Fallout Equestria: Brothers

Bloodbeak had been unable to sleep after the three ponies went to bed. The Gryphon's mind kept replaying the day where he had been asked to take care of Falcon, the day that he had become a father. He slowly got out of bed and made his way into the barracks main room. The Gryphon remembered how Searing Arrow, Iron Heart and Nightingale had little to no ammunition for their weapons, as well as how badly they needed to be repaired. He walked over to their saddlebags and carefully took the Unicorns pistol out of the holster, along with the tire iron that Iron Heart had been carrying. Bloodbeak went right to work as he worked on making ammunition.

By the time that Bloodbeak had finished the repairs on the pistol and the tire iron, along with making more ammunition for the pistol, the sun had already begun to rise. The Gryphon had worked throughout the night once again. He had developed a bad habit of doing that as of the past couple of months. He softly yawned as he returned the weapons to the saddlebags and holster. He put the pistol ammunition next to the pistol in its holster as he turned and trudged back to his bed. The Gryphon felt his heavy and exhausted body fall onto the bed and underneath the covers. His eyes closed as he drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

Bloodbeak didn’t know just how much time passed as he was suddenly woken up by gunfire from outside. The Gryphon’s eyes moved to the window and he noticed that the sun was at the eight o’ clock position. He couldn’t believe that it was already morning as he leapt out of bed and hurriedly pulled his bulletproof vest and camouflage pants onto his body. Bloodbeak dashed out of his bedroom and grabbed a bolt action rifle from the wall and exited the barracks. The sun blinded him for a brief moment as the sound of gunfire was loud and pierced his ears. The Gryphon shook himself to where the sun was no longer blinding him. That was when he noticed the four Gryphons that were firing at Searing Arrow, Iron Heart and Nightingale. He recognized the four Gryphons black metal armor and the star symbol on their shoulders. All four of them had pistols in their talons.

“Black Star mercs, just great…” Bloodbeak said as he dived behind a dune that was nearby the three ponies. Their Sprite-Bot was nowhere in sight. “Are you three okay?” He shouted over the sound of gunfire, the bullets hitting the barrack walls exterior with a metal twang. Bloodbeak popped his upper body out from the top of the dune as he took aim. He squeezed down the trigger with his claw and fired off a round at one of the advancing Gryphons. There was a loud squawk as the bullet impacted one of their legs. Bloodbeak didn’t look to see which one was hit, as he pulled the lever and ejected the shell to the ground next to him. He then took another bullet from his pocket and slotted it into the chamber, pushing it closed as the bolt slid back into place.

“Yeah! We’re doing fine!” Searing Arrow shouted as he levitated his pistol above the dune that Iron Heart, Nightingale and himself were taking cover behind. He briefly moved his head out of cover and fired three shots. One of the four Gryphons had fallen onto his chest, his kneecaps had been shot out by the Unicorn's well placed shots. Searing Arrow ducked back down behind the dune, a sudden burst of fire from the group of four echoed loudly in the vacant airfield. “Is Falcon alright? I checked on him during the mad dash out here. It seems that he is still asleep!”

He shouted over the burst of gunfire.

“I have no clue!” Bloodbeak shouted as he popped back up from cover and noticed the kneecapped Gryphon. He took his chance, and pulled the trigger. His bullet went into the attackers skull from the frontside and exited out the back. The Gryphon was now dead, which only left the other three. “I came right out here, myself!” He exclaimed as he returned to his cover and ejected the spent shell and put a new round in.

Iron Heart blinked as he looked over at Nightingale and felt his heart pound in his chest. She was holding her head with her hooves, her eyes twitched as she grunted. He could feel the sweat forming on his forehead as he gulped.

“Nightingale, what’s wrong?!” Iron Heart asked with a worried tone in his voice, and an equally worried expression on his face.

“N-no! Stop it!” Nightingale shouted as she clutched her head. The mare was hearing voices as she shivered. Everything stopped, as if time itself had stood still as her vision went red.

Bloodbeak, Searing Arrow and Iron Heart all stopped firing when they heard her scream. They looked to see a long tendril that was slick and red erupt from Nightingale’s snout. Their bodies stiffened up as they held their breath. The mare must have been able to discern friend from foe, though, as she leapt out from behind the dune with a loud and air splitting screech. The three Gryphons that were still standing let out cries of fear.

“What the fuck is that, captain?!” One of the Gryphons shouted as he quickly holstered his pistol and showed his claws to the monster..

“It’s a Hospital Horror! Fucking kill it!” The leader shouted as he brought his pistol up and fired off a shot.

