The Fast, Dangerous and the Furious

Chapter Four: Lake Water

My heart rate finally returned to normal after we put several miles in between us and Bolt Action's mine shaft from hell. Silver Shoe seemed to be doing well, she had been lost in thought for most of the walk which was fine with me since I hadn’t felt like saying much about the town. I’m willing to bet we had the same opinion about that place. Her horn, engulfed in magic, unrolled a large map in front of me. It was a map of Equestria. “Where’d you find this at?” My eyes carefully looked it over the several markings on it. Just a red dot in three different locations, probably some other Reaper hideouts which means we had better stay away from there.

Silver Shoe hummed to herself and started walking backwards. “I found it in one of the Reaper’s rooms. There were some other stuff mixed with it, but I figured they wouldn’t mind missing a map. After all Bolt Action has more where that came from.” I don’t know why, but stealing a map from the stallion that was about to be the reason for our death doesn’t seem like the smartest idea in the world. Then again Silver Shoe had a point. It’s just a map. All the cities and towns in Equestria were shown on it, but no Districts. That’s rather interesting. This must have been made before they were built. I looked at Silver Shoe.

“Plus, after being thrown in cages I think they owe us and we both know this place doesn’t play by our rules.” I agreed with that.

I looked back at the map noticing a magenta colored circle moving around a location near the mountains. It was called Lake Water. I took in a long, slow deep breath and smiled. With any luck it won’t be filled with hostile people. I’m sure we could both use some supplies as well. At the very least some more ammo. I looked for some other towns and didn’t see any. Lake Water was the only town between us or anything else. I’ve never been to a lake before. “Alright then, let’s go.” Silver Shoe rolled her map back up and galloped ahead of me.

*** ***

Hmm. The name is a little miss leading.

As we walked into Lake Water I made note that there was no actual lake anywhere near the town. Nothing. Not even a watering hole. The town itself was nice, most of the buildings were made out of brick unlike the other town we had been at which had been almost entirely of wood. From what I could tell after setting a hoof in here, there was a sheriff’s office, a general store that didn’t have a name, a bar which I planned on visiting later, along with few rooms to rent.

My small smile turned into a frown. I didn’t have any bits or gems. Whatever I did have had been taken from my bags, thankfully my weapons hadn't so there was a silver lining. Silver Shoe stopped and whistled at me. I stopped and she pulled up my hoof. She set a bag of bits down in it. “I also took this from Bolt Action’s room.” I’m sure a stallion wearing a snakeskin coat is more than capable of making this back in no time. As much as I would love to question taking money from this guy … he was miles away from us and Equestria is a big place, I won’t question it. I put the bits inside my saddle bag. Silver Shoe sat on her haunches, tapping her hoof on the ground as if she was thinking something over. I sat down and looked around. Something was off. This town was dead empty.

“Aregh! Aregh! AREEEEEGH!"

We stood up while an infected bolted out of the bar towards us! Silver Shoe tried to light up her horn. I tried to pull my gun out with my mouth.

BLAM! BLAM!

“An’ stay down you damn vermin!” A bearded pony wearing a desperado hat complete with a brown vest stepped out of the bar with a double barrel shot gun in one hoof. He leaned it against his shoulder and starred at us. His gun barrel tipped his hat up as he noticed we were both at a loss for words.

I moved my hoof away from my chest, which I hadn’t realized had moved since the infected tried to attack us. Silver Shoe’s chest puffed up a few times. She had her rifle in her hoofs and let it hit the ground while she lay back against the dirt. If I didn't know any better I'd say she was startled even more than I was. “Thanks,” was all Silver Shoe could say while her chest continued to puff up. All this excitement, it makes us so tired. And thirsty! I looked at my gun and noticed I hadn’t even gotten close to pulling it out. It was still in its holster.

The desperado pony cocked his shotgun letting two shells pop out. He set it down against a bench and walked over to us. “I apologize for the scare, ya’ll aren’t from around here are ya?” I shook my head. The desperado mulled it over while letting out a low whistle at his work on the infected. Two bullets fired, both into the creatures back. “Ya’ll can call me Sheriff.” He reached a hoof out to Silver Shoe then pulled her up off the ground. I got up and shook his hoof.

