Fallout: Equestria - The Ranger of Seamane

“The community welfare comes first and foremost, without a community there is no home.”
-Wasteland Survival Guide, Unknown Settler

I had taken Constable’s advice and gotten some more rest. The break room thankfully had a cot in it. While the lovebirds were leaning against one another in chairs in the other room. I took the chance to enjoy the silence and to rest. The first few hours after he had left I had spent finishing the book I had taken with me. It was a nice book, not useful for surviving the wasteland, but it had been a nice dose of escapist fiction. The break room was stocked with some food; food which I used to make my lunch. The afternoon went as I took a nap. I knew I slept lightly as I woke up hearing the radio operators switching shifts. Nopony came to check on us for any lingering magic from that pony we rescued. It mildly worried me that there was no follow-up.

It was getting close to sundown and I was getting fed up with the slow pace of things, so I went to pester the pony on the radio. At least then I could get in touch with those on the ship. Maybe get somepony to finally check in on us. I wondered why Ocean hadn’t bothered to do so yet. On the radio, I saw an old friend, Vimes.

“Hey, Vimes, what’s going on? I would have thought that someone would have come down by now.” I asked as I trotted into the radio room. Vimes gave me a look before he pulled off his headset.

“Hey, Filly.” He replied. “Yeah, things have been moving slowly today. Every hornhead has been busy with that mare you fished up.” He answered and I noticed that peculiar tick he had when something was up, he was chewing an unlit cigarette that looked like he had put it out several times in the past hour. Having known most of the senior members of the guard helped me get a heads-up on when things were going down.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Plus, I’m hardly a filly at this point. I’m twenty-six.” I smirked.

“We’re getting some reports of something up north.” He admitted. “And I know, but you’re still less than half my age.”

I sighed and shook my head as I pulled up a chair. “What reports do you have?”

“Know the old tourist trap up on the cliff side?” He asked and I nodded. It was the sea lion caves. “Lights have been seen up there and then down the highway from there. I have a bad feeling about this. Constable hasn’t been available with your fish taking everypony's attention. So I’m managing things right now.”

I bit my lip. “I’d hate to say it, but… Yeah. Get to the ship. With the tracks yesterday morning and that mare’s injuries? Shit’s coming our way. I think she might have been from a town up north and got dumped in the water after being shot; she had more than a few bullet wounds.”

He nodded. “I was getting to that point as well. Would make sense somepony messed with our radio before we saw the lights up north. Things are falling into place too nicely aren’t they?”

I was quiet for a minute. My gut was telling me I was missing something. My mane itched from all the sea salt and blood still in it. “Fuck it. Fuck whatever protocol is going down. If that mare put a spell on me to save her, I don’t think it’s going to mind me fighting to protect the town she’s in.”

Vimes looked at me and shook his head. “Maybe, but we're getting nowhere and we need everypony on hoof. Get the other two, I’ll get some hornheads to check you out.”

“Will do,” I said as I got up. “And, thanks, Vimes.”

“No problem, Moonlight.” He said as he collected his stuff. As I began to leave he started to make some calls over the radio. The heat is on.

I went back to the meeting room that Winter and Ocean were in. “Hey, you two.” I barked at them.

They both looked up from their card game. “What’s up?” Winter asked.

“We’ve got trouble. Come on, Vimes’ is getting us into the ship to finally get us checked out. We’ll finally get to do more than sit around.” I explained.

Ocean looked at Winter and then at me. “What type of trouble?”

“Remember the tracks you told me about in the dunes yesterday?” I asked, and both nodded. “Likely tied to that. Got movement coming down the old coastal highway as well as lights last night in the old tourist trap at the top. Vimes has his feelings about it and my gut agrees; something’s up with the recent radio issues and our little fishie’s wounds.” I said as I picked up my gear. I was only a little miffed that the rest of the guard had taken away all of our ammo, though I couldn’t blame them. There was an obvious question of how safe we were. Now though? The question became ‘For how long’.

“Then let’s get moving,” Ocean said as she put away the cards. Winter got up and grabbed their things. “Good thing we got a bit of forewarning. That way I could fix my ammo feed.” Ocean teased with a hoof bump against my side.

“So you noticed, hmm?” I smiled. “It wasn’t easy.”

“Didn’t until we were here. Since Winter was piloting us back I used his battle saddle just in case something came up while we sailed back. Didn’t want to leave things to chance with throwing bullets instead of a well-placed shot.” Ocean explained and gave me a smirk.

