Fallout Equestria: The Ajax Directive

“It's all right here!”

It had been a quick sprint up a short flight of stairs into the main room of the Village's prison. Stone walls with iron sheets nailed in made up a one-room building. The dimensions where the same as any of the other houses in Our Town, but being in one large room with a high ceiling rather then being divided in a few rooms and floors was bit bewildering.

Spice Chaser was using his telekinesis to manipulate items inside a splintered wooden chest, a chest so old and splintered that the top for it had broken off and been left alongside it. “Everything's here. Guns, ammo...” He trailed off as a frown overtook the grin he had been speaking through. “...they took our food.”

His marefriend jumped toward the chest, her upper body leaning right into the chest with her backhalf sticking in the air. The wood made several splintering sounds before smashing itself apart under her weight, the mare dropping onto her stomach as the box folded apart. Instinctively I looked back toward the staircase, doing my best to focus my ears and see if this had awoken the guard.

“Danm it Amber.” We could hear the cringing in Spice's voice from the heavy earth pony tossing her weight around carelessly.

She didn't seem to care, squeeing with excitment before chomping her mouth down on a well polished piece of wood. With a flick from her neck the rest of a long hammer was revealed. The handle itself was as long as she was from nose to dock, nice and thin the entire way except for the wider mouth grip near the base that she had wrapped in her teeth. The head was unlike any other hammerhead I could imagine, looking like steel with a pair of asymmetrical cylindrical heads, one slightly shorter and thicker while the other was a few inches longer but thinner. With joy she sprung back onto all fours and began swinging her neck and head, sending her beloved weapon spinning through the air back and forth without a hint of precision. The joy in her face quickly faded though, and she dropped it on it's head with a grumpy frown, turning to her flank and smacking the equal sign adorning her. “I'll fuck him in half.” She muttered to herself.

Our unicorn compatriot levitated a pair of saddlebags onto his back, tightening those straps before reaching inside one of them and pulling out a rifle that looked like it had never seen a good day in it's life.

“Maybe you could use this.” He tossed the rifle to me, and I fumbled with it in my hooves for a moment before bringing it up to my mouth. “Fresh Raider Pipe Rifle. Never fired, dropped only once.” He gave a smile. Now with it in my hooves and mouth I gave it a more thorough look. A long pipe tightly bound to a wooden stock with a tiny hammer near the rear of the pipe that looked like it wouldn't last more then two shots. The only part that looked like it wouldn't fall apart in a few shots was the mouthgrip sticking from the side.

“What about you?” I asked back after removing it from my mouth, opening my satchel and sticking it nose-end into the satchel, the wooden stock sticking out toward me at an angle just enough for me to quickly bite down on if necessary.

“I like the buddy system we've got going here.” A pair of revolvers floated out of his saddlebags, one with a white barrel and black handle while the other had a black barrel and white handle. “12 shots between these, more then enough to put down anything moving.” He gave me a confident smirk, sliding the two of them back into his bags. In the faint glow of his telekinesis I could see writing carved in both of the barrels, though they were stowed before I could read either.

“You named your guns?”

He shook his head, passing a small box to me out from his bags, insinuating that it would go with my new pipe rifle. “Nah, I was got these while doing tasks for the Tower.” While I opened the box to inspect the 10mm ammunition inside, he continued his own equipment check with a small story. “Apparently the last mare who had these named them after her lovers.” He stopped for a moment while counting through other items in his bags. “Beautiful mare too. Swing found her as she expired from a stab wound in her throat.”

“At least that Colt Cuddler didn't take my spikes or Dash.” Amber interrupted. We both turned to look at her, and now I could understand what Spice meant by saying she couldn't be identified with her armor. Leather barding covered the front and sides of her body with her own pair of saddlebags draped over them. Separate from the barding, a gigantic metal plate covered her back with spikes arrayed on it in no particular order. Her head, forehead, and the back of her neck was likewise shielded by a steel helmet. The most striking part was the stains of blood throughout the leather pieces. Her unique hammer rested on a small pair of hooks on the right side of her armor, the mouthgrip positioned for quick access. She had gone from looking like a mare with a few problems, to a psychopath ready to adorn herself with the entrails of anypony close enough. There was the sound of steel clanging against itself as she dropped her said spikes into her own saddlebags.

“We don't exactly have any armor to spare.” Spice Chaser remarked, finally done with the checking of his equipment as he began wrapping a set of moderately tattered leather barding around his own body.

“It's fine.” The thought of trying to sneak out with all the metal plating that the earth pony mare had made me anxious. Anypony would hear that before you could get to them.

I came up to the door, noticing the same style of lock on it as what had been on the door to the mine itself. Fishing the nose-piecing back out of my saddlebags, I crouched down and motioned for Spice to come a bit closer to give me a hoof with his magic. Rather then assist though, he pulled a pair of bobby pins and a screwdriver out of his packs, offering them to me. The first bobby pin snapped almost instantly in the lock, the lock's keypins slipping out of place and causing me to put too much pressure on the small tool and not enough on the screwdriver. Being a bit more cautious with the second one, I was able to keep the locking pins loosely held up and unlocked the door, opening it just a crack. I turned to offer the screwdriver back to my unicorn friend, but he shook his head, leaning near to me. “Compared to me, you're a master of unlocking.”

Stashing the screwdriver and slightly bent bobbypin into my satchel, I turned to face the two of them. “No talking. Stick to the shadows.” I reminded them. Hooking my non-splinted hoof around the edge of the door, it slowly creaked open, just far enough for me to look out and take stock of the situation.

The village was silent. There were no lights in any of the windows of the houses, nopony outside, and almost no noise. I stepped back, biting down on the handle to swing the door inward. Silently I waved my right foreleg, my compatriots getting the message and sneaking alongside me. The two of them stayed right alongside the wall of the prison, as I pulled the door shut behind me, the sound of the latching lock sounding like a deafening thunderclap in the nighttime silence.

