Fallout Equestria: Ballad of a Rogue Ranger

Chapter twelve: Crosshairs

Decorations were hung, the sound of bells in the distance could still be heard, and even given the warmer weather we’d gotten the last month. Hearts Warming Eve still managed to gift us some snow. Yet, as I walked across that nearly vacant street. You could still feel the eeriness in the air. There was a war going on after all, and while many of the houses along my path had put out a few decorations. Those ponies I saw on the sidewalk held that unease of the world.

I was just happy to be spending the evening in some place that at least felt normal.

With a gentle hoof, I knocked on the door before letting myself in, “Anypony home?” I asked already knowing the answer.

It didn’t take long for the pitter patter of hooves to meet me, as the new newly ten-year-old damn near galloped down those stairs and lunged at me. “Happy Hearts Warming Eve Wild,” Winter beamed up from me as her hooves draped around my shoulders.

“And to you as well, Winny,” I returned the gesture, always glad to see that sideward sneer she gave me from the name. What? Saying Winter all the time got old. Soon enough, the maiden of the house joined.

“Well, you’re just in time,” Lilac gave me the same greeting, fighting past some of those bags under her eyes.

I’d come to know that was her usual face, after getting to know them over time. With a whisk of my horn the packages on my back were brought out and one placed in the living room. The holiday had a dear history lesson behind it, and a story that always seemed to bring ponies closer together. Something that was severely needed during this time, if only I could see how we’d be treating one another in the future… for now though, we had gifts to look forward to.

“Baking was never my skill, I’ll be honest with you,” the second package opened up to show the apple pie. It may have been made yesterday, but that smell of cinnamon was potent, “I hope it’ll do.”

Lilac though waved it off, as she walked the pair of us to the kitchen that joined her dining table, “I’d said it before and I’ll say it again, you don’t have to worry about always bringing food over you know…”

“And you know I’ll never listen.”

By that declaration, my treat joined the mass of food on the table. Everything from casseroles, to scones and tarts, to fresh banana bread and veggie stew. One thing was for sure, I never left this place still hungry… if I could leave at all.

Taking my usual spot at the table, Winter joined right across from me, while the head was left for the head mare herself. Lilac was more of a wiz in the kitchen than I could hope, and with me being as punctual as she when it came to cooking times and meal prepping, before the napkin even went over my lap. Her mitted wing placed the centerpiece, freshly baked stuffed pumpkin with a myriad of herbs one couldn’t comprehend.

These were the days I missed even before the bombs, and ones that I didn’t get to experience all that often. “Well now don’t let me stop you,” she dropped the mitts off on the counter, “Dig in.”

Don’t have to tell me twice!

It didn’t take long for food, and plates to start being passed around like the bottles on a ship. Both myself and Winter might have gained ten pounds alone this night looking back, but it was a night well spent.

“Anything new with work?” Lilac asked while she sipped on her wine glass.

Silently wishing I let the pumpkin cool a bit more before swallowing, the bit that missed my mouth was brushed off. “Oh the usual… deadlines needing to be met, new projects taking the place of old, and more testing than a college,” that seemed to make up more of my life now.

With this war going on, there was always somepony who had an idea or piece of tech to try and help win it. Whether it made past the drawing board happened with a few, but many were scrapped before the drawings were ever even done. No matter, they still had to be tried before they were deemed a failure. Something about Megaspells had been mentioned recently, but those were something that just didn’t seem like dinner conversation… maybe the name, right?

“You’re doing the princesses work,” she took a bite of her creation, smartly cooling it a bit with her breath, “I just wish this would be over with… it’d be nice to do this sort of thing more often.”

True, rationing in some places of the nation had been in effect, coming and going as the need was seen fit. Though, for a holiday like this one, Luna knew she had to keep her nations moral high if the support was to stick. Considering most things were tight, the three of us decided just to do a simple gift exchange, drawing a name each.

“How is it going with your school?” I mused to the filly, watching as she nearly dropped the scone, “or are they still having limits put on the schedule.”

“My schools doing fine… open more than I’d hoped,” there’s the iconic eye roll, “though I did get an B Plus on my history test!”

Both myself and the older mare shined at hearing that. Winter might have not been the most… model student, when I first met her, and granted had a few issues here and there. Being a very verbal student would do that sort of thing. For the most part however, if herself from a few years ago met the present day one, they wouldn’t have believed the change. At the time I couldn’t have known what brought it about, then again, I wouldn’t have to wait long.

Dinner for the most part went on like any feast. Eating, sharing stories of the past, more eating, laughing and carrying on… oh! Did I mention eating? With our plates, and the table for that matter, cleared quite well. I helped clean up a bit around the kitchen, knowing full well Lilac and Winter would be having leftovers for at least the next week.

“Can we do it yet?” Winter almost bounced up off the chair.

“In a moment, dearie,” Lilac answered while putting a few plates in the drying rack.

