Chapter 3: Learning the Ropes

What do I do now? Is there a book about being a princess I should read?

After parting ways with Clay and her family, Azel and I had walked on for about an hour before stopping to make camp for the night. This 'camp' was a small cave in one of the bigger rock formations. We couldn't make a fire since there weren't any trees in the area, but luckily it was fairly warm outside. I took first watch.

"Your armor has a clock right?"

"Yeah. Don't worry Azel, I won't fall asleep on watch."

"Not what I'm worried about." What?

"Then what are you worried about? It's not like we're completely unarmed. We can handle anything from around here." I didn't know that for sure, but then again neither did he.

"Worried about you." Huh?

"What? Why? I thought you trusted me."

"Not worried about you betraying me. Worried about your health."

"My health? Have I been coughing or something?"

"You seem stiff and slowed. Are you injured under the armor?"

"No. I'm still a little sore from my crash but that's all. Maybe that's what you're seeing."

He gave me a thoughtful look for a few seconds. "Possibly. Try not to strain yourself. Just in case." He went inside the cave. I sat there alone with my thoughts. While I was sure he was wrong, I figured that I should check my vitals as a precaution.

Display User Vitals
…
Reading Vitals
…
Displaying Vitals

A window appeared on my HUD right below the E.F.S. showing the shape of a pony, specifically a pegasus. The torso, head, legs, and wings were all separated by a dash-line. My head and legs were outlined in green, which probably meant that they were healthy. What I was surprised to see, was that my wings were outlined in greenish-yellow and my torso in yellowish orange. It wasn't until then that I realized how shallow my breathing was. How much my chest ached. How hard it was to shuffle my wings without flinching. That fall must have been worse than I thought. But how? If I'm this injured after a healing potion I should have been in agony once I woke up after the crash. But that can't be the case since I woke up with a dull ache. 0 dose(s) left. Of course. Not all but one broke from the fall. Those that didn't break were used to help me stay asleep to recover. In fact...

Inject Med-X
…
Error: No Med-X Available

Yep. The only reason I was able to fight was a combination of my last Med-X I had put in the suit and adrenaline. How am I going to survive once the Med-X wears off? How long do I have anyway? A timer appeared in the vitals window.

00:00:30

Not enough. What do I do? There aren't any medical supplies around here. C'mon, think!

00:00:15

Maybe Azel has something. I need to tell him what's going on.

00:00:10

I was starting to feel strange. I tried to call out to Azel for help but all I could muster was a muted whisper. My breath was becoming even more shallow than before.

00:00:05

I was about to collapse, I could hardly stand. It felt as if what little strength I had left was slipping away by the second. My vision dimmed.

00:00:00

No!

Energy Siphoned. Applying to Wound

Huh...what? Suddenly, I felt magical energy flowing through me. My vision returned and my breathing became normal. A stiffness all over my body I hadn't noticed before began to evaporate. I was no longer tired. I felt more energized than ever before. In fact, I felt like I could take on the world. Like nothing could stop me.

Wound Restored to Healthy Condition. Deactivating Centaur Protocol

Deactivating? Centaur Protocol? Why wasn't this in the tutorial? It would have been nice to know that my suit can heal me! I'm getting answers right now!

Display Centaur Protocol
…
User Not Authorized

What? Was this armor already programmed to somepony? But Rainbow Dash's letter to the overseer made it seem like whoever was in charge of choosing the candidate, whom I would assume to be Rainbow Dash, was undecided. How could it be restricted already? Maybe it would be unlocked for them at the hideout. But that still doesn't explain the absence of the Centaur Protocol in the tutorial. Ugh! I already have Nightfall to figure out, I don't need another mystery to plague my mind as well. The rush in my head from whatever the Centaur Protocol did left me and I returned to my normal mindset. Now with a clear head, I noticed that my wings and chest were now the healthy green that everything else was before. At least it worked, whatever it was. I'll figure it out later. Long as it doesn't cause a problem I can focus on Nightfall instead. I took a deep breath. You're getting off track Hotshot. Watch duty now, mystery later. I closed the vitals window and returned to watching our surroundings.

