Fallout Equestria: Raider's Rise

The light in my eyes blinded me for nearly thirty seconds.  I held my pipbuck up to cover my eyes and lowered it as the bright pain faded.  I wasn’t the first to take a step out of the tunnel from the stable, and I wasn’t the last, but I kept walking with hint of pride as my vision cleared.  A face was peering at me and made me hop back into another body.  “Oh my, um, hello?” I said meekly.  “I wasn’t expecting to meet anypony so-” I was stopped by a heavy shove from behind and I stumbled forward and stopped with my chin on the pony that was in front of me.

His clothes stank of things I couldn’t identify, and poop.  I looked around and saw five more rotting toothed faces looking at me.  I didn’t feel comfortable all of a sudden.  “Um, I’m sorry, your friend bumped me-”

“Aw, look fella’s, she’s nuzzlin’ me!” the one I was removing myself from shouted.  He bit into my mane too hard and I shouted in pain as I was shoved from behind again.  The pusher was holding my flanks as I was pushed again, this time his forelimb brushed against my teats and I yelped, looking back.

I was being mounted.  I bucked him off and turned to run away only to trip over a skeleton.  Bleached nearly white by the white and grey sky.  I looked into the empty eye sockets of a unicorn pony and stumbled, landing chest first into some muddy water.  I heard my pipbuck start clicking as I was surrounded by the ponies.

“We gotta runner!” one of the hollered as I was bucked, hard, in the side.  I coughed as I rolled to my side and looked into a cracked hoof, in desperate need of a filing, as it rushed toward my face.  I knew this wasn’t going to be the experience I was prepared for at all.  The hoof connected and I felt it as though I were in SATS.

Time slowed to a crawl as I saw a flash of white and felt teeth popping loose from my gums.  I felt the sting of the hoof as it ripped some of my flesh and I know I heard them laughing and cheering as I fell flat into the water with a splash that covered me with irradiated wetness.  My pipbuck clicked. Clicked.  Clicked.  That was all I could hear as I gasped a mouthful of water and sat up enough to cough my lungs clear and my mouth free of blood.

The laughing.  The laughing that they made at me was terrible enough, but the stench of their breath was enough to rust the walls in the stable with a single breath.  The stable!  Maybe I could make it back, maybe I could get back in… maybe they’d let me back in and fight these monster ponies back and heal me.  I’d be in the embrace of my stallion in the medbay and before I knew it life would go back to the way it was.

        I wasn’t being mounted in the disgusting water, held down with a hoof on each of my limbs and my chin being held up by the strength in my neck only.  I wasn’t being violated, he wasn’t…

        I shook my head and looked around at the ponies around me.  Powder was talking with Blue.  I don’t care what his name is, if I’m gonna be called Cunt Swatter, he can be Blue Balls.  With a yawn I stretched my limbs and stood up taking a few steps toward the firepit that was burnt down.  I looked at the ponies around; they were just having fun so, what’d that mean about my leadership?  About how they saw me?

        “Where’s the old boss?” I asked openly.  A couple looked at me and their ears fell while the rest ignored me.  Colts.  When will they learn?  A mare only has so far to be pushed before she breaks, and I broke in the wrong way.  I pulled my hammer free and swung it down hard onto the knee of a mare that had ignored me.  It wasn’t enough to break her leg, but she’d feel it for a while.

        As she screamed I turned the hammer to the clawed end and held it next to my head and glared at a stallion, singling him out. “Where, is the old, boss?” I asked slowly, making sure he knew he heard me over her cursing and grunting.  I was impressed she didn’t scream and cry like I would have, but that’s what a life out here will do to anypony.

        “He’s by the watering hole, we left him to die in the sun.  Should be about there,” he smiled.  Gosh I wanted to smash his teeth in… what was left of them.  He saw the look in my eye and closed his mouth and grimaced. “Ma’am.”

        I put away my hammer and pushed my way through the crowd of ponies to the edge of the encampment, then looked around and behind me.  The ponies respected me?  Why, because I was a monster?  I felt my heart drop a little as I looked around and saw a pony in the distance lying about.  Might be him, I figured, so I went for a walk.

        I caught up to the blinded and dying former boss, looking down at him as his ears slowly turned to me.  “Here to kill me, or rape me again?  Whatever you got ain’t nothin’ to me.”

