Chapter 62: A trick up his sleeve

While home there was a knock on the door.

"Um, Purple?" asked Paladin Sapphire Heart, "What are you doing? Why haven't we attacked your brother or the Steel Rangers since when we were captured last night?"

Purple Artist said, "Waiting for another guest."

Paladin Sapphire replied, "Can you explain?"

Purple said, "We're going. From bait or prey to predator..."

Paladin Sapphire replied, "Less dramatic like,"

Purple said, "My brother knows we're a smaller force and thinks he can bring in all the supplies of resources of the wasteland under his rude hoof. So instead of acting as bait or pray we act as predators. No more running, no more hiding. We're going to take the fight to my brother and the Steel Rangers."

There was a knock on the door and Purpled answered it. Purple was shocked that the Grand Pegasus Enclave or what remains of it well one of the higher-ups stuck his hoof out to Purple and wanted to bury the hatchet between them.

"How can we help you sir?" said a Grand Pegasus Enclave General, "With Colonel Autumn Leaf dead and about 54% of our military deserted to your pompous ass brother of yours. And thirty percent dead due to the failure of Operation: Cauterize. Most of our leadership packed up and left."

***

Two days later.

Even though a majority of the Grand Pegasus Enclave is gone they decided to make an alliance with the Wasteland Guardians. Even though Lt Honey Cake and her command are a part of the GPE but they're another Combat Command Attack and Lieutenant Honey Cake is only taking orders from Purple thinking playing kiss ass is a good way to jump in bed with him.

***

Still in Purple's house

"I believe a congratulation is in order," said Paladin Sapphire, "Wish we had a bottle of champaign."

Purple said, "Don't count your chickens just yet."

Paladin Sapphire replied, "What do you mean?"

Purple replied, "Don't make plans or something before they happen. Do you think we'll win just with superior firepower? The wasteland will adjust to that. I bet that RedEye is probably on his way out here if he isn't dead and he'll enslave us all. Fortunately, I always keep a few tricks up my sleeve. And I got a trick up my sleeve."

Purple then moved a black bishop taking Paladin Sapphire's white knight.

"What are these pieces?" asked Paladin Sapphire

Purple replied, "There are eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen, and one king. It's Chess. The objective of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king which it's under immediate attack and no way for it to escape. My niece Cherry Lollipop since she was four she could beat anypony. Even I'm a good chess player and my logic is high. She has beaten me while she was blindfolded. She has beaten everypony while blindfolded even her own parents or my Aunt Pointy Spear and Uncle Cotton Wind."

A Wasteland Guardian scout came in without knocking.

"Purple," said the Scout, "We've spotted your brother via binoculars going into a building. There were some others with him to defend him and look like it was "The Conflageration" raider gang."

"Don't want to be a Grammer Nazi but it's "The Conflagration" gang. But thank you for that." said Purple

The scout then left to go and do his job of just walking around the wasteland.

"Guess my hunch paid off," Purple said, "Guess my brother feels threatened that a majority of the GPE didn't flock to him. But we'll have a tough time telling who from who. After all, a majority of my brother's faction their power armor is the same color as the GPE with a few actually making it easier to tell them apart. Let's take a trip."

Paladin Sapphire soon followed Purple after moving a white rook then galloped outside.

"Rocky, Starry, Critical, Twyla, Opel," said Purple, "Let's go Guardians."

Paladin Sapphire went into her house and got her suit of power armor on and galloped to catch up with them.

"Where are we going?" asked Rocky

Paladin Sapphire replied, "Going to stop another unholy alliance with Purple's brother."

Rocky replied, "So? How's that our problem?"

Paladin Sapphire replied, "If you want to lose and be bearing nothing but a ton of foals from Purple's brother. Then you can surrender over to Base right now."

Rainy Night scared the hell out of them as she soared out of nowhere and landed alongside Paladin Sapphire.

Purple's peaceful and loving humming kept them entertained. Rainy Night, Paladin Sapphire, and Starry asked Purple to whistle.

"I'm sorry I would love to," said Purple, "But I can't whistle every time I "whistled" I just played a recording on my Pipbuck 3000. From either my father or grandma Brisk whistling. I tried whistling but without a whistle, I can't whistle."

Along the way, they passed some Grand Pegasus Enclave patrols.

***

Near a motel.