The rest of my shift passed by without event and I went to wake Azel for his turn. I prodded him and he awoke almost immediately. Wish I could wake up without resistance. It'd make mornings much more pleasant. "Your shift." He nodded and started walking towards the entrance. "Oh and Azel," He stopped and looked back at me. "You were right. I was injured and didn't realize it. The armor did something, I don't know what, but it healed me. If it hadn't, things would have been much worse. Thank you for looking out for me." He smiled slightly, nodded, and made his way outside. I on the other hoof, laid down and went to bed.

I woke up to the sun's rays, at least what made it through the cloud layer, shinning into the cave. Hmph, not the same when you don't see the sun itself. Just another thing I'll have to get used to. I looked outside and found that Azel was missing. I quickly looked back inside to see if my supplies were still there. I almost cursed his name before I realized that one, I didn't have anything to steal except my armor and two, Azel's gear was still there. I scanned the horizon again, still no Azel. His stuff is here so he was planning on coming back. Where could he be. I looked at my E.F.S for a clue, finding something very odd. It showed a green dot right where I was standing, and since it's pointless to display myself that could only mean one thing. I jumped into the air, quickly gaining altitude, and turned around to see Azel perched on top of the rock we had camped out in. They really should have figured out how to show height on the radar. It was very satisfying to see his startled expression from my sudden burst of speed, although it only lasted for a split second before he composed himself again. "Having fun up here?" He rolled his eyes as he grabbed his chalkboard.

"Was about to come wake you."

"Well, I'm ready when you are."

"Let me get my bags." He nimbly climbed down leaving me alone with my thoughts. I still don't have an explanation for whatever the Centaur Protocol did, which was really bugging me. I still have a ways to go until I can properly look for Nightfall so I can't occupy myself on that yet. Once I do find it, what next? Before I could consider my future I heard something in the distance. Wait no, it's music. What could be playing music all the way out here? Why would they be here in the first place? I took to the air, looking in the direction of the sound. Now that it was closer I could tell that it was polka styled music. Strange choice for the wasteland. I saw something glint in the distance. Quickly I flew to it. A really small green dot appeared on the E.F.S as I got closer. Before me was a strange sphere-shaped robot with four wings keeping it afloat playing music. Is that a gun on it's underside? While I was looking at the gun, the robot stopped moving and the music cut off. Then it looked at me.

It spoke in a slightly distorted voice, "Hello there."

"Uh…hello. What are you?"

"Interesting way of starting a conversation." Great, the little music robot was mocking me.

"What is your primary function?"

"Oh I'm not a robot. I'm just hacking this spritebot. My name is Watcher. Yours?"

"Daybreak."

"You afraid somepony will steal your armor? Where did you get that anyway? Don't think anypony has the tech to make something like that nowadays." I was going to ask what he meant by somepony stealing my armor until I remembered the inscription on the flank.

"Found it."

"Where?"

"Around"

"Where exactly?"

"Not telling."

"Why?"

"Don't trust you."

"I suppose that's fair. Hey, could you do me a favor?"

"Depends. What is it?"

"There's a large group of raiders nearby that are attacking supply caravans passing through. If this continues a small nearby settlement will starve."

"Raiders?"

"You know, the blood-thirsty insane ponies who eat each other."

"Settlement? I thought that the only places ponies lived were in the cities. What's a settlement doing all the way out here?"

"How long have you been in the wasteland?"

"One day." The voice chuckled. "What?"

"Wait, your serious?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Considering your arsenal, you seem to have quite some experience in the wasteland. You certainly don't look like a stable dweller and unless the Enclave has seriously stepped up it's game I don't think you'd find equipment like that just lying about." I was about to object his last statement but then decided that it wasn't worth clearing up.

"Well I don't. Crashed into this hell yesterday."

"Crashed? You in the Enclave?"

"Was. Not sure if I am still."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Even with the robotic distortion I could tell that he was confused.

"Well I was sort of shoot down by my patrol partner. I don't think he would do so without orders."

"Why would the Enclave want you dead?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"But it doesn't ma-"

"Drop it." I was surprised by the sudden hostility in my tone. Seems he was as well since he went silent for a few seconds.

"Sorry. But please, if you could take out those raiders, you'd be doing that settlement a huge service." A set of coordinates was uploaded to my map and the robot resumed playing music.

