Fallout Equestria: Gun Trotters

The Everfree Forest was a nightmare for a species of pony that depended on open space to move freely. The canopy hung low, some leaves even brushing ponies’ manes as they picked their steps carefully between tree roots. Vines snaked their way around trunks, thorns threatening to snag on a feather or barding. And those were just the problems with the plant life. But for such a distinctive and infamous location, the wildlife in the Everfree Forest was unusually quiet today. Of course, the flights of pegasi trampling around may have had something to do with that. The cadets were especially noisy, but that was to be expected from a group who was on the surface for the first time in their lives. Even though they were the top of their class, Dauntless' flight was no different; almost everyone had taken a couple of spills from unexpected terrain save for Ice Cold, who had kept his balance through sheer force of will so far. Miraculously, none of their equipment was damaged from the falls, the glass in the visors wasn’t even cracked or nicked. An amazing feat, considering everything the flight had with them was well over one hundred years old, with scores of previous trainees wearing the same kit.

While not as sophisticated or flashy as the powered armor civilians had come to recognize the Enclave by, in their minds the Scout armor used for training was clearly leagues above whatever the surface dwellers could cobble together. Composed of what the Enclave thought was the bare minimum for venturing into the Equestrian Wasteland, the outfit still boasted decent protection against ballistic and magical weapons, as well as a mask to filter out harmful gasses and particles. Integrated into the mask was a heads-up display, or HUD, on the inside of the visor. Along with providing flight telemetry such as airspeed and altitude to the pegasus using it, the HUD could also be programmed with functions specific to the task at hoof; in the case of the training exam, the map system only encompassed the Everfree Forest, and communications were restricted to local suits of armor only.

Currently, the cadets were on the land navigation portion of their final. All flights were given a series of points they had to reach within three hours, as well as in a specific order. The points Dauntless’ flight was assigned took them through the denser parts of the forest, grounding them and limiting their speed, but they forged ahead at a much faster pace than the other cadets despite this. River Rush led the formation as the scout/navigator, followed by Dauntless and Ice Cold, who kept the pace count for the group, while Steamburst kept head count and brought up the rear. Suddenly, River stopped and leaned forward slightly, narrowing his eyes to make out an object through the foliage. The familiar metallic glint of a control point peeked out from the hole in a tree, across an old overgrown dirt path. A spark of realization jolted the sea blue stallion, as he called out to the others, “I have eyes on the point!”

“Good shit, River,” Dauntless responded. “Let’s cross over and prep for the next one. Ice, your pace count is outstanding today, too. Nice going!”

“Yes, sir,” The light gray stallion said as evenly as he could, trying to keep the idea that he was being patronized from taking over. The flight made its way to the other side of the path methodically; one stallion sprinted across while the others covered him, until all four regrouped next to the point.

“Alright, you all know what to do,” Dauntless said, his voice taking on a more authoritative tone. “Steamburst, you’re on patrol duty. The rest of you, start planning the next route with me.”

“Yes, sir!” The other stallions replied. While Steamburst began sweeping the area for threats, the others’ visors started to glow, bringing up the provided map of the forest and the descriptions of all the points they had to reach. Everything was running smoothly, until Steamburst saw something that made him stop. Something roughly pony-sized was heading their way, but the stocky buck wasn’t able to make out any details in the shadows.

“H-Hey, Ah gotta contact down the ol’ path, distance, 100!” All four pegasi immediately sprang into action, taking cover behind trees next to the path.

“Please don’t be a surface dweller…” River Rush muttered, shooting a glance at Ice. The element leader gave the slightest shrug in return, then watched Dauntless as he peeked around a tree.

“The last time I checked, surface dwellers don’t glow from the eyes,” The flight leader said in a low voice, settling back behind his cover. “Pull back into the woods more, and be absolutely silent.” Everyone followed Dauntless’ lead, moving further and further away from the path; no sooner had Steamburst’s tail rounded a tree than the cadets heard activity coming from the point. Dauntless could just barely make it out as hoofsteps and muttering, before the noises stopped abruptly. All he could hear were the “normal” noises of the forest, before the soundscape was dominated by a mare’s yelling:

“WHO’S THERE? YOU ARE ON GRAND PEGASUS ENCLAVE TRAINING GROUNDS, IDENTIFY YOURSELF!”