“Same as last year?” I asked with a raised brow, to which I was greeted with a steady nod. Then the wave of a hoof to shoo me off.

Taking that que, both myself and Winter went in to the living room where the few presents remained wrapped… for now, as the mare joined us soon afterwards. Taking her seat in the antique lounge chair, Lilac used her wing to bring the wine glass up. Though before she even got the chance to take a sip, there was a box on her lap.

“We can do yours first,” the filly hopped up on the opposite end of the couch from me.

Lilac however, just shook her head and smiled, putting her glass down, “Oh I suppose we can then…”

With a careful hoof, she peeled back the wrapping. Doing her best to keep it in one piece, likely to use on a later date, and after a few sections of tape. There in her lap sat a bird house. Freshly painted with flowers and little bees along its sides. Even a few smaller spots on the side for seed, and the holes already made to hang it up when spring decided to roll around. It might have not been the most extravagant gift one could give, but for the mare…

It meant the world.

“Do you like it?” Winter asked, and even over the joy in her eyes, I still saw her wanting to bite her lip.

“… I love it,” Lilac held the creation to her chest, cradling it against her heart, “now I know what you spent so much time over there for,” she chuckled for a moment before turning a sly eye towards me.

“Well she did say she had something special in mind for you,” I turned my head away, trying to hide my own snicker, “Just like I had for her.”

Floating the package, I brought for Winter, she held its hefty weight up on her legs and tried to fenagle amongst her smaller limbs. Finally finding purchase on one of the edges, her hooves tore into it with far less grace than her guardian. It didn’t take long for the red metal chest to sit neatly beside her on the couch as she hoisted it off.

With a pop of the latches, Winter brought out what a young tinkerer needed in their life… tools to call their own. From pilers, to tin snips, combination wrenches, and even a brand-new ratchet and socket set. After every tool that passed through her hooves, a small squeal of delight nearly erupted from her muzzle, and she too held the chest close to her.

“Now I don’t have to always use yours,” she giggled, fiddling with the ratchet and listening to its steady click of the inner teeth.

“Though you’re still more than welcome to,” I nodded towards her, before feeling a wing brush up against my shoulder.

As I turned, a small box held soon was passed off to me, and Lilac returned to her comfort, “it may not be as flashy as what you got her… but you more than deserve it.”

A curious comment… ‘hmm,’ I wondered, holding it to my ear and giving it a quick rattle, ‘no small parts.’ With that and a tug, a clean line was torn down its side.

Held aloft by my aura, resided a coffee mug.

Purple in color along all sides, beside the emblem on the bottom anyone in Equestria would recognize as the mare from the Ministry of Arcane Sciences’ cutie mark. Though what stuck out was the abbreviation on the side of it.

‘B.B.B.F.F….?’ my head turned to Lilac, and almost with that grandmotherly smile she just nodded.

“Don’t worry, I’ll explain later…”

Okay… whatever that meant. With that sitting on the back burning, and carols playing across the radio. Winter continued to fiddle around with her tools, asking here and there about what other projects we could get in to in the future. Apart from that, myself and Lilac chatted with one another, letting the filly have a night of peace with new play things.

Eating that much however would take its toll eventually.

Sure enough, after an hour or two, Winter laid on her end of the couch. Tool box curled up to her chest as she lightly snored into its cover. Both of us that were still up had broken open another bottle of wine for the occasion. Another year done, and alas… who knew how many more of this conflict.

“It’s senseless, truly,” Lilac said as she poured me another glass with her wing, before topping her own off, “All this fighting over some black rocks in the ground…”

“Rocks that just happened to be what fuels this country,” it was a sad fact, but a fact none the less.

Zebras had coal, Equestria needed coal. Zebras needed gems, Equestria had gems. There was trade between the two, then that trade turned in to a monopoly trying to choke the other into submission… and that turned to war. A quick synopsis of this day in age if there ever was one. A war that had carried on years now.

“At least there’s some light to shine these days,” Lilac mused to me, almost begging for me to take the bait. Thankfully, seeing my confusion, she cast me a line, “I saw that mug at one of the gift shops of the M.A.S… you know, when they actually had those.”

“That might have been an idea from the Ministry of Image, boost morale and what not,” hell Luna probably had a hoof in that as well.

“B.B.B.F.F. was something Ministry Mare Twilight had regarding her family, brother actually… Big Brother Best Friend Forever,” if she was hoping that’d explain at all, it really didn’t. Then again, watching her eyes trail over to the slumbering filly kinda filled in that blank, “Winny, never got along well in school… as you more than know from how you met. Constantly in trouble, slipping in grades, and sticking with that group of colts.”

Ahh yes, the ball players… hadn’t had a window break in quite a while come to think of it. Now knowing my luck, one would happen tomorrow, “Oh I remember those days well… it’d only been a few years now.”

“And then you came around…” she beamed to me, “taught her when she was curious, gave her something to put her hooves to good use… instead of picking a fight.”

