FoE: Festering Virtues

We got up, grabbed a little more food, and prepared to cross the street. Occasional gunfire throughout the night pretty vividly underlined how lucky we were that this route was nearly empty, and we’d had to kill four ponies just to make it a kilometer. I wasn’t looking forward to today.

Still, up and at ‘em.

I groaned, and rolled out of the clothes nest, then grabbed a ration bar from the saddle bags. Melody and Judgment were both up, getting ready to head out. Flamer braced, gun ready, armor on, saddlebags tied down, earplugs back in, and we headed out.

Getting down to the street level was uneventful, I took the front, and the other two covered the rear. The emergency exit was nice enough to have a glass window looking out onto the street.

“Ok, we’ve got a rubble pile, looks like a cleared pileup. Should give some cover, not sure how much. Everypony remember where they’re covering?” Melody and Judgment nodded, and Judgment started jumping a bit. “Keep it calm, we don’t want anything to go wrong. We’re going to look for enemies for a few minutes, then I’ll cross the street. We’re a couple hundred meters from the next lobby, so we’ll need to move once we get to the other side. Any questions?” They shook their heads, I looked out at the street one more time, and we moved.

The rubble was up to my chest, laying down. Not exactly that comforting, prefer something to peak over, but Melody and Judgment had a good amount of cover. We started scanning. Didn’t look like much. Anyone spending their time staring out of a window was asking for counter-sniper fire. Stay back in the shadows and let other ponies walk into a trap. Main reason why the streets terrified the hell out of me. Still, unless we wanted to go through the sewer, not much of an option. And I wasn’t sure if I could fit.

“Red… is there a glint over there?” Melody asked after another minute, gesturing with her shotgun to the building to our 10 o’clock. Most of the windows were blasted out from the overpressure from the megaspell blast, so there were glints of broken glass up and down the face.

“I don’t see anything...” I muttered back, scanning. I was getting increasingly annoyed at how much my rifle squeaked when it was used, aside from the fact that indicated how wobbly it actually was. Even in a city, this wasn’t an ideal ranged weapon.

“About half way up, thirt-, fourt-, fifteen rows in.”

I blinked, and a beam of reflected light blinded me for a moment. “Fuck” I snarled, and jerked the rifle over to him.
Ping a shot bounced off my shoulder pauldron, crack, sounded like a smaller caliber rifle, more snap than pop, and I exhaled. Couldn’t get a good sight picture on the target, and he was probably in a bunker, but- I pulled the trigger and the much louder boom echoed off the buildings. Melody and Judgment were staring at me, terrified, and I reacted.
“MOVE!” I shouted, and reloaded. Judgment darted across the rubble piles and took up her position, followed shortly by Melody. Thank the goddesses that they followed the plan. I thought as I lined up the sight picture again. Glint, glint, glint… I waited for the target to reveal himself, and I thought I saw movement. Eh, close enough. I fired again, then shrugged the rifle out of the way. I tried to sprint for the other building, but my leg wouldn’t respond fast enough. Fuck me with a rusty shovel, I thought as I tried to plow through on three legs.

I crashed headfirst into the cinderblock wall, leaving a clear indent, and shook my head back to semi-functionality.

“Ok, let’s move,” I said, swaying a bit. We hurried along the exposed sidewalk, hoping that nobody would shoot us from the building opposite. Melody and Judgment covered us, I was still focusing on staying upright. Door door, what do I do at a door? Fortunately, my body knew what to do with doors. Break them down.

“Line up,” I said indistinctly, and pivoted in front of the door, bucking it hard enough to break it off the hinges.

Judgment and Melody reacted perfectly, running into the lobby and clearing it. I charged in afterwards, then realized that I hadn’t reloaded the bolt action rifle. I scanned the ceiling, and desperately tried to work the action.

“Shit, balcony!” I shouted, and heaved myself behind a pillar. I caught Judgment looking wildly for the targets, then looking up at my shout. Her pistols started firing rapidly, and Melody followed. I tried to get the rifle back into place, fumbled for a few seconds, and got it right. Bolt cycled, and… the firing stopped.

