Fallout Equestria: A Wastelander Tale

Fallout Equestria: A Wastelander Tale, Chapter Fifty Three

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It had taken them a while, but several large and beaten up sky wagons landed near the entrance of the library. All of them had a neon pink "X" over the enclave symbol. Pulled by two pegasus, and had what looked like two gunner seats on the sides, though lacking the guns.

With them were over ten heavily armed Talons, who looked as though they were just recently been in a fire fight… then again, they might have been.

To my relief Hans was with them, with a bloody bandage on the side of his head.

"Please don't tell me the fight was that bad?" I asked.

He cocked an eyebrow at me. "You look worse than I do. But ya, the fuckers has a lot of well armed and well trained soldiers. Real shitshow. So, what the fuck happened to you?"

"Their boss showed up, and everything went tits up before we could do anything. Fucking Tripwire read us like a book." I told Hans.

Hans then looked at my new gun, smiling a bit. "I guess you had some success… I hope?"

I nodded. "Mission successful. Angel and Spine Breaker are dead, captives recovered, weapons cash recovered, and some extra." I then took a deep breath, exhaling slowly into a long sigh. "But Cold Trails is… no longer able to fight, and Tripwire has a very powerful alicorn under his control."

"If he is alive, then things can get better." Hans said to me as he placed a claw on my shoulder. "Take it from me, a messed up friend is bad, but nothing worse than a dead one." He then turned around, addressing the pegasus and griffins in his group. "Alright, we got civilians and supplies here that need immediate extraction. Both will need to be done swiftly, and with care."

They all saluted, and began making their way into the hidden library. I looked back to see Mint and Cauterize give me a nod and head on down ahead of them.

"Oh, one more thing." I said to Hans. "We have a few ponies that may need… special care."

He again raised an eyebrow at me, and leaned in.

Whispering, I told him. "Well it's the foals we recovered, one being Tripwire's filly, thus, Wiretap's half sister. But that's not all, though we are unsure if it's true or not, but one of them may be Redeye's."

Clear shock showed on his face, but Hans kept his voice low. "If true, that's going to be a problem. I'll have the foals all be taken under guard, and kept out of view. Best if none are single out in case it tips any idiot off."

"Thanks, and maybe have Spell stay with them. He's surprisingly good with foals, and some of them already seem to like him. Also there's a green alicorn by the name of Ben Day, he's… well she's their protector right now, it'll be a problem if they're separated. " I requested.

Hans nodded, and then stopped a young Talon, whose uniform just barely fit him. "You, there's a bunch of foals down there, take them to the heavy armored carrier, along with a unicorn named Spell Circuit and an alicorn named Ben Day. Consider them all VIP's, got it!"

The young griffin saluted. "Sir yes sir!" then quickly made his way down the stairs.

This time I cocked my eyebrow. "He seems… young?"

"He is, but he's also a fully trained and combat tested Talon. The kid is also talented, enough so that Gwadina's been demanding his contract, offering good caps for him too." Hans explained.

I let out a whistle. "Impressive. Lucky that you have him."

"For now." Hans said sternly. "Grizzly is considering taking that deal, if Gwadina sends us more aid. But she's hoping we finish this fight with Tripwire before then. Good soldiers are worth their weight in caps you see." He then looked over to the stairs. "Now speaking of good soldiers, why don't we check on Cold Trails, I want to see the damage."

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The Talons and Pegusi were now organizing the ponies down here, keeping them calm as they were led back outside. They seemed relieved to finally be moving again, well though still not trapped in a daze. We also passed Cauterize as he was helping move one of the weapons crates out, looking like he really wanted to get out of here. Not far behind him was Plasma directing the other alicorns, as they levitated several more of the weapons crates.

Trotting into the makeshift medical room, Aloe, Low, and Molo were waiting for us. Seemingly out of character for him, Low seemed genuinely worried for his sister as he sat next to her. Then again, I might have been selling the narcissist short.

