The Equestrian Borderlands

by xBUBBA1995x

Chapters

Chapter 1 - Part One
Chapter 1 - Part Two
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5

Chapter 1 - Part One

Don’t you see the bodies burning?

Part One

“Sweet Cinder, for the love of all that is holy, you better not have another fucken mare in bed with you!” The voice of Radiant Grace, my fellow officer, best friend and a general bitch, screamed out, as she bucked my door open.

As my room’s door slammed open, I was already standing at the hoof of my bed, staring the blue mare down as she entered my room. Her turquoise eyes flicked from me, to the Earthpony mare that lay in my bed, still asleep from our night of fun.

“Morning, Radiant Grace…” I started.

“Oh, you have to be shitting me…” Radiant Grace sighed, as she flicked her wings in annoyance, tired of my sexual habits. “Again? This is the third time this month I’ve found you with a mare, while on duty! Do you understand the shit you’re going to be in?” She asked, pushing part of her black mane out of her eyes.

“Yes,” I told her, staring her down with my orange eyes. “But no pony is going to do anything about it, since we’re short on troops,” I smiled ignorantly. “And we’re in a war.”

“That’s besides the point, Captain Cinder,” She growled, shoving one of her hooves into my chest. “You are one of the most respected Captains here, and what for? Fighting in battle? Fuck no! Ponies only like you because you’re soft on them, and the only reason you have your position is that you fucked your way to the top, and now you have to lead by example, otherwise we’re going to lose this damn war!”

“Cool your jets, Grace, we’re in the middle of the Crimson Lance’s main base. Nothing is going to happen.” I turned away from her before stepping over to my dresser. “Besides, today is my day off… You’re my best friend, and I don’t mind having you around, but ah, mind leaving? I’ve got a date, and need to get ready.”

“A date?” Grace flared her nostrils, before point at the sleeping mare. “What about her? What is her name, anyways? Who is she?”

“Six,” I told her.

“Six? Well tell Six here to get up and leave because-”

“Her name isn’t Six, Grace-” I started, but before I can explain myself, Grace started to stop her hooves.

“You just said her name was Six, and it’s not? Are you indecisive, Cinder? Do you even know her name?”

“Hell no, I don’t know her name. I do know she’s a Comms Officer, but that’s about it… I just calling her Six because while we were having sex, that just how many times she-”

“Sweet Cinder!” She yelled, cutting me off, throwing her hooves into the air in frustrations. “You’re my bestfriend, but s-sometimes I-I just want to choke the life out of you! I’m trying to help you!”

“Didn’t know that was your fetish…” I muttered, with a smile. “But I can get into it.”

“I’m done,” She yelled, throwing her hooves into the air again, before walking out of my room. “Good luck passing inspection now without my help!”

“Wait, what inspection!?” I nearly yelled, before rushing to the door. “Please, Grace, I’ll-” I started, trying to get her attention, but was cut off as she she turned around and shoved her hoof into my face.

“Hell no!” She yelled, as she nearly poked out my eye. “You’re on your own this time, Cinder! You have twenty minutes before General Steed shows up to do your inspection himself!”

“Well it would not be the first time he paid be a visit…” I bit my lower lip, before looking back to my room. It was a mess to say the least.

“Yeah, and it would not be the first time you fail inspection!”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, a small bit of sweat dripping from my brow. “I’ve never… failed… an inspection with your help?” I smiled, holding out my hooves for a hug. “And I'm so glad you're here to-” My hopeful remark, as well as hopes to get Grace to help me, died as she shoved her hoof into my stomach, knocking the wind out of me.

She turned away from me, lifting her head up high before walking off. “Sorry Captain Cinder,” She said in a sweet mocking tone. “I tried to help, but your too much of a ploycolt to need help. Perhaps Six can help you out.”

“Well shit…” I muttered, before glancing around. Throughout the hall other troops were standing at their doors, both looking at me and at Radiant Grace. “The fuck are all of you looking at? Get back to your rooms and get shit looking nice and tidy, we’re expecting an inspection!” I ordered, before turning back to Grace. Watching as she walked away from me. Her rump swaying side to side. “At least the view is good…” I muttered to myself.

“What was that?” Grace yelled from down the hall, glaring at me.

“Nothing!” I yelled back, before closing my door. “Damn Pegasus ears…”

“What’s going on?” Six asked, looking around.

“Com’s Officer,” I started, listing off the little bit of information I DID know about her. “We’re having an inspection soon. Please report to the showers, and clean yourself up. But first, give me your name and number so we can do this again. And that’s an order.”

Ah, inspection day! A day of hate, pain and extra pain because fuck us, the higher ups hate us, and to be honest, I would rather drink piss than dealing with it. Sadly, I don’t get that luxury. No, I didn’t even have time to make my room fully presentible. My bed was made. The floors were clean. The pile of laundry in the corner? No, didn’t have time to go get rid of it, and since the windows were welded shut, I was not able to throw it out the window. Yes, I tried to open it, and now my horn hurts...

But did I have enough time to do everything I needed to do? No. No I did not.

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

My heart skipped a beat as three slow, but loud, knocks rattled my door. I held my breath as it slowly opened, and standing before me was Commanding Steed. The leader of the Crimson Lance. He stood taller than me. His horn, to my own satisfaction, shorter than mine. His white coat was groomed beyond perfection, but I knew better then to make fun of it. With a single word, I could be killed. His black mane was cut short, and his even blacker eyes slowly looked at me.

I immediately snapped to attention. Raising a hoof to salute him.

He slowly entered my room. Glancing around, his eyes roaming over every surface. Flanking him was two large Earth pony guards. Both decked out in black Crimson Lange Armor.

He didn’t speak. Not a word. His eyes were doing all of the talking. And they told me that I was fucked. How fucked? Royally fucked!

He frowned in discussed as he looked down to my laundry basket. I knew right then and there what he was looking at.

“And what are these?” He started, as the pair of bright pink painties were lifted from the basket, held up in a black magical glow.

My eyes flicked from him, to the panties, to the two large guards at the door. “Those are…” I started, not knowing what to say. Seriously, how are you suppose to tell your CO that you’re fucking other Arion troops? “Mine?”

“Yours?” He asked. “You want me to believe that these-” He then gave the pair of panties a quick shake. “-are yours?”

“Please don’t tell the other Officers, General Steed,” I requested, trying to lie through my teeth. “I’ve built up a reputation and if it gets out that I wear, eerr, bright pink panties…”

“Enough…” He muttered. “I do not care what your sexual orientation is, Captain Sweet Cinder. All the other times I’ve seen you, you’ve passed inspection with flying colors. But this time? I didn’t expect to see a disappointment. Your uniform needs to be clean, and I can see stains through the bedding. I don’t want to know what made them, but I better not see them again. You know what happens to troops that fail the borderline expectations, don’t you?”

“Yes Sir! Anypony who fails the borderline expectations of the surprise inspection is considered nothing more than a bandit in a uniform, and shall be sent to death!”

“Good,” He turned to the door, and slowly started to make his way out of the room. The two armed guards he had brought with him quickly following behind him. “Oh, and Sweet Cinder?”

“Yes, General?!” I asked.

“I know of your reputation around here. I do not like being lied too. You’ve lost your day off, and are on outskirts patrol for the next month now. The next patrol rotation is in twenty minutes.” Without another word he made his leave. Leaving me to wallow in my shame. Somewhat. I was mostly pissed off. At the fact that I now have to go out on hot summer days, walking around the sands of the world. My Crimson Lance armor didn’t even have air conditioning, and now I had to go out and walk the desert!

Better than death by firing squad though.

Almost.

It depends on how hot it is, if you ask me… Did I forget to mention that our base was located in a desert? Out of all the fucken places on Equnora to put a base, a sandy doom was their idea… Seriously, who’s the idiot that said, I know! Let’s put the base in the middle of fucken no where! Near bandit homes and in a place that can literally kill our troops if they don’t drink at least fifty gallons of water! Oh, and by the way, it had to be a Monday, didn’t it?

“Why is the AC always gone?” I groaned, as we walked through the hot, hot desert. Sweat coming from my brow, as I walked in combat armor. Insulated combat armor. That had a broken Air Conditioner. Oh, did I forget to mention that my AC was broken by the way?

“Sir, please, we’ve been walking for ten minutes. I can still see the base. The heat can’t be that bad.” I glanced over to young stallion that stood at my side. He was a Private, and had much to learn. You could tell this from his blue colored armor. All Privates had blue armor.

“Shut up,” I muttered, as we kept walking. “You wouldn't understand, anyways. Privates don’t get AC to start with, and once you do, you’ll not know how you were able to live without it...”

Without another word, and with a flick of my magic, I turned off my audio broadcaster. I could have been back at base, going out with an amazing mare, getting to know her, before plowing her in my bed. I may not have had the most complex life, and some ponies did look down on me for it, but it was my life none the same! And right now my life was screaming fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!

I then started looking around at the ponies in my little group, or my squad if you will. I was tasked to work with three Privates, a Corporal, and a Sergeant. Corporals are decked out with yellow armor, while Sergeants are given white armor. Both of them had working ACs from the looks of it, which makes my misfortune of having a black armor set color, all the worse. Did you know the color black absorbs heat? Making me hotter than most ponies? And I know I’m normally hotter than most ponies to start with, but my point still stands! FUCK! THIS! HEAT! It was killing me. Plain and simple…

As the hours started to drag by I glanced at the clock built into my armor set. We were only part of the way finished with our patrol, and it was nearing one in the afternoon. The hottest time of the day, and even though my armor, that had the ability to tell me how healthy I was, told me that my vitals were good, I didn’t trust it. I was hot, I was sweating, and I was going to pass out. I don’t need a magical computer to tell me that I’m fine. No, I can tell you how fine I am! And right now, I’m going to die!

I glanced up to the blue sky, and to my pain, there were no cloud in sight. I didn’t even see a small baby cload... You know, the kind that you could find the smallest of shade under, if you’re lucky. No, we were stuck in a sandbox the size of General Steed’s fat ass. No water for us to find! I mean, we had water on us, but we’ve been walking for nearly four hours now, and I could tell that I needed to slow down on just how much I drank. I had already greedily consumed half of my canteen of water, and I didn’t want to die of dehydration! All I could see at this point was sand, so the thought of dying was even more real!

Now, I knew I would not die alone if this were the case. There are five ponies with me. All trained to be the best of the best. That all had water. Oh how sweet their water should taste. I could not possibly take it from them though? There are five of them, and only one of me… I was out numbered… If i tried to take their water, they would overtake me! But this heat was just too bad! I need water, but I would not make it! I NEED MORE WATER! I’LL KILL EACH AND EVERYPONY OF YOU FOR IT! I SHALL HAVE ALL THE WATERS!

“...wow, I’m starting to become delirious...” I muttered to myself, before giving myself a good smack, and taking a sip from my built in canteen.

“Captain Cinder,” I turned my attention to the Sergeant of the group. A Unicorn like me, only shorter. I could not really make out any detail in his figure or even how he looks, but he did sound like a S.M.F, also known as a squeaky mother fucker.

“Yes, Sergeant?” I asked, before it noticing that he turned my audio broadcaster with the use of his own magic, and without my permission...

“There are a group of bandits ahead of us-” He then pointed off in some direction or another. “- roughly half a kilometer ahead of us, and they are heading right to us.”

“Right… Right… How do we know this, anyways?”

“A Pegasus Scout, Sir,” One of the privates stated.

“Alright…” I muttered. “If we can avoid them, then let’s do that, if not... everypony get ready. I don’t want to deal with Bandits at the moment, but I don’t always get what I want…”

“Sorry Sir, but we have orders to deal with any bandit group that we come across,” The Corporal stated. “Get ready, everypony we’re going to be getting into a firefight soon.”

“Apparently I am not going to get what I want…” I muttered. “Alright, get ready, and form up. Keep an eye on your motion trackers… I don’t want anypony getting killed on my watch. Don’t need to deal with that shit back at base,”

We fell silent as we started to move with caution. My horn glowed as I started to turn on all the crazy shit my armor could do. Most of it was simple things like a clock or a compass. While some of the more crazy things were a motion tracker or the ammo monitor, that kept track of the ammo in your gun, as well as all the spare ammo in your bags. Hell, there was even a low level magical shield that would help me from getting shot. It even had a journal, which I never used. Hell, most ponies only used it to keep track of their orders they have been giving.

As I opened my journal my heart skipped a beet… Written in bold letters was hell itself. Message to self, Radiance Grace’s birthday is in 0 days.

“Oh shit…” I muttered to myself. Today was her birthday… Yet before I could come up with a good way to say sorry to her, something very small, hard and fast smacked me in the face. What was it?! A bird? A plane? Trick question! It WAS A FUCKEN RIFLE ROUND, AND I’M GLAD I WAS WEARING ARMOR! Wish my shield was on though, as I didn’t turn it on...

As I softly slammed down on the sandy ground, the world spinning from the bullets impact, everything was blurry. My visor, from what little I can make out, was shattered. I was lucky enough not to get any glass in my eye, but that wasn’t my concern at the moment.

“Captain!” One of the Privates yelled, though I could not tell you witch, as my ears were ringing. “The Captain’s down!” He screamed before the sounds of muffled gunfire ensued.

Gritting my teeth, and trying my best to ignore the pain, as well as the ringing and blurry vision, I tried to stand up. My hooves were wobbly, and I would have prefer to stay in the ground, as what I was feeling was worse than a hangover. Trust me, I’ve had my fair share of hangovers…

I slowly looked over to my ponies. They were taking cover behind small sand dooms, while bandits fired at them from afar. None of them had seen me yet, and as I slowly approached them, I lost my balance and hit the ground again. I probably had a concussion or something, but I would be worse off if I didn’t help stop the bandits!

Standing up for the second time, I lost my balance again, and stumbled to the side, slamming into one of the Privates firing at the bandits. Out of reaction more than anything else, he turned and slammed his hoof into me, shoving me away. My world started to darken as I hit the ground.

“Oh shit!” He yelled, before I felt him tugging at me. “Sorry, Sir! Guys, Captain Cinder is still alive!”

“Damn it Private, grab your gun and keep shooting! If we die, it won't matter if he’s still alive!” somepony yelled. It was hard to make out their voice. I could not tell if it was the Sergeant that yelled that or perhaps the Corporal…

“Private…” I started, holding up a hoof. “H-Help… Help me u-up…”

I held my eyes shut, as the Private helped me to my hooves. Everything was still spinning, blurry, and I could tell the ringing was giving me a headache. The darkness in my vision was fading, and all I needed was time to pull myself together. Time I did not have.

“Yeah… Today is not a good day…” I mumbled to myself, before looking over at the Private that was helping me. He was the one from earlier, who questioned me about my complaining. “Give me your gun, Private.”