        “No,” I said quietly enough to make him freeze and look over to my with empty eyes oozing black and white fluids, “I’m here to see you before you die… I’m sorry.”

        He rasped a cough and laughed. “For what?  You followed your instincts and took my place, good luck staying alive for a week,” he coughed dryly.

        “I don’t care, I shouldn’t have hurt you and I don’t need your forgiveness.  I just had to say it.”

        “...What?  I...” He fell silent and I left him like that and I swear I heard him forgive me, but I didn’t care.  I was a murderer now.  Two ponies had died by my hooves and there wasn’t any going back, I was a raider now.  A monster.  A broken mare who would be dead soon, by the hooves another pony who wanted my job.  I stopped and looked back to the blinded and infected pony behind me and shook my head.  The least I could offer him was some peace.  I returned to the encampment and told a random mare to give him some attention before he died.

        She didn’t hesitate to call me every version of bitch I could think of and a few new ways, before she left me and did what I told her to.  Sex was as good as currency, I guess.  Might as well let them all know I’m willing to trade if I have to.  These aren’t normal mares, these mares do this all the time and for whatever they need.  I know how the world works out here, I’ve learned even though I was nailed and tied to a floor, raped and…

Stop it, brain.

        I listened, I learned, I know a lot more than they think I do.  I can use that to my advantage until I can get home to my stable.  Maybe get a new life in some place that’s safe and peaceful, with farmable land and a nice creek with fresh water.  Ugh, great, now I’m fantasizing about nothing.

These ponies are simple and violent.  I can’t change them, but I can control them until I can figure out somewhere to hide away.  There’s gotta be a garden or paradise out here that I can slip into and-

        “Hey, boss?” A mare called to me, snapping me back to the horrible reality I was in.  “We got a caravan coming by soon!  You want us ta take it?!” she grinned with several missing teeth.  I never thought I’d see a pony’s tongue through their teeth like that.

        “Talk to your sergeant first.  Follow the chain of command or I’ll break your knees and leave you to die like the old boss!”

        She grinned and nodded to me, then turned and cantered to the leader of her group who slapped her for whatever reason and that led to a fight.  I turned away and went to my spot, a pillow that wasn’t too rotten and Blue by my side.  I watched the fight for a couple minutes before I actually got bored and told a nearby pony to stop the fight.

        A small gang jumped in the melee and the fight was over.  A few good bites, a couple good cuts, and a bit of an ear was missing from the mare I’d sent to her leader was it.  The sergeant, Low Chopper, what was with these names?  He came to me and spit her ear at my hooves and I took a step back as it flopped to a stop under me, between my forelegs.

        I looked back to him and listened as he began to explain what the mare told me; the caravans were coming.  It was up to me to attack them or let them pass.  I could tell from the look on his face that he was ready to fight me on the spot for my position, or he’d poison me.

        Whatever the case, I had to attack the caravan to spare my life.  But how to do it?  I had to plan.

        “They’ll be here soon, what’s the plan… boss?”

        Crap.  I had a few minutes, not hours, to plan.  I just let nature take its course, I guess. “Capture them, do what you must to them and bring the supplies here.  And, let two of them go so they can tell their friends about us.”

        “About ‘us’?” he asked.

        “Yes, we’re going to become organized and take over the area.  No pony will be able to travel through for free.  They’ll have to pay, or die.”  I turned my side to him and looked to the barren horizon.  He turned and returned to his gathered peers and a minute later they organized into squads and left the encampment to do the horrible deeds that they did.

        I made several mistakes with my little speech.  First, was that I didn’t tell them to not rape and maul the survivors, the second was how in Tartarus was I supposed to take over the region?  Random thoughts began to flow through my mind including how I was now missing teeth and how I missed my friends.  I should have been focusing on survival and not being monsters, but instead I’m here letting my mind wander.

I just want to get revenge on the colts that hurt me.  I didn’t see them here, maybe they’re wandering the lands and bragging about me.  I’ll never forget the five that took me in that irradiated puddle the first time.  The taste of their semen was enough to make me want to vomit, but I just started being toothy.  I know my stallion didn’t like when I let my teeth brush his member, so I just let it happen until they stopped.  And when they kept trying I let them know my mouth wasn’t a toy and bit one of them.  I wish I could have taken it off, but a few scratches was enough for both of us.