“Ah, that explains why you didn’t kick me.” I snorted and gave my friends a smile. “Come on, let’s get going. Vimes’ is going to try to coordinate from the ship radio center. Apparently, everypony else, including Constable, has been preoccupied with our fish.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Winter said.

“Nor do I. I’m hoping Vimes’ can smack some sense into them. Go and let the medical ponies handle her for a while instead.” I replied.

“So what? Do you just want a reason to get your hooves on her again? I saw that look you had.” Ocean teased.

I rolled my eyes while facing away from the two. I knew it was teasing but it hit something in me. Made me a bit annoyed. I turned to face the two again. “You know I stopped sleeping around with everything a few years ago.” I glared at her before I rolled my eyes and trotted to the door back to the radio room. “Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate beauty when I find it.” I huffed. Winter laughed behind us, and we both looked at him.

“What? It’s good to hear I didn’t completely fuck up.” He admitted. I gave him a smile. I could appreciate that point of view. Had I been in his hooves I would have been worried about having forever made someone unable to love again. Then again, I wasn’t certain I could yet. But, to hear that I could still appreciate beauty was, likely, to them, a sign I wasn’t entirely dead inside. Let’s just put that feather in our cap and keep going. Bigger things to focus on than this.

“No, you didn’t. If you did, oh, you would’ve known.” I just let that smile linger as I gave him a sinister look. He gulped. “As it is, you two are some of the few friends still around. I ain’t going to let all that get in the way of our friendship.”

Ocean let out a sigh of relief. “It’s good to hear that, finally. We’ve been worried. You’ve kind of been giving us the cold shoulder for a while. Vocally at least.”

“Well.” I took a deep breath. I could feel a pang of heartache as I thought. I couldn’t bring myself to smile again. “It’s a process, I’m getting there.”

Ocean gave me a hug, which surprised me but I gave her a nuzzle. “Oh by the elements. Your mane’s still caked in blood.” Ocean sputtered as she pulled back.

“Yeah, remember there isn’t a shower in here?” I chortled.

“Well, let’s see if there’s time for you to get washed up while we get changed.” Winter offered.

“Yeah, Vimes’ should be done with his calls. Let’s get movin’.” I ordered.

We caught up to Vimes as he issued orders to the guards at the gangplank. More guards were on their way down to the dock from the ship. They started to fan out into the town, going door to door to get ponies evacuated. Vimes’ nodded back to us and we followed him up.

The first few cracks of gunfire sounded off in the distance. I paused as I stole a glance back at the hills to the north. I felt that deep-seated fear start to creep in as the sun began to set to the west. A night siege. They were the worst from what I knew. I hadn’t had to deal with a siege in my years of service. Raiders running by, sure. This though... I could feel it in my gut, it was more than some raiders coming by for a quick score. The lights on the hill, the hoofprints on the dunes, raiders don’t case and amass they just strike once they spot a target. I hurried after the others into the belly of the ship.

With Vimes at the lead, nopony dared to block us as we headed for the heart of Guard Command. Once there he began barking orders at others who were between shifts. He had clearly been calling ponies out on patrol to head back given we had all heard the gunshots. This far in we couldn’t hear the gunshots outside, but, ponies in the radio room were starting to panic and looked relieved to see Vimes. He gave us a nod as he headed off to take control of the situation and the three of us got to preparing for war.

I had killed before. I hated it, but I had. Hopefully, though we wouldn’t be put in a frontline position and I wouldn’t have to cut ponies open. While at range I could handle taking the life of another creature that could communicate. Up close, to see the life drain from their eyes, it was entirely different.

I pulled on my armor. It was heavier and more restrictive, but at the same time, I liked knowing it would actually stop bullets when bullets were going to be flying. The helmet was heavy but the horn protection and built-in hearing protection were great. We also strapped on respirators when the call went out that fires had been set outside. Given what a lot of buildings had been made of pre-war it was not something we wanted to breathe.

I stowed the pistol in my foreleg holster and knife on a shoulder sheath before pulling out the long rifle from the armory that had been assigned to me. The fucker had a lot of kicks, but it put holes in just about anything I had ever tested it on. The only downside was it was a gryphon rifle, so I would be making use of Dad's training tonight.

