Fallout: Equestria - War, War Never Changes...

Ironshod Firearms...

"Finally..."

At last, after several hours of walking and after having gone through many things in just one day, we had reached our first destination... The "Ironshod Firearms" armory was right in front of our eyes, making itself look giant before us; at the same time, LittlePip didn't stop contemplating the structure of the place, she'd been very impressed with the building, and though that she'd only seen it from the outside...

"Wow..."

"Impressive, isn't it?"

She nodded without saying a word, she was still amazed by the place, it seemed that she undoubtedly wanted to enter there; then, knowing what she wanted, I spoke...

"In that case, LittlePip... You better get ready, because we're going to get inside."

She shooked her head a little and then returned to normal, then, she spoke...

"You sure we'll get any weapons here?"

I laughed a little at her comment, she still underestimated my experience in the wasteland and my great knowledge about the devastated wastelands of the Equestrian wasteland; when I finished my laugh, she winced, but that only made me laugh a little again. In the end, after several seconds of waiting, I was able to calm down...

"Sorry, LittlePip... It's just that your question gave me a little laugh... *Ahem* ...Now, answering your question... Trust me, LittlePip. I know this place very well, I know where we can find weapons and ammo. And, if we're also lucky, we may be able to find a power armor; although, unfortunately, it wouldn't serve either to any of us.”

LittlePip could not help but be confused by what I said, it seemed that she did not know the concept of a power armor; and, although I already knew about her confusion, I let her ask about it...

"What is a power armor?"

I smiled again when I heard her say that, it's obvious that LittlePip had been locked in her Stable her whole life; when she saw me smile, she waited for an answer...

“The power armors, especially those manufactured by the WestPony-Tec company, are a series of combat suits specialized in the area of direct warfare; these power armors can give you the strength and resistance of a tank, and can also give you the mobility of an infantryman. In short, with these power armor, you are agile and resistant.”

LittlePip continued to stare at the building for a few moments, although she immediately looked down, thought for a few seconds, and said...

"And... then why would it be useless for us to find one of them?"

"*Sigh* ...Because none of us knows how to use a power armor, besides only you would be able to carry one of them, and the problem with that is you don't know how to use one of them, is it?"

She gave a disappointed sigh, I knew I had taken away her illusions, but I had to make her understand the fact that it was important to have a balance between being optimistic and realistic. So, without anything else happening, we both entered the building at the same time...

"I hope Derpy and the Kirin are okay, I still don't like the idea of letting them go to New Appleloosa, all alone."

I nodded when I heard her say that sentence since I didn't like having to let them go without any weapons or protection either; although, to be honest, it was the most reasonable thing to do because of two reasons: the Kirin still needed some rest and we couldn't provide that during the trip, and the second reason was that Derpy wasn't fit to be there, she had to be back to New Appleloosa as soon as possible and help in her own store. Therefore, I asked Derpy to go towards New Appleloosa and to take the Kirin with her so that she could get some appropriate rest; I also told her that LittlePip and I would be getting there as soon as we were done with our Ironshod Firearms' business.

As I reminded myself of getting a gun for LittlePip, we both walked down the main hallway on the first floor, looking for the weapons room, we observed many posters inciting people to join the war, the same war that devastated all Equestria...

"Join the Royal Army and be part of the Steel Rangers!"
"Help us guarantee a future for Equestria!"

-Ministry of Wartime Technology.

I stopped when I saw a poster of the “Ministry of Wartime Technology”, in which you could see 3 ponies wearing the power armor while looking a little up from the right side of the poster; largely from above, on the left, it was possible to see the symbol of the "Royal Army"...

"Hey, Marcus... Uhh... Are you okay?"

I sighed sadly while looking at the poster, I hadn't realized that LittlePip was talking to me; I just stood there, looking at the poster.

Before I knew it, LittlePip began to speak louder as she began to shake my right shoulder a little with her magic; it wasn't until she almost shouted, that I came back to reality...

"Huh?!... Oh sorry, LittlePip... I didn't mean to worry you, it's just that... *sigh* ...I don't know, I just saw this poster and remembered the other things I've seen about the war.”

"War?... Which war?"

I sighed again with a sad tone in it, I remembered everything that was, somehow, related to the "Great Equestrian War"; LittlePip decided to look at the poster that I was looking at, when she did, she was even more confused with me since she didn't understand anything about what I wanted to say, so she asked...

"What is the Minister of Wartime Technology?"

"*Sigh* ...I'll tell you when we get to New Appleloosa, for now, we better hurry up; 6 hours are missing before it gets dark and I'd rather get to New Appleloosa as soon as possible and get some rest… Let's go, LittlePip, we still have to get you a nice gun.”

We both kept walking along the main hallway of the building, while we went through some rooms to see if we could get some extra supplies that were left in there, but we couldn't get anything beyond a few shotgun bullets for LittlePip.

