Chapter 3: The Rescue
“Was all this, really necessary?”

Drip… Drip… Drip…

Ugh, there’s that stupid dripping sound again. Wait… I remember what happened this time!

My eyes shot open and as soon as they did, I was greeted with the burning sensation of pain running along the back of my head. I would have groaned in agony, but I found my muzzle sealed. Duct tap running all around my head, and if it wasn’t for my nose being exposed, I may have died in my sleep… Who the fuck hit me!?

I blinked and waited for my blurry vision to clear up, before getting a clear view of where I was. Obviously I was inside a dark shaded building, but because the sun was coming up and peaking in through the window, I was able to see much more clearly. The interior parts of the building were broken and nearly on the edge of collapsing, a pile of bookshelves and drawers were pushed together to climb up to the opened second floor, and all around me… were others. Other ponies, some small, some large, some old, some young. Other ponies, tied together, with their muzzles sealed just like mine, weeping and crying against each other, some even thrashing to get free. I from what I could barely see, there were five stallions, two mares, five fillies, and one colt.

What the hell was going on here? I asked myself, just before hearing laughing and clanking coming from another room, I turned and saw a patch of light, flickering orange from around the corner, shadows moving side to side. From the looks of it, they had an indoor campfire, and seemed to be laughing over the course of a meal they had put together. I couldn’t exactly tell, but the only thing that gave hint was the sound of splattering and chomping going on.

It was that very second that I realized, hmm, perhaps I shouldn’t stick around for this, and figure a way−

Wait… Where’s my coat? Where the hell is my shovel!? Son of a bitch! Well I obviously couldn’t leave without what little I had in this dump of a world, and especially not without my music box... I attempted moving, but found myself tied down to a broken radiator. Okay, how can I break free? Normally I would use my horn, but some asshole put a dirty sock on it, giving me the curious question at how it could stop my magic from working, perhaps it was enchanted with something… Pfft, yeah right! Whatever the matter was, I was going to have to either get it off, or figure out another way; but before I could even start thinking, a twitching buck walked out of the room, giggling and laughing. His mane was a bright neon green and shaped into a spiked Mohawk, goggles resting on his forehead, and wearing a. Big. Fucking. Duster. Coat!

“Mmmm~ your husband was so delicious, now that he is out of the way, me and you can get married and have babies over and over and over again!”

The disgusting stallion chanted as he ran a thick greasy tongue along one of the mare's cheeks, making her whimper and flinch to his very touch, moving her head back away from him. Being a bad move, the stallion suddenly swung and knocked her across the face with his hoof, making her cheek bruise up and lead to a trail of blood running out of her nose. She instantly began crying from the hit, and I could honestly feel her pain, yet was incapable of doing anything about it. Suddenly, one of the bucks began thrashing, as if making an attempt to lunge himself at the brute, and as he did so the brute lowered his head and gave a sinister grin to the violent buck.

“Oh~ we got a wannabe hero here! Our favorite flavor!”

The thrashing buck’s eyes went wide, and he began struggling as the brute stallion took a knife from within the coat and began cutting him from the batch without cutting the ties that held his hooves together. Chomping down on the once brave buck’s mane, the brute stallion began dragging him painfully along the wooden floor. The buck letting out groans and cries for help, only to have them muffled by the duct tape that held his muzzle close, and soon, we all watched him disappear around the corner and into the other room with all the others.

Sweet Celestia, cannibals?! As if this world wasn’t fucked up enough! Thrashing my head around, I quickly made an attempt to fling the sock off, even using the wooden floor as a way to scrape it off. It took some time, but eventually it had slid off, apparently one of them was smart enough to duct tape it to my head, but because of the constant scraping along the floor, the duct tape didn’t last long.

I gave a sigh in relief,and quickly looked to the others, who were staring at me with wide eyes, was that hope I saw in them? Or was it them telling me to sit my flank back down and wait to get eaten like the rest of them? No matter, I would be damned if I allowed myself to get eaten, I was getting out of here, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to leave any of them here! After freeing my horn, I then began looking around for anything that could be used to cut through this rope, sadly, I knew I wasn’t going to find a sword leaning against the wall or anything, but I saw the closest thing to one. A chunk from a broken vase. Surrounding it in a field of magic, I quickly floated it over and began rapidly grinding it along my rope straps. It sure as hell was no razor sharp sword, but it was doing fine, slowly tearing through one strap of rope at a time, before finally freeing me. I then quickly ran the tip against my cheek, cutting downwards at the duct tape, cutting a thin slit along my cheek in the process. A tiny cut was the least of my worries, now I was going to have to figure out how to escape with thirteen ponies! Ripping the duct tape off around my muzzle and off my head completely, I flinched a bit as the tape pulled the back of my mane a bit, but paused as I saw the same brute pony walk into the room and towards the batch of fillies, not even noticing me at all, luckily for the shade the building provided, I was completely blended in for the moment.