They just kept their pace normally and there was a gunshot and all of them ran for cover.

"I don't think they're raiders," said Rainy Night, "They're way too organized."

"Mercenaries?" Purple said

Rocky replied, "Who's going to put a bounty out on your or our heads?"

"Take a guess," Purple said

Rocky said, "The Steel Rangers? The GPE?"

Purple replied, "The GPE. The Grand Pony Enclave that's led by my sexist, patriarchal, and Misogynistic brother. If you want to surrender to him. He'll make sure you are in bed with him and be prepared to be bred like no tomorrow. Not adding he would have you make breakfast, lunch, and dinner for him at a specific time. But hey if you want that you have a long walk ahead of you if you think that'll be a better future. But I'm not going to stop you."

Rainy replied confused, "Grand Pony Enclave? Don't you mean Grand Pegasus Enclave?"

Purple replied friendly and kindly, "No. Honey Cake. She recruited my brother into the GPE due to he's a Pegasus. But she didn't figure it out until it was too late when he tried to blackmail her into staying silent due to Honey Cake stealing my sperm to get herself and one hundred and four other mares under her command pregnant to regrow the GPE. That's because she knew that Operation: Cauterize would've killed a lot of GPE soldiers. But for a while, she kept silent about it until she finally told him that she didn't care because she says what she did was a good thing even if the council doesn't see it that way.

"When my brother deserted and about eighteen percent of the GPE left and joined my brother and they deserted the GPE forces and well a lot of them haven't modified their power armor with different colors so it's hard to tell if not straight-up impossible to tell who's who in the heat of combat."

Starry replied, "Your brother sounds like a bastard,"

"Yeah he is. Me? He'll shoot me on sight. He hated me since I was born. He isn't confined in a Stable. He sees the wasteland as a huge playground for him to play in and wants to shape the world. He'll play ponies and others for his advantage. Felt like every night back in the Stable he would bring another mare back to his room to "sleep" and actually sleep with her. He'll use anypony to gain the upper hoof. Even you. I am only on the other hoof. I will not use you and I don't use anypony for an advantage. It's wrong and immortal to use others for your own gain."

Rocky replied, "It's the wasteland. It happens all the time. Mostly slavers though. They have an advantage of slaves to do the hard work."

Purple didn't reply but equipped his 7.62mm Battle RIfle and rolled over onto his stomach.

"That's one down," said Critical, "And that's another one down. And that's fucker is down."

Critical was doing more of the fighting while they had that conversation.

"Well they're not Raiders," said Rocky, "They're well too organized, well-armed, and well dressed. Raiders are more sadistic."

"We got our noses in Hell now!" said loudly by Rainy Night

Critical replied truthfully, "No shit!"

As the bullets and Novasurge rounds went flying back and forth the Mercenaries were killed.

"Probably those same Mercenaries sent from Chicoltgo to kill us," said Purple

Rainy Night replied, "No. These bastards are more ruthless. They're called "Shooters." Their best marksmen and marksmares can take your head off from three and a quarter miles away in the most extreme weather that'll make it impossible or damn near impossible conditions. They got a company within them called "Power Armor killers". They make a combination of AP, FMJ, EXP, and INC rounds, and anypony in power armor can kiss their ass goodbye."

Rocky replied, "AP? FMJ? EXP? INC?"

Purple said, "AP stands for Armor Piercing, FMJ stands for Full Metal Jacket, EXP for Explosive, and INC for Incninderary."

Rocky replied, "Mr. Know it all,"

Purple went over to one and looted one for ammo which he then gave to Critical and found a letter.

"Colts and Fillies, we've got ourselves another white knight out there that needs putting down. Here are the details.

Name: Lavender Purple Painting Silver Canvas Serenity Artist Astrology "Purple Artist"

Race: Crossbred Alicorn

Sex: Male

The bounty is 8300 caps this time around, And for a change of pace, he wants the whole body alive this time.

Good hunting!"

"Here we go again," said Purple, "Just like Chicoltgo all over again,"

Rainy Night replied, "What happened in Chicoltgo?"

Paladin Sapphire caught Rainy Night what happened in Chicoltgo and went after a Mercenary group called "Judgement Hour" and they never found out who placed the bounty on Purple's head. But they all suspect that it's Base for Purple's friends/companions to be killed and Purple to be captured so Base can kill him himself.

