I really needed to stop getting hit in the head with things. I woke up with a painful throbbing in my head, and I moaned softly. Damn that bucking hurt. I seriously needed to return the favor to whoever did that. Especially if I could do it with the same thing that bucking pony did it to me with. I opened my eyes to see Rosey laying down across from me, looking at me with worried eyes that brightened as she saw my own open to look into her own. “What happened?” I asked groggily, and slowly looked around at my surroundings.

“A slaver had snuck up on us and he managed to knock you out with this,” she informed me, waving her hoof at a metal bat lying near my head. “We managed to fight him off -”

“We?” I asked alarmed, and a voice from behind me chirped, “Yup, me and Rosey!”

I sprung up, which I could tell was a bad idea from the sudden explosion of pain in my head, bringing me back down onto the floor. I groaned, and Rosey put a hoof on my back, stating firmly, “I don’t know much about being a doctor, but I know enough to know you shouldn’t be moving around like that,
“Yah yah doc,” I groaned again, rolling my eyes before turning my head slightly to look at the green filly sitting by my tail, looking happily at me. “You pinkie pie promised you would go as soon as you were shot at,” I said, taking on a motherly tone.

“He didn’t have a gun so he never shot at me, so I didn’t break my promise,” she countered, and I was left fumbling for words as she followed up with saying, “Plus its not like Rosey could fight him on her own, she wouldn’t even touch him!”

“Wait, is that true Rosey?” I asked, looking back to the steel ranger scribe. She flushed, and opened her muzzle to say something, but all that came out was a wordless squeak. She had left a filly to fight a slaver all on her own? Finally seeming to find words, Rosey stuttered out, “I-I am only a scribe, I wasn’t taught in hoof to hoof co - “

“I’m pretty sure even a scribe would be taught basic combat,” I countered, and it seemed all the words she had been forming crumbled away, her mouth once again opening and closing like a fish.

“She tried to do something with her horn, but the slaver guy tried to hit her and she dodged, then she tried to do the spell thing again while I got out your magnum from your bag all like “woosh!” and then I shot at the slaver all like “bang bang” and he went down while rosey was just continuing to back up before coming to me and going like “Oh Lotus you're my -”

“I did not say that,” Rosey defended herself, and a slightly sheepish grin spread across Lotus’s face.

“Okay maybe you didn’t but everything else is true! I even didn’t reload so you had proof!” she chirped, and I noticed the lack of two bullets in the magnum. The little filly really had killed a slaver. Now then back to questioning Rosey on her combat. “Rosey, why do you not bring a gun around with you?” I asked slowly, and she cast her eyes down at the ground below her hoofs, and kicked a small pebble.

“I don’t want to kill ponies, I mean I believe in the cause and all but to kill one -” I facehoofed. My head started hurting worse again, and I mentally groaned to myself and checked to never facehoof again. “Rosey these are slavers! They need to be taken down, and if Lotus hadn’t saved us we all would have ended up slaves!” I exclaimed, and Rosey flinched back like I had hit her. “Wait a minute, this is how the raiders captured you isn’t it?” I accused, and I saw guilt flash through her eyes.

“I’m an illusionist not a killer!” she shouted, and I stared silently at her, before slowly rising to my hoofs and fishing out one of the other magnums I had aquired. I tossed it towards her, and her magic wrapped around it her eyes going wide as I looked into them, saying softly, “These are ponies that have to be killed for the good of equestria, if you have to take a life of a slaver it is their own fault for doing what they have,”

“B-but..”

“You need to learn how to defend yourself, otherwise you will get yourself killed,” I finished, and she seemed to absorb what I said quietly, looking at the gun and then me and then back. Now then, we were still outside the gate of the slaver town right after an argument. How had we not attracted attention?

I scratched that thought out as a slaver poked his head over the wall, and turned back to shout at the town. Why could these kinds of things never be easy? I looked towards Lotus, completely unarmed, and then back up at the slaver now aiming at her head with a shotgun. I quickly drew out my magnum and targeted a shot in SATS at his head, and before he could pull the trigger he found a new bullet friend lodged into his skull.