“What the hell is it doing out here?! Usually they are in, you know… Hospitals!” The third Gryphon said with fear in his voice as he fired off a few rounds from his pistol.

Nightingale charged at the three Gryphons in a bloodied rage. She charged the one that had taken out his claws and tackled him to the cold and cracked asphalt. His eyes went wide from fear as he tried to kick the mare off, only to find the long, red and slick tendril forcing its way down around his throat. He tried to fight back, but he was too late. The mare had climbed on top of him. Her tendril lashed out and wrapped around the Black Star mercenaries neck. The Gryphon began to gag as his face had started to turn blue, his trachea being crushed by the monster that had been unleashed onto the battlefield.

“Fucking shit! Fall back!” The Black Star captain said in a pissed off tone as he spread his wings and propelled himself backwards, a thick cloud of dust flew up into the air. “We were informed by our client that there was a monster roaming around here, but we didn’t think that he was serious!”

The third Gryphon propelled himself backwards just like his leader had, another thick cloud of dust filled the air as he frowned. “Boss, I don’t think that this is in our paygrade…”

He said with a worried tone in his voice. “We gotta get out of here.”

“No! I won’t fucking run!” The Black Star captain said, rage now filled his voice. “We came to fucking kill that bastard, Bloodbeak, and by the skies, I’m going to do just that!”

There was a loud snap as Nightingale twisted the Gryphon whose neck her tendril was wrapped around, was crushed. Her eyes were blood red as her long, red and slick tendril retracted into her mouth. She let out a loud and enraged scream before her eyes returned to normal.

“What happened? Why am I-” she stopped mid-sentence as she saw that she was standing on top of the dead Gryphon. Her eyes began to fill with her tears as she started to weep. “I didn’t mean to! No! Why did you have to force *her* to come out?!” She screamed in anguish and frustration. “I have been trying to keep *her* locked away! She’s a fucking monster!”

Iron Heart and Searing Arrow both looked at one another from behind their cover, their eyes went wide as they exchanged worried looks.

“Iron Heart, we need to get Nightingale out of there!” Searing Arrow exclaimed in a worried tone.

“Yeah, I know…” Iron Heart said with a grunt as he readied his tire iron. He looked over to Bloodbeak with a grunt. “Hey! Give me some covering fire!” He shouted as he then took the tire iron into his mouth and dashed out towards his scared companion.

Bloodbeak didn’t need anyone to tell him twice. He raised himself out of cover and fired at the two remaining Gryphons, causing them to spread out into a more open formation. ‘Yeah, that’s it… Spread yourselves out. You bastards aren’t going to live to see another day.’ He thought to himself as he quickly ducked behind his cover and reloaded.

The gunfire began again as the Earth Pony stallion charged the captain of the Black Star squad; he had noticed that his tire iron was heavier now as he swung it as hard as he could. He had aimed for the Gryphon’s gut, and hit it with a loud smack. The Gryphon captain let out a squawk as he protectively wrapped his free arm around his gut and aimed at the stallion. Iron Heart looked to Nightingale and decided that he had to make a choice here. The choice being to save his companion, or to finish this fight before it could get any worse.

Iron Heart decided to save his companion as he lept backwards and landed on the dirt in front of the mare. He decided to try and further harm the captain of this mercenary squad, as he tossed his tire iron at his leg. He watched as his throw went long and barely missed the Gryphon’s leg, smacking him on the front of his shin, causing a squawk of anger to escape his throat. The Earth Pony quickly lifted the sobbing mare onto his back and fled as quickly as he could behind the dune.

Falcon had been awake for the past couple of minutes. The little Earth Pony colt had been busy strapping on the wing pack that had caused him to break his leg the prior day. He found that getting the thing strapped onto his back was a huge pain with only three good legs, and one busted one. He had managed to somehow get the wing pack onto his back and strapped in, as he quickly hobbled out into the front of the barracks and over to the weapons cabinet. The pain shot through his leg as he made his way to where the weapon cabinet was, causing him to quietly cry out. After a few moments passed, Falcon had caught his breath and gritted his teeth as he made his way to the weapon cabinet and unlocked it, tossing it open. The colt’s eyes scanned the firearms that were inside. He knew that his foster father and the three ponies outside were in need of help, and he couldn’t just ignore the fact that his foster father was putting his life on the line to help three outsiders.

