Fallout: Equestria - Moonlight

By: Faded Echoes

Chapter Two: Crimson Trace

"Of all the things that could have happened, this is the WORST. POSSIBLE. THING."

It was approaching dawn by the time we got to a small town a few miles south of Stable Town, the weak sunrise struggling to penetrate the thick cloud cover above us. Every building was dark, apart from one building in the center of town, a single window casting a glow over the cracked asphalt. Every few seconds, a shadow would move in front of the window. I didn’t let the lack of light fool me. I levitated my binoculars out of my saddle bags, motioning for Echo to hold behind me. The wan light of my horn was illuminating the sign in front of me slightly, and I noticed something trailing the top of it. I looked up and stifled a scream of horror. Echo came dashing up to me, slightly alarmed, but calmed a bit when she saw it, a look of morbid understanding on her features.

The sign was trailed with what could only be described as pony entrails, hanging off the sign like Hearth’s Warming garland. On each side of the sign, on extended spurs that jutted out of the original supports of the sign, were the severed heads of ponies The sign was covered in matted, crusted blood, but it didn’t obscure what was written. The sign read Welcome to Frost Falls. The ping from my PipBuck confirmed the name of the town. I looked at Echo with one eye twitching, feeling as if the entire world had come crashing to a halt at that moment.

“Yup,” Echo said, looking at me in sympathy. “Welcome to a town infested with Raiders. They do the most fucked up shit to ponies.” I gulped, trying to curb the rage I felt building inside me. I grimaced and lifted my binoculars up to my eyes, taking in the full scene of the town. The lack of light belied the fact that the town was teeming with Raiders. I spotted at least ten with the binoculars, not trusting E.F.S., because it showed too many to distinguish. I couldn’t tell how many were inside the buildings. I got up and steeled my resolve, motioning for Echo to take the back. She nodded, and moved silently, a red shadow moving among the ruined buildings, while I took the front. I put away the binoculars and lifted my 12-gauge, checking to see that it was loaded, before trotting to the entrance to the town.

Five minutes later, I was walking into the front entrance of the biggest building on the main street, that being the one that wasn’t in too bad of a state of disrepair. I had been lucky not to have been spotted, my dark gray coat blending into the shadows perfectly, only my white mane and tail betraying me. I was also helped by the fact that the Raiders didn’t seem to be very smart. I stepped into the building, and stopped, my eyes wide in shock.

The smell that assaulted my senses was almost enough to make me lose the apple I had eaten shortly before arriving, my stomach doing flips as I gasped to keep it in check. The interior of the building, from what I could tell, was decorated (or rather, desecrated) in the same fashion as the exterior. In the main foyer, were several cages containing ponies. Ponies. Most of them, the ones who were still alive that is, were staring at the profanity strewn walls in various states of despair and hopelessness. A few of them looked at me with mingled hope and disdain, as if I were to join them next. My gaze was drawn to a cage near the back, containing a unicorn filly that was being embraced by the (sleeping?) form of a dark purple pony with a deep blue mane with streaks of red in it. She looked like a pegasus, but with leathery wings and slightly pointed ears. One of the ears twitched and she looked up at me, a hiss frozen on her lips, her fangs glistening. Her magenta eyes locked onto mine, the slits widening in surprise as I got to work on the lock with my screwdriver and bobby pins.

It took three bobby pins, and several hissed profanities, before I finally had the cage open. Looking down at the strange pegasus, I could see she had a broken leg. She was also hiding something between her flanks. I noticed several burn marks on her flanks, and I was seething. She looked at me in pained understanding, before looking at the filly with a proud look on her face. The filly looked untouched, if a little bit dirty.

“Take her and fly away,” I said to the pegasus, to which she shook her head and pointed to one of the other cages, and then my screwdriver and bobby pins. She picked up both, and moved, keeping her weight off of her damaged hindleg, to the nearest cage. I admired her resolve for a split second longer than I was supposed to.