“Mmm~ Big Boss Saber gave me permission to play with one of you ponies, noooow~, normally I would like a mare, but who says a little young meat doesn’t do the body some good! Heh, heh!”

In the name of all that was holy, fuck! No! I watched just as the pony withdrew his knife from inside MY coat, and was ready to cut one of the struggling fillies ropes, but before he could, I quickly stood and jumped forward, giving the pony second’s to react, before shoving the pointed piece of broken vase into his throat, twisting and shoving it deeper and deeper, making it twist and turn along his inside. He struggled and gurgled a bit, making an attempt to call out for some pony to help him, but was put to a halt, as a magical field formed around the knife he was holding, and was pulled away before slammed back towards him through his eye. Using a magical field to hold one side of the pony, I quickly lowered him and slowly set him down on the floor; turning to the others, blood covering parts of my face, and most of my straitjacket, I noticed that my movement was becoming slightly wobbly. The damn gash along the back of my head was truly doing damage, but now wasn’t the time for passing out… Once I get every pony and myself out of here, then I will gladly pass out in the dirt outside. Please hold out for a bit longer body.

“Don’t worry, I’m going to get us out of here, I just need to get rid of these… Assholes.”

I whispered to them, using my horn to pull the coat off of the dead pony and slide it back onto myself. My shovel wasn’t in sight, but I did have this new knife. Unless…

Rolling the pony over, I began searching him, finding nothing but his clothes, a few bobby pins. I had no idea why this cannibal would have them but perhaps they would become useful, so I stuck them in one of my coat pockets. Flipping him over again, my eyes went wide at the sight of a revolver strapped to the pony’s hind leg. Now that is what I’m talking about! I quickly took hold of it with my magic and lifted it out of its holster and examined it. From everything that I could remember, I never used one before, but I do know what it can do. Finding the latch on its side, I pulled it and watched as the cylinder flicked out.

Three bullets… Wow, these guys sure are some high rollers. No wonder they enjoy sneaking up on ponies and knocking them upside the head; oh well… it will have to do. Closing the cylinder back with the barrel, I began walking towards the corner, levitating both the revolver and knife in front of me as I slowly peaked the corner of my eye, just to see who was the cause of all this.

There sat a massive, fat pony strapped to a wheelchair, sweating and sloppily eating the remains of the unlucky pony from before, but thankfully they hadn’t gotten to the one they had dragged in there by the mane. He was being used as a bench for two other ponies who dressed up in black leathery armor, one with an eye patch, one with strands of burnt mane hanging from his head, and another wearing nothing but a belt around his torso.

Four ponies in here, plus the one I just killed. Were there anymore? I honestly, couldn’t tell, but then again if there was, I’m sure they would have been here for the brutal feast. Suddenly, the fat pony began laughing, spitting chunks of cooked fleshed from his mouth along with drool, quickly burping before speaking.

“This is the biggest catch of the day, six ponies caught today, bwaah haha haaa! We’re gonna eat so well, I’m even thinking of keeping a pony or filly just for my own fun~”

The other ponies laughed and cheered for their boss, all while eating. How could they follow orders from this fucking pig? I mean really! What made him leadership material besides his appetite to eat three ponies a day, all by himself!

Now… There are four ponies, the fat one seems to be a unicorn, I can’t tell with that fat face of his, and the greasy thick mane that hung over, and I have three shots and a knife. If I do this correctly, I can kill all four in one go. They’re circled around the campfire and are using one pony as a bench, I got to be careful because they could end up using him as a shield or perhaps just killing him right there as soon as I make my way in.

Hmmm~ how was I going to−

I was suddenly interrupted in thought as the “Big Boss Saber” had suddenly asked.

“Hey! Where the hell is Raw Dog!? He was supposed to be back by now, probably playing with the ponies again… HEY RAW DOG! Get your dick out of there for one minute and get your ass back here, I’m thirsty!”

Raw Dog… Wow… That name disturbs me, in more ways than one. Damn good thing I killed him, this hell hole of a world has enough to worry about, and has no need for someone named “Raw Dog”…

“Raw Dog! Damn it! If you don’t get back here I’m going to cut it off! Now hurry up!”

