Through Hell's Gate

Twilight found herself gradually waking up, first came the feeling of stifling heat, then she could feel that she was laid on a bed of some manner, though it wasn’t that comfortable. She could also hear strange music playing.
Opening her eyes, she was nearly blinded by bright sunlight filtering through from outside, looking around once her eyes had adjusted she seemed to be in a small room of some sort, with rusted metal panelling interspersed by windows, the glass was covered on the outside with a metal mesh that sent patterns of shadows into the room. to her right was some sort of long metal box with various little odds and ends on a small shelf just above it. On the ceiling was a bunch of straps arranged in odd positions, as if to hold several long objects.

Glancing down to the bottom of the bed revealed there to be an opening, outside of which she could make out smoke rising, with what looked like a human sat to one side, tending to it. She cautiously began to crawl her way towards the opening. As what was outside the opening came into view she could see the human better. It was currently tending to a metal pot filled with some liquid, and was dressed in dark, dusty clothes that looked like they had been in use for a great amount of time. Spike was sat opposite the human, he must have heard her because he turned to look and immediately a smile lit up his face.

“Twilight!” he exclaimed happily, getting up and rushing over to her, only to stop short due to the obvious height difference of the room she was in and the ground. “Are you ok?”

“I should be fine” she said, before looking around, all she could see for miles around was open desert with some hills in the distance “Where are we?”

“Beats me” Spike said with a shrug, before jerking a thumb at the creature sat at the campfire, tending to a cooking pot “that thing doesn’t speak Equestrian”

“What do y-” she was interrupted by the creature

“Mơr̵̡̛n̶i̶̕n͘,͘ ̷̸ẁ̧͘a̕n̸t̵̕ ̷o̢͏w̡t̷͡ ̨t͝͠͡à͏̀ ͞è̕a̴͘'̕?” it asked in what seemed to be a male’s voice, though in no language Twilight understood.

“Uh…do you speak Equestrian?” she asked, the creature looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face.

“A̵͡h͡ ͠dó͢u̴n̵̛'̕͜t͠ kn̡a ̕҉l͢͝i' ̛̕wh̸a͡'̛͏ ̨̨t' ̀'ȩ͝͡l̨͘l͏̨ ͜t̴͡ha̷s̵̡ ́͜͜sa̡͞y̵i̧͞ņ̵.̷” he then put his hand into a pouch that was hanging off the side of his waist and pulled out thin, reddish-brown strip of something before standing up and walking over to twilight, he then put placed the strip in front off her. “E͟à͜'̨͞͏, ̷̛͞th̕͜ą̀'̴͟i͞l͏ ͜f̕͜ee̴͢͠l͢͞͏ ̧͘b̡͢҉e̢͡͞t̡̛t͢a҉̨.͜͢͠”

“What is it?” Twilight asked, looking at Spike

“I don’t know, but I think it’s supposed to be food”

“Pemmican” the creature said, gesturing to the strip as he sat back down by the campfire. Twilight went to levitate it towards her, only for her horn to spark suddenly. In response the creature quickly pulled out a strange looking object and pointing at her faster than she could blink, though she didn’t know what it was, she understood that it was a weapon of some manner, maybe like those hoof-held canons that had recently been invented. The air between them suddenly became very tense, after a few moments the creature slowly lowered the weapon and resumed tending to the campfire

“Uh…Twilight, are you sure it’s a good idea for us to be sticking around with this thing?” Spike whispered.

“I don’t think we have much choice” Twilight responded, looking at the desert surrounding them. “it’s either go with him, or starve out here” she then dragged the food-strip towards her with a hoof before tediously attempting to pick it up with both hooves. After a few attempts she succeeded and began chewing away at it, noting the odd texture.

For sometime a silence passed between the three of them, with Spike having eventually climbed up to sit with Twilight. He had explained to her that the “room” she slept in was actually the vehicle that had nearly hit them last night and that she had been asleep for all of last night and half of today. Meanwhile the creature had finished preparing whatever it was he had prepared, drank some and then began to pack it away into a large metal looking tin.

He had almost finished packing away the rest of the cooking equipment when he stopped suddenly just as Twilight began to hear a droning, the creature muttered something sharply under his breath before kicking out the fire and loosely bundling things into the back of the vehicle.

“G̸̛ȩr͠r̵̢͠ ̴̴i͝'̧̛.̛͘͟!” he said, slamming the door behind them them as they climber further into the vehicle. He then dashed around to the side of the vehicle and climbing it, a few moments later a rough burbling noise began to vibrate the vehicle as it lurched forward and onto a smooth surface. Leaving Twilight and Spike huddled together in the back scared and confused.

As I sped down the deserted road I began to panic slightly, not only was my life in danger, but I had two tagalongs when I really shouldn’t have stopped to help. The car was quickly accelerating, its off-road absorbing any bumps in the roads and creating a ride so smooth you could paint a picture. After about 5 minutes I could see a dust cloud in my rear-view mirrors, just as miss purple climbed into the front and sat in the passenger seat to the left of me, looking into the wing mirror with concern. Grabbing the old CB radio I began to contact some fellow tribe members, the aerial on the top of my car should have enough range to reach them.

“mayday mayday, this is Rue Britannia inbound from a scouting run, I'm about 50 clicks inbound towards Haven city on the south road doing 90 with some bandits on my tail” I said “I also have some tagalongs with me, think you have anyone nearby who could lend a hand?” I soon got a response.

