Chapter Two: Raiders

“The world perishes not from raiders and fires, but from hatred, hostility, and all these petty squabbles.”

The morning had been simply perfect for Silver Chain. Waking up beside a beautiful angel like Violet, not that she would ever admit it, felt... nice. She smiled. She genuinely smiled for reasons she did not entirely comprehend. She may even have had a bit of a spring in her step as she slipped from the warm comfortable confines of her bed.

It was still strange for the mare to have her own rhythm, not being directed by the Goddess
any longer. It was alien but the freedom was far from unpleasant. She took things slow, she enjoyed things… simple things like watching Violet sleep so peacefully. Silver couldn’t help but recall the words of the voice last night. She found herself agreeing with the argumentative voice to her irritation. The little purple alicorn, her Violet, looked so very much like a foal. She looked so fragile, so innocent and peaceful it washed away any resentment for that chastising voice.

Sitting on the ground besides the bed she couldn’t help but smile. She felt happy for being the mare that owned her. Violet was her slave. Even if she was so… foal like in many ways. Just another reason to treasure her, a mare like Violet was worth a fortune. There was only one way she would be more valuable, at least to her.

Lighting up her horn Silver weaved a spell. It was complex. The base of it was simple, if limited in how long it could last but she knew how to make it permanent, which was a layer of additional spell work beyond most unicorn’s ability. She didn’t know how she knew it but she did. Not that she knew what its name was, nor did she have a clue how she knew or there she had learned it.

It made for a beautiful sight though as she released the spell. Violet’s deep abyssal mane shifted in colour becoming progressively lighter until it eventually settled on a golden blond. Her coat went through a similar metamorphosis. A shiver of excitement shot down Silver’s spine, witnessing Violet’s coat become as if it was bleached: a striking snow white. She had made a true little angel, her angel.

Smiling tenderly, Silver stood up. The thought of waking her up seemed wrong to her now, she would occupy herself with something while letting the angel sleep peacefully. ’You’re getting soft Silver.’ she thought to herself, but found that she didn’t particularly minded.

Wandering into the other room she looked around. It was like she had left it, if a bit more worn than she remembered. It gave her pause, memories of her past were vague, she knew she had been a slaver working for Red Eye. She remembered this place, this had been her hide away, her personal little sanctuary. How long had it been? Furrowing her brow, she couldn’t place a time frame. How long had she been in Unity? The entire experience was a blur, her past was fuzzy like the memories were there, but they still needed to settle in her mind.

One thing was clear to her though. The room felt smaller to her. It only took a few steps to get from the bedroom door to the full-length mirror on the opposing wall. Looking at her own reflection she had to sit down. She looked so different from the mare she had been. Looking to one of the pictures on the wall she let out a small sigh. She was taller than that mare, more muscular… she might have had the same mane and coat but she wasn’t her. At least not physically. To her right stood her mother, they could have been twins, the only real difference was age.

She looked much more like the stallion standing beside her in the picture, except that her coat wasn’t an off-white cream colour. They had the same mane though, a deep burgundy that looked almost as though it was dried blood. Her father, she knew. Letting out a deep sigh she turned to the mirror once more. Reaching out with her magic she searched for the little switch she knew would be there.

With a resounding click the mirror swung open, revealing a wall safe hidden behind it. It was a simple and unassuming little thing. What shocked Silver though was that the safe door opened ever so slightly with the mirror being moved out of the way. It shouldn’t have done that. She hadn’t unlocked it yet.

A feeling of horror filled her as her magic pushed open the door of the safe, only to reveal that instead of her mother’s possessions… the safe was entirely empty.

Anger. The joy, the happiness she had felt waking up besides Violet, everything that had made that morning good was wiped away in an instant as she stared at the empty safe. There had only been a few things in that safe, and none of those things had anything of tangible worth, aside from perhaps the pendant she wanted to give Violet. “FUCKING. CUNTS!” Silver screamed at the safe’s emptiness.

‘Silver, calm down, you’re going to scare Violet. It’s just stuff.’ the voice in her head reminded her.

“No, I am not calming down! It’s not just stuff! It was fucking everything my mother left me! FUCK!” Silver screamed. She kicked the door with unbridled rage at this offence, the pain hardly registering That the mirror shattered didn’t matter to her. “I am going to KILL the fuckers that did this! SLOWLY!” the mare vowed to herself, stomping into the centre of the room.

A low, mewling whimper caught her attention. Violet. The voice in her head hadn’t given her pause… but hearing the fearful sounds coming from her slave? That stopped her anger and rage dead in its tracks. Looking back into the bedroom she saw the blonde little alicorn, she winced at meeting those large fearful magenta eyes stared at her, horrified.

“You… are awake.” she managed to say, slowly padding into the bedroom approaching the tiny mare and nuzzling her cheek gently. “I’m not angry at you.” Silver said. She didn’t know why she said it but it felt right. There was a part of Silver that wanted to accuse Violet of this transgression, but she knew that it couldn’t have been her little mare. She hadn’t slept while Violet had basically been passed out all night.

“Mistress, are you… alright?” Violet asked, timidly. Her voice was tiny, and her body was trembling slightly with fear. The tiny mare looked as if she was bracing for a slap, Silver would have slapped her if she didn’t feel so sorry for her. The fuck was happening to her? Feeling sorry for a slave…

“I am fine, little one. Ponies stole some thing that were very important to me.” Silver explained to her, she even smiled at the smaller mare softly nuzzling her cheek. Something had happened last night between them. She didn’t understand these feelings, they were so alien she could swear they weren’t hers.

“I… am sorry, Mistress. Is there anything this one could do?” Violet asked slowly, carefully picking her words. Silver couldn’t help but smile at that, was this what ponies called… adoration? She pondered that for a short moment, her hoof raised to cup Violet’s cheek.

“No little one, not unless you can work the terminal into telling me who, or when the safe was opened.” Silver said. She felt confused as to why this tiny little mare could quell her anger so. Maybe it was that a part of her felt the need to protect Violet, maybe it was the way the small innocent creature made her heart flutter.