Rainy replied, "Your brother sounds like a real "charmer". I don't see how you two are related."

Purple replied, "Yeah. The only part that we're related that is DNA, parents, and eye color somewhat. I have medium blue eyes he has Ultramarine eyes. I'm more friendly and my brother is more inclined to stab you in the back when you "outlived your usefulness" to him. Unless if you're a mare then you haven't and won't outlive your "usefulness" to him."

Rainy Night asked what he means by a mare's "usefulness"?

Purple replied, "It doesn't take rocket science to know where foals come from. But when a mare and a stallion love each other very much they have sex and soon part of the stallion and a part of the mare create a foal. But they have to wait eleven months until the foal or foals arrives."

None of them wanted to know that or what Purple means and they don't want to. But they carried on after looting the mercenaries for the bottlecaps they had, purified water, and some food they had.

They kept walking. But Critical Shot kept his temper under control and didn't go into a pure rage to kill any Raiders, Slavers, or Foals of Radiation but they mostly encountered Raiders though.

"What are we doing out here?" asked Critical, "Is it because Midnight went missing?"

Paladin Sapphire replied, "He didn't go missing. He left and joined Purple's brother and he's a high-ranking officer in the Grand Pony Enclave!"

Rocky replied, "He didn't betray us! He just left to go clear his mind. Got Mr. Explosive breeder, loves mares with gemstones names, & likes feisty mares over here, Ms. Living moving gasbag, Mr. Deadly sniper who keeps to himself because he couldn't protect his girlfriend, got Ms. give me five minutes and I can hack into anything."

All but Purple, and Rainy took offense to that what Rocky Road said about them.

"Thanks for summing me up in eleven words or less," said Purple, "Also, the only reason those mares in the GPE. The Grand Pegasus Enclave, not the Grand Pony Enclave. I know confusing. But first I was in a coma and the second half. Well, their power armor scares the living hell out of me. I just did it to be helpful not to one-up my brother. I don't care that was just helping out and I can say no. But it's a part of my nature to help others. I got that from my Grandma, Mother, and Father which is something that didn't rub off onto Base and Blue. It surely rubbed off on me."

Rocky replied, "In other terms, you're trying to one-up your brother,"

Purple said, "No. I'm not trying to one-up him. If he wants to think he's better than everypony else. Then let him think that way. I don't think that way he does,"

Rocky replied, "In another term, you think your better than he is."

Purple said, "What's the part that I don't. That you don't you understand?"

Rocky replied, "I can hear it in you. That you think you are better than your brother. Maybe that's the reason behind your feud with him and you think you are better than he is and he's trying to put himself back on top as the older sibling."

Purple replied, "Everything you just said was nonsense. He hated me since the day I was born! He hates me due to my Intelligence quotient being one hundred and fifteen his is eighty-seven. If he stayed out of the bedroom with different mares then he would be more intelligent than what he is now."

Rocky replied, "At least he hasn't gotten two hundred and thirteen or two hundred and fourteen mares pregnant."

Purple replied, "Nope. While all of you slept I snuck back there and well in his sleep he says "I'm going to outnumber my femboy sissy brother by having three or four times more foals than him. I'm better than him in every other way and the world needs more ponies like me or come from me than my brother."

"But he'll kill me and Critical without hesitation but you Rocky, you Paladin Sapphire, you Rainy. He won't hesitate to impregnate all of you. Go to Stable 190 and say that "Base Icy Flyer is a good pony". You'll throw a damn riot on how many mares he used or "slept" with to get ahead in life for his own advantage not caring what happened to them. Base even promised them a better life with him even when the mares he used told others but they didn't listen. Heck some of them he impregnated and didn't care."

Rocky asked for proof so it doesn't sound like something Purple pulled out of his ass. Purple pressed a couple of things on his Pipbuck 3000.

"I'm going to outnumber my femboy sissy brother," said Base in his sleep, "He may have gotten two hundred and ten mares pregnant and I'm going to triple that number for me instead of two hundred and ten it's going to be six hundred and thirty if not more from me. The world needs more ponies like me."

Purple then ended the recorded message from last night where he secretly went back and tried to find concrete evidence of finding Midnight Twister's betrayal.

***

A couple of hours later they were almost under Fort Base Icy Flyer and went in the same way as Purple and Paladin Sapphire escaped.