“But Sir-” He started, before I held up a hoof.

“My guns somewhere behind me, go and use that. Give me your rifle, Private. That’s an order…”

He begrudgingly hoofed it over to me, and I took it in my mouth. I didn’t want to try to use my magic as I didn’t know if it would work. My headache told me no, and I didn’t want to prove it right. Slowly, but steadily, I made my way over to my subordinates, before planting myself next to them.

They paid me no mind short of a quick glance. Like then, I know what we had to do. Take out the bandits. With how badly my vision was at the moment, I would be lucky if I could make any of them out, and as I aimed through the scope on the rifle, I found myself a very unlucky stallion. There were… Ten… No six… Um, eight, bandits? My headache became worse the longer I stared, while at the same time, my vision started to focus. Trust me, it wasn’t that better than before, but at least I wasn’t seeing double.

Without thinking, I pulled the trigger with my magic. It was both a mistake, and a blessing. From what little I could tell, my round hit my target. I was only able to tell this for about half a second, as my horn exploded in pain. I definitely had a concussion, and a part of me hoped that the bandit that I shot had been the one who had shot me in the first place. He deserved it after all. No pony shoots me and get’s away with it! NO PONY!

“Nice shot, Sir!” The Private who had given me his rifle yelled, as he fired off a few rounds on mine.

“One of them is charging!” Somepony to my left yelled.

I lifted my head up, and glanced in their direction. A massive Earthpony stallion, who mind you was the biggest pony I’ve ever seen, started to barrel his way to us. He had no armor on from what we could see, other then a large white mask, and as we aimed our rifles at him, he screamed as we unleashed a lead storm into him. He had to be an idiot or something, as he did NOT do a damn thing.

“GRENADE!” A pony yelled, before something landed inches from me. I looked at it for a moment, not realising what it at first.

“Oh shit…” I muttered for the second time, throwing my hooves up in front of my face. Hoping that the armored padding on my hooves would be enough to save me.

It then Detonated...

Chapter 1 - Part Two

Don’t you see the bodies burning?

Part Two

“Aaahhh,” I grumbled. “What the fuck happened?”

When no pony answered me, I started to look around. Everything was dark, so it was hard to make things out. I could hear beeping, witch didn’t tell me much. What in the hell beeped? I asked myself. An alarm clock for one… Or one of those crazy magic guns…

I glanced to my right, and saw a ECG, or a electrocardiogram for people who don’t know what it is. How the fuck do I know that? Radiant Grace… I don’t want to get into the hundred or so times she yelled at me about medical terms. Yes, she yelled medical terms at me… It was not fun. I would do something dumb and idiotic, and she would go on rants. Most of the time she thinks I’m not listening, but how could I not? She asks me question, and if I don’t answer them, I get smacked, or yelled at some more! That and um, when I do pay attention to things... I can’t forget them. Yeah, sometimes I hate my cutie mark. How the fuck is a stallion suppose to pick up mares with a old floppy disk on fire for a cutie mark? Who never forgets things when he pays attention? If mares knew about that, and asked me what their names are, and I didn’t get it right, shit would hit the wall.

It was a playcolt’s nightmare...

As I lay in the darkness, I found myself with nothing to do. My body felt bad… My muscles felt sore, and my horn stun a bit, but in the end, it wasn’t life or death… I’ll tell you this though, my body hurt to the point that I could not even masturbate, so if that tells you something, then good…

As time passed, my vision started to adjust to the darkness, and I could start making things out. It was still hard to see, but for the most part I could walk around if I wanted too, and with how my hooves felt walking was out of the question. Glancing down at myself, I gave my body a once over. For the most part I looked fine. A few cuts and bruises, but nothing major. From the looks of it the grenade didn’t do... do...

My train of thought trailed off as I glanced down at my left hind leg. “WHERE THE FUCK IS MY LEG!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, staring down at myself. My hind leg, from the joint down was as missing! As I yelled, I could not help but start to hyperventilate.

“Ah, what’s going on! Who’s there?! I have a gun!” Radiant Grace yelled, and as I glanced off to where her voice came from, I saw a pony like shape sleeping in the bed next to mine.

“Grace?!” I yelled, still freaking out. “Where's my leg?!”

“Cinder?!” She yelled back, before I saw her leap to her hooves, rush over to the door of the room, and turn on the lights.

My hooves shot up to my eyes as the light blasted on, as the damn thing was blinding! “Ah damn it, my eyes!”

“Oh my god, Cinder,” I then felt Grace’s weight on top of me, before her hooves wrapping around my neck. “I’m so glad that you’re alright!”

“Grace, you’re laying on my balls!” I yelled. She let out a gasp before she leaped off of me, her wings taking her several hooves away from me. My hooves fell down between my legs, before I held my colts with the utmost care. Well… a leg and a half! “Aahh… Yeah… fuck today...”

“I’m so sorry, Cinder. I didn’t mean to hurt you… How a-are you feeling?” She stuttered. I glanced at her, and saw her eyes staring at my leg. When she noticed me watching her, she looked away. Trying to find something else to look at.

“I don’t know, Grace! You tell me!” I ground, still clutching myself. “My first leg, and now my baby makers! Ah, today is not a good day!”

“Oh my god, Cinder! I’m so sorry!”

“Ahh… Don’t worry…” I mound. “Not… that bad…” I bit my lower lip, before I slowly composed myself. Very slowly. Because how in the hell could somepony compose themselves in a timely manner after learning that they lost their leg, right before getting their nuts caved in? The answer is not at all! Fuck, my balls hurt!

“I know what you’re going to say, Grace,” I started, staring her down. One of my hooves still placed firmly on my balls. “It’s not your fault… You’re just happy I’m alive… You didn’t mean to...”

“No… Cinder, if I helped you pass inspection-” I held my hoof up, and planted it on her lips. The one that wasn’t touching my balls, by the way.

“Another word out of that pretty mouth of yours, and you’re the one that’s going to be holding my balls...” To my luck, she didn’t hit me for my sexual comment...

“Cinder, I’m trying to say sorry for-”

“Grace, just, please,” I said loudly, cutting her off. “You always get mad at me when I get hurt, and I KNOW for a fact, that you’re going to blame yourself for this, and the ONLY thing you should blame yourself for, is crushing my genitalia. So don’t you DARE say me going out on patrol is your fault. Besides, if you do, you’re not going to get your present…” Saying this implied that I had a gift to give her, and I didn’t… But at least it stopped her from talking, right? In any case, I leaned back. Planting my head back into my pillow. “You’re turning twenty-four, right?” I asked.

“Yeah…” She muttered, before her eyes roamed over to my leg.

“Great!” I smiled, clapping my hooves together. “Twenty-four is now my unlucky number!” My smart ass remark was met with a hoof to my shoulder. “Ah, come on! Didn’t you take a vow to never hurt a pony anyways? Especially your best friend who just lost his leg?”

“I didn’t even hit you that hard, you baby,” She smiled, before letting out a long sigh. “Besides, the Crimson Lance doesn't enforce that rule, and it’s not a medical standard for the Arion anyways…”

“Well… shit,” I glanced back down at my missing leg. “Today is probably the worst day of my life… What does my medical chart say anyways?”

Standing up, Grace moved to the end of my bed. Reaching out with her wing, she plucked my medical chart up. Her tired looking eyes started to roam over the papers, before she bit her lower lip. “Well… you’ll live,” She started.

“What do you mean I have only a week to live?” I asked, trying to get a reaction out of her.

“What? No, no…” She waved one of her hooves at me, shrugging off my attempt at getting her to smile. “You’re going to be fine, Cinder… Just a few things are worrying me…”

“Like?” I offered, rolling one of my hooves, so that she would spit it out already.

She let out another sigh, before looking me once over. “The Grenade was a toxin base one, and the poison used seems to be a scorpion base one-” She started to walk around as she read, waving her hooves around as she spoke. “-which made finding the antidote easy, because we have nothing but anti-scorpion venom here in the base. What we didn’t expect was that your leg, which was the only place that the shrapnel from the mine penetrated your body, started to grow an infection. Sadly, we were unable to identify just what type of infection it was, and were forced to remove it-”

“By remove it, you mean my leg?” I asked, cutting her off.

“Yeah… From the reports… Look, it was bad, there are a lot of big words you would not understand, trust me, you would have been killed…” She trailed off, as she realised what she said. Her eyes froze as she stared off in the distance. Radiant Grace was a strong mare. She did what she had to to help me stay in line. There were times that she slips up, or I drive her off, but when it came to it, she was a big softy, and the idea of my death always made her emotional. Me in pain though? Only by her hooves was it ever a good thing...

“I’m not dead, Grace. I’ll be fine…” No I wont… “ Your words, not mine. Remember that,” I offered, trying to snap her back to normal. “Grace?” She didn’t respond, and her eyes still looked distant. I stared at her for a moment, before an idea come to me. Grabbed my pillow in my hooves, I lifted in the air, before chucking it at her.

“Ah, what the fuck?!” She yelped in surprise, as the pillow hit her in the side. Her eyes snapped to me, then down to the pillow. “Thanks…” She mumbled, before shaking her head. “Where was I?” She asked, looking back at the chart.

“The remove my leg due to an infection,” I told her.

“Right! Um, er, ah! Here we go,” She tapped her chin with a hoof, before frowning. “Well that seems off… They gave you a L-Three Detox potion… I don’t even know you qualify for that.”

“I don’t…” I muttered. “Captains have access to all Level Two Healing potions and surgical equipment… With only a few exceptions here and there… It’s not till rank Colonel do I get to use that… Is it a typo or something?”

“I’ll go ask the Doctor…” She muttered, before she started to walk to the door.

“Do it latter, Grace. Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing anyways…” Waving my hoof at her, I shrugged it off. It wasn't that big of a deal anyways, right? “Right, now is there anything else I should know?”

“Mmmm,” She bit her lower lip again, as her eyes started to look over my chat. Reaching out a wing, she flipped over to a new page, before smiling. “You have to chug down a L-One Healing potion every seven hours, and you’ll be fully healed up in three days.”

“Great! Once I’m healed we’re going drinking! Gotta make up for not having a present for your birthday!” I smiled. “And after a day like today, I’m going to need like… Three keggers just get over this shit.”

“Wait, what do you mean you don’t have a gift? You just said you had a gift not five minutes go!” She yelled, leaning into me, her face scrunched up in anger. “And you can’t drink a kegger to start with! Last time you almost lost your liver trying!”

Reaching out with a hoof, I started to pat her on the head. “Silly Grace, of course I have a gift for you,” I smiled, as I held my other hoof to my chest. “I just don’t have it yet. Besides, your favorite drink is hard cherry cider, and I know a guy to get some...”

Reaching out with her wings, Grace grabbed my head, and pulled me closer to her. “If you’re messing with me on this, I will literally buck you so hard that you’d wish you could drink a kegger…” She growled, training off as she glared at me.

My smile grew as she held me. “So, if I don’t get you the Hard cherry cider, you’ll buck me? Then hope in bed, we’ll get started right now!” I was rewarded with a hoof to a chest this time, knocking out all the air in me. “W-worth… i-it…” I wheezed, silently laughing to myself.

Radiant Grace had two weaknesses. Me getting hurt, which I already told you about, and the sweet, sweet flavor of Hard Cherry Sider. Also hurting me, but that doesn't count… Now, if you ask me, I would rather have a nice cheap beer, but hey, the mare knew what she liked... And what she liked, was the rarest alcoholic drink on Equnora… We don’t even have cherries on the planet! Any and all places that start growing them get attacked and destroyed by bandits, and no pony knows why. So the demand was high, and the supply was little to none at all.

“You can be a dick sometimes, you know that?” She asked, shaking her head.

“Give me a break, Grace,” I leaned back into my bed, and let out a… somewhat angry sigh. “Messing with you is a good way to forget that I lost my leg, and if I wasn’t, I would be screaming at the top of my lungs. What would you prefer?”

“I don’t know… Keep talking crap and I’ll have the doctors give you a stative to knock you out...”

“Look, Grace...” I placed my hoof of on her shoulder, and gave her another smart ass smile. “You don’t need to give me a roofie to get me to bed. You just need to join me!” I shifted my weight to the side, and tapped my hoof on the bed.

And then I got another hoof to the chest...

At some point through the night, sleep fell over me. I don’t recall what Grance and I were talking about, but I do know she hit me a few more times. I could tell from the bruises on my chest. She had already ran off before I woke up though, since she did have work to do. Check ups in the Barracks or something… All I knew is that she was not in the hospital today. Life on Equnora was never simple enough for us to just have the day off and hang out. Even with losing a leg, the call of Arion was never ending, and we of the Crimson Lance were the ones to answer… Bullshit if you ask me.

And what was that call, anyways? Nopony, or at least nopony of the lower ranks, knew what that call was. Hell, I wasn’t suppose to know what that call was, but hey, mares talk in their sleep, and let’s just say Brigadier General Two Shot really talked in her sleep. After two hours of fun. She fell right to sleep, and started to talk about her pride for the Crimson Lance, and how she was happy that Arion chose the Crimson Lance to find something called the Vault. Past that, I had no idea what we’re doing here. Oh, and her number was two, if you were wondering.

“Good morning, Captain Cinder, Sir,” My thoughts were ended as a nurse walked into my room. A male nurse. No fun… The short gray stallion was pushing a cart, while giving me one happy, but creepy at the same time, smile. “Hope you’re hungry.”

“You have no idea,” I laughed as my stomach gave me an angry growl. “I have yet to eat anything since yesterday morning! What do you have?”

“MREs, Sir-” He reached down into his cart. “-would you rather have blueberry pancakes or oatmeal?”

“Oatmeal…” I muttered. “Why did I think I would get anything different from the norm?”

“Most ponies do, Sir,” He commented, before opening up one of the rations, and pouring water into it. The sizzling sounds that came from the MRE let my stomach know that it was going to be given a gift. A somewhat edible delight, if you will... “And you’re going to have to drink this healing potion-” He reached into the cart again before pulled out a small clear bottle with red liquid in it. “-along with your breakfast, Sir.”

“Yeah, yeah…” I muttered, before looking out the window. “The next few days are going to be so fun…”

“Well if that’s all sir, I’ll be on my way.”

“Oh, tell Doctor, um, who’s my Doctor, by the way?” I asked.

“Doctor C Section,” He fround. “Though he just likes to be called Doctor Section.”

“Ah, right… Tell him to drop by, I have some question about my leg,” I bit my lower lip before looking around. “And ah, what time do you get off, anyways?”

“Ah, sorry, I don’t swing that way, Sir…” He started, his smile turning upside down. “Ah, I’m just going to go, Sir. I have… things to do, Sir.”