The lieutenant grumbled as she led the trainees back to the point. Today hadn’t been very kind to her so far, and dragging these stallions out of the woods certainly wasn’t helping. At least they had the sense to immediately respond to her commands…

“Alright, carry on cadets,” She ordered, upon returning to the point. The flight, still recovering from having a set of full-blown powered armor run up on them, awkwardly went back to guarding and finishing their route plan. The lieutenant turned away to focus on her own tasks, trying to figure out what was wrong with her own armor this time. Apparently, her cursing and muttering was louder than the lieutenant thought, because the shorter blue stallion approached her.

“What broke, ma’am?” He asked. Damn, these days even the cadets knew the stuff everypony had to work with was falling apart!

“My rifles, targeting display, and comms are dead. That’s why I wasn’t able to contact you.” The cadets were expecting an answer along the lines of broken equipment, but the news still jolted them. “It’s not safe for you to continue here without supervision, given that you’re unarmed trainees. I was able to call in a replacement while my radio was still up; I’ll stay with you until they get to this point. Shouldn’t be more than a couple minutes.”

“On another note, your flight looks to be in top shape Dauntless; you must’ve been on a blistering pace if you beat me to this point. I’m sorry my armor had to fall apart on me.”

“T-Thank you, ma’am,” Dauntless said, blushing a little behind the visor. “I’m just glad we had zero problems otherwise—”

“No, nonono! FUCK!”

“Steamburst? Don’t tell me something just broke…”

“Sorry Dauntless, mah whole display’s down. Whole damn thing blinked off just now,” The stormy gray stallion confirmed.

“Mine’s out too. I can’t access anything,” River Rush chimed in, a blinking light on the top of his muzzle indicating he had multiple faults with his HUD.

The Lieutenant brought a hoof up to her face with a heavy clank. “You bring it up for one suit, two more follow…” She said to herself, then moved to address the group. “I don’t like this, but you two’ll have to come with me. Dauntless, stay here with your element leader; the other supervisor will be here any minute now.”

“Yes, ma’am,” He said, trying to keep his voice even. As he and Ice Cold watched the others walk off and eventually fly out of a clearing, Dauntless noticed something off about the body language of the two stallions. “What are they looking back at us for…?”

“FUCK!” Ice was jolted by an outburst from his flight leader as he turned and walked away. “I hate being stuck with this equipment, Ice. Something always has to break, doesn’t it?”

“I doubt we’re the only ones having issues, Dauntless…”

“I know, I know, two hundred year-old armor won’t be the same as when it was fresh from the factory,” The blue stallion ranted, finding a spot on the ground to sit on. “We were just doing so well…”

Ice Cold stared at Dauntless from behind, trying to hide his sense of accomplishment even though no one could see his face at the moment. His plan had gone off without a hitch! River Rush and Steamburst had fooled the Lieutenant into taking them with her, leaving him and Dauntless alone. All that was left was to get the stupid fucker riled up…

“...So, any thoughts on the exam so far?” Dauntless looked back at Ice’s question with a raised eyebrow.

“Huh?” Even Dauntless knew this type of question was out of character for Ice, but he couldn’t not entertain it. They had nothing to do for however long they’d been standing in the same patch of forest since the others left. What was taking that replacement so long? “It’s…been good, I guess? Despite half our flight leaving over equipment issues…”

Yeah, YOU think it’s equipment issues, Ice thought to himself, but said nothing. An awkward silence settled on the two pegasi for another minute, before Ice broke it with another dumb question. “Uh…How do you feel about graduation? I mean we are gonna graduate, of course,” Ice added, trying to chuckle at the comment, “so—”

“Ice.” The authoritative tone was back, cutting down the gray stallion’s bullshit question. “You keep talking to me like I’m a mare you’re hitting on. What’s up—”

CLIK.

CLIK CLIK.

“Whoa. Rad counter’s going off.” The noise shocked Dauntless, making him tunnel vision on it. Every click reverberated in his body; this wasn’t like being shown a recording or diagram of how it sounded/function. This was real, and the frequency of clicks was climbing steadily.

