-The Dead and The Dying-

I could hear my own breathing now. Everything around me was pitch black; It was as if I were encased in a room with no light anywhere. It was quiet here. I feel as though I'm just floating in nothingness. This must be what death feels like. Alone with my own thoughts. Just being here. With the darkness as my ally. I should have known this would happen. Zeta, Crimson, Omega. And now me. We all go eventually, but I just wished mine would have been more heroic. Saving a hospital full of kittens seems about right. Or maybe- *Beep* *Beep*
What the hell? The sound of something beeping was racking my brain, and I think I'm starting to feel again. Everything fucking hurts. What the fuck is that beeping. Then it hit me. The Aerialbird! When one crashes it lets off a few beeps that go through all open radio broadcasts, including the ones in power armor. And if I can hear that, then I’m not dead! Relief spread throughout me as I tried to move my hoof. All I could feel was something sharp and metallic. Gotta see now. I opened my eyes, and was blinded by the sunlight.
"Fuck." I let out as my eyes adjusted to the light. I was looking out the windshield of my bird, and some of the metal was reflecting off the glass. Shit. If we crashed in Vanhoover, then I’m in some serious danger. I need to get out of here. I mustered my remaining strength I made the motions to open my door. It didn't budge, so I resorted to climbing out through the windshield. I fell out of the downed bird, and met the soft grass below. I stood up and got a good look of the area around me. It looked like I crashed into a grocer on the far side of town as the two towers were far from where I was. I could fly there, but I don't want to attract the attention of those assholes in steel.
"There's gotta be a faster way." I said as looked around my surroundings.
"There is a faster way good lookin." A voice said causing me to jump. I didn't even hear them come. There were 7 ponies, each more disgusting than the last. They were clad in patches of fabric with dried blood on them. They looked sickly. I aimed my rifle at the closest one, even though they already had theirs aimed at me.
“Ah ah ah you don't wanna go and do that little one. Me and my boys have our guns aimed right at your pretty head, so why don't you just drop the weapon and come along with us nicely." The leader of them spoke. Wasteland trash had me surrounded. I took one step back and heard a splash. I looked down and found a large puddle of fuel spreading around the area. The crashed bird was leaking it everywhere.
"Ah ah ah what the fuck did I say?" Take another step, and I fill you and your suit fulla holes.” He said as he lifted his rifle so he could look down the sight.

"Fuck it! Bedup, we should just kill the bitch and be done with it. I’m fuckin hungry." Another of the raiders covered in splotches of missing fur said. The leader turned to face him.
"Listen ya little shit if it wusn't fa me you'd be back home cleanin guns, so you shut your fucking mouth." Bedup said angrily.
"Or what, chickenshit?" Their arguing gave me a opportunity for escape. I aimed my Nova rifle at the oil on the ground and fired. I backed up as flames began to engulf the bird.
"Ey, what the fuck?" Bedup said as he noticed what I did. "Shoot that bitch!" I ran for cover as they opened fire. My armor deflected a few of the shots as I galloped as fast as I could into a nearby house. An ear ringing explosion erupted behind me as the gunfire stopped instantly. I didn’t take time to look out the windows of the house to see if the raiders were still living; I hurried through the house searching for the backdoor. I made a right down a corridor, and found the rotting door falling off its hinges. I bucked it open and entered the backyard. I breathed the cold air, and took a sigh of relief as I cheated death not once, but twice. “I'm one lucky sonuvabitch.” I thought to myself.
I looked back up to the tower in the distance. The tower was lit up with laser fire as both the Enclave pegasi and those steel fuckers fired upon each other. I wanted to get up and fly to them, but I knew I'd instantly be shot out of the sky. If I could see the fire on those tower, so could the raiders. They'd be taking to the streets, eager to capture the spoils of the battle. I won't be able to take the main streets. Not without being shot at.

I looked around the yard, hoping to find some way to make it to the tower without being seen. The backyard was fenced in, but there were several holes in the wooden fences that I would be able to squeeze through.
I suddenly became aware of the pain in my right foreleg. I looked down, and was surprised to find that the armor on my leg had been completely destroyed in the crash. The auburn fur of my leg had been completely stained in blood, and shrapnels of metal and glass had penetrated my leg and chest. How had I even been able to stand on that leg, much less walk? If some of those shards had pent rated just a few inches higher, they would have gotten me in the neck. Then, I might not have actually ever woken up.

I needed to fix that leg as soon as possible. “Shit.” I said aloud as I looked back in the direction of the now-destroyed Aerialbird. I left the medical bag on board.
Now that I was aware of the actual injury, I became aware of the limp that came along with it. Fuck, I needed to find some kind of medical kit or something.
I pitifully walked toward one of the fences. I was moving so damned slowly. Fucking Steels, shooting me out of the sky.
Eventually, I made it to one of the fences. But my leg was hurting. I leaned against the fence to rest my body. My weight shifted the fence just enough, and it fell over, taking me with it.
“Fuck. Ow.” I said in pain
I tried to to at least sit back up, but before I could, I felt what felt like the barrel of a gun be pressed against my temple.
I took took a deep breath and held it. Well fuck. At least the plane crash was epic. Right now, this would just be a pathetic way to die.
Whoever was holding the gun let out a sigh of relief, then removed the gun from my temple.

“Thank the gods, you're enclave.” said a mare’s voice.

I rolled over and stood up, and got a good look at the green pegasus. The same mare that was as good of a shot as I was. And she had the medical bag from the Aerialbird strapped to her side. Thank Celestia.

“You’re that recruit. The one that shot the bottle cap from midair.”
She nodded. “Snapshot, ma’am.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure.” I said as I waved a hoof from midair. “Welcome to ground combat training, day 1. Your first assignment will be emergency medical aid in the field.”

The mare looked down at my crippled foreleg, and then swallowed. “Umm… I don't have any kind of medical experience. Like, at all.”

“Well kid, now’s a good fucking time to learn.”

She swallowed again, but set the medical bag on the ground and opened it up. The first thing she pulled out were a pair of tweezers.

“Uh, recruit, what are you- Ow! Fuck!”

Out of nowhere, the mare gripped a shard of glass stuck in my leg with the tweezers, and jerked it out. She didn’t even try to be delicate, or careful. Nope, she just jerked it out. And she did the same thing with every single shard of glass and metal stuck in my leg. By the time she was finished, my leg felt worse than it started.

I glared down at her. “You better pray to Luna there is some kind of bandaging in that bag.”
She shrank down, trying to escape from my menacing glare. She pulled out a bundle of white bandages from the bag.
I just kept looking down at her.

She sighed, Was that a sigh of disgust? I'll have to teach her later not to do that to a superior, and started wrapping the bandages around my injured limb.
After she finished, she sighed again. “There. I did the best that I could.”
I put a hoof on her shoulder. “You did good… umm… um…”

“Snapshot.”

“Yeah. Yeah, that's your name. Right.”

"Now we just need to get outta here." She said gazing to the tower. "Say, weren't there sewer lines connecting all through Vanhoover? I'm sure we could avoid all the raiders if we travel through there." Not a bad plan.

"No time to waste then lets go." I said as we left the backyard and moved back to the streets.

Author's Note

It's been too long, and it'll probably be longer still considering i'm shit when it comes to updating stories. It takes me a while to update anything, and due to the fact that I haven't done much with this story for a while there may be mistakes. Hopefully there won't though.