Fallout: Equestria - The Ranger of Seamane

“Not every job is what the contract says; we just rate them as best our intelligence and our gut says. Sometimes we get it wrong on how dangerous a contract is so be cautious. Ask around and don’t be afraid to cut and run part-way through. What you find out is more useful than another dead mercenary.” - Talon’s Advice for New Mercenaries, Wasteland Survival Guide

I wished we had bought rain slickers in Pioneer. The rain grew heavier and the wind was driving it into our faces. I was happy with my goggles but it did little to keep the rest of me dry, or warm. I felt a chill start driving its way into my bones starting at my hooves and horn. I let out a grunt as, against better judgment, I used my magic to put up a field of telekinesis to act as a weak shield against the rain.

Thankfully it was only about as draining as a light spell. I just didn’t like that it put an effective spotlight on us. Sil sighed as she shook her mane once the magical field was up, splashing me with a bit of water.

“Sorry, habit.” Sil blushed as I gave her a tired look.

“It’s alright. Want me to wring you next?” I asked.

“What?” She replied.

“Like a washcloth; just high-force telekinesis along your outsides pushing all the water off,” I explained. “I’ve been trying to copy Argent’s little trick on drying oneself off with magic, can’t get the fire part of it down. Wish I had figured this out years ago. Never show up to a meeting with a wet mane. Oh do some of the watch commanders hate that.”

“Huh. Maybe once we get inside,” Sil said, taking me up on the offer.

“Alright. Just close your eyes when I tell you to.”

As we headed onwards, my pipbuck occasionally clicked as radiation passed through it. I hadn’t heard it go off the entire time we had been on the west side of the Willmanemette in Dockland.

I shook my mane as I looked at the burnt buildings. Much of the infrastructure here still stood with minor superficial damage, while some were husks and others still looked long abandoned and in need of love. It was a mix of what I had seen coming up from Seamane; fire, abandonment, and rot from the weather. It made me feel isolated and cold.

I brushed away the broken glass of a busted storefront before hopping through the window. Sil hopped in after me as I wrung out my waterlogged coat. She found the experience novel when it came to her turn, though I had the issue of dumping two ponies' worth of water back outside. The upside was it counted as a shower in my book.

My attention turned towards the inside of the building once we were dry. Mercifully the interior of the building itself was just as dry, even as moisture clung to most surfaces. At least we weren't being rained on anymore.

We decided to lay down and have lunch while I looked over the map of Dockland on my pipbuck. I frowned, noting that the map was a bit loose on its tracking, likely due to it being a cobbled-together device. I had to just go by my gut and our current map to guess where we were.

Time was not an issue for us, we didn’t need to be somewhere by a given time instead it was more of a case of we needed to find where to go. More than a few times I poked my nose out the front window to read the street signs to provide a point of reference.

“If they ran this way usually what along this path could they be going to?” I muttered to myself looking at the map and holding it flat in my forehooves. “This would be a lot easier if I knew this side of town.” I sighed and hung my head. “Well, whatever, might be smarter to find a place to observe and catch a group as they go to attack the factory. Don’t need to stop them, just figure out where they came from for now. Then I can plan from there.”

“Hmm?” Sil asked, hearing me talking to myself.

“Just figuring out what to do next,” I replied before sighing again. “I should have asked how frequent the attacks were. It could be in an hour or it could be in weeks. Damn it, that was short-sighted.”

I groaned and stopped myself before taking a breath. “Still, it wasn’t in the file and the guards didn’t mention it so there might not be any regularity. That would make the most sense. Attacking like clockwork would be the best way to get your crew killed.”

“Means they could be poking at other places, tossing off small timers every now and again for a more established group.” Sil offered. “Hazing ritual.”

“Could be, that would mean a well-sized compound to hold the group. Still, we need to get a place to get some overview.” I tapped my chin as I pondered, then regarded the map again. “Well, there’s the highway which loops back to the west side across several bridges that they could have crossed to get here from the west side. That just opens up a lot of options.”

I stood up and packed away the map before moving to the window. The rain was even heavier now. “Maybe… I wonder if there's another town on this side. Even with the radiation, there must be.”

“Well, there has to be. I remember a few ponies mentioning it. Something about a family running it.” Sil said, reminding me of the unicorn supremacists.

Yeah, that’s going to be fun to deal with… I had hoped to bury everything about that year. At least this time… Well, they shouldn’t recognize me, ugh I just had to learn the hard way they’re a bunch of fucked up freaks.

I winced at the brush of those memories, Sil caught it but I started talking before she could ask; I didn’t want to talk about it, not even to those closest to me.

“Yeah, would be the likely hub of ponies wandering off to join gangs and bandits.” I nodded.
“As well as how anypony on this side of the town survives, hitting what supplies the town every now and again.”