So that’s what it was… working with her hooves gave her the little release she needed at the end of the day from school and peers. Something to blow off some steam, smartly at least, “We all need some kind of outlet you could say…”

“And you became more than that,” silencing herself after seeing Winter roll over on the couch, she waited for the filly to crash back in the cushions, “you aren’t much older than her, only by a decade, far less than me…” that kind of chuckle could only be made by a grandmother regarding their age, they knew they were old, but only they could joke about it. “Winter and I never clicked… but with you around, she’s been just wonderful since then.”

I certainly had heard less complaints from Lilac regarding the calls she’d get about the filly, “So… I’m a big brother?”

“A Big Brother Best Friend Forever, and one she couldn’t be happier with.”

That right there, that brought a smile to my face. I had grown up as an only child, and while I had classmates at friends, they just weren’t the same as those by blood. Even if this one wasn’t in that same regard, many I worked with now thought the same as Lilac… now I had a mug to prove it. With a different look to it now, I held the mug close and looked over the work of art.

Mass produced to make a quick bit? Sure. Probably would shatter in a million pieces the first time it fell? Absolutely. Never the less, it was a work of art to me now, and one I’d have to be a little more careful with than some of my mugs. “It feels good to have a little sister, even if she does hate her nickname,” both of us grinned for a moment, “even better to be a part of a family again…”

“Again?” Tumble pipped up as we walked along the burned-out roads that were a far cry from the streets in that memory, “What do you mean by that?”

Oh right! Haven’t done an entire history lesson on myself yet, or at least partial history, “parents got divorced when I was younger, when my mom passed, and my dad didn’t want me, her brother took me in,” Ahh Uncle Ale… wonder what he’d make of this world? Probably just wonder if he could find a good tavern, “needless to say we weren’t very close… about the only thing we enjoyed with one another was strategy war games.”

“Take it you didn’t stick around long when you got a bit older?” Deacon asked from over his shoulder, to which I just answered with a nod, “The hell is Hearts Warming Eve though?”

“Celebrates the founding of Equestria, brings ponies together and what not… gifts, food, friends…” you know, all the things this world seems to have run out of. At least, in some respects.

A sniffle however, managed to grab the attention of all three of us, as we turned to see Mason using a handkerchief to dry his eye, “I swear, just dust in my eye,” yeah… we’ll go with that, “that was a sweet memory… though I have to put a damper on the mood…”

Oh, what could it be this time?

“Let me guess, you don’t know Winter at all and just bluffed to try and get an escort home?” steadily I could already see Tumble unlatching her side arm.

Quickly though, a hoof held up from the colt, “No nothing like that! I do remember her, and she was in town for a bit… I just don’t know where she went afterwards, at least not exactly,” well that’s a damper if I ever heard one, “She traded some goods, helped fix a thing or two around the farm for caps, then headed out… mentioned a town to the north, don’t know the exact location, but got a general area she talked about. Someone closer might know more?”

Okay so lessen that damper to a speedbump, it was a vague answer like a student trying to BS their way through a question from the teacher. Though in a world like this, and with the luck of even finding one who claims to have met her, it was better than nothing at all.

“That I can make due with, gotten this far,” I looked back at Tumble, as she latched her holster and nodded at me, “Might as well keep going.”

***

The sun that poked through that overcast kept getting dimmer and dimmer, though with pep in our step we still managed to trek on in to the dusk. Making as much head way towards Pasture Falls as we could, now that we had someone to deliver. So for now, we were just left with more walking… though that boredom got the best of me, and brought the my mind back to the words of one just the other day.

‘Tune in to DJ-Pon3 sometime, you’ll get what I mean soon enough…’ well Watcher, let’s see if you’re right. After a few clicks, I got the wonderous sound of… An electric guitar?

Sure enough, the hard rhythm and rapid drums filled not only my helmet but the speakers on the suit so the others could hear. Maybe I’d have to consider looking at the volume first before tuning in next time…

“That right there was from the new record I’d pulled from a trader that passed through, one of those rock bands the gryphons were fond of before to war… I bit too hard for my liking, but hey if you’re in a shooting mood, that’d be the music to do it to,” the DJ popped in as the song came to an end. Yeah, I’ll consider that on a later date, while my ears were functioning at least, “Speaking of a shooting mood…”

Oh, here we go…

“You guessed it, that Rogue Rangers been at it again, this time they’d been doing a bit of reading it seems… and the Cozy Corner Public Library is once again open to the public,” hmm I don’t remember ever visiting that one before the bombs, “with the halls and shelves clear of Gunners, its open for any pony or critter looking to scavenge, or perhaps just travel a bit more comfortably knowing they weren’t gonna get shot at for trespassing.”

Both Deacon and Tumble looked at me smirking, while Mason looked to the three of us back and forth. “Wait, you did that?” he asked, as the gryphon among us took the reins.