A unicorn came by, I couldn’t tell which one they were thanks to the combat barding. They checked Winter and Ocean and motioned for them to get going. When they got to me they paused and checked again more thoroughly before motioning for me to get going as well. If I had been a betting pony I would have wagered that the double-check was if the spell still had a trigger, or if it was just a hoofprint left in me that had yet to clear.

Over the built-in helmet radio, I could still hear Vimes giving orders, so I changed the channel from general to our combat group. I heard another voice come through and ordered us three to the bridge to give overwatch to the town. I groused at the lack of time to wash my coat and mane, still itching from the blood and sea salt in them, but there were more pressing issues than my comfort. Winter and Ocean had a half-minute lead on me to get to the bridge but I knew my way around the ship like my own hoof. I cantered through the narrow halls, prancing around the other ponies who were rushing off to their positions. We had drilled enough in the past decade for various emergencies; we knew how to move in a situation like this.

At the bridge, I caught up with Winter and Ocean. Ocean had gotten herself up on a console to lay down and spot through a window staying in the relative safety of the bridge. I couldn’t blame her. She wasn’t a markspony but even so, she was still damn perceptive. With her scouting scope and its infrared tag laser, and our rifle scopes, we had an advantage though there was a downside which was the smoke. It was a common tactic to torch things to obscure while approaching. Old as dirt, move unseen. Winter and I went out onto the pitched-up wing of the bridge where we could aim over the edge and keep ourselves in as much cover as possible while giving supporting accurate fire into the town below.

Looking around I could see that to the north and northeast some of the old growth had been set on fire, as had parts of the town to mask the attackers. Smart as with how wet everything was there were no real open flames to light them up. It also meant things would smolder for ages.

We took our time familiarising where with friendlies were before even daring to open up ourselves. The easiest way to tell was the muzzle flashes, those on our side were going to be holding a defensive posture and the flashes would generally be obscured while the aggressors pushing towards the ship would more often be facing towards us so their muzzle flashes would be fuller and less obscured by cover.

To see our town burning and under siege was disheartening. The feeling was one that hurt deeply in my heart, to know when this was over the place I grew up in would be forever changed. I knew some of the ponies I saw daily would be gone all because some ponies couldn’t be arsed to just fucking trade instead of fighting to get what they wanted.

From the top deck, the gun emplacements opened up, raking into the hills with the old thirty-millimeter cannons deck cannons. In return, I saw what we all worried would eventually come in a siege. The bursts of light from rocket fire came from the hill overlooking the town and we did what we could to stop any further rocket-toting raiders. Thankfully, while the rockets they fired cut through the air and a few struck into the town, none looked like they hit anything important.

Then we heard strange whistling before explosions began to rain down around us. One hit the top deck, and several went far and detonated on the far bank or in the water. Mortars?! Fuck, I didn’t see any flash. Did they have any tell? Crap this just got a lot worse.

Those in the town below began to hose down the wing of the bridge we were on. I cried out as shrapnel from the rounds impacting around us cut through the thinner parts of the barding. Winter dove inside and left his rifle outside. I started to pull back and dragged his rifle through the door with me. Ocean left her perch as we got inside to check on us, there wasn’t much point to spotting when your shooters were out of action. As she cantered across the bridge she fell as the sound of ricocheting bullets filled the bridge. Winter dove to protect his mate as I slammed the door to the wing of the bridge shut. I could feel the sting of my injuries as I turned to face the two and found them in a heap. Panic began to set in.

I swore under my breath as I used what strength I could through the pain to pull the three of us to safety away from the windows. I lit the bridge with my horn and as I took off my cracked helmet. It had saved my life but as it came off it fully crumbled. As Security said, it was only good for taking one solid shot to the skull.

Too close. Far too close.

I pulled the barding off of Winter, checking him for injuries. His helmet had caught a round like mine, and his barding had a few rounds stuck in it. He wasn’t bleeding anywhere though. Likely knocked out from the bullet that hit his helmet. Given it was in the back of the helmet, damn lucky. We both were.

Thank the princesses for these helmets.

I turned to Ocean, she was bleeding, and her barding had a few holes in it in her chest. I struggled to focus as I cut her out of it. There wasn’t time to undo it, not if she was critically hurt. I had no time to waste if her life was at risk.

Winter would never forgive me if I let her die here. Nor would Sil. I can’t let anything further mess up our friend group more.

Protect them.