“Well, we won’t find them unless we get going,” Sil said before she looked outside. “Oh…”

“Yeah..” I replied, looking at the sheets of rain coming down.

I hadn’t imagined I could get soaked to the bone faster than by falling into the sea. In the little time it took to get outside and cast my barrier again I had gotten drenched by the rain. At least I had the foresight to go first so Sil stayed dry.

She did her best not to pick at my mopey mood as I remained soggy during our search, my waterlogged mane refusing to stay out of my eyes. Thankfully with the goggles it just obscured my vision.

We needed a vantage point. If there was a settlement on this side of the river we should spot the light or smoke from it. Unfortunately, the weather decided I wasn’t allowed to see more than two hundred feet at best. The shadows of buildings loomed at us through the rain like specters, waiting to grab you when you turned away.

After an hour of wandering through alleys, we stumbled onto something promising: a construction site for what was going to be a building full of apartments, given what I could still read on the fence. I looked up but the rain turned its rooftop into a mere shadow. That boded well for us as no visible lights meant nopony was living in it so we pushed past the chain link fence and into the building.

“Well, this is a nice change of pace,” I said, looking around.

“Certainly, though a little drafty,” Sil added. “Looks like they didn’t get any windows installed on this floor. Or doors for that matter.”

The decor was incomplete, to say the least. At first, I thought there were living plants growing in here until I gave one a bite and found they were made of plastic. Yuck, who made plastic plants?! Shrugging, I made for the stairs.

“Not bothering with the elevator this time?” Sil asked.

“Duh, if this floor doesn’t even have lights I doubt it has elevators that work,” I explained. “Come now, my silly zebra cake, let’s check this place out. We might even have someplace to sleep tonight because I don’t know if we’re going to wrap up this contract in time to head back to Pioneer.”

Sill snorted. “Zebra cake? Really.”

“I’m terrible with nicknames, alright.” I sighed. “I’ll just stick with Sil.”

“That’s my good filly.” She teased me back, I swear my cheeks flash-dried out from the blush she sparked, which only made her giggle more.

The stairwell was far fancier than it had any right to be and gave me a convenient, clear line of sight for several floors above.

Sil realized what was about to happen just as I grabbed hold of her and began to quickly pop us both between floors. She rolled her eyes, seemingly starting to accept I was just going to do this when time was of the essence.

Every few floors I noticed that the interiors were less and less complete. On the ninth floor; there wasn’t even a door for the floor. The twelfth floor didn’t have carpet past the doorway. Fifteenth the walls were just skeletons for rooms, the floor was bare wood. We stopped and I walked in not wanting to go onto the roof. It seemed that while the bottom floor had lost its glass the top floor had not. Maybe early post-war vandalism I was thankful for the glass that was on this floor as the rain came down. However, I was curious as to how the glass in the city had survived the multiple balefire detonations within the city that were well beyond a point of concern.

As I walked in I heard a rustle and drew my pistol in my magic as I lowered my stance. I looked over my shoulder to see Sil move to block the doorway and get her battle saddle bit into her mouth.

Good whatever was in here we should have cornered.

I slowed my pace and scanned the floor as more rustling filled the air. I pulled out an empty bottle and cast my light spell on it and tossed it to the far end of the floor with my magic. As it flew through the air I got a good look through the floor as shadows shifted, elongated, and collapsed on themselves. Nothing. I turned and shook her head indicating nothing behind us at the stairwell. My ears flicked some more as I heard a rustling clearer, above me on the roof and I let out a sigh.

“Must be something caught on the roof, a tarp or something,” I explained as I replaced my pistol in its harness. The shadows continued to shift as the bottle rolled to the far side of the floor. “Well, I don’t think with the rain like this I’m going to get a good view of things around here.”

“So now what?” Sil asked as she joined me as she rolled the self-illuminating bottle with her hoof.

“Well, let’s wait out the rain. I… should… Do we do it here or check the lower floors to see if it’s furnished?” I asked.

“Lower floor. I’d rather not sleep on hardwood, though I know you have plenty of experience with that.” Sil snorted. What was that supposed to mean? The decks of Saint Clover were metal.

I picked up the bottle and put it in my saddlebag. We headed down a few flights of stairs. I wasn’t in a rush considering the rain was coming down hard and we had plenty of floors to check. If the storm didn’t break by morning I’d take Sil back to Pioneer and then strike out for the Clinic.

Though calling it a clinic seemed wrong when, if my map was right, it comprised a large campus. I shuddered thinking about it, glad that we were choosing to wait things out here instead of alone in an irradiated hospital with Stars knew what.

A sudden thought hit me as we checked the floors for furnishings. I pulled out the bottle again and I held the glass Sparkle-Cola bottle in my magic as it glowed the deep green of my light spell, its facets changing the luminosity as I slowly rotated it.