Melody and Judgment were both panting, There were four dead bodies on the balcony, mostly caught by surprise. Empty bottles and used syringes on the ground helped show why. “Reloading.” I said. Melody jerked and called out the same. After we were up, Judgment reloaded.

“Everypony ready? Looks like raiders.” I said, inspecting the blood patterns on the walls and what I could see of the ponies.

They nodded, and we headed up the stairs. No reason to engage somepony on the most obvious floor.

***

Hours later, we paused for a breather. Melody and Judgment both were using different weapons. I was trying to get the tendons out of my chainsaw. We were all injured in some way, but thankfully, I had taken most of the fire.

So many… I thought, feeling sick to my stomach. I was usually pretty good at dealing with shit, but this… this was something else. They threw themselves at targets, practically gleeful when I crushed them underfoot or sawed through something vital. I couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth, and I was dripping blood and gore. Most of it, fortunately, not mine.

Melody had switched out her two shot sawnoff for a pair of pump actions, her telekinesis barely able to make them function. Still, at the ranges we were fighting, point, pull, and pump were enough to get the job done. And 12 rounds were definitely useful when they tried to ambush us from behind. Hadn’t tried it since. She’d taken a bullet across the neck, not deep, but enough to need a magic bandage.

We’d decided to save the potions until later. Only had a couple normal and one super, after diving to the away from fire and crushing most if the supply, so if we took a shot somewhere vital, we’d need it for then, not for these painful, non-lethal, injuries.

Judgment had found a semi-automatic hunting rifle, and was switching between that and the pistols depending on how much ammo we found. Her smaller frame, and skill at darting to cover was keeping her safer, at least until she hit a trapped room they set up ahead of us. She cleared most of the blast, but was definitely favoring one of her rear hooves. Melody had bound up some of the shrapnel holes, and we were hoping that was the only thing wrong.

I was sticking with the chainsaw and sheer mass. And had been shot more times than I cared to count. Fortunately, most wild shots tended to go, well, wild, and almost all of the rest had bounced off the armor plating. Still, I had a few holes in my legs, which Melody came over to bind.

“You doing OK, Queen Chrysalis?” I winced at the tugging and nodded my head, still pulling at the gore wrapping up the saw. Why am I putting this in my mouth? I’m going to get so many diseases… A few seconds later, a ghost of a smile danced around my lips. I was a little happy that was what I defaulted to, rather than enjoying the free protein. Still got some of me in here. “Doesn’t look like any arteries got hit, so you should be good enough for now.”

I cocked my head, part of somepony’s leg dangling from my mouth, as I heard something… different. Maybe a few rooms away, a loud, fast, shotgun? It didn’t have the crack of a rifle. Not a pistol. Heavy weapons? Not that familiar. But it shot too fast for a normal shotgun.

The familiar crash of falling cinderblock jarred me back to reality. The raiders were trying to clear against us. Fuck, why did we leave some of them alive? Because shooting pregnant, defenseless raiders isn’t going to happen. A small piece of me stated with certainty. Anyway, I supposed that literal hours of doing this would eventually clue the enemies onto it. At least Judgment meant that trying to come from the rear or the door was flat out suicidal. Just wish they would realize they could simply move out of the way and we’d leave them alone.

“Melody, undo the flamer, then get behind cover. Judgment, cover the door and behind us.” I said, getting up and pushing the couch to a 45 degree angle off the sealed up door. Window was blasted open, so that’s good. More air coming in.
Less than a minute later, another crash of falling cinderblock, and the flamer slotted into place. I checked the pressure and fuel, both full. Thank the goddesses that strapping it to my rear had kept it safe. Still not looking forward to testing an emergency venting system 50 years overdue for maintenance.

Seconds later, Judgment called out “Five!” looking towards the sealed off door before returning to her sector. They began firing. Shot after shot chewed through the concrete and cinderblock wall, blasting a hole that started eating through the wall to my right. Finally, I started seeing the blast, and I gave a quick prayer.

Fucking hell, this better work.. Half plea, half threat, I opened up with the flamer, hoping that most of it would go through the hole before it sucked up all our air. It splashed, some of it ending up in the corner of our room, but a lot went right through.