I’m glad I have flat teeth, but just once having sharp teeth would have been nice.

        Stop distracting me!

        I stomped my hoof on the floor hard and looked around.  Apparently I’d made a bit of a scene, somehow, and all eyes were on me.  I looked at Powder and she had her mouth open in stunned silence, Blue was the same.  “What?” was all I could ask.

        A stallion came up to me and reached to place a hoof on me in a comforting way and the hammer met the frog of his hoof and all I could do was scream in a panic for him to not touch me as the hammer swung in my magic wildly at him.  He fell back and ponies grabbed me with magic to restrain me to no effect.  I was tackled by Powder and the hammer flung from my magical grip as I thudded to the floor, her scrawny weight on me.

        “Boss, what the hell?!  You can’t kill every colt we have!”

        “Why not?!  It’s what they deserve!  I’ll get them, I’ll get them ALL!  Every single one that hurt me will pay!”

        “You sound crazed,” Blue mumbled, “and that’s what we need!” he shouted, “A crazy boss is better than a mean boss!  Hear hear!”  The crowd changed from hapless grinning at my wanton violence to a short cheer for Blue’s words.  “For too long we’ve had bosses that’ve been male and mean, but none willing to take risks!  We have a boss that just may be what we need!  Let’s hear it for out boss!”

        The crowd went into a murmur before one pony shouted my name. “Boss Cunt Swatter!”

        The entire camp roared with that goddess awful name and I was branded Cunt Swatter ever since.  Boss Cunt Swatter.  What a wasteland name.  Filthy, just like me.  I let my mind wander on what my mothers and father would say to my name now and sighed, felt a single tear escape and sting like a bitch, then I got up and grabbed my hammer, placing it back into my strap.  I looked at the stallion I’d beaten and his broken forelimb he was cradling.  A couple good bruises were forming under his brown coat and who knows how bad he was hurting where I didn’t see…

        “Get him cleaned and healed, I need every body we can get.  We’re cleansing the area of all life that isn’t pony and isn’t us.  Gather patrols and kill everything, loot it for all you can, and bring it all back here.  We need everything we can get, so don’t waste any time.”

        I didn’t know who I was talking to but I heard several grunts in agreement before I heard hooves clopping and shuffling away.  I stared into the wasteland around us and to the humping forms in the distance and remembered how quickly everything had changed.  I prayed for my friends to be alive and well, or dead and spared of this nightmare.  Then I placed myself in the moment and made the hardest choice I think I’d ever made: I needed to be a boss.  A raider boss.

        I went to the makeshift bed that was a few once cardboard boxes and lay upon them, my hammer poked my side so I adjusted myself and lay my head on my forelimbs and took in my apparent fate.  It was still early in the day, the mare that’d let the old boss have one last release was back with her tail low and a sneer on her face at me, and I was ready to sleep for the rest of the year.  It was too much for me, almost.

        I dozed to an uncomfortable sleep, thankful that I wouldn’t be mounted or bothered while I rested my poor mind.  My dreams were of me walking in a field of green grass under a sun that Celestia controlled still, and I saw a bird.  A real bird!  Then I remembered where I was in real life and the grass burnt away, the bird shriveled into ash.  The sun set quickly and glowing clouds took its place.  It wasn’t a nightmare, but it wasn’t pleasant.  I began to walk, wander, and starve to death; alone and forgotten.

        I woke up slowly under a tarp made of tattered plastic and some Brahmin hide to shield me from the sun and smiled.  I looked around and the encampment was nearly empty, save for a few guards I’d love to geld and my two right hoof ponies.  “Thanks,” I said stronger than I had earlier, “I needed that.  And for the cover.”

        “It wasn’t our idea,” Blue said from the side of a barrel he was leaning against nonchalantly, “they respect you.  I haven’t seen it for a while, but you inspire them.  They want to do more than just survive, and you’re giving them a chance to live; even if it is doing little more than the usual.”

        “At least they have guidance,” Powder spoke up from the other side of the barrel.  I didn’t see her, but knew she was there. “They usually have free reign and don’t know what to do.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they let three caravaneers live as a show of mercy.”