As the shotgun fell to the ground, a lime colored levitation field caught it, and I turned to stare at the now shotgun armed Lotus, smiling. I sighed, and waved my hoof for her to follow, gaining a squee from the small filly. I had the feeling i was going to regret this. I hoped she knew how to aim that thing, otherwise I would be finding some buckshot lodged in my back.

Okay, now then how to get past these ponies that suddenly came through the gate? Three slavers had come out of the gate of the town, each carrying a close range weapon ranging from a pipe too a… was that some kind of laser shotgun? I stared at the strange contraption, dumbfounded. It had the same base as my shotgun, but instead of a single hole for a shell too come out, multiple gems were scattered across the front, and a strange pack seemed to be pushed into the side of it. It almost reminded me of the front of a disco ball.

His magic pulled the trigger, and multicolored beams shot out of the crystals, nearly singing the top of my main with one of the bolts. Okay, enough admiring guns and back to taking down slavers. I re-activated SATS and targeted two headshots, not having enough for a third, and watched as the bullets went whizzing into their brains. The only one that was left was the one with the pipe, but he seemed to know better than to attack me. Instead he charged towards Rosey, his head already tilted to the side to give her a smack across the forehead.

Rosey’s eyes widened to the size of saucers, and the gun she was holding in her magic suddenly flared to life, a shot ringing out as it hit the pony in the side of his chest, knocking him to the ground and puncturing his lung. “Sorry!” she yelled, and I realized she had pulled the trigger as a fear instinct. Had she planned on letting him hit her!? I growled softly, and put a round into the head of the suffering and wheezing pony laying besides us, putting him to rest. To my surprise Rosey looked to me now with shock, and then slowly her gaze filled with anger.

“What the buck! Your a stable dweller, yet you already seem to be completely fine with killing ponies!”

“These aren’t ponies these are monsters!” I protested, but her words stung deeper than she could have expected. I was even better than a stable dweller, I was a everyday equestrian citizen with strong morals, yet as soon as I came into this world those morals had left me. I remember thinking it was just a game my first seconds inside, but by now it seemed like so much more. Was this really a game, a game where you felt pain and everyone seemed so very real? Dangit now my head is spinning with “is life real?” questions.

“This depends on what you consider real,” a voice sounded from inside my head. Okay who the hell was that!? I heard a soft giggle, and with a blink I was suddenly a pony inside my head. With a quick look down to my hoofs I saw I was the real me, not Onyx. I’m guessing this was because Onyx was now standing in front of me, a small smile plastered to her face. “Again what the hell!” I shouted, and I looked at her wide eyed. What the bucking hell was happening?

“Calm down, i’m sure you have a lot of questions - “ She said trying to calm me, but i cut her off with a glare that practically screamed “oh you think?”

“Too cheesy?”

“Yah by a couple too many movies,”I agreed, and she frowned.

“Movies?”

“Oh right wasteland, uh projected images against something,” I explained, and her eyes brightened with understanding. Okay this was weird. How was I talking to Onyx? I thought that she was just me in this body! Although if I thought back..

I remember when I first became her, the flood of memories I had never had that had filled my head when I became her. The knowledge about things that were not real in my world, atleast not yet. The thoughts on the past that wasn’t our own. That was all Onyx’s, the only diference was I had hopped onto the ride. I thought this was just a game, but with what was happening right now I doubted it. Unless of course it was normal to be having a conversation with the very pony I was in the body of right now of course.

“Sorry I had to break the immersion, but we both have kind of gotten into a pickle,” Onyx intoned, interrupting my thoughts.

“What do you mean we?”

“You know the bracelets we found and how Rosey said that it was one of those items that took away a piece of your soul?” she asked, and I nodded. “If i’m right most people are fine because they don’t find items like that, but I think those bracelets took a piece of both our souls,”

“Wait how!? Also what do you mean our souls? Your not real!”

“Stop sticking to denial Sunrise, it doesn’t suit you,” she scolded, and I flushed a bit. Dangit what was she saying?!