“Hadn’t thought about how the glass would affect a light spell,” I muttered to myself. “I really should consider using some weak light spells on objects when exploring. Would be a great way to mark where I’ve been.”

I pondered and pulled out my spellbook as we trotted along. Sil, seeing me distracted, took the lead, flicking on a shoulder-mounted flashlight she must have gotten in Pioneer when she was out without me.

“Where was that arcane mark spell.” I fumbled around the spellbook for a bit before finding it. I winced when I saw the card from Dealer again, quickly shuffling it to the page behind the mark spell and before beginning to read.

While not a simple marking spell, it was potent, making symbols for a ritual, or remotely activated spells, hidden or visible, it could even show other arcane marks or be used to make teleportation networks.

“Sweet Celestia, this is probably why this book wasn’t meant for public consumption. Somepony probably would have been afraid sympathizers would use it to create a network to teleport zebras in.” I muttered to myself realizing the power of these spells in conjunction.

“What was that, Moony?” Sil called back, poking her head out of a doorway.

“Sorry, reading.” I explained before reading further. “Found an interesting spell to either make hidden messages for me or… Well, mark a place so I can teleport to it over a long range. Though I think I can also do that by just carving it into the ground.”

Would need a bit of practice with the spell but in theory it was simple. With it I could make things like arcane landmines. Useful, yet terrifying.

“Now I am going to be paranoid that other ponies know how to do this,” I muttered, before casting the arcane mark spell on the floor outside the stairwell, infusing an arcane blast into it in the process. Anypony other than Sil or I that crossed that threshold would get an arcane blast fired at them from the floor. Which given that’s where a lot of ponies had a lack of armor, would be pretty harmful. “Now I can settle down and rest. Probably take a nap until the storm blows over.”

“I found us a bed, hun. Seems most of this floor is reasonably furnished.” Sil called from a doorway before tilting her head. “What are you doing?”

“Setting a magical landmine so if anyone but us tries to cross the doorway they get a magic bolt to the underside,” I explained. “Which, given that’s where a lot of ponies lack armor, it would be pretty harmful.”

Sil just looked at me like I was a bit insane. “Well, that takes care of keeping us safe. Guess I won’t need to set up the grenade trap on the door then.”

I paused. “No… But when did you get grenades?”

“Pioneer?” She replied.

“I really need to make myself a shopping list.” I sighed.

“Probably. How about some rest first?” Sil offered as I joined her.

-=O=-

Awareness came back to me as lightning shook the building. I let out a yelp of fear and pain as excess charge ran around me. I could feel the air filled with excess energy and lay low in the bed where Sil pressed against me. I lit my horn, afraid that my pipbuck might channel more electricity. Sil was saying something but the ringing in my ears left her words on deaf ears.

“Fuck.” I whimpered as I pressed my head against Sil’s and let my horn light fade out.

I dared to open an eye after a minute. We were still alive. I lifted my head and the blanket slid off of me. I saw the rain had let up but I could still hear rumbling and the sound of fat raindrops hitting the windows.

“Okay, fuck, let’s hope that doesn’t happen again” I croaked as I held onto the lightly trembling Sil.

Sil and I recovered after a while. She wanted to stay in bed which was understandable. Lightning was not fun. Worse when it hit what you were in.

“I’m just going to check on things around us, okay?” I stated.

“Sure, just, be quick,” Sil replied.

I nodded. I just wanted to be certain that the lightning strike hadn’t set the building on fire.

It was as I started doing my patrol that I realized we were on the fourth floor according to the room numbers. I filed it in the back of my head before pushing open one of the doors. Unsurprisingly there weren’t any locks.

The flooring was mostly finished, and interior doors inside the apartment hung open. On the floor I saw signs of habitation, with the empty bottles of water and boxes of food. Fortunately nothing pointed to anything recent. With that inspection complete, I meticulously poked through the rest of the floor.

The windows here were intact beyond a few bullet holes, nothing I couldn’t repair thanks to the majority of the glass still being there. The majority of the interior furnishings were missing, though I did note the fixtures for lights were completed to the point that lightbulbs sat in many of them. Not that the light switches worked of course.

As annoying as that was, it was at least something I could work with. While the lack of furniture would make things a problem for housing ponies here, the more technical equipment was here. Heating, showers, sinks, ovens, stovetops? I could make do with this floor.

I eventually returned to Sil and kept an eye out the window for activity below us, though part of me wondered about making this a safe house. While it would probably cost more than just buying a place, having a base of operation on this side of the river would be nice. The radiation was low enough to not need to worry about it, at least on this floor.

I rubbed my forehead. Was it a good idea to hide out so far away from other ponies though? Safety in numbers, let other ponies do the guarding. No need to sleep with a gun under my bed and set up magical and mundane traps. Yet the idea was appealing as I would have another place to store things, a place to operate out of. I just would have to do something to make it harder to access, to hide what I was doing.