Without a word, Violet scurried out of bed and made her way in quick fashion over to the terminal in the other room. She paused halfway there and raised her right hoof to her eye level. She simply stared at it for the longest time. “M-Mistress? Why is my coat white?” she asked in a tone that suggested she was in between shock and awe at her new appearance. Much like a little filly she started to inspect herself after having finally registered the change to her body.

“I changed it. It pleases me more to look at you like this.” Silver said, while a part of her mind reminded her of something. A pony she’d liked in her past. One that she could not remember. She only remembered the mane and coat colour she had given Violet… and the fact that the pony had been very young, possibly a foal. “I think you look far more beautiful like this.” She commented with a kind smile.

Blushing hotly Violet rushed over to the terminal, almost tripping over her own hooves in the haste to serve her Mistress. It was then that Silver finally understood the old earth pony saying of ‘you attract more bees with honey than with vinegar’. Silver had to stifle a giggle at Violet almost tripping over herself. She had to admit the little mare was cute. The perfect little slave.

Violet started, looking over her withers at Silver, how could she be angry at her? How could one be angry at such an innocent creature? Watching Violet sitting there reaching up over the admittedly large desk, barely able to reach the terminal the filly was going to kill her with cute at this rate. Approaching Violet and watching her work going through the access logs. It amazed her that a slave even knew how to operate a terminal, much less did it so proficiently.

Silver was amazed, no, stunned at the speed at which Violet pulled up the access log. All in all, it hadn’t even taken twenty seconds for the tiny mare to sift through the access logs. Not that that was hard when the last two entries had two-hundred years between them. “Ehm… it was opened last two days ago, Mistress. So, the day before we got here.” Violet said her words low and timidly.

Her first instinct was to hit something. The closest thing though was Violet. Taking a deep breath, she let it out in an annoyed snort. “Right… we’re two days behind the fucker. There’s only one town near here. We still might be able to track down the little cunt.” Silver said, surprising herself with how calm she was being. Then again, the thoughts of how she was going to torment the bastard that stole from her might have had something to do with that calm.

"Violet fetch some saddlebags from the bedroom. I´m going to get us some supplies, we´re going after them." Silver announced trotting up to the door.

Quest Started: A Thief in the Hoof is worth Two in the Wasteland.

Ten minutes later they were on the road. Silver had reasoned to herself that the pony that had stolen from her had probably taken the road. The road here was the safest way to get away from the area near Maripony. A scattered memory reminded her that the areas off the road were scattered with monsters that posed no real threat for an alicorn. For a normal pony though it would take a small army to travel off road safely.

Glancing to her side she smiled seeing that Violet was easily keeping up with her stride. The tiny mare had some stamina, she had to admit that much. The thought of carrying Violet crossed her mind, but that idea was stomped out rather quickly. She was not going to spoil the mare, she was already doing way too much of that!

Letting out another sigh she set her eyes looking off in the distance, she had wanted to fly… then they discovered that Violet could hardly keep herself in the air. Silver was not going to carry her, it would have been a day's flight at most if she pushed herself. But they were walking, the town was a three-day trot. What was it named again? Pestpass? Westpass? Something like that.

It was then that a memory popped to the surface of her mind. The sensation was strange, thinking of the town seemed to pull it from straight from the haze that was her memories.

******

This was a strange sensation for Silver. She had used Memory Orbs before as part of Unity. She didn’t remember specifics but the sensation would remain with her for eternity. This was not that feeling. The second difference was instead of having a first person view from the pony’s eyes she currently stood behind that pony, like a ghost free to wander but feeling compelled to observe. She stood behind an all too familiar blood red unicorn mare, unable to escape, forced to relive the past.

It had been a dark evening. All evenings were dark in the wasteland but this one was particularly so. It was like all light beyond the edges of the town was being sucked into a lifeless void. The light of Luna’s moon was not penetrating the cloud layer that evening. The only light was the light of torches set along the road to give some semblance of illumination in the shanty town.

There was a crowd gathered around her, not in unison but half in defiance and half in support of her. One semicircle was training weapons on the other unarmed but defiant looking ponies. The town square was crowded, foals peeked out from behind the half-ruined fountain in the centre only a few feet away from the adults.

She recognised the mare standing at the forefront of ten heavily armed ponies. She was flanked by two gryphons in power armour. The mare was her. Not Silver Chain, but rather the mare she'd been prior to Unity. She could remember so little, and what little she did remember was the town and her own looks, but this event and its context was all lost to her.

Her old self was the only one not wearing a battle saddle, instead she wore a set of wicked looking power hooves. She couldn’t pretend she didn’t know the mare… she was that mare. She shared her urges even if her memories were buried thanks to her time in Unity, she knew what she had been.

“This is not a hard concept to grasp, is it? You give up your eldest sons and daughters. And we keep protecting this… shithole you call a town. It’s a simple deal really.” She said, standing tall and proud before the group of ponies, addressing an elderly stallion. “This was the deal we established. We keep you safe, and you provide us with the tribute.” The mare said in a sickly-sweet voice, her eyes glaring death at the stallion opposing her.

“Easy as it might be... it is unacceptable! We’ve been honouring this deal for a quarter of a generation! This is not sustainable! How are we meant to keep things running if you take away half of the able-bodied ponies!” The stallion complained at her, he wasn’t shouting, but his voice was raised in defiance.

“Do I need to remind you about your predecessor… mayor? And what happened when she defied us?” The mare asked, her tone low and dangerous. “Or has it been too long for you to remember? I think you were but a young colt during the… ‘incident’. You surely remember what the raiders did to the mares and foals when we… revoked our protection of your little town?” She had a confident tone that did nothing to hide the unbridled malice in her voice. “It would be such a tragedy if they returned… and we weren’t here to stop them, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes, I remember liberating this shithole from them. Maybe you don’t want to remember what they did. How they cooked the foals alive for dinner, raped the mares… I do think some of the foals here are the descendants of those savages, aren’t they?” The mare stood up to her full impressive height. “Pay up, or we leave permanently…”

“And wouldn’t it be a shame is someone tipped off those raiders to the fact we were gone?”