With our last chance to turn back now shuddered, I quickly led the way, creeping between the prison and it's neighboring house to hide into the shadows. As the already limited natural nightlight faded into nearly pure darkness, I couldn't help but breath a sigh of relief, feeling tension drain out of my body. There weren't dozens of ponies looking at your every move, no requirements to fit into a crowd. Just oneself and the darkness.

The clinking of Amber's armor and Spice's hoofalls unsettled my concentration. Neither of them were very quiet, and we were going to have to navigate in the small alley between these two rows of houses. I stopped, and turned to give both of them a glare, raising my hoof to my mouth to infer that neither were being quiet enough. Our guard had been a deep sleeper, but there was no reason to believe the other two hundred plus ponies here would be similarly deep sleepers.

It quickly turned out that my two friends had no idea how to actually move swiftly and quietly, particularly the one that insisted on wearing loud metal armor. Finding myself incredibly annoyed by the noise, I came to another dead stop after only moving ten more paces, spinning directly towards both of them.

“We're walking.” I whispered harshly at the duo. Spice Chaser gave a nod, but Amber Swing let out a long sigh in exasperation. At least she wasn't trying to argue back which would surely wake up anypony who wasn't already aware of our presence. At our now reduced pace the volume of clanging metal dropped significantly in volume and pitch.

Just as we stepped to the edge of the row of houses, something in the surrounding mountains caught my eye. I raised my splinted leg into the air, signaling back to my friends to hold up. For the briefest of moments I wondered if they would even know what I meant, but my they assuaged my fears by coming to a stop right behind me. My eyes scanned over the darkened mountain ranges, once again seeing the small light in the far distance. It was in the mountain range opposite of the cutie mark vault, a faint little thing blinking out of existence akin to being blocked.

Perhaps a guard on the mountains, or even an entire small group roaming the borders of the village at night to stay strong against any threats coming in or going out. Like us. It would be several dozen meters before the three of us would even come close to reaching the first hill that would lead us to the Cutie Vault, and if they were looking at us, we'd be visible for the entire trek up as well. While darkness did cover the entire valley, hills, and mountains, they had lights, and if there was any way for them to point it at us, we'd be exposed easily.

“Stay aware.” I whispered after turning my head to my fellow escapees. “I think they have guards in the mountains. They shouldn't be watching for us, but we'll need to make sure they aren't going to circle back around toward us.”

Both of them nodded, and I took a step forward, out of the shadow of the building and into the lighter shadow of the cloud-covered night. As the gap between ourselves and the village gradually increased, I couldn't help but pick up my pace, my heart starting to thud faster in my chest as I broke into a canter, an eye turned to the distant light that once again flickered in the distance, still a bit apprehensive about it. It was an apprehension that lasted even after I reached the base of the hill and had to turn away, focusing my eyes on my hooffalls as I ascended.

Reaching the peak of the first hill, I turned around once more to check on my friends again. By virtue of them carrying more items they were a bit slower coming up the hill, abut 12 paces behind. My eyes rose above them and to the village, and my mind drifted just a bit.

It was likely I'd never see Fair Smile again. While our first meeting had been mostly poor luck on her part, she had reached out time and time again toward me. In the several days I had been awake, she had been the first pony to reach out repeatedly toward me, even going as far as informing me of the village's dark open secret, and later retrieving my satchel when it had been lost. It seemed cruel to just leave, with no thanks or well wishes.

But that was entirely too dangerous at this point. When the next changing of the guard came about, alarms would quickly go up about our escape. It was imperative that we get my new friend's cutie marks back and put as much distance between ourselves and this village. As much as the two of them didn't like it, leaving was the only practical option. And staying back for even a few extra moments for well wishes would only put us in further jeopardy. Not to mention if they found out that we had made contact with her before leaving-

“Hey. You ok?” My fellow escapees had crested the hilltop, the unicorn also looking out to the dark village after breaking my focus.

“Yes.” I turned my back to the village, shoving down a twinge of guilt. “The cutie mark vault will be a bit farther down the path.”

Amber Swing, with all the armor still on, was taking a moment to catch her breath from the trek uphill. While I had no doubt under normal circumstances the exertion wouldn't be that difficult for her, it was hard to ignore the fact that our lean rations over the last few days weren't doing her any favors. IN fact, it probably wasn't doing any of us any favors. I had been passively worried about food before, but now my confidence in staying healthy during this escape was starting to wane a bit.

The three of us all now ready to go again, I began leading the way through the darkness. The absence of light made me slow my pace compared to the steady pace that I had been forced to take the prior day, my confidence in the path coming more from the way the earth was packed beneath my hooves by hundreds of ponies over two centuries before.

“It's so nice to be free again!” Swing shouted aloud, taking in a deep breath and shattering the nightly tranquility.

“Sshh!” I raised my right forehoof to my mouth and shushed her. “There's at least one pony out in the mountains looking for something, let's not be loud enough to alert the others!”

In the dim light I could see her turn to look at me, the sight of her frowning just faintly being seen. “Party Pooper.” She harshly whispered. However, she didn't talk anymore as I continued to stare at the ground, paranoid about losing the way forward.

“Is that it?” Spice said in a voice between a whisper and normal talking. Raising my head, it took a bit for my eyes to adjust to the slightest difference in brightness. The mouth of the cave gave off a very faint glow, almost imperceptible in the cloud covered darkness. My two friends quickly broke into a gallop to rush into it, leaving me behind as they rushed ahead. Still a bit concerned about the risk of being surprised by somepony else catching us off guard. Putting my back to the cave, I once again began looking at the darkened mountains around us, searching for any hint of light.

“WHERE DID THAT COLT CUDDLER PUT IT!” Amber Swing's shout carried out of the vault. I looked behind me, the sound of something slamming into the rocky earth, probably her spike maul, echoing out. Spice Chaser trotted up through the faint glow and looked at me with a very defeated stare.