CLIK. CLIKCLIK CLIK. CLIKCLIK CLIKCLK.

The sound of the counter masked Ice Cold’s approach on his flight leader from behind. A slow, predatory pace, with measured steps and care taken to not make any noise.

CLKCLK CLIK CLIK. CLKCLKCLIK. CLIK CLIK CLIK CLK.

“Geez, it’s getting worse. Is there a radioactive zone we weren’t briefed on?” Ice didn’t respond, his gaze still fixated on the back of the stallion who had taken everything from him, and as far as he was concerned, was already dead..

CLIKCLIK CLIKCLK CLKCLK CLIK CLIKCLKCLKCLIK. CLKCLKCLK.

“Ice, what do you think would cause a spike—” Was all Dauntless managed to get out, before both of their rad counters really started screaming.

CLKCLKCLKCLKCLIKCLIIKCLKCLKICLKCLKCLKCILKCLKCLKICLKCILKCLKCLKCLKCLKCLKCLKCILKCLKICLKCLKCLKCLKCLKCLKCLKCLKCLKCLKICLKCLIKCLKCLKCLKCILKCLKCILKICLKCLKCLIKCLK.

A shadow fell over the two pegasi, stopping Ice right behind his flight leader. He looked up to see what was casting it, but felt himself get slammed back hard. Ice could only watch as a bright green blur crashed into the ground in front of him, separating the light gray stallion from his target. The push caused him to stumble and land face-first in the dirt, but Ice quickly recovered. What he saw before him was something out of a nightmare, even worse than what the Enclave had taught him lived beneath the clouds.

“Th-These are surface dwellers?!” Ice spluttered, his gaze fixed on the trio of griffons that were staring back at him. Each one had huge tufts of feathers missing and exposed flesh everywhere; the skull of the smallest one was even visible, underneath a thin layer of dried blood. Their eyes were blank, giving off no emotion except for the feral desire to consume, save for the largest griffon. This one was consumed by balefire, the flames licking off of its body and giving it a permanently green tint, not to mention being the source of the rad counters going crazy. Its glowing eyes had no irises or pupils, making it hard to tell what had its attention.

“Stay back you c-creeps,” Ice said in a much higher voice than intended, chills going down his spine every time the zombified griffons drew a labored breath. He found himself backing away, wings extended. This wasn’t part of his plan at all! Even if Dauntless ended up being dead, Ice would still have to figure out what to do with these—

“ICE!! GET OUT OF HERE, FIND THE SUPERVISOR!”

What?! How the fuck is that little shit still alive?! Ice thought frantically, trying to see where his flight leader had yelled from. He managed to spot Dauntless on the ground behind the griffons; the blue stallion was indeed alive, albeit bleeding from a nasty gash to the left side of his face, and the surrounding sections of his helmet were missing. But that fucker, that worthless undeserving piece of garbage, was still alive. Ice’s fear of the griffons and whatever else the Everfree Forest was whisked away, replaced by a sense of nearly-uncontrollable rage.

“WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! GO!!!”

There were about ten thousand things Ice Cold wanted to say to that. Most of them involved telling Dauntless he was being left to die; a couple even went as far as Ice laughing at the situation. But in the end, he settled on a simple “Yes, sir,” with all of the venom he could slather onto it, and started his takeoff run away from the scene. The griffons started to follow him, unfolding their deteriorated wings and making guttural noises, but were distracted by rocks hitting the head of the largest one. It immediately turned around at the thrower, who had gotten back on his hooves in a crouched position.

“Didn’t you want a piece of me first?!” Dauntless growled, his taunt evoking howls of rage from the wretched beings in front of him. He then broke into a gallop towards the woods, away from the point and in the opposite direction the other pegasi had gone. The largest and smallest griffons followed him, while the third flew after Ice Cold. Dauntless ignored the pain in his face, focusing on taking off instead. He went up to a sprint as he unfolded his wings, bracing himself for an even bigger lurch of acceleration as he left the ground. Dauntless was now in his element, and no one could touch him.