“You’re being stupid, Moonlight,” I muttered. “Just buy a bigger room in Pioneer.”

“What’s up?” Sil asked.

“Thinking of converting this building to have this floor as a safe house. Enchant the windows to be one way. Fix everything up really nice. Get a generator for some heat. Get us some rain barrels. Some tools so we can work on things. Maybe loot ourselves a computer network. Secure door.” I sighed. “Soundproof bedrooms.”

Sil snorted at the last item on the list. “For the five of us?”

“Yeah, and anyone else we end up picking up along the way. I imagine at some point we’re going to end up rescuing some strays.” I giggled. “Be it via contract or just tripping over them.”

“You're not wrong.” Sil nodded. “Though transporting supplies here would be a bit of a pain in the rear.

“Well, as my reading told me. I can just teleport between marks, so…” I trailed off.

“So you just carve one into the floor here and make a rug or something in Pioneer and we have a magical transport system via your horn.” Sil laughed, realizing how much time we would be saving before kissing my horn. “Hornheads, so clever. If you ever wonder why I fell for you.”

I blinked. “That can’t be the only thing.” I snorted. I didn’t believe for a moment that was the only reason Sil would go for me.

“One of many reasons and they’re hard to put into words.” Sil admitted. “I bet you know how it is. That strange feeling in your heart and all that.”

I was intimately familiar with it so I pulled her close as we lay in bed, resting my head atop hers.

“I know that feeling all too well,” I admitted.

My thoughts returned to the safe house idea. It just wouldn’t leave me alone even while I was enjoying some cuddles. There was one big advantage I realized now. I could be certain here no one was listening in. An entirely controlled environment. How useful. Fine, I’ll think about it, as stupid and dangerous as this is. Maybe I’ll just do both and set up a teleportation network. Will let teleport back here if need be with salvage or a couple of ponies. If it wasn’t too far or we aren’t under duress. The focus component of teleport range is a bugger but, it’s that or-- I blinked away the mental images of magical mishaps I had once read. Yeah, follow spells as directed, don’t be like those ponies. As Ministry Mare Starlight wrote.

Sil and I got out of bed once the thunder had moved on, finally feeling safe once the rumbling came a good half minute after the flashes. We then worked hoof in the hoof to start repairing the fourth floor for habitation. What could be done by hoof Sil handled, what required my magic was left to me.

We first spent some time figuring out the best way to secure the stairwell. There were a few spells that could be used in conjunction with an arcane mark to make for good traps. For example, ‘bend surface’ on the stairs when anyone who wasn’t us passed it would prevent anypony from getting anywhere fast and require another unicorn to undo it. However, I would have to remember to update all spell traps every couple of weeks or etch them into the ground like the good old days. Sil and I did a few test runs with some non-dangerous spells to see if that worked and it did, though only once for now.

For now, we just set a few arcane marks to go off with more familiar walls of energy tied to ice. I’d need to practice the bend surface spell before trying it. For all I knew I would end up causing non-Euclidean geometry to occur.

Once we had the stairwell done we began to pilfer the other floors for furniture. Two hours later we had our room, number twenty-six, looking half decent, though without power there was no way to use the oven. It would take too long and use too much magic to power it directly with my horn. The plumbing was hooked up, but the building had no water so we would need to sort out some rain barrels later. Finally, I went to what had once been a communal room of some sort and, once inside, pulled the carpet up to carve the first symbol in my teleportation grid.

“Okay,” I huffed, wiping sweat off my brow as Sil hoofed me some water. “Things to buy and/or find: tools for working on barding. Tools for working on guns. Anvil or the like. Maybe go cut up some railroad for that. Sturdy workbench or two between us. What else? Ah. Reloading tools.” I paused remembering I was going to the Fluttershy Medical Clinic soon. “Medical equipment.”

“If you get medical equipment, snag some terminals. Then we can get to do some fun stuff.” Sil smirked. She was a wiz with terminals after all so of course she wanted her domain of expertise represented.

“I’ll see what I can do.” I offered. “Though I don’t know if we can find a network and drag it in here. We should probably look to see if any Stable-tec, Robronco, or other tech companies are in the area where we can go pilfer.”

“I’ll keep that in mind for when you head up to the clinic.” Sil nodded. “I can do a bit of research for us for places to hit up.” She was more excited than I had seen her in a while about getting out and doing things.

Maybe because it was just doing something together. Something that didn’t involve hurting others.

“I’ll leave it to you.” I giggled as I wrapped a foreleg around her shoulder and booped her nose with mine.

We sat there for a minute. I think we both were wondering if there was more to come. I didn’t feel the mood was right for it. I pressed my forehead to hers and closed my eyes. This was just as good if not better. For all the pleasures of the flesh, there was a simple deep pleasure of just being close to another soul who embraced you.