I shook my head. Winter wouldn’t blame me, it wasn’t my fault. Still, I couldn’t let a pony die in front of me; not a good pony at least. I broke out the medical supplies as I started to triage Ocean. Thankfully what I had learned from Patches was of great use, as using magic to triage let me quickly check her vitals and find shrapnel. Backed up with telekinesis, it made it easier to remove the metal in Ocean instead of rummaging around inside of her with tools or having to cut more tissue to get to it.

I was thankful that we had some stores of healing potions on hoof for situations like this. We couldn’t wait for Ocean to heal up on her own or at the pace magical healing bandages would afford her.

The gunfire outside had stopped pelting the bridge. I was still amazed - and thankful - that the glass had held after all these years. If it hadn’t I’d have more things to deal with than the smell of blood, gunpowder, and our current injuries.

Two ponies suddenly bolted onto the bridge from the stairs. I didn’t immediately recognize them through the barding but seeing I was up and helping Ocean the two relaxed. My mind couldn’t place them further than they were other medics being trained under Suture, the guard’s main doctor. It didn’t help that in our barding the best we had to go by was eye and tail colors. I surmised they were either here to relieve us or recover our bodies and I groused as I realized I hadn’t had radio communications since my helmet got destroyed so effectively the three of us had gone dark. I grabbed Ocean’s helmet and put it on so I could fill Vimes’ in on what had happened.

“Why in Tartarus didn’t you think to do so earlier, Filly?! Over.” He swore at me.

I didn’t want to admit my failing at that. “Was too focused on making certain the others were alive, my own helmet took a hit and crumbled. Over.”

The two ponies who had come up took over caring for Ocean while I handled the radio. I tried to not sulk about how my coat was increasingly red over grey as blood continued to stain it. It was inevitable with how things were going for me.

“Well fine, we’ll find you someplace to be useful in the meantime. At least the medical ponies I sent aren’t going to waste. Sit tight while they take care of you and I figure out what to do with you, over.” He admonished me.

He likely wouldn’t have sent anyone if he had known I was still up, or just one if any of the others were up instead of me. “Understood, over.”

I felt a hoof on my rump, looking back it was one of the two working on taking care of my injuries. I had forgotten about the scatter back from the shrapnel. I shook my mane as I felt the pinprick of a needle. I knew it wouldn’t just be painkillers; protocol dictated a cocktail of things to keep us on our hooves. Note to self, have someone pick me over for anything that might have gotten past my barding.

Ocean and I were given healing potions to drink. Given the lack of pain, I figured I was in the clear from shrapnel being in me. For Ocean, it was more akin to one of the ponies pouring it down her throat while she was still out. You couldn’t really drown in healing potion fluid. Winter though was still unconscious. The two that came to aid us double-checked him while I switched radio bands to listen to local chatter and drink in what was going on.

Our fire teams were falling back it seemed. That wasn’t necessarily a bad sign. Falling back could allow us to set up better kill zones and prepare defensive positions. At the same time, I heard word that the hull was breached from a rocket impact and ponies that could be better used outside were having to guard it. I didn’t like how things were progressing, but I only had a snapshot of the fight.

Winter was finally woken up and the two medic ponies ushered us to head down. They picked up Ocean on a cot between them. Winter looked worried about her, and I could understand.

“Winter, don’t worry. She’s already had a healing potion and we already pulled the bullets out of her. She’ll be fine. Between the three of us, you and I are in the worst shape. You with the concussion and me with the lovely cocktail of drugs in me.” I explained to him.

He gave a nod but still looked worried; I could sympathize though. I’d probably be out of sorts seeing my significant other clocked out from injuries and bandaged up. For now, I focused on taking care of myself, there was little more I could do and I needed to be ready if Vimes’ wanted to throw together an ad hoc squad.

In the changing room, I peeled off my barding and washed myself off. We were combat ineffective for the moment and until Vimes had an idea for us I might as well get comfortable. I removed the bandages on my leg since the healing potions had done their job in fixing all my wounds. I pulled the stitches out as well, wincing a bit at the pain but, I was restored. Other than a bit of missing coat nopony could tell I had been bitten there. The heated river water was soothing and helped relax the tension that had built over the last forty-eight hours. If it weren’t for protocol I would pester about our uninvited guest. Or take a nap. I don’t know if I can sleep with this cocktail in my blood.