Saber yelled and threatened. This wasn’t good, he was going to get suspicious pretty soon, and it wasn’t going to be any easier if I hid and he found “Raw Dog” dead on the floor back there. Oh well… Looks like it was go time.

I quickly ran into the room, and stabbed the blade in the back of the first pony’s head, since his back was facing me, and took aim just when I saw them jump and grab their weapons. My heart raced as the first two began lifting their heads up to aim at me, but suddenly there was a spark from my horn, and everything went still. W-what was happening? Through my eyes, everything was frozen in time and I had these grids appear over certain body parts of the ponies in front of me, with percentages ranging from different numbers, assuming that it was the chance I had at hitting that target. Was this some kind of spell? How did I even do this? I stayed still for as long as I could, before finally focusing on certain targets. The head of one pony, the head of the other, as well as Saber's head. Finally everything began to slowly go back into reality, the speed of actual time moving normal once again.

Boom…

A bullet flew and pierced straight through the first ponies head, knocking him back in a mess of his own blood and chunks of brain.

Boom… Boom…

Two shots were fired, one from me and one from the other pony. My bullet pierced his skull as well, spraying torn brain chunks all over the back of the wall, also knocking him back, on the other hand the bullet that he fired came flying flying right by my cheek, leaving a burnt, small gash running across. It wasn’t that bad but when I turned to aim at Saber... that fat piece of shit had a sawed off shotgun aimed straight at me... this was going to fucking hurt…

Boom… Boom!

Pellets and a single bullet went flying. Saber's brains splattering out the back of his head, covering the entire window behind him and his wheelchair. Saber's buck shot pellets came flying and splashed all along my left shoulder, causing me to fly back and hit the wall behind me.

“AAAAH~ Fuck!”

I yelled out as I looked over my shoulder, seeing bits of holes all over the shoulder of my coat before crimson began to form and soak all over, I groaned and panted in agony at the feeling. I don’t know what I did in the past, but for now, this was the first time I had ever been shot, and holy fuck it hurt, to the point tears ran down my cheek. Ah fuck, I should have stayed at the Asylum, at least ponies didn’t eat you or shoot you there… They just, stabbed you with sharpened hooves… fun stuff.

Suddenly, I jumped as I heard a loud gun shot ring throughout the sky, loud enough that it was heard from the inside.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Was that yelling and shouting coming from outside the building? Oh shit, there must have been a whole lot more of them… I think I may have thrown myself in a bad position. I’m in no current position to keep fighting. My shoulder hurts, along with my hoof, and I have no gun; and the longer I waited, the bigger the blood puddle under me began to get. I panted heavily in agonizing pain, trying to figure out the position I was in, then from the corner of my eye, I saw my shovel. Nearly resting against the wall, covered in… gore, a gore that indicated that they had used it to chop up or slaughter some poor soul. Covering it in a field of magic, I levitated it over to me before I began to try and pick myself up, leaning all my weight on every hoof that wasn’t shot with the help of my shovel as well, every movement making the blood run faster and faster over my left hoof. This… sucked.

I limped my way over to the window and peaked out, noticing multiple equally dressed ponies running and taking cover around the building I was in, all weapons being drawn and aimed at my general direction. I counted about five more ponies, all armed to the teeth with pistols, and rifles attached to them, and all I had was my shovel, a half dead hoof, and a knife the ponies head so kindly gave back to me, with the help of some magic of course.

“Come out! We promise we won’t kill yah! We just want to mangle you a bit!”

One of the leather armored dressed ponies yelled from outside. I was fucked, and so were the ponies I had tried to protect, I honestly had no plan for this at all. One hour out of the asylum, and already I was dying. Quite the survivor I was.

“Okay… I will come out and take the beating as long… as you let the other ponies go!”

I yelled out, in hopes of reasoning, there had to be some form of soul in these ponies right? At least I think, and hoped, there was. All I could hear from the outside were quite chuckles and giggles to each other before one of them finally said.

“Sure~ Heh, you got yourself a deal!”

At that moment, I had limped myself back into the room with the other tied down ponies, and watched as all of them thrashed and shook their head at me, as if telling me to stop. I honestly would have, but I had to do something, and since I had gotten myself in this mess, I at least had to have the courtesy of seeing the rescue plan all the way…

“Don’t worry, I’m getting us out of here, one way or another.”

I stated just to see them thrash around more and more, fillies, mares, and the left over stallions, even before walking back into the room, the pony that had been used for a bench was glaring at me as if calling me an idiot. Perhaps I was one.