Molo and Aloe on the other hoof were with Cold Trails, whom to my surprise was awake. He looked over to me, clearly exhausted from just surviving, and smiled with a half bandaged muzzle. "Hay Lottery, heard you fainted after waking up." He lifted his hooves to shrug, but saw the stump where his left hoof should be, and could not take his eyes off of it.

Quickly trotting to him, I gave Cold a hug. "Sorry, I'm so sorry!"

"It's… not your fault. This just happens sometimes." Cold tried to comfort me, but it only made me feel worse. So much worse.

"No, I should have seen this coming, I should have warned you sooner. You saved us all, and you didn't deserve this!" I told him, tears welling up in my eyes.

Cold gently pushed me away. "No, I deserved this." Strangely, there was guilt in his eyes and voice. "So please, don't cry for me. I don't deserve that, not after some of the things I've done."

I felt confused. "Wh… what do you mean?"

The large claws of Hans then grabbed me by the collar of my jumpsuit and lifted me away from Cold. "What do you think, Lottery, he was an Enclave officer."

Looking over at Cold, who averted his gaze from my own, and then I released. Like an idiot, I never asked, never wondered. When the Enclave descended, they killed a lot of ponies, and destroyed so much so quickly.

"Oh… right." I said, and Hans put me down, where Molo then put a hoof on my shoulder.

The Talon then trotted up to Cold, and addressed Aloe. "Is he safe to transport?"

The ghoul looked rather annoyed. "I know what you're going to do and no. Well yes he is as healed as he can get down here, but between the blood loss and a need for a trotting aid, he should not be moving around."

Hans then grabbed Cold and hoisted the pony onto his back.

"Or you can do that." Aloe said with a sigh, then huffed out. "Every time with you soldiers."

"Well it's not like we got the time to sit around and wait for things to get any better. Grab the other injured pony, and load them up in the sky cart." Hans said coldly.

I didn't like the sound of that.

But before I could ask, Molo asked, "How much time do we have?"

"Not nearly enough for a safe trip back." Hans told us. "It will take an hour before Wiretap's forces come down on this place like a hammer, but we'll get out of here in time before that. The problem is the pegasus strike team on their way here."

"Flyright!" Cold Trails growled.

Hans nodded, "there's not many of them, but they did the most damage when the fight started."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked.

"Because panic makes ponies dumb and slow, better that we get you all organized before you know about the attack." Hans said before trotting to the archway.

A rather banged up Talon pushing a weapons crate was then stopped by Hans, and asked. "How many more crates are there?"

The griffin saluted Hans. "Almost all of them sir, a strange group of ponies are helping us get the crates out of the cage."

"Good, get ready to fly out as soon as everything is loaded." Hans told the Talon, he then turned around and told us before trotting out. "If you're able, grab what you can and move."

"I'll help move High Pressure." Aloe said, and ran to the two pegasus.

"Lottery, what about the foals?" Molo asked me, sounding worried.

"They're fine, they're getting the VIP treatment." I told her.

She sighed in relief, "then let's get the rest of the guns out of here."

Rushing to the back of the library, we passed a few more griffins hauling weapons crates, wasting no time getting out of here. Reaching the back, I was greeted by the sight of the cult working together to push the remaining crates out, all while being directed by Mint.

Trotting up to Mint, I didn't waste time with niceties. "Were about to be attacked, go join the others."

She huffed, blowing her fake mane out of her face. "I figured as much." She then turned to the cult. "Alright, grab what's left and get the fuck out of here. Your saint says the time is now!"

The cult of mutants then cheered, and collectively began pushing the rest of the crates out.

"How?" I asked.

"I know psychology, and they're a bit soft in the head." Mint expanded as she lifted a smaller medical crate onto her back, and ran off.

"Last one!" Molo said as she pushed a larger crate out with some struggle. Joining her, we both pushed onto the crate, and joined the train of cultists as they made their way to the exit.

Already the hidden library was looking empty, with mostly garbage and books left behind. The robots were still marching around, cleaning what they could. There were ponies ahead of us, but they were being hurried forward, and those who could not move were being carried.

