Fallout Equestria: Tales from Stable 83

Another nightmare plagued me during my sleep. I was walking alongside Orchid and Smoky, heading into my home city. The ground was covered in fresh blood and gecko limbs, our guns empty and we were out of healing supplies.

The farther we walked the bloodier the city became, rivers of blood pouring down each side of the street. The fountain at the town center was stained red by the blood now flowing through it. A bouquet of gecko heads was perched atop the fountain, trickling new blood into the fountain.

I found my house in tatters. The roof ripped clear off, all the windows shattered, and where the front door should be was a hole eight feet wide. Whatever had caused this damage was massive, and the roar that shook the ground confirmed that it was definitely big enough to swallow me whole.

I spun around toward where I thought the noise originated from, only to be greeted by the same grotesque tentacled stallion as last night.

He was chuckling maddeningly, his face turned up in a twisted and cruel smile. A few razor sharp fangs protruded from his maw, covered in fresh blood. One of his tentacles slithered towards me and pushed up on my chin. “No dying now, you and I have a date to keep.”

I once again woke up in a cold sweat, but this time I didn’t jump to a standing position. My leg muscles were cramped from sleeping like I did, but that wasn’t going to be much of a problem.

Smoky was sitting next to a window, occasionally peeking outside to look for danger. He cast a glance over and saw that I was awake. “Morning, I was just about to wake you. Time for you to keep watch” he whispered as not to wake Orchid who was sleeping soundly under a pile of blankets.

I rose to my hooves and stretched my legs to relieve the cramps. I could barely see by the hazy blue light of the moon, but there was enough light for me to trot over to the window. “Alright, you get some more rest Smoky. I’ll wake you if something happens.”

He trotted over to his makeshift bed and laid down. “Thanks Crimson. Wake us in about three hours if the sun doesn’t wake us first.” With that he laid his head down and drifted back off to sleep.

The night was quiet except for the sound of a slight breeze whistling through the valley. I was never up early enough to sit and appreciate the quietness of the early morning, all the animals were up before me singing their songs and searching for food. Even though I was still tired, I could appreciate the serenity of this moment.

I levitated my armor over and got dressed while I watched for danger. I took the time to go over the stitch work and make notes of where I could improve the design, everywhere was the gist of those notes. Armoring it with metal would be my best bet for protection, but it would make the armor much heavier. A helmet of some form would be my next project, something to keep my ears safe from stray bullets. The armor along my legs was also thin to allow agile movements. I would address that concern with further reinforcement via my telescoping leg plating design.

My attention returned to outside as I saw a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye. It took a second to reacquire what I had seen move as it had stopped. Standing about one hundred feet from the station was an adult female coyote followed by six coyote puppies. The mother coyote had stopped to dig at the ground. Must be something underground that they could eat. With how fast she was digging they must be hungry.

One of the pups lunged forward into the hole dug by its mother, maw agape and bloodlust in its eyes. It struggled for just a moment with only its rear legs sticking out of the ground, but when it came back out it did so with a dead rabbit clenched in its jaws. It set the rabbit down as it tore a chunk of meat from the neck.

The other coyote pups tore voraciously at the corpse, the mother stood guard over them watching for any form of danger. The rabbit was devoured in less than a minute, and the pack began moving again.

I watched as they continued to the north, the mother stopping to sniff the air on occasion. Another half an hour or so had passed by the time I had lost sight of them. I did hear them one last time as the mother howled off in the distance, but then all was quiet again.

Time creeped by at a snail's pace as I continued to watch for danger. This area was always quiet before, so I expected very little.

I began to doze back off as I leaned against the window sill. I shook my head and tried to wake myself back up, to little avail. I was still tired from my near death experience and less rest than I was accustomed to.

I popped the last sparkle cola out of my bags and slammed half of it back. The liquid was no longer cold, but it did the trick to wake my brain back up. I set the bottle down on the ground and scanned the valley again.

The remnants of the rabbit corpse had gone missing, I was sure there had still been bones. Now all that I saw was a large mound of dirt where it had been. “That’s odd, another predator get to it?” I asked almost silently.

Something under the ground began to dig more and the mound grew ever larger. By the time the digging stopped the mound was ten feet across and six feet tall. The mound then dropped down into the ground revealing a large hole underneath.

I watched at first curiously, but then in horror as a bright white hand the size of my chest crept out of the hole. Fresh blood dripped from the claws at the end of each finger. Each claw was easily as long as my forelegs. A mixture of fur and scales covered the hand of whatever beast this was. A second hand just as large appeared from the hole. The beast began to pull itself from the hole, and the sight became ever more terrifying as it pulled itself out.

When it was finally free from the hole I could appreciate how truly fucked I was if this thing wanted me dead. The beast before me was hunched over and was still twice my height. It stood to its fullest height and I quickly guessed it was twenty feet tall. Its legs were as big around as trees and looked like they could crush anything that got in its way. Scars covered the exposed skin that I could see, clearly somepony had tried to kill it many times before.

I nearly jumped as the beast turned its head towards me and stared at the train station. It sniffed the air and began walking towards us. I instinctively backed up, knocking the bottle of cola over as I did so. This stopped the beast for a second as its face contorted into a snarl.

‘Oh fuck, OH FUCK! Think. What could get this thing out of here?’

I looked around the station for something, anything, that could get me out of this fucked situation. My breaths were shallow and rapid, and my eyes darted everywhere looking for something to save me. Both senses landed on the same idea, the dead cockroaches. Those putrid little things might just have a use.

The wood of the platform cracked under the beast's weight as I reached out and grabbed one of the roaches and placed it in front of the window.

‘Celestia and Luna if you’re still watching over us please let this fucking work!’ I let the roach go and grabbed as many more of the husks as I could and placed them in front of this monster. Now all I could do was hope and pray that this would work.

The beast looked into one of the windows slowly sniffing at the air. it looked directly at me while it did so. It seemed to be blind. It was using its sense of smell to locate whatever was here. Its nose scrunched up as it passed over the roach carcasses and it pulled away from the windows with a snort. It reached a hand in and grabbed a carcass before tossing it into its maw. The teeth inside were pearly white and gleamed in what remained of the moonlight.