The large vault was faintly illuminated from the glow from the unicorn corpse in her glass coffin. Now that I had a closer view of the gigantic vault, it was easier to discern the various cutie marks on each piece of paper which was stuffed behind the glass. If I hadn't been here a few days earlier and been subjected to a complex spell connected to it, it would have been easy to think they had all just been painted on paper and laminated in glass for artistic preservation.

“Ignoring the fact that we don't know how to get them off the paper-” My unicorn friend remarked. “-Our marks aren't here. Despite the fact that we both had them pulled off here, saw them get burned onto paper, and watched them get placed in these slots.” He tapped a pair of empty glass-covered slots. “I've already looked over the rest of them and they've not been moved.” I cast my gaze over the rest of the marks on display while Spice Chaser gave a sigh.

“I'm going to sneak back down there, and I'm going to drop my hammer right on that bastard's neck!” The former raider mare remarked, sitting on her haunches with her back turned toward us and forehooves crossed.

“You two didn't even know how to get your marks back?”

“I have some contacts in Tenpony Tower that are good with spells. I figured that if we couldn't stick them on, we could bring them back and hope they could undo it.” For a brief moment I thought of the large glyph that was on the floor of the room buried in the rockslide. “I'm not really sure what the plan is going to be now.”

I thought about our situation for a bit. Two of us were armed with plenty of ammunition, but we were all depressingly low on food, and we didn't have the one thing my friends needed the most. While it was still late at night and potentially possible to get many miles away from the village, what would be the point if we would have to come back here later? Doubly so if there was still fighting between the Enclave and wasteland ponies beyond the mountains.

“We're not leaving.” Both of them gave me a blank stare. “There's no point. Not if we have to come back here anyway to get your marks back.”

Amber Swing gave a dark smile as she looked at me, wrapping the end of her forelegs tighter around her spike maul. “About time you started coming to your senses!” She began picking herself up. “Let's show those starbuckers what it means to take your life from a pony!” She bit down on the edge of the hammer.

“Amber!” The unicorn shouted at her. “You know we can't do that!” He was obviously referring to her constantly expressed desire to go back and try to solve the situation with violence.

“Why not? We go in there and smash each and every manipulative bastard and bitch in the head. If we were able to sneak out without problem, we should be able to do the same coming in!”

I shook my head to the negative. “No, Spice is right.” I turned to face both of them, sitting on my haunches. “Lets say we go down there and kill every leading pony in the dark, which you couldn't do with all that noisy armor you're wearing.” She gave me a wicked glare. “Then how will we find out where they took your marks? Do you really think that we can go door to door to every building to find two pieces of paper with cutie marks on them, and nopony would put up a fight?” I shook my head to the negative. “No, we'll need to have them tell us where they are, or find a way to spy on them checking the marks...” I trailed off, a plan starting to form in my head.

“After they see that we're gone?” Spice Chaser picked up on the train of thought that had started to form. “Of course! But I don't know if all of us can sneak back or not.”

“I'll do it.” I stood back up. “I'm the most comfortable out of the three of us sneaking around. I can get back down their before the night, and using your-” I pointed to Amber Swing “-piercing that you lent me earlier along with your-” Now I pointed to Spice Chaser “-screwdriver, I should be able to brute force my way into Ether's house. When the changing of the guard shift finally happens, she'll be informed and either check for the marks herself, or get one of the ponies under her to check.”

The two of them looked at eachother, seemingly holding a conversation just between each other with only their eyes, then back at me. “What if you get caught?” Spice Chaser asked.

“I won't.” I remarked back, putting on a bold smile. In all reality, the plan that I had formed on the fly made me a bit nervous. It wasn't the idea of sneaking in and out that got me, but what to do with my two newest friends. “We'll just have to find somewhere for you two to hide in these mountains that they won't find you, while you wait for me.”

Both ponies shook their head.

“We don't have the food!”

“Now's not the time to act weak!”

The duo shouted over eachother, before exchanging another glance back and forth, carrying another wordless conversation between the duo. It might be cute if we were in a more relaxed position, but with tensions high being left out of these conversations built from years of familiarity irked me a bit.

“If I may.” Spice Chaser poised to his marefriend, who merely rolled her eyes. Still, she did concede talking to him, and he took the opportunity. “We simply don't have the food. All we have is what we ate before leaving, and that's it. It's going to be iffy enough trying to get out of these barren mountains with just that, but asking us to wait another day would be suicidal. And you want us to hide here in the mountains, close to their village, where they could still find us?”

I gave a nod. “I can try to steal food down there while we're at it.”

“You two colts!” Amber Swing stepped right in between both of us. “This is a Mare's world, and out here the meanest mother buckers survive!” She pointed to her coltfriend first. “I can always expect you to want to talk and reason your way out of things, but you!” Now the mare spun around and accusingly pointed her right hoof at me. “You're no better! I thought you were a pony of action with how quickly you got us out of there, but you're just as scared of action as he is!” Her hoof slammed onto the ground in exclamation. “For all they know right now, we are still sleeping in the bottom of a cave. So we should do this the Raider way!”

“We can't go in there and just kill whoever we want Am-”

“I didn't say kill them!” She cut the unicorn off mid sentence. “What we're going to do is knock down the head mare's front door, wake her up in the middle of the night, and at gunpoint force her to tell us where our cutie marks are and how to put them back on our assess!”

“And then what?” I asked, disbelieving her crazy idea but curious as to what her end point was.

“We force them to let us leave, after I bash the metal worker in the head!” She held a hoof up to her lover once more. “I don't care, We're not leaving until I feel his blood on my hooves for all the problems he's given us!”

“We've already talked about why we can't do that.”

