Chapter 7: Helping the Locals
Thank you Applejack for saving us from that scary stampede.

zhoom

Aha, found you! pew pew pew The raider who had fired at me was hit by three lasers and fell to the ground dead. Another raider who was behind me fired a clip of his machine gun. Luckily for me, he wasn't used to shooting at something above him and was using low caliber rounds that bounced off my armor's dense plating. I turned around just in time to see Azel take him in two quick swings, already about to engage his next opponent before the raider's corpse hit the ground. Seeing a trio of raiders in triangle formation rushing the town's saloon, I flew after them. The townsfolk atop the saloon seemed to have not noticed the attackers since they continued firing at raiders raiding the Mayor's office. I was upon the trio before they had reached the front porch. Flying between the two in the back, my wing blades cutting their sides as I passed, I jabbed my tail into the back of the lead raider's neck and released a deadly jolt of electricity. Turning around midair, dislodging my tail in the process, I fired a volley at both of the remaining raiders. Both hit home and I quickly darted under the yaning of the porch, using a column as temporary cover. "Everything going alright in there?!"

Much to my relief, Lily's voice replied, "We have a few wounded and several dead yet we're holding out. I've been able to keep everypony else healthy enough to fight but I'm running out of supplies. If you could cover them, we can make a push to the clinic for more."

"I'll do my b-" The post I was behind shattered into splinters as I heard an explosive pow and bullet wisp by me. "Shit!"

"You okay?!"

"Yeah, tell the squad to go around the back way. Azel should be able to provide backup there."

"What about you?"

"I'll be right back." I took to the air, barely getting out of the way of another shot by doing so. Following the momentary trail left by the bullet I was able to spot a raider upon a nearby hill. Using evasive maneuvers I closed in on the sniper, his shots becoming more panicked the closer I got. Closing the distance, I fired a volley from my Tri-shot leg. The sniper jumped to his side, leaving himself exposed. Before he was able to recover I was upon him and jabbed my tail into his side. With a quick jolt to finish him off, I took off back to the town. From my elevation I could see what I assumed to be the advance squad Lily was talking about pushing from the side of the town opposite of me. I spotted opposition in several buildings I assumed to be houses that were slowing their progress. As I got closer I could tell where exactly in the houses most of the raiders were. Entering S.A.T.S, I marked the house to my right and flew straight to the one on my left. I got in range and fired. Instantly the grenade launcher lobbed a grenade through the window of the house in front of me. After a moment's hesitation, a rocket fired and flew directly toward the position I had marked. I heard a yelp of surprise from the grenade house as it stopped in the room they were in. The explosives went off simultaneously, the grenade clearing the entire room of raiders while the rocket cleared the entire house of both raiders and structural integrity. Hope that wasn't important.

From atop the roof of the clinic came a voice saying, "This is your last chance brother! Give yourself up and we'll leave peacefully!" I saw a figure show his head over the edge of the building. Why he was exposing himself in front of ten odd hostile ponies was beyond me, but he was going to get what was coming to him.

"You want him? You're gonna have to get through all of us to even have a chance off finding him!" shouted somepony in the crowd. A chorus of encouragement followed.

"Tsk tsk brother, I know you are in that crowd somewhere. Only a matter of figuring out which one is you." I flew up straight in front of the figure.

"You're going to have to get through me as well you- You?!" Being this close to the figure, I could easily make out his features. Much to my disbelief, before me was the same smooth-haired, completely devoid of color unicorn that I had fought at the raider camp. At my reaction he looked at me with confusion, but then his eyes glinted with recognition.

"Well isn't this a pleasant surprise? Nice to see you again...did I get your name when we last met?"

"You're dead."

"It doesn't seem that way to me. However, considering that you haven't known me for to long it is reasonable for you to assume that. In fact, today's your lucky day! Out of the goodness of my heart, I'm giving you another chance to joi-" He was cut off by me pressing my precision rifle against his forehead. As I did so, both sides prepared their weapons.

"Looks like you're a bit lucky too. You get one chance to leave with your life." Much to my annoyance, he seemed completely unconcerned by his current situation. More so, he had the exact same confident smirk as he did during our previous encounter.

"Now what could i have done to receive such hostility?"

"Simple, on two occasions now you've been in a position of authority among raiders. This time I'm actually seeing you attack ponies who are trying to live their lives in peace. Now listen carefully because anything other than a nod will result in me blasting your head off. Will you leave peacefully?" He shook his head. I fired. His body faded into the wind. Battle resumed.