I pushed the front door open and began walking outside. A knife hidden in my coat, and the shovel strapped against my back. I used what bit of magic I could to hold the underside of my chest, helping me stay up as I limped my way outside. I had a plan.

As I did so, I saw all the ponies begin swarming, circling around me with weapons drawn, if I can do this right, everything will be okay.

“Good choice kid! Now what was our deal? Kill you and kill the rest of them!!”

He suddenly yelled before I saw his jaw clench down on his pistol, and as soon as I saw this, my horn flashed, and everything went still. I was going to survive this, with the help of this targeting spell, but not to target anything. I readied my weapons, forming a magic spell around the knife hidden in my coat, and the handle of the shovel. Of course at the moment I wasn’t able to move, but I was capable of seeing where their barrels were aimed. A pistol aimed straight at my face, two rifle ponies barley lifting their rifles towards me, and the other two… well one seemed to have dropped the pistol out of their mouth, and another was holding it upside down… The smart ones of the group, now; if I time this right, everything may go according to plan.

Everything began to slowly slide back into real time, and my shovel was being pulled off my back with my magic, moving at the very speed everything went, before everything went at its correct full speed. My shovel swung forward, and covered my face. I couldn’t see, but heard the loud bang from his gun, and a loud.

TINK!

Sound came from my shovel, and all I saw as I lowered my shovel, was his brains being blown out the back of his skull. I was lucky enough to have used the shovel to ricochet off and back at him, and it was that very moment that I swung to my right, and smacked the barrels of their rifles. I didn’t break them, but because their rifles were attached to their bodies, like some kind of saddle; it made their entire balance swing to the side till they fell. They wouldn’t stay down long, so I took this time to−

Oh Celestia… My back…uugh! My back! Was… Was I just, stabbed?”

During mid plan of what my next move was going to be, I felt it. Literately felt the cold hard steel of something sharp stabbing me through my lower back, possibly through one of my kidneys… I don’t know, I couldn’t think, all that I could feel was my body go stiff, and every part of my nerves scream in agony. It was that moment that I couldn’t hold it in. I lifted my head up, so that I stared up straight at the grayness that filled the wasteland sky; feeling the hot painful tears run down my cheek, and yelled out the top of my lungs.

I yelled as loud as I could and slowly looked over my shoulder, at one of the ponies who had dropped their gun just a few seconds ago, was biting hard into the handle of a blade that was now half way into my side. Getting shot was one thing, getting stabbed was a whole different kind of pain; and it was all thrown at me in one day, even more, when I noticed the pony beginning to turn and twist his own head, twisting the knife in my very side. Louder and louder I yelled as my weakened hooves were giving in, causing me to lower myself down to the ground, at this point, the rifle ponies had fully stood up and were staring down at me, with the word death beaming down at me from their very souls. Oh Celestia, this FUCKING hurt, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t do an−

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Four shots rang throughout the sky, and as soon as they were heard, I saw the pony burying his knife into my sides head EXPLODE! As well as his other smart companion, along with the two rifle ponies, but one of them had their head burst into brain matter and skull chunks, while the other had two of his hooves pierced with one bullet causing him to fall over and yell in a horrifying mix of pain and rage. I watched, panting heavily in my own pain, as he lifted his head, to bite down on some kind of trigger that rested in front of him, but as soon as he did so, a fifth shot was fired, and his head burst into the same matter as the others. Headless ponies surrounding me, their brain and skull splattered all over my coat and straitjacket, along with my own blood moving quicker and quicker over my rump, and down into a puddle that mixed with the spilling of the other corpses. Why wasn’t I next?

Vision, was… growing dark and faded, why was I feeling so tired? Why did I feel the need to take the biggest nap in Equestria? Was it the fact that my body was spilling out in a dark puddle of crimson? No, I wasn’t dying, I was tired; now I know that is a funny thing to say, especially with a bullet wound in my shoulder, and a knife stabbed half way into my kidney; but… today had been a lot, so much that I was tired of it… and all I wanted was a few seconds of rest, now I could have; I honestly could have, but I was rudely interrupted by something large landing right beside me with a loud thud.

I lifted my head to look up at what it was, eyes half closed and barley being held open. There stood something, or someone standing over me, staring right down at me…

Slap! Slap!

My eyes shot open as I rattled my shaking head, finally staring up at who it was that just decided to slap me twice across the both sides of my face. Sweet Celestia… Just when my day couldn’t get any more interesting.

A Griffon shows up…

“Ello chap, a tad bit late, but I presume I arrived just in time eh?”

The Griffon mockingly said as he stood over me, my first thoughts being the kind words.