Amber got right into Spice's face. The Unicorn took a nervous step back, and she responded by raising her right hoof and planting the edge of her hoof right on his nose. “This entire time we've followed your plans. It was your idea to come down here and try talking first. It was your idea to just go along when they wanted to show us their grand cutie vault, and because of your ideas we're now without food, without our marks, and you don't even have your special trading agreement out of it!” She sat her hoof down, spinning around to face the mouth of the cave. “We're doing this my way now. And Sneaky Flank over here is coming with us.”

“Danm it.” I whispered aloud, letting the now snapped piercing drop to the ground. “Do either of you have any more of those piercings?”

This was the first speedbump in the mare's plan, which basically amounted to storming down and holding Glowing Ether at the end of a weapon until she gave us what my friends wanted. Sneaking back down to the village went well enough, but I had just snapped the last bobbypin I had been given, along with her piercing trying to unlock the door.

“Get out of my way.” Amber Swing abruptly shoved me aside, not even caring about how loud her voice was or even how close I was. She grabbed a railroad spike from her bag and forced it into the wooden door just above the handle, wood splintering from the force. Next up she grabbed her spike maul in her mouth, and I had to scramble back to all fours to stand a distance away as she whipped her head sideways, slamming the thicker end of the hammer against the door, missing her spike by an inch, but still creating a deep indent in the door. Her stance stumbled just a bit, the spell from her remarking trying to depress her again, but she tightened her grip on the mouthguard and swung again. This one made an angled contact on the edge of the spike, driving it through and dropping the chunk of formed iron through the door and into the house with a loud clang, followed right afterwards by the handle and locking mechanism of the door. The earth pony mare slammed her body against the door, throwing it open with her own body. As it swung open she stopped just long enough to put her hammer back on the hooks of her barding and grab the iron spike back in her mouth, breaking into a gallop right afterwards.

Spice Chaser and I stepped in behind her, taking a look at the dark interior of the first floor living room. A table could be seen in the middle of the living room, which was the only major difference between the first floor of this house and Soothing Constant's. I made a brief glance toward what would have been the operating room in Constant's place, only to see what looked like a writing desk. The sound of the angry mare galloping up the stairs kept me from spending any more time looking around, and I quickly followed behind my two friends up the staircase.

The door to Glowing Ether's bedroom was already shoved open by the time I got there, and I could just see over Spice Chaser's shoulders as Amber Swing leaped across the bedroom. The house's resident had just leaned up, likely awoken from our commotion. Out earth pony compatriot landed on the bed, using her bulk to shove the unicorn onto her back and pressing the edge of the railroad spike against Glowing Ether's throat. “Where are our Cutie Marks!? And where is that danmed iron ruiner!?”

I could see Ether's eyes grow wide, the yellow and pink pony utterly surprised and overwhelmed by the force that had been brought down upon her in her own bed. As us two males stepped into the room behind the former raider mare, I watched as Ether took a deep breath, gathering herself together before giving a small smile. “Why should we tell you?” I had to credit her, with how explosive Amber's entrance had been, Ether did an amazing job regaining her wits and speaking in a controlled manner, only the faintest of trembles coming across her voice.

“Because if you don't, I'll drive this spike so far through your throat your pillow will become a second head!” Swing spat out, holding the spike between her two forehooves.

“And what if we don't tell you, and you kill us anyway?”

“Then we'll go door to door until either everypony is dead, or someone tells us.”

The unicorn threw her head back, or at least shifted in a backwards motion considering how she was pinned, and let out a laugh. “You think the three of you can take on all of Our Town?” She laughed again, forcing a much haughtier tone towards it. “Even if we died here, the moment any of you stepped outside you'd all be hanged on the Tree of Woe, and Starlight's dream would live on.”

“There's more of us.” I stepped forward, butting into the talk. “Do you think I really came here alone?” It was a big risk, trying out a lie like this. But in the days I had spent here it was made very plain to me what the village's inhabitants were afraid of more then anything else, the outside world. Amber Swing had taken a massive gambit with her idea to charge in, and it wasn't going to pay off without some smooth talking to accompany it.

Immediately it started paying off. Ether turned her head to get a better look at me from the corner of my eye, her irises slowing shrinking into pupils. “If I hadn't fallen off a cliff, I would have left earlier and we would have eradicated all of you, even these two raiders, without a second thought.”

She stared at me, and I could swear she was staring to anxiously sweat a frothy white foam across her forehead. “You...how are they staying fed?”

Mentally I bit my tongue. She was scared of the lie, but she didn't fully trust it either, already trying to find holes within. “We're a professional raider group, descendants of the old Equestrian army before the war. We go from town to town and take whatever they've got. You're next.” I raised my splinted hoof to point at her in the bed.

“Mare Ether!” The shout came from downstairs from a familiar voice. I looked over my shoulder and watched the newcomer fly up the staircase, Water Margin locking eyes with me and dropping from the air onto all fours, eyes narrowing as he shifted from concern to combat. However, he had been carrying a lot of momentum, and as his wings folded back to his sides he slid on the wood through the doorway, coming to a stop just as Spice Chaser levitated one of his two revolvers up to his head, the end of the ivory barrel making contact just behind his ear. The unicorn didn't even bother saying anything, just shaking his head faintly to discourage any fightback.

“Good morning Water Margin! As you can see, our guests have decided to pay us an early morning visit.” Ether remarked, still keeping her gaze on me. “They're the welcoming party for more friends.”

The pegasus' eyes widened in shock. “How? We made our rounds and didn't come across anypony! They couldn't have found us!”