“I think i’m in some different reality than you, I think, and because it took a piece of both our souls if I die you die as well,” she explained, and I groaned. Great, now I was pretty much in the game. I slapped myself, a bit on the gentle side, to get the idea that it was a game out of my head. This was going to have to get some getting used too. It seemed now I was involved this reality if I wanted to be or not

Onyx shot me an apolegetic look, as if it was her fault, and gave a quiet “sorry,” before I silenced her with a hug. I remembered once hearing something about parents knowing what to name their fillies and colts based on magic. I had the feeling i had done something similiar in the creation of Onyx, because I didn’t see her as just some character I had made, not anymore atleast. She was a pony just like me, and if that was the case the best thing to do for a sad pony was a hug.

After a second of being a startled pony, she hugged back, and time went back to normal, as if my talk with with her had all been in SATS. I looked up to see Rosey still staring at me like a murderer, but as my gaze fell apon her I knew it was different than before. In the back of my head I had always thought she was just a character in a game, but now I knew better. “These may be ponies, but they have forfeited there lives by taking the lives of other ponies,” I intoned, and straightened up to take my full height to look at her in the eyes. Dangit, it seemed Onyx was even smaller than me, and compared to Rosey I felt even smaller, especially when she was mad.

I saw doubt flicker across her face, and I gave the most sincere smile I could, saying, “We are here to save ponies and deal with the rodents of the wasteland, and I need help from a steel ranger scribe of the past to deal with them and help those who need it, will you help me Rosey?”

Her eyes looked to the ground for a long moment, emotions swimming across the surface of her green eyes. Even as the moment continued to stretch longer I held my smile, and prayed she would say yes. She looked up at me and gave a small nodd, and I hugged her. “That was good,” Onyx said from inside my head, and my own little self smiled at her, also inside my head.

I pushed my hoofs together, and concentrated. Now it was time for some kind of move you would most likely see in one of those animoos. I tried imagining all my anger coursing through my blood, my viens, my soul, all slowly flowing towards the two bracelets wrapped around my hoofs. I felt them begin to heat around my hoofs, as if the gems were reacting to it. In my mind I imagined myself shoving a rock of anger down a cliff, and as the one rock fell others also fell. Soon an avalanche of anger, hate and despair flowed into my bracelets. As they seemed to heat to the point of molten metal around my hoofs.

A scream of hurt, rage and will burst from my lungs in a torrent, and I pointed my hoofs at the gates infront. The same hoofs that were now rippling with so much sound it could be seen, distorting the image of my hoofs underneath from the pressure before all that pressure came crashing towards the gate in a soundwave, sounding like a bolt of lightning and thunder all in a single wave. It smashed against the gate, and with a groan of metal and pressured wood the gate buckled and fell.

Ponies on the inside of the gated off city, all of which who had been laughing and chatting suddenly went silent. As the last booms of the sound wave faded off, all it was replaced with was a deaf silence. The only sound that broke the silence was my panting breath and the sizzling of the bracelets around my hoofs. The fur and skin that had been in contact with the bracelets was now burned and smelled of burnt hair.

When I caught my breath, I slowed looked up at the ponies inside the city, the terrified faces of all of them, and smiled. The smile wasn’t a nice one, but one filled with pain and defiance before I opened my mouth and called out to all that could hear, “If you do not wish to die, drop your weapons and leave, if you wish to fight for this unjust cause I swear in the name of Luna and Celestia I will end you,”

Damnit those burns hurt. I really hoped atleast half of them would lay their guns down and walk away, because with these burns I didn’t think I could fight them. And if they saw me pop a healing potion to fix them they would think I was bluffing or weak and strike. I looked back at Lotus and Rosey to see both of them staring at me, expressions of awe showing on both of their faces, although Rosey’s seemed to be mixed with concern at the burns around my hoofs.

Clank

My head whipped back towards the slaver town at the sound of metal hitting stone. Clank, clank clank. I watched in amazement as all the slavers closest to the crushed gate dropped their weapons in front of them, and with a kick sent them skittering towards me. The clanks echoed around the town, and my mind went blank for a second with a mix of relief and happiness. I knew that most of these slavers would still attack, even now some were starting to take aim, but that didn’t matter. If I didn’t have to take a couple more pony lives slaver or not I felt better.