Now I was as clean and relaxed as I could be. I could hear the rattle through the metal of gunfire impacting the hull. It was worrying to hear it this far in the ship, however, nopony was calling for me to run out to help. I knew better than to just run out without orders when things were this fucked up. Despite being as far away from the action as I was now, I changed back into my normal barding and salvaged the radio equipment from my shattered helmet. If something came up inside the ship I could help respond without feeling like I had the grace of a brick flying through the air. I also doubted we would be going back outside all too soon; our armor had to be replaced.

Listening in I heard Vimes continue to coordinate things with a deftness and calmness I hadn’t thought possible. In the time I had taken to shower we had managed to stall the push into the town, but we weren’t in a position to push back the attackers. I looked at my gear and saw the inflatable rings Winter had teased me with. While swimming upstream wasn’t the easiest thing to do, it could let a few of us get in a position to decapitate the attack and maybe end this.

I just need to get a team. Winter is a no-go, not with that concussion. Ocean is still in recovery. The healing potion may have healed her wounds but she lost blood and that means she’s going to be out of energy. I thought to myself as I trotted to the radio room. I could already hear the constant chatter of incoming and outgoing reports so I clicked my radio off to keep any chance of interference to a minimum.

“Moonlight.” Constable greeted me with a nod as I entered the room before turning his focus back to the map. Caps and bits were shuffled around for estimated positions of ponies around us. Caps for the attackers, bits for us.

“Constable,” I replied in kind to my superior. I regarded the table. I was no strategic genius, but it looked like we were definitely outnumbered. “Is this a time for stupid ideas or a time for hunkering down?” I asked.

Constable regarded me for a minute. “Depends on the idea.”

I looked at the table. With the lack of caps around the river to the north I saw the point we could thrust a metaphorical dagger to cut the enemy’s supply line, possibly even their leadership. “Well, I know upriver isn’t the most friendly ground to trot through thanks to the local plant life. So a few of us swim up the river, come up on land here, and hit them on the flank. We steal their heavy weapons, if any are left, then fire them into the rear before making a run for the river?” I offered.

Constable frowned and chuckled. “If we had ponies to spare.” He drew a line with his hoof of a path to take. “That might be possible, but I think they’re out of heavy ordinance given the lack of any more rocket attacks.” He offered. “We have no confirmed location for a leader either so no cloak and dagger. Get some rest. I’ll keep it in mind in case the situation changes.” Constable said, his voice carried that firmness of an order without the need to make it one. I gave him a nod and found a quiet out-of-the-way place to lie down for a few hours. It was hard to sleep with that cocktail in my blood.

-=O=-

At some point, I had dozed off, but when I woke up it was to a face I hadn’t seen in a while. He was one of our older squads. Sea Serpent was his name and one of our resident hippogryphs, and he was part of the group that had taken the name “The Buckshots”. Generally, we sent them out to clear raider camps instead of hiring mercs; they were cheaper and they were seasoned.

I let out a small yawn. “Sea?” I asked as I wondered why he, of all the folks on the ship, was the one waking me up.

“Yep. We got a chance to put your plan in motion. Cross got hurt so we don't have our medic.” Sea explained. “So, since nopony else with medical and combat as well as technical skills is free…” He smiled as he picked up my stuff. “Tonight you’re prancing with the Buckshots.” With that, he set my saddlebacks on my back.

I snorted. “As if we haven’t done this dance before.” I shook my head as I got up.

He pulled out a Sparkle Cola. “Here, have a little wake me up.” He explained. I took it and bit the cap off. I was never a big fan of the carrot flavor of normal Sparkle Cola but the caffeine was welcome. He set down the rest of my gear and I realized I wasn’t getting a minute to wake up before we went. Instead, my opportunity to wake up before we left was while we made our way to the top deck.

“Alright, let me just get the radio set to the right channel,” I said as I switched the headset on flicking the dial to the Buckshot’s channel. Sea tightened my saddlebags while I checked the rest of my gear. I was still a bit startled with how fast things were going, but at the same time, Sea and the rest weren’t known for letting a chance slip through their hooves. I remembered the other times I had worked beside them though it was more a case of Ocean, Winter, and I spotting something and calling it in. We were told to keep an eye on things while the place got hit by Buckshot himself and the rest of the team.

Once we were on the deck I was thankful for the slight tilt the ship was on from being beached; we had some solid cover as we went from the bridge tower to the side. I saw the other three members of the team. They had also decided to take a lighter load for this dip in the river. I noticed the ropes over the side of the deck.