Un-Fuckin believable…What a hell of a time to have my life saved; where the hell was this flock of feathers when I was trapped at the asylum?

“Come on now gent, drink up!”

The Griffon suddenly said, and before I even had time to speak, a small glass bottle was shoved into my muzzle, and down came a warm red liquid that gave me a strange, vile familiar taste of what felt like cough medicine being poured into my mouth. I gagged a bit and coughed, the griffon yanking the bottle out of my muzzle, only to begin pouring the red liquid all over the gaping holes that wounded my very body, my shoulder and my back to be exact. Finishing it off, but as I was about to question his kindness for pouring some kind of sticky juice all over me, I flinched and clenched my teeth shut from the strange burning sensation that ran over my shoulder and back. It was a quick pain, that eased itself into nothing more than red bubbles that had formed over the bleeding wounds, and before I knew it, the wounds were nothing more than scars running over my grey hide, exposed by the torn holes that ran through my coat and jacket, and holy shit did I feel good! Way better than before!

“W-wha? Um, thank you sir, but. Why did you help me?”

I curiously asked, as I shakenly stood up, examining the new stranger. He was a large black feathered Griffon with a light grey lions hide; a large over coat, almost similar to mine, but his was strangely different, his was blue and slightly armored, metal bracelets surrounding both his wrist, some type of war metals hanging from his right chest, and some kind of gas masking, wrapped around his neck, hanging, as if prepared to survive harsh chemicals. He was standing on his hind paws, staring down at me, with both his talons holding onto a large rifle, far different from the ones that these ponies had, longer as well, if anything it could pass for a sniper without a scope. His eyes were a deep green and three feathers stuck out from his forehead, each feather having their tips slightly dyed red, or so it seemed, and to top everything off, he had a single long scar running down the left side of his eye, with his luck, he wasn’t blinded by it, but may have come close by the looks of it. This was not just any griffon, it was a valiant griffon, a griffon that stood high and tall, with his chest out, almost inspiring to say the least, the most civil being I have ever met to be honest, especially in a place like this.

“Well, I was out here for a bit of sport and material scavenging, when the funniest thing happened. There I was making my way in this general direction, mmm~ about six miles from the nearest town, and I had remembered. I collected a bounty poster in my journey to capture a fiend by the name of Saber, oh devil of a raider I must say. ANYWAYS! I thought, well bollocks! Why not collect some caps for the journey, and make my way here; then out of the blue as I was about to make my entrance, I spot suspicious activity going on. Raiders, running and taking barricade outside of that building over there, before I saw you come right out, and face those ruffians, bare hoof and uh… shovel! Good show I say chap! Yet, I knew they would overpower you, with all due respect good sir. So I took the honor of taking aim with my fellow companion Silvia~ and provided some stealthy assistance, and I do say, I was a centimeter from piercing your very skull hah, oh that would have been bloody horrible hah yes, yes indeed!”

His accent, kind of shocked me, I had never met any pony with that type of tone, and tongue, but in all honesty, it made him sound smart, and bold, and I respected him for it. As a matter of fact, I owed him my life.

“I say chap, what in the devil were you doing in this part of the wasteland anyways?”

He curiously asked me as he, himself began scanning me, examining my wears and gear, not seeming as impressed as I practically was of him. When he asked me, I blinked a few times and quickly made my way to the buildings full of hostages.

“Quick over here, there is an entire room full of others! We got to save them!”

I called out, as a red field of magic began forming over the knife and shovel I had so heroically attempted to fight with, floating them back to me as I made my way inside. It simply took that single response before the griffon was right behind me to help.

“Bloody hell! Prisoners? This Saber chap was one loose screw from being a complete psycho!”

He stated as he followed after me, becoming even more shocked as he saw the entire room filled with the prisoners of all types, mares, stallions, and fillies.

“He was more than a psycho, he was a cannibal, a… uh Raider, fixed on the idea that mating with fillies and crying mares, while he ate their husbands and possibly them after was beyond the point of screw loose.”

I used my knife to cut their binds apart, only to be quickly smacked by one of the mares, crying and glaring at me with the rest of the once helpless hostages.

“Thanks a lot! Wannabe hero! You almost got us all killed! Next time, you want to save some pony, learn how to save yourself, you pathetic waste of skin!”

Footnote: level up!

New Perk: Speech Master - You now can receive unique dialogue that you normally couldn't.

Author's Note

Still a work in progress, i hope you guys enjoy chapter 3 heh. What is to become of our new adventurer, and what friends will he come to lose and gain?