A shield shimmered to being around me, and I looked back at Rosey, surprised to see her horn glowing a cherry red, the same color as the shield around me. I thought she had only illusion spells, but this was very welcome right now. “To all those who wish not to fight, walk out here and sit down, and I promise i will do my best to defend you as long as by the end of this you all vow to me that you will finds other more non-slavery ways to live,” I shouted, and all those who had dropped their weapons came out and took seats along the outer rim of the city. I really hoped none were going to scamper off to do this elsewhere. I found out though I had other things to worry about as a bullet whizzed past my ear, straight through the shield to dig itself right next to where I was sitting.

The shield, which I now realized had only been an illusion, popped and I stared out at all the red dots spotted across my EFS. I estimated around twenty five slavers inside based on what I could see. I took a deep breath and stood up, the burns on my hoofs letting out their own howl of pain but I shushed them. Eyes closed, I muttered to myself, “If DJ pony finds out about this I hope he atleast will find a better nickname,” and with that opened my eyes and prepared to charge into the slaver town.

I galloped into the city and took cover behind one of the nearest homes, pulling out my shotgun. Rosey followed after me, Lotus right behind her. Bullets began to ring out in the cold night air, and as the glowing red dots on my EFS started to close in I charged out into the open, entering SATS. My eyes darted around the dark houses, the cloudy light shining off the long barrel of a sniper, peaking out of a house to my right. It was far, but even so I toggled a shot towards it and watched in slow motion clarity as the bullets whizzed towards the window, and heard a clang as some of the buckshot hit armor.

I attempted to leave SATS with a roll, and with a loud bang I soon found a bullet lodged in my back hoof. I held back the scream trying to bubble up from my chest and ducked behind the next house, pulling a healing potion out and quickly chugging the vibrant red liquid. The bloody hole that had formed in my hoof closed, and I shuttered at the feeling of mending skin and flesh. I had the feeling I was never going to get used to that.

With the new knowledge of a sniper pony, I pulled out my magnum and clenched the handle in my mouth before charging once again into the open. Entering SATS again, I saw now there was one pony charging at me with a machete as well as the sniper aiming right at my head. My heart dropped heavily to the bottom of my chest as I saw the slow moving bullet emerging from the barrel of the weapon, even the extremely slowed down time of SATS unable to completely stop its descent towards me.

With a quick prayer to Celestia, I toggled a shotgun shot at the charging buck and three shots with my magnum in the blackness where I thought his head was before ending SATS. I watched as the chest of the first pony exploded out in a gorey red splash of color, and the three shots from the magnum ring out towards the sniper pony. As I left SATS I clenched my eyes shut, expecting to feel the cold bite of a bullet plunging into my brain. Instead it sliced against my chin, the same place my head would be if I had decided to roll again. I heard the sniper rifle fall to the ground and a thump as the body of the sniper fell to the inside of the house. I guess prayers in this universe did work.

I charged towards the main building, where most of the red dots were and saw to the left of me as an angry red dot vanished from my EFS, followed by the sound of a pistol and a whoop from Lotus. The same little filly I had heard the whoop come from charged towards me, and sooned joined me in my gallop towards the main building. I looked at her, bewildered, but she simply giggled as another red dot flickered off my EFS, once again followed by the sound of a pistol. “She can handle herself don’t worry,” Lotus informed me, and with a sigh we went through the rotting oak wood door of the main building.

It seemed to be something like a hotel, around three stories high. With a quick nod to Lotus and a wave of my hoof, we began to head to the left of the reception area we had walked into. Lotus shook her head fervently, and pointed towards the reception desk before running for it and opening it, finding a couple bottle caps and a screw driver. I watched, a bit amused, before heading on towards the dingy left hall.