After a while of enjoying the closeness I continued. “Okay, let’s take a look outside anything that looks like a settlement?” We both went to the east side of the building and sat side by side, surveying the region. This building would have been a nice place to live, it had a great view of both the city and the river.

The east side of Dockland was a lot less built up than the west side was, which made it easier to see further now that the rain wasn’t blanketing the whole place. Nothing stood out to the east. I saw a few spots of lights but nothing that indicated a settlement out in the stretches of housing and commercial. I trotted over to the southern end of the floor and looked out the window that sat behind the elevators. There I saw the factory, which was easy to spot given it was one of the only places that was giving off steam and smoke. I paused as I let my eyes sweep over the ruins looking for more signs of steam or smoke as the thunder rumbled overhead.

I spotted a few places where I could see steam rising or maybe white smoke, I couldn’t be certain at this distance. Three spots to check though.

“Hey, Sil? Do you see those streaks of wood smoke?” I asked as I stood to get my bags.

“Yeah, I think I do, three of them?”

“That would be them.” I nodded and giggled. “Maybe not the same one but I doubt we saw two entirely separate sets of smoke trails.”

“Why are you being like this today?” Sil snorted.

“Because I want to,” I replied as I made for the stairs. Honestly, I was in an odd mood. “Let’s get going, I want to have a look at all the ones we can find.”

“Sounds good,” Sil said as she caught up with me.

Her bags went on with my magic as she tugged straps tight on mine. This wasn’t a long walk, but going out into the wasteland always demands wearing armor.

We returned to the second floor and teleported out of the building to street level before heading south toward the three sources of white smoke. I was fairly certain at this point that it was smoke and not steam. I had Sil double-check her battle saddle while I double-checked my guns.

As we neared the first source of smoke we slowed to a crawl, not wanting to trot into an ambush or camp. A caravan of scavengers was inside a worn-out store warming up by a fire. With a cautious greeting, we traded some of our salvage thus far for ammo, food, and tools, as well as information as to our target’s base of operation. To this end, they pointed me further south, towards the two other possible locations. I thanked them and bid them a warm day.

The second location was not the bandit nest we were looking for but instead something worse. Given the gore, the wails of ponies missing limbs in cages, the rusted spikes, and more gore we had found raiders, the really really far-gone type. Weren’t these supposed to be rare out here in Dockland? I wondered.

“They might not be our target but we might as well deal with them.” I whispered to Sil. She nodded and pulled her bit up. “We shouldn’t let them sit around and hurt more people.”

“Of course only if their numbers aren’t too great for us,” Sil replied. “Stealth is not optional, I would say.”

I disagreed, but sneaking in as far as you can and taking out threats quietly was a great way to turn numbers against them.

We took to an overpass to get overwatch on the raider compound’s yard and found ourselves alone up top. I turned my gaze downward and saw a few ponies wandering around, all in that garb of cobbled-together garbage that had been patched up with even more garbage, telltale signs of a raider.

I also saw something that made me wish I hadn’t.

Two raiders had taken a cage with the stallion in it and dropped it onto a fire pit. I should’ve acted but my medical knowledge told me I couldn’t save him even if I did. He was clearly doused with something to make him burn faster because his coat immediately burst into flames. The poor bastard. Meanwhile the two raiders were just laughing. Enraged, I lined the first one up in my pistol sights and squeezed the trigger. The shot fell short but the two didn’t hear it over the stallion’s screams of pain.

Sil glanced at me, looking conflicted about opening with her unsilenced weapons.

“You’re plan C. Open up if I fuck up.” I explained. “Now for plan B.”

“Plan B,” I whispered and appeared behind the two.

I dumped two rounds into the back of their heads, whatever scrap that made up their head protection not enough to stop point-blank shots. What was left of their brains was annihilated.

The burning stallion was still screaming. I shot him too.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

Even if I had put the fire out on him. I couldn’t have given him his life back. Upon closer inspection his legs were missing and his eyes had gone while I dealt with the others. Let that never be me.

The door of the only standing building nearby opened and I made myself scarce by hopping over a barricade. Four ponies emerged and one started shouting. “Hey we told you to hold off on setting him on- Oh shit, somepony killed them! Get looking for them, I’m going for the alarm!”

Fuck, they had an alarm? Since when did Raiders have fucking alarms?!

I moved after the alarm pony as quickly as I dared around the debris while the other three began to fan out. If I could stop the alarm I could prevent this from becoming a very one-sided firefight.

It was then Sil began opening up on the ponies in the yard.

Shit she was exposed on the roof. She had no place to hide. Time for plan C.

I popped off a few shots into the raiders from the side as they aimed at Sil. The crossfire proved highly effective and left them dead in moments.

Sil hopped off the roof and I softened her landing with my magic. We cantered around the side after grabbing what guns and ammo we could from the raiders. The best call now was to be scarce and start popping heads rather than strip-searching every body.