"Wait hold on a second!" The robot didn't respond. Urgh, really need to start asking my questions first. Why did he pick me to clear them out instead of doing it himself. He didn't see Azel so he must think it can be done by one pony. Oh no, Azel! I flew back to our former campsite and saw a slightly irritated zebra looking around. As soon as he saw me flying back he glared at me with his piercing dark blue eyes.

"Where did you go?" Yep, definitely irritated.

"Sorry, there was this robot, I think he called it a spritebot or something, and we were talking and then-" I paused because Azel had put his hoof up signaling me to stop.

"Let's discuss it while we walk. One thing at a time. First, he?"

I landed and walked beside him. "Right. While I was inspecting the robot somepony took control of it and started talking to me. I wasn't able to learn anything about him except that he calls himself Watcher."

"What did you talk about?"

"He asked who I was and then asked me to clear out a nearby raider encampment."

"Why does he want you to do that?"

"Apparently they've been attacking supply caravans traveling through the area going to a nearby settlement that need the goods they carry. If this goes on for much longer the settlement will starve."

"Where is this camp?"

"To the south. It's a small detour from Hoofington. You coming?"

"Can't let my guide die. Besides, so far you've proven to be worth helping."

"Ok then. Follow me." We picked up our pace as I followed the marker on my compass to the raider camp.

Fifteen minutes later a structure began to appear on the horizon. It was two stories tall with no windows and had a metal fence surrounding it. Azel and I hid near the top of a hill next to the building so we could plan our attack. I was able to spot three sentries from my view and presumably a fourth on the other side of the building. They sat in small hastily built wooden structures right behind the fence. There was also a sniper on the top of the building lazily scanning the area. Aside from an occasional fit of maniacal laughter we couldn't discern anything about what was inside.

Scanning the scene in front of us, I was able to pick up on the sniper's routine. Get up, walk the internal perimeter of the box-like structure he was in, sit back down, rinse and repeat. "Okay, next time the sniper up top sits down you sneak up on the sentry in front of us and wait. Once he does it a second time I'll quickly fly up and take him out. Once you see me take off you ambush the middle sentry. After that we go in opposite directions and take out the other sentries. We'll regroup at the entrance. I'd like to maintain the element of surprise for as long as we can so don't let them fire a shot. Sound good to you?"

"How do you plan to take out the top one quietly?"

"These laser rifles are a lot quieter than conventional bullets. The sentries won't be able to hear them fire from that distance." He nodded and began watching the sniper. The instant he sat down Azel made his way to the middle sentry. After about five minutes the sniper repeated his pattern and sat back down. Instantly, I took off towards him. Lucky for me the sentries down below never bothered to look up. I tackled him just as he had closed his eyes, getting a yelp of surprise from him. He fell the ground and I fired before he had time to react. Just as I suspected, aside from a mild pew it didn't make a sound. The sniper's perch had a chair which the sniper had been sitting in and a trapdoor that most likely led to some stairs inside. I looked back to the sentry that Azel was meant to deal with just in time to see a blue glow coming from inside the structure die out. Okay. So far, so good. Turning my attention to the structure on my left I took off and glided to it, silently landing on top. In the corner of my eye I noticed something striped heading to the other structure. I quietly walked to the side where the door was, reached down, and knocked. I heard something move inside and I quickly flew over to the window and quietly as I could, and climbed in. The structure had one room that was empty aside from another chair. I saw the sentry walking to the door, facing away from me. I quickly took aim and shot him in the head before he even reached the handle. Odd as it felt, these leg-lasers were very easy to use. How did nopony think of these until the near-end of the war? Ugh, focus Hotshot. Still one more structure to deal with. I flew over to the last sentry's structure and prepared my door trick again. Right before I could knock Azel poked his out the door. I waved my hoof in front of his face so that he knew I was there. He stepped back to allow me enough room to enter. Inside it looked exactly the same as the other structures.

"What's your plan? Bust through the front door and clear them out."

"Not exactly. The sniper had a trapdoor in his outpost. If you can sneak in from there while I distract them, you can rescue any captives they might have taken. Once they're safe, you'll be able to ambush any raiders left."

"You think they take captives?"

"Two different reasons that I hope don't come true. That is if they really are as wicked as we've been told." From the solemn look on his face, I assumed Azel understood what I meant.

"How do I get up there?"

"Well, I could fly you up. That work?"