As I walked on I heard the doors behind me creaking open, and I whipped my head back to see Lotus going into the room that she had just opened. What the heck was that little filly doing!? I snorted, and tried to deny the fact she had startled me by taking in the scenery. The floor of the hallway was covered in a molding patterned carpet, and the walls were once a lovely brown mahogany color, now a stained normal brown. I wouldn’t mind coming to a place like this with Riptide, in the past atleast. Although if we ever had it would probably be like 100 bottlecaps - er I mean bits, for just one night.

My thoughts were dragged away from the possible from the sound of hoofsteps on the stairs infront of me, and I aimed my magnum towards the stairs as the first slaver walked down. Blam, she went down, a new hole in her head leaking a crimson that stained the already red and dirty carpet an even uglier red. I flinched, and walked past her, slipping my shotgun back into my bag to make it easier to walk. Seriously it was difficult to walk with one hoof carrying a shotgun, like hobbling on three legs.

The next slaver came charging around the corner, a shotgun levitating in a green sheath of magic next to her before it fell to the ground, a shot to her neck downing her and ruining her concentration. She gasped for breath on the ground, her eyes wide as bloody bubbles came out of the whole in her neck, and I looked down at her, my own eyes widening. Her lips slowly moved to form words that could only mean one thing. “Finish me”

Instead I dug into my saddlebags and pulled out a healing potion before shoving it down her throat, forcing the healing liquid down her bloody throat. After a few bloody and choking swallows the wound in her throat healed, and she was left gasping for breath, her light turning green on my EFS. “Get out of here, and if either of my companions wave their guns at you to fire say I let you go,” I ordered, and she nodded, clearly stunned as I walked past her.

As soon as I was out of sight of her I shivered, unsettled by what I had just seen and done. These ponies didn’t deserve to live, yet here I was healing one that I hadn’t gotten a one shot kill on. What was wrong with me? “Nothing is wrong, your just not one to let others suffer,” Onyx countered in my mind, and I sighed to myself, knowing she was right. Looking back up, I saw another two slavers guarding the stairs to the next floor, looking bored yet alert.

I jumped out from the corner and in sats toggled a shot for each of them, and watched as the bullet came out with a blam, followed up with a small click. The bullet stuck into the first guard, and he fell the the ground, his red light blinking out as the other guard aimed his own pistol at me. I had bucking forgot to reload my magnum, and now that mistake was going to get me killed. Panicking, I ejected the the magnum’s chamber and threw it at the guard.

I watched in awe as the chamber was hit by the bullet, letting out a metallic clanging sound as it flew towards the back wall. The bullet on the other hand, now off track, buried itself in the wall, and with a quick reload in SATS the other guard fell with a shot to the temple. I silently thanked Celestia before heading up the stairs to the final floor of the hotel.

The last floor seemed to be a kitchen, and I walked into the equivalent of a wasteland fancy restaurant. My eyes were immediately drawn to the ponies in the corner, cowering and whimpering quietly. My heart ignited with a burst of anger, and I whipped my head to stare down the barrel of a shotgun. I stared defiantly down the top of the gun at the pony holding it, a piss colored buck with a golden tooth and a black mustache, his slicked back hair shining in the dim light. “I’m sorry miss, but you aren’t on the list,” he chided, and my I ground my teeth together.

“So a rich bastard is the o - “ he cut me off by shoving the barrel of his shotgun into my mouth, taking advantage of my talking to get an even better possible kill shot. “Now now, don’t be saying harsh words in a fine place like this,” he intoned in that same chiding voice, and I wanted to kick him right between the back legs. Hard.

“I got rich from selling these peasants, and I have all my caps to thank to them,” he said, smiling wickedly while turning to look at the cowering slaves in the corner. My glare darkened, and as soon as he saw it he chuckled, he smile growing. “I bet you would catch quite the pretty price too, a pretty and strong mare who is untouched by taint and radiation,” he mused, and his smile grew even more at those words. The rich bucking bastard was enjoying toying with me!

I growled in my throat, and using a foreleg quickly hit him right between the back legs. He gasped and closed his legs around my hoof hard, but that simple act had ruined the unicorn buck’s concentration, making the shotgun limp in my mouth. I spat it out, and pulled my hoof back from out of his legs and prepared to turn his head to jelly. Then I stopped mid act as a wooden groan sound from right below the two of us.