The mare grinned wickedly at the stallion, watching the look of comprehension shift to one of utter horror at the memories of that time, and the implications she made. “M-Madame Dressage… you…” The stallion clearly had wanted to say something in defiance, the urge to rebel and the urge to survive warring on his features for all to see. Eventually he bowed his head, submission winning out. “You are right.” he relented, ears drooping in shame, while the mare grinned maliciously. “Round them up, and put them in chains.” She ordered as she began to turn away.

As the ponies were rounded up and shackled, the mare pranced around them inspecting her haul with a pleased smile on her muzzle. Silver felt the pride welling up inside the mare. She knew these ponies would make fine working slaves, especially the mares.

Her old self paused, meeting a set of bright, angry amethyst eyes. It was the eyes that caught her attention. Filled with defiance and hatred. She hated those eyes, the owner of those eyes was white of coat and blonde of mane. “I want her for my… personal enjoyment.” She instructed, slowly licking her lips flashing the mare a wicked sadistic smile.

Silver felt… disgust welling up inside of her. Another of those feelings she can’t remember ever having been bothered by! This was the fault of that infernal voice, that manifestation of her own insanity. At least that was what she told herself it was, a thing caused by Unity shattering.

***(Violet Glow) ***

Violet glanced up at her Mistress. It was strange to see her like this. The mare was walking even though her eyes seemed to be glazed over and unfocused. It was as if the mare was daydreaming? No, it was more like she was in a trance of sorts, trapped in her own mind. It wasn’t as if she minded though, the mare seemed to follow her so she continued to simply follow the road like her Mistress had instructed. It gave Violet the opportunity to think.

Her thoughts seemed to almost instantly stray to the night before. One moment her Mistress was cross with her, disciplining her so cruelly and the other she was changed. She couldn’t quite put a word to it. The mare had almost seemed nicer to her, treating her better to the point where she hadn’t been hit for talking out of turn, she had even been allowed to take initiative and… her cheeks felt hot all of a sudden. She had let the mare use her, like so many had but it felt special. Silver had made her feel genuinely good!

Violet was a bit ashamed to admit it, but she liked her Mistress like that. It made serving her feel even better!

Violet found herself grinning from ear to hear the more she contemplated how Silver had treated her that morning. Even though she had been angry and cross, the mare had thought of her first and calmed down! Maybe this cruel and sadistic mare was going to be the mistress she had always dreamed of.

The mistress who would treat her nice... the one who would love her. Violet dared to think about being loved by her Mistress. Of every night being as magical as last night had been. She shook her head a little. That was a dream, that couldn’t ever become a reality. Silver had proven that with her punishment the night before.

As she contemplated her place and the possibility of Silver being the perfect Mistress, the tiny mare could see things moving out of the corner of her eyes. They did not draw close to the road. Whatever the creatures were seemed to stay away from both alicorns. Or maybe it was the road that they feared? She was unsure. All she really knew was that the creatures were vaguely equine in shape. Not ghouls. More like… shadows? Horrifying and mangled beings that were so at home in the wasteland.

Even as she kept an eye on the creatures, Violet decided then and there that she would be the best slave she could be. For this mare, this wonderful mare that was so full of surprises. She knew she was skipping like a little filly and getting ahead of her Mistress but she didn’t care.

Violet Glow was happy… no she was practically giddy, that was the feeling! Even so her ears stood straight and her eyes were watching the sides of the road. It was her task to keep her eyes out for dangers while her mistress was… whatever she was doing right now.

Off in the distance Violet noticed two ponies headed towards them. Initially she thought nothing of it, but then... she considered that Maripony was an irradiated crater. Maripony… the birthplace of her kind, the home of the Goddess. Things suddenly made a whole lot less sense as the thought hit her mind. Why would two ponies want to head there!?

She could already make them out clearly. When had her vision become this good? Was it because she was an alicorn? She shrugged a little while watching the ponies. One of them was a stallion with a jet-black mane and a pale blue coat. He was carrying a pistol in his mouth. He was wearing simple worn brown barding and a matching wide brim hat.

The stallion walking beside him wore no armour, though he had a wicked looking minigun strapped to his battle saddle. He was the taller of the two, with a dirty yellow coat and a toxic green mane. They didn’t look aggressive to Violet, at least she didn’t think they did. Neither of them had a hostile stance after all. Both had their weapons ready but in a more resting way like they were on guard, which the tiny mare could understand with the creatures that she had seen at the side of the road.

As the groups drew closer together Violet opened with an enthusiastically “Good morning!” She offered each of the stallions a brilliant, charming smile. It was for a large part a force of habit. She had always been taught to greet ponies with a smile and enthusiasm… not doing so meant punishment.

The two stallions looked somewhat stunned at the tiny alicorn. They looked at each other for a long moment then back to the still smiling Violet. “Ehm hello there?” the dirty yellow stallion said, carefully. The blue one seemed to be a bit more hesitant about communication and kept his pistol trained on her.

As Violet tried to continue her way, she froze in her place not a second later as she heard the whine of an electrical motor revving up. Looking at the two ponies she watched as the minigun started spinning up. “Give over your bags little filly… and we’ll be on our way.” The stallion with his toxic green mane.

“I can’t. These things belong to my Mistress.” The Violet said, standing her ground in between Silver and the two stallions. She was terrified. She couldn’t defend herself against these two! Mentally she screamed for help, then realised that Unity did not exist. Even though she had only been a part of it for a few hours… calling out was instinctual. It added a weight of loneliness on top of her fear.

“I am going to give you to the count of three. If you don’t give the bags over, we will kill you and take them.” The yellow stallion said more confidently than before, noticing that the large red mare was completely spaced out, and that Violet was trembling like a leaf. “Hoof it over, or we’ll be taking you along with the stuff, little filly.”