I watched holding my breath as the beast wandered away, apparently satisfied with its search. It dived back into the hole after a few more seconds, and I finally took a breath after it disappeared.

“Oh fuck, what the fuck was that thing?” I asked aloud while gasping for air. I sat breathing heavily for a few minutes before I could think straight again.

The sun had crept over the horizon by the time I rose to my hooves again. I shakily walked over and roused Smoky and Orchid from their slumber. No words were exchanged as I then went and laid back down throwing a blanket over my head. ‘Please, for the love of everything let this be a dream. Nothing that size should exist.’

The pair were silent for a while trying to figure out what had happened, and getting their equipment locked into place. Orchid finally shook me and pulled the blanket off of my head. “What’s wrong?”

I took a few deep breaths before trying to speak, but the first attempt was nothing but gibberish. The second attempt was clearer. “Nearly died of a heart attack, was a monster, a really, really big monster.”

“How big? What’d it look like? Where’d it go?” Orchid asked too many questions without giving me any time to think.

“Tall, around twenty feet tall when standing on its hind legs. It had white skin covered in fur and scales in most places, and claws longer than my foreleg. Teeth like knives, and weight to crack the deck outside. It went back into the ground after sniffing the building.” Hopefully that was enough to get me out of explaining anything else.

“Hellhound… that was a hellhound,” Smoky said, giving me a terrified look. He had trotted over to the window and was staring in awe outside. “The biggest I’ve ever heard of, tracks match what yer saying. We need to leave here and not come back.”

“I like that idea, I never want to see anything like that again.” I stood and started packing things haphazardly into my bags. The last thing in was the discarded bottle cap

“Did it not see ya?” Orchid asked, laying a wing on my shoulder. “Why’d it leave?”

“I put the roach carcasses on the window sill and it seemed repulsed by the smell, but it still ate the bug. I don’t think it could see, blind I think. Keen sense of smell has kept it alive.” The physical contact slowed my brain so I could think properly again. At least enough to not still be panicked. It wasn’t the loving embrace I wanted, but it would do for now.

“Well, sounds like we got lucky then.” Smoky shook his head and pushed one of the bugs outside. “We’ve got five minutes and we’re out of here. Grab anything you think might be of use that we can carry.” Back to being practical, maybe a stress response of his.

The station was all but empty and the wood scraps that would be easy to gather wouldn’t burn very well due to the rot. My eyes settled on the vending machine and I trotted over.

With the panel open on the back it would be easy enough to pull the wiring and electrical components out of it to use later. Not to mention a still working cooling unit had many practical uses for food storage.

I quickly pulled as many wires from the machine as I could and the small circuit board that was the brains of the machine. The last thing I grabbed was the cooling unit and the few screws that held it in place. It was heavier than the rest of the parts, but I could justify taking it.

With the parts in my saddlebag I did one last check around the station. Nothing else seemed worthwhile to take at the moment so I closed my saddlebags and trotted to the door. “I’m ready when you are.”

Smoky pulled the chair from under the handle and tossed it aside. “Then let’s get out of here. Same deal as last time, eyes peeled and be ready for anything.” He pushed the door open and started trotting.

Orchid and I were close behind and took our appropriate positions. I kept my eyes on the large hole in the ground until we had moved well clear of the station. If nothing else it would give us more time to start running for our lives.

It was already warm this morning, the clouds overhead were helping to keep it from already being a miserable day. Smoky had us on a course to the north, but he didn’t say where we were headed so I could only guess.

The closest town beyond mine was about forty miles to the northwest, or at least it was the closest town before I went to work. Appleloosa was a nice little town, even with the odd ponies who called it home. Must look a lot different now than what I remember. If it was still standing at all.

What else might not be standing now? If a war really did happen, and there was fighting on Equestrian soil what would have been destroyed. Canterlot seemed like the most likely target, a blow to the heart of Equestria would have been a huge hit to morale. However, it was likely the most well defended city we had. A strike there would have been a suicide mission, so I had little doubt it was still standing. Manehattan or Cloudsdale would be good targets. Population centers are vulnerable to all forms of attack and would cripple the fighting force we could have drawn from. Big cities were probably now ruins, how many died there? And what about smaller towns like Ponyville? That would be a strategic location to hold before a large-scale assault on Canterlot. But surely Twilight would have stepped in and saved her city.

I shook the thoughts from my head and brought myself back to the here and now. I’d learn what happened to my world as we traveled through what remained of it. For now we had a long walk ahead of us and after yesterday I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy one.

“Hey Smoky, where are we headed? Closest city I recall is Appleloosa, but the way we’re headed we’ll trot by it.” Maybe it had been attacked and destroyed. Or it could be infested by something like giant rats.

“You mean Old Appleloosa. We steer clear of that place, slaver city now.” He cast a glance toward Appleloosa, a sneer on his face. “Lost too many friends to the bastards that live there. Can't go in to deal with them either, not enough guns, ammo, and ponies.”

“Oh…” I trailed off not wanting to think too deeply about a slave trade happening. “Old Appleloosa? Does that mean a New Appleloosa was built?” Old implies a newer version after all.

“Yeah, they did. I’ve never been there, hear it’s not a bad place to live.” His gaze returned forward and he picked up the pace. “Let’s pick up the pace. I don’t want to be here any longer than I need to be.”

I sped up to keep pace, my chest still aching from where I had been shot. I ignored the pain and kept pace, I didn’t want to meet any slavers today. With any luck the pain would dissipate soon, unless the bullet fragments were still in there. Hopefully Orchid did a proper job and not just put a bandage on it.

I let my mind wander, dreaming up new ideas for my armor. If I had access to my lab equipment I could synthesize some polymers for a proper ballistic vest. Or maybe lightweight ceramic plates to eat a bullet or two. Oh the joys of advanced technology. If nothing else a thin sheet of steel would do the trick, then weight would be a concern. I was by no means the strongest stallion out there, so had to pay attention and minimize weight so I could still move.