“copy that, Rue Britannia” said a female voice there was a pause “there’s a patrol a few clicks ahead of you, I’ll send them your way. Just hang tight till then”

“Roger that” I said, before putting the mic down. Over the roar of my own car’s engine I could begin to hear the engines of my pursuers. Setting the car into cruise control I grabbed the gun which held the most ammo, in this case a cross between a rifle and a revolver, capable of holding no less than ten 50-cal rounds. I then called over to Miss Purple. “HEY!” the horse looked at me with a questioning look
“dach?” she asked, I held up my gun.

“This! ten shots! bang! Ten!” I then motioned ten using my fingers, I then showed her how to reload it, before pointing at her little lizard friend clutching onto the seat behind her “I’ll need him to reload it! RELOAD!” she nodded, seeming to understand what I was saying.

“dach! Zhen boom, ar…relod” she said, mimicking what I had said. I nodded. I then focused back on the road. Our pursuers were now much closer about 50 foot back, so I began to push the engine harder. Now we were doing about 110-115, but they were faster and soon caught up.

Driving alongside us I could see that they were driving what looked like trophy trucks from before the war; custom built vehicles designed to go off road and go fast whilst doing it. Even now I could see the suspension of their trucks moving up and down like the pistons of an engine to smooth out the ride. Their V8 petrol engines roaring over the burble of my V6. On the back of the trucks I could see raiders armed with rifles, their skin tanned with years of being out in the sun.

“That car’s ours now!” one of them shouted, firing his rifle. the round pinged off the bonnet with a loud twang.

“Bugger off, you cunt!” I shouted back. Setting the steering wheel to dead center I pushed a large pin in, locking the steering. Aiming the rifle and pulling the trigger, the gun jolted back violently and the round fired with a loud bang. Meanwhile Miss Purple and Lizard Boy shouted exclamations of surprise. The round hit its mark and his shoulder exploded into a mess of blood, bone and gore, splattering the side of the truck causing him to let out a scream of pain.

Next I aimed for the truck on the other side of us, repositioning the rifle so I could fire through the car and out the other window. Miss Purple gasped and ducked quickly, screaming as I fired, aiming at the driver, and covering her ears. This time the shot missed, ricocheting off the roof of the truck. In retaliation the guy on the back of the truck fired a couple of rounds. One glancing off of the bonnet and another hitting the passenger side door, Miss Purple let out a yelp and began clutching her waist. “Shit!”

“Ah! Freck!” she swore, I didn’t need to translate what she said to get the message. She was obviously hit, in one quick motion I placed the rifle in my lap, pulled out the locking pin and yanked the steering wheel, the car swerved to the right, hitting the truck next to me and it swerved trying to correct, falling behind. Returning to the road I took off the bandanna I usually had hung around my neck in case of a sand storm, pressed it onto miss Purple’s wound, picked lizard boy up from behind the passenger seat and showing him how to apply pressure to the wound. With that sorted I grabbed the radio and practically barked down the radio.

“what’s the ETA on that backup? I have a wounded passenger! Shot to the abdomen!” suddenly I heard an air horn sound off in the distance.
“What’s this I hear about you having a party without telling me!” a familiar voice called over the radio. Looking to the right I could see a dust cloud approaching rapidly. I yanked on my own horn to acknowledge before grabbing my rifle and taking aim once more.

“This is for Purple” I muttered, aiming for a headshot and firing at the truck who’s rifleman had hit the horse. The rifle fired and the driver’s head exploded in a shower of blood and brain matter. the body slumped and the vehicle fell back, hitting two trucks behind it and beginning a chain reaction. I quickly turned and aimed out of the driver-side window, only to see the rifleman already taking aim. Just as he was about to fire I saw a jet of blood shoot out of his head, before he slumped into the back of the pickup. Using this opportunity, I fired at the driver, hitting him in the chest. He was unfortunately still alive so I aimed again and fired. This time the bullet flew true and hit him square in the head.

The truck dropped back to reveal a Toyota pickup with a rifle wielding woman stood on the back. I nodded to her and she nodded back. With the arrival of reinforcements the raiders began to fall back, a small group of our vehicles turned off in order to give chase. With the danger passed I took noticed of Lizard boy’s worried ramblings and looked over to see miss purple seemed to be going pale. Placeing a hand on the cloth I pressed down to try and stem the bleeding “Shit, don’t you die on me, and most definitely not in my car” locking the steering I grabbed the radio handset.

“we need to speed this up, I’ve got a passenger dying on me in here” I said “we need to have medics ready when we arrive there” I heard the roar of an engine and an old muscle car pulled up alongside on the right-hand side before the driver looked across to see the passengers.
“What the hell are those?” he said through the radios “you said passengers, not damn mutated animals”

“It’s complicated” I replied “I’ll explain once this is over” the next 10 minutes or so were incredibly tense. With Miss Purple close to falling unconscious, and Lizard boy having grown increasingly distressed. As we approached the gates of the city I yanked out a pattern on the horn which alerted the gatekeepers to an injured person requiring medical attention. Pulling into the city square just beyond the entrance I could see what amounted to a doctor these days rushed forward with a makeshift stretcher being pushed like a wheel barrow. Jumping out I rushed around to the other side.

“What have we got?” the doctor asked.
“special case, small caliber gun-shot to the leg, bleeding out” I said, opening the door to reveal the two occupants inside “I’m not sure what the hell she is though, but she’s defiantly intelligent, albeit foreign speaking. Same with her friend, though he’s not injured” the doctor stared at them in confusion for a moment, before a determined look flashed across his face.

“I’m gonna need your help with this” he said “lift her onto the stretcher for me” I did as told and he immediately rushed off to the medical hut, with myself and one purple lizard chasing after him.