“Our methods-” I took control of the situation again, looking straight at the unicorn mare once more “-don't concern you. I came down here to see how much food you ponies have, and I must say, it's fantastic. We could be convinced to leave, but only if you give us your best rations now and swear to pay our clan tribute, along with giving our two new members their cuties marks back...” I paused for a moment. “And let Swing there have the duel she so badly wants with Tempered Iron.” It was worth throwing her a bone, her willingness to forsake stealth had gotten us closer to our goals then anything I or Spice Chaser had come up with thus far. If I played my cards right I could also have Spice have his food conversation with Woe Tree under the guise of tribute to a large raiding band, and the three of us could all be done with this place. A dark smile crossed Swing's face, gleeful at the thought of her long desired fight.

The ball was back in Mare Ether's court, and I could see her weighing the options in her head. “Will you let me get on my hooves and out of bed?” I gave a nod to Amber Swing, angling my head just a bit to try and communicate to her that it was time to move. She picked up on it and crawled backwards and off the bed, letting the Unicorn stand up on the wooden floor. “And would you let Water Margin fetch Tempered Iron and Woe Tree, so we can better discuss the details of your duel and...” She grimaced. “...and your tribute.”

This was pushing it. Inside this house we had a three-to-two advantage. If the pegasus stepped outside though, he could quickly call in reinforcements and overwhelm us through sheer numbers if he just shouted loud enough.

“Spice.” I called out to the unicorn, who turned his focus to me as well. “follow Water Margin outside but don't let him say or try anything fancy.” He stood still like a statue, and just from the way he looked at me it was plain that unlike his marefriend, he was not nearly as comfortable in this situation that had been orchestrated beyond his control. “And make it quick.”

Margin shot a sideways glance to the unicorn that held him at gunpoint. “Before your new friend lets their nervousness put a hole in our head...” The pegasus shifted his gaze back to me. “How about you just let us call out the front door to our team, and let them send Iron and Woe Tree in on their own?”

There was so much information dripping from his suggestion. While he was obviously not excited about being held at gunpoint, he was outright insinuating that my unicorn friend lacked the discipline necessary to keep the current situation stable in my favor, and he was showing at least part of his hoof on how he wasn't truly alone.

“Don't let him say anything to his team, except that those two are to be sent in here.” Spice Chaser nodded, jerking the gun away from the pegasus' head, allowing him to turn around and trot toward the staircase, the unicorn following behind.

“Let us move this conversation downstairs.” Mare Ether commented, as she used her magic to adjust her hair into the same style that I had always seen her wear. “We can all sit at a table and discuss things like civilized ponies.” She didn't even wait for me to give a response, boldly strutting across the room with Amber Swing following behind, gripping her railroad spike in her mouth, leaving me to be the last one to step out of the room.

“You ready to join a new raider gang honey!?” Amber Swing remarked once downstairs, walking up behind her lover. “Now you can live all the same stories I've gotten to tell you, yourself!”

“Didn't you leave a raider gang already?”

“Yeah, well...” She stuttered for a short moment. “I'm un-retiring, and I'm bringing you back with me!” For all her seemingly mindless desire to just smash ponies head in, the earth pony I had spent the last few days showed a fantastic ability to ad-lib ontop of my own massive story. Granted, it had been her idea to begin with to go in loud and lie even louder, but this was a depth that I hadn't expected from her.

I watched as Ether opened a drawer near the bottom of the desk and levitated out a book, this one bound by lilac plastic similar to that of Starlight's Glimmer's of Truth, but the inside of the binding was replaced with a pair of large metal rings with glass pages attached to that, the thickness of the book being determined by the rings rather then the small number of glass-laminated pages inside. Shutting the drawer, she turned around and strutted toward the table, the binder in her telekinetic grasp making the clinking sound of glass on glass. Upon reaching the table she sat it down, opening it wide and displaying the contents. Inside each pane of the binder's glass pages were what appeared to be cutie marks. She gently flipped the glass from one pane to another, taking care with it. I could see a megaphone, an ingot of what appeared to be iron, a bucket of water, and two stalks of wheat pass by, before she came to the two marks we had a personal interest in. First was Spice Chaser's, a darkbrown cupcake topped with white swirls and sprinkles of other colors mixed in the swirl. Ether turned this glace pane as well and revealed Amber Swing's, showcasing the head of a hammer similar to her own, it's head just a small gap over a miniaturized railroad spike.

“Mare Ether?” That was Woe Tree, the lanky female unicorn stepping into the room with wide eyes as she took in the sight.

“Woe Tree, please take a seat.” She motioned to the table. The unicorn complied, never taking her anxious gaze off of us. She was followed shortly afterwards by Tempered Iron, his height and bulk letting him barely squeeze through the damaged frontdoorway. His response to the situation was much more neutral, just letting a disappointed frown overtake his muzzle.

With all seven of us now assembled, we each took a seat around the circular table. I kept a gaze through the front windows and door, while Amber Swing sat to my right and Spice Chaser took a spot to my left. Directly opposite of me was Mare Ether, with Tempered Iron to her left and Water Margin to her right, while Woe Tree sat between Iron and Amber. My earth pony companion still held a railroad spike in her mouth, while my unicorn companion kept both revolvers in the air, one aimed at Water Margin, and the other at Glowing Ether.

“Let us start with what you want.” Glowing Ether began, placing the elbow joints of her forelegs on the table and leaning forward, resting her lower jaw in the V made between her hooves. “Strange Flank here has a roaming army of raiders out in the mountains, and wants us to let them go with these two raiders he met in your mine Iron.” The large earth pony snorted. “They also want us to give their cutie-marks back as well. And most importantly, they want us to pay their massive raider army with our food...” She shifted her head a bit toward Woe Tree, who mouth had taken a pronounced 'O' shape. “...and wants to let their mare fight our own Tempered Iron to the death.” His grey horsehair obscured it a bit, but I could see color drain from his face.

“In exchange...” She pointed her hoof towards me. “...they will convince their evil raider army that we're not worth the effort of invading.” She gave a smirk. “Am I missing anything else?”

“Rations.” Spice Chaser cut in. “We want food upon our departure, so we can prove to his army that the rest of the payment will come later.” He angled his head toward my own.