Sil stood back as I nosed open a side door only to come face to rear with a mare who had her tail so short it left nothing to the imagination. The stallion she was talking to spotted me immediately and would’ve yelped had I not slammed his mouth shut with my magic. This didn’t help the fact that I was breathing on the mare’s delicates and that a door had just bumped her rump. Raiders weren’t smart but they weren’t braindead.

“What the? Hey, there’s a fucking horn head sneaking around!” She shouted before bucking the door in my face.

Well, if the alarm somehow hadn’t gone off yet it certainly has now.

I landed on my haunches as blood ran down my muzzle from my nose. I snorted and ejected more blood. Lovely. Well, time to deal with some idiots. I returned the favor with an arcane blast to the door, blowing a hole through the rusted metal before firing three rounds through the gap. I heard a yelp from the raider mare before I yanked what remained of the door open and rushed in.

My timing couldn’t have been worse as my barding immediately caught a chest full of shotgun pellets, knocking the air out of me. My eyes watered and my pistol fell to the ground, all while the mare and stallion grinned down at me.

“Well, that was easy.” Short Tail chortled looking at me as I tried to get to my hooves. Her buck friend gave me a grin that made me feel like I should be loosening my bowels. “Not every day a new chew toy comes in so fresh.”

Come on Sil, what’s taking you? I then heard her guns firing elsewhere. Shit, the raiders are engaging her from another direction.

I didn’t like the idea of being a chew toy but If Sil got overwhelmed things were going to get worse, fast. Given the poor stallion we saw coming in, I didn’t think chew toys got a decent retirement plan.

“Going to take my limbs?” I coughed, earning more laughs.

Right, raiders, some were psychopaths, most operated on a loose ethical code of “we do what we want because a pirate is free, yar har.” If I don’t do something quick I’m likely going to end up a lot looser and missing a few limbs in a few hours. Don’t give in the fear, use it, and turn the fear into fuel.

Can’t even see straight, words won’t help that.

My vision swam with black and white dots spiraling throughout it. I coughed and blew out more blood from my nose, eventually managing to get to my hooves.

“Oh, you can still stand?” The mare laughed.

I felt myself swaying. I could make out rough shapes of ponies so I charged forward with my horn low at what I thought was the stallion’s chest. Instead, I hit a wall which sent pain coursing down my horn skull. Hideous laughter filled the air as I fell over and dry heaved from the pain.

“The bitch is still trying at least. I like it.” The stallion laughed as my ears rang.

I looped a hoof around what I could discern to be a shelf and pulled, feeling it give and start to topple over. I scrambled out of the way just in time and heard the two yelp in pain as the heavy shelf landed on them.

“The only fucking going on around here is going to be my bullets fucking the holes I’m putting in you,” I said then winced. “Ugh, that sounded better in my head.”

“You’ll figure out one-liners eventually.” The stallion grunted.

I pulled out a healing potion and tried to twist the top off and instead broke it off. With a groan, I just dumped the contents into my mouth and swallowed. My blurred vision and ringing ears faded while the two I had trapped under the metal shelf were working their way free. “Hold on, I’ll finish you two off in a second, unless you’d rather surrender.”

“And what, get hung?” Short Tail spat then resumed trying to wriggle her way free.

“He’s hung, and you’re wet,” I said with a scrunch of my muzzle; the healing potion really wasn’t helping my head. “I got way too close to your rear when I opened that door.”

“She’s as crazy as us, ha!” The short spiky maned stallion laughed. “And thank you for noticing.”

I blew out the last of the blood from my nose and looked down at the trapped couple. “My mare is out there right now killing the rest of your crew. I’m offering you a chance to run. Why? Because I’m not really in a position to kill you.”

“Not in a position to kill us?” Spiky Mane asked as he looked at me in confusion.

“I prefer to not fight up close like this,” I replied.

“So you rather let us run than upset your stomach.” Shot Tail laughed. “What a delicate Pioneer.”

I went for my pistol in its holster before seeing it was on the other side of the room where the door was. I rolled my eyes then pulled out my sawed-off shotgun with my magic. “Well, I could just shoot you.”

The two froze realizing I had recovered and could accurately aim again.

“Okay, well, um, running sounds nice too. Can we still do that?” Short Tail asked, her eyes pleading.

“Yeah, just don’t raise another alarm.” I started, eyeing the two to see how they responded. “I mean I probably should still just put you down but you two don’t seem like the ones who would light a stallion on fire after delimbing him.”

“Those fuckers, we didn’t want to harm him, just keep him around as a pet. But no, got to torture every poor bastard we can’t ransom off, and the ones we can.” Spike Mane grumbled. “We’re done with this crew, they've been getting more deranged. We just liked the drugs and sex.”