“I’m asking because I want to know when I’m getting a good ol’ mare nuse. Now answer the question, that’s an order.” I stated in a demanding tone, not wanting to deal with the idea that I was into stallions! Could you imagine the rumors that would start?! My reputation as a mare’s stallion would be destroyed! In a bit of angry fit, I snaked my MRE from the nurse with my magic.

“In an hour, Sir.” He called, snapping to attention.

“Good, now hoof me my potion and some water. I know how you have to watch me drink it before you can leave. Medical protocol and all that,” I said, reminding him of what he was suppose to do. As I said before, I know these things since Radiant Grace always yelled at me.

“Right, thank you, Sir.”

Yeah, these next three days are going to be way too damn long…

Didn’t help that the oatmeal tasted horrible. I was able to water it down with the potion, but year old dry oats were just something that I didn’t like, and the aftertaste? My Celestia, ass taste better than it, and I for one know what ass tastes like… What? Some mares have strangest fetishes, and don’t get me start on how they love it when I-

KABOOM

My train of thought was derailed as an explosion rattled the base. My reaction was to leap out of bed, and get ready for whatever came, but with my missing hind leg I found myself on the ground, and it was a very intimate relationship we had. Pain came forth and I had to bite my tongue not to scream, as I did land on the stub that is my leg.

Standing up was a challenge alone. My legs were wobbly, and it was hard to balance myself at first, and though I could stand, walking was another story. I had to hop to move around effectively, but it was still at a snail’s pace. Slowly I made my way to the window, and I froze at what I saw.

Our base had a rather simple layout. A large squared wall that wrapped around the base, with a few large buildings within it. Those buildings were no more than two stories tall, but they did go underground a fair bit. There was the Hospital, where I was, the Barracks, then there was HQ, and last but not least was the Hanger. And what I saw was utter destruction of that laid out.

The Barracks, where everypony on the base lived, was in utter ruin as the south side wall was all but destroyed. A massive crater took hold of the side of the building. My mouth was agape as I could see ponies motionless in the rubble, partially hidden by all the sand, smoke and dust in the air. I could see ponies stumbling out of the Barracks too, but their movements were slow. I could even see a mare, though it was hard to tell who she was at this distance, fall to her death from the second story as part of the building crumpled down into her.

My attention was driven to the wall that protected the base, as ponies of all types were climbing, or flying in some cases, over it. We were being attacked by Bandits. It was as simple as that. Our perimeter was broken, and Bandits were in. I could see Pegasi flying down from the sky, Earthponies charging in once over the wall, and even a few Unicorns teleporting in. Crimson Lance troops charged to meet them. Guns at the ready, firing rounds at the invaders, and in the case of some Unicorns, magical blast. The Bandits seemed organised, at least from first glance. They moved in groups, working as one, and soon I could see Crimson Lance troops falling in battle. Though it was not one sided. Ponies on both sides being torn to shreds, their bodies going ragdoll as the life inside of them was taken. But the only thing on my mind as I saw this, the only pony I cared for as I stared at the bodies of the fallen was Radiant Grace. And I knew she was working in the Barracks today. She was a Medic. Not trained for combat, for the most part. She was other hit by the bomb, or was hiding in the intact Barracks.

And all I could do was stand there… I bit my lower lip in frustration. Bum leg or not, I needed to find her. I need to make sure that my best friend was safe. Turning around, I hobbled my way to the door, before slamming it open with my magic. I was not going to let anything stop me! Not a door! Not my damn leg! Not the Doctor yelling at me to get back in my room! No, anything that got in my way was thrown aside! Especially the Doctor that was yelling at me to get back in my room! I didn’t just throw him aside! I threw him through one of the doors!

“I’m coming, Grace!” I growled! “Those Bandits won’t take you from me!”

As I was in critical condition when I first came into camp, I was placed in the second floor of the hospital. Though I was better off now then when I first arrived, I was still in no condition to use the stairs, let alone do what I was planing on doing, but as the elevators lock up when the base was attacked, my crippled ass was forced to hobble down the stairs. But not even stairs could stop my ass from finding Grace!

Bravely, I took my first step. It was easy, so I took another. It was… also easy. Then I moved my only back leg, and what seemed easy turned into hell itself, as I started to fall down the stairs. This time, I didn’t hold my screams in. “Aaaaahhhh, fuck me,” I yelled as I tumbled my way down, before slamming into the opposing wall.

“Why didn’t they give me a god damn painkiller?!” I yelled, as I slowly pulled myself up. “And why is this so fucken hard to walk?” In my rage at the pain I was experiencing, I let out a blast of magic. Nothing amazing, just something to put singe part of the wall.

I glanced down the second stair case I had to walk down. Since the stairs where in such a tight place, they had to break them in half, meaning my challenge was not yet over. If only there was an easier way to get down there? Why could I have not been born with wings? Or born with a gift in magic?! I knew how to levitate things, but teleporting would be really fucken useful right about now! I can’t just use levitation to get down stairs! Do you know how hard that is?! Life was too much of a bitch, and don’t work that way!

I then face hooved, before my horn started to glow, and my magical aura formed around my hind leg. I was in NO way strong enough to hold my whole body up, but just half of my ass? Yeah, I could do that… Kind of...

Walking, I mean hobbling, down the stairs was now much easier, as I had more control over my balance, but life, as I said before, was a bitch. My cleverness was rewarded with the wall near me being blow out. Concrete shrapnel buffered my side as I fell down the stairs for the second time. My luck wasn’t was that bad as the stitches on my leg didn’t burst open from the hard impact I took. An Earthpony must have stitched up my leg or something. But the pain? Don’t get me started. I laid there for almost a minute before I could attempt to move.

Slowly standing to my hooves, and wishing I had some painkillers or two barrels worth of alcohol, I turned my attention to the first floor stairway door. I can proudly say that the damn door nearly broke off its hinges when I slammed it open, but I did not like what I saw through the doorway.

I could see the front office of the Hospital, and standing at the front door was a Unicorn Bandit. He stood behind a large shield as two Crimson Lance privates fired round at him, pinning him down, or at least trying too. He was wearing some type of cloth armor, so I could only see his face, and he was mad.

His horn glowed as a rifle floated out from cover, before he started to blindly fire at the Privates. Most of the rounds went wild, hitting the walls behind them, but the Unicorn's gun was large, and had a massive magazin. It did not take long for him to shift his aim around and tear one of the Privates apart. Their armor doing nothing against the massive hail of rounds.

“Aaahhh!” The Private screamed.

“Hahaha, come meet your maker!” The Bandit yelled in glee, while he continued to fire.

“Ah, Celestia, I don’t want to die!” The other Private yelled as he took cover.

The sight of a comrade getting killed was something that I did not like to see twice, yet as I started to limp forward, the other Private let out a scream as the Bandit turned his attention to him. The rounds tore into and through the cover he hid behind, blasting him in the back. With a meaty thud, he was dead before he hit the ground.

“Oh what do we got here?” The Bandit yelled, turning his attentions to me. “Another target!”

I froze as he turned his gun to me, and braced myself as I knew the end was near.

*Click*

My heart skipped a beat when I heard the click.

“Ah hell, why da’ I have to need to reload now?!” The Bandit screamed in rage, before lowering his gun down to himself.

My eyes dashed to the Privates that lay dead, then back to the Bandit. I didn’t want to end up like them, and this was only only chance. I bit my lower lip, as I looked to the dead Private’s guns. I could not move fast enough to get to them, even if I had my fourth hoof. But I didn’t need to. My horn light up, and the two guns started to float. I quickly moved then over to the Bandit. I could not get through his shield, but I didn’t have too.

Unlike the Privates I knew that if you could not get through something, you just had to go around it. Limping back into the stairway, I took cover as my guns made their was past the Bandit’s shield.

The stallion smiled as he snapped his Light Machine gun closed. He was finished reloading, but as he looked up he found both of my new guns were floating right next to him, pointing right at his face.

“Ah Fu-” was all he got out before I pulled the triggers.

His magical glow around the his gun, as well as the shield, both died out as he hit the floor. I noticed that I was breathing heavily. My condition was bad, and it was only going to get worse. I knew that Grace would yell at me for putting myself through this, but she always puts up with my antics. The least I can do is keep her safe in this Bandit attack...

After a few moments I finally was able to slow my breathing, before limping out into the front office of the Hospital. I could see more Bandits and Crimson Lance troops fighting, and the Majority of the fighting was done in the center of the base.

“Grace, you better be alright…” I muttered to myself, before taking a simple step outside.

“Don’t go out there, please!” I stopped, turned around and found myself looking at a Doctor, as well as a few nurses, hiding behind a few of the front desk. “Please, you’re wounded, don’t go out there! You need to rest and recover!”

“I’ll do that when I’m dead.” I yelled back, before hobbling my way out of the hospital. To my anger, a magical glow wrapped around me, and I was lifted back into the hospital.

Turning myself around, I watched as one of the Unicron Nurses, a red mare with a white mane, frowned at me as her horn glowed.

“Put me down!” I yelled.

“As you insist,” She said, before I hit the ground, and once again I landed on my stump.

“AAAAAHHHH, BITCH!” I yelled. “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!”

“Please listen to us, you’re just came in yesterday with an infected leg. You’re in no condition to go out and fight! We just want to help you.” The Doctor yelled.

Pulling out one of the guns, I aimed it at them, before firing. The round hit the wall behind them. “Stop me again, and this next one’s not going to be a warning shot!”

“Please, we just want to help you! Leave the fighting to those who are not injured!”

I fired again, this time hitting the Doctor in the ear. He let out a scream, as his hooves shot up to his ear. “I warned you! Now don’t get in my way again,” Slowly, I made my way to my hooves, before turning to the door. “I have someone to save, and if she turns out dead, I’m coming for you head, do you understand me?!”

“Y-yes…” The Doctor said.

Without another word, I marched my way out of the Hospital. My magic wrapped around my missing leg, and the two rifles the Privates had. The hot sun beating down on me right away, and I was forced to squint my eyes from the bright sun.

To be continued...

Chapter 2

Psycho, so insane, burning badass cause you pain!

Ah yes… the sun. It grows food, powers our generators and it’s quite the amazing spectacle. But it was also blinding. It was a bright glowing ball of fire, which scarred my eyes as I left the hospital. Oh, I know! My head, body, internal organs and hooves are in pain! Let’s add my eyes to the list! And hey, how about some hot and dry weather? I’m sure that’ll be fine! Hell, let’s add a few Bandits in the mix. All of whom are trying to kill you while screaming at the top of their lungs. Sounds fun, right?

If you could not tell, I was a bit peeved of my situation. It didn’t help that I was tackled to the ground by a stallion the size of a colt. Well, a bit bigger than a colt, but my point still stood. He lay on top of me, attempting to stab me with a knife. My hooves failed as I attempted to grab the him, but to no avail. He was too quick on his hooves, and quicker with a blade. As we struggled, I hissed as he slashed me across my chest, and then again just below my left eye. My only option was to kick him away from me, and even then I was having a hard time.

I was not even thirty hooves away from the Hospital and I was already on the damn ground, in pain and being attacked. I was hoping I could at least make my way down the street before I was attacked, but no! LIFE WAS NOT THAT KIND!

Still being attacked, my horn glowed bright as I tried to wrap a magical vise around the small Bandit’s throat. His reaction to this was to stab me in my right flank! My reaction to this little fuck was to lift him as high as I could into the air, before throwing him, head first mind you, straight into the ground. I didn’t even bother checking if he was dead after I heard the horrifying snap that his neck made on impact. No, I was preoccupied with the knife lodged in my ass... Wrapping my magic around the handle, I slowly pulled it out. I knew that if I left it in I would not bleed out as fast, but right now I needed to get moving. Besides, do you know how hard it is to walk with a knife in your ass? Neither do I, but I don’t really want to find out! Only walking with three legs was bad enough, I don’t want to know how I would do it with two!

But with everything going on, between the pain I felt and the Bandit attack, I needed something to help me keep going. A healing potion, pain killers, something! Anything! Hell, I would even take whisky made inside of a toilet as long as it numbed my senses long enough for me to think strait!

But I was shit out of luck…

Glancing down the road, I could see a firefight in progress. With the blood loss, it was hard making things out, and even harder to tell who was who. But I knew that’s where the Barracks was, so I started to march forward, right after I grabbed my two guns that I had dropped from the struggle with the Bandit. I even decided to bring the knife that he stabbed me with, just in case I needed it.

“And I thought yesterday was shit…” I muttered through gritted teeth.

It took me sometime to waddle my way through the street, and it was not getting easier as I went. Didn’t help that the heat was beating down on me, making each step painful, but as I walked I could see more and more of what was going on.

The Bandits were mostly located in and around the Barracks. Compared to what I saw earlier, things had just gotten worse. With how careless the Bandits were with their lives, they were able to make more ground at the cost of their own deaths. It was a sickening strategy thought up by an idiot, that was somehow working. For every single Bandit that we killed, two of our troops would die, give or take, and we could not take the losses, but as I watched the firefight, I had to accept the fact that we were losing.

To my right were my fellow Crimson Lance troops. They were doing their best to hide behind cover, using carriages, both automatic and manual, to hide behind. To my left, a small army of Bandits. They didn’t really try to take cover, but the ones that did were using the rubble from the Barracks. My dumb ass made my way to the left. That’s where I needed to go, after all. I was trying to find Radiant Grace, but getting to her was nothing to batter an eye at… Had to go through a FUCKEN army of Bandits...

Then they saw me... The Bandits, two of them at least, turned their attentions to me and opened fire. I was glad that they were bad shots as I was not able to really get out of the way that quickly. I was even forced to use a street lamp as cover. It wasn’t even wide enough for me to fully hide, but I’ll take what I can get when getting shot at! Death was no on the menu for me today!

“I swear to Celestia herself, if I die here before I find Grace, I’ll hunt the bastard that killed me…” I muttered, before popping out of cover and taking a single shot at the Bandits. I wasn’t really aiming when I went to shoot, but luck was on my side as I did hit a Bandit. Not the one I wanted to shoot though, but some poor asshole behind him. It was blind luck on my part that made that shot of some use, or the universe use told him to go die. Either way, I’ll take it.

“Come on out and play, little bug! I swear your death will be pain with no end!” One of the Bandits, the one I originally wanted to shoot by the way, yelled, before he spraying several rounds around me. If I was a lesser stallion I would have pissed myself at this point, but proper bladder control was none of my concern now. Not getting killed was.

*Clink* *Clink* *Clink*

I glancing down to my side, and my life flashed before my eyes as I spotted a live grenade next to me. That’s going to kill me in a matter of moments. It was like yesterday all over again, but the only difference is that I didn’t have a super durable suit of armor on. I reacted out of fear more than anything, before I grabbed the grenade in my hooves and chucked it back at the Bandits. You could argue that I should have used my magic to do it, but I’m not that smart of a pony.