“Admittedly, Rogue Ranger has more of a catchy name than myself or her,” he gestured to the mare.

“Hmm Tumble the Tumbleweed, and Deacon the Doctor?” she offered.

While the nickname might have come in handy at times lately since it being bestowed upon me. The mares’ suggestions only garnished a hearty chuckle from myself, Deacon, and even Mason. Something that was quickly quelled as our local radio host cut us off with more chatter…

“That said… it’s also gotten the attention of certain others in the wastes,” This can’t be good, I couldn’t even see our hosts face and already pictured the grim expression plastering it, “Lock, Stock, and Barrel are rather pissed at their hoof hold being lost, and judging from the chatter about the wastes, they’re looking for some payback.”

Lock, Stock, and Barrel… I’d bet my current caps count they’re related.

“Mister Rogue, if you’re hearing this one… keep up the good fight, but please do so with your ears up and head on a swivel,” that sounded like an almost plead, “we could still use you around here… that’s it for now folks, DJ-Pon3 signing off!”

Just like that the radio went back to some music I was a bit more familiar with from back during the war. Far softer than what I tuned in to. Still, a warning like that raised some questions, these one however I could probably get answered much sooner rather than later.

My visor turned to the trio amongst me, and past the tempered glass the two who had been with me longer picked up on it in a few moments. “Our friendly neighborhood Gunner Brigadiers, Lock, Stock, and Barrel,” Deacon announced, almost with a sense of admiration in his voice for the three, “Siblings actually.”

“I figured that much…” behind my plates of steel and ceramic I cheered for getting that much right, “can I get a better explaination though than having a family feud?”

“Barrels the youngest mare of em,” Mason popped in as we walked in to the night, “usually likes to keep a distance between herself and a target, moves fast, and hits hard… has her personal AMR, and rumored to make her own rounds to boot, with deadly effect,” pure solemnness, that voice change was from the position of experience, “She’s taken jobs on the higher end of the cap scale, even going so far as to kill a few regular Rangers that were in town… taking the shots from out past the boarder.”

So, she was a crack shot with a rifle that was designed to decimate armor… how lovely.

“Then you got Stock, the middle colt,” Deacon followed up with, “prefers things that go boom, carries enough explosives to sink a battleship, and has somehow managed to get mortars under his hooves as well,” he rattled off from the top of his head as it it’d been sitting there stewing.

Tumble tilted her head to him, as I did the same, “Work with him before?” she asked.

“Nope, but in my line of work, you get to know a pony or two… and what they like.”

And now we had a brother who sounded armed with all manners of tin can destroying implements…

From there I heard the sigh as Tumble took a deep breath, “Lastly there’s the oldest sister, Lock…” you could nearly hear the groan in her voice, “She’s actually not all that different from you… besides being a murderous bitch.”

Whelp, then what were the similarities?!

“Has her own suit of power armor, heavy weapons, even has a third gun on her shoulder for smaller targets…”

“Not possible,” I shot her down for a moment, trying to piece through the various blueprints I’d seen over the years, “the suits weren’t designed to hold more than two weapons, at least from what I worked on.”

“Well believe it or not, when you throw a pony in a wasteland, they can get pretty crafty,” fairly recent memories of a rocket propelled sledgehammer started to fill my mind, okay I’d have to give her that one, “no one’s certain where she got it from, or if it was thrown together from whatever she could get her hooves on… one things for sure, she’s gotten good with it over the years.”

Icing on the cake! Another in power armor who had far more experience than myself.

So… a pony who for the most part, until recently, only worked with suits and weapons for testing. Up against a band of trained, skilled, and ruthless killers each with their own perks and tricks. Not to mention the literal army they had under their belt, or the weapons at their own disposal, or the probability of being hit with artillery from a distance, or shot with a tricked-out AMR, or…

‘You know what, I get it already,’ I shut myself up and just walked, shaking my head at what’d I gotten myself in to, “It’s not like I try and pick a fight with em… they just happen to shoot first, and get in the way.”

Between the Rangers, and now this band of misfits… I was making friends all over; Watcher would be so proud.

“May not start the fight, but you finish it at least,” Mason interjected in to my mental monologue, “You’ve seen how it can be out here, even removing one group, or getting in the sights of one, helps out everyone not involved.”

I guess that’s true, being a walking talking distraction would keep their eyes off many others out here in this place. ‘Could they track me somehow? What kind of offence should I expect? Do they know what the suit looks like, or just the company I keep?’ all these questions, courtesy of an overthinking mind. Yet, when one starts to let their mind wander like that, it tends to drain the life out of ya rather quickly.

From my yawn, even in the helmet, it passed on to the others. Each of them taking a turn trying to let the events of the day pass over them. It wasn’t long after that we decided to make camp, having covered a greater distance with our return then when we ventured out. Deacon took his rifle and propped himself against the open end of the sky wagon trailer we’d turned in to a camper for the night, at least in here there was only one place the Gunners would have to shoot at us from…

Unless they used explosives and just blew-

‘I said stop…’ once again, half of my mind scorned its counterpart, before managing to close my eyes. Keeping wary the company I’d invited to play hide and seek.