The screams were horrible. From “Get it off! Get it off!” to inarticulate cries wrenched from something reduced to less than a pony, we sat through it. I didn’t want to try enough to cut off their air supply, since that would probably hit us too, and even from the little pool of burning alcohol in our room, it was painfully hot. I couldn’t imagine what they were going through on the other side.

“Four.” Judgment called out almost as soon as the screaming started.

A single shotgun blast “Three.”

“Two.” A minute later.

We waited. But nothing.

“They’re not hostile… and not moving.” Judgment finally said, and I nodded. I got out from behind cover, chainsaw at the ready, and crossed over to the normal section of the wall, without the structural weakness.

“Line up.” I bucked, sending shards of cinderblock and concrete flying at lethal speeds. Melody and Judgment cleared the room and I followed.

“Zero.” Judgment called out, after manually confirming.

Five charred corpses were laying on the ground. Two were curled up by the breach, a thin layer of alcohol still burning sullenly. One, slightly further away, was missing her head, a discarded shotgun nearby. I couldn’t tell if the injury was from her own weapon.

The remaining two missed the blast of flame. They weren’t charred to a cinder, just covered in third degree burns; their armor slowly melting into their coats. They would have died, just in agonizing torment after hours of suffering. Definitely in no position to fight.

It looked like the wall’s explosion had killed them. Both were peppered with decimeter long shards, and the pool of blood wasn’t from the flamer.

Judgment vomited, and I swallowed hard. Melody picked up one of their shotguns. It looked like it was a riot gun, designed to fire a dozen shells in as many seconds.

They would have turned us into confetti. The sick feeling did not go away.

“I think they were an elite group or something.” Melody said, looking at the charred corpses closely. “Ceramic inserts on their armor, customized weapons, notches, decorations, the works.”

I nodded glumly. Somehow knowing that I had burnt a bunch of experienced raiders alive didn’t make it any better. Still, equipment is equipment, and by the looks of it, a fair amount was the better form of milspec, paranoid and overbuilt, rather than cheap and just good enough, so it had survived the fire.

We managed to upgrade most of our weapons again. This time with a riot shotgun for Melody, along with a few bandoleers of shotgun shells, color coded for different types, an assault carbine for Judgment, customized with a floating barrel, a variable magnification scope, and an under-barrel grenade launcher, no ammo though, and I stuck with my chainsaw. Hard to improve on a magic powered engine with nearly infinite torque and tungsten carbide blades that will eat right through steel and concrete. Still, I grabbed one of their battle saddles. Hopefully, with a few hours of work, I could actually use my weapons properly.

Damn, I wish one of them had a helmet that actually would fit me.

Then we hit a treasure trove. One of them, presumably the medic, had a few restoration potions in her bags, fortunately away from the flying cement shards. We all drank at least one, luxuriating as the pain dwindled and vanished.

“Red, we’ve got a group of friendlies and neutrals.” Judgment warned as we finished up looting, staring at the door.

Melody readied her shotgun, I unslung my chainsaw, and Judgment aimed her rifle. There was a tentative knock.

We glanced at each other, and Melody called out “Come in?”

A furtive little buck opened the door and slowly walked in. He was unarmed and naked. We could see raiders clustered around the door frame, looking with bated interest.

Stopping a few meters away, the buck bowed. “Oh great ones, we prostrate ourselves before you!”

“Umm… strictly speaking, what you’re doing right now is bowing. Prostrating is when you lay flat on the ground.” It slipped out of my mouth. In moments of confusion and stress, when there isn’t something to shoot, I fixate on the little details. I hate myself.

The little buck practically threw himself on the ground.

“Woah, relax. I’m not going to kill you for getting that wrong. I get that it’s mostly an expression.”

“Red, shut up.” Melody said. “What? We killed your leaders, so now we’re in charge, or something?”

“Yes, your greatness. Your mind is as impressive as your beauty.”

Melody looked at me, almost pleading. “No.”

“But-” She complained.

“No. We have a job to do. We’re not becoming raider bosses in Fillydalphia of all places.”

“Dammit... fine.”

“You are leaving us?” The buck raised his head for a moment, then jerked back down as he saw me looming over him.

“Quick huddle.” I said looking at Melody and Judgment.

“My policy with raiders is kill on contact and don’t leave survivors.” I said. Mostly... I thought after a moment, thinking about the kids and expectant mothers.

