Fallout:Equestria - Burning Hope

Chapter 3: Sunshine

"But how do you break into uplifting musical numbers with no singing?

"

The light was beginning to fade as we entered Manehattan. It was far too late to be looking for ‘Littlepip’, so Midnight and I decided to set up camp and start looking in the morning. We had found an old office building which was relatively intact, and decided to camp on the second floor. There was a large window, which was completely smashed, and numerous terminals on broken tables.

Midnight set her bed roll down on the floor and pushed her saddlebag off her back. I yawned and looked out of the window, looking out over the street and the ruined city. It gave me time to think, to reflect.

Was this job the ending of my retirement? Would I continue to kill just for a few caps? Could I keep Midnight safe forever? How much more blood would be on my hooves? Was I a bad pony?

I felt a hoof on my shoulder and I turned to look at Midnight. She was staring at me, concern filling her hazel eyes.

“You ok Fire?” she asked, looking into my eye. “You look sad, is something wrong?”

“N-no.” I mumbled “I was just thinking. Does doing this job make me a bad pony?”. A memory came to mind, and I suppressed the urge to shoot myself on the spot.

“No, you aren’t a bad pony. No one is perfect, especially not in the wastes.” she said in an attempt to cheer me up.

“What about that filly? The one I……” I gulped, staring down in the wild hope that the ground would swallow me “The one I killed.”

“Not your fault. You were told to shoot her from the opposite building, you couldn’t have known.” she mumbled. I looked away.

“Anyway, you sleep, I’ll take the first watch as usual.” Midnight sighed and unrolled her bedding. I listened as she settled down before a soft snore could be heard.

The city looked quiet. A few spots of light littered the city as settlements prepared for the night. A tower of light shone over smashed buildings, as posh ponies sat down for their third meal of the day. I was lucky if I got one a day. In the distance, there seemed to be a celebration in one of the settlements, because I could hear music being played. It sounded out of place among the screaming that echoed from the next street along.

My ear flickered and I heard the screaming again, coming from a mare by the sound of it. And, in the corner of my eye, I spotted a group of ponies turn and walk down the street below. Several ponies in battered old armour were walking, pulling a few cages behind them on large carts. There were about ten ponies and two cages, with several other mares and stallions inside the cages. It was without a doubt that the armoured ponies were slavers. I had no intentions of doing anything, but I saw Midnight standing behind me, having woken up, holding my battle saddle ready in her magic. It was dumped on my back and I prepared to attack, even though I wasn't wearing any armour. With my trusty weapon loaded, I took off out the window.

They didn't notice me at first. Pegasi aren't very common in the wastes, so it must have come as a surprise when I started shooting at them from above. I didn't bother with S.A.T.S, I had enough ammo so I just rained down lead on them. One of my shots struck one unlucky sod in the head, but the rest only scraped the slavers if they hit at all. Then, they started shooting back.

A bullet whizzed past my face, nicking my right ear. I flew high into the sky and swooped down, firing more bullets as I did so. Another slaver got shot through the eye, while the buck next to him got a new hole in his chest. Red looked good on him. The crack of my rifle sounded out, and I guessed Midnight had joined in the fight.

Turns out that thinking while fighting was bad, because the next thing I knew, I'd been shot in the side just beside my cutie mark. Screaming was unavoidable, but that was wasting more time.

I growled and dodged another bullet before speeding up and flying sideways along the side of the wall. Before they knew what was coming, I shot two from behind. My wings snapped shut and I plummeted down to the ground, the feathery appendages spreading the second before I landed on top of a slaver. She fell to the ground and I shot her in the head for good measure. Another bullet pierced my skin and made its home in my lower chest, lodged between two ribs. Nothing important was hurt, probably, so I grit my teeth and ignored it.

My head turned to whoever had shot me. It was an orange earth mare with a yellow mane, tied back with bands that had spikes on them. Her tail was cut so short it was hard to see, especially with all the armour she wore. A necklace of dash inhalers hung from her neck, and her bloodshot eyes indicated she had taken some sort of chem, if not multiple types. The strange mare charged towards me.

She was a little slow, by the time she got to where I was, I was hovering in the air above her. My mouth bit down on the bit of my battle saddle, but my gun didn't fire, just let out that horrible click. I was out of ammo. Midnight was clearly trying to shoot the final two slavers, which just left me with this nutcase.

“I jus wanna playyyyy” the slaver called, clearly insane. “I like playing. I play with da slaves. They don't like playyying.” Her tone of voice shook me a little.

I flew high into the air, higher than the building before dashing down at high speed. My eyes watered and my wings ached, but none of that mattered. My hoof made contact with her side and I slammed into the mare, sending us both sprawling to the ground. A disturbing fit of giggling erupted from the mare. She recovered before I did and leapt onto me, her disgusting slobber dripping onto my face. My legs desperately tried to push her away, but I guess the blood loss from being shot and the exhaustion from all that flying was beginning to catch up.