“Grenade, watch out!” The Bandits who was firing at me yelled as the grenade wizzed near him. It then exploded in a magical-fiery explosion, tearing apart him, as well as the bastard that threw the grenade. Yeah, the smell of charred ponies was not a good smell at all, but knowing that I could have been the one burning somehow made it alright…

“Sir, what in the hell are you doing doing out here?!” A squeaky and yet familiar voice yelled. I glanced to the opposite side of the street, and saw a Crimson Lance Private waving at me. It didn’t take a genius to tell that this Private was the one from yesterday. You know, the one that helped me, while the rest of my unit took cover.

I didn’t really want to yell back. Mostly to not give away my position, mostly to not get shot at. Sadly, his yelling did attracting a few more Bandits. I stayed quiet, but more importantly, safe, as they open fired at him, while advancing on this position. None of them noticed me as I hid behind the street light, which was good for me. Unlike the Private, I was not wearing armor. But even with the Armor, these Bandits had horrible aim, and none of their shots hit their target. Some did come close, but the hail of fire stopped as the Bandits moved out into the street, because once they did the nearby Crimson Lance troops open fired at them. Add another three dead Bandits to the list, another million or so to go…

Slowly I stood up, making sure that I didn’t move out of cover. Glancing at the dead Bandits, my horn glowed as I lifted over a shot-gun and one of the pistols. I didn’t really have anything to hold the guns, but I did have a need for them. For now, I just needed something that went BAM, and could go BAM several times over. Besides, the two rifles I held had to be running low on ammo. Hell, it would be a better idea to get rid of one of them, and just load up the ammo into the other. But I was not that smart of a pony...

Letting out a long and tired sigh, I stepped out of cover. All of my weapons hovered around me, before I turned my attention to the Barracks. There were about six Bandits left, from what I could see at least, so I started to press on. Moving from cover to cover, limping my way to the rubble around the Barracks. I was lucky enough for the Bandits to not really see my approach, but when you’re being shot at by about twenty Crimson Lance troops, you’re not really trying to look for a crippled stallion with three legs, going around to your flank. Aiming at the side of the closest Bandit, I let loose the last three shots I had with the one of my rifles. Each round found their way into my target, and he was dead before he hit the ground. Tossing the gun aside since it was out of ammo, I lifted my other rifle up and aimed at the largest of the Bandits… And he was staring right at me... I ducked behind cover once more, as he opened fire on my position. Bits of concrete were blown about as he unloaded his full clip into the rubble I hid behind. When I heard the gun stop shooting, I ducked my head around the corner to see what was going on.

He smiled at me as he started to reloaded, before blowing me a kiss. I returned the favor with a face full of buckshot. His head blowing off from the shotgun, and I glanced down at it, amazed at how the Bandits that I got it from kept missing with it. They were really bad shots, considering what I just did. Then again, the same could be said about all the damn Privates NOT HELPING ME! Why does the three legged stallion have to deal with this shit!? Can’t they at least do more than provide covering fire?!

*KABOOM*

My ears were then blow out as another massive explosion rang through the base. It took me a moment just to find myself, let alone find where the explosion occurred. With the amount of pain running through my everything, you could forgive me for not being as perceptive as I would normally be. That being said, if I could think properly, I would have already come up with come creative ways to cream Fuck you into the heavens, letting everypony know just how I feel. No, right now I had to settle with surviving, and being pissed off.

Oh, and you can add shocked and happy to that list. Because as my eyes trailed back to the Hospital that I came from, my heart skipped a beat. A massive smoke cloud filled the sky as the Hospital started to collapse in on itself. Debree and rubble tore through the base as the whole building became nothing but ruin. Simply put, I’m glad I got my ass out of there.

“Sir!” I glanced to my side to find the squeaky mother fucker Private running to me. With the commotion from the explosion, he took his chance to rush to me. He hit the ground hard and fast as he joined me behind cover. “What in the hell are you doing out here?!”

“Isn’t it obvious?” I asked. “Getting shot at, and-”

“You know what I mean, sir!” He yelled, interrupting me. “I didn’t carry your ass back to base for you to run out and die!”

“Then I owe you a beer,” I stated. “But jokes aside, I’m looking for somepony.”

“You just lost a leg, Sir. Who ever you are putting yourself through this for is not worth-”

“You finish that sentence and you’re dead!” I yelled, point my guns at him.

He remained quiet for just a moment, and I couldn't make out his facial features since he was wearing full body armor. “Sir, please calm down. I’m trying to help you.”

“Then help me get into the Barracks, Private,” I growled, turning my guns back towards said Barracks. “Wounded or not, I’ll be damned if Radiant Grace gets hurt!”

“Who, Sir?” He asked.

“Captain Radiant Grace,” I clarified. “Medic, Pegasus mare, blue coat, water drop for a cutie mark, dark brown mane and tail, who is often seen screaming at me?” I asked.

“I’m sorry Sir, I don’t know who she is,”

“Then shut up, stay low, and help me get into the Barracks.” I ordered, already peeved at the time I wasted talking.

“But Sir-”

“Private, you do not have permission to speak freely! You may help me find Captain Radiant Grace, or you can stand down and shut up!” I yelled. Sadly, I yelled too loudly as a Bandit started to take shots at me. For the second time, bits of concrete were blown from the cover I was hind behind, and I could only grit my teeth in anger as I didn’t know where we were getting shot from.

“And I thought we Earthponies we stubborn…” He muttered under his breath. “Sir, you’re going to need some help them… I’m going to join you, because after all, it’s dangerous to go alone, Sir.”

“Then move up. You’re the one with armor, you’re the one going to get shot at. I’ll provide covering fire, but we need to-”

*KABOOM*

“Will these Celestia damn explosions fuck off?!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. “What the fuck blew up this time, anyways?!” As I started to look around, I could not really see if any of the near by structures were damaged, but at the same time I also could not really see most of the base.

“Sir, there is smoke coming from the Barracks!”

“What?” I turned, and my heart screamed out when I saw a the thick black smoke. “That’s it, we’re going in!” I yelled, as I fired up my horn, grabbed my stub of a leg, before leaping over cover.

I did not like pain in any way, shape or form. I didn’t have a fetish for it. I didn’t want pain in my life. In fact, pain is probably my least favorite thing in the world. Well… one thing tops it, and that would be getting killed, but for now, I’ll take pain over death any day. Yet as I pushed into the Barracks, pain was the only thing was keeping me going. The moment I stopped, was the moment I gave in, and the moment I gave in, was the moment I had given up on Radiant Grace. Considering what I already put myself through, that was not going to happen anytime soon.

But I was not alone when it came to this pain. I had, to my relief, a comrade to rely on. Well, more like a meat shield that had on a full suit of armor… His name was Private Valentine Gamen. Past that I knew nothing about him other then I owe him a drink. Hell, I would owe him several drinks after this whole thing just to make up for what he was doing for me. Even if I was his commanding officer, I didn’t order him to join me.

“These Bandits don’t give up easy,” Private Valentine yelled, as he blindly fired down the hallway.

“No shit!” I screamed, before levitating my gun up and joining him in the blind firing.

As we had entered the Barracks through the massive hole blown out by the Bandits, we found ourself in the housing area of the Barracks. It was, from the looks of it, being raided by Bandits, and we were forced to get into a firefight, the start of which we caused by shooting them in the back. Though most of the Bandits didn’t expect to get shot in the back, those who we initially didn’t take down took cover in the many rooms that adorned the halls.

It didn’t help that I nearly ran out of all noticeable ammo, and was forced to use what I saw. The shotgun and the pistol lay on the ground nearby, while floating within my magical grip was a new and very large Light Machine Gun, similar to the one that the first Bandit that I had killed had. Considering how it tore through the walls around me like a hot knife through butter, I regret not picking it up when I first lifted Hospital.

Really, considering how it took out the two Privates, you would think I would catch onto something like that, but as I had said before, I am not a smart pony. But neither were the Bandits. Popping my head out of cover, I aimed the massive gun towards the assholes who attacked our base. Once one of them would pop out of cover, I would open fire, before dragging my bullet trail into the cover they were mostly obscured behind. Their scream let me know that I had taken them down, and though I didn’t really like the sight of a fresh corpse rotting up the Barracks, I knew I was one step closer to Radiant Grace with each Bandit that fell.

But where was she in the Barracks was hard to tell. I knew she was working in the building, yet I didn’t know were. Was she on the ground floor, or upstairs? Was she on the roof taking in the sun, or was she underground in the lower section of the Barracks? I HAD NO DAMNED IDEA! Do you know how hard it is trying to find somepony while getting shot at, in pain and having the worst headache of your life? I’ll give you a hit… Imagine grinding your nuts on a cheese grater, or if you’re a lovely mare, imagine barbwire dido... Then imagine that pain throughout your whole body. Inside and out...

“GET OUT OF MY WAY YOU MOTHER FUCKERS!” I yelled, as I pushed through Barracks, making my way down into the staircase while firing at the Bandits that got in my way. Most of them were idiots who ran at me, screaming while firing their gun, while others just brandished knives. I regretfully have to say that I forgot that the Private was with me, and had taken a couple of grazing shots from the Bandits. Oh, and if you could not tell, and I don’t know how you would not considering I’ve said this before, I am not happy right now. I don’t like pain. I don’t like Bandits. I didn’t even like myself for what I was putting myself through.

“Sir, we have back up coming to our position, slow down!” Private Valentine yelled as he trailed behind me.

I didn’t really listen to him, as I made my way to the bottom of the steps. I was too pissed off, and in too much pain to care. I practically had tunnel vision at this point. Yet I was still coherent enough to keep an eye on my surroundings, but more importantly, remembering my military training.

Peaking my head around the corner of the staircase door, I found a very large open room. I knew is room to be the mess hall. Where you can find all the wonderful M.R.Es that the Crimson Lance has to offer. Topped with a rather large stockpile of alcohol, that was really tempting to go raid, but I both knew better, and from the angle I stood at, I could see into the kitchen, and the Bandits beat me to it.

“One… Three... Five…” I muttered to myself as I counted the number of Bandits in the kitchen. “Seven… Eleven…”

I pulled my head back, and slowly breathed out. From what I saw, there were eleven of the bastards to kill, and though I had to kill even more than that amount to have gotten where I am now, I had yet to face this many at once. My heart was racing, as I popped open my gun, to check the amount of ammo I had left. It was a massive clip fed monster, and I frowned when I saw I had, at best, about twenty or so shots left. From how it was eating ammo before, this wouldn't last me five seconds.

“Sir, please-” Private Valentine started, before I fired up my horn and shut his muzzle close.

“Do you want the Bandits to know we’re here?” I whispered. “Quite it down, or we get spotted, Private!” With that said, I went back to my train of thoughts. I needed more ammo, or another gun all together…

“Sorry, Sir,” Private Valentine whispered. “But please, wait. We have back up coming to help us with the rest of the Bandits. Don’t put yourself through hell, if you don’t have too…”

And there it was. The wall. Private Valentine asked me to stop. To wait for help, but if I stop, if I let myself rest, I knew I can’t get back up again. I could feel it in by body. The pain, the adrenalin, and the soon, the end. When I stopped, when I gave it, I would never see Radiant Grace again...

“Alright,” I started, getting ready to lie through my teeth. “I’m nearly out of ammo anyways, so it would be best to stop…” I slowly sat down onto the ground, acting like the pain was more than I could take, which was not far off from what I was experiencing right now. “Dammit…” I muttered. “I won’t be able to walk much longer…”

“You’ve done enough, Sir,” The Private Valentine started, before placing his hoof on my back. “Most of us would have not even tried to do what you did.”

“This may not be the best call right now, but if we don’t get back up soon, I feel as if I’m going to bleed out…” And so the lie started…. “Private… I’m going to need your rifle...”

“Not this again, Sir. Please-” He stopped as I raised my hoof.

“I’m not going anywhere, Private. But you are… Give me your rifle, so that if the Bandits see me, I can buy myself time… Just to keep them off of me long enough for you to escort our backup to this position… With how large the Barracks are, we’re going to need… Need help…” I finished, taking deep breaths to give the Private the idea that I was out of breath.

Again he remained quiet. Thinking of what I had said. The longer he waited, the harder it was going to be for me to push on, as some of my acting was not entirely off from how I feel.

“That’s a good idea, Sir…” He nodded, before reaching up to his chest and his rifle’s weapon sling. “Hoof me your gun so that I’m not defenceless then, and I’ll be as fast as I can. Just… be careful, Sir.”

It worked. The lie had worked… I held his rifle close, and watched as he made his way up the stairs. I waited for almost a minute, before I glanced back at the Bandits. They seem to not care about the world around them as they had started to drink. One of the smaller stallions of the group had already passed out from the amount of alcohol he tried to chug down. They even started a kegstand, and from the looks of it, only six of them had their guns on their person.

With the smallest stallion in the group no longer able to fight, and with how most of them were preoccupied, I made my move. I slowly raised the rifle up, and fired off a few rounds. My first shot was a headshot, and I had killed the Bandit with the gun that was closest to me. My next two shots hit the next closest stallion with a gun, and as he fell to the ground, I turned my attention to the rest. Firing off into the Kitchen, I had wounded another Bandit, and as he fell back the rest started to scramble around, trying to get their guns or taking cover.

The Bandit that was attempting to take down the all mighty keger was unlucky hover, as he tripped over himself in his attempt to hide. I didn’t even have to kill him myself, as he toppled over onto another Bandit, angering him enough to get shot in the head.

Standing out of cover, I fired off a few more rounds before making my way to one of the tables, before flipping it over and taking cover. It then dawned on me that I was using a thin plank of metal as cover. It was practically sheet metal… And so were the Bandits.

Popping my head out of cover, I aimed my rifle and punched a few holes into a table that a Bandit was hiding behind. If it was not for him slumping out of cover and letting me know that he was dead, I would not know if I missed.

“AAAAHHHHH!” I screamed, as a round found it’s way into my flank. I glanced back at my left side, and winced in pain. “Why did I think this was a good idea?” I asked myself outloud, as I ducked behind the useless cover.

“You tell us, meat puppet!” I heard one of the Bandits yell, before a magical glow engulfed the table I was hiding behind. “I want this bastard a live boys! He’ll have to pay for spoiling our fun, and killing my brother Chennie!”

As the table lifted up, I did my best to scramble to my hooves, but only to be shot in my front left hoof. I shouted as I rolled to my side, grabbing my hoof in pain. From the looks of it, the round passed right through my hoof, and just missed the bone, but like the rest of my wounds that I got today, I didn’t really have the time to look at them, and right now, I was more concerned with the seven or so Bandits rushing me. Particularly the Unicorn stallion that was barking orders.