It was like the whole world was a little sharper, a little more colorful when Dauntless flew. It just felt better. No longer was he stuck on the ground, he could move in any direction he wanted. A sense of absolute freedom.

That wasn’t the case with the route he took in the Everfree Forest.

Dauntless never found a chance to pour on the straight-line speed he wanted, and had to resort to tight turns around the seemingly infinite number of trees. He still did this quickly of course, but he wasn’t gaining the ground on the zombie griffons that he wanted, a point that was made when Dauntless stopped on a large branch to survey the forest behind him.

“Was…Was that enough to lose them?” He panted, unable to control the involuntary blinking of the eye adjacent to his cut. As if to answer his question, the fiery griffon rose up before him, like a miniature green sun, talons outstretched and ready to draw more blood. The blue stallion missed getting his face carved up by a hair, his momentum carrying him off the branch into freefall. This didn’t throw Dauntless off guard though; he simply extended his wings and let gravity do the rest. The griffon, now joined by its partner, lurched itself into the air and followed the pegasus, clumsily yet determined. Again, Dauntless had to focus more on agility than pure speed; ducking and weaving between branches, kicking off of trunks to quickly change angles, and avoiding anything that’d get in his way. All of this, plus their disregard for the same obstacles, meant his pursuers could gain on him.

This isn’t working, Dauntless thought. His strategy had to change. Taking advantage of a particularly crowded section of forest, he put enough cover between himself and the griffons to attempt to hide. The crunching of wood against flesh quickly subsided, letting Dauntless breathe some. It was probably best to travel on the ground, albeit in cover, so he darted from bush to bush to avoid being spotted. Upon passing through his third or fourth, the pegasus was greeted with a gruesome sight. An Enclave soldier, in full power armor, had been torn to bits by…by something. Blood, feathers, and entrails coated every surface the soldier was on, painting the scene in horrifying shades of red, pink, and gray. All Dauntless could do was scream; this was worse than any nightmare he had had. At least those he could wake up from and maybe move on from them within a couple of days, but this…he wouldn’t forget this.

As much as Dauntless wanted to look away from the gore, his gaze was locked on it. Locked on it hard enough to only just notice the shadows and talons arcing towards him from behind. Once again, the griffons swiped empty air, as their prey rolled away and sprinted into another takeoff.

“A-Are they gonna let up?! I don’t even know where I’m going at this point!” The young stallion managed to mutter in between breaths. Then, almost as if the forest listened to him, Dauntless could see an opening in the canopy. Freedom. ‘Bout damn time, he thought, adding power to his flaps and climbing through the hole. He shot up, continuing to climb completely vertical. If…if I can make these damn things stall, they’ll just fall back into the forest and I can find my way back above the trees, Dauntless said, trying to rationalize the potentially dangerous maneuver to himself. Ngh…I just have to outlast them in a vertical climb…COME ON! Sweat poured in buckets, and his muscles started to scream as they burned, but Dauntless pushed towards the clouds. Below him, the technique seemed to be working; the wings on the smaller of the two griffons gave out, and it spun ungracefully down towards the trees. But the stallion had underestimated the fiery one, and as he turned around at the peak of his climb, he was greeted with the sight of talons that had tasted his blood, and wanted more.

CRASH!

The two collided and started to drop back down to earth. Dauntless, head ringing from the hit, struggled to pry himself from the griffon’s grip and avoid another slash of talons aimed at his body. He managed to avoid most of the attack, but one talon carved into his armor, drawing another gash from the bottom of his neck to the middle of his chest. He yelled and kicked hard, striking and breaking the wing root of his assailant. The griffon wailed and released him out of reflex, unable to quickly regain its hold on the pegasus. Another kick sent Dauntless tumbling away from the zombie, saving him from one threat but introducing another. The tussle had dropped them much lower than either combatant could recover from, and even as Dauntless tried pulling up, he hurtled through the canopy. White-hot pain erupted all over his body as trees caught his wings, torso, and legs; breaking more than just his fall. The last thing the pegasus stallion saw before slamming into the ground was a bed of unusually blue flowers, standing out from the rest of the forest floor.

Footnote:

Discovered:
The Everfree Forest