"Hold up," said Purple, "Do you hear that?"

They heard some voices up ahead.

"This is Butcher 1-5," said somepony, "Tunnels are clear again. But we're doing our search for anypony."

Somepony replied, "We don't want Purple to find his way back in here. Operation: Electrodiathermy will go as planned. That femboy sissy won't stop me nor any of us,"

"Yup that's Base alright," Purple whispered, "Alright we're getting close. If you have to kill somepony just strangle them and break their necks we don't need to telegraph our presence to them because this would turn into a terrible storm real quick."

They then saw some lights coming so they hid easily within the tunnels and they waited in the dark and the ponies in black military clothing, combat helmets, goggles, and balaclava masks. They were Earth ponies, Pegasi, Unicorns, and Zebras and they were not engaged.

They snuck by them and knows they got some time before they returned and Purple soon cracked opened the cellar door and saw both Base and Midnight having brunch and acting as if they were long-lost friends just re-meeting for the first time in a long time.

Purple then singled Rocky for a look and she saw that her brother did betray them and joking about it as if it were nothing. Rocky Road was heartbroken.

They all heard Base say, "I got a trick up my sleeve to end the war with my baby brother's head on a pike,"

Purple then carefully closed the cellar door so they won't alert Base, Midnight or anypony else saw and they got out of there before any of them were discovered.

***

Back at the town of Crimson.

Purple was looking at a map but had Rainy Night to contact the Grand Pegasus Enclave remnants and to set up their base on the other side of the mountain range and to safeguard them from the left as Honey Cake and her forces are to the right and safeguarding them from the horrors of the wasteland.

"Um Purple?" said Rainy Night, "Don't you think your brother or somepony might be listening to us?"

Purple replied, "Nope. But I know a place where we could listen to them. It's a place called Stable One-Ninety and the old military equipment that I shot up was used to monitor Zebra's communications so we can have an order of attack or defense and it would give us an upperhoof in combat. But I bet Base has the same thing in his twisted crooked mind."

Rainy replied, "Interesting. But let's go back and see what we can fix and use it."

Purple and Rainy then left and went on their way to Stable 190 even though Purple has a mixed feeling with the population of Stable 190.

***

In Stable 190

Purple almost got hit by a mare Earth pony for what he did but Rainy Night stepped in.

"If you hit him I will kill you," said Rainy Night, "But I never killed a Stable Dweller before. But there's a first time for everything and do you want to be the first Stable Dweller that I kill? My power armor tail has a scorpion pincher and your Stable jumpsuit won't protect you."

The earth pony mare walked away huffing and puffing.

"Stay here," said Purple, "Got some ponies to say Hi to,"

***

In the Stable's security room.

Blue Sapphire was on a terminal typing an arrest report for two ponies fighting in the lounge and broke the Pinball machine.

Purple knocked on the wall getting her attention and the two hugged and caught up on lost time.

"I'll take you to go see your mother," said Blue Sapphire

Purple replied, "Alrighty then. Can't believe it's been three months."

Blue Sapphire said, "Yeah. Long hard ninety days,"

They arrived to the Overpony's Office and Purple went inside of the Overpony's office to see his mother there listening to music by Sweetie Belle from the Pre-war days.

"Oh, Hi Purple," said Overmare Harp, "Can I help you?"

Purple replied, "I just stop by to say Hi. Also remember that old secret broadcast room that I shot up the old military monitoring stuff?"

Overmare Harp replied, "Yeah? Why?"

Purple couldn't really explain it well and told her that he would like to use to monitor Base's radio transmissions unless you want the world to be ran under his hoof and she know how he treats mares.

Overmare Harp said, "Purple I'm going to be honest to you. If I could go back in time after finding out Base's real personality over his fake one. If I could go back in time I would convince me to get an abortion. But young me was excited to a mother for the first time."

Purple replied, "Mom? How old were you when Base and Blue were born?"

Overmare Harp replied honestly, "I was Thirteen when it happened me and your father were thirteen. Well we loved each other very much and my mother made us get married and well we learned where Foals come from ourselves. We were Seventeen when Blue was born and twenty-one when you were born."

The mother and son duo then went to where the old military radio monitoring stuff is at but before they did, Purple got Rainy Night and it took her a full day to fix it.

"Well Purple," said Harp, "You always have an trick up your sleeve,"