Chapter 2

Radigators are Terrifying.

I sat, curled up on the dirt, clutching my belly. I felt like they’d poisoned me. The raiders around me ignored me entirely, tearing into chunks of meat and talking about thing I didn’t entirely understand. I caught the words “fortress”, “mine” and “slave”, but there wasn’t much I could do against them at this point. Even if I had weapons, I didn’t know how to use them. The most I could do with my tiny, underdeveloped horn, was levitate a box of ammo. Or the food they gave me. Of course, after they’d noticed I wasn’t biting into the meat, they hovered over slightly undercooked oats. At least, the Pegasus mare sitting on me, after getting up and sitting beside me instead, had given me the oats.

They weren’t bad, but they were apparently mildly irradiated. With every bite, my Pip-Buck clickity-clicked with some rads. Once they were cleared away, the mare who had given me the oats got up and walked off, apparently to wash up in the nearby, highly irradiated, river. I watched as her armor peeled off, thunking into the ground. Unlike the other mare, who’s helmet had sunk into her armor, this one had to peel it all off. Once her suit of armor was off, I blushed and looked away. Her tail was cropped short, giving me an all too clear view between her hind legs.

“You sure bathing in the river is a good idea? We may be pretty far off from Crater, but the river is still irradiated.” Captain Frost said and she shrugged and walked over to one of the other pegasi, dipping her head into his saddle bag and coming back up with a small sack in her teeth. “Whatever… if you get attacked by a Radigator, be sure to scream loud enough for us to get out of here before it eats us too.” The mare shrugged as she walked down to the river, the sack slung over her shoulders and held tight between her wings. Frost looked down at me.

“Can you believe it? They don’t listen to me and I’m their fucking commander.” I just looked up at her, my mouth full of food. I was trying my hardest to stomach the meat, even though I wasn’t used to it. “It’s stupid that Rider thinks I could be in charge of a bunch of incompetent know it alls.” Swallowing my food, I looked up at her, a question on my lips. “Then again, you don’t know who Rider is. You’ve been in a Stable your whole life. Aren’t you just lucky…” It wasn’t a question.

“But… if Rider’s the pony in charge up here… why are you questioning them? Isn’t… Rider… a princess?” That got everyone around me laughing.

“Rider? A princess. He wishes. No. He’s just a Unicorn with his hooves in a few too many pies. Cow pies if you ask me. His latest project has us hunting down someone that couldn’t possibly still be alive.” One of them said and Frost looked over at him, grinning.

“Yeah. Which would make it easy for us. If we find the corpse, we can just take whatever it is Rider’s looking for.” She said and the others around them shouted their agreement.

“Especially if they’re a ghoul. I doubt Rider would be mad at us for popping a ghoul’s head.” One of them said and I flicked an ear. “Don’t know what a ghoul is? You Stable ponies really are sheltered. A ghoul is a zombie pony. Mare, Stallion, filly, doesn’t matter. If they were outside of a Stable when the bombs fell and survived, they’re pretty much dead, but the radiation is keeping their hearts beating. Quickest way to kill a ghoul… pop!” he exclaimed, causing me to jump. “Blow their head off.”

“Not all the time Griffin. Some of them keep comin’ even after they’ve lost their heads. Can’t really explain how, but they do. It’s like they can somehow taste where we are. Some Ghouls ya gotta completely evaporate. That’s where these beauties come in.” One of the thugs said, patting the two rifles leaning against his bags. “Enchanted Enclave rifles. One shot from these babies will vaporize anything. Even a Super Mutant.”

“What’s a Super Mutant?”

“Think pony that’s mutated a bit, some of its skin peeled back from its muscle. Basically an ugly fuckin’ pony. Now super-size that. Lots of muscle, not a lot of brain. There’s a really big one somewhere east, I think in the remains of Ghastly Gorge, we named Bruno.” One of them said and I tried to envision a really big pony with its skin coming off. Shuddering a little, my Pip-Buck buzzed. Looking down at it, I saw Ghastly Gorge pop up on the screen, the map zooming to it before zooming out to show how far away from it we were. It looked like it was at the very least three days trot to the west.

“If you’re thinkin’ of making a break for Ghastly Gorge, just know, we can fly. I doubt your legs can carry you far enough to escape us.” One of them said, returning from the water, dripping wet, her long purple mane hanging down limp beside her and reminding me of the poster I’d seen of the Mare of the Ministry of Science, Twilight Sparkle.