“Mare Ether!” Water Margin was the first to protest. “This is absurdism! If they had an army in the mountains, my night crews would have seen the fires they set at night! It's a bluff!” He raised a hoof at us. “Let us give the word, and our best guards can have them subdued and ready to go on the Tree!”

“Mare Ether, If I may?” Tempered Iron spoke up next. “I want proof that they actually have a roaming group out in the mountains. Talk is cheap.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. Proof would be difficult provide for such a massive lie. Somepony had already gone through my friend's personal belongings when they were initially kidnapped, evidenced by the fact that the food they had brought with them had since been taken.

“We are also interested in proof.” Glowing Ether remarked back, a bold smile on her lips. “We see sticking out of your satchel is some sort of rifle, but it looks like crap compared to any of our own weapons. For all we know, you could have tied together some wood and pipes before charging in here.”

“That rifle was originally in the Unicorn's personal belongings.” Iron pointed out. It was a simple assumption, and was the only belonging I had been given that didn't come from somewhere in the town. Even among those items, I only had the satchel, a water canteen, Glimmers of Truth and the graphite I had been writing in it, and...

I nosed into my satchel and bit down on the metallic apple, pulling the explosive out and dropping it on the table. “This is a grenade.” I remarked, planting my hoof on the top of it. “If I pull this pin because you give us too much trouble, we all will bleed out from the shrapnel, and in three days the town gets overrun by my gang.”

The heads of Our Town all gave the explosive a long stare. Glowing Ether was the first to break focus, raising an eyebrow as she looked at the pegasus sitting beside her. “It is a grenade. But we don't have any of those.” He shook his head. “We don't know where they got it from, but it hasn't been pilfered from our armory.”

“Mare Ether?” Woe Tree spoke up for the first time since first stepping inside. “Regardless if their army exists or not, we can't afford to let them leave with any food. We're stretched to the limit as it is, and the only reason we can hold steady at 227 ponies in town is because we don't have a winter here, and we're allowed to use our corpses as fertilizer to restore nutrition to the soil.” She sighed. “But if we lose anything more then a bowl of potato soup we would start dealing with sicknesses just from starvation alone, if not a population collapse.” The two female unicorns stared at each other for a moment, before Woe Tree took another deep breath. “Perhaps if you let some of us receive our marks back, those of us with a gift for growing food cou-”

“Denied!” The head unicorn slammed her hoof down on the table. “Woe Tree, since I have become Ministry Mare, we have had four harvesting cycles, and each time we go through this. You know what Glimmers of Truth say about Cutie Marks.”

The blue unicorn gave a dejected sigh. “Cutie Marks are nature's way of forcing ponies to manipulate and abuse other ponies, we know.”

“Not only would you be fine with letting these outsiders go ahead and abuse us, you'd encourage our own friends to turn against eachother! If you weren't needed for the harvesting, we'd have a mind to throw you into the mines ourself!”

Thoroughly humbled, the older unicorn stiffened up as she sat her forehooves back on her chair.

“What we don't get.” The younger of the two unicorns turned her focus back to me. “Is why out of us four ponies, you'd want to target Tempered Iron.”

“His factory is an affront to Metal Working!” Amber dropped her spike onto the table, pointing a hoof at her rival. “If there was ever a place to get the worst pig iron in the wastes, it's his! And he personally went through my stuff, and removed my cutie mark.”

“They all removed our marks together.” Spice Chaser murmured to himself, barely loud enough for me to hear.

“How very convincing.” The village leader remarked. “But we didn't ask the filly.” Strange remark, considering that the two of them looked to be the same age. “I want to hear his reasoning.” She pointed a hoof at me, marking only the second time she had ever used a direct singular pronoun toward me.

“It's Amber's payment for being so willing to join us.” There wasn't really any strong incentive to lie at this point. “She's been raging against him for so long, and leaving your village without one of it's core pillars would keep you from trying to buck the system later.”

“How about that, Iron? The outsider pony you so desparately wanted to keep around so you could mold them in your image.” The young unicorn mare leaned back in her chair, smirking maliciously at the factory head. “And they want you to lay down your life in favor of another outsider.”

“Ether, we didn't know-”

Glowing Ether pushed her chair back, jumping onto all fours. “Shut up! We think you're lying.” Her gaze scanned across not just the three of us, but her three subordinates also. “All of you are lying.” She walked behind the lone pegasus at the table, looking out the side of her eyes at the three of us. “We think that you've worked out a deal with our dear security pony, our own Water Margin, so when you sent your raider army in, his team would stand aside and let you try to force me out for someone else to take power here as a puppet.” She turned her head and shot a dirty glare at Woe Tree.

“What?” The three of us shouted out at once.

“Mare Ether!” Margin protested aloud. “Our family have always been loyal to the Ministry Mare of Our Town, all the way back to Double Diamond and Ministry Mare Starlight Glimmer!”

Woe Tree and Tempered Iron were the only two that didn't say anything in response. “If they remove Tempered Iron, they remove one of the two pillars of Our Town that worked under the last Ministry Mare, and more importantly, the only one that clashes with the other two pillars.” With her magic she grabbed the binder and held it in the air next to her face. “Raider army or not, we won't stand idly by and let outsiders try to corrupt how we run Our Town and our friendship. So we must enthusiastically say...no deal!” The glass clinked loudly as a punctuation to her denial, and She turned her back to us, beginning to walk toward her ruined front door.

“Hey! We're not leaving here without our Cutie Marks!” Amber Swing leapt from her seat and proceeded to give chase. Mare Ether looked over shoulder and smirked, before sprinting outside.

“Amber, NO!”

“It's a trap!” Spice Chaser and I shouted at the same time, but our words fell on deaf ears. The moment the earth pony stepped outside, she was tackled from the side by a pegasus swooping down from above.