We were a few miles away from the station when I looked back, and for a moment I thought I saw that hellhound trailing us. I blinked and whatever I saw was gone. “Just a mirage.”

Smoky gave me a quick glance as if to ask something. No words left his mouth and he went back to scanning the horizon.

We continued forward, our pace steady. The only sound was that of our hooves striking the dry sand below. It was steadily growing warmer as the sun continued to its peak in the sky. The hours and miles passed irritatingly slowly, traveling this far by hoof was a pain in the flank.

The sun had reached its peak above us when Smoky finally slowed his pace. “Slow up, we’re far enough away now.” He stopped and started drawing… something in the sand.

At first I thought he was drawing a circle, but then he kept adding details until the symbol was unrecognizable. I watched closely trying to figure out what it was supposed to mean.

Orchid flew down and landed in the center of the symbol. She flapped her wings a few times to cover the symbol in fresh sand. “I was wondering when ya’d ask. Just a smallun, and we’re almost outta matches.”

I finally understood what they were talking about as the pair began preparing a small fire to cook over. Such an intricate symbol to ask if she was hungry, all just wiped away by the wind under her wings.

Orchid pulled a small matchbook from her saddlebags and broke one off of the pack. Only four matches remained in the pack. She struck the match and lit a small bundle of kindling under the pile of sticks Smoky had stacked up.

I sat next to the fire, finally realizing how hungry I was as my stomach grumbled. It had been at least three days since I had last eaten.

I watched as Orchid pulled a few leather wraps out, inside each was a chunk of meat. The meat smelled awful unwrapped, but didn’t look rotten. Both looked to be roughly a pound of lean meat. My first thought was meat from those mantises we saw as Smoky did say they smelled awful.

“I know, yote meat never smells great. These ones were mangy, but if we cook ‘em long enough ‘twon’t matter.” Orchid speared each chunk of meat onto a stick and leaned both over the fire. “I’ve got some salt left if ya need it ta help with the taste.”

As the meat cooked the smell burned away and was replaced by the smell of smoke. A warm and much more pleasant smell than that of a coyote. “I might, I only ate meat rarely and none of it was coyote. Does all meat smell this bad before it’s cooked?”

“Most of it does, best you can do is cook it quickly and plug your nose. Makes eating grass seem a whole lot nicer.” Smoky had a bundle of grass that he had pulled out of his bags, it was brown and dead but still edible by the looks of it. He separated it into roughly two even piles and started chewing on one of them, the other he set on a plate.

Orchid passed me one of the sticks, the meat on the end was ever so slightly charred but smelled better than before. “Here, eat quick it helps ta ignore the taste.”

I grabbed the stick and cautiously took a bite of the meat. It tasted worse than it had initially smelled, but I managed to swallow the first bite. “Ech, yeah I see what you mean.” I ravenously tore into the rest of the meat, chewing it and swallowing it down as fast as possible. My stomach kindly let me know it hated every moment of this. I set the stick aside and focused on keeping the food down.

Smoky pushed the plate of grass towards Orchid and I. “Split it between yourselves, get that nasty shit off your tongues.”

I split the small pile in half with my magic and levitated half over to myself. The taste was infinitely better than that of the coyote, and soothed my stomach as I ate it.

Looked like it did the same for Orchid, but she didn’t seem too pleased about something. She was giving Smoky a worried look, but was slightly appeased by him shaking his head.

Smoky didn’t eat nearly as much as I thought he would have, not enough to keep up with how much energy his body was using. That must be what Orchid was worried about, she knew how much he needed to eat and that little bundle of grass wasn’t it. I didn’t say anything, this was something they were working out between themselves.

A minute passed in silence as we watched the fire burn down to embers. The quiet crackling of the fire was a calming noise, almost too calming as I felt myself start to doze off. “Where are we headed?” I asked to keep myself from falling asleep.

Smoky turned his attention to me. “A few more miles to the northwest of here is a small camp that we frequent. It’ll be a good place to sell our extra goods and buy some more supplies. Food and water first thing, but we’ll need more ammo. I’m down to twenty bullets, Orchid has about eighteen, and you can’t have more than twelve.”

I dropped the magazine out of my gun and checked it. Full, with an eight round capacity. The second mag I knew was partly empty, less than half. “One full mag and a partial second mag. Maybe ten rounds total. I don’t suppose those submachineguns you picked up use the same bullets do they?”

“Nope, they fire .22 caliber rounds. Yours is a .32, mine is a .357, and Orchid has a nine millimeter.” Good to know. “These’ll do in a pinch if we need to use them, only two full mags between the two of them and a few loose rounds.”

So no fighting anything if we can avoid it. “How much money do we have? I’ve only got the two caps, so I won’t be of much help buying supplies.”

“Only thirty nine between the three of us. But I can make that go a long way, plus we can sell some of the scraps we’ve gotten long the way” Orchid said, kicking sand onto the fire. “Should be enough to scrape by fer another few weeks.”

“And then what? Where do we head from there?” I asked, looking at the remains of the fire. There was a small bit of charcoal that could be useful uncovered by the sand. I levitated it over and set it into my leather saddlebag.

“Might stick around the area for a while to hunt some game. Trading pelts is quite profitable if you’ve already tanned ‘em” Smoky stood and motioned for us to do the same. “Coyotes are plentiful around here and their hides are easy to tan.”

I stood and stretched my legs. Stopping to eat, even if it was that nasty coyote meat, had made me feel better. Still felt a twinge of hunger in the pit of my stomach, but I could wait if it meant not eating more coyote meat. “I saw a few back near the train station. A mother and her six pups killed and ate a rabbit while I was on watch.”

“Yeah, not an uncommon sight for this area. I’ve had my eye on a big one roaming with a pack of twelve other adults. He’d fetch a good price if I could get my hooves on him.” Smoky began trotting again, not looking back to see if I was keeping up.

This pace was much more manageable. We’d take longer to reach our destination, but at least it wouldn’t be causing me pain. “That’s a lot of coyotes to hunt down at once. Sounds pretty dangerous to me.”