“I’m Runner, and this is Silver Shoe. Thanks for bailing us out.” Sheriff hummed while I helped him pickthe dead body up. With a good lunge we let the thing drop onto a wagon with other infected bodies. I counted five.

Sheriff whistled to a pony hiding behind some crates demanding he take the bodies away. Good riddance. “Again, I apologize for the scare, these damn clickers got into our bar again.” Again? This has happened more than once. Well every place has its set of problems, infected are looking to be the majority of problems around here. “What brings ya’ll t’ this fine town of mine?”

I looked at Silver Shoe, immediately taking notice that she was busy starring at the infected being hauled away. I opened my mouth to say something, but Silver Shoe interrupted, “We’re looking for a pegasus, have any come through here?” Sheriff thought that over for a minute before giving us a very slow nod. It wasn’t the kind of nod that told us he had seen one, it was more of a nod that said he understood our problem and would help out. Several more ponies starting walking out from their hiding spots while others opened their stores to the public. Now I see how he knew we weren’t from here, we’re the only ones not hiding. A few of them walked by and gave Silver Shoe some suspicious glances. They then looked at me and kept walking.

My eyes remained attentive to this. From the looks we were receiving I didn't like being out in the open even with the sheriff being a few hoof steps away from us. Their were several ponies near the general store whispering. I'd give anything for a heightened sense of hearing right about now.

“Let’s continue this conversation inside my office.” Sheriff grabbed his shotgun from the bench then escorted us down the street. It took me until now to notice he had two pistols strapped over both his flanks with a few sticks of dynamite. I guess if you can’t get a grenade that’s the next best thing. Silver Shoe spun around in small circles, taking in the entire town to get a feel for it, while Sheriff told us about the town. It was built around the same time the Districts were put up, but there wasn’t a date that told us if it had been built before or after those walls had gone up.

Sheriff kicked open his door letting us go in first. The room was small. It had two jail cells side by side, a desk near the door, and a small poker table near some wanted posters. He sat down at his desk and put the shotgun inside of a large cabinet behind him.  I kept looking at the wanted posters. Brave Day: Wanted for twenty counts of known murder. Cannonball Joe: Wanted for property destruction and five counts of murder. Steam Chaser: Wanted for robbery. Sour Tooth: Wanted Dead. “You’re both lucky you found our fine town, I hear them criminals have been sighted around the area.”

That put me on edge. We’d already met one of them and he scared the ever loving crap out of me. His burning mane was still clawing at my nightmares. In fact, he gave my nightmares, nightmares of their own.

I didn’t even want to be in the same room as the poster. The freaking poster! Silver Shoe pulled up a chair and sat down in front of Sheriff’s desk. “About the pegasus were trying to track down.” Sheriff hummed while he pulled out a bottle of Apple Whiskey from his drawer. He poured three glasses.

“We had a run in with a pegasus and griffon a while back, but I haven’t seen them since. I’m sure I heard something about them, but my memory ain’t what it used to be.” He was being serious. Most of the time I would expect to pay some pony for his answers, but he was actually thinking hard about it. From the looks of it he had heard something recently. I took my attention away from the wanted posters and saw a large map of Equestria set up on the poker table.

Now that I think about it, those infected ponies from earlier looked like the ones in the mine. I voiced my observation about the different kinds of infected. Sheriff chuckled. “You folks really aren’t from around these parts are you? See we have two different kinds of infected, that we know of, running around Lake Water.” Let the mental note taking begin! I sat down and had my full attention turned to this. Silver Shoe groaned and gave me a nasty look for interrupting her conversation. “You’ve got t’ regular infected, you know the ones that act feral and crazy like. Then you’ve got clickers, those are a nasty bunch that use sounds to move around.” Oh, like a bat. That’s interesting. “Those are the ones you need to watch out fer. They are a nasty piece of work that pick up on the smallest of sounds. Bitch to get away from t’.” Dually noted and accounted for.

Silver Shoe nodded her head slowly. She was just taking it all in. “Are there any places you’d suggest checking out that don’t have infected running around?” That was one of my bigger concerns. How many places had these things crawling around looking for fresh pony meat?