“Sparks, dry off before you come near the fire.” Blinking, I looked over at her. I could have sworn Twilight Sparkle was a unicorn, and by this point would be over 200 years old. Even if she had survived the war, there would have been no way she’d have been able to fly. Unicorns didn’t have wings, except for the Goddesses, Celestia and Luna. The Pegasus nodded, her mane dripping into her eyes, before she walked over next to the river, shaking off rapidly before leaping into the air, spinning like a top, and sending droplets raining down on all of us, setting my Pip-Buck to clickity-clicking.

Looking at it, I noticed that the rads weren’t anywhere close to being danger level. When she landed again, I caught why her name was sparks. Upon landing, her boots caused sparks to pop around us. Tilting my head a little, she grinned and held up one of her boots. “Spark batteries in the leg guards. Cause a bit of a jolt to ponies I hit with ‘em. All four of my boots have ‘em.” She said.

“How does she keep from shocking herself?” Frost asked mockingly. “She doesn’t. Not all the time anyway. Most of her boots are highly insulated, but her left hind boot’s insulation has rotted away. Anything she kicks with that boot gives her a nasty jolt, knocking her out in the process.”

“Then she’s useless until one of us gives her a stimpak.” One of the males said, his armor packed up neatly on top of a saddle bag, his own weapons propped up against the bag. I looked over to respond to him only to jerk back. He’d pulled his barding off and was currently standing on his hind hooves, attempting to pull the body suit off. It was riddled with bullet holes, but that wasn’t why I turned back so quickly. Despite my body rebelling and all but screaming at me to have foals with the first stallion to show interest in me, I wasn’t interested in stallions. One of the Earth Ponies in my stable once said “Yer barn door just don’t swing my way”. I was sure I’d heard that somewhere before too.

To be perfectly honest, I was more interested in Frost or Sparks. Even though neither of them seemed to show interest in me at all, they were rather cute. If bigger and very much braver than me. Speaking of Sparks, as I was toughing my way through another chunk of their rations, she’d walked around behind me and nudged me. Hard. I squeaked, falling onto the ground and started to get up, only for her to take my spot and hold her hind hooves out to me. “Help me get these off and maybe I’ll give you your seat back. Seemed pretty cozy here next to the Commander.”

“Leave her alone Sparks.” The one named Griffin said and she flung a hoof at him.

“You know these things are a bitch to get off on my own. If it will ease your mind, you can sample the produce while she’s de-booting me.” She said and my eyes widened.

“She’s not for sampling. A pregnant mare can’t work. Touch her and I’ll bite it off Griffin.” Frost said, her eyes hardening even more, if that was possible at all. Griffin swallowed and nodded, proceeding to help Sparks remove her boots. Sparks smirked and, as soon as her last boot was off, pounced over Griffin, shoving him over onto his back, and trotted down to the water. He stared after her before rolling over to follow her. A moment later, she came rushing back, a gigantic alligator hot on her hooves. Griffin barely had time to react before its jaws clamped down on his foreleg.

Griffin shrieked in pain as his right foreleg split in half at the knee. Sparks barely stopped running, but Frost leapt into action. Within moments, she’d leveled the rifles on her battle saddle at it. At least, I thought she was aiming at the gator. Two shots rang out, one of them splattering Griffin’s brain all over the gator, the other pinging off of its scales. A mercy killing. It snarled up at her but continued its meal. After Griffin’s corpse disappeared down the gator’s throat, it started towards us, the three winged individuals taking to the air.

I couldn’t move. I just stared as the giant, apparently armored, gator rushed at me, mouth gaping open to snap me up. Apparently Frost didn’t want to lose her property as she dropped out of the sky like a rock, the gators jaws clamping closed mere inches from my muzzle as she unloaded shot after shot from her battle saddle into its eyes. Smoke started to rise from the barrels, the spatter from the gator sizzling off. I just stared at the gaping holes where the giant lizards’ eyes used to be. After she was sure it wasn’t going to get back up, she spun and glared at me, her battle saddle barrels leveling on me automatically. “Why the fuck didn’t you run?”

“I…I…I…”

“I, I, I. Yes, you. What the fuck? What kind of filly just stands there when a giant fucking lizard that wants to eat her is charging at her? If you die, I don’t get paid!” She shouted before turning away and stripping off her battle saddle roughly, one of the guns firing into the dead gator. I cringed back and stared up at her, eyes wide. Her wings were flared out and she genuinely looked frightening. “If you’re going to travel with us, you better learn fast how to use a fucking gun.” She snapped before walking off, pushing off her battle saddle, and grabbing one of the mares under her command by the ear, dragging her roughly into the small tent they’d set up the previous night.

I just stood there, staring at the dead gator as what was left of its brains leaked out at my hooves. I couldn’t manage to move, even as the blood started pooling around my hooves.

Author's Note

No perk gained this time. Next chapter coming soon.