“It is, and that’s why I haven’t let ‘im go after that pack.” Orchid trotted alongside me for once, though she did flutter her wings while she did. “If we had some longer range weapons I’d feel better about it, but that big bastard is fast. He’d been on us ‘for we could deal with the rest of the pack. That’d surely be the end of us.”

I wouldn’t be much help there, I’m not fast enough nor accurate enough to kill off that many coyotes. Maybe we could find and trade for a gun at this camp we were headed to, a repeating rifle would be ideal. “We’ll figure something out. The less danger the better.”

“We’ll have more time to think once we settle down at camp for the night.” Smoky said, before adding “For now just worry about the essentials, our stocks are low and that’s our first concern. After that we’ll figure out what we’re doing next. The where, what, and how of it all.”

Orchid pointed to the northwest with a wing at a column of smoke rising over the horizon. “That’s the place right, Smoky? Seems closer ‘an usual, maybe they moved the camp this way?”

Smoky looked at the smoke column and was quiet for a moment. “That’s not right, something bad is happening.” He took off in a gallop. “Smoke column’s too large, their fire would still be small at this hour. Gun’s at the ready we might be heading into a fight! Orchid get us a birds eye view of the situation and report back.”

Orchid nodded and shouted back. “Be back soon, give Crimson one of those smg’s! We’ll need all the firepower we have at the ready if this is a fight!” She jumped into the air and shot off into the distance three times faster than we were galloping.

My chest stung as I galloped fast enough to keep up with Smoky, but as the adrenaline kicked in my body ignored the pain. “You really think there’s going to be a fight?” I asked as I finally got to Smoky’s side.

Smoky bit down on the clasp holding the submachinegun to his back, the gun slid loose and he whipped it towards me.“Yeah, that much smoke is a sure fire sign of something big burning. Maybe a caravan wagon, or worse one of their wooden buildings. Be ready to shoot and kill. I’ll pick targets, you help me finish them off.”

I grabbed the gun with my telekinesis and pulled the charging handle back to load a round. There was a satisfying cha-chunk as the bolt slammed back into position with a fresh round. “I’ll shoot at whatever you’re shooting at.” Not that I wanted to fight, but this was about my only option.

Smoky nodded and sped up even more, moving so fast that I could barely keep up with him while giving it my all. He drew his pistol with his tail and gripped the submachinegun in his mouth, going in ready for a war. He looked back at me and waggled his pistol at me.

I caught the message and drew my pistol, placing it in my teeth for ease of use. I made sure my machete was on top of my saddlebags and ready to be drawn at a moment's notice in case I ran out of ammo. I gave Smoky a nod back and turned my eyes forward.

As we drew closer I could hear faint gunfire from up ahead, so many shots in rapid succession it was hard to tell how many guns were firing or how large they were. The smell of smoke hung in the air and it had a putrid smell so strong I could taste it. The smell was nauseating and sweet, like the smell of rusted iron. Almost like the smell of… meat burning.

Orchid circled down and flew alongside us, malice covered her face as she shouted at us. “Raider attack, bastards burned down the store. Other buildin is still standin, looks like they are making a final stand inside. I counted fifteen more raiders still standin, what’s the call Smoky?”

Smoky let the gun slide from his mouth, the sling caught it before it dropped too far. “You operate the hit and run tactics, draw some attention away from us. Crimson and I will take care of the rest. You still got that apple stored away?”

“Course I do, haven't had a need fer it yet.” She pulled out a small silver apple like object that I recognized immediately. “I’ll drop it inta the biggest group I see as a diversion. You two be ready to kill off any that are still standin.” Without waiting for a response she took off ahead of us again, that single grenade ready to be dropped.

Smoky pulled the submachinegun back up into his mouth. His pace never slowed until we were less than one hundred yards from the camp. He waved a hoof up at Orchid who was circling just high enough above to be outside of gunfire range. His signal was received and she dived down towards the town.

The seconds felt like hours as we closed on the town center. I was watching and waiting for Orchid to reappear above the leather tents and circle away. It felt like an eternity passed before I saw her in the skies again. A large BOOM knocked several of the tents over and set sand and smoke into the air.

Orchid started to circle away, but was hit by several bullets as she did so. My heart sank as her wings gave out and she hurtled toward the ground away from the explosion.

I lost sight of her and looked over at Smoky, who had diverted course to go towards Orchid. He yelled something at me, but my ears were ringing from the explosion and the shock of seeing Orchid hit and I didn’t hear it.

A new emotion coursed through my veins as I picked up the pace and galloped to the center of town. I was beyond enraged and furious having seen my friend shot down, and there was only one thing in my mind I could think to do. Fight and kill whoever had hurt my friend!

The center of town was a bloody mess, pools of blood soaked the sands with ash mixing in creating a sickly sweet smell. The smell of burnt flesh was stronger than ever as several raiders were rolling on the ground to put out the fires that engulfed them. Limbs were scattered around from the grenade blast, and I could barely make out the sounds of screams as I crashed into the camp center.

I landed in front of one raider and reared up on my front hooves. Bone crunched and the raider fell prone as my rear hooves slammed into her jaw. Her blood splattered on my armor and covered my hooves. I quickly spun around and put one round between the bitch’s eyes before moving on to the next raider.

He was caught by surprise and had barely gotten his gun pointed at me before I let loose a short burst of rounds from my submachinegun into his face. The bloody pulp that remained slumped to the ground with a sickening squelching noise. More blood soaked into my hooves as I charged through the forming pool of blood.

The next two raiders were ready for me, weapons drawn and aimed as I closed the distance. Both fired their pistols at me multiple times landing hits to my torso. The third set of shots whizzed by my ears and by then I was upon them.

I lowered my head and speared my horn into the throat of the first one. Blood leaked from the open wound down my horn and onto my face. The blood partially obscured my vision. My submachinegun rattled off with another burst of rounds until it clicked with an empty mag. I shoved the raider off of me, receiving a shower of blood that covered my body and got in my mouth. The blood tasted sweet and further fueled my lust for the death of these bastards.