Three hours later, having swiftly defeated the raiders without their leader and made sure there weren't any stragglers, Lily, Azel and I were helping how we could to make sure the town would be fine once we left. Specifically, Lily was still treating the injured while Azel and I were assisting with moving wreckage and rebuilding fortifications. Currently the two of us were helping an earth pony stallion, wearing armor that covered his cutie mark who had a dark blue coat and greenish-yellow hair with pale yellow eyes in case you were wondering, were clearing up the wreckage of a house. The fact that it was me responsible for the it's destruction instead of the attackers is completely irrelevant.

"So...Mr. Power Armor, what brought you here to our fine stain in the wastes? Looking for somepony?"

"Just traveling around."

"Well I'm sure glad you were "traveling" near here when you were. Don't think we could have driven them away without half the town going with them. Tell your friends that they have my, if not everypony's, gratitude for their help as well."

"We were happy to lend a hoof against them. What was the lead raider after anyway? He was saying something about a brother before I confronted him."

"Those were gangers, that grey unicorn was their leader I assume. He was wanting his brother to join his gang. When his brother refused and settled down here, he decided he would either be forced in or die."

"Is there any more of this gang that might come back? What were they called by the way?"

"They called themselves Mirages when they first arrived. Personally, I wouldn't worry to much about them. This was literally their first operation and I think you disbanded them by shooting the leader. They were a relatively small gang compared to some of the others so they won't last long anyway."

"What other gangs are there?"

"Let's see, there's the Burners, the Reapers, the Zodiacs, the Flash Filies, and the Pecos."

"Any of them that I should avoid?"

"Ideally you wouldn't want to interact with any of them. But to be more specific, the Burners and Flash Filies should leave you alone so long as you don't interfere with any of their business. Same for the Pecos and Zodiacs really so long as you don't have a bounty on your head. If you start making a name for yourself 'round here some Reapers might come after ya."

"Why would they attack me?"

"The Reapers have an...interesting way of gaining new members. The only way anypony can become a Reaper is to kill a previous Reaper. They pride themselves as being the toughest in the wastes. But whenever some new guy shows up and starts getting some recognition, ponies might start to doubt a Reaper's right to their membership. Generally, they fix this problem by killing said bigshot as a show of strength."

"Sounds like a friendly group."

"Oh absolutely. Be sure to ask them first if you need a cup of sugar."

"I sure will...uh..."

"Sp-uhh...Meadow. My name is Meadow. Yours?"

"Daybreak."

"Liar."

"You sure about that Meadow?"

"I had something in my throat."

"Sure you did."

"Hmph. So, Daybreak, what's your story? You from Manehattan or anything?"

"Former Enclave member."

"Looks like they've stepped their game up since last I saw Enclave armor. How long ago did you leave?"

"About a week now."

"And what made the Hoof your destination?"

"Told you already, traveling."

"If you came here to be a tourist then you have a death wish."

"That's what drew me here. I wanted to know what's so bad about Hoofington."

"How you have gotten your friends to come with you is a mystery. Anyway, don't want to postpone your vacation any longer. Thanks again for the help and everything, but I think we can handle it from here."

"You sure you don't want help finishing this?"

"No, it's fine. You've done a good job of cleaning up your mess. Go on, have fun "traveling" and whatnot."

"Alright then, bye. Oh, wait! One more thing, do you know where one might find a group of zebras down here?" Somehow I was able to sense Azel's ears perk up.

"Hmn, I'm not sure. Last I heard of zebras was a mention of a few slaves. I think they're working a bit further south from here, at the Brimstone Falls gem mine."

"Slaves? Not if I can help it."

"Be careful around there. The Pecos work with the ponies who run the place. There's also a rumor of one of the top ten Reapers being stationed there."

"Guess I'll figure out how tough the Reapers are myself."

"Good luck to ya then."

"Thanks, good luck to you too." Azel walked over and we waved to Meadow as we walked to the saloon. Inside we found Lily casually walking from makeshift bed to makeshift bed checking on the twenty-odd injured townsfolk. "How's it going Lily?"

Lily looked up from one of her patients at the sound of my voice, obviously not aware of our presence before now. "Oh, well it's okay I guess. Most of the ponies here had been hit by maybe a bullet or two and still had their vital organs unharmed. I've stabilized a lot of the more seriously wounded as well. All of them should recover very soon. How's the repair outside going?"

"Doing fine. I think they can easily handle things from here. So long as you aren't needed, of course."

"They'll be fine. After all, I'm not the only pony who knows how to clean a wound and use a healing potion."

"I'm sure they appreciate your help regardless. Shall we get going?"