Quickly reaching the stairs, the cultists worked together to push the crates up as soon as the remaining ponies had gotten out. I had to put the large and heavy crate onto my back, with Molo providing stability and support as I then began climbing up, thankful for the Grizzly Gauntlets that kept me from slipping.

It didn't take long getting back outside, though now my legs now felt like shit, but we had made it. Already a sky carrier had lifted off, being pulled by two pegasus each and guarded by a Talon.

Hans landed next to us and pointed to a nearby carrier. "Get on that one!"

Helping us, we three made it to the carrier just as the others lifted off, and waiting for us was another Talon who helped pull the crate into an already cramped carrier as soon as we arrived. Jumping in ourselves, the two griffins closed the door behind us and slammed on the side.

Lurching forward, I felt the carrier move and then soon came the sensation of us flying.

Trotting to the front, I had to push past several ponies, where I found Plasma already there. She was looking at some tech on the sky wagon with great interest.

"What's that?" I asked.

"It's the data read for the cloud wagon. It lets us know if there's something wrong with it or not." She explained.

Looking at it myself, it was all gibberish to me. "So, is there anything wrong with it?"

Plasma shrugged. "Not sure since I never worked on one. Most cloud wagons were in the clouds when the war ended, and those down on the ground that the Rangers could get were disassembled and placed into storage. So aerospace engineering isn't well known by Steel Rangers, but we do know not to go near any rusted ones out in the wasteland. Their cores, if damaged, would easily become unstable and explode."

That actually surprised me. "Wait, this can explode!?"

One of the two pegasus pulling us laughed. "No mam, you're safe. The Enclave made sure all our tech was well maintained. Though after two hundred years, I can't imagine these babies are going to last much longer now they're back in use again."

There was a thud above us, and then Hans stuck his head over from the roof. "They're not going to last an hour if you don't pick up the pace. A wing of Enclave shock troopers are inbound, Lottery, Plasma can you provide support?"

"From here! How? If you mean those gunner seats, there were no guns on them!" I asked, feeling a bit worried about fighting in the sky.

The other pegasus then spoke up. "This is a Flying Troop Transport Model 3, it's made so that you can attach standard rifles or M.E.W.'s to the gunner seat. Snap on, snap off kind of thing."

I took a deep breath, knowing I was going to hate this. "Alright, we'll do what we can."

"Y… yes, and we're already loaded up on ammo too." Plasma added.

Hans pulled up a rather interesting looking rifle. "Good, we'll do what we can to keep them off you, but if they get too close, open fire. We can't let the bastard claim the cloud wagons or what's inside them." He then jumped off, wings spread wide.

Plasma and I trotted to the mid sections where either side had a small door. As I opened my door and the outside air rushed in, a pony grabbed my leg.

"Are we going to be alright?" A very scared looking mare asked.

"I'll do what I can, so please just stay calm, and we will get through this." I told her and she let me go.

Stepping into the gunner seat and closing the door, my vision spun as I looked down to see the ground far below me.

We were so high, too damn high!

Slapping myself and taking a deep breath, I managed to calm myself long enough to pull out my IF-64 rifle and put it into the turret, it literally snapping in like the pegasus told me it would. Securing the gun with a latch, I then strapped myself into the seat, making sure the belts were extra tight.

"Lottery, come in!" Plasma's voice faintly and strangely came through some strange headset hanging off the turret. Putting it on, Plasma's voice came through loud but not clear, it sounded very tinny as she spoke. "If you're hearing this, flip the green switch on the turret, it will let you talk over the coms."

I did just that, and my headset began making a low static sound. "Is.. is this working?" I said into the microphone on the headset.

"I hear you, and this is amazing. The coms are literally voice powered, which are not the best quality, but can't be disrupted or spied on. I thought only the naive used them on their warships!" Plasma said with glee.