"How are you going to get in and distract them?"

"Well I have a 200 year old wall against my rocket launcher. I think that will be a big enough distraction." He considered what I had said for a moment then walked outside. Plan accepted I guess. I followed him out and started to carry him up to the sniper's nest. While he wasn't exactly very heavy or anything, it was very tiring and once we reached the top I accidentally dropped Azel out of exhaustion. Luckily, Azel was able to land, somehow not making a sound, and made his way to the trapdoor. After taking a moment to breathe, I took off scanning the walls of the place, waiting for a red dot to show up on my E.F.S nearby. Eventually, I found two dots walking down the hallway. Since the E.F.S. didn't show which floor they were on, I had to aim for the middle and hope for the best. I made sure that I had the rocket selected, aimed, and fired. The rocket hit home and created a hole easily big enough for me to fit through as I had expected. Turned out that the raiders were on the ground floor and were quite surprised when the floor above them and part of the roof came tumbling down. I flew into the second floor and went as fast as I could down the narrow hallway. As I neared the corner I saw about ten red dots appear on my E.F.S and heard somepony shouting. As soon as I turned the corner I activated S.A.T.S and analyzed the scene before me. I saw five raiders holding weapons, but only the raider in the back had his pointed at me. The rest of them had a fearful expression on their face, staring at me wide-eyed. The one closest to me had flat out dropped his shotgun when I flew out nearly face to face with him. This is going to be easy. I targeted a grenade in the middle of the four closest raiders and aimed my lasers at the back raider. With everything slowed down I noticed that five of the red dots on my E.F.S. were missing. Ignoring it for the moment, I came out of S.A.T.S hoping that I wouldn't fail a 95% chance to hit. I felt the familiar thump of my grenade launcher as I pointed my legs at the back raider. As my body aimed on it's own I wondered how my grenade would hit home when it had been fired while I wasn't pointed at them. My answer came to me when I saw the explosive bounce off both the ceiling and a wall, ending it's flight right in the middle of the group. So my grenade launcher automatically calculates how to fire the grenade depending on it's target, good to know. The sound of the back raider firing his shotgun, and missing, brought my senses back to the battle. My leg-lasers fired in quick succession. The raider's head was blasted to smithereens by the consecutive blasts. Turning my attention from the new corpse to the other raiders, I saw that the blast had killed three of the four targets. The surviving raider had jumped back, almost getting in the way of the lasers. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't unscathed from the blast which left him slowly trying to pull himself up. I was too fast and was able to throw him to the area that the grenade had gone off in. I followed up by gaining some height, or at least as much as I could, and then diving towards the winded figure. Using my momentum I gave a hard buck to the chest of the poor raider. The combination of the grenade exploding and my high-velocity impact must have been too much for the old floor, which broke underneath us. The raider fell and most likely died from the fall while I was able to catch myself before hitting the ground. Right before me was the missing group of raiders who had just turned around to see me. Before they could react I activated S.A.T.S again. I targeted another grenade at them and aimed the lasers at the raider furthest from the blast radius. Right before I fired I noticed that I had only a 10% chance to hit the far raider. Then I noticed the horn protruding from his head glowing grey. I came out of S.A.T.S and was blinded by a white light. It only lasted for a few seconds and when it faded I saw the other raiders dead from the blast. The unicorn raider on the other hoof, had not just been unaffected by the grenade. Now, there were two of him! He had a coat of light grey and his mane a darker version of the same color. His mane was so straight and ordered that it looked like somepony had come along and painted it there. Even his eyes were grey. It was as if all the color in him had been drained. Though I couldn't see his cutie mark I could guess that it probably had something to do with illusions. Quickly I tried to look for any minor differences between the two. Same clothing, same gun, same smug look on his face, come on! There has to be something. Oh, I know. I looked at my E.F.S to find…nothing. What!? How can neither of them be there? He must be messing with my E.F.S using his unicorn cheating powers, yeah, that's it. Alright fine. I'll just shoot them one at a time. I fired a volley of lasers at the left unicorn as I advanced towards him. While the left unicorn dodged my laser fire, the right one shot at me with his rifle but I had moved to fast for him to hit. As soon as I got in range of him, I struck out at the left unicorn with my tail. He wasn't able to react in time and the blade pierced his side. Automatically, it delivered a huge jolt of electricity directly into his chest. After crying out in pain, his body went limp and began to fall. Before he hit the ground his corpse evaporated into thin air, wait... did his gun just evaporate too? Well, at least now I know who's the real one. I turned to the other unicorn only to get a rifle pressed against my face. Great.