“Fair enough, now git before I give you two some free piercings where you don’t want them,” I said as I shakily lifted the shelf with my telekinesis, giving a warning wave of the sawed-off in the process.

Sil took that moment to come up to the door. “Sil, don’t shoot.” I quickly stated. “These two aren’t threats.”

She looked at me in confusion as the two former raiders scrambled past her to flee. “What?”

“Ugh, this group is apparently going nuts, those two were planning on leaving. And we just gave them the window to do so. Count that as having saved two lives.” I wobbled unsteadily, still dazed. “Uh, could I get a hoof?”

As Sil shifted to let me lean against her side, I realized that the two raiders were both without barding and had run off carrying only a bag between them. The stallion especially was having a bit of an issue due to me interrupting them while they were getting ready to have fun.

“That’s going to be a hell of a case of blue balls.” I laughed, and then sighed when an alarm went off. I picked up my pistol and shoved it back into my holster. “Break’s over, time to get to work.”

Sil gave me a strange look.

“I’ll explain later. Unfortunately time for more killing.” I said as I double-checked the sawed-off before setting it back in my saddlebags.

“I thought I got the pony that was originally running for the alarm. Guess this is the actual alarm.” Sil sighed.

I heard hooves scrambling about on the floor above us and I hissed as I wished for a weapon with more capacity than twelve rounds. A pony ran down the stairs at that moment, saw Sil and I with our walking arsenal then dropped the machete in his mouth and ran back up.

“Huh, not the reaction I expected,” I admitted as I grabbed the machete and held it next to me in my magic.

“Yeah, not mine either. Given the scrambling above, how many do you think?” Sil asked.

“Fuck if I know. Going to be a pain in the ass. Still got the grenades?” I asked in return.

Sil smirked. “Just don’t get too close.”

“I’ll try not to.” I giggled. “Though let’s wait to use one, might blow up all the gear. Cover me in case any ponies come hearing the gunfire. Might want to keep your ass safe from the stairwell in case of ricochets.”

“Alright, I’ll wait for your signal.” Sil nodded.

I started up the stairs first and as I did I heard something heavy get tossed over with a loud thump. Smart, makeshift cover. I peeked over the top of the stairs and saw three raiders staring back from behind a table that blocked half of a doorway, all with rifles. I immediately crouched as the small stairwell turned into a shower of plaster, the chorus of rifle barks amplified by the small area. After a minute the gunfire stopped though my heart was still pounding as I opened my eyes. I wasn’t hurt, however, my heart rate was setting off an alert which I squelched with a thought.

That’s the fear of death, my dear Pipbuck. It happens. Tell me when I get hurt or when my heart explodes.

With a small movement, I lifted my head and looked over the lip of the stairs to see the three raiders move the table out of the way to come look for me. I noticed an empty spot behind them and, with a pop, I was behind them, my front falling slightly when I reappeared. Right, the position was maintained when teleporting, so that was something to keep in mind. Or was I just doing this wrong? Whatever, read later, slaughter now.

The three hadn’t heard me teleport behind them but they did notice something. I didn’t know if there was a sign of when somepony teleported, there must have been some after-effect.

“What was that flash? Since when did random unicorns know how to teleport?” One yelled, clearly annoyed as they surveyed where I once was, somehow knowing what the spell was.

Good Sil must have taken cover to stay hidden. Though this is interesting, teleporting makes a flash. The pop I feel must be due to something as well. It wasn’t just mental.

Sweeping that thought aside, I crept up to the barricade they had partially removed, leveled my shotgun at one of them before sending the machete flying into another. The target moved at the last second so it missed her head and instead went along her barrel and embedded into her flank, the pony quickly going into shock as her entrails began to spill out.

Well fuck, that’s going to stay with me. I was hoping to keep this a bit cleaner.

Next I let out a blast from the sawed-off. It removed one of the remaining uninjured ponies' heads, turning it into ground meat. Never mind, that wasn’t clean at all.

The last unhurt one stared back up at me for a moment before he started to wildly fire at me as he scrambled to the mare to try and help her. I knew it was a lost cause; without some serious medical equipment she was done for.

Fuck, I hate this. I fucking hate killing others. Give me vipers and hydras any day, but people? Fuck no…

More gunfire shook me out of my thoughts and made me duck down and hide behind the cover they had left behind. Then a grenade landed in my lap. I popped my head up and felt a bullet tear into my shoulder as I teleported back to the stairs instead of dealing with the grenade. I landed on my ass facing away from the two who were still alive. The grenade detonated a heartbeat later.

Too fucking close.

“Fucking bitch, just die!” The raider shouted as he fired the rifle with his magic and used his hooves in a futile attempt to stuff the mare’s insides back in her.

I felt three rounds go through me and immediately squashed the warnings in my EFS saying where I’d been hit. I would check my medical information later. Instead, I pushed myself upright and then leapt at the stallion, slipping my knives out of their slots and brandishing them.