The thug’s comment made her pause just a little. Then she steeled her resolve. She was going to be a good slave and by the Goddess she was going to make good on that. It meant not handing over her Mistress’ possessions, not even herself. “N-no! I won’t give it over.” She said, and stomped a tiny hoof for emphasis. It was only traveling supplies and things for bartering with in town. Nothing important, but it belonged to her Mistress!

“You know what happens to pretty mares right? Give us the bags. This is the last time I ask!” The stallion said, impatiently. Violet flinched. She knew that comment all too well. Her mind flashed back to one of the many times when she was beaten and then used… crying out for help but never getting it… even though every door had a guard, ‘He must pay extra to hurt me’, the thought ran through her mind as it had in the past. She shuddered, violently.

Violet didn’t even get the chance to get out another word as she felt something heavy strike the side of her head. Everything became blurry but she could make out the blue stallion’s pistol floating in his cobalt magic aura. Hitting the ground her vision started to get progressively darker… and slowly started to fade away to darkness. She tried to speak, but her body wouldn’t respond. Then everything went dark.

***(Silver Chain) ***

Silver blinked slowly. Everything happened so suddenly. One moment she was stuck in an old memory, the next she was watching this stallion pistol whipping Violet over the head with a revolver. Her initial response was to cock an eyebrow at the pair of stallions. The first thought to pass her mind was the question of what Violet had done to offend the blue stallion.

“Give us your valuables, bitch!” The yellow stallion demanded, while his partner pressed the revolver to Violet's temple. “Or the filly gets it!”

She had to admit that the stallion had some big brass balls to do this. Well either that or he was absolutely fucking retarded. Giving him a deadpan stare, though allowing her lips to curl into a small, wicked smirk. “You and what army, little colt?” She crowed, loving how the stallion looked increasingly nervous. Ponies always seemed to get nervous when one remained deadly calm and emotionally detached.

“I mean it! The filly will die!” he tried, but this attempt was even less convincing as desperation slowly started to creep into his voice. She watched him tremble. “There is a whole camp of us! Just give the stuff and you can go!”

“That doesn’t seem fair…. “ Silver said drawing her sentence out a little as if she was contemplating things, then she looked to the other stallion with a light little chuckle. It was a dark and unnerving sound that made both stallions glance over at one another. “Maybe I will take them on with an inhibitor ring on, and my wings tied to my back so it can be a challenge! You do realise you are threatening a worthless slave, right? Not to mention you’re standing before an alicorn. Steel Rangers get nervous at the sight of us.”

She could have sworn that both stallions turned a much lighter shade of their respective coat colours. She flashed each of them another grin, and then extended her magic to them. Starting to slowly tighten it around their hearts. They hadn’t fired yet. She assumed they didn’t have the guts to shoot.

She had to make this quick though just in case.

With a sickening glee, she squashed their hearts. There wasn’t even a scream, but she could feel the flesh being turned to mush in her magical grip. “No pony gets away with threatening my property.” The mare said to the lifeless corpses hanging limply in her magic. She winced as they each soiled themselves…. Her eyes shifted up to where the yellow stallion had pointed earlier when making his threats. The rising smoke was enough for her to get an idea of where their camp was.

Sighing softly Silver sat down on the ground besides Violet, lightly nudging her shoulder to see if she’d wake up. She smiled, seeing that the small mare was alive, she could clearly see her steady breathing. She was out cold though and her mane was faintly red-stained from where she’d been struck.

Levitating out a healing potion she started to slowly feed it to Violet. A part of her was telling her this was a mistake, a waste of a healing potion. She ignored it. Because it felt right to help the smaller alicorn. Silver didn’t know much about first aid, her knowledge ended with feeding healing potions and right now she felt oddly ashamed of that fact.

Regardless of her feelings, she let Violet lay while searching the two stallions, inspecting their weapons first. Her eyes went wide as she noticed that neither of the weapons was loaded. Some further inspection revealed that both had no ammunition what so ever on them. She frowned a little at that

Both weapons were looked to be valuable. The minigun was in decent condition, and the pistol was in even better condition. It was black in colour with a graceful silver inlay. The handle looked like it was made of a very old and well preserved wood. Not the weapon she would have expected from a common highwayman.

’It looks like they were simply trying to survive. Look at them. They look like they haven’t eaten anything in days.’ The voice in her head, the manifestation of her insanity Silver reminded herself, commented. It made Silver pause, but she didn’t feel bad about having killed them both.

“Maybe. They shouldn’t have hit Violet. I might have shared some of the food we took along… it's not like we need it. It’s bartering material.” Silver countered as she slipped the pistol into Violet’s bag, along with the five bottle caps and syringe of med-x that she found. She wasn’t quite sure what to do with the minigun though. She did know it looked valuable… shrugging a little she levitated it over and down beside her on the ground, waiting for Violet to wake up, pulling the much smaller mare into a gentle hug.

******

It was an hour before Violet had finally regained consciousness. Silver was relieved, not that she would never admit it, even if tortured, but she had been getting more and more worried as time passed and Violet was still unconscious. The hour had felt like an eternity, but eventually Violet had shot up screaming something incoherently about not taking her things. Silver had smiled almost fondly and pulled her in a gentle comforting hug. They’d spent a few more minutes there to allow Violet to compose herself, and for her to drink something.

Now though they were making good time in approaching the camp. Silver was levitating both corpses of the ponies that had tried to rob them along just a short distance away. “Violet, I want you to stay back and hidden. Just follow behind me and take whatever looks valuable, alright?” Silver asked, looking over her withers at the smaller mare. Watching the tiny thing nod filled her with pride. “Good. I don’t want my possession getting damaged, again.”

“Yes, Mistress.” Violet said, bowing her head apologetically. She had done that a couple of times now and seeing Violet be so apologetic over something not really her fault made Silver feel strangely guilty.