After having checked the entire first floor for extra supplies, we decided to go up to the second floor, since I already knew that the building's weapons and ammo warehouse was there; so, we went up by some stairs at the end of the hallway towards the second floor.

When we went up, we saw two different corridors that were parallel between both, towards the end of the building, the same direction from which we came; we both talked about where to go, but in the end, we chose to separate and cover more ground. Therefore, we walked into the hallways of the building; for each step we took, we both made ourselves heard in the deep silence that surrounded us. Slowly, we both seemed to be going in parallel, at the same time and speed, towards the armory.

Finally, we both stopped in the middle of the hallways, and then proceeded to try to open the doors of what was the warehouse; unfortunately, and in some illogical way, none of the doors opened, since we could both hear the other one trying to open its. In the end, LittlePip jogged to where I was to try to help me open the door of the hallway where I was.

As she used her magic, I began pushing to open the door with all the strength that I possessed; for a while, we both found ourselves striving to try and knock down the door of the right hallway; although, unfortunately, the attempt was useless. So, I proceeded to use a risky move, which involved detonating one of my last grenades to blow up the door.

It was then, that I took my penultimate grenade from one of my bags, activated it and placed it in front of the door; by the time it was about to explode, LittlePip and I had already moved back 12 meters from the door since those grenades used to provoke an explosion radius up to almost 9 meters. When the grenade exploded, LittlePip and I covered our faces from the grenade blast; when 4 seconds passed, the smoke dissipated and we saw the door destroyed, but still holding on to its frame. Fortunately, because of the explosion, the grenade caused a large hole on the door, allowing us to pass inside the armory.

Immediately, upon seeing the hole, LittlePip and I entered the warehouse, through the door; when we got in, we saw that most of the weapons and ammo had already been stolen and/or destroyed, surely, in an attempt to leave others without any weapons.

Almost instantly, LittlePip focused on checking the weapons on the right side of the warehouse (the ones that remained), while I tried to search for functional weapons on the left side of it.

I focused on looking for some rifles or carbines that could be useful and functional for combat; while I was searching among the lockers of former soldiers and in the medium firearms section, LittlePip concentrated her efforts on looking for ammo and short firearms; however, she didn't have any success, except for getting an "M3" submachine gun for herself and some grenades.

In the meantime, I had only gotten about 5 or 6 boxes of shotgun ammo, twelve 5.56mm caliber bullet cartridges and an M16A1 "Service Rifle", which I kept for myself; later, LittlePip and I met again in the middle of the warehouse and went out through the broken door.

After everything that happened inside the armory, LittlePip and I exchanged ammo and weapons that we'd found in it; while I gave LittlePip the shotgun projectiles that I had previously found, she gave me a couple of grenades that she managed to find when we left the place.

After the exchange we made, we both went straight towards the offices to look for any more ammo and supplies, then we arrived at the offices and started searching...

“Ok, LittlePip… You'll search by the offices at the end of the hallway and I'll search by these offices nearby; if anything happens, shout and come back here, understood?”

"Perfectly."

"Alright, let's go now."

About 10 minutes passed and I still couldn't find enough ammo and/or supplies for us; I was going through an office that was totally intact and, apparently, very well organized, it was then that I learned the fact that I was in a place that nobody had yet entered since the end of the war.

I arranged to search in it for several minutes, in which I obtained the lottery since I managed to find several bullet cartridges, mainly for 9mm pistols; however, it wasn't until I left the office that LittlePip told me about something interesting...

"Marcus, there's an office blocked back there. Should we get in?"

"Well, why not?"

We both started heading towards the office LittlePip had told me about, this one was at the end of the hallway we were in. The place wasn't light, so we both had to get flashlights that we obtained after searching at the other offices. When we got to the office LittlePip had told me about, I realized that this office was from Minister Applejack...

"Well... it looks like you've found a good place, LittlePip... Do you know who's this office?"

"No... From who?"

"From Applejack itself, the most important member of Apple Family."

LittlePip was surprised to hear this, as she surely had heard of it, although, I didn't know how it was possible. Then, she looked at her PipBuck and searched through the files until she got the one she was looking for. Then, she looked at me and spoke...

"I have this file about the Apple Family, both its history and members... Don't you want it?"

I smiled at hearing her saying that, then I replied...

"Don't worry, LittlePip... I think you better keep that file for yourself, it will give you a better perspective on our planet's past and its history. The more you know about the Equestria's past, the better your future will go for you. Believe me, I know it perfectly.”

"Alright, then... I'll keep it for myself. Now, do you want to get in?"

"Hell yeah! You don't have to ask me that twice... Let's move."

Then, after a few moments, she and I fired at the door handle, causing it to be smashed by the bullets and fall to the ground. When we saw this, we both get into the office and started searching.

She focused on investigating among the files of a terminal that was on the desk, while I tried to open the safe that was located next to the terminal; I tried to force the lock on several occasions, but I didn't succeed and I had to step back in surrender. Unexpectedly, the safe began to open on its own, and after a few seconds, the safe's door opened fully.