***

“Pa!” the colt from the farm exclaimed as he nearly went through the door upon our approach.

For as small as his limbs looked, they sure let him move fast. Covering nearly what looked like the length of three ponies in one jump, his hooves wrapped around Mason as the father did the same to his kin. Patch Work held her own place at the door, and just as before, there seemed to be a bit of dirt in her eye.

“Touching ain’t it,” I looked to my companions and watched Tumble smile, while Deacon rolled his eyes. This was probably something he’d done often enough to warrant that.

“Welcome back dear,” Patch kissed Mason when he finally managed to get to the door.

Us three following not too far behind, as we all piled into the small shack. There out on the table rested a few bags that I don’t recall seeing from the last time we were here. While the father put his son down, he quickly found himself turning back to us.

“Thank these fellers, and miss,” he nodded to our resident mare.

“Oh, I plan to…” the mare of the shack went to those sacks and brought them over to us three, “it’s not much, some salted meat, and about a hundred caps each… but what you’ve brought back was more than worth it to us.” Food and money? Yep, I could call that adequate payment, but the info he gave was worth far more to me.

Mason on the other hoof, trotted off and started rummaging through what looked like a busted-up cabinet, and before long a section of parchment that looked nearly ready to crumble to dust was carefully laid across the table. That drawing I’d recognize anywhere… as should most of those in this country.

The magical land of Equestria… or at least it used to be.

With a hoof, he traced along the terrain and went just to the edge of a mountain peak, “Around here,” he gestured in a circle, “Winter had said it was nearby this range… should get you in the right direction.”

‘Oh, more than you know,’ I about bounced in the suit, though that might have collapsed their whole building.

“Thank you again, for bringing him back,” Patch said to us, as her little family huddled together once more. Glad to have their patriarch back with them.

After a simple enough You’re welcome, getting a town called Barkston near that area to look for, the three of us headed out of the home. Leaving them to catch up, and the wife to look after whatever wounds he might have gotten down in the mine. Now that that’s out of the way, there was one more thing to take care of. Fishing out the small purse of caps Patch had given us from my bag, it sorted out what I owed, and tossed it over to our guide.

Snapping his talon out, Deacon caught it and looked at the pair of us, “Like promised, half at the start, and half at the end…”

“And just like promised, I didn’t shoot ya in the back,” he tipped his beak towards us with a snicker, before looking over the bag a little more. Something was going through his head, and what it wasn’t I might have been able to guess.

“It’s all in there, though feel free to count it if you’d like,” last I checked I can manage that much at least, and it would be fair to assume he was trying to judge how many were in there. Although I never said it’d be a good guess.

When his eyes met my visor, the bag was tossed back to me. In a quick aura I caught it, and looked back between him and his payment confused. All the gryphon did was shrug at me, checked his rifle, slung it across his shoulder, and pulled his own bag of supplies in to a more comfortable position.

“You know… I wasn’t lying when I said that was the most fun, I’d had in a while,” for a moment he turned towards the town, the guy must have been here for a while to look at it with that kind of longing. Yet, he turned back to us, “what ya say I stick around ya’ll for a bit? Switch things up a little,” without missing a beat he went from myself and caught Tumbles’ skeptical look, meeting hers with a grin of his own, “Free of charge, of course.”

Could I really say no to another gun?

“Whelp on that note,” he might have been able to fly, but wings didn’t help if an armored hoof was already wrapped around his shoulders, “welcome to the team!” I exclaimed, as Deacon tried to breath, and Tumble started to snicker.

So, we had a new destination… or at least area, an addition to the group, and food for the road ahead. One thing was sorely needed though, while the other two might have been able to get by with just 5.56, 2mm, and the occasional .44. My guns were the ones that were ammo hungry, and after cleaning this place out before we left of all the fuel and 5mm. I doubted they had time to stock up since then.

Upon that conundrum, our newest member mentioned a hospital along the way. Maybe there we could get some extra 5mm, fuel if I was lucky, or at the very least some goods to trade with. Plus, it’s a hospital, so Deacon should more than be able to stock up on the chems he used on me down in the mines. I mean what hospital, even in this place, wouldn’t have something good in it…?

***

Or… we could find an entire hornet’s nest worth of raiders…

Seriously, they had to have been fucking like rabbits to keep these numbers up across the wastes! Most of the hospital’s floors had been burned out and charred, something gave way however long ago, leaving many of the floors now exposed to one another in the center. Only being connected by the crude scaffolding and plywood the raiders threw together.

Their engineering didn’t give me the best hopes, but it was either stay in one spot and get shot, or keep moving around!