Sheriff leaned back in his chair which gave way to a few squeaks. He hummed, taking a drink from his glass. I levitated mine over to the poker table and drank. “Well there’s only a few places that have no infected around them. You’ve got Manehattan and Fillydelphia near the ocean, any remaining District,” which from what I hear are only two including mine. Sheriff paused to take a quick look at another map pinned against the wall. “There’s also Canterlot and Ponyville. The cops keep those places pretty well patrolled so you shouldn’t be seeing that many of them.” Silver Shoe marked these places down on her map. Looks like we have more places to travel to. “Stay away from Harbor City though, that place has infected crawling near its wall. I don’t trust it.”

Good, cause neither do I. Besides I doubt Silver Shoe’s sister would be staying near any infected. I mean I don’t know her preferences, but who would really want to live near infected. “But enough about me and this somewhat deranged land, tell me about yourselves. Where ya’ll from.” Silver Shoe spat our home out right away. I can speak for both of us when I say we’re tired of saying where we were from. Sheriff cleared his throat. “Well I can see you two aren’t very fond of home. You know the sad part is that way back when they were first built, ponies would scramble for miles to be inside one away from all the gloom the infected were causing.”

It was all that stupid devices fault.

That’s what the crazy pony had said to me. I won’t pay too much attention to it, but you never know where some valuable information will come from. I spoke up, “How come there aren’t any infected running around here? You know aside from all the clickers inside the bar.” Sheriff snorted at that. He pointed a hoof out the window and I pulled back the curtain. A sniper was posted on top of a tall building. I could make out another one a few buildings down.

“You see I want t’ offer this town the best security I can, that means I need t’ have four snipers watching over this town. Each one covers the others blind spot. Won’t have any criminals come through here.” I looked back out the window again. He was right. Each sniper was put on a building that could allow them to see where the other snipers couldn’t. All in all it was a good setup. “It keeps the murders out. Especially Sour Tooth.” Yeah, I can see why a pony like him would want to be kept well away from any towns just trying to survive. “If’in you don’t mind me asking, why’d ya’ll leave the District?”

Lots of reasons. But I could tell from the look on Silver Shoe’s face that she despised the place even more now that we had our first taste of freedom outside that place. Her hoof started tapping against the ground rather hard. “They treated us like garbage.” She was in dark places, I was about to go to those same places. “I won’t ever go back to that place.” Sheriff nodded and pushed the remaining drink over to her. She downed it right away and started to calm down. Breathe in. Hold it. Hold it. Exhale. I calmed down to.

Sheriff nodded understandingly, pouring Silver Shoe another drink. His face had let down its stone expression and replaced it with a more sympathetic one. He didn’t cross any lines, we just … we needed to see the outside world more than we had realized. Sure there might be murders and infected out here, but it beats looking over your shoulder every day praying to the Princesses that we won’t get back stabbed. “Well we’ll treat you fairly. The fine ponies in this town have always wanted to live like the ponies of the past. There used to be a time where fillies could wander around outside without a care in the world looking for their cutie mark.” I looked at my own flank. A gear. I liked it. It could represent a lot of things. My father told me he couldn’t tell me what it represented, but I believe it represented a transmission, like the one’s found in gliders. I blinked noticing Sheriff had said something that I had missed, but from Silver Shoe’s expression I could guess it was just some rambling.

I had to admit this was a nice feeling. The only time I had ever gotten to sit around and talk with another pony like this was during the cook outs or with a half sleeping old goat. This was better. Silver Shoe set her empty whiskey glass down loudly. “Well I hate to be this mare, but that all happened before our time. So let’s get back to the present." Always the blunt one as usual. I grinned a little. "Do you remember if that pegasus had a cutie mark with stones falling like a waterfall?” Waterfall? Why was I picturing a mare like Silver Shoe tossing stones off of buildings and nailing windows?

That’s when I realized something. “Wait. You’re parents are both earth ponies.”

“How in thunderation did two earth ponies have a pegasus and unicorn as foals,” Sheriff asked trying to put a cigar in his mouth, but dropped it. We both stared at each other then slowly turned to Silver Shoe for answers.

Silver Shoe sighed and nodded. “Well you see my great-great-great-great grandfather was a unicorn and my aunt’s second cousin twice removed was a pegasus. That makes sense right?” Ugh. I guess. I’m not a genealogy or biology expert. I mean by that logic we should see more than just four Alicorns. Just smile and nod. Even Sheriff’s smiling and nodding!