“Aaahgg!” I gargled, as a magical grip formed around my throat. My body went limp as I was lifted into the air.

“We’ve got some time to kill boys while Tick-Tock and his damned robot get’s that locked door open! Somepony bring me a knife!” The stallion yelled.

My eyes were locked on him, and he gave me a dirty smile. His teeth were a sick yellow, while his eyes match them in color. He even wore a piss yellow construction jacket on over his light blue coat, as well as several red grenades dangling from a belt wrapped around his neck. “Ah, what in the…” He started, as he stared down towards my hind legs. “You’re a cripple? From the looks of it a newly diagnosed cripple... In that case, why don’t I do you a favor and even you out abit? Hell, I’ll even take care of your third leg, you got there!”

I tried to yell out Nnnoooo, but as I was being choked, it came out more of a whimper. A stallion like whimper, I mean. That didn’t sound anything like a mare over the fact that he was about to cut off my stallionhood...

“Oh you don’t have to be so kind as to thank me,” He started. “I understand what it’s like to be suppressed by your disabilities. I mean, how is a stallion suppose to impress mares when stallions like you-” His horn started to glow brighter and I felt something hard tug at my sack. “-have to set such a big example? I mean, you understand?”

“Mmmmmm! Mmmggggmmmm, mmmmaaaamamam mmmm!” I whimpered again, as my horn started to faintly glow.

“What’s that?” He asked, before turning his ear to me. “I can’t quite make what you’re saying…” His magical glow cut off and I dropped to the ground.

“AAahhhh!” I screamed, as I landed on my hind leg… again.

The Bandit, who could have possibly been the leader of the group, dropped down to the floor next to me, his muzzle inches from my face. “I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to talk louder, it’s hard to hear you over your-” He raised a hoof before slamming it down into my newly acquired bullet wound. “-SCREAMING!”

“AAAHHHHHHHH!” I screamed, and my vision started to get blurry from the pain, but my horn still glowed softly, and once the pain started to die out, I put on a cheap smile. “D-do… D-do...”

“D-do, do, d-do, spit it out!” He screamed. “And where the hell is that knife!”

“Do these-” I started, before he leaned down to me, placing his head near my mizzle. “-look l-like…. g-grenade pins to you...?” I asked, levitating the pins grenade from the grenade on his chest.

His eyes popped wide, but before he could do anything, my horn light up brighter than the sun, and I pushed him as hard as I could. He landed in the center of the of the mess hall before exploded in a massive magical burst of fire that engulfed most of the room.

I started to shake in pain as a good part of me was singed from the fiery explosion. Before, I had thought that Private Valentine was the wall. The thing that was going to stop me from pushing on. The hardest moment on what I had to deal with. I was wrong…

I could not really move anymore. My body just didn’t let me. The world was spinning and I started to see black. I squinted my eyes, trying to focus, but it was no use. “Sorry… Grace…” I muttered to myself as my vision faded to black… “Seems like… I’m not going to keep moving on…” Yet I wasn’t done... How could I be? I fell down some some stairs, I’ve been stabbed, I’ve been shot and now I’ve been burned… What I’m going through is worse than a hangover, but not worse than losing my best friend...

My heart started to race, and I took a deep breath. My body screamed at me as I tried to stand, but I did little more than stumble to the side. Opening my eyes, I could still see black, but as I just sat there the darkness started to fade.

And what I saw was not something that I would want to remember. In the middle of the room was a raging fire, and in the center was a smoking charred corpse of the Bandit. The smell then hit me, and if I had the strength to throw up I would have…

“AAAAHHHHHHHH!” Screamed one of the Bandits as he ran through the mess hall on fire. “PUT ME OUT! PUT ME OUT!”

Glancing around myself, I noticed my rifle only a hoof reach distance away. Attempting to use my magic, I painfully lifted the rifle up, before pointing it at the Bandit. “Here…” I muttered to myself. “This will ease the pain…” I pulled the trigger and took out one of his legs, and he let out a yelp as he hit the ground, before burning alive… I was just surprised that I was still able to shoot in the state I was in…

Yet, what was even more surprising was how I found the strength to stand. The pain was either fading, or my body just stopped telling me how fucked up I was... It was hard to tell, really… Oh, and again, walking was another story. I could not hold my rifle and my leg at the same time… At this point, the only way to push on was to leave it… Or hold it on my mouth.

I gagged as I placed the rifle in my mouth. I could not tell if the blood on the handle was mine, or somepony else's. Hell, most of the blood covering me wasn’t even mine… Ok, most of it WAS mine, but not all of it so… Yeah... Yet I had to ignore the taste, otherwise I would go without a weapon. Reaching out with my tongue, I placed it on the trigger, ready to fire at any moment. And though most ponies used weapons in their hooves, or like myself, in magic, in this situation, it could not be helped.

I glanced around, and could not see any more of the Bandits. Other than corpses I mean... I didn’t really want to move around to see if they lived through the blast. I knew if I didn’t push him away from me, I would not be here now, and most of the Bandits were closer to the Explosion then me...

Glancing to the opposing side of the room, there was only one door to go through, and it led into the hall. To my left was collapsed rubble, and to my right was more bedrooms, as well as the corridor that led to Radiant Grace’s room. As I started to limp my way through the hall, I could hear yelling from behind me. It was hard to make things out, but in my frantic state, I started to move faster. Not wanting the ponies behind me to catch up to me.

“Ah, come on! Work damn you, you fucken peace of rust!” A gruff voice yelled, and I turned to look into one of the rooms. Standing near a wall terminal, a rather old looking stallion pointed his gun at what looked like a robot on two legs. It kind of resembled a motorcycle, yet had the shape of a pony. It was even painted like a pony… Hell it even had a Unicorn horn that was glowing, and clicking the buttons on the terminal.

“I’m moving as fast as I can Sir,” It said in a young chipper mare voice. “Please, you do not have to hit me again. The fire wall is really, really hard to crack!”

“Ah, shut it you useless Stewart bot!” The old stallion yelled again.

“Please Sir, my designation is U-5 L35S. It hurts my feelings when you don’t use my name!” The robotic mare thing stated.

Lifting my gun, I aimed as best I could at the old Bandit, before pulling the trigger with my tongue. He hit the ground with a hard, and I turned my attention to the robot.

The Robot froze, and slowly turned to me. It’s mechanical eyes went wide as it stared at me. “Ah… Hello there?” It, she, no… What ever! It started. “You know, you don’t have to kill me! I make a meen sali-” I then pulled the trigger, and a massive hole punched through the small robots head.

Taking a step forward, I glanced at the terminal they were using. Several walls of text zoomed through the screen, and none of it made a lick of sense to me. That was, until the words AND OPEN! appeared in golden bold letters. I raised an eyebrow, before the sounds of a massive door started to open.

I jumped and looked to my right. A large metal door slid to the side, and several ponies stared at me. Several Crimson Lance ponies... Some with guns and some without... Two things slowly dawned on me in my me at that moment.

The first was that I didn’t know the Barracks had a panic room that could hold a dozen or so ponies, and the second was that I was about to get shot by those ponies. I was covered in blood after all...

Throwing my hooves up, I let the gun drop from my mouth and yelled. “Stand down! I’m Crimson Lance! Rank of Captai- aaahhh!” I then screamed as I lost my balance, landing on my stump of a leg. The world started to blur again, as I held myself in pain.

And… I knew right then and there that I was going to get shot. Though it was hard to see anything, I could still tell they were aiming their rifles at me.

“Cinder?!” The voice of Radiant Grace yelled, and through my blurry vision a blue blob appeared. “OH CELESTIA!” She screamed. “STAND DOWN! SOMEONE GET A MEDIC!”

“You are a Medic!” An unknown stallion yelled.

“THEN GET ME SOME MEDICAL SUPPLIES NOW!”

I could not help but smile. There she was… Radiant Grace was perfectly fine… My smile grew as I stared at the blue blob. She was safe, and the Bandits were all dead… “G-glad to… see you’re… s-safe...” I muttered.

“Cinder? CINDER? CCCIIINNNDDDEERRR!” I heard Radiant Grace scream, before I slumped to the side, and falling unconscious.

To be Continued…

Author's Note

Did you catch all the references in this chapter? Bet you didn’t! Here is a list of what I did in this chapter and let me know if you found them all! Six in total!

References
“Chapter Name Song found here.”
“It’s Dangerous to go along, take this!”
“Private Valentine Movie.”
“Seven Eleven Gas Station reference.”
“Sweet Cinder killed Chennie (Kenny) and the Bandit called him a Bastard!”
“Metal Gear Solid 2, Death Scream!”

Chapter 3

Come join the fun, take a journey through the night.

“Sir, you wished to see me?” I stated, before slowly walking into Commander Steed’s office and standing at attention.

“Captain Sweet Cinder…” Commander Steed started, not looking in my direction. His eyes simple trailing through the folder in front of him. “It’s good to see that you’re up and about… How is that new leg treating you?”

“Good, but not great, Sir.” I told him, still not use to the hunk of metal attached to my flank. It looked like a leg, felt like a leg, and even worked like a leg… But even with all that going for it, it didn’t seem… right.

Slowly he turned to me, before looking me in the eyes. There were bags under his eyes, but that was to be expected. It had been a week since the attack and no one got much sleep. With the occasional Bandit turning up outside the wall, everypony was on edge, and the stress was getting a bit unbearable to some.

“Now, I have a simple question for you, Captain. And I’m sure you’ll accept, because of… well, obvious reasons,” His horn glowed before the stack of papers he was reading before lifted up. “Last we spoke, you failed inspection. Then while on patrol, you were nearly killed…”

I remained quite, doing my best not to not to remember getting shot in the head… Also ignoring the slowly creeping migraine forming in the back of my head.

“Then the base was attacked while you were recovering, and… Well, let’s just say I saw first hoof what you did. It’s why I signed off on that new leg of yours, and it’s also why I’m assigning you to deal with the nearby Bandits.”

“Ah… what?” I stammered, before catching myself and standing back at attention. “I mean, what, Sir? I didn’t quite catch that, Sir!”

“At ease, Captain,” He stated, before standing up from his chair and stepping over to the window. “Now… You can find all the mission details in that file on the table. Take it, and read through it. Tell no pony, and come back to me when you get an idea for a team together.”

“Permission to speak aloud?” I asked, hoping he would say yes.

“Permission denied, Captain. I know you do not want to do something like this, but with over one-hundred of our ponies dead, I need every last one of the remaining ones to do their part, or would you rather I take back the leg I assigned to you?”

“Negative, Sir!” I stated, before standing back at attention, even though I wasn’t ordered to.

“Good… Now, my question is simple. Tomorrow morning, or the morning after?” He asked, not giving an explanation to what he was asking.

“Um… Could you provide context, Sir?” I asked.

“The mission. Would you rather start it tomorrow morning, or the morning after?” He asked again, before slowly turning to me.

“Well Sir-” He lifted a hoof as I started to speak, cutting me off mid sentence.

“Go through the files and inform me after you made your decision. Now, dismissed.” He ordered, before his horn glowed and a the file levitated over to me.

Without another word, I took the file from him and left his presence. To simple put it, I didn’t need this today... It may have only been a week since the attack, but in that time a lot of things had happened... But as I slowly made my way out of Commander Steed’s office, I had to hold a hoof up to my head to ignore the the very painful migraine forming. It would seem that my day was not going to be sunshine and rainbows, like I had hoped. But a simple fact still stood, something that I could agree upon even in the warry state that I was in... Fuck Commander Steed…

“I know you don’t have much of a choice when it comes to doing this, just please… watch yourself, Cinder. I know you’re still in pain, and I don’t want to see you get hurt again. Just watch yourself when you are out there, and take these extra painkillers when the Migraines start acting up, or if your leg starts to hurt. Just come back alive and well… Be safe.”

Grace

I let out a long sigh, before closing Grace’s message to me. Yeah… It’s been a full week since everything went down. I’m not dead, thankfully… But it’s hard for me to cope what has been going on in the last couple of days. Things have changed, and I don’t like it one bit… All I wanted to do was make sure Grace was safe, and she was, but I did a hell of a job finding out what life could throw at me while doing it. It was well… bullshit.

You’re now looking at the most well respected pony in the base. Apparently running in with only three legs, covered in your own blood and tearing through Bandits like they are paper gets you some attention. But that’s not what’s bullshit. After what I went through there better damn well be some cheering for me. No, what was bullshit was that I was now expected to do it again.

“Sir, how’s the new leg treating you?” I turned to Private Valentine and gave him a frown. Which he didn’t see under my new set of armor...

“About as good as the migraine pills I’ve been taking... They work, but I would rather be asleep…”

You see, I got promoted. Not in rank, but in responsibility! As you know, I am now expected to clear out the nearby Bandit holds, while gathering any information they may or may not have with them. I was given one of the automatic-carriages, or to be exact a Lightweight Tactical All Purpose Piece of Shit. If you can’t tell, I don’t really care what it is... It was too tight and somehow damp! Do you know how hard it is to having something damp in the desert? I don’t, but I would expect it’s fucken hard! Seriously, the only thing that I want to be inside of that is both tight and damp is mare, but instead I have to cram my ass into this thing with three other stallions. One of which is driving…

And where were we driving, you may ask? South… Right to one of the Bandit bases. The direct approach was our approach, because most Bandits are asleep at two in the morning. Did I forget to mention that it was night time, making the tight and damp thing even more strange? No? Well there you go…

Oh and… well there was one thing that did come out of this that load of B.S. that was good… A simple kiss… By Grace… And she wasn’t drunk this time! It was her thank you gift for doing what I did. I mean, she did punch me afterwards, but hey… It was better gift than my new leg. Trust me when I say this… Having a leg is nice, but having it be an old hunk of junk that malfunctions, is not. Just because something looked like a leg, acted like a leg, and felt like a leg, doesn't mean it’s a leg...

“So yeah… Might not be any of my business saying this, but ah, Captain Sweet Cinder, that ah, that mare you did all that bad ass shit for… She put out?” I slowly turned my head to the Sergeant that was joining me in this oh so B.S. mission.

My mask hid my emotions, but if the stallion could see my face, he would have went wide eyed in fear. Luckily I still had the next best thing! Words! “Mention that again, and I’m having you clean the shitter with your muzzle,” I ordered, shaking my head, then let out a low growl. Though normally I would have said a coy comeback or something, I wasn’t really in the mood.

I was stressed out, worried, mad, sad, happy… literally every emotion you could imagine was rolling around in my head at the moment. I didn’t like what was going on, and though I could go on a rant about it, I would rather sum it all up in two words.