She pressed her hoof against my stomach and I wailed. The mare was wearing shoes with spikes on the bottom, spikes that were pressing into me. A shot rang out and she stayed there, frozen still as a waterfall of blood erupted from her skull. The mare was pushed away from me and landed on the cracked concrete. Midnights face made its way into my view as she stared at me with concern.

“You ok Fire?” She asked. I nodded and slowly stood up. As my unicorn friend made her way to the cages I searched the mare. She hadn't owned much, but I didn't mind. Two of her buck pills were swallowed by myself and I took one of her med-X shots, ramming the needle into my shoulder before feeling the sweet numbing sensation.

Her spiked shoes caught my eye and I pulled them off before slipping them onto my own hooves. With a little work, they would be a perfect fit, but they were fine for the time being.

I grinned and bounced over to Midnight, who had unlocked both cages by then. Most of the freed slaves had gone to search the bodies of their former captors, or just ran away the instant they were free. Two eyes under one of the carts stared at me and I looked down.

Underneath was one of the slavers, who had hidden when I started the attack. He shuffled out from under the cart. I ran behind him and leapt onto his back, planting my spiked hooves firmly in his back. A scream escaped his lips, and I stamped on his neck, driving the spikes through his windpipe. As I removed my hooves from his body, blood spurted out of him as if he was a fountain. It was almost beautiful, the way the blood rose into the air before arching down and falling to the small lake of red surrounding the body.

I made my way back to my friend, so was having a conversation with one of the ponies she had set free. They had obviously found everyone's property because I could see several slaves sifting through a large chest and pulling out bits of property. Then, many of the free ponies set off back into the city.

Midnight was talking to a mare. She was an earth pony by the looks of it. Her coat was a dulled pale pink and her mane was a rather dull yellow with a magenta stripe through it. The mare’s eyes were the colour of the stripe, but something about them reminded me of crystals. Both her mane and tail were limp and flat, drooping down to the ground. She wore a set of leg guards and a wartime medic bag. Around her front was a belt with several small knives strapped to it. A gun was inside a holster strapped to one of her hind legs, slightly covering her cutie mark which looked like a yellow butterfly made from crystals.

My unicorn friend turned to me “Fire, this is Sunbeam. Sunbeam, this is Fireflight. She’s a very close friend of mine.” She said. I gave Sunbeam a pleasant smile, and she smiled back.

“J-just call me Sunny” she said quietly, almost in a whisper. I guess it was then that she noticed the two bullet wounds in my side, probably due to the fact that my hind legs shook and I almost fell over. The pink mare gasped.

“Oh, goodness. You're hurt.” She said, dashing to my side. Midnight looked concerned.

“Not too bad.” I mumbled “I've had worse.” She stared at me in shock.

“You really should take better care of yourself. There are bullets stuck in you and you don't seem to care.” I guess the only reaction I could think of was to shrug, so that's what I did. She then went on. “I should be able to fix it. Not in the open though.”

Midnight walked back towards the building we had set up camp and I followed, with Sunny insisting on lecturing me about my health as I walked. When we reached the second floor of the office building, the pink pony forced me onto a table before getting Midnight to yank my battle saddle off. Then Sunny started pulling stuff out her bag.

As I sat on the table, I watched in a fascination as a bright light radiated from Sunny. Her mane was suddenly brighter and bouncier, and was tied in a ponytail with large blue hair bands. Her tail had experienced a similar transformation.

“What the….?” I began but she interrupted me.

“I'm a crystal pony.” She said, still looking through her bag for something. I was sure I could remember something about crystal ponies at school, but I probably wasn't listening properly. But I liked to keep an open mind about this sort of thing, so I said nothing.

Sunbeam ordered me to lie down, much like a master would order their pet. And I subconsciously obeyed, lying down on my side. Something pierced my neck and the world spun around.

“Wha?” I mumbled before losing my grip and falling into the black.

I seemed to have woken up, still on the table. My midsection was wrapped in bandages, and my pip-buck was no longer on my forehoof. I looked around, but no one seemed to be there.

“Midnight?” I called out “Sunbeam? Where are you guys?”

A gun cocked behind my head and I turned around. Behind me was a tall white unicorn with a neatly brushed white mane and bright red eyes. He wore a cream coloured cloak that reached down to the floor and covered his tail. The clasp on the cloak was metal and looked like a snake eating its own tail. He was holding a large rifle in his red magic.

“We meet again Fireflight. It is truly a shame I failed to kill you last time. But now, I can finish what I started.” He said in a smooth voice.

“What you started can never end, it spirals on forever. Isn't that the Guild’s logic?” I spat at him.

“You know I don't care for that.” He grinned and pressed the rifle to my head, the barrel pressing between my eyes. I swore that his eyes glowed as he grinned at me.

“You never should have left, Fireflight.” He said before a loud bang. And everything faded away.

Level Up

New perk:Survivalist - You are an experienced citizen of the wasteland. Congratulations?? You have a better ability to survive in hostile environments, such as radioactive cities.