Short bursts from my mini accompanied any punches that I threw, if only to keep those that got a bit too close for comfort at a distance while the 5mm put in its work and dropped them. There didn’t seem to be much more than a few pieces of crummy metal armor to make up their protection, and as for arms, everything from pipe wrenches, to the occasional combat rifle were in style this year…

Plus chems, lots of chems.

One stallion socked the side of the suit with a power hoof, charged up by the talisman, it sent a shockwave through my side. Not enough to short the suit out, but more than enough to make my hair stand on end. A quick jab from my elbow to his gut sent him on his knees, but only for a moment. Deacon really needed to give his speech about exploding hearts to this lot.

Our hooves locked with one another, wrestling to the ground. So long as he couldn’t charge and punch, I’d be fine. Then again, from this angle I had issue shooting too. A burst later, and he slumped off to the side of me, and nearly through the hole in his head I could swear I’d seen Deacon smirking.

Rolling back to my legs, I saw the next one coming, and something a bit juicer behind him. With the unicorns’ switchblade levitated out ahead, the edge bounced off the side of the plating like a bowling ball to a pin, and left the colt still in my path. Needless to say, his surprised face didn’t last long past a few punches to it. Another body slumped to the ground, as I was rewarded.

Just past where the colt had appeared, was an ammo container. Were you locked…? Nope! The latched clicked open to give me a present, that was a fuel tank inside. Immediately I screwed the new one in to the side port, and watched my tank go up a smidge. Eh… better than nothing. It gave me enough to get the pilot flame going again, and some fumes in the tank.

No 5mm though, and that was still on its last leg. One of the smallest bullets in the country, yet somehow seemingly the hardest to find in bulk. Unless you paid a boat load of caps, and that would have kinda defeated the purpose of scavenging if you blew it all in one place. Hooves were effective though, especially armored ones.

Two more dropped down from a floor above. The first one broke out a very orange IF-80 20-gauge, or was that rust? Slam-firing about five shells before it jammed, 20-gauge or not a few of those pellets still scattered against the visor and earned me some broken glass. Immediately my eyes shut, avoiding the issue I’d run in to during the mine, and leaving me blind. That however, left me open to the other that joined.

IF-72, standard issue for the first real soldiers that ever were expected to fight Zebras in combat, hefty .45 caliber did pack a punch, but always suffered from low rate of fire and high recoil. Though a large kick didn’t matter at this distance. Dotting along from my leg on up across my chest and neck, they still managed to reverberate through the plates, almost making me go as deaf as the music the DJ last played from the metal striking metal.

Shaking my head to get some bearings, a quick spray of my own from the mini shot Tac 72 to the ground. Just as he dropped, 20-gauge managed to clear his jam as he moved away from me, and promptly was latched on to by a pair of talons as punishment for getting a tad too close to the edge. With some heave, Deacon pulled the pony off the side and let him drop, allowing gravity to save him some ammo, and he got back in the swing of things.

The gryphon was fairing better in this place, able to flutter between floors at will left those raiders that choose close combat at a loss while he peppered them from above. Any that got a bead on him or I were swiftly met with 2mm EC.

Okay, so mostly any that got a bead on him.

Somepony seemed to be covering the gryphon more than myself. On the other hoof, while I might have liked the extra cover. He was far more exposed, and Tumble was doing quite well covering his flank. A beating of this sort I could take, and just what the armor was designed for. I say just as a hammer landed square across my hind legs. Again, staying still too much!

Tripping me up, the mare that swung it brought the spiked end down for a puncture, before she could one side of me rolled. Watching as the end buried itself in the floor, a buck to her chest nearly caved it in with one go, sending her sliding across the room and even getting some air time.

“Come on, we ain’t done yet,” Deacon landed as he held a talon out to help me to my hooves.

“I never said I was either,” moving once again, the two of us trailed along the sides of the crater that had been formed here in building.

Scratch that previous statement, it didn’t give way… something crashed. Judging by the wreckage at the bottom it looked like a Vertibuck, and when it collided, it did so hard. Getting a better look, I seemed it left a crater in the center of the main area, and carried itself all the way down to the basement.

The central shaft made by the vehicle is what joined all these floors out in the open, and gave both ourselves and the raiders a clear view of one another from across its gap. Tumble seemed to be enjoying herself, perched just out of reach from above, courtesy of Deacon giving her a lift when we first came in. That gave me and the gryphon the task of going floor to floor.

Did I mention not trusting these guys engineering skill?

Whether they’d been tampered with, or just poor construction, stepping on this set of scaffolding sent it wobbling under our limbs. Deacon fluttered just off the edge to try and take some weight of it off, though this thing wasn’t made for armor frames it seemed.

With gravity still working, I shot down like the can I was. ‘Stick the landing, stick the landing!’ I shouted to myself, managing to just get my hooves under me before the ground got too close.