"An impressive display. It is unfortunate that one with your skill isn't in my ranks."

Need to think of a way out of this. "You're a fool if you think that will pierce my helmet."

"Oh I've delt with armored opponents before. The same trick always works." He shifted his gun and pressed it against the visor.

Okay not only did he call my bluff, he made the situation worse. Next plan. I saw a green dot appear on my E.F.S. behind the unicorn. That should work. "Then why haven't you pulled the trigger?"

He chuckled. "Like I said, it is a shame that one with your skill isn't in my ranks. This is your offer to join them. In fact, you'd be just in time to join in on a little raid we have planned."

Defend the Innocent. Be Their Shield. "I'd rather die than stand beside you."

He sighed, "Such a waste of talent. Are you sure that you won't reconsider?" A figure appeared behind him.

"Ask me again once you've got your head back on your shoulders." As fast as lightning, Azel slashed through the unicorn's neck. His head toppled to the ground, a confused look on his face, and faded away. Creepy. "Thanks Azel. You really saved my rump back there. Did you…find any captives?"

"No, but I did find the supplies they stole from the caravans."

"That works. We can get the supplies to the settlement. If you know…you're okay for another detour."

"Doesn't bother me. But how do you plan on moving all of them?"

"Depends on how much there is. Where is the stash?" He began walking back down the hallway where he came from. We turned the corner at the end of the hallway and I saw a slightly open door. When we walked in I saw goods of all kinds piled haphazardly everywhere. There was guns, ammo, medical supplies, food, and barding strewn about the floor. If it wasn't for the super powerful armor I already had I would have been tempted to grab some of the loot for myself. "Okay. There are quite a lot of supplies here. Uh…any ideas?"

"Perhaps they salvaged the wreckage of the caravans they attacked."

"Hmm, makes sense. Any clue as to where they might keep that stuff?"

"Near the front maybe. That's the only part of the building I haven't seen yet."

"Okay. I'll check the second floor while you search down here. Meet up in the lobby." With that I took off back to the hole I made when I had slammed into the raider. I made my way up and began the tedious task of checking each room for caravan scrap. My search was in vain and to my dismay, so was Azel's.

"What do we do now?" Good question. I don't have a clue as to how we would get the supplies to the settlement. Wish I knew what the settlement was called. Add that to the list of things I should have asked Watcher instead of answering his questions.

"Well I think we will need to get some extra hooves for help. I'll fly around a little and see if I can spot the settlement."

"What should I do?"

"Uhh…maybe you can…oh, I know! You can scavenge anything useful from the rooms while I'm gone."

"Did that while I was searching. Didn't you?"

"Uhh…" He rolled his eyes and made his way upstairs. Well at least he believes that I'm new to the wasteland now. I flew outside and began searching the horizon. "C'mon, there was to be some clue that marks a nearby settlement. A road, voices, fire, just give me something." I spotted a line of three large wooden structures moving in the distance. Quickly I flew over in their direction and hovered in front of the group. What are those things pulling the caravans? Ugh, focus. Introduce yourself. "Hi, I'm Daybre-" Click click The top of the caravans were tossed off to reveal three griffins, half-lion half-eagle things that have a bad rep with the Enclave, with their weapons drawn and pointed at me.

The griffin that was obviously in charge shouted, "Lead us to your base you filthy raider! If you waste our time you'll pay for it!"

Okay, not what I expected. "Uhh…I think we have a misunderstanding."

Footnote - Level Up!

New Perk! - S.A.T.S Ricochet: While using S.A.T.S you can bounce grenades off surfaces accurately as if you have the perk Ricochet.

Skill Note - Explosives Level 30, Sneak Level 10

Author's Note

Okay, another chapter done. Took a little longer to get this finished due to various reasons (Halo 5 and Fallout 4 totally had nothing to it, I swear). I'd like to thank Kkat for making the original story and thank you to everyone who has read this far. It is awesome that so many people have already been checking this story out. See ya later!