        “Better than nothing,” I said to myself.  Time passed and all we did was talk about the territory around us.  I had the old bosses stuff, which was mostly three hundred and forty two caps, several blunt weapons that were crap, a couple guns that were on the verge of breaking and I didn’t trust them, so they were as good as blunt objects, too.

        The one saving grace was some old armor that had seen a lot of wear.  It fit loosely and smelled like a stallion, but it would keep me safe from blunt attacks to my body and stabs to my barrel.  I was still susceptible to bullets, but I wasn’t too worried about that at the moment.  It seemed most weapons were poor quality, except the gun I’d used to blind my predecessor.  I’d wager whoever stole it during my beating of him was grinning.  It was shiny, so it was well kept up and probably the best weapon I’d have seen.

        I wasn’t about to disarm my troops, so once this pony died I’d have it back.  I just had to work with Powder to find out who and send them on a mission with her.  She’d take the weapon and dispose of the thief, problem solved.  I’d have a new gun and be a body short.  Maybe that was a bad idea, in fact, it was a bad idea.  Powder and Blue told me so and I knew it, but sometimes it’s good to hear that an idea is bad before you put it into action.

        Well, I’d have to wait to get my weapon and until then I’d just have to make due.  My first day was almost over and tomorrow I could be challenged for the position.  I didn’t like it, but if I had to be one of those idiots I’d die too soon.  No, I needed to know if my friends were dead.  I was so self focused when I was captured I hadn’t seen or heard too much from the others.  There were six of us, two males and four females.  I saw Silver Glow taken, screaming, around a boulder while the stallions were beaten.  That’s all I remember from before and during my first raping…  No, don’t go there.  I winced as I flashed back to it again.

        I needed a therapist really bad.  But, all I could do was lean on the barrel and talk with the other two about my feelings at the moment, which they listened to and understood.  They let me know that tomorrow from the moment the sun rose I couldn’t talk like that anymore.  If I had an issue it’d have to be taken up in private with a trusted pony, and I understood right away but let her explain why to me.

        I didn’t have the energy to say I was smarter than I looked and they thought.  I wasn’t much for strength and my magic was good enough since I was trained in basic combat and defense as an explorer from the stable, but I was smart and I would use that to my advantage by playing dumb or average.  I was just an average light blue mare with purple mane that happened to get lucky.

        Now I had to keep my position.  Gosh, I feel like I’m rambling more than storytelling, and maybe I am.  It was a lot to go through, you know.  Well, I was surprised to see two Brahmin being led back to the encampment, loaded with stuff and with several beaten ponies in tow.  They didn’t kill them all and it was a great sight to see.

        The Brahmin had two heads, which was creepy as hell, and they were deformed with massive udders that I hoped no pony drank from, but they looked healthy enough.  The stuff they carried was covered, but I knew it was a great haul and there were a half dozen raiders holding guard.  They got near the encampment and stopped, raised their weapons and led the captured over to me.

        “We got ‘em all but three guards.  Two traders were cut free and sent limpin’, but whacha want with the rest?  Can we eat ‘em?!” A mare asked.  I could tell she was joking just by the look on her face, but they couldn’t see her.  They began to weep and tremble and a stallion let his bladder go a little.  It was actually kinda funny to be on this end of it, but I had to keep it professional.

        “Go through their stuff and make sure there’s enough to go around.  Separate the stuff into piles on the tarps they come with before we decide what to do with this lot.  Take your time, ponies, and show these travelers some Raider hospitality,” I said waving a hoof to the captured ponies.  They were lightly beaten and herded away to near the hopefully dead pony that I’d blinded and broken and then mentally tortured.  I imagine my raiders telling them they were going to be next, left to die in the sun after they were blinded and beaten to near death.

        And eaten.  Powder told me that that was a rumor that had to be kept up, more reason to fear all raiders than just the crazy ones.  So, they unloaded the freaky mutated cows and what a haul!  Caps, weapons of all varieties, junk, but not totally useless junk.  There was good condition barding I took right away and food.  It was canned and all, but it was food and there was a lot of it!  I got first pick since I was boss and I took a rifle and all the ammunition that went with it, a few cans of Cram and some Sugar Apple Bombs, and then I took a look over the junk and left almost all of it.  I did take a nice necklace and a toaster… there was some doll that looked like an orange mare bucking something, but I left that.

        Let somepony else play with dolls.