“Come on, we have a fucking raider band in our hands.” Melody said.

“We just killed like half of them. Probably won’t be too happy about that.” Judgment pointed out.

“That just shows how powerful we are. Trust me, it’ll keep them all in line.” Melody said.

“We’re not becoming raider bosses. We’re getting Judgment the code to get her back home.” I said.

“So, what? We’re deciding kill them all or not? That’s a little harsh.” Melody said.

“They’re raiders. I’m fine with being a little harsh.” I said.

“Can we leave one of them in charge?” Judgment asked.

“What? Spend enough time with them to find the least insane one? No, we need to keep moving. And no reason for them to follow whoever we choose if we’re not around. Fuck it, let’s just get to the next building. They shouldn’t try to shoot us for at least that long.” I decided.

“You’re giving up that much power on a whim?” Melody asked, aghast.

“What would I do with it? Being a raider boss is just asking for somepony to kill you for a shot at getting killed themselves.”

“Caps, sex, and power. That’s got to be reason enough.”

I glowered. Getting into an argument after I made a decision was bad enough. Getting into why I was really uncomfortable with hedonism as a lifestyle was a moral discussion that I didn’t have the time or inclination for.

“If you want to have an argument about the merits of power for power’s sake, we can have it. While we’re on the wagon out of here.”

“Fine.”

“Can we grab a box of Sugar Bombs at least?” Judgment asked, completely unperturbed by the discussion about abandoning her Stable and joining a group of nomadic psychopathic rapists.

“Sure, whatever, just say if any of them turn red.” I started walking out the door, and felt a little worried at the somewhat packed hallway. There had to be more than a hundred ponies, most of them craning to see. I ignored the instinctive urge to cower and started pushing through the crowd, heading to the end of the hallway. At least they’re too close to shoot accurately. I thought glumly. Any fire here would be completely unpredictable, but I was pretty confident that I could make them pay if they decided to make it a melee.

We pushed through the mass of ponies and made it to the end of the hallway, before heading down to street level. We paused next to a wall of crates to reload and make sure that everything worked. The naked buck pounded down the stairs and stopped behind us, panting.

“You don’t want to lead us?” He asked, plaintively. “Are we unworthy?”

“All I want is to get to the Stable-Tec building.” I replied, revving the saw and making sure it spun freely.

“Is there anything we can do, Great Ones?”

“Do you have a box of Sugar Bombs?” I asked after thinking for a few seconds.

“Right here.” He darted to one of the crates, levered the top, marked with a burnt in “Colts Property” sign, open, and pulled out a box from the ones stored within.

“Wait… how did you get that box?” I asked. The Colts were still a kilometer away, and reaching their food stores would presumably be much deeper. And trying to haul an entire shipping crate of food through the streets would be suicidal.

Presumably, they had a safer route if they’re moving stuff in any quantity.

“We traded for it with the Colts.” He said, looking at me as if I was stupid, hoof pointing to the sign for emphasis.

“So, how did you get it here? Because you didn’t carry it through the streets.”

“There’s utility tunnels that go between the different buildings. somepony gets tasked with clearing it for the main party.”

I looked at the small buck. Probably him.

“Alright, let’s use those. I don’t feel like getting shot at by a sniper again.”

The buck blanched, but nodded and pointed towards a door marked “Employees only.”

A few cluttered offices and maintenance rooms later, we stopped at a sealed metal door. “Here it is.” The buck said, drooping.

“Alright. Thanks.” I opened the door and walked through, shocking the buck. “Also, dark and gloomy the entire way?” I asked looking down the unlit stairs.

“Umm, yes, Great One. There is almost no light. But, Great One, do you not wish me to clear the way?” He asked, confused, but with a glimmer of hope.

“Wasn’t planning on it, we’ve got a scope. Melody, do we have any Cateye? Judgment, can you set your scope to 8x?”

“Cateye? Yes.”

“Yepper.”

“Alright, Judgment, you’ll take point, keep looking for enemies through your scope and S.T.A.T.S. Cateye should make it so you spot the enemies before they see you. Mint-als as well?” I asked Melody.

“It would help boost perception, and might make it so that her S.T.A.T.S. reaches further.” She agreed.