I jumped up, knowing that while there would be more guards lying in wait outside, it would be better to try and help my friend rather then idly stand by inside. Water Margin flared his wings open and lunged toward me, so I sidestepped away from him, trying to extend the distance between us. The pegasus used the air beneath his wings to crash into my rear legs, wrapping his legs around my left hindleg and sending me crashing to the ground. Before he could stand up and take advantage, I rolled onto my back and pounded my right-rear hoof into his face, forcing him to dislodge his grip on my leg and letting me roll back onto my front and get back on all fours.

Through the reflection of the window I saw Spice hook his forelegs under the table and throwing it into the air, using his magic as an aid. Before it landed the reflection shattered, glass blowing inward as two earth ponies jumped into the building. Both of them held a semi-automatic rifle like the one Fair Smile practiced with on the roof several days before.

I didn't give the two any attention, instead running out into the cloud-covered early morning sunrise. Looking to my right to see Amber Swing being overwhelmed by a Pegasus-Unicorn duo wrapping a rope around her legs as if to hog tie her. I jumped off the small porch at the front of the house, only to get bodied by an Earth Pony who had been crouching in wait beside the porch. The wind was knocked out of me as I was smashed between his bulk and the wood of Ether's house. Somehow, I kept on all fours, but before I could even catch my breath the business end of a semi-automatic was pressed to the side of my head.

“Good Morning Ponies of Our Town!” Glowing Ether boldly stepped forward to the growing throng of village inhabitants that were stepping out to begin the morning song. “Today we have a special feature.” She looked over her shoulder, lining her gaze straight with mine. “These outsiders came here and threatened our peaceful town, even breaking into our home while we were sleeping!” I could hear a unicorn's magic activating and saw an old rope in a telekinetic grip be held up beside me, though the sound of the telekinesis didn't overpower the collective gasp from Ether's recounting of events. “But fret not! Through friendship and trust we've overcome their attack, and there's only one thing left.” If I wasn't still winded from the bodyslam, I would have probably chuckled at the irony of 'friendship and trust' when the same mare had just accused one of her closest workers of orchestrating a coup with us.

Speaking of which, I could hear the clopping of hooves behind me as the ponies that had still been inside began filing out. Tempered Iron led the trio, with Woe Tree and Water Margin following closely behind. Between the three of them were three distinctly different reactions to the entirety of what had gone down. Iron stood proud, his chest pushed forward with pride and head leaned back similarly as if nothing had happened. The pegasus had returned back to the expression he normally seemed to wear, a neutral glare with a confident but not haughty trot, taking his place behind the town's leader. The only thing that hinted at a break in his bearing was the bloodied snout that my hoof had given him. Woe Tree was the opposite of Iron. Despite nearly matching his height under normal circumstances, she held her head low, nearly shuffling her hooves and obviously smarting from the curt reprimand Glowing Ether had given her.

Behind the trio came the two guardsponies that had busted through the front windows, each of them holding a length of rope in their mouths and dragging Spice Chaser through the door behind him, his face and neck bloodied and bruised while his legs were hogtied together with the two lengths of rope held by his captors. With one eye he looked at both myself and Amber Swing, mouthing a simple 'sorry' to both of us.

Glowing Ether began talking to the village ponies again, by this point just about everypony was out and gathered in a large disorganized throng, gawking at the three of us. Scanning the crowd a familiar face caught my eye. Fair Smile had caught my gaze, our eyes locking as a frown overtook her muzzle, the knowledge of my fate depressing the first friend I had made in the village.

THWACK

Everypony's attention was immediately brought to the second stallion that was dragging Spice Chaser, my ears reflexively folding back against my head from the sound. The loud impact was followed by the deadening thud of said stallion landing back-first on the ground, the impact having twisted him into the air. His corpse crumpled upon impact, and as my ears began to perk up I could heard the fading reverberations of a boom from the mountains surrounding us.

THWACK

The second impact rang out in tandem with the other stallion that had secured my unicorn friend. Rather then centering on the chest like the first one, the earth pony's head simply ceased to exist, his headless body dropping to the floor as blood and gore fell from the chasm at the end of his neck like a deflated party canon. The shot which struck him had continued on it's trajectory into the Ministry Mare's house after deleting the pony's skull from existence, the sound of wood splintering fighting against the shot's fading echo.

“ATTACK!” Water Margin shouted out, spreading his wings as several other ponies sprinkled among the crowd reacted by slinging weapons to their mouths while others leapt to try and take defensive positions against the walls of the houses.

THWACK

This one plowed through the pony that had just finished securing Amber Swing, His head didn't vanish, but merely dropped to the ground as his neck disintegrated from the projectile, the corpse tossing back against the base of the house we had all came out of and splattering gore across it like a bowl of soup had been thrown at it.

THWACK

The pony that had just about finished binding my own hooves was one of the first to react to the assault against the other guardsponies, already separating himself from me and attempting to leap to the side of the house. The newest shot caused his entire backside slid out from behind him, collapsing from the force of the bullet and dragging the rest of him down alongside.

Time slowed. The sound of ponies screaming and hurriedly trying to retreat into their houses were coupled with orders that could just faintly be heard by the head of the village's guardsponies. Tempered Iron had leapt towards Glowing Ether and attempted to shield the unicorn with his bulk, escorting her to an alley between two of the closer homes, while Woe Tree scrambled back into the house she had departed from mere moments ago.

I bit down on the ropes on my forelegs, noting that the splint had made the knot very loose and easy to bite off. With a yank it came loose, allowing me to contort my body and do the same, with a bit more effort, to my rear legs. Coming back to my hooves, I first went to Amber Swing, who had already twisted her body to wrap the ropes she was bound with around one of her barding's spike, yanking on it and fraying the ropes. They snapped as I got to her, and she took my outstretched hoof and got right back onto all fours. Our gazes simultaneously moved to Spice Chaser, who released a burst of red energy from his horn which cut the ropes around his own hooves, allowing him to stumble back onto all fours just a few paces from us.