Part of the vertibuck gave way from under my hooves, dropping its wing and crashing the both of us in to the ground. Cleanest landing in history it was far from, but in any case, I was still breathing. From down here I could hear the few shots coming from Deacon and Tumble overhead as they took care of other raiders off along the sides.

“That’s… odd?” I muttered while taking a look around.

For a hospital, there seemed to be a set of bleachers along the sides of this pit. Not something you see very day in a medical building, and I hadn’t noticed it until getting lower. Then again, the next oddity would be the bones scattered about. That wasn’t all that odd from the normal wastes, but those bones considered commonplace were dry and aged…

These were fresh…

Plus, these chains along the ground, what could they contain… ‘Oh fuck! That’s moving!’ I shouted to myself, watching as the same metal links went past my legs and in to the shadows.

Along the side of the crater, from the darkness I saw a muzzle at first.

Its fur had tattered in places along the snout, stretching bare patches down the length of its neck and chest. The shoulders of the thing must have been at least a few ponies wide while it walked, and from its stride alone it could have probably bust through solid granite. Down along its arms, housed at the very end laid… stone?

Enraged Hellhound my E.F.S. displayed to me, and ya know what… I’m just gonna ignore that from now on. Tells me a lot of things that just seemed a bit obvious.

Armor integrity: 71%.

Warning: Jaw fracture detected!

Judging by the hangtime I was getting from its swing, and the feeling in my teeth, that wasn’t stone. These raiders had encased its claws in concrete. Skipping across the floor, I quickly found my hooves again and squared off against the beast. Maybe they were using that to keep it from digging out, and with the chains imbedded in it might have meant they tried keeping it in one place before.

Didn’t last long clearly…

But it was good with those chains! With a flick of its wrists, the length of metal links swung around the basement and wrapped around my body, and as it yanked back, I found myself lurched off the ground towards it. Past that, one concrete paw swung against the helmet and battered me across the face.

Armor integrity: 55%.

Slowly groaning, I got back to my hooves and back peddled away from it, spinning up my 5mm. Smaller slugs scattered across this things body, some earning me actual bleeding wounds, others giving it nothing but annoyance. Tumble wasn’t joking when she said they had a tough hide on em. How much damage I was really doing probably wouldn’t have dropped it, but it was enough to keep it at bay.

Those concrete paws of it swung wilding against the open air, after every step or two back I’d taken to avoid them. The chain even whipped down against me a few times, though those attacks were slow and easy to see. Still, my 5mm cycled back rounds, hoping I’d hit something import-

Or you could just click and run out of ammo!

Sure enough, the minigun was out of commission for the time. I hadn’t found any rounds for it when we first got in here, and the bot from before didn’t drop nearly enough for my indiscriminate use. This hellhound only gave me the sponge I needed to use up the rest of my shots. Something that now left me skipping back against the basement floor to avoid swings.

Though something, gave it a distraction.

The colt on the ground didn’t know where he had turned up.

Yet, as the hellhound rested its eyes on him, the colt had any trace of drug snap out of his system in an instant. Not like it helped him at all, the once diamond dog brought both of its solid boxing gloves up in the air, and before the pony could even let out so much as a yelp, the weight of them crushed both bone and tissue under itself against the floor. Splattering him like a water balloon against canvas.

Looking up, I saw Deacon grab on to another pony, deliberately tossing him down to the ground below. The mare that fell might have had nothing to do with the imprisonment of the dog, but as far as the canine was concerned… pony was enemy, and if they were between me and it, I couldn’t argue.

After her failed attempt to scamper away was met with a haymaker worthy of a train crash, both myself and the dog watched her body fly over the basement and in to a solid wall. Splattering against it like an over ripened fruit, and soon enough its attention turned towards myself.

One heavy paw socked me under the chin, and almost like the bell at a hammer swing game for a carnival, I shot upwards. Nearly meeting the first real floor to the hospital, I saw the warning signs go off along the suits systems.

Armor integrity: 47%.

Warning: Concussion detected!

Yep, getting hit by basically a wagon over and over again wasn’t good for my heath. Rolling as best I could, little images of Celestia and Luna appeared flying around my vison, was that worse than seeing the stars? Med-X quickly found itself in my bloodstream, letting me fight past that sensation of getting my brain bounced around a cage.

A few blue contrails struck in to its hide, tearing chunks of it out and causing the dog to howl up to the one responsible. Though as distracting as Tumbles shots were, they didn’t seem to be downing the creature any time soon. My eyes glanced towards the incinerators fuel level, barely enough to kill a pony, let alone this beast…

Unless I was crafty.

Using my horn, I ripped the weapon from my side, and with a heave tossed it at the dog. “Shoot it!” I yelled out, hoping one of those above heard me over the speakers.

Sure enough, a few bursts from the gryphon landed in its tank as it smacked against the dog chest, rupturing it across his frame. The wash of fire caressed the mutt, blanketing him more than I could have hoped if I fired it normally. Thick hide or not, there was little tissues out in nature that could fight against fire.