“There you are Sea, found us a replacement medic?” Buckshot asked.

“Yep, she didn’t even protest.” Sea laughed. “Alright, Wraps, Blaze, let’s get moving. Wraps, I’ll make certain Moonlight here doesn’t float away.” I looked at the two, Under Wraps and Sea Serpent were relatives and both were hippogryphs.

It dawned upon me why Sea was going to be the one holding onto me, Wraps was generally the forward observer of the group. Sea on the other hoof (Claw? Talon?) was more broad framed and built for the loud brute force methods, which meant he was ideal for dragging me against the current upstream. Plus this meant that the group’s scout wouldn’t be bogged down managing their medic.

We climbed over the edge of the boat on the ropes; it was too far down to just jump. I realized how much more dangerous this was once we were part way down as the only illumination we had was the burning wild grass on the far side of the river. The smoke hung over the water itself as we descended, like a morning mist.

Once in the water, I felt a claw grab my right foreleg and Sea gave me a grin. “Hold on.” That was all he said before we began going upriver. I had never experienced how fast a hippogryph could swim but now I regret having wasted the water for the shower a few hours ago. I was thankful we were on this side of the Seamane range. The water here wasn’t radioactive, unlike those further inland. We still had weird plants and animals. Of note were the giant tubular plant structures that glowed a light blue at night and smelled of death, which we called corpse trees. They seemed to lure in bloatsprites and other carrion eaters with their scent and trap them in their long tube trunks.

We came ashore north of the grove of these corpse trees. The ground was soft and peaty as we skirted further north than I had thought we would. We were going far wider than the positions I had heard being called but, I was the new pony here. I also wasn’t going to question the leader otherwise I’d have to start calling the shots. I was here as the replacement medic with a gun, a really mean, long-range gun. I guessed they wanted me at a distance to keep me from getting unwanted attention.

Wraps went ahead and I quickly lost track of her in the brush. Buckshot and Blaze were ahead while Sea and I formed the back of the square as we cut through the vegetation. Ferns, berries, evergreens, some glowing fungus. It was different from the usual grass that I patrolled to the west and south over the dunes. Then again, the beachside was a much safer area to patrol, you had a much longer line of sight there than here on the north side of town.

Wraps radioed in the position of a makeshift camp that had a few ponies in it; we caught up to her a few minutes later. The camp was lit by eerie blue candles which rubbed me the wrong way. Raiders would usually just set some barrels on fire. The whole place felt off. From the candles to the little windchimes, the way the camp was laid out and its materials, all of it seemed to scratch at my mind. The ponies themselves were clearly raiders, though they probably had picked up some kind of new madness, that was all.

Sea offered a grenade launcher as a solution, Wraps pointed to her suppressed rifle. Argent offered a different option with knocking over a candle and spreading the fire to the tents; it was more subtle, and effective. Of course, it wasn’t just a suggestion for her. She had already gone ahead and executed her plan without our input anyway, sound plan or otherwise.

Ponies spilled out into the open and were in a panic as they tried to put out the fires and protect the ammo dumps, valuable information.

Buckshot and Argent ran into the fray and began the process of slaying. I winced at the display of carnage; shotguns at close range and hoof-to-hoof combat had never been something I could stomach. I pulled the rifle out and laid down suppressing fire to prevent ponies from fleeing or retrieving weapons as Wrap called targets for me to go after. I was thankful she was catching what I didn’t see. Sea however had moved to securing weapons while laying down even more suppressive fire. The revised plan, as I had gathered it, was to torch the camp, kill any semblance of organization on the backlines, and work on disrupting any possible supply line. Given how quickly the ponies were breaking, it was working.

Snap.

I rolled to my side and pointed my hoof with its pistol holstered on it to where I heard the noise while Wraps flew off. Hope you give me some covering fire.

A figure came out of the forest and I fired knowing we should have been the only friendly out here. I’d patch anypony up who was on our side, though I doubted it: no declarations ahead of time.

Two rounds went low, the third round hit home in the chest, the fourth went high and grazed the head, fifth and sixth went high and into the woods. I hadn’t properly accounted for recoil while firing from the holster on my hoof. The stallion screamed and charged at me. I rolled onto my hooves and moved to fall back, but he was faster.

I pulled the knife from my shoulder sheath as he caught me. His black cloak of his pulled back as he hit me. The fires behind us illuminated his loose pallid flesh. His eyes looked wrong, and some kind of brand was seared below his eye. His magic was a deep blue. I clenched my teeth around the handle of the combat knife, scraped up dirt and pebbles with a hoof, and tossed them into his face.