The other raider lay bleeding out from a dozen bullet wounds to the chest. He was gasping for air through blood filling his lungs, in which he would shortly drown. I worryingly took great pleasure in this fact, a thought for after I was sure Orchid was safe and all threats were dead.

I turned my vision to the raiders on the ground, several had been unable to quench the flames and had succumbed to their burn wounds. The two remaining ones that had extinguished the flames were barely hanging on to life, both had been badly injured by the grenade. Each missing one or both of their forelegs, looked up at me with fear in their eyes. They had watched what happened to their companions and knew it was coming for them.

My pistol clicked as I went to finish one off, the slide was locked partially open by a spent cartridge wafting the smell of burnt gunpowder into my nose. I tossed it aside and drew my machete. With a hefty swing I brought it down and buried it into the face of the first raider. The skull crunched and split open as I swung through, the brain split nearly down the middle and bloodied the blade as bits clung to it.

I turned to the last raider I had seen and slowly approached ready to deliver the killing blow. As I started swinging I was struck in the side and tossed to the ground by a set of hooves slamming into me.

I lost hold of the machete as the wind was knocked out of me. I had no time to react as the bastard was on top of me swinging a hoof towards my face. The strike barely missed and I couldn’t move fast enough to dodge the second one. My nose began to bleed profusely as the hoof found its mark. I threw my hoof into her stomach and pushed her off of me.

The mare before me had a light brown coat, and a rusted orange mane. She was covered in just as much blood as I was, several small bullet and shrapnel wounds scored her sides. She was much more durable than I would have given her credit for, with the energy to match.

I dodged the next punch she threw and circled to the right. We entered into a stare down as we both circled around each other, both looking for the right opportunity to strike. As we made our moves a gunshot rang out and her body fell limp as a bullet blew through her skull. She spasmed and bled on the ground as the last remnants of life left her.

I turned to see a smoking gun in Orchid’s mouth. She was using Smoky as a crutch to get closer to me. She had been hit several times in her wings and was bleeding pretty badly from the wounds. Smoky looked unscathed, no new scratches or holes in his armor. Though he was wearing a lot of fresh blood that dripped onto him from his sister. He looked concerned and called out to me. I cocked my head to the right, unable to hear a word he was saying to me. His lips moved too fast for me to read them either. The adrenaline was starting to wear off, I could only pray my armor had taken some of the punishment for me.

Orchid pushed off of Smoky and galloped over to me. Smoky was close behind her. Sounds slowly returned to my ears as she started talking “ya coulda died ya fucking idiot! Why didn’t ya listen to Smoky and change course?”

I blinked slowly, taking in the fact my friends were still alive, hurt but alive. Pain shot across my body as the nerves where I was wounded got signals through to my brain. “I didn’t hear him. Something came over me after I watched you get shot out of the sky and I just.” I looked around at the carnage on the ground around me. Twelve corpses in total lay on the ground within ten feet of me, seven of which I had made. My hoof moved around me to the corpses, pausing briefly over the ones I had killed. “I lost control and… and.” I trailed off as my body started to give out on me. “I killed them.”

Smoky caught me before I hit the ground and laid me gently down. “I can see that. Orchid get him a potion, he’s losing a lot of blood.” He gave her a glance before looking back down at me. “Next time don’t scare me like that, I thought ya were right behind me and then I heard ya shooting.”

I chuckled lightly causing searing pain to flare up from at least four gunshot wounds. Blood trickled down the back of my throat causing me to cough it up. “Sorry about that. I don’t know what came over me.” Just as I started to slip out of consciousness a bottle entered my mouth and a cherry flavored liquid rolled down my throat. The potion set to work sealing wounds and keeping me conscious.

“That’ll stabilize him fer now, we’ll do more once we’re safe.” The holes in Orchid’s wings were sealing up quickly, meaning she had drunk a healing potion as well. That knowledge eased my mind more than the potion working on my own wounds.

I pushed up hard and laid down with my legs tucked under me. My vision was blurry and I felt dizzy and nauseous, but I managed to stay in this position. “Are they all dead?”

Smoky put a hoof on my shoulder to keep me from moving any farther. “I think so, now don’t move any more right now. Gotta give the potion time to work its magic.”

I could hear the sound of water droplets hitting the ground behind me, it sounded like rain. The clouds above didn’t look like rain, unless I had misjudged. The smell of burning flesh slowly abated as the smoke around us cleared away. I could hear the beat of several sets of wings as things cleared up.

“Well pardner if ‘tweren’t fer you we’d all’ve kicked the bucket.” A stallion stood over me, all I could make out in the shadow he cast was a silver star pinned to his chest. “I’m sheriff roun these parts, an I wanna extend our thanks fer all yer help.”

My vision slowly came into focus as I blinked. The stallion was an earth pony with a coat the color of signet marigolds, and a mane of vibrant rose like crimson. He wore a simple leather vest and duster, complemented by an empty bandolier and holster in which a revolver sat. A friendly face for somepony who was supposed to uphold the law with an iron hoof. A few fresh scars covered his chest, but he seemed to not mind.

“You’re welcome Sheriff.” I brushed Smokey’s hoof off my shoulder and forced myself to my hooves. “I was just doing what I thought needed to be done.” I looked around to see several other ponies were dragging the corpses to the outskirts of this town.

Three piles formed on the outskirts, one of which was corpses I had made in the firefight. I guessed they were separated so I could take what equipment they had since I had killed them.

The second was a pile of fifteen or so ponies, these ones were searched and stripped of valuables before being stacked high. Raiders these ponies had killed before we arrived.

The third pile of corpses was less of a pile. The ten corpses laid out were laid out with purpose and respect. The bodies of those ponies who had given their lives in defense of their city. Honored dead that were no doubt going to receive a proper burial service when there was time.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t save them.” I said pointing to the respected dead. “Can I help you with any of their last respects?”

The sheriff was taken aback at the offer. “Son you done enuff fer us. I preciate the offer, but ya needn’t do nothing more.” A tear rolled down his face as he looked at the dead. “We’ll bury ‘em and read' em their last rites here soon. If’n ya want ya can atten their burial service.”