"Yeah, let's go." We exited the saloon and made our way down the street heading south. Lily waited until we had left town before asking, "Soooo, where we going now?"

"Brimstone Falls."

"Where's that?"

"Further down south. It's a mining facility."

"Why are we going there?"

"Because there are zebras there who are being kept as salves."

"They won't be for much longer."

"Okay, how do we plan to do that, what are we up against?"

"From what I was told, one of the local gangs is based there. There's also supposed to be some really dangerous pony that's most likely there to keep the slaves in check."

"What about the mine itself? Is it underground, is it more like a quarry, what do they mine? You know, stuff like that."

"That's exactly what I was wondering. Unfortunately, I think that the most anypony back in...the town knows is what I've already said. What was the town called?"

"I didn't ask."

"Azel?" He shook his head. "Ugh, why do I keep forgetting to ask for anything's name?"

"We could go back and ask."

"No, it's fine. I'd rather not come back after a triumphant departure to ask the name of some random town. Let's just focus on the journey ahead."

"How far are we going? Is it on the map?" Good question.

Display Brimstone Falls
...

"Unless it was around before the war and somepony bothered to put it in the databa-"

Error: Please specify between Intel or Location

"Well I'll be..."

Location
...
Displaying map

My E.F.S was replaced by the map in the bottom left corner of my HUD with a highlighted hole south of our position. "Yep, definitely similar to a quarry."

"How can you tell? Does it have a picture?"

"No, it literarily is a big enough hole to see it on the map. Let me check if it has any more information."

Display Brimstone Falls Intel
...
Opening Database

A window appeared in the left side of my HUD stretching from the bottom of the compass to the top of the map.

Location: Hoofington Outskirts
Designation: Brimstone Falls Gem Mine
Significant Details: N/A

"It's a gem mine, which means that we can expect them to have energy weapons. Other than that we'll have to figure out more when we get there."

"Was this place important back during the war?"

"According to this, no."

"You sure?"

"It says not available in the important notes section."

"Why would...whomever made Daybreak-"

"The Ministry of Awesome."

"-the Ministry of Awesome even bother to record that information if it wasn't important?"

"I don't know. Whatever their reason, doesn't matter anymore."

"How long before we get there?"

"We should be around there a little after dark. We could ambush them tonight."

"I'd like to sneak in and see what we're up against in greater detail first."

"Sounds like a plan to me." I turned on the radio and we made our way to the mine.

We reached our destination without event. Lily was setting up a fireless camp for the night while Azel and I prepared to investigate the Pecos-run slave-labouring mine. Azel went ahead to scout the wall for an easy point of access while I removed my armor and Enclave uniform. Lily gave me a spare laser pistol and holster of her's. Shortly after, Azel returned.

"Find a way in?"

"Decent sized hole. Something happened here recently and this place really took a beating."

"Could you see the Proditors?"

"Couldn't see into the pit from the hole. Need to get near the edge."

"Then let's go and find them."

I followed Azel to the hole in the fence. After pausing to check that the coast was clear, we went through and hid behind some mining equipment. Peeking out from behind cover, I saw some guards posted outside what I assumed to be the actual entrance. Excluding the sound of laughter coming from inside a building next to them, the place seemed quiet. Looking towards the quarry, I saw a minecart track going down into the quarry and a broken track a little outside the hole that led elsewhere. We snuck closer to the edge of the hole and looked in. Down below there were several tunnels where the gems were most likely found. In the middle was a conveyer belt leading to a rock grinder. For some reason, chunks of stone were scattered across the ground. Azel silently climbed his way into the pit and I glided down after him.

After taking a quick look around I whispered to Azel, "I don't see any sign of the slaves. Any ideas?"

"They might be forced to stay in the caves they carve. Spilt up and check them." Azel started going around the left side of the hole, checking each cave as he passed. I went left and followed suit.

Nothing in this one. Nothing here either. Nope. Still nothing. Empty. N- "Oof!" Ugh, dumb rock! Picking myself back up, I looked back at the rock I had tripped over. What I saw was a decapitated head with an expression of terror on it's face and a bit of it's ear chipped off. "What in Equestria?" Now that I was looking in greater detail, some of the other rocks nearby looked a little too similar to body parts. Looking at the other piles I saw that they looked like ponies, too. "Okay...starting to get a bit creepy here." I checked the other caves at a slightly faster pace and eventually met up with Azel.

"Find anything?"

"Nopony in the caves. You?" He shook his head. "Either these slaves are well hidden or they don't exist at all."

"Maybe they escaped.