Fuck everything. Mostly Commander Steed, but primarily everything.

Yeah, that about does it…

“We’re about one klick away from target.” The driver stated. He had told me his name when we first started, but the lingering migraine I had kind of made me forget it… He was another Private though, and it was only thanks to the color of his armor that I knew it.

“You all know the drill… Get ready. Motion trackers on, guns hot, shields turned on…” I stated, before my horn glowed softly and I bucked everything on, before double checking to see if my shields were on. I was not going to get shot this time… not again…

Yeah, I probably should explain in detail what we were doing… Our mission was to clear out all nearby Bandit bases, to both secure the area from any further attacks and to show you don’t fuck with the Crimson Lance… Yes, those are the exact words from the higher ups, and I’m still laughing over it. But you get the idea. It was a stealth mission, and we were geared with some of the best weapons in base so that we could slaughter them all… I even got new armor, that had a working AC.

Right now we were heading off to a camp known to the Bandits as Graveyard of Scrap. You would think they would just call it Scrapyard, but no… We were going there to clean house. It wasn't the largest of Bandit bases, but it was one of the closest ones. The leader of this Bandit group was a Zebra named Hoodoo-Voodoo… An odd name, but considering he was going to die soon I’ll keep my smart ass comment about it to myself… if I had one. Really, I’m just not in a good mood to be all too funny, but once that extra dose of meds kicks in I should be fine… I hope… Just glad that Radiant Grace was able to slip me a bottle of painkillers before I left the base. She wanted to help, and knowing what kind of trouble I get myself into she knew I would need it… And… thinking of how she broke protocol just made me smile.

“So what does this Zebra look like, Sir?” I glanced to the final member of the group, and like the ass-hat Sergeant, I didn’t remember his name.

“Well-” With a quick flick of my horn, I popped open my journal and went over to the mission log I had made, before going over to the picture that I had saved of our main target. “-he’s a Zebra for starters… He’s got one green eye and one blue eye… Oh, and let’s not forget the fact that half his face looks like it was forced through a wood-chipper...” And with that, my horn glowed softly as I sent the image to everyone in the swad.

Their reactions were about on par with mine when I first saw the Zebra. Something that went along the lines of ‘Aaaahhhh, my eyes! Why Celestia?! Why?’

“Sheesh, you would think something like that would get infected,” Private Valentine stated, shaking his head in disgust. “So past him being… disfigured, any other details?”

“He’s a sadistic… Murderer… The list goes on...” I mumbled, before closing my journal. “But past that, we’re here to do a job… Let’s finish it and get back to the base quickly. I don’t want to get into a full blow firefight, and I don’t want to fill out paperwork if one of you dies. So in short, watch yourselves, and when we get back to base I’ll make sure we all can get a cold beer.”

“But Sir, all the Alcohol was destroyed in that fireball explosion you caused back in the cafeteria.” The Sergeant stated, and I could do nothing but lean back in disappointment.

“Shit…” I mumbled. “Forgetting I did that...”

“What part of stealth didn’t you not understand?!” I yelled, before jumping behind cover as the Bandits riddled my shield with bullets. “It’s not that hard of a concept!”

“How was I supposed to know those red-barrels were explosives?!” Sergeant what’s-his-name yelled, while diving behind cover.

“What do you mean you didn’t know the red-barrels would explode! Where you not loved as a child? Did you never get to play video games as a kid?! I was a fucken orphan and I still knew that shit!” I screamed, before pulling a grenade out with my magic and throwing it. The explosion came with from screams of Bandits, but even though I had just taken the life of one or two of them, I knew that this whole damn place was going to come down on us soon…

“Well excuuuuese me Captain for having a life that didn’t involve-” Before be could finish his statement, he was cut off by a ear shattering horn being blown. Yes you read those seventeen words right… These fuckers had a massive blowhard that was just used to wake up the full base.

I should probably back up some and tell you what’s going. Simply put, the Sergeant-Fuck-Up and I were going to break off from the group to take out Voodoo while in his sleep, while Private Valentine and the other Private who’s name I don’t remember went off to plant some explosives. It was up to them where those explosives went, but you would think that the team that was PLANTING EXPLOSIVES would start with a bang. Not the stealth team…

We weren't even close to our target, though we were in the same structure that he was. See, the base was laid out like a small fortress. Walls made of junk on each side, and a large tower in the middle. Sure, there was a chance that the crazy ass Zebra was not in the tower, but… Look, we’re here to kill everyone. If he was there then good, otherwise we would have to go on a stallion hunt. And in the end it didn’t matter if the sneaking part didn’t work, because at this point I was more concerned about not dying.

Speaking of not dying, my eyes went wide as a grenade (for the third time in my life) landed next to be while I was hiding behind cover. It was kind of funny that Bandits always have the same idea, it also showed that they went entirely idiots. But considering how they didn’t cook the grenade they found it being thrown back at them.

KABOOM

But the explosion that came from the grenade was much larger than I had thought it was. It made the base shake… For a moment, I was dumbstruck over it, but after glancing out of a nearby window and seeing smoke rise up from one of the side buildings, I had to kick myself over being an idiot. The explosion came from team two, setting off their explosives.

“Yeah…” I muttered to myself, looking down to the ground. “Looks like it’s going to be one of those days…” Then without thinking, I leaped up from cover and started to dash to the Bandits.

This entire time I had been hiding behind a tractor that someone made into a king sized bed. How they lifted it up three flights of stairs I’ll never know, but at least it made for good cover. My shields thought took a beating as I charged, and all the while my rifle let out soft thap-thap-thaps I went. The Bandits that I encountered were a mix of all the pony races, and there was even a Griffin or two, but with them not having a child, and me taking cover and letting mine recharge, they all gave little to no resistance as I blazed my way through them. That was until I small filly came charging at me with a knife in his teeth. I hesitated, because well… he was a kid. You don’t really shoot kids. You let them grow up first, then you shot them. That’s how it worked…

“Aaaaahhhhhh!” He squeaked through the knife, before leaping up and slashing me across the chest. It did nothing more but bounce off of my shields, but then he slashed again. Same result. He then went for a thrill slash and… His head exploded.

My eyes widened, before I turned around to see Sergeant holding one of the bandit shotguns. He no longer had his helmet on, and part of his armor looked shingled. As if he suffered an from explosion.

“Dow’t wowwy, Sir. I got wou!” He stated through the shotgun, giving me a wink.

And… And I didn’t really know what to do… I mean our orders were to come here and finish all of these Bandits off, but kids… It was at that moment that I was shot out of my stupor, as my head violently whiplashed to the side. It was the result of a Sniper round shattering my shields, and out of instinct, I found myself leaping to one of the dead Bandit bodies, and hoisting it up with my magic as a makeshift meatshield.

“Ya’ dare come into the resting place of my brood, bringing the sin of the world on your backs!” A Bandit yelled, before another shot rang out and I was splattered with the blood of my meatshield. “I Hoodoo-Voodoo, arbiter of the spirit of Chaos, cast thee into the sea of blood, for the sins that you wear!”

If it weren’t for the fact that he just shot me, I would have bursted out laughing. Mr. Voodoo was the textbook definition of what some would say Stereotype. I wish I had my camera, for Radiant Grace would find this very funny… On second thouh, no. He was even uglier in pony? I wouldn’t want Grace to see him.

“Ya’ think hiding behind cover will save you from the gifts of the Spirits,” Hoodoo-Voodoo yelled, before firing again. To my surprise part of my cover was disintegrated, and shrapnel buffeted my armor. “Ya’ can’t hide from the Spirits! They will find you, and they will kill you!”

Yeah… It was at this point that I didn’t really know what was going on anymore. Didn’t really care either. Not because I just didn’t care, but because my migraine started to kick back up again. It came in a pain wave, hitting me over and over. Still, I would rather be hit with the pain of the migraine than a sniper round. But if I wasn't careful, and if I don’t watch myself, I would have to deal with both pains. And that was kind of hard at the moment, considering that my vision was starting to get blurry!

“I need cover fire!” I yelled, before lifting my rifle up and blindly firing at Voodoo.

“Sir, I’m a bit pinned down myself!” The Sergeant yelled. “Ah shit! GRENA-” I glanced to my right only to see a wall of fire rapidly approaching me. I couldn't move out of the blast fast enough and found myself being blow back. I didn’t even have time to raise my hooves to protect myself…

“Aaaaahhhhh!” I screamed as I was blown through one of the metal walls, before plummeting down three stories. It was just my luck that I landed on an old portapotties. I would have rather preferred landed on a pile of scrap metal…

With my back now killing me along with my head, I slowly pulled myself from the literal pile of shit that I landed in. I was just glad that my armor had an air filter, so that I didn’t have to smell myself.

“Ya’ think running with save you from the spirits?!” I glanced up to see Voodoo hanging out of the hole that I made, his sniper pointing at me. “The spirits don’t have restrictions to range!” He then pulled the trigger and… missed. The round hit the ground next to me, and I quickly scrambled to the side for cover.

“Aaahhh! Servants to the spirits! We have intruders! The sins of the Crimson Lance can’t be tolerated! Wipe them out for trespassing!

I couldn’t help but bite my lower lip. Things were NOT going to plan. In fact, I just wanted this whole thing to be easy. I wanted to just get into the basin and deal with the bandits while they were asleep! But no! I can’t get what I want! Pulling out my guns magazine with a little more force than I should have, I angrily tossed it aside before putting in a fresh new one.

Shit has hit the fan, and I’m not talking about the shit I’m covered in. My ears flicked as I heard a pony running to my right. Turning quickly, I found an Earthpony charging me. He had makeshift armor made from the very scrap around me, but armor was useless if you weren't covering your whole body. Reacted quickly, I turned my gun to him and fired. His head popped, and my eyes widened as I saw several Bandits behind him. All charing me.

“Oh for fuck sake! Can’t I have a bre-” I was cut off as the Lightweight Tactical All Purpose Piece of Shit came crashing through one of the outer walls. It than started to do a power side, and hitting a few of the Bandits running at me. “Oh… Well that’s one way to do it!”

“Sir! Brace yourself!” The voice of Valentine called out, originating from the Lightweight Tactical All Purpose Piece of Shit. And without another warning… The bombs went off.

KKAABBOOOOMM!

When I was told that they were of a high yield, I expected something along the lines of… Well the explosion that blew me out of the scrap metal fort. Something that would hurt, get rid of my shields, and blow me back a good ways. Not something along the lines of a full blown mini-magical-warhead!

My ears started to ring as the twisting of metal SCREAMED out. My heart glowed quickly as I quickly turned off my audio broadcaster before the sound made my head bleed. But where did the sound come from? The answer was not that hard to find, and as I looked up at the metal fortress I couldn't help but wince as the colossal structure started to tilt to one side.

Voodoo, who had been standing near the hole that I had made, tired to brace himself, but as the structure started to tilt farther and farther to one side, he quickly lost his footing, and came tumbling out. And… And then it hit me. The structure was falling towards me.

“SHIT!” I yelled, before taking off to one side and getting out of the way.

Voodoo on the other hoof was not so lucky. He hit the ground with a heavy crack and screamed in pain, but before he could get up and move the whole thing came crashing down on him. And… Even thought I had turned off my audio broadcaster, I still heard the impact…

Dust and sand bucked up in all directions, and the whole Bandit camp quickly became a dust storm of pain and suffering. Mostly my pain and suffering, but don’t worry. I know how to share...

It didn’t take us long to finish off the rest of the Bandits. There were roughly fifteen of them all together, and that wasn’t counting the ones now buried under the pile of scrap or killed in the explosions. None of them had shields, all of them had guns, and none of those guns could break our shields. I don’t really need to give you the details because I’m sure you’re smart enough to put one and one together… So long story short, it was a bloodbath.

And the only problem we had to deal with now was getting information… All of the Bandits were dead, and there wasn’t really any working computers to use, as most of them were scrap. So it came down to scavenging around for anything useful. Which was a pain in the ass, considering that half of the base looked like it was blow to hell, which it was. And there wasn’t really any specific information we were looking for... For all we knew Hoodoo-Voodoo could have been a stamp collector, and the information we were looking for was his secret stash of rare collectible stamps. But if I were a betting Stallion, which I sometimes do in my spare time, we were here to find any information on the Bandits that attacked us, or that Vault thingy.

Either way, Celestia forbid General Steed from telling me exactly what we’re looking for...

“Sir, I found some Audio longs from that Voodoo guy!”

Pulling myself away from a dirty magazine that I found under one of the Bandit beds, I stepped out of the tent I was in and turned to the other Private with us, whose name I forgot… “Good work, Private. Now bring it here, I’ll take a look at it.”

“Oh, wait. I just found another one!” He stated, before starting to laugh. “Oh wow, Sir! There’s a whole box of these! I think we found what we came here for!”

“Good work, Private. Get the box and bring it down here. I’ll start taking a look through them,” I paused, before looking over to Private Valentine who was standing on one of the walls, keeping an eye out for any Bandits that we may have missed. “Private Valentine, get ready to move out! I’m going to run on over to their water tank and use the thing to clean off. I know you guys can’t smell the shit I’m in thanks to your armor, but I would rather not give General Steed a debriefing of what happened while smelling like Bandit crap. I already have to tell him about the death of the Sergeant, I don’t want things to get worse...” My comment made him chuckle for a moment, before he started to leap down off of the wall.

Simply put, I’ve never been more wasteful when it came to water. We were in the desert, and doing what I was about to do was along the lines of heresy to anyone who needed water or they’ll die. Ok, that was a bit of a redundant statement since everypony need some water every now and then, but you get the idea.

Thap-Thap-Thap went my rifle as I punched holes into the Bandit’s water tower, and quickly a spray of water came showering down on me. I just stood there, letting the water do it’s work. Thanks to having a working AC in my armor, I didn’t really need to drink any of it since I wasn’t really sweating and/or delirious. Then the water tower started to creak, and as I looked up, I could only utter one word as the bottom half of the water tower shattered.

“Fuck…”

The water tank was about one story tall, and a good nine or so meters in diameter. And all that water came crashing down on me... If what little water came out before didn’t clean me off, this did. It also blew me back several Meters, and I found myself at the hooves of both the Privates with me.

“You alright, Sir?” Private Valentine asked, offering me a hoof.

Taking his hoof, he helped me to mine, and I let out a long sigh. “Let’s just… get the hell out of here. The sun is coming up, and I just want to get back to the base. I’m tired of this shit.”

“Well, the day’s not over, Sir. It just started.”

“Yeah, don’t tell me about it…”

To be continued...