“If we’re still here in town I’ll see to it that I do.” The ten dead were covered in blankets and a crowd had gathered to begin mourning the dead. “Such a waste of life.” I slowly hobbled my way over to the crowd and stood among them in silence. The moment only lasted for a few minutes before the congregation went about their business.

Smoky and Orchid had followed but had gone to investigate the raiders I had killed. They were picking through the saddlebags and stripping what chunks of armor they could from the corpses. Orchid beckoned for me to come over.

“This isn’t normal is it?” I asked as I got close enough to look at the damage I had done. “All this violence and death wastes lives.”

“This is life out here, each pony or group out for themselves. It’s not an existence for the faint of heart.” Smoky turned to look at me. “You do what you have to when it comes down to it.” He held out a pistol towards me. “Haven’t found yours yet, saw you lost both guns in that scuffle.”

“Yeah, the submachinegun ran out of ammo and my pistol jammed so I tossed them aside in favor of my machete.” Said machete had been dragged over and set next to one of the corpses. “Lost track of where it all landed during the fight.” I reached out and grabbed the pistol from him. It fit well into my holster.

“It happens, I nearly lost mine after they shot holes in my wings.” Orchid said, pulling another pistol from the corpses. “Went tumbling to the ground and landed ten yards away from me in the sand. Smoky picked it up for me as he charged in to see if I was alright.”

I sat on the ground next to them and helped pick through the saddlebags the raiders were carrying. I took to separating out the different calibers of ammunition while Orchid and Smoky worked with the guns and armor respectively.

Once all was said and done there were two dozen .357 magnum rounds, around thirty .32 rounds, and fifteen 9mm rounds that were of current use to us.

A few assorted rounds were of no use with what I knew about the guns we had. Twenty 5.56mm, three .308 rounds, and a single .45 auto round. Odd rounds to be carrying around with no apparent use for them.

“What the hay is this thing?” Orchid was holding up an odd looking… rifle thing. “I never seen nothing like it before.” She aimed it into the sky and pulled the action open.

The weapon looked to be patched together from several different guns. The stock was definitely from a rifle made for a griffin, the barrel wasn’t much more than a pipe but was heavy duty enough for rifle rounds. Maybe chambered in 5.56 by the look of the receiver, which also looked easily interchangeable. I recognized a three pronged fire selector switch on the left side, meaning it had automatic capabilities. The magazine would only hold about ten rounds, but it too seemed interchangeable.

“Looks like some daft bastard threw a bunch of guns together and called it a day. Several parts look interchangeable, which might explain these miscellaneous rounds I found” I suggested pointing at a couple places on the gun.

Orchid hoofed it over to me with a shrug. “Maybe, I’m not sure it even works. This one had it on her.” She pointed to the raider that had punched me in the face. “Also had these scraps here in her bags. Might go with that bastard of a gun.” There were several receiver parts that she passed over.

“I never was a good gunsmith, but I think I can see how to change these parts out.” The receivers would be relatively easy to change out, but I only had the magazine for the current receiver. “Might make a good longer range option with these rifle rounds.”

With all of the raider equipment scavenged we sat and sorted out what we had earned from our kills. What armor was still salvageable would make for good patches, but most of it had to be thrown out due to burns and bullet holes. I knew around half of it would be used patching both my and Orchid’s armors. The remaining scraps could be used to further reinforce vital locations, I’d argue for Orchid to reinforce her wing coverings.

Of the guns we scavenged only three of them looked well maintained, but any gun is better than no gun in situations like this. Three revolvers all chambered in .357 magnum were the better quality weapons. Two of the other pistols were little more than a small pipe and ramshackle magazine, but they cycled well enough to take. The remaining gun was a double barreled shotgun, most of the barrel had been sawed off to shorten the gun to about a foot in length. We hadn’t found any shells for it, so for now it was just a fancy paperweight.

Smoky turned to Orchid and looked at the pile of guns. “How much you think we can get for all this? I’m thinking a few hundred caps plus the basic supplies we need for the next few weeks.”

Orchid separated the sawed off shotgun and one of the revolvers. “Two .357 revolvers and a pair of zip guns? The revolvers are in decent condition so we should be able to get some good caps from ‘em. The zip guns work surprisingly, two spare mags each…. Maybe a hundred fer the set. Plus the hides and scraps.” She thought for a minute tapping the ground every ten to fifteen seconds. “Seven hundred caps in total would be a good starting price. I might be able to charm that number up to a thousand caps. Definitely enough wiggle room to get us by fer a while.”

“That’d afford us a surplus of ammo on top of basic necessities.” Smoky picked up the shotgun and forced it open. Two shells sat in the now open breech. “Twelve gauge, we keeping it?”

“I figured we should, should do some real damage if we get inta trouble.” Orchid slid the revolver into her saddlebags and stood. “Plus we have found plenty of shells on raiders before. We use it sparingly and we can scavenge the ammo we need as we go.”

I didn’t know enough about how caps worked to know if that was a fair price or not. Probably was about half of what the true sell value of those items was worth. That raised the question of how much I could get for the scraps in my saddlebags, I figured only a hundred or so.

“How about you take Crimson along with you this time? The two of you should be able to carry everything we want to sell, and maybe get some sort of hero discount if we’re lucky” Smoky suggested undoing his saddlebags.

“Not a bad idea, ya stay here and help with the cleanup. See if ya can’t earn a few caps extra fer yer work.” Orchid tapped me on the flank with a wing as she passed. “Come on Crimson, we got work to do.” I stood and levitated Smoky’s bags over to me as I passed.

The saddlebags were much heavier than I was expecting, nearly too heavy for me to carry them. Smoky must have been an exceptionally strong stallion to toss these around like they were nothing. “I don’t know if I’ll be much help but I can certainly try.”

“Don’t worry I’ll do mosta the talking, I’ve got quite the talent fer it. You’ll be there ta help me carry what we buy, an maybe get me some leeway in negotiations since ya just saved the camp.” Great, reduced to a pack mule, still better than doing nothing. “Just relax, you’ll do great.”