“You up to take a somewhat addictive chemical to avoid possibly getting shot?” I asked.

“Umm, I guess? There’s ways to cure addictions, right?”

“Addictol does temporarily stop the effects of addictions. If we went to one of the major settlements, there’s doctors that know how to remove physical dependency.” Melody replied.

“Then, why not?” She asked, levitating her rifle in front of her eyes. Melody nodded and pulled out the drug bottles. One Cateye, one Mint-al, washed down with water and Sugar Bombs.

“Wonder if we can sell the blend? Call it Night Warrior or something.” I asked, as we waited for the drugs to take effect.

Melody shook her head in mild disgust. Apparently drug dealing was where she hit her limit.

A few minutes later, we descended into the gloom.

Apparently, ponies around here didn’t spend their days on a Cateye and Mint-al induced bender.

I suppose that being able to see in the dark probably didn’t have much appeal to Mint-al users, who probably feel like they can already do that, and the inability to be in the light would hinder them if anything went wrong. One flashlight, and they’d be blind.

Fortunately, the utility tunnel was almost entirely dark, aside from nearly dead spark battery powered lights every so often. More than enough light for Judgment, but only served to highlight the tunnel’s slow curve under the city for us.
Rather than hours of breaching, the path was nearly an easy walk, once you got used to feeling before putting your hoof down. That’s not to say that we didn’t find enemies, but Judgment shot them long before they could pose a threat. Mostly raiders and the like who decided to hide out down here to attack trading caravans, living in the rooms off the main hallway.

Eventually, we came to another staircase.

“I think we’ve gone about a kilometer. Should be more than halfway there.” I murmured to Judgment. “Mind checking your Pip-Buck?”

She squinted against the faint light and nodded. “Yep, just passed building 3, heading to building 4.”

More walking, more shooting, and we made it to a second staircase. “Any reason we shouldn’t just keep going?” Melody asked.

Judgment replied, “I think those signs are a pretty good reason. And steel plate wielded to the walls.” Presumably, she pointed, but well, pretty dark.

“Judgment, mind turning on your flashlight?” I asked. A few seconds later, it turned on. I glanced over at her, and saw she had clamped her forehood over her face. The light was undirected, but the large signs, and massive wall, were visible enough. “Death, dismemberment, big scary things with pointy teeth.” I read off the signs, or at least the most pertinent details. “Looks like this might get interesting.”

“Probably just underground. Not like somepony could build a steel wall around an entire city.” Melody chimed in.

“Anything that dangerous in the open would make the place uninhabitable.”

“Alright, I guess we’re going up and meeting with the Colts. Judgment, tell us when you stop being able to see in the dark. Don’t want you going in blind.”

She pulled off her arm to nod reflexively and squeaked at the light through her eyelids. We moved off the main hallway towards a supply room, where I sat against the steel, probably bullet-proof door, and we took a short break.

Melody fiddled with her shotgun, oiling it and making sure that it ran cleanly.

I tried to figure out how to get the battle saddle to work properly for me. The ammo change function was probably too much to hope for, without a major rebuild, but I was pretty sure that I could work the connection points into my existing harness without too much difficulty.

Well, it was a little harder in the dark, but I got somewhere eventually.

***

When Judgment finally came down off her drug induced high, evidenced by turning on the flashlight and finally stopping obsessively trying to fine tune our weapons, we headed back out and up the stairs. I knocked loudly against the reinforced metal door into the apartment, waited a few seconds, then did it again. A minute or two eventually got a few yellow blobs crowding around the entrance, according to Judgment.

Finally, “Who’s there?”

“Umm… three scavengers who want to barter our way through?” I replied, glancing at Melody. She shrugged back. Probably should have come up with something a little more in depth, but I suppose caps are the universal language.

“What do you have?”

“I mean, what do you want? Ammo, medical stuff, guns, some armor. I can also sort papers really quickly...”

“What was that last one?”

“I’m good at sorting papers?”

“Why would you be selling that?”

“I don’t know, maybe you have an issue with your inventory system and need to figure out what you should have in case somepony’s secretly robbing you blind.”

“That’s… weirdly specific.”

“Look, can you open the door? Then we can barter without shouting?”