The guards-ponies began returning fire. The thwacks of a powerful rifle and its ensuing gore had stopped, but our eyes followed the aim of the few remaining guards-ponies as they pointed toward the eastern mountains. From between two of the peaks came a black dot, trailing smoke with bolts of lighting embedded within, zig-zagging back and forth. Even though the ominous figure was approaching, it's sheer distance from the town meant the semi-automatic rifles here had a snowball's chance in tartarus to strike the target.

“Go! Now!” I shouted at my two friends, who both looked at me with a nod, turning toward the mountains. Once more my eyes scanned the near totally dissipated crowd of ponies, hoping to see Fair Smile, even if it was one last time before our departure. But my pegasus friend had already left, likely holing up in her home along with many of the other ponies in the town.

My eyes did lock briefly with Ether though. Cowering between two houses with her forehooves collapsed over her ears, she shot by a cruel gaze, but the look before had been of fear. Fear that my lie might have been true all along.

Staring at her wasn't going to help me. I turned tail and broke into a gallop behind my escaping friends, quickly catching up to them as we began to put distance between us and the village once more, now heading to the mountains in the daylight, but in a direction we weren't familiar with.

I twisted my head back one last time, wanting to verify that whatever was assaulting the town wasn't targeting us. The smokey thundercloud had came to a stop near the far edge of the town, the 'thwack' now being replaced by a combination of a loud air-splitting whip and a faint boom. The sound was accompanied a burst of fire near one of the houses, while a pegasus covered in silver and purple was launched backwards and up into the air from the shot's recoil, pushing him out of the way of the spotty and disorganized fire from below.

“Where to!?” Spice Chaser shouted at me through ragged breaths.

“Anywhere but here!” Was my response as we widened the gap between us and the new warzone.

Our hasty gallop had reduced to a swift trot, navigating the rocky valleys between two of the mountains, the path we had randomly picked showed no evidence of being used before our entrance. All three of us were panting heavily from the hurried evacuation, marking just the second time in less then a day that we had escaped from the town, and did so without getting my two friends what they needed.

Slowing now to a even walk, I looked behind me one more time. A plume of smoke could be seen over one of the taller hills we had already ran around, inferring that something large had caught fire, likely one of the houses in the village-turned-warzone. We weren't able to hear the sound of gunfire anymore, but it was hard to tell if that was because of our distance and the dampening of sound between the hills and mountains surrounding us, or if the firefight had stopped.

“That-” Amber Swing came to a stop, heaving with exhaustion between words. “That, was, WICKED!” She shouted out the final word, a warped grin overtaking her face. “I've not had a rush like that for years!” The mare sucked in another deep breath, turning to face me as I came to a standstill as well. “Your raider buddies are awesome, and if they have your back like that I totally want to join up!”

I choked on my breath. MY Raider Buddies? I didn't know the pony that brought the chaos down! Unless this was somepony that I had met before loosing my memories.

“Yeah...next time can you tell your friends to use something that's not so harsh on the ears?” Spice Chaser remarked, twisting his own ears in obvious discomfort from the sound of two loud booms that had gone off right infront of him without giving even the slightest forewarning to lay his own ears back in preparation.

“I don't know who that was! But he isn't my friend!”

The duo stopped their heaving, both looking at eachother. Like before, it seemed like an entire conversation passed between the two of them before they turned back to face me once more.

“But the raider clan and demanding tribute?”

“We thought that the stress of the situation made you remember who you were and how you got here!”

They both seemed to be spilling over eachother with questions driven by confusion.

“I made it up! Ok! I made it all up in the heat of the moment!” I shook my head in annoyance. “It didn't look like Ether was going to crack under your sheer force-” I looked directly at Amber “-so I made up a story about a large force in the mountains to try and pressure her!”

Spice Chaser gave a smirk. His marefriend, though, was having none of it, kicking the ground beneath her with a hoof. “Danm it! I don't like guns that much, but I'd love to meet somepony that can deliver that much punch to a fight myself!” I could help but stare blankly at the mare, her priorities seemingly completely mismatched considering that our entire endeavor while following her plan had not gotten us anything.

Spice's smirk though faded into a terrified frown as he looked to the sky behind me. “You won't have to wait long...” He trailed off, and our gaze swung to meet his own.

The same pegasus, now without the smokey thunderclouds, shot down from the sky just behind us. Wings that were folded to the side snapped into an outstretched position, slowing their descent. A small dustcloud was kicked up as they landed mere yards from us, and I instinctively grabbed the pipe rifle hanging from my satchel as Amber and Spice readied their weapons of choice once more.

“You...” The pegasus choked out with a raspy voice. “...do not make recovery missions easy.” Nearly his entire body was covered in a jumpsuit, silver covering his body while the suit's legs, neck, and head were colored purple, a jagged yellow band reminiscent of lightning bolts serving as a border between the two colors. His weapon of choice dragged attention by sheer size, a massive rifle longer from barrel to stock then the pony from snout to dock, connected by a pair of mechanical arms to a saddle that wrapped around his midsection over the top of the suit, it's weight counter-balanced by a large sack on his left side under his left wing. Those wings were the only part of his body not covered by the suit, the left wing filled with grayish-silver feathers similar to that of his suit. This was in contrast to the right wing, devoid of feathers, merely an assortment of wing bones that were eerily folded alongside the suit just beneath the massive rifle.

“Ghoul...” My two friends whispered to eachother simultaneously.

“Stone Vane, my name is Silver Sight, and I am here on behalf of Baltimare's heavy operations and reconnaissance to escort you to Baltimare.”

Achievement Unlocked: Loud and Proud: With boldness, adrenaline, and some wit, you cranked up the heat on the leaders of Our Town without taking a hit.