Sheriff cleared his throat and pulled Silver Shoe’s map over to his side of the desk. He looked it over while we listened to his hoof tap against the north end of the map. “I don’t remember much about them, I’d know ‘em if I saw ‘em, but I can tell you this much. There have been reports of some hijackings involving a griffon and a pegasus. No names I’m afraid.” Silver Shoe looked down at the map and she noticed what I noticed. There are a lot of towns up north from here. It would take us forever to track them down.

WHA-THUNK!

A pony dressed in rancher clothing burst through the door. He had a silver star on his vest. “Sheriff, we have a problem in the generator storage area.” The lights started flickering on and off. Sheriff sighed and got up.

“Is it t’ infected kind?”

The rancher pony nodded. Sheriff opened up his cabinet with a rather angry groan. He set down several large ammo boxes, two shotguns, three pistols, and a rifle. “Runner, Silver Shoe, I’d like you to meet my deputy. Deputy, grab some ammo.” Sheriff cracked his shotgun open and loaded two rounds into it. He reloaded all of his pistols and gave one of the extra to Deputy. Sheriff turned to us, “How about we make a deal?” I shrugged. “You two help us clear out the generator area and I’ll give you the name of the last town I heard those hijackers were seen at.” Silver Shoe smiled and shook his hoof.

“You’ve got yourself a deal, Sheriff.” Never thought we’d be working for the law enforcement.

Sheriff tossed Silver Shoe a shotgun and she caught it in her levitation field. She cracked it open and loaded it with two shells while an ammo box of shotgun ammo floated right into her saddle bags. Sheriff passed me the rifle. I held it in my hooves and noticed it was the kind you could just lean into and pull the trigger with your hoof. More guns need this feature!

I have to admit it was a mighty fine weapon. Deputy set two ammo boxes next to me and I put them in my bags. Rifle ammo and pistol ammo. I put each gun in a holster, triple checking to make sure they were all loaded to full capacity. I was good to go. Silver Shoe was already walking out the door. I followed Sheriff out making sure to shut the door behind me.

“What have you got for me, Deputy?” Sheriff kept his pistol in his mouth. I’ll be honest I’m surprised he can even talk like that. And so clearly to! That’s a good skill to have with guns like those.

“Just a couple of infected and clickers. Nothing major, but enough so that it’s better we have these two with us.” Sheriff nodded and looked at us. Deputy didn't look impressed. “Can they even handle a gun?”

Silver Shoe scoffed and walked past all of us. Deputy looked at me, “I didn’t mean anything by that. We just … we need good ponies with guns.” I looked at him shaking my head. That didn’t really offend me, now Silver Shoe on the other hand took a decent sense of pride from her shooting skills. Just like how I would take pride in the flying skills I wish I had.

Sheriff put a hoof on Silver Shoe’s shoulder and went into the bar first. We followed in together. Everything was messed up. Tables were thrown all around, bottles were smashed to pieces, even the chandelier was ready to snap clean of its chain. A gun was jammed through the restroom door. Still better than the bars where I’m from! A few bottles near the bar fell over.

“AREGH!”

Sheriff pulled out a stick of dynamite. Silver Shoe put a hoof on his shoulder slowly levitating her shotgun out. She quietly moved over to the bar and crouched next to it. In one swift movement she jumped over the bar and …

BLAM! BLAM!

Her head came back up while she reloaded the gun. “I don’t know. Can I handle a gun?” Sarcasm! Deputy looked at me and shot me a look I knew very well. No, she was not going to let that question go anytime soon.

“AREGH!"

Several infected from upstairs came running down after us. Sheriff tossed a lit stick of dynamite at the bottom of the staircase. My horn lit up and I covered all of us with every table I could levitate. The entire room shook while a flash from the other side of the room blinded me. My eyes snapped shut, my body feeling several large chunks of wood hit me. I slowly opened my eyes and found the infected all lying dead on the ground. Damn.

The area where the dynamite had hit was scorched black, but aside from that and a few minor scrapes from the ruined tables I’d call this a win. Sheriff trotted over to a door and pushed it open. He waved a hoof at us and we all followed him down a staircase. I spared one last glance at the door noticing  the lights flicker a bit more. I asked Silver Shoe if she was sure about this. She cocked her shotgun. “Stay sharp every pony.”