He looked up at me with an annoyed yet pained smile, and snarked “Low blow stable girl, too bad if you hit me the whole floor will blow up, plunging you into a little radio-active bath right below us,”

“Okay?” I questioned, and smashed the shotgun through the flimsy floorboards, plunging it into the water below. I watched as it slowly fell into a large bath below, looking big enough to hold twenty ponies. Jeeze, that was the biggest pool I had ever seen. The would groaned again threateningly, and I took a step away from the hole.. right onto a weak spot in the wood.

I let out a shriek as my hoof plunged through the floorboards and into empty space, the wood scratching my flesh and fur as my hoof wiggled trying to get it out. The rich bastard gave an evil smirk, and walked over to me before his voiced practically oozed out, “Oh and did I mention I added a radigator to the bath?”

“O-oh come on!,” I exclaimed, before my annoyed shout cut out, my entire being now transfixed on the slow crack forming from the shotgun hole to the hole my hoof was currently plunged through. I gave my own sinister little smile, and asked cooly, “Can you swim… whatever your name is?”

“What kind of question is that?” he shouted, seeming a bit flustered and enraged. My smile grew, and I nodded too the crack that had almost reached the hole my hoof was in. As his face turned paper white with fear, I gave him one of the sweetest smiles I could before saying, “Time to walk the plank, mister not very clever pony~”

With a sudden groan of stressed wood the floorboards below me and mister stupid let out, sending both me and him into the radioactive bath below. My body spun for the few seconds we were left floating in space, and I took a deep breath and clenched my eyes shut just before my head and body was submerged in water. And then with that suddenly all I could hear was the sound of water. That and the sound of a muffled scream as a pony was bitten into by a radigator.

I opened my eyes quickly, looking around the blurry water to try and see the surface, but the bottom of the pool almost looked like the ceiling. It also didn’t that a scaly green mass was charging towards me too my right, emerging from a bloody cloud in the water. Crap he hadn’t been kidding!

I tried to hold back the scream that wanted to burst from my chest, but despite my best efforts fear won out and I screamed. The vibrations in the water brought the giant green mass swimming right towards me, and now I was out of air. This wasn’t going to end well unless I could think of something, fast. It was either that or I was gator food.

I quickly spun around in the water again, and saw some of the blood pooling towards the top of the pool… the top where I could get more air. Thrashing my hooves I did the best job I could to swim towards the surface, all lessons I had gotten from Riptide fading out of my mind as fear and the creeping blackness took over my mind. I had to get to the surface, for Riptide, for Lotus, and for Rosey. With another sudden scream with air I didn’t know I had, I pushed with all my might in one giant burst of motion, sending myself rocketing towards the surface of the water, just before jaws closed around my back hoof.

I was yanked back with another scream, only inches from letting my muzzle break the surface. The blackness was slowing spreading from the edges of my eyes, and I continued to thrash, trying to escape the radigators maw before I drowned. As consciousness began to slip away, my eyes locked onto the shotgun on the lip of the pool, only a hoof away.

With a final push of will and determination I shot my hoof out and grabbed the shotgun, holding it too my side and spinning towards the radigator all in one movement. Glowing yellow reptilian eyes meeted me as I turned to face it, and I almost froze at the sight. It crunched down, and with a final scream my tongue pulled the trigger of the shotgun, lodging a shot of buckshot between those glowing eyes of tartarus itself.

I gasped for air as my head burst the surface of the water, and quickly hoofed my way up onto the edge of the water. I began coughing and sputtering up water, and I didn’t feel good. When I finally finished spitting water out into the now red pool, I looked at my pipbuck to see that while in the water I had gotten radiation sickness. With a groan, I popped a healing potion for my leg and prepared for the upcoming sickness. These next few days were going to suck.

level up, new perk added: combat experience, thanks to your fighting in the wasteland you are now 10% better with all physical weapons
quest perk added: radioactive mutation, do to a bit too much radiation you now grow gills in water and can breathe

Author's Note

this was actually a lot of fun to write, and I hope everyone has a fun time reading it!