In his anger, he made wet squelching noises from his mouth as he cleared his eyes. I lowered my stance preparing to fight hoof to hoof, his odd noises making me stay back. Then he exploded. My ears rang from the pressure wave. My knife hit the ground as I spat it out, swore, and wiped the blood off of my goggles. I was already caked in gore again. Fucking great.

A claw gripped my shoulder. I looked up and saw Wrap with concern on her face. I tapped my ears to try to tell her I couldn’t hear for the moment and she nodded. She pointed me to a bush and I nodded. I figured it was a place for me to take cover so I did, taking my long arm with me.

The camp was pretty much cleared out at this point. The rest of the Buckshots had done their job. My hearing came back after a few minutes though the constant high-pitched whine from the damage remained. However, that was preferable to what could have been. What was that pony going to do? Did he have his tongue removed? Whatever, focus on the now. Not like I could check his body. He’s kind of off-red paint over the grass now. Ugh, and me. Fuck I can’t wait to get back and wash off again. Okay. Don’t think about the fact that I’m caked in fine powder from a pony.

I shuffled a little and aimed at the camp to focus on any raider coming towards us. I felt a rush of air behind me and cursed my deafness, barely noticing Sea and Wraps vanishing into the night sky. I then started to see explosions in town a few moments later. The plan had evolved to just carpet bombing the battlefield with the mortar shells recovered from the raiders.

That explains that.

Argent and Buckshot trotted up to me and Argent offered me her hoof. I took it and got up as she hoofed me a healing potion and tapped my head. I felt it was a waste but then again having someone being half deaf was a liability. I swallowed and was grateful for my hearing to return without the constant ringing.

“Our backup medic needed a medic.” Argent teased at my plight.

“To be fair, it was only due to Sea firing basically point blank into her face.” Buckshot chuckled.

“Only because I failed to place my shot. Also Wraps flew off and left me exposed.” I groused.

“She tends to do that, she’s not used to having to protect somepony. Should have had you and Sea stick together.” Buckshot sighed, and he gave me a ruffle of my mane as I reloaded my pistol. “You didn’t do that bad though but, don’t count on getting added to the team.” He winked. “Maybe get some more training with that fancy hoof shooting. It’s a good surprise trick.”

I just rolled my eyes. “Thanks and I’ll think about it. Right now though I’m just hoping Winter and Ocean aren’t too banged up.” I looked at the two ponies before me. “So what’s next?”

“We need to run.” Buck said and hit me on the flank as he ran past. Argent smiled and began to run as well. I turned and followed suit as we headed back towards the river. Our two fliers were fine for exfiltration and I hazarded a guess we were going back to the river to take a relaxing soak to Saint Clover. Plus we didn’t want to be where we had just been when the stragglers started retreating north.

We ran back through the corpse tree grove. The stench as always made my eyes water, the buzz of carrion eaters filling the air as they flitted about. It was a good thing that the plants here had that nice soft glow so we could see the critters instead of enjoying a blind run through the whole damn mess. Or worse, by having to turn our horns into fucking insect-attracting beacons to light our path.

The insects had grown beyond anything I had seen in the surviving books I had managed to rescue over the years. I could see marginal relationships between them and pre-war species, though: Beetles, wasps, millipedes, pseudoscorpions, the errant bird or rat, bloatsprites.

We finally hit the river and half swam, half rode the river current back to Saint Clover. I was thankful to get the blood off of me before it fully dried. The distant detonations had stopped from the battlefield, but there continued to be bursts of gunfire. Radio chatter continued as our teams moved up with cover fire from the air by Sea and Wraps; they were working on clearing what remained of our attackers.

From what I could gather, the survivors of the attackers had fallen back after the two hippogryphs had flown over, tossing mortar rounds on their heads and throwing landmines like frisbees. It was a good guess that the attackers had planned to lock us down once they got close enough to use those landmines. We would have been stuck in the boat while they could just entrench themselves all around us.

We climbed back onto land just behind the palisade that had marked the border of what had been or was being redeveloped within the town. Buck radioed ahead so we wouldn’t get shot as we headed for the ship.