And the dog wasn’t one of them.

Flailing around as it burned, a lucky swing from its chain wrapped around my leg and dragged me as he went. Tossing me like a fish on a line in to one of the walls, more warnings went off, yet even if I might have been along for the ride. His motions were getting slower, and soon enough the charred pooch let out one last cry before collapsing to the ground.

Getting back to my hooves, the feeling of a potions trickling in to my system gave me a nice wash of relief. With caution I walked past the beast, halfway expecting it to lurch back up to its paws and cave my skull in. If it hadn’t been for the filters on the suit, I might have smelled its smoldering flesh. How they got it down here I could only imagine, but if this was the basement, then there had to be a way up as well.

Just off to the side I found the door to the stairs, far too small for something the dogs’ size to get out from, and with a buck from my back hooves it swung open and happily I trotted back up to meet my companions. With no shots ringing out, and the bodies of those raiders now littering the floor, we all could finally take a breath.

“Good thinking with that toss,” Deacon said as he fluttered down to me, dropping Tumble off as he landed.

“I mean I’m out of 5mm… so I had to improvise,” and lose a weapon in the process.

Together now we searched the area, going room by room, and running in to a few tripwires along the way. Really? What would the raiders do if they forgot about their own traps? Some of these were just thrown in the most random of places, thankfully Deacon was well versed in exploration, and managed to get a few of those traps disarmed while we went.

Most of the floors we covered while working our way up paid off in some way shape or form. A few caps here, some ammunition there, maybe a potion on occasion. The latter all found their way in to our medics bag, as every gun and piece of gear worth a damn landed along my back. If I couldn’t find any 5mm, I’d just have to buy it.

As we reached the upper floors of the hospital, one room stood out amongst the rest as it overlooked the crater in the center. Here looked to be where the leader of this bunch hung his hat, which one in the masses we fought they were, didn’t know. Although, around the room were quite a few containers just ripe for the picking, and by the bed a weapon locker to boot. Without even a word to her, Tumble immediately went to the weapon locker and started picking, that left myself and Deacon rummaging through the other containers.

Whoever their boss was, he sure kept a good stash!

‘Let’s see… .45s, .38s, 12-gauge buck, and… no 5mm,’ no matter, all the contents of these were dumped in to my bags. Somepony would pay for it at the next town we came across, and with a heavy squeak, I turned to see the weapon locker door swinging open.

“Oh Wild, this might be up your alley,” Tumble called out to me from across the room

Trotting up alongside her, there in the locker rested one of the more innovative designs during the war. Shotguns I never got in too much at work, this one however, had dislocated shoulder written all over it. The thicker barrel was built to take sustained fire during battle, and judging by the flip-up loader, this one was modified to be belt-fed. Even the receiver looked reinforced to take additional punishment… something though, seemed off about it.

Floating it up to me, the latches on my helmet undid and popped open letting me get a closer inspection. There was a glow coming from the gun, small at first, but in the poorly lit room up here I could see hints of it radiating from the ammo feed.

Lifting open the receiver, there along the pathway of the belt I saw it. The small stone had its own runes engraved on to it, imparting some arcane energy to the weapon in one form or another, whatever that might have been I’d just have to find out.

“Something wrong with it?” Deacon asked, as he and Tumble looked at it over my shoulder.

“Oh, far from it. It’s… unique, that’s for sure,” that was an understatement, and one I’d just have to try out.

With some care and a delicate measure of horn control, the weapon found its new home in place where my incinerator had once been. Its ammo count taking up that vacancy in my visor, and letting me bring up its details in the suits inventory.

‘Explosive Combat Shotgun?’ I mean I knew the IF-87 had a number of variations, but was that one of them?

Pulling the bit, a single shell chambered inside and I let it loose across the open gap of the crater. Just as advertised, in the distance each of those pellets peppered along the distant wall and exploded upon contact. Not an overly large explosion sure, but still more than enough to cause extra damage.

The two that joined me took a leap back after I let that round loose, “What the hell was that?” Tumble asked, looking over the gun with a new light.

“That… was a talisman at work,” oh happy days! Losing the incinerator was well worth if considering the payoff, I’d just received, “it’s something parts of the M.A.S. and M.W.T. were working on during the war, the Zebras had rifles that could light ponies on fire… so some genius decided to copy them.”

“And make a shotgun in to a grenade launcher of sorts,” Deacon said while tapping the side of the gun.

That might be overselling it, then again, I wonder if the same effect would work with any type of ammunition, I loaded in to it? Granted I hadn’t been collecting many shells in the past, though with this little added effect, the few dozen I had on me would probably be more effective.

“Although, as intriguing as the effect is, I do have some concerns,” between the pair of them, I could see the doubt they shared. After all, why would anypony have concerns over a weapon like this? One simple reason in fact, “splash damaged kinda defeats the purpose of a close-range weapon…”

Footnote: Level up.