She nodded to Violet with a small smile. “It is alright, just don’t let it happen again. Your body is mine, you need to take care of it.” She said, motioning for Violet to fall behind as she began to march up towards the camp. A glance back showed Violet crouched low and sneaking off into the shrubbery.

With a sweet grin, Silver strode confidently into the camp. She stood tall and mighty before the ponies gathered around the campfire. Throwing the two corpses of the stallions that had made a poor attempt at robbing them, right onto the campfire and whatever they had been cooking. “I believe these belong to you gentlecolts?” She announced, before taking in the camp a bit more thoroughly. The two ponies had not been allied with the mares and stallions sitting there around the cooking fire.

No, they were not with these ponies if the decorations around the camp were anything to go by. Corpses littered the camp, and were put up as grotesque half decomposed decorations. The stallion had told the truth about their numbers though. Silver guessed there were at least fifty of them decked out in rusty, slapped together, spiked armour, or some even dressed in leather that looked suspiciously like it was made of other ponies.

To the right there were metal cages, containing several emaciated ponies. Most them had injuries, mostly in the form of bruises. Five ponies in the cages. A sixth wearing the telltale blue and yellow barding of a Stable pony. The number had been ripped and torn much like her back. Chunks of flesh were missing; wounds Silver could easily tell were whip and bite marks, somepony had bit chunks from her flesh! From the position the mare was in thrown over the log she had a clear view of her abused back side, and the blood still running down her inner thighs.

Silver sighed deeply. This was not her issue. She had nothing to do with this or these ponies. It had finally clicked in her head though, the ponies she had met were probably part of the ones locked up, sent to scare ponies into giving up their goods. Sighing deeply, she cursed herself for falling for this, she had made her presence known and the number of guns and knives pointed at her right now did not leave her with much of a choice. She had made this shit her own issue. This wasn’t fair, most of their weapons looked like they were about to explode from the sheer abuse they had seen.

As if to prove her right, the first stallion to take a shot at her suffered a misfire from his crudely made pistol. No, not a pistol. It was a fucking pipe slapped onto a piece of wood! The first shot he tried to make with it blew his lower jaw right off… idiot. She let out an uproarious laugh at that. She couldn’t help it, it was actually funny to watch somepony be that stupid.

Then, as she laughed at the poor unfortunate stallion that fell over, all hell broke loose. Silver charged up her horn and propelled herself magically into the middle of the group by the campfire. None of the first volley of shots hit her, though the burning stings on her flank, cheek and in her leg told her a few of the fuckers had managed to graze her.

She bucked one of the knife wielding mares behind her in the head. There was a loud, sickening (and oh so satisfying) crack as her head snapped into an awkward angle... it was so exhilarating to her. Silver loved battle. And she wasn’t ashamed to admit that this was turning her on immensely! The raiders hadn’t much of a chance to retaliate, most of them were stunned by the sudden alicorn in their midst. Silver grabbed two of them in her magic and smashed their heads together, splattering them all over the place like two overripe tomatoes.

She chuckled softly. Then she truly laughed. Then she broke out in what would only be described as a mad cackle. She was filled with adrenaline. She could feel the sensation of the remaining two ponies stabbing her in the side… fuck that hurt. Not that they stood much of a chance as Silver grabbed one in her magic and thrust her face first into the campfire, holding her there while the second one was cracked over the head with the snap a wing, then as she hit the ground in a daze a hoof crashed through her skull. Her head popped with such shocking ease.

Her attention strayed for a moment, watching Violet moving and starting to do as she had been told. It was as if these she was invisible to these scumbags. They didn’t even seem to notice the bright white alicorn. They did see Silver quite clearly though and for her momentary lapse she was rewarded with a hail of bullets, these ones managing to hit her.

Silver picked up the two nearest weapons. She didn’t know what they were called but she did know how to use them, for some reason she didn’t understand, and proceeded to simply spray a group of raiders with the entire clip until each of her two weapons clicked announcing they had been emptied. Apparently, it was some kind of automatic rifle! None of them were in cover… then again, they hadn’t had much cause to be, as she had been unarmed up until this point. She could see a few of them frothing at the mouth as they shouted obscenities about how they would make her their breeding bitch. She couldn’t suppress a chuckle as she mowed that group down. She was taking great pleasure in it too. She wasn’t even trying to kill them. No, she was aiming to maim them and make their suffering last if it could, enjoying the wails and screams of pain.

Grabbing up a shotgun that looked sturdy enough, she dumped the depleted guns, unceremoniously sheathing them in the chests of a pair of fallen ponies. Then she pounced into the middle of next group. The lead pony with his fancy looking SMG was the first to fall to a double slug to the torso. His back bursting open, showering organs and bones over his companions behind him. The shotgun turned into a club after that, splitting skulls open even as they shot her, stabbed her.

Silver stumbled behind a concrete slab after the group was mostly dead or dying. She gritted her teeth, listening to the bullets pinging off the concrete above head. “Fuuuuuuuuuuck!” She hissed, letting the natural regeneration of her body catch up for a moment. Why was this so hard? She had taken care of those five enclave ponies without issue and they had better equipment! Letting out a low grunt she downed one of her healing potions to help the annoyingly slow recovery of her body along.

Then there was a sudden thunk in the dirt beside her. A quick glance revealed a shiny silver apple next to her on the ground. Instinct took over. Her magic grabbed it, and teleported the object away from herself. There were shouts of panic, and then a deafening roar. It sounded like not just one grenade, but a whole bundle of them going off at once. She smirked a little. Casting a glance over the barrier she saw that a group of ponies, with a whole lot more sense than the previous ones had taken cover… although ten ponies hiding behind one barricade couldn’t really be called sensible.

Most of the ponies she saw were dead, some of the unluckier ones though were missing most of their extremities and were still very much alive, but quickly fading. For a moment, she wondered where she had learned that spell. It had sent the single grenade back to the one that had been stupid enough to throw it as a magic wielding pony. Some had tried to push their way out of the group, they had been spared some of the blast but they were bleeding from their ears and had so much shrapnel buried in them it was almost comical.

