool! Your mum must've been awesome!" she giggled.

"Yup. Hey, what were your parents like?" I asked, treading lightly.

"They were… alright, I guess. Yeah."

"Sunbeam," I sighed, "I wasn't born yesterday. If there's something you're not telling me-"

"Finally decided to speak up, huh?" she muttered. "I wasn't fooling you for a second, I know that. Uh, well, okay. You asked for it. I grew up in a stable; Stable 58. It's out in the Vanhoover region, uh, a few days to the west of here. It wasn't too bad really, but the thing is; it wasn't a proper stable. It had been, years ago, but the Steel Rangers moved in way before I was born. The stable ponies got lucky; according to Rocky Road, most Ranger chapters would've slaughtered them, but the Vanhoover chapter was going through some rough times, and they needed a base, so they just settled in with the stable's inhabitants and integrated them into the Rangers."

"Wait," I interjected, "Who's Rocky Road?"

"He was the chapter Elder, an old buck with worlds of knowledge. He seemed to know everything, uh, back then at least. So, yeah, I was born in this stable. The door was open, but I never went outside. At least we had food and water in there. Life was pretty good, I mean, ponies died and all, but yeah. There was one major problem, the vast amount of Stable 58's inhabitants were sterile. It was supposed to have something to do with their 'social experiment', to limit the population. Some enchantment in the water that only targets certain DNA according to the scribes. So you can imagine how big of a thing it was when I was born; 'future of the chapter' and all that stuff, they even gave me a pip-buck before I had my cutie mark."

I stopped walking, my train of thought derailing. The idea of that much pressure on a child was alien to me. As the flightless runt, expectations for me had always been low. I felt a pang of sympathy for her as she continued.

"My parents were supportive, uh, but really pushy, always urging me on even when I didn't want to be. They also had this habit of keeping me in the dark about the real world," she sighed.

"Wait, then how do you know all of this?"

"Eavesdropping," she smiled, a hint of pride creeping into her voice, "If they wouldn't teach me, then I'd find out myself. It's why my knowledge is kinda patchy, I mean, since I only know what I've overheard."

"And I used to think you were innocent," I chuckled, "Seriously though, that's pretty impressive. You're really good at picking up on stuff."

"Thanks!" she beamed. "It's just that, one night, we came under attack. Bean Curd woke me up at, like, two in the morning, saying we had to leave. I asked him what was going on. He just told me not to ask questions. We gathered a bunch of the scribes, and the knights all rushed to the door to try and seal it. Somepony in the atrium was screaming. There's a back entrance, and we went out that way. Came out onto the Mane Street. A few of the knights came up after us, with the Tesla-Buckton. There was three of them, plus Crusader Dandelion. We set out for Manehattan; we were going to join up with the chapter there."

"How many of you were there?" I asked.

"What, in the convoy? There must've been about, uh, a dozen scribes, plus the four knights, me, and Bean Curd. He was the head scribe."

"How'd raiders overcome that? You guys had four ponies in full power armour!" I exclaimed, forgetting myself.

"And they had an AMR! Dandy didn't even know what hit him," she sighed. The Ranger helmet in the Parts & Service came to mind immediately. She spoke up again, "Hey, what'd you take from the shelf?" I stopped a second time; she had noticed that? Moreover, she hadn't realised that something was missing, she'd seen me take an item.

"A pip-buck," I confessed, "With the clasp sawn through." I pulled it out, examining the device while Sunbeam peered past my neck to see. I heard a gasp emanate from her.

"Bu-but that's my pip-buck!" she exclaimed. "Bone Saw cut it off a couple of days ago." So that explained the cut on her leg. I passed it back to her.

"Keep it, it's yours after all," I smiled. She shook her head.

"But you need it more." She pushed my hoof away. I dropped it back into my saddlebag and resumed my trot.

======

That night we slept in a bombed-out cinema foyer in the suburbs. I used my emergency lighter to get a fire going with some old planks and torn-up film posters. I lay down next to it to sleep, and Sunbeam curled up next to me. As I drifted away from reality, the true nature of my situation began to set in; I was trapped down here, forever.

Footnote: Level up.

Companion Perk:
Baby Girl - Ex-captive filly Sunbeam has joined your party, and you'll do anything to protect her! While she is in your party wastelanders will view you more favourably, but raiders and slavers are twice as likely to attack you. If she is targeted by any attack, regardless of the source, you gain +50% DR until the attacker is dead.

New Perk:
Foal At Heart - Your interactions with foals are greatly improved, usually in the form of unique dialogue options.