I turned to look at LittlePip, who smiled and said...

"Voilá!"

"Heh... Not bad, LittlePip... Not bad at all."

I looked back towards the safe and examined its interior, extraordinarily, I found something very cool...

"Wow!... Do you have any idea of what we just found?"

LittlePip looked at me somewhat confused, but clearly happy that she had opened the safe in front of me; so she asked...

"No. What?"

I smiled and started laughing with joy as I took what was inside the safe with my hands; I took it out of the safe and showed it to LittlePip...

“We just obtained the damn lottery, LittlePip. Do you know what revolver is this?”

She shook her head, to which I took as my signal to explain...

"What I have in my hands is, without any doubt, the best revolver in Equestrian history... The .44 magnum revolver, although this is the only version named: Lil' Macintosh; you, my dear LittlePip, are gazing at Minister Applejack's matchless revolver. The best quality and precision in one single revolver; the only one that may be able to match it, is the Colt-Iron Peacemaker, my revolver.”

She was stunned and totally happy to see the revolver recently discovered by us, and before she said anything else, I spoke to her...

"...And, LittlePip, knowing that you found this revolver and that it's modified for pony's use, I'll give it to you; now, finally, you have your own revolver and at last, you'll be able to fight comfortably… Heh… I even doubt you won't be able to use it well, after all, you have demonstrated me your gift using weapons.”

"W-Well, I still don't like shooting someone or somepony-"

"You mustn't like shooting someone, never... Remember this, you must never like to kill someone; if you kill, it means that you did it because it was the best for everyone, not only for you.”

After saying that phrase to her, she was thoughtful for a moment until we were both interrupted by a robotic voice...

*ALERT! INTRUDERS! - OBJECTIVE: EXTERMINATE!*

We ran and ran along the hallway while we were firing backward to damage the Sentry-Bot that was chasing and riddling us with its weapons, it even began firing rockets several times, which ended up destroying the roof and some of the walls; unfortunately, none of them fell forward to block the hallway, but fell inside the rooms.

I shot my Winchester rifle like 10 times before I ran out of bullets, so I switched to the M-16A1 “Service Rifle” that I had on my back and resumed shooting; at the same time, LittlePip was firing her new "Lil' Macintosh" at the Sentry-Bot and trying to reach it, but her efforts were unsuccessful.

While she kept shooting and running, I always turned forward to see how far we were from the window to jump out through it; I had to go ahead to receive the impact of the hit with the window, in this way, LittlePip would not receive any damage due to the hit with the window...

"LittlePip! We'll pass through the window!”

She looked at me with a gaze of surprise in her face, then she spoke...

"But what-?!"

*CRASH!*

We both went through the window, one behind the other, as we fell towards the ground with great force; as she began to protect herself with her magic, I tried to cover myself as best as possible, especially my face.

Imminently, we both ended up falling to the ground with great force; while she hit the ground with her hooves, I fell over my legs, so I ended up near to fracture my left ankle but managed to prevent that from happening.

We were both on the ground for a few seconds, a little sore, but we were still alive; immediately later, the Sentry-Bot reached the window and started shooting at us again, to which we both began running away while shooting at it to prevent it from reaching us with its bullets.

5 hours had passed since our encounter with the Sentry-Bot, by that time we had already walked quickly while we were approaching New Appleloosa; we were both exhausted, but we still had to move forward, if we wanted to reach the city.

However, we were forced to stop near a bridge a few kilometers away from New Appleloosa to get some rest; fortunately, to our luck, we found an old abandoned camp near the bridge.

I knew that there was nothing of value in it, so I told LittlePip not to bother looking for supplies or ammo since there would be nothing that could serve us there; LittlePip agreed, while we both prepared to lie down on the ground to rest...

"Hey, Marcus..."

"Yeah, LittlePip?"

"*Sigh* ...Have you ever killed someone, or somepony... and, in the end, it turned out to be an innocent?"

I was in shock for hearing that question, I never thought of anyone asking me that kind of question; I didn't know how to answer because I knew that what she was asking me was too painful for me. I immediately tried to ignore that question and began to change the topic.

She wanted to know about it, and she also noticed my attempt of changing topic, so she asked me...

"Marcus... why are you trying to change the topic? You know you're terrible at hiding your intentions... Now, please. Answer me."

"*Sigh of Sadness* ...LittlePip, you shouldn't ask me that. It's... difficult for me to think about that."

"What are you-?"

*BANG!*

Suddenly, a shot was heard loudly and LittlePip fell on the ground with a bullet wound in her loin; when I saw this, I immediately stood up and took my "Service Rifle", then I turned around backward; however, I received a shot on my left leg and I fell above my leg. Then, I heard steps in front of me, so I looked upwards. Consequently, I was able to notice a silhouette of a person, standing at me.

When I saw it, I recognized him. However, he spoke first...

"Marcus?"

*BANG!*

TO BE CONTINUED...