Author's Note

References

“Chapter’s name song found here!”
“Dead Island theme song, Hoodoo-Voodoo.”
“Two face, the Batman villain.”
“Spongebob's MY EYES! guy!”
“The Legend of Zelda, Excuse me Princess!”
“Taken’s I will find you, and I will kill you!”
“My Little Ponies, Trouble Shoes catch phrase. Just my luck!”

Chapter 4

This life is never simple, and never quite serene...

“For the Spirits above have blessed me today, for I acquired a gift of their charity,” my earpiece buzzed, as I slowly filled out the paperwork for the death of my fallen subordinate. “For the sacred location of their burial ground was given to me, for in a dream I had it! Far north of the great hell vine, they lie! Lying in wait for the chosen few to take on the gifts of their power!”

I let out a long sigh, before looking over to the the audio recordings of Hoodoo-Voodoo. It was my job to go through and make sure these had any information on them that we needed, but so far it was just the rantings of a religious Zebra who was downright crazy. I wasn’t a pony under Celestia or Luna myself, though I did believe that there was some force out there controlling everything. I mean, whoever it is must hate me, and I don’t know what I did, but damn, my life has been shit lately. Because if Voodoo is right and it’s some Spirits that are controlling everything then they really must not like me after I killed him. Really though, I would rather have Celestia and Luna, and that’s mostly because in every depiction of them that I’ve seen, they always give them nice asses. Hard to tell if that’s how they really looked, or if it’s just that their followers wanted them to be that way…

“Now my fouls, who is it today that will receive the blessing of the Spirits?” The voice of Voodoo chimed, before the sounds of Bandits cheering, begging to be chosen. “Ah, yes. You in the back! Come forth! No, not you, Night Light, you were blessed last week! I speak to our newest brother, the young foal named, Failed Afterbirth!”

I had to do a double take, before my eyes uneasily rested on the record. Who in their right mind would name their foal… You know what, nevermind. I don’t really want to know why a foal was named, Failed Afterbirth… Even though I could give a guess as to why… I also knew that this foal was probably the one that died in front of me.

“No, bad Cinder, get the work done and don’t think about the bullshit!” I told myself, before shaking myself off.

“Now, we must all be silent so that the Spirits can hear our thoughts,” Voodoo stated, before the recorder went quiet, and… it took me a moment to realise that the recording ended. I let out a sign before, before moving onto the next recording.

“DAMN THE CRIMSON LANCE!” I almost jumped out of my seat as my ears started to bleed from the sheer volume that came from the recorder. If was I was not alone, then many heads would have turned to me in anger, and for that, I was grateful, but mostly annoyed.

“Another day, my foals and I must bury our dead thanks to them. Three of the most loyal followers of the Sprites have passed on, and they will be missed, but their memory will not be in vain, for the Crimson lance will pay for heresy. I have been gifted the recipe for a toxin that we may place in a grenade, and can quickly bless those who must repent for their sins. I have already made several grenades, and have given them to my foals, so that they may spread the word of the Spirits. I even sent a few as gifts to the nonbelievers in Little Dipper Canyon, so that they may defile the Crimson Lance with them.”

I could not help but smile, knowing that the stallion behind the reason I lost my leg was dead. Really though, even though he wasn’t the one that threw the grenade, it was the infection that forced me to lose my leg. It was a shallow victory, but really, after dropping a building on top of him while he was still inside of it, I can say that we’re even. Or at least I have a leg up on him, right?

“Moving past my hate for the infidels, I have been told by my followers that I have not been speaking the word of the Spirits as much as I used too!” Voodoo practically yelled, letting out an angry grunt of pain. “Aaaahhh! By the Sprites, I can’t let my sin go… Ah, unpunished…”

“Do I really have to nail you to the wall, Father? Can’t I just use the whip, like before?” A colt spoke up. He sounded sad, which was something that I disagreed with. Sad isn’t the right state of mind when you’re nailing someone to the wall. Wait… What would even be the right state of mind?

“Yes, young Afterbirth, you must… For once you are finished, you shall speak the words of the Spirits as I recompense for my actions…”

And with that, the recording stopped. This one didn’t have any good information to it, past a few details that General Steed would find useful. As for myself, all it showed me was that Voodoo was even more bat-shit insane than I first thought. But what was worse is that I would never forget this. Hell, I would never forget this whole damn week... Really, sometimes I hated my cutie mark.

“You know, Sir, it might be a good idea to listen to those with earbuds,” I jumped a bit when the voice of Valentine spoke up, and as I turned to face him I was caught off guard by a bright bubblegum-pink stallion smiling at me. His yellow eyes looked me down and up for a moment, before he gave me a puzzled look. “Something wrong, Sir?”

“First time seeing you without your armor, Private…” I muttered, before shaking my head. “But you’re right about the recordings. They’re more off putting than I had assumed…”

“Well at least we don’t have anything else to do today, Sir,” He commented, before taking a seat across from me. “But I’m afraid that this isn’t a social call. I wish to speak to you about a promotion.”

“Say no more, Private. I’ll put in the request after I’m done with this paperwork…”

“Thank you, Sir… Um, well that was easier than I though…”

“Considering how you helped me with all the crazy shit I’ve been doing recently, It’s only right… But, there is one thing you have to do for me, before I give you this promotion…” I smiled, looking up at him. “Bring me some breakfast…”

“Yes, Sir!” Valentine stated, before standing up and trotting off.

I let out a heavy sigh as I watched him trot away. ‘Kind of sad that his mane matched his coat… He literally looks like a walking, talking bubblegum stallion…’ I thought to myself, before turning over to the next recording of Voodoo.

“The Spirits… t-they, um, they told me that I was destined to die within the week, but had a gift for me before I perished at the hooves of… something… someone… The only word I was blessed with was that of ‘Valentine.’ I asked them why, why must I die, and who was coming for me, but I was not given an answer. Was I not faithful enough to them, or was it perhaps a test of my loyalty? They didn’t answer, but I must not waver in the fear of death… For their instructions were very simple…” Stopping the recording, quickly finished up the cause of death portion of the paper work, before turning my full attention to the recorder.

‘How in the hell did he know Valentine’s name, and how in the hell did he know that he was going to kill him?’ With a click, the recorder bucked back on…

“I am to tell this recorder the burial grounds of the spirits, because my voice shall guide the true prophet to them… North of the great-

*KABOOM*

“AH! BY THE SPIRITS WE’RE UNDER ATTACK! CURSE THESE CRIMSON LAN-”

With a thud, my head hit against the table, as the recorder cut off mid sentence. It was the last of the recordings, and at this point, both you and I could have guessed that this burial ground had something to do with the Vault. At least this would give General Steed something to think about so that he would not get angry with me, but hey, he’s going to anyways… The stealth operation didn’t go to plan and because of it we were not going to get a full answer from the, now dead, Hoodoo-Voodoo...

“Yow awright, Wir?” Valentine asked, with a muffled voice. Shifted my head on the table, I saw the pink stallion giving me a worried look, while two MREs in his mouth.

“No, Private, I’m not… But at least I get the rest of the day off, right?” I asked, before levitating all my work to the side to make room for food. “Now why don’t you take a seat, and let’s get to eating? I’ll give my report later, and after that… smooth sailing for the rest of the day!”

“FOR THE LOVE OF CELESTIA’S TEATS!” I screamed at the top of my lung, drawing the attention of every Crimson Lance in the base.

You could say that I was lucky... You could say that I caught a break... You could say that I was an amazing stallion that should get all the mares, and for all known accounts, I was a stallion like that… But really, my reaction to learning that General Steed was not in base when it came time for me to give him my report, well, it should speak for itself.

I didn’t want to wait another day to give him it, hell, not even an hour. The sooner I gave it, the sooner I could go back to doing nothing, and enjoying myself. Hell, I haven’t even fully recovered from everything that happened, and what happens to the base when it’s at it’s weakest? The leader gets up and leaves… But my frustration came with a headache, and that headache quickly evolved to a blinding migraine…

“Um, Captain Cinder, please, I know it’s hard to hear, but, um, please calm down, please?” A mare, whose name was Paperclip, stated, trying to calm me down. She was the one that told me that the General was out of the base, to her regret. And right now all she could do is sit back and stare as I cursed up a storm, as pain throbbed through my skull.

“I just… Damn it…” I muttered, before looking over to the bright white mare. “Sorry… It’s just, with everything going on, I’m not in the best of mine sets… I would like to personally apologize to you for that tantrum…” Holding out a hoof to her, I tried to shove the pain of my migraine to the back of my mind, just so that I could attempt to turn around my first impression on this mare. I wasn’t looking for anything more than a friend though, because at least I could do something with that. I wasn't looking for sex though, not right now. But do you know how hard it is to get in bed with a mare when she thinks you’re a nut?

“I’m sorry, Sir, but, I, ah, have to get back to work. I know after what you did to save everyone that you’re a bit on edge, I get that, but I am, um, I’m sorry…” She muttered while looking at the ground, before quickly trotting past me, and moving out of sight.

I let my hoof slowly fall to the ground, before letting out a heavy sigh. “Yeah… I’m sorry too…” Now standing alone in the General’s office, I could not help but angrily stomp the ground in frustration. “Fucken… ah, shit, going to need some meds for this migraine… Going to have to go see Grace though… She’ll want to have a check up on me…”

“You know, talking to yourself doesn't help me think you’re fit to serve,” I smiled to myself, before turning to see Grace standing at the door. “It’s early, but if you’re in pain then taking a douse of those pain killers I gave you might work. That said, it depends on when you took them last…”

“I think it was four hours ago…” I muttered.

“Then you have to at least wait another hour. That was quite a high dose that I gave you…” Stepping into the room, she started to look me over. Her wings would poke and prod me, while her eyes would roam up and down. Checking me from hoof to horn. While normally I would give her a dirty comment about looking me over in the General's office, I didn’t really want to get a hoof to the gut...

“Well, it looks like you did a good job at not getting hurt… Tell me, how’s the leg treating you?”

“Peachy…” I muttered, giving the wall in front of me a dull stair. “It’s just heavy…”

“Well… In my professional opinion… You should not take the painkillers early…” She muttered to herself more than me. “But… with everything that has been going on, and the stress you’re in, not to mention the stress your body has been in… Go ahead…”

“Whooo…” I sadly moaned, before letting out a long sigh. “Thanks… This is all just a whole load of shit...”

“You’re welcome, Cinder. Now come on, we really should have you a proper examination, and not just a quick look over in the General’s office,”

“Can’t believe he’s not even in the base…” I muttered under my breath.

“Oh, Cinder, you won't believe what I found while going through the rubble of the Hospital!” She almost yelled, giving me a surprising smile. “I found the break room fridge, and inside of it, I found a six pack!”

My eyes went wide and I slowly turned to her. Reaching out with both hooves, I planted them on her shoulders, before politely, and kindly, asking the most important question of my life. “Please, tell me that you saved me one. PLEASE!”

“They are in your room, under your bed, go-” Before she finished, I was already running to my room. “Wait! Don’t run, Cinder! Stop, you’ll just make things… worse… Really should have waited to tell him that…”

I am not a smart pony. I am an idiot. I’m in even more pain than I was when I got shot in the Celestia damned face. You see, right now I lay on my back in the base’s makeshift hospital. Really, it was just a large white tent, but that’s besides the point. Now, why am I in pain? I forgot a very important rule about alcohol...

“You know, I don’t know what to say to you, Captain Cinder…” A Doctor muttered, looking over my chart. “Downing a six pack and taking an overdose of painkillers… Were you trying to kill yourself?”

“No, I’m just an idiot...” I muttered, covering my eyes with one of my hooves. Doing my best not to yell in pain at the blood-boiling headache/hangover that I’m dealing with.

“You know, I’m kind of cross at the moment, Captain. Last time we spoke, you shot me in the ear...” He muttered. “After all, I was only trying to help, and got shot for it…”

I let my hoof fall to my side, and I turned to the stallion. He did look familiar, but with the pain I was in I couldn't place it. “Look, Doc, I’m in too much pain to think right now. I’m sorry, but I don’t remember you…”

“Given what you’ve done in the last two hours I can understand why you don’t remember shotting me, but I would like to think that the hero of the base was a bit more… Noble. Your last words to be where, and I quote ‘I have someone to save, and if she turns out dead, I’m coming for you head, do you understand me?’” He noted, giving me a cold stare.

I let out a heavy grown, before covering my eyes again. “Right… When the base was attacked… You where the Doctor trying to stop being from going out and being an idiot…”

“Yes well-”

“Look, I know it was wrong, but I would do it again, alright? Now can you drop it for now? I’ll make it up to you, somehow, but for now, can we just keep things professional?” I asked, interrupting him.

“Very well…”

Yeah, that’s how today was going. I was just glad that Grace was not here to get mad at me for ruining her gift. Right now a six pack was worth about two and a half hooves, maybe even three if it was cold… And all I did was down them all, take some drugs and kill any chance I had at having a nice relaxing day.

There was only upside though. No matter how much pain I was in, I somehow didn’t stop smiling. A part of me just told me to buck it all and be happy, because after all, I’ve been in worse pain. Celestia knows I have…

“Well, the best I can do for you right now, Captain Cinder is forcing you to stay in bed and let you sleep this over. Out of everypony here, you are surprisingly the least wounded, so I won't be giving you anything to help you,” He commented, jotting down a few notes. “Was your room destroyed in the attack?”

“No…” I muttered.

“Then I’ll have someone escort you there, so that you can sleep this off. And if you somehow find more alcohol, I would not recommend drinking it, it’s not good for your leg,” Pointing his hoof at my mechanical hoof, he fround. “The side effects are quite painful, and don’t get me started how being intoxicated cause system lag…”

And that was how the rest of the day went… Restless sleep… Couldn't really count the first four hours as sleep though. Besides the headache, my mind decided to go into think mode, and wonder about what all has been going on. From me getting shot in the head, to Hoodoo Voodoo my life had made an unexpected turn at ‘I hope you like pain!’ street…

Damn it, I really need to start relaxing, I do not like dealing with this shit. First thing I’m doing when I don’t feel like shit is going finding a mare and seducing her. I wonder of that comms mare is still alive… What was her name, again? Oh, right, it was Rolling Deep… Glad I got her name, makes things easier. Wait, don’t I still have her panties?

To be continued...

Author's Note

References
“Title Song found here, like always!”
“Adele - Rolling in the Deep! Son found here!”

Chapter 5

Don’t underestimate the things that I will do...