"Hmn, possibly. Did you see something...off about those rocks?"

"Yes, but I can't imagine what purpose they serve."

"Then let's go ask what's been going on." I flew out of the hole and hid behind some more equipment, watching the building I had seen earlier. Azel was next to me after a few seconds. "I only see the two guards who are watching the entrance. We should be able to sneak up behind them without problem."

"You plan on interrogating them?"

"Not to begin with. Let's see what we can overhear first and then decide what to do next." Azel nodded understanding and made his way to the left guard, keeping to the shadows. I on the other hoof, flew on top of the saloon, finding a spot within earshot of the guards that wasn't distorted by the ponies inside. The two guards were wearing similar outfits, cowpony hats, leather clothing, and spurred boots. Something that I assume is standard among the Pecos. I spotted Azel get into place as I began to listen in.

"-riously, who's going to sneak in to a mining facility run by us?" Oh, you'd be surprised.

"Didn't that one mare who killed Gorgon sneak in last night?"

"That was when there were still slaves here. Now that our client is dead and they left there's nothing but gems and us Pecos."

"Those ponies sure rigged up quite a fireworks show with him didn't they?"

"Yeah they did, ha ha!"

"Did you see what happened to the zebras? Nopony has told me what happened to 'em." Here we go.

"Well, I didn't see it myself, but Dusty Trails said that some zebra shot all of 'em and ran."

"He got all of 'em?"

"I guess so. Must have been one hell of'a shot to pull it off."

"Any idea where he went?"

"Nope."

"Damn. Glad he wasn't after any of us."

The rest of their conversation was tuned out as I looked over to Azel. He was clearly shocked by this news and angry at the zebra that had done this. After waving my hoof to get his attention I signaled for him to move back to where we were before. Without waiting for a response I glided back to our previous hiding spot and waited for Azel. Course I didn't have to wait long since he appeared next to me a few seconds after I landed.

"You...alright? I mean...if there's anything I can do..." He was staring at the ground, anger in his eyes. "We can track down the zebra who did this. Help you find him and avenge the Proditors." He seemed to snap out of his anger at my mention of payback.

"No, we won't be able to find him, not if he's had a full day ahead of us."

"Don't give up already. We might get lucky."

"Daybreak, I am grateful for your support and everything, but I know the zebra that attacked the Proditors. We won't find him unless he's trying to find us. The best I can do is move on and hope I get the chance to kill him later."

"Okay, if you say so. Let's get back to Lily." We easily left the same way we came in and found Lily with her nose in a book. Must have been a very interesting one since she didn't notice me walk up to her. I gave a short cough.

"Hmn? Oh, you're back! I assume everything's fine since I don't hear any alarms. So, what's the plan?"

"There...there isn't one. A zebra killed the Proditors and ran. All the other slaves were freed a little while ago."

"Is there any way to find the zebra?"

"He has too much of a head start. We can't catch him."

"Well...what are we doing then?"

"I don't know. I guess that we could go looking for Nightfall. First we need to find the Hoofington Shadowbolt Hideout in case it was already there when the bombs dropped. Problem is, I have no idea where to find it."

"Is there any way to narrow down where it could be?"

"Unless I can learn how exactly it's hidden, not really. I need to find out what other MOA facilities were involved in this project. Hell, just knowing what the project was called would help. I need to get some more information, but where?"

"What about one of the MASEBS towers? Didn't the Ministry of Awesome use them for stuff back then?" said an unfamiliar voice behind me.

Azel and I quickly turned around to face the speaker, Lily poking her head out from behind us. In front of us was a dark blue coated earth pony with greenish-yellow hair. Wait, why do I recognize those pale yellow eyes? "Meadow? What are you doing here?"

Footnote - Level Up!

New Perk! - S.A.T.S Rocket Targeting: You can use S.A.T.S. to automatically lock on to a target with your rocket launcher.

Skill Note - Sneak Level 20, Guns Level 40, Explosives Level 30

Author's Note

Okay, finally back. Let me start this off by saying thank you to kkat her brilliant masterpiece and thank you to everyone reading my story of smaller proportion. Sorry it took so long for me to get this done. At first I had legitimate things in the way such as several school projects at around the same time. However, this last week or two can only be chalked up to general procrastination. One thing before I go, I may have screwed up a bit . You see...I may have accidentally published a version of chapter 5 that didn't include Lily's cutie mark and the story she had for it. I've gone back and fixed it now so feel free to go back to the scene where Hotshot and Lily were talking inside her shack if you don't know her tale already. Anyway, glad to be back and see you in the next chapter!