“Erm… I’m sort of not supposed to open the door without permission.”

“Would a murderous raider offer forensic accounting as a potential bartering good?”

“Maybe if they thought that other ponies wouldn’t expect it, so they could get inside and then start murdering.”

“So, if I started talking about murdering, raping, and excessive drug use, would I be more trustworthy? Because, by your logic, the expected from a raider should be unexpected, so that would indicate I am safer.”

“Well… no, but…”

“Then can you let us in? Then we can discuss our possible inclination towards blood orgies in a more civilized setting where I am not possibly going to blow out my ear drums by shouting in an enclosed steel room?”

“… I’m confused…” A different voice said on the other side.

“Erm… can you wait a few minutes? I need to ask somepony something.” The first voice said, then the sound of running hooves faded out of earshot.

“Red, I get that your charisma isn’t that high, but you can’t just replace it with intelligence.”

“Melody, unless you’re willing to chime in more often, shut up or I’m going to roll intimidation followed by unarmed.”

“Why didn’t you try intimidation? Socket Wrench’s resistance to it is extremely low.”

“Judgment, as strange as it may sound, nobody here except you has the magical ability to see other ponies’s stats. It would be nice if you shared information like that more often.”

“Oh, right. Keep forgetting.”

“You keep forgetting that Red and I don’t have a magical friend or foe targeting machine plugged into our brains that tells us what to do?”

“… sorry, it’s normal for me.”

“Melody, please stop picking on Judgment.”

“Red, please stop coddling the magic box that controls the meat puppet named Judgment. If it wasn’t for her, I would be relaxing back at the Lobsters’ Pot.”

“Didn’t you bloody call in your own death? This is, at least, equally your fault.”

“It seemed exciting at the time. Going out into the world and all that. I didn’t realize I would be babysitting a machine and an overgrown colt scout.”

“Ok, that’s good enough for me. No group of raiders could stay together if they end up talking like that after 3 minutes alone.”

We stopped shouting at each other, feeling sheepish. At least, I felt sheepish. Melody looked annoyed. Judgment looked like she was waiting for the next order from her instead-of-brain-bot.

The door opened and an older mare stood there, surrounded by a few twitchy looking guards. They were shaking slightly, their guns jittering all over the place.

“Hi, I’m Crescent Wrench. Oh, wow you’re big.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Red Tree. I know.”

“Melody Grey.”

“… Erm, sorry, I’m Judgment. Dozed off.”

“That’s alright. So, what do you need?”

“Well, we’re trying to reach the Stable-Tech building a couple kilometers down the road, and we were hoping to barter a way through your building.”

“As long as you don’t make trouble, you’re free to walk through. But you won’t make it to the Stable-Tech building. That’s Specter territory.”

“Does that have something to do with the giant metal wall and signs downstairs?”

“Yep. Took 13 slaves to build it. Mostly from the proximity mines attached to their chests.”

“What are they?”

“We don’t know. They’re hard to see, except when they pause to tear a pony apart. All you normally get is the smell of rotting mint.”

“Umm… what does mint smell like?” Judgment asked.

“Stable dweller?”

“With that question and the stable dweller outfit?” Melody asked.

“Fair enough.”

“We’ll tell you when we smell it.” I said.

Few minutes of pleasantries later, we set off, a comfortable safe walk down a hallway, right to the edge of the “safe” area.

“Umm, Red. I’m getting weird vibes from the pony following us.” Judgment piped in after less than 100 meters.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, she’s flashing in S.T.A.T.S., and her data is… changing.” I looked behind at the giggling pony occasionally arguing with air. And since I’d seen them for a couple seconds, occasionally probably meant near constantly.

“Ok, let's go upstairs. Maybe she’ll stop following?”

“Fine by me.” We headed upstairs, and got out after a few levels. There were fewer ponies here, and the ones we saw were much better armed. The giggling mare followed us, stopped for a moment, and shrieked.

“RAIDERS IN THE SANCTUARY!” and she pulled out her pistol. Oh, shit.

Footnote: Level up.

New Perk: Ferocious Loyalty – Taking hits for your friends has inspired them to fight harder and better. When health goes below 50%, your friends deal 25% more damage and take 25% less.