Then the voice of one of the pegasus spoke up. "Actually most cloud ships have them as backup coms, along with multiple command rooms. Works even when the ship's power is turned off. Anyways, hate to be a buzzkill, but can you check behind us, the gunner seats can extend out a bit, so you should be able to look behind us. There's a lever you can pull on your side."

"Found it! This is amazing!" Plasma said, strangely enjoying being so high up.

Looking around, I found the leaver and pulled it. With a jolt, the gunner seat pushed out a pony length, nearly causing my heart to jump. "Found it, and I hate it." I told them as I looked behind the cloud wagon. There I saw seven black specks quickly growing bigger, and the griffins trailing us. "I see them, seven pegasus, all in power armor I think."

"Looks like the same armor coloring that Pegusi you killed had, Stormfront I think his name was." Plasma added.

One of our pegasus then laughed. "Stormfront is dead, good riddance to trash. The fucker is why I got stuck as enclave transport and never promoted. All because he wanted to show off how strict he was to his superiors. It's why I didn't join Flyright. As soon as I saw that Stormfront was with her, I knew it was going to be a shitshow."

"Ya, same for most of us." The other pegasus chimed in. "The Enclave was already bad enough as it was, but having the punitive bitch be in charge, no fucking way we were sticking around for that shitshoa. Lucky us that your boss found us, now we can stick it to those lying bastards."

Gunfire rang out as the Talons engaged in combat with the Enclave. We watched as the griffins flew around with agility and grace all while shooting their guns. The pegasus on the other hoof were like flying tanks, firing their magical energy weapons without care if they were hit, shrugging off the bullets like they were nothing.

Very quickly the two forces collided. Literally with Hans as the pegasus slammed into him, stabbing Hans in the shoulder with the bladed tail. But Hans counters with a blade of his own, shoving a large knife into the ponies armors joint, and then pulling it out with a lot of blood following. The two then dropped as the likely dead pegasus was still holding onto Hans.

Seeing it caused my heart to sink, but my eyes quickly shifted as another griffon was hit by a MEW, and disintegrated. Literally glowing pink before turning to ash, and then the pegasus flew through it. Throwing the Talon armor to the side and scattering the ashes before turning to us.

"Fuck, one, no two pegasus coming for us!" I said over coms.

Another pegasus had broke through the line of Talons, the griffon they had been fighting holding their neck as they fell, a trail of blood following them down.

I took aim and fired. The attacking pegasuses placed their hooves in front of their muzzles as they charged. Both Plasma and my shots connected, the turret making it easy to fire, but it was no use. The 5.56 rounds simply bounced off their power armor, not even slowing them down.

"Fuck we need bigger guns!" I said in frustration.

"Evasive maneuvers!" Plasma then shouted.

My stomach then lurched as the cloud wagon made a sharp turn just as the pegasus fired at us, one shot nearly hitting me.

As we leveled out, the pegasus passed me, and time seemed to freeze as I saw that it was Flyright glaring back at me. She then opened her wings wide, and let herself fall back, right onto my gunner seat. With a smooth motion, she ripped my rifle off the turret, throwing it to disappear far below.

"We meet again, Lottery. How's Major Cold Trails doing? Just so you know, I'm using that traitor's left wing as a paperweight." She said with venom in her voice.

I went to grab Whisky Shot, but Flyright pushed my face back with her power armored enhanced strength. "No, I don't think you'll be doing that." She growled at me, the pressure from her hoof under my jaw making it hard to breathe. "No, you should suffer. Once I avenge that idiot, and bring your head, along with the head of that traitor, all will know why I should never be crossed!"

"Y… Your fucked in the head, you know that." I managed to croke out.

Flyright smiled, and the bladed tail of her power armor lifted up, pointing at me. "Even so, I'll still win in the end."

The door behind me was then forcefully pulled open and a hail of gunfire burst out, forcing Flyright to let me go and cover her muzzle. A crack formed on her goggles before she jumped off, and I was able to finally take a deep and pained breath.

"And fucking stay away!" Molo shouted, holding her two heavy SMG's in the air.