I certainly didn’t feel like I would, but the way she said it made me feel like it would be easy. “I’ll do my best.” The way she trotted and talked filled me with confidence, and a few other feelings I needed to rid myself of.

I turned my thoughts to my wife and that lovely smile of hers. How would she be holding up without me there by her side? Would she have chosen cryogenic sleep to wait for me? Or would she have chosen to live the rest of her life never knowing if I was safe? If she lived her life was it ok to be having these thoughts about some mare I just met? She’d want me to go on and live my life, wouldn’t she?

I shook the thoughts from my head as we approached a building made in the old log cabin style. It wasn’t in the best shape with several new scorch marks, several bullet holes and all the windows shot out. The fact it was still standing meant somepony was a good carpenter, or just stupidly lucky.

Orchid swung the door inward and trotted inside. “Good afternoon Sir, I know today has been quite the shit show fer you lot but I was wonderin if you had the time to do some tradin with me.” She spoke in that same intonation that you’d speak to your parents in, respectful while still being right to business.

“Sure miss, ain’t sure we got much at the moment” the stallion said, turning around to face us. His mane was frazzled and unkempt, a dull gray in color. His coat was a few shades darker gray, he would have been right at home amongst the steel floors of my work. “We’ll see what more we have after we pick through the ruins.”

“Come up here Crimson. Let’s lay out our wares fer this good stallion to take a look at.” She beckoned me up to the counter without breaking eye contact with this stallion. If I didn’t know any better it would sound like she was trying to slyly seduce this stallion.

I walked up to the counter and started emptying out Smokey’s saddlebags onto it. He had a stack of animal hides about a foot tall hidden away, plus some odd looking animal eggs that smelled rotten. I emptied the bags minus a few bottles of water and some food. “That’s everything in this set. I’ve got some electrical components if you’ve got any interest in those.”

“Hmm, maybe. Lay ‘em out here and I’ll take a look at ‘em.” He broke eye contact with Orchid just briefly enough to respond.

I laid out the wires and circuit board first before hoisting the cooling unit out of my bag and onto the counter. The stallion did take interest in the cooling unit.

“I’ve got a few revolvers and these zip guns as well, all in great condition.” She laid the guns and spare magazines out on top of the hides. “Now what can this do for you?” She fluttered her eyes a few times at the stallion, and thus was the end of the subtle seduction attempts.

The stallion tried in vain to conceal a blush coming to his cheeks. “Well, let’s see. The pistols are in good condition, and you’ve got some spare mags for the auto pistols. We can do a lot of good with these hides, an they seem to be well taken care of, good clean kills. I’m not much fer those scrap electronics, but I’ll take the cooling unit there off your hooves.” He stopped to mentally calculate how much he was willing to pay. “I’ve only got two hundred caps at the moment, but I’m sure we can sell some other wares to make up the difference.”

Orchid pouted for just a moment. “Well I spose we could use some food, water, and ammunition. What do ya have in the way of those things?” She leaned on the counter and flicked her tail from side to side.

I was tempted to look at her flanks while she did so but decided to just look around the room. The room had obviously been quickly turned into a makeshift fortress during the previous battle. Wooden scraps scattered in piles and glass that glinted were scattered across the floor under window sills. Many shell casings lay discarded and crushed, the faint smell of gunpowder still hung in the air. Rifles and pistols alike had been used during the skirmish, the quantity of casings told a story of a final stand. Luckily we had arrived at the right time to lend a helping hoof, otherwise these ponies would have died.

I levitated a few of the undamaged casings up to me and turned them over a few times making sure to read what caliber they were. Those that I found useful I discreetly deposited into my bags, the rest I set down on one end of the counter. A fine little collection had accrued by the time I was finished.

“Thanks fer that. I was gonna clean that mess up at some point. Keep the ones you can make use of, I’ll give ‘em to ya fer cheap.” Apparently I hadn’t deposited them discreetly enough. “Now is there anything else I can do fer ya?”

I looked towards him apologetically before looking at what supplies Orchid had bartered for. She was already loading bottles of water and food supplies into Smoky’s bags. There were several small boxes of ammo sitting on the counter, none were labeled so I didn’t know what they were. A pile of bottle caps was sitting off to one side along with a box of bullets.

Orchid pointed to the small pile with a wing while she loaded supplies. “Those are yers, thirty rounds fer yer pistol and some caps to spend as ya see fit. That cooling unit ya scrapped was worth a fair bit.”

I trotted over to the counter and put the bullets into my bags before turning to the stallion. “What do you have in the way of ammunition and guns?” Rifle rounds would be a good thing to get my hooves on, cross off one piece of the puzzle to go see my home again.

“Mostly surplus stuff, fifty rounds of surplus 5.56, twenty three of .223, and about ten .308 rounds fer rifles at the moment. Pistol ammo is mostly .45 auto and .44 magnum after what yer friend bought. They’ll run ya, two to a cap for the 5.56 or .223 or two caps a pop for the .308, .45, and .44 magnum.” He looked at me expectantly waiting for my answer.

I counted out my caps and separated fifteen of them into a pile that I stuffed into my saddlebags. The rest I pushed over to the stallion. “I’ll take all of the rifle rounds, and there’s a few extra in there for the spent casings I think I can reuse.”

He pulled the cap pile over and put it under the counter before setting the ammunition onto the counter. “Pleasure doing business with ya. You two have a good rest of yer day now ya hear.”

I nodded and gave the stallion a smile. “Will do sir, and you as well.” The rounds clinked as they dropped into my saddlebags, and I walked away still smiling. Now I had bullets for a longer range option, this would help convince Smoky we could retake my home. Would need to fashion a second magazine for my new rifle, but that wouldn’t be too hard to do.

The smell of burning flesh once again hit my nose as I trotted back outside. A bonfire was roaring on the outskirts of town, the corpses of the raiders were being tossed on one by one. It would take a while to cremate the remains this way, but at least the bodies would be dealt with and not be vectors for disease. A deep black smoke column rose from the fire and ashes rained down around the town. Pegasi were ready with small clouds to put out any unwanted fires.