I was about to turn to the nearest door when a Raider unicorn stallion with a poorly maintained sawed-off shotgun walked through it. We both stopped and stared for a second, before he leveled the shotgun at me and took a shot, narrowly missing me, but hitting one of the still forms in the cage behind me. I raised the 9mm automatic pistol and slipped into S.A.T.S., aiming two shots to his chest, and one to his head. I let the spell run its course, splattering Raider gore on the wall behind him. I heard shouts coming from throughout the rest of the building, signaling that the rest of the Raiders in the building had heard our little skirmish. I put away the automatic pistol, and raised my shotgun, checking to see if it was loaded with scattershot, before moving into cover by the frame of the door. The door, I noticed, was the only one without any rubble in front of it, so naturally, the other Raiders would be coming in from there.

I could hear the sounds of fighting coming from the back, Echo’s battle saddle sounding like thunder cracks amid the shotguns, pistols and revolvers used by the Raiders. I was knocked out of my reverie by the sound of a Raider charging down the hall to meet me, and looked at them. It was an Earth Pony mare holding a rake in her mouth, the tines sharpened to a point. She swung at me, and I barely dodged in time to avoid being skewered, and fired a single shot from my shotgun, the scattershot ripping off half her face at point blank range. I had just gotten back into cover when I heard the distinctive fire of a sniper from above. I looked back in time to see one of the captives fall to the ground, blood pooling around a gaping wound in her head. I gasped in shock with the rest of the captives, looking at the pegasus. Her expression matched mine.

Rage. Pure, unbridled rage. It's what we both felt at that moment, looking at each other for that short period of time. She walked up to a pile of rubbish that was inside her cage, and pulled out a few daggers. She looked back at me, icy calm flowing over her features, and nodded. She walked up to the door and took up a position on the other side of the frame. She did a series of hoof gestures that I barely managed to understand, before zipping through the door, a dark purple blur. I looked in time to see her strike down a unicorn buck with a series of well placed hoof strikes, before knocking him down with a sweep of her hind legs. She spun and knocked the gun another unicorn was holding out of the air, and swept her off her legs with a spinning back kick. She landed on top of the unicorn mare, and finished her off with two precise hits to the abdomen. She looked up at me and smiled again, before tossing me the guns and flying off again. I gasped and ran after her, my shotgun locked and loaded, determined to cover her in any way possible.

A few minutes (and a whole lot of dead Raiders) later, we met up with Echo. She gasped in shock at the sight of the odd pegasus. She just nodded at Echo, and moved up to the nearest stairwell. Echo looked at me, and I just shrugged and followed. Echo brought up the rear as we headed up into the unknown. The main hallway of the upstairs portion of the building featured quite a few doors, most of which were open and empty. The closed ones either wouldn’t budge, or lead to bathrooms. In the one bathroom, I came across a still locked medical kit. A few seconds later, Echo and I had medical bandages on the strange pegasus, and she had swallowed a much needed healing potion. She nodded gratefully at us both, and pressed on toward the last door at the end of the hallway. She turned the knob, only to find it locked. She looked at me expectantly and moved out of the way. I nodded, and floating up my screwdriver and a bobby pin, I set to work. The tumblers fell into place with a soft click, and I slowly turned the knob, gingerly pushing open the door so as not to alert any ponies to our presence.

What greeted us when we opened the door, was the sniper pony, a unicorn mare with barely any purple hair left in her mane. That wasn't what shocked the three of us though. She was standing behind an earth pony mare, a knife to her throat, tears running down the earth pony mare's face. Before anyone could do anything, I drew my revolver, and slid into the targeting nirvana of S.A.T.S. I aimed three shots to the unicorn's head, and let the spell run its course, painting the wall and part of the earth pony's face red. The mare screamed as Echo flew up to her and wrapped her in an embrace with both hooves and wings, trying to calm her. I looked back to where the strange pegasus was, only to find she had disappeared.

A few minutes later, we had backtracked the way we came, and set to work freeing and rallying the surviving captives. I could hear yelling coming from just outside of the town.

"Moonlight!" Echo yelled, effectively dragging my attention from the final lock I needed to pick. "We got incoming. Raiders, en masse."