“Alright, everyone is in one piece and it took us only half an hour to do it. Now they’re falling back.” Buck said, offering me his hoof to bump; I took the chance. “No idea if we hit a leader or something, but those mines they had planned to use sure bit them in the ass.” He chuckled. “Go get some rest, you’re off duty.”

I nodded. “Thanks for letting me ride along with you lot, it’s been real.” I thanked Buck and Argent.

“Keep it up and we can retire.” Argent chortled, “Eventually. It’s too much fun going out there and kicking ass.”

I regarded the mare; I was of a different cut than these ponies, I wasn’t a thrill seeker, but I could respect them. “I’ll try to not outshine you, yet,” I smirked. “Though I don’t think I can shine brighter than Argent.” I laughed and Buck joined in with me.

“And you know it.” She said posing with one forehoof up doing her best to look regal while still dripping wet, before flash drying herself with her magic. “Nothing shines brighter than my flame in the night.”

I rolled my eyes as her flash of light left a splotch of discoloration in my eyes. “Would be useful to know how to do that though.”

“Tell me about it,” Buckshot said. “At least she shares her talents.” Argent then dried us both off with her masterful control of fire magic. “Ah, nice and warm. Even if it makes your coat fuzzy and mane frizzy.”

I snorted as my mane managed to keep its wavy nature through the flash of heat, though my coat was now fluffy. “You do know that it just means your mane is naturally frizzy, right?” I teased him.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ve been to the interior enough to know that.” He sighed as he pulled out a hoofbrush to quickly tame his mane before it got in the way of his eyes. “How about you get on going and go get some rest? You and your whole squad are relieved and have been relieved of duty for hours after all.” He smirked. “I guess I should congratulate you for a job well done for a pony who has technically been combat-ineffective this whole time.” He laughed.

I rolled my eyes at him. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll go home, need to be rested so I can help out tomorrow. Going to be plenty to do then.”

He nodded. “We’ll handle things out here. Plus with how long it’s been the reserves are ready to go to clean up too. Now the other heads of the ship aren’t complaining about the hole in the side of it while nopony is within a mile of the damn boat.”

“First I’ll check on my friends, then some rest. Thanks for the short adventure.” I laughed in return.

“Thanks for being our fifth.” He said, giving a nod of his head, I returned it before I trotted up the gangway. The other two went back into town. I kept listening but cut my mic feed. I went off to poke around in Medical.

Medical was a mess of ponies resting, more being rushed in to get treated. Suture, the guard’s main doctor saw me and pulled me along.

“Moonlight! Oh, I am glad you’re here! I could use another hoof.” Suture said as he tossed an apron to me.

“I was more looking to check on Winter and Ocean,” I replied as I pulled the apron off my face.

“Oh. Well, they are okay. They just need some more rest.” He said as he trotted past me pushing a cart full of medical supplies. “They’re off in the barracks resting. I need to keep these beds open for ponies in need of more attention.”

I nodded. “Alright, let me get something in me to help me focus.” I grabbed some Sparkle Cola and Mint-als. I didn’t like relying on chems but duty called and it was only for a short time.

The hours went by, one bled into the next as I triaged and applied the best medical care that I could. As the Mint-als wore off Suture refused to let me take another dose to keep helping out. Instead, he asked me to go home and rest. He had concerns about addiction to Mint-al’s and I was showing the withdrawal symptoms even if I wasn’t fully addicted.

It was a trudge home as I walked the halls, slipping past ponies carrying supplies. I walked past the hole in the ship, where I could see ponies working on figuring out how best to patch it up. Thankfully nopony had lived there; it had been a popular lounge and now it would have to be refurbished, assuming everypony felt lightning wouldn’t strike twice. Luckily for me, home was on the other side of the ship.

When finally I got home nopony was awake and the lights were off. I lit my horn and fumbled my way to my room. Once there, I peeled off my barding. There was a bit of blood staining it but I didn’t care right now. I took a quick shower, feeling clammy as I came down from several drug highs. I toweled myself off before I laid face down in bed.

Tomorrow there would be a lot to aid in cleaning up but tomorrow was another day and those problems weren’t mine right now and I would be damned if I faced them without proper sleep this time. This time, I was going to look after Future Moony.

When I have money again I should get some nicer sheets, these are getting really worn out. I thought to myself as I drifted off.

Congratulations Level up! Welcome to Level 2 and your first perk: First in Class, you took the time to study hard and learn from those who had the time to teach to help you go further. You get +5 to Medicine and Survival per rank!