Smoky was standing next to the fire. He had taken part in building the blaze and ridding this place of corpses. He was watching the horizon with a pair of binoculars as he waited for us.

I trotted over and watched the fire burn. So many lives lost, but it was in defense of innocent ponies. The smell was almost too much to bear. “Any other threats on the horizon Smoky?” I asked, trying to follow his gaze.

“None for now, but this smoke is bound to draw in something.” He lowered the binoculars and looked over at us. “How’d the supply run go?”

I hefted his bags back over to him, just barely managing to swing them up onto his back. He didn’t even seem to mind the weight being dropped onto his back. “A good haul I think. Your bags are heavy with food and water. We also picked up some ammunition for most of our weapons. I got around eighty rifle rounds for that weird gun we found.”

Smoky shifted his shoulders to move the saddlebags back into place. “Feels like a good couple of weeks, we can stretch it out with what we find on the road. Water is the important one, and I hear enough sloshing to not be worried.” The gears were turning in his head as he looked at me. “Hey Orchid, how does a hunting trip sound in a few days? Crimson has that rifle and rounds for it, he could pick off a few of the coyotes before we go after the big one.”

Orchid looked between the two of us and hemmed and hawed. “Maybe, we can try an track ‘em down, see how big the pack is. If the pack has gotten much bigger we’re not going after ‘em. How accurate ya think ya can be with that rifle there Crimson?”

The iron sights of the rifle seemed well aligned as I aimed it at the dirt. “Only one way to know, going to have to shoot it at something. The sights look aligned, but I have my doubts with how shoddy it looks.” I popped the magazine out and loaded a few rounds into it.

“We’ll find something to use as target practice along the way. For now let’s stay here, help these ponies keep an eye out for more danger” Smoky said, turning to keep scanning the horizon. “We’ll sleep under the stars and be on our way in the morning.”

My eyes wandered up to the north of town, the ponies were dragging the corpses of their friends that way towards a set of headstones. I gave Smoky a nod and headed towards the graves. “I’ll keep an eye out up here. Maybe help out these ponies with their burial services.”

A makeshift graveyard had been made a hundred feet north of the town. Some of the stallions were already hard at work digging new graves, all wore the same sullen and somber expression. But there was work to be done and now was not the time to grieve for the loved ones lost. The sheriff was among the stallions digging. He gave me a look and a nod as I passed by to stand guard, but said nothing. The sound of shovels crunching into fresh sand and gravel filled the air, while the quiet sounds of cloth on sand joined in as the bodies of the dead were dragged to their ultimate end.

Every so often I would look over my shoulder to see how things were progressing. The process of digging a grave was slow, and the sun was just starting to set by the time the tenth and final hole had been dug. Those working gathered around the fresh graves and lowered the bodies in gently. Each pony passed by a grave and said their peace before moving to the next grave.

A soft melody entered my ears as one of the mares began to quietly sing. The dulcet tones calmed my mind as the song continued. More voices joined in as all those congregated sang to remember the lives of those who had died in defense of their home. The song was oddly sweet, such a morbid subject lightened by a soft melody. This singing continued until each grave had been filled in, and the ponies underneath could finally be at rest.

A cruel twist of fate, those below could rest peacefully for the rest of eternity. While those above had to live with the loss of those they loved, had to continue to fight on so they hadn’t died in vain. Such is life, we mourn those who we have loved and lost, and continue to fight so their memory lives on through us.

I looked over the graves and felt better having seen and heard such a display of kindness and respect. Maybe the world hadn’t gone nearly as mad as I thought it had. Thoughts of my wife gnawed at my mind. A hundred or more years had passed and I was beginning to doubt a reunion between the two of us, at least not in this life. No, I had to hold out hope she had made it and was still waiting for me.

The sheriff trotted up next to me and stopped to watch the night sky. “Thank ya fer watching over us, means lot to folk like us. Now ya go on and get yer rest. We’ll take it from here.” He patted my shoulder and trotted a ways further out.

“Of course, it’s the least I could do.” I turned and headed towards the center of town. A much smaller fire was burning, and the smell of freshly cooked pie floated through the air. Smoky and Orchid were sitting next to the flames having a discussion. I didn’t hear a word of it as I trotted over and laid down on one of the blankets that had been laid out.

“Hey Crimson.” Orchid looked over at me and smiled. “Everything alright? Ya were over there for a long while. I was bout ready ta send out a search party.”

“She means me,” Smoky said, chuckling.

“Yeah, everything’s fine. Watched over the ponies here while they buried their dead. Was a serene moment, all things considered, if morbid.” I turned to watch the flames, the crackling kept my mind from wandering back to death. “Gave me a bit of hope that the world wasn’t all bad.”

“Ya get used to it” Orchid said, setting a hoof on one of mine. “Helps to have folk ya can depend on by yer side.” Her smile was infectious, and she was so beautiful in this light.

“I suppose you’re right. I owe you both a lot for everything you’ve done for me. Without your help I would be dead right now, if not from the gunshot wounds then definitely from dehydration or starvation.” I had a few useful tricks that I’d learned in my time, but nothing that would have prepared me for all of this.

“Just doing what we can to make sure nopony else dies if they don’t have to. I’m sure you’d have done the same for us.” Optimistic Smoky, but maybe I would have. “You can stick with us as long as ya need to. It’s nice to have another set of hooves around to shoulder some of the weight.”

“Thanks Smoky.” I appreciated the sentiment and having a couple good ponies to call my friends. “What’s the plan now? Our business here seems to be done for now.”

“We were just talking bout that. Smoky there’s got a plan fer us to go hunt some yotes. We’ll leave in the mornin, head back down south a ways and see what we see.” Orchid pulled a blanket over her rear half as she finished speaking, just enough to be decent while out of her armor.

Smoky smiled and laid his head down. “We’ll discuss more in the morning. For now it’s time we got a proper rest, give our bodies time to recover.” I could have sworn he was asleep as soon as his eyes closed.

I smiled and laid my head down. Tonight would be a peaceful night's rest, I just knew it.