To her left she saw a few of the raiders simply fleeing, screaming things along the lines of ‘fuck this SHIT!’ and the oh so familiar ‘fuck those alicorns are freaks!’

Silver rolled her eyes and looked over to Violet who was filling her saddlebags with what, to her, looked like absolute junk. Sure, she was taking caps and ammo, the pistols that hadn’t been wrecked too but then there was the odd electrical part that looked so useless to her. Silver shrugged a little. It was Violet’s to carry and not hers. She could do what she wanted. If it made caps she didn’t really care.

She ignored the nagging in the back of her mind that the order had served more to keep Violet out of danger.

Silver couldn't focus her attention too much on her slave. No, right now she had to focus on the five ponies that had taken up a defensive position outside of a ramshackle hut. She could probably bust through the back wall and take them from behind. Instead she leapt over the concrete barricade, a glimpse of the other side revealed that it was a slab taken from the road... it even still had the markings on it.

The ponies she was rushing were odd. They looked almost like they had been displaced from another time entirely. They were wearing what looked to be military barding. Old Equestrian Military barding. Wait how did she even know what that looked like? Shaking her head, she conjured up two magical arrows. The four weren't shocked or shaken by her brazen and quite reckless charge unlike the others. They might have worn spikes like common raiders but they were definitely not common raiders. No, these were almost like professional soldiers.

The magical arrows missed. That didn't surprise Silver much, her aim wasn't the greatest, but the ponies seemed to dodge them so fluidly and with such ease as she smashed into the wall behind them. Looking at them, Silver assumed that the orange coated mare standing front and centre was the lead pony. Her shoulder connected and she sent the mare flying. Watching her land on her side, bending the missile launcher she wielded in the impact.

Whirling around the aimed a buck at the stallion to her right. It connected and to her shock he stood fast flashing her a smirk. His yellow eyes boring into her. Wisps of Dark Blue mane flowed from under his helmet. The fact he wasn’t sent flying gave her pause as she looked at his striking forest green coat. Reality came crashing down in the form of a hoof connecting with her muzzle. The loud crack she heard accompanied by the sensation of being lifted of her hooves.

She could feel white hot pain lancing through her entire body. Her hind legs twitch. She became acutely aware of the fact she had been floored by a non-alicorn! Her vision was blurry. She could taste blood in her mouth, trying to speak was out of the question with how her jaw hurt. Breathing was hard. Wait...she hurt. This was a sensation utterly alien to her, her body wasn’t healing like it had the day before with the pegasi.

As the world came into focus she looked at the biggest stallion she had ever seen. His coat was a muted forest green. His frosty blue eyes were filled with anger. Such terrible burning anger. Anger that his posture did not show. He stood there tall, powerful, calm and collected. Seeing him made her pause. She recognised his colouration. Not the pony, nothing came to mind but there was something familiar about him.

"So, you're the bitch that thought she could wander into my camp." His voice was a low, deep growl as if his throat had been damaged in some way or another. It was unnatural. Silver would risk to call it grating. "Fuck you must be suicidal. No matter. It just means I have another alicorn I can claim as mine." he purred, raising one of his hooves at her.

She noticed that his hoof was enveloped in metal up to the knee. No wonder getting slugged by him had floored her so thoroughly. She could see the faint crackle of arcane energy moving through the raised hoof bound device. Power hooves, a part of her noted. Not a model that she was familiar with but they were easy enough to recognise.

This bastard wanted to play? Well fuck, she would play. Grinning wickedly at him even though it hurt. The pain as horrible but her lust for battle was so much greater than that pain. She pushed past it and didn't even deign him with a response. Fuck he was going to be paste when she was done with him. Her horn flared up and she seized the initiative. Teleporting behind the bastard she used her magic, and the confusion of her popping out of existence to take pistols from two of the guards.

Though she only had a split second to take aim at their heads, the look of pure horror on their faces was golden. Then she pulled the triggers, sending a 10mm bullet through the back of each of their heads and out the front, turning those shocked expressions to mush. The stallion bucked her in the chest not half a second later. He was big but relatively slow. She let out a grunt as she was sent her flying into the ramshackle hut. Fuck he was strong. A curse tore from her lips, she wasn’t even sure what she called out as she slammed hard into the ground, rolling against something soft with a low thump. A look up and she met with two soft emerald eyes, the eyes belonging to a green alicorn mare. She was... well she was alive, but that was all she was. The blank look in her eyes told Silver more than she wanted to know, the mare was a broken shell of a pony.

Silver Chain as well aware that the mare was beyond any help. She was even further gone than Violet was. Violet’s eyes were filled with life, with so much emotion. Silver couldn’t help but feel sorry for the mare, for the broken creature that was once her sister in Unity.

’We are mortal Silver Chain. Even if you seem to think you are some impervious goddess of battle.’ the voice in her head commented sombrely adding only. ’She isn’t Violet. But… you can easily make Violet like her.’ She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the alicorn. The voice was right, this… this was the result of pushing a slave too far, of using them to vent aggression.

The thought of Violet being like this mare… made her stomach twist in a knot.

’Get up! You started this, finish it… survive!’ The voice shouted at her. ‘If not for me then for her! ’

That snapped her back. Looking around, she noticed that there was only the straw the alicorn lay on, a bed where she assumed the stallion slept and a chest. Groaning she stumbled to her hooves. Fuck he was better and stronger than any mortal pony had any right to be. She was going to have to do something different. Smirking she watched the stallion walk in, his stride slow, confident. Most of all he was a cocky fuck about it all. She couldn't help herself, her magic reached out, wrapping around his heart like she had done so many others before. It was so much less exciting than a proper fight but she had to finish this before he finished her!