It didn’t quite hit me until now, but… You see, we didn’t have a way to give ponies proper burials, no, we had to cremate them. Simply put, the mare that was in my bed a few days ago was no longer alive. She, and like many others, were dead… I didn’t want to admit it, but as I scrolled through the names of the ponies that died, a part of me told me that I could have helped them. Instead of just helping Grace, but that part of me quickly was drowned out by the slowly growing headache that I now get every morning. My lust for relaxation died with them though, as the only thing I wanted now was to look for the names of ponies that I knew. And god damn it, I knew a few of them. Don’t take me the wrong way, for I didn’t know them all. To me, some of these names were… just names. But others were… mares I slept with, to drinking buddies. I can't even remember there damn faces because of this headache! Really wish they would have added images to these list, but…

But I bitched about that enough already, no, you see I had something new to bitch about. Again… I’m thinking of calling myself a bitch at this point… Anyways, General Steed decided that it was a good idea to stop what he was doing and use communications to contact me. Why? We transmitted my findings to him. Simply put, I was glad that I didn’t send the last one about Valentine to him. Yes, that’s insubordination, but given how I normally deal with fraternization on a weekly basis, it’s not that big of a problem.

What is the problem, or what would be if I sent that specific recording, would be that Valentine would be brought into questioning. After telling them nothing, they would think he’s holding out information. Then things would get violent, and torture would ensu. Look, Crimson lance has great dental, but that’s about the only thing I like about them… I just hope I don’t have to explain why…

“Sir!” I stated, as the main monitor blinked on, showing the General himself. Like myself, all the ponies around me snapped to attention, and the ones that didn’t do it right away quickly got off there asses and did it anyways.

“Ah, Captain Cinder. Good,” he started, before shifting his eyes to the ponies around me. “All of you, leave the control room so that the Captain and I can speak alone,” He ordered, and without hesitation everypony around me shifted out of the room.

Several moments passed in utter silence as General Steed just stared at me. I wanted to fidget uncomfortably after a few moments, but I didn’t for the sake of appearance. “Captain, take a seat,” He started, before looking to his side and fiddling with something.

Before I could even move to take a seat, the screen I was looking at shifted and changed, showing a very angry looking stallion. He had one blue eye and one black eye, a dark green coat, and a well kept mane and tail. He was also covered in blood, and from the looks of it, he had skewered somepony with his horn.

“Take a good long look at this stallion, Captain,” the General stated. “You’re going to go after him. His name is Eggnog, and he is the leader to a Bandit group called Overshoot. He is known for murder, filly-napping, terrorism, arson and rape,” General Steed continued, before the screen changed to Eggnog standing next to several stallions, as well as robots. “He always has at least three guards with him at all times, as well as a small group of old rebuilt Loader bots. You can find a diagram of the Loader bots in our mainframe about Hyponieon,”

“His location is unknown, but he had a major involvement in the attack on our base. You will be following a lead that we have, and head off to a distinct settlement called Fire Stone,” He commented, before the screen shifted to one of a map. Fire Stone looked to be very far south of the base, but luckily it was near the border to the desert. “There you will speak to our contact, Doctor Zoom,” Yet again, the screen shifted to a very small Earth Pony stallion. Her black mane, eyes and tail contrasted very well with her white coat. In fact, she would look rather cute if she was not covered in blood. “In trade for this information, while you are in the area, you will be taking out any nearby Bandit encampments. They are small, nothing like the one you had to deal with before,”

“Finally… You may bring three Crimson Lance troops with you on this mission. Simply put, you will be commanding a small strike team,” The screen flipped back to General Steed, showing him frowning in disgust. “And though I would rather not have to deal with the low life, I must inform you that we need this stallion alive, and we need him yesterday. He has valuable information that we require… So do not murder him. Break his legs if you have too, but bring him in alive, Captain… And now, Captain Cinder, I have a simple question for you,” Leaning forward in his chair, he looked down at me with cold eyes. “How long will it take for you to assemble a squad?”

I didn’t really know how to answer that, and my hesitation showed. Really, this was not what I was expecting when I was told to go speak to him. Hell, this was out of left field, for fuck sake! Raising an eyebrow to me, General Steed shook his head, before the screen changed one last time… And this time, it was a clock that was counting down… “I’ll give you eighteen hours to decide who you will bring. First thing in the morning you are to report here. Oh, and do come up with a list of the equipment you shall be taking with you, on top of who you shall be taking... And we shall also speak about how failure is not an option, as well as a punishment if you do fail… Also, do not speak about this assignment to anyone… Now, do I make myself clear?” He muttered, before looking me over again.

“Sir, yes, Sir!” I yelled, giving a salute.

Again, he remained quiet. Looking me over, once more. It was really starting to get uncomfortable, but I tried my best not to fidget around. “No, Captain, I don’t think you do. Next time you decide to withhold information from me again, like with the report you set to me about the Bandit Hoodoo-Voodoo, and your fellow Crimson Lance trooper Private Valentine, you will suffer the consequences. Throught this mission you will send me reports of your progress, and you will not leave anything out,” And without another word, the screen shut off.

And… I was left to my thoughts. Standing in silence, my mind started to race as I thought of ways that he could have known about the recording that I didn’t send him. The first one was that I had messed up, and sent it to him to start with, but that idea was quickly throw out the window, because the General told me that I withheld the information. Meaning somepony else went out and told him… Either I’m being watched, or this was just a really fucked up turn of events. I mean, my luck has been shitty for the past week or so, so I won't doubt it…

My thoughts were cut off by a knock at the door, and it dawned on me that I had been standing here in the control room in silence. Left alone to my thoughts… Moving to the door, I opened it, before stepping to the side, allowing those waiting outside to return to work. Silently, after they all entered, I slowly made my way outside.

The sun beated down on me, as I made my way back to… wherever. I didn’t really have a destination in mind. I was just walking... All the while my mind raced to come up with ideas of what I was going to have to do… ‘Who in the hell would I even put in my squad?!’ I asked myself, over and over.

I only personally knew not even a hoof full of ponies. Valentine and Grace were examples of that, but only one of them I would like to take with me on a mission… And there is no way that I would ever take Grace out on a mission like this. I mean, she’s a medic, she does have training, and whenever we had to spar back in basic she would always lay my ass out…

Valentine though, well, he saved my ass, and we’ve been a firefights. Simply put, he was on the list… I knew he followed orders, even though I didn’t most of the time, so that was a plus. Just… Need two more than...

It had been three hours since I had spoken to the General, and in that time I had made little progress. The simple thing would be just picking two ponies out and tell them, ‘You there! Congratulations! You’re coming with me to go die!’ But I didn’t really want to do that, because last time I had to deal with a random pony, he turned out to be a dick. Hell, I just took my third dose of painkillers today, and thinking about that dead bastard is making my head hurt.

Normally whenever I would need to find a soldier or two that would help me on a mission, I would just go down to the mess hall and ordering a few drinks. Who ever out drank me would win, and come with me out on whatever crap I was assigned to do. Due to recent events, there was no way in hell I was touching a drink… That and I kind of downed the last six pack in the base, not to mention vaporizing all base’s full stock of alcohol… Let’s not talk about that.

Really, it would be easier if I was allowed to speak about my mission. Just ask around and see who wanted to come with me. I know Grace would pop up. Then we would fight, I would yell at her, she would yell at me, she would get mad, I would get mad, then I’ll get sad over the fact that I got her mad, again… Then I would let her have her way, and she’ll thank me. It was something that we had done many times, and so… maybe this wasn’t such a bad thing… Just wish I didn’t have to sit here shifting through all the records on everyone in the base!

“No,” I muttered, “No, not you either…” With a swipe of my hoof over the screen the next Crimson Lance troop would pop up. Doing what I had done to all of them, I would read over the ponies details, and if I didn’t like what I saw, I would swipe over to the next one. “I’m pretty sure I slept with her once…” I whispered, before swiping over once more.

“I think that guy called me a dick before…”

Swipe…

“No, he gets in more trouble that I do…”

Swipe…

“Oh, yeah, no, I definitely slept with her before,” I muttered, staring at the bright yellow mare on the screen. “Celestia be damned I forget about Lemon Checks,” I laughed.

Swipe…

“Oh, hey, it’s Valentine…” I muttered, before slowly starting to read up on my friend.

Valentine was a Private First Class, his last name was Heart, and he had a clean record. No, seriously, my eyes slowly widened when I saw that he had a clean record. With how hard the Crimson Lance ran its troops, everyone had at least ONE mistake. Something that would mark them as a troublemaker or… something. I myself had roughly fifty of them. All of which were excused at some point or another, because I would ‘sleep’ my way out of them, but that’s besides the point!

“Wait… His last name is Heart? Well it does fit…Wait, didn’t I already know that? Damn it, I can’t remember...” I muttered to myself, as I continued to look over everything. In the end though, what was left to look over was standard. The basics of the basics. Valentine was, in a way, fresh meat to the Crimson Lance rules. I knew sooner or later that record would be messed up, or that he would do something to shift around what I saw here. But what surprised me was that he had been in the Crimson Lance for three years, and he was still a Private. I would have to ask him about that at some point…

Swipe…

As the clock ticked by and the hours began to stack up in the tenths, I let out a sigh of annoyance. I had been at this all day, just flipping through the ponies here in the base. Reading up about all those who I worked along side with, and learning everything from their names to details of their life that they would not want to be spread around.

Those ponies that seemed like a good fit for what I was going to do were either dead or wounded. So I would not be able to bring them with me. Those who I just didn’t like also would be great, but then I would just get annoyed at them. You could argue that I could just suck it up and deal with it, but given the bullshit I had to deal with already, I didn't want to have to deal more. Then there were the ones that I thought were attractive, but had little to no combat experience at all. And as much as I wanted to take them with me, having them panic and die in combat would be a whole load of crap…

But luckily… my slog through all of this was not in vain. As much as I complained about this whole process, I had found one mare that would work great. Her name was Country Pumpkin… I had seen her around base maybe one or two times, but since she worked the night shift, and was a scout, I didn’t really see her that often. She obeyed orders, but had a small record of disobeying then on occasion. After looking into why, I fould that she disobeyed orders when she thought they were dumb, and given what I was reading… she would be fun to deal with.

I could go on as to why I wanted to bring her along, but hey, she had a really cute face. I’m a sucker for cute faces… Alright, fine, I’m a sucker for most mares to start with, she had cute freckles. Besides, not that many mares could pull of the military flat manes, and she wore it well. Now all I had to do was find… one more. I let my shoulders slump down, and let out a very annoyed and very loud moan.

“I, um, take it that it’s a bad time?” The voice of Grace asked, as the door to my room creaked open.

“MMmmhhhhhhh…” Was all that I answered, giving her a wave of my hoof to come in.

“Let me guess, headache or… does it have to deal with you speaking to the General alone?” She asked, as she stepped over to me.

“Both...” I muttered incoherently.

“Right… I’m guessing that you’re not allowed to talk about it-”

“Do you have any idea how much of a pain it is to come up with a squad?” I asked, well, growled... “I’ve done it before, but somehow, today is just a bitch!”

“Um, kind of, I don’t normally go out on missions, since… we’ll you know, I’m a medic and all,” She answered, giving me a surprisingly happy look. “But if you need-”

“You’re not coming…” I started, cutting her off.

“Ah what the hell! Why not? You know I like going out on the field, even though I normally don’t! Come on, Cinder!” She nearly yelled.

“Look, Grace, we’ve done this before… I remember each one vividly, even though I wish I didn’t… I’m not going to let you come with me, end of story, no ifs, no ands, no buts, alright?”

“I got you painkillers and alcohol, and don’t even get me started on how you mixed the two together, Cinder! I didn’t get onto you over that because I knew you needed a break, so the least you can do is give me this!” She argued, pushing herself towards me.

“Please don’t bring that up, alright? I suffered enough-”

“Oh no you don’t, Cinder! Enough of that Poor me routine, alright? Ever since you’ve been shot, you’ve been riding that crazy train! Yes, I know you lost your leg… I kind of wish i was there with you to help administer immediate first aid, because maybe then you’d still have it! But you got a replacement! You were lucky enough to catch the eye of the General, and I’m so… annoyed that you keep complaining about it…”

As I opened my mouth to state a sarcastic comeback, I found Grace’s hoof shoved into my mouth. “I’m. Not. Finished.” She stated angrily, before letting out a long sigh. “You’re not the only one that had a long day… We had to, well, put a few ponies to sleep today. They were injured in the battle, and thanks to everything that was going on, we could not keep them alive for too much longer. Cinder, you’re not the only one that got wounded. I had to help a Doctor perform open heart surgery today… And if we gave him painkillers then he would have flat out died due to complications. Cinder, that stallion had to feel us cutting into his heart…” She murmured.

“I mean, he’s fine now… but do you understand, Cinder? You've got it easy, alright? So shut up about that whole thing… And… And,” She let out a long sigh, before facehoofing, “I went off the handles again, didn’t I?”

“Kind of,” I muttered, before pushing Grace away from me so that her hoof was no longer in my mouth. “But…” Damn it, she was right. Again. For the… I don’t know, I don’t keep track of how many times Grace was right. I do know it’s around a hundred…

“But I’m just tired, Grace. You gotta understand that,”

“I do but-” It was my turn to shove my hoof in Grace's mouth.

“No, Grace. You don’t understand. The General’s going to be sending me out to hunt down the pony responsible for all of this-” Waving a hoof to the window, I pointed at the destroyed parts of the base… “-and it’s not just a ‘go here and take this guy out’ thing, I got to track him down, and I don’t know how long it’s going to take, or even if it’s possible! And there is a chance that I’m going to die, because apparently he’s a big thing, and we’re only sending four ponies out… And I’ve only found two ponies to come with me!” I groaned.

And there it was. The sparkle in Grace’s eye. The same one that she had whenever she would need me to do something for her. Slowly pulling my hoof out of her mouth, Grace smiled. “You know Cinder, if you need a pony that you can trust to go with you, I can fill the part,”

“No…” I muttered, knowing that it was coming.

“What? Why not?” She asked, with her smile growing larger. “Don’t you trust me, Cinder?”

“...” I didn’t answer. I didn’t need to. She already knew I trusted her, hell, I would do a lot of crazy shit for her.

“Come on, you know I love going out on missions, right?” She asked, while her eyes started to sparkle. “You know that I need time away from all this stress, right? Time in a relaxing environment? When we’re very close?”

Oh for fuck sake… “I hate it when you act like a this, you know that?” I asked with deadpan eyes. “So just…. Stop, alright?”

“Only if you let me join you, Cinder.” She commented, in a strict tone.

“Alright, alright… Fine…”

“Great, so when are we leaving?” She asked, giving me a stupid smile…

To be continued...

Author's Note

References
“Title song, found here.” (Yes, I used this song in the last chapter.)

“Fallout 4, Kellogg. How? His name rhymes with Eggnog, and he works with the Overshoot, also known as the institute… Yeah, it’s a stretch.”

“Tinder! That shity place where people can swipe over you!”

Not as many references this time around...