"Th…that was too close." I said with a sigh, but panic then washed over me. "Shit, is Plasma-" there was an explosion from the other side of the cloud wagon, and then a flaming pegasus fell, flailing wildly, a trial of smoke followed.

"I'm good." Plasma said over the coms.

I let out a sigh of relief. "Thank Celestia, I'm grabbing another gun."

Pulling the lever, the seat jolted closer to the cloud wagon, and I unbuckled. With help from Molo, I was pulled in, where I was glad to not see the ground from inside.

Turning to my good friends, I let out a nervous laugh, "I thought I was a goner there for a moment."

She laughed too. "Ya, if Plasma didn't tell us, you might have..." She then stopped and looked down at her back leg, where the bladed tail of Flyrights was sticking through it. "Oh fuck off!"

Before I could do anything, Molo was pulled out of the door and then she was… gone.

"You ignorant, retarded, dirty, mud lickers!" Flyright said as she climbed in, the blood covered bladed tail swishing around. She then glanced back at the door for a moment before looking at me with a grin. "Did you know it's not the fall that kills you, It's the sudden stop at the end."

"You… BITCH!" I screamed, and charged at her, she lifted her hooves up to stop me, and our hooves locked.

The smile on Flyright's face then faded for a as she was pushed back a few hoof steps. My rage encompassing my every being, I wanted to stomp her into pulp!

The smile returned to her face as her two MEW's then moved on their own, aiming at me. "Advanced technology ya savage." She said with malicious glee.

Pushing back off her, all I could do was shield myself with my gauntlets as Flyright let out a torrent of pink beams. The sound of her gunfire almost drowned out the screams of the other ponies on board as the beams ricocheted off my guantletsand into the rest of the cabin. Each shot from them felt more and more like my hooves were set on fire.

When she finally stopped, ash hung in the air, and I could smell my own burnt flesh. "You don't even have the decency to disintegrate." Flyright huffed in annoyance. "Fine by me, I did say I'd take your head."

She got closer, and I took a deep, slow, and very painful breath. Then I felt her bladed tail caress my cheek, it was still warm with Molo's blood. She then stopped, and I could hear pounding behind me, likely Plasma trying to get in, but I think I was blocking the door. Would she die next, maybe, but only if I didn't stop Flyright right here!

It hurt to move, but I pushed myself with everything I had, and when my eyes locked with Flyright's, I could see the shock through her cracked goggles.

"How are you-" the now bright orange claws on my gauntlet racked over her face, digging through armor and flesh like it was paper. Both the armor and Flyright let out a scream as steam jetted off of her face, and she stumbled back.

As I stood upright on all four, my legs still felt like they were on fire, but I didn't care, I was going to kill her. Charging in again, Flyright avoided locking hooved, instead aiming her guns first this time, so I reached out and struck the MEW's, the front ends melting from the now glowing white claws touch.

I was then knocked back by Flyright's tail as she spun around and used it like a club. "Monster, fucking monster!" She shouted at me. Four claw marks traced over both her helmet and her muzzle, where they were already cauterized and smoldering. The smell of burnt flesh sent a sense of viscous glee thru me me as I wanted to add more, burn her more, to fuck up that face and show everypony my work!

"Says the murder!" Hans said, appearing from the doorway, having grabbed Flyright's tail. Firmly holding the tail with his other claw, the Talon then said, "let's take this outside!"

Using his natural strength, Hans quickly dragged Flyright out of the cloud wagon, her hooves scraping on the foor as she feutaly resisted.

Feeling confused, I managed to drag myself to the doorway, each step filled with pain. But before I could look outside, I was then tackled by a purple mass.

"Lottery!" Molo yelled with joy, but then gasped in shock. "Oh fuck, your on fire! We got to get those things off! Somepony help me!"

It was a bit of a blur as Molo and the others began tearing off my gear, my jumpsuit nothing more than burnt scrap, and leather plates not much better. The smell of burnt flesh became even more pungent. Thankfully everything then faded as I began to pass out again, and with it the pain.

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