It would have been easy, but what she wasn't expecting was a flash of green followed by a green hoof connected painfully with the base of her horn. Her magic was disrupted, and some of it fed back into her body painfully. Silver stared in bewilderment at the furious looking mare. She had defended him!? Why would she defend him? Silver didn’t understand why the mare would, no slave ever defended their Master, not like this, not so willingly. She felt something well up inside of her. Silver liked to imagine this was what pity felt like. Then she struck the mare once in the throat, once in the chest to send her flying against the wall. She winched, watching her gasp for breath, without being able, her neck bent into an awkward angle.

After that, she didn't care about finesse with her magic. Her horn flashed repeatedly with that deep abyssal purple glow as she sent the most basic of magic at him. Blast after blast of telekinesis, they weren’t spheres, no they were more like spikes. She was done playing around with petty mortal ponies. To her amazement, he withstood the blasts, though there was some satisfaction to be had as she watched blood dripped from his form. Fuck he was tough.

He charged her. A mistake. The mistake she had been waiting for. His composure had faded and he let out his anger. He seemed angry for some reason. Then again, she had just killed his plaything. She smirked a little, using her magic to once more vanish from the place where she had been, though not behind him, no she had teleported as far up as she could in the hut. There was a dull ache in her horn, she knew that she was starting to push the limits of her magic already. With a powerful snap of her wings she crashed into him hooves first. There was the loud satisfying snap of breaking bones. She could feel his spine giving.

The stallion was screaming nonsensically at her. It was hard to make out his curses from his screams of pain as she drilled her hooves his back, hard enough to shatter more bones. True to her word Silver kept pulverising every inch of the stallion’s form. She had sworn he would be paste and now she was making good on it. Unsure about how much time had passed, or simply not caring, she kept going until the stallion had stopped screaming and she was quite sure she had just broken all the bones in his body.

She hissed and stomped his head. There were a few more ponies that needed to be dealt with. Looking back, she saw the two remaining guards, gawking, then they looked at each other before proceeding to scramble away.

Silver managed a smile. Everything hurt, a lot. Especially breathing. Every breath felt like a burning hot knife was being repeatedly stabbed into her lungs. Looking out over the camp she couldn’t help but feel a bit proud at the carnage she had left behind, the short run up to the makeshift hut was littered with the dead… and those unfortunate enough not to die instantly.

Breathing out heavily, Silver slowly started to become aware of why everything hurt. Looking herself over in the puddle of rainwater she saw her coat bathed in blood, and not just that of her victims. No she was bleeding. She was bleeding, a lot. From many, many wounds in fact. For a moment, she even wondered how she had survived all this. Her mind was finally catching up on everything. It was as if she was coming down from what she imagined to be similar to a drug high. She had known she was shot. But it was as if everything only just now registered, and it all registered at the same time in her mind. Everything started to become blurry.

Before she knew it, the ground came rushing up to her. Then blackness.

*** (Violet Glow) ***

Watching Silver appear from the ramshackle hut Violet allowed herself a small smile. Feeling genuinely relieved that her Mistress was alright, even if she looked a little worse for wear. Making her way over to the cages at a quick pace Violet glanced at the scared looking ponies and then at the lock, the rusty, weak looking lock.

Violet turned around reared up and sent a powerful buck at the padlock. She couldn’t help but smile as it was sending it flying with a loud, satisfying clang. She repeated the same with the second cage before pulling both doors open with her deep purple magic. “You’re free, you should go.” She whispered softly, it was barely even audible. It was as if she was afraid of speaking at all.

“Wait… A-are you serious?” The mare that stepped forwards asked. She was tall with a faded blue-grey coat and a silvery mane, the look she wore was somewhere between shocked and amazed. “L-like you’re going to let us go? Just like that?” She asked, wearily eyeing the collar around Violet’s neck, and then glancing over to Silver Chain. Or at least that is what Violet assumed she was staring at.

“Y-yes? Was I supposed to… leave you in there?” Violet asked, almost worried that she had done something wrong to offend the mare.

“You’re... a slave.” The mare observed. Violet said nothing in response, she simply nodded there wasn’t much to be said, she was a slave after all. “And your owner will just let us go?” Then the mare’s attention was drawn to Silver once more, watching her slump onto the ground passed out cold.

“You should go.” Violet said, following the mare’s gaze to her Mistress, worry blossoming up inside of her. “I wasn’t ordered to capture you. I was told to loot things of value.” She said stepping away from the cage door motioning for the ponies to take their leave and wishing they would, she needed to help her Mistress.

“Come with us?” The mare asked with a kind smile. A smile that faded into a frown as she watched Violet shake her head.

“She needs me.” Violet said, looking over to her Mistress once more, her eyes softening a little and a small gentle smile forming on her muzzle. Any former slave would tell her that she needed to hate that mare, that she was better off dying there. But here she stood, wanting to take care of her.

“But she keeps you as a slave!” The mare said looking utterly baffled by Violet’s choice.

“And she keeps me safe... and makes me happy. I don’t think you would understand what she means to me. Don’t worry she is good.” Violet said with a gentle smile. She gently pushed the mare with a smile. “Go, take some of their weapons and ammo.”

“You are one strange mare.” The mare said with a small smile. “I won’t forget this, I’m Final Cut.”

“Violet Glow.” Violet said with a small smile, watching the mare and the group of ponies leave as quickly as they could. Letting them take up what weapons and ammo they could carry. She felt good for having helped the ponies.

Without another glance at the ponies she started walking over to where her Mistress lay. Seeing that she was alive, she could see her breathing even from a stone’s throw away. Placing her hoof on the mare’s shoulder she smiled, feeling a warmth blossoming in her chest. It felt like a pleasant fire warming her as she nuzzled the large red alicorn. ’I guess it’s my turn to take care of you now.’ Violet thought to herself and with some effort and magical strain she levitated Silver inside of the ramshackle hut she had attempted to walk out of before crumpling to the ground. Violet placed her Mistress her in a corner of the room that wasn’t covered in blood, letting the massive mare rest on her side.