"Take the ponies we've freed so far and run." I said, focussing on the lock again. "Get to the forest that's just outside of town. I'll catch up." The tumblers fell into place with a satisfying click, and the last of the captives were set free. Echo gave me a hug and led the captives through the front door. I turned to the only room we hadn't been in, the door locked. I fished out a bobby pin and my screwdriver and set to work, finding the simple lock difficult but not too overly so. Three bobby pins and a whole lot of profanity later, I finally had the door open. What greeted me on the other side was an armory. I grinned maniacally and dived headfirst into the room, closing the door behind me. After a few seconds, I realized my mistake.

“Great, Moonlight.” I said to myself condescendingly. “You’ve locked yourself in a tiny room with a group of Raiders moving in. Real smart…” Lighting my horn, I levitated the nearest heavy thing, a cabinet, against the door, and set to work looking through what the Raiders had. I was fine for a few moments, looking through the stash of weapons, until the first Raider pony came knocking on the door. I gulped at the knock.

“Hey!!! I think she’s in here!” the Raider, a mare, yelled. She started turning the knob, finding the path of the door blocked by the cabinet I had floated in front of it. I gulped again and started looking around for an escape plan. The weapons I had found so far were all of a low-caliber variety, except for a battle saddle rigged with twin rocket launchers! (The little pony in my head stomping at the unfairness of Raiders having such things.) There were also several sticks of dynamite and one or two grenades. I put the dynamite into my saddlebags, along with one of the grenades. I looked around for something to stick the grenade to the farthest wall from the door. A few seconds later, I found some Wonderglue! I rushed over to the wall again, giving the room one more glance, before sticking the grenade to the wall and pulling the pin. I dived behind one of the steel shelves that had toppled over in the last few centuries, and waited. The grenade detonated just as the Raiders managed to get the door open, and they were hit by bits of flying debris, a piece of wall taking the head off of one of the Raider bucks in the process. I used the commotion to slip out, choking a bit on the dust floating around, and disappeared into the forest behind the building.

I was running through the forest, panting, and casting occasional glances behind me to make sure the Raiders weren’t following me. After the third glance, and seeing nopony, I started slowing down. I chuckled to myself, thinking about my escape. The Raiders obviously believed I had died in the explosion, and hadn’t bothered to follow or even check for a dead body. I drew my pistol anyway, just to be safe. A few moments later, I breathlessly caught up with the group, Echo leading the way, followed by the earth pony mare that we had saved from being a Raider’s hostage. A twig cracked under my hoof, and collectively the entire group turned on me, fear in their eyes. Echo and the mare drew their defensive stances, each training their weapons on me. I’ll admit, it was hard to focus on controlling my breath staring down the barrels of a shotgun and twin sniper rifles. Echo drew back when she saw me and was about to tell the mare to do the same, when the shotgun went off, the scattershot narrowly missing me and hitting the tree next to me. I ducked, yelping. I heard Echo gasp, and the clatter of the 12-gauge shotgun hitting the floor, the mare that was holding it sobbing. I peeked out to see Echo holding the mare, looking at where I had dropped in the hopes that I wasn’t hit. I holstered my pistol and slowly got up and trotted over to them.

“We should get them to Stable Town, Moonlight,” Echo said as I approached. “They’ll be safe there.”

“I know,” I replied, looking at the beaten and broken mare that Echo was holding, trying to calm her like a mother would a foal. “The town isn’t too far from our current location, so I’m sure we’ll be able to.”

“One thing I would like to know is, what was that strange pony you were with earlier. I have never seen a creature like her”

“You and me both.” I concurred.

“Ya mean lil ol’ me?” A voice asked from somewhere above us, the sunlight filtering through the clouds and the trees barely illuminating the gloomy forest around us. Echo and the earth pony (Dahlia, as Echo found out while I was raiding the Raiders) jumped and I drew my shotgun, looking above us. A pair of slitted, cerise eyes opened up and looked right at me. She swooped down and landed in front of me. The strange pony looked at me, her eyes gleaming with mischief, as she booped me. (Yes. You heard me right. She booped me!) “Mah name is Crimson Trace, an’ Ah’m a bat pony.”

Footnote:

Level 2
Sure footed: You now have the ability to make steadier shots, even with a shotgun. +10 AP when using shotguns and rifles.

Author's Note

Chapter 2 everypony! This one took way too damn long. Hope you enjoy it