It was to be a mercy killing for her and an execution for him. The mare had a face of acceptance. The stallion had a face full of fury. I could understand raging against death. I was doing the same.

Was I?

I was clearing raiders to protect ponies. Right now though I was fighting to survive, no other higher moral calling. I could have backed off and left but, no, this felt right.

To remove this cancer. To kill. To sink our talons into them.

I felt another round rip through me before I got too close for him to turn his rifle at me. I let my mass carry me in a tackle against the stallion. His magic imploded as I pushed a knife up and under his left foreleg, going for his heart. Another knife I rammed into the skull of the mare, causing her to go limp and giving her the mercy she deserved.

The stallion and I struggled. He smashed his face against mine, making my magic wink out with the blow. In return, I slammed my hoof against his barrel. He howled in pain before he bit my horn, making my eyes sting with tears. I reached under his foreleg and wrapped the handle of the knife in my knee and pulled down along his ribs slicing his chest open and destroying his left lung.

I felt it getting harder to breathe and took a glance at the EFS readouts to see I had a punctured lung, a damaged kidney, and liver damage. I needed a healing potion soon or I would poison myself to death. I needed this fight to be over with now before any other raiders showed up. Sil I am going to be leaning on you real hard real shortly.

I removed another knife from its sheath and tried to stab him again but he kicked my leg, causing me to drop it, all while keeping a hold of my horn with his rotted teeth. It was clear he intended to break it off with his remaining strength given how he gnawed at it. We wrestled for another minute as our blood commingled and soaked my barding.

I could feel my strength bleeding out of me. Every attempt I made to fight him was rendered moot. I grunted as I had one last option, and it was going to hurt. I was on a lower stair than he was so I used what strength I had to stand on my hind hooves, using my leverage to lift him with me. Instinctively, he wrapped himself around my head and neck with his forelegs. I twisted and fell to bring his spine down on the stairs letting gravity do the job for me.

He let go, his body cushioning the impact for me. I managed to face him once we landed and got my horn to align with his face.

“Bye,” I said as I focused my anger on a bolt of magic and watched in a mix of horror and satisfaction as his features were blasted away; coat, skin, muscle, bone, and brain. My magic left a small hole in his head where it had gone through, his body twitching. I slowly rolled off of him, pulled out another healing potion and downed it.

I felt my body stitch itself back together as I heard hooves closing in on my position. I grabbed the three rifles in my magic and reloaded them with the spare magazines Machete had been carrying on her.

Sil now would be a great time to use that grenade.

“Come and get me, assholes,” I whispered laying on my back as I listened to the raiders charging in from another room.

They came all at once. A good plan and far more effective because there weren't just three but eight of them. They brandished a mix of bats, sticks, a flail, a stop sign, a pistol, and another sawed-off. I just held down the three triggers held in my magic.

The screams of terror, pain, and death from the raiders washed over me and I felt nothing. I felt numb from it. I hadn’t seen these ponies care for one another or try to talk to me. I just classified them as things. Maybe it was the pain still running through me. Maybe it was the instinct of survival.

My plan seemed to work because their advance was slowed by my gunfire as they dove for cover, then ended as suddenly as it began when their cover exploded. That must have been Sil’s handiwork.

I dropped the guns and let out a groan. “Good timing.”

“We should have just used a grenade.” Sil admonished.

“Yeah,” I replied. “I didn’t see where you went though, didn’t know if you could have gotten them on the stairs.”

“Sorry about that.” Sil sighed.

“Don’t worry about it. Let’s just clean up. I need to check for anything in me.” I said, trying to get to my hooves only to get even more warnings in my EFS. “Oh, that’s probably not a good sign.”

Well, it could be worse, I could be singing.

Sil looked at me worried. “Is there anything I can do?”

“I…”I looked through my medical readouts. “Okay, we need to take a minute. Uh, do the looting. I want the machete, see if there is a sheath somewhere. And a cache. Raiders love to stash all their shit in a big pile to feel good about themselves. And to know if anyone is taking their stuff.”

“Guessing you need time to pull out some metal?” Sil asked.

“Oh yeah,” I admitted. “Oh, that’s a fair bit of stuff stuck in me. Time for some painkillers.”

“Operating on yourself. I’m certain I read somewhere that’s a no-no, but I don’t think we have an option.” Sil sighed. “Let me know if you need a hoof, though you know I’m not so good with internal medicine.”

I knew she didn’t like looking inside ponies. “Can do.”

Level Up! Welcome to Level 9! A new perk added: Horse Reflexes! You’re the bane of everypony who tries to take a swipe at you when they get an opportunity to. For this, you gain a bonus of five to your damage threshold when calculating your armor against attacks of opportunity. Bait out those attacks as they can’t touch you as you canter away.