Laying herself down besides Silver she let out a deep sigh. Her Mistress had gotten herself banged up pretty badly, she could see every cut and every bullet hole so clearly on that bloody red coat. It was actually hard to make out the blood staining her coat. Violet could already see the natural regeneration pushing the bullets that hadn’t moved clean through out of the wounds. She levitated over one of the healing potions they had brought along, pressing it to her Mistress’ lips and slowly feeding it to her.

That was all Violet could really do for her Mistress and it made her feel useless. Sighing she started looking around the room. There wasn’t much there but it was a shelter at least. She grimaced as her eyes fell onto the green alicorn mare. Those wide-open eyes were staring right at her stained with tears. They were filled with such sorrow and heartache. Lifeless, dead eyes. Taking a step away from the body Violet backed into a chest with her rump.

She turned away from the dead body, she couldn’t bear to look at the poor mare. Violet let out a squeak as she bumped her muzzle against the thick and sturdy looking lock. Furrowing her brow at the lock she sighed. There was no way she would be kicking this one off. It was clearly a lot sturdier and of a higher quality than the half-rusted things she had seen outside. No, this one looked almost as if it had only been made recently, like it had just come off the assembly line. It was that fact that puzzled her. It was out of place.

Looking around her eyes came upon the dead, pulped stallion. The same one who she had seen punching Silver. Letting out a soft sigh, she reached out her purple magic to start searching him for a key. He was the boss after all, or so she assumed. Violet smirked victoriously, pulling out a key, and slipped it into the lock. The alicorn almost felt giddy as it turned and the sturdy chest clicked open for her and she could lift the top.

Contained within the chest was a goldmine of supplies. Everything from medical supplies to ammunition and weapons that looked almost brand new. It was strange, seeing those weapons. They were out of place in the wasteland. There were even tools that looked to be in a pristine condition. Her eyes fell on a device in the centre of it all though, it was set out as though it were a trophy. It was a band with a screen, it looked big enough to slip onto a pony’s hoof. She knew the devices. They were, for a large part, worn by ponies born in one of the many Stable’s dotted around Equestria. Her former owner used to wear one all the time. She shuddered a little thinking back to the cruel stallion, remembering how it had controlled her horn thing, and the bomb collar of others.

‘A pipbuck’ she thought to herself with a little smile, letting a hoof slowly run along the reinforced black casing. She’d never seen it in black, not with a black and white display. Frowning a little Violet ran a hoof along it, noting that the words ‘Security’ were engraved in white on the back of the case.

Inspecting the device only made her more curious, tilting it over she noticed that it had text scribbled on the inside but she couldn’t make it out. She frowned noticing that the locking mechanism had been broken, it had been pried open she judged by the markings. Lifting the device from the chest she sighed a little. The inside lining was stained with blood that hadn’t been cleaned off. “What a waste….” She commented to herself magically filling her saddle bags with the ammunition, tools and food.

She wasn’t even paying attention to the heavy load on her back, she had stuffed her bags way too full a part of her mind informed her. She ignored it. Pulling the set of tools from her bags she started working to remove the damaged locking mechanism. Violet didn’t have much experience with these devices, though it wasn’t that different from the locking mechanism to her hoof cuffs. And now she even had the right tools!

She made short work of removing the damaged components, whole chunks of it were entirely missing. There wasn’t any way she could salvage the mechanism. Disappointment welled up inside of her as she stared at it. She wanted to kick the stallion for damaging the precious device. She looked over at his lifeless corpse, almost envying her Mistress for killing him. Looking through the pack and everything that she had salvaged until now she came up with: a spring lock that she had taken from some poor sod’s homemade pipe shotgun, and a hoof full of screws that had been with the tool set.

It took a bit of trying to attach the spring, and it would be awkward to get off, if she was lacking her magic. But it was a near a job as she could manage. Violet smiled, satisfied with her work. A glance over at Silver showed that her Mistress was still passed out cold, but breathing easier.

Looking at the screen. The pony’s vitals were not showing, though the name was still there ‘Angel Cakes’. She felt sorry for the mare. Moving through menus Violet noted the lack of any files. Furrowing her brow, a little she simply shrugged. Moving through more menus she found the button she had been looking for, and she reset the device to ‘factory settings’. Violet was for perhaps the first time in her life thankful that her former Master had seen fit to teach her how to work terminals, as a pipbuck wasn’t very different, in essence it was a hoof strapped terminal.

Violet slipped the device around her hoof she smiled. It was a nice fit for her. Looking at Silver’s legs she sighed a little. She’d give it over but the mare couldn’t fit in this one, she guessed she would need a stallion model.

Watching the progress bar moving at an agonisingly slow pace Violet sighed deeply. This was going to take a while. From the small text in the right top corner she noted that this was apparently a ‘Pipbuck 4k Mk4 Security’ model. There were some more symbols but she did not know their meaning, one of them looked like a stylized B. Violet laid herself against Silver’s broad side she smiled just a little nuzzling into the mare’s neck. The closeness made her feel… good. She watched the bar move and jump from “Gathering system files” to “Removing files” and eventually to “Repopulating with default OS.”

She closed her eyes as the bar worked at a crawl, it was still only at three percent. Nestling into Silver she simply smiled content and comfortable.

Footnote:

Silver Chain: level up
New perk - Little Leaguer: +5 [Unarmed].
Skill Note: Unarmed 53

Violet Glow: level up
New perk - ArcanoTech Knack: +5 [Magical Energy Weapons, Science] per rank.
Skill Note: Speech 45, Sneak 29, Science 45, Energy weapons 18

Author's Note

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.

I would like to give a huge thanks to Kkat for creating Fallout: Equestria and making this story possible. I would also like to thank ShadowedEmber
Queen Amber
The Villain in Glasses for editing and helping me make this chapter readable.

I would also like to give a massive thank you to my patreon supporters:
> Fuzzy Fabricator
> Dr_MindQuill
> Richer19

If you like what you've read here, then please consider supporting me on Patreon! The support is greatly appreciated!

I would of course also like to thank you lovely people for reading this chapter!

With that I will sign off,
Happy Hunting everypony!