The Earth Pony colt took a deep breath and exhaled as he took a silver revolver in his snout. It was heavy in his grip as he opened it up with a quick flick of his head. The chamber was empty, but he knew where the box of shells was inside of the cabinet and quickly dug it out. Falcon quickly put six bullets into the revolvers chambers and spun it shut with a satisfying click. The firefight was still going on outside, and he had no time to waste. He hurried to the back room where he, Iron Heart, Searing Arrow and Nightingale had found the wing pack inside. Falcon’s eyes shut briefly as he stood underneath the hole in the roof, silver revolver in his mouth as he worked up the courage to activate the wing pack. The pain was searing through his broken leg, and he knew that once he got up into the air it would ease a little bit. Falcon had hyped himself up to where his adrenaline was pumping through his brain and body, and pressed the button on the wing pack. The Earth Pony colt went flying into the air and out of the hole, the sounds of his wing pack engines filled the sky with a loud roar that surprised Watcher, causing the Sprite-Bot to nervously flutter its wings and flap in the air.

“Woah! What the hell is Falcon thinking?!” The Sprite-Bot exclaimed as it watched the small Earth Pony soar through the air.

‘I have to do this.’ Falcon thought to himself as he soared across the sky towards where the Gryphons were standing. He saw Nightingale as she was grabbed by Iron Heart and dragged back into cover. He narrowed his eyes as he took aim with the gun and hovered in place in the air. The Earth Pony colt aimed carefully, his heart pounded inside of his chest as he got his target in his sights and fired.

The two Gryphons had been taken by surprise as the sudden sounds of engines filled the air, and then they heard the sound of gunfire.

“What the-” the one that was still standing with the captain started to ask before the bullet from the revolver pierced the back of his right talon. He let out a loud screech of pain as he dropped his firearm to the ground, and clutched at his talon. He looked up and into the sky, only to take notice of the colt hovering in the air. “B-boss! Up there in the sky!” He shouted as he put pressure on his bleeding talon, his grip was tight as he glared at the colt.

“Well, I’ll be damned Bloodbeak! You have a little ankle biter who has a big gun! He must be overcompensating for that small penis right now!” The captain said with a cold and cruel laugh. “He has bigger balls than you, though. I’ll give him that! Sad that I gotta kill him, though!” The captain’s face took on a sadistic edge as he aimed his firearm at Falcon.

“Oh no you don’t!” Bloodbeak shouted as he popped up from behind his cover. The Gryphon took aim and pulled the trigger.

The gunshot rang out through the air as both of the Gryphons took their shots. Bloodbeak had shot the gun out of the other Gryphons talon, just before he had fired at Falcon. Fire was able to be seen coming from one of the wing packs engines as the Earth Pony colt fell towards the ground, spiraling out of control as he let out a loud shout of surprise and shock. The Gryphon whose gun had been shot out of his talon squawked in anger. His vision had become filled with red as he saw Bloodbeak swiftly fly out to catch the colt. His talons spread in an aggressive manner as he threw himself at his opponent. He would have had his opponent, if it wasn’t for the heavy rock that hit him in the back of the head and caused him to fall limp to the ground, unconscious. A large bump formed with a dark purple color on top of it.

Falcon let out a loud cry of fear as he fell from the sky, one of the engines was destroyed by that attack from the mercenary captain. Right before he hit the ground, his eyes shut tightly, as he waited for the impact that would surely crush his head and kill him. However, there was a brief moment of silence and the roar of the wing packs engine, before he realized that there was no impact, and that the engine had been shut off. Falcon slowly opened his eyes to find Bloodbeak holding him tightly against his feather covered chest, his t-shirt stained with dust. The Earth Pony colt was able to smell the scent of the oil that his foster father used to clean their weaponry with on him. Falcon let out a sigh of relief, before the pain from his broken leg kicked in again and sent the world back into a painful spiral as he cried into the Gryphon’s feathered chest.

Bloodbeak held Falcon as close against his body as he could, hearing his son cry due to the adrenaline rush having worn off, along with the pain hitting him like a ton of bricks. He gently ran a talon comfortingly down the back of his neck as he flew high above the ground.

“Shhhh, It’s alright now, Falcon.” Bloodbeak said soothingly as he comforted him. “You did well, even with your broken leg.” He gave his son a warm smile, only to then glower at the Gryphon that was left standing.

“C-captain!” The remaining Gryphon said in fear as he hurried over to him and hefted him up and over his shoulders with his talons. He looked at Bloodbeak and then to Searing Arrow with a cold scowl. “You won’t get away with this! You and your little pony friends are all dead! Do you hear me!”

The Gryphon hauled his captain’s unconscious body away, his feet hit the ground hard as he made his escape. With one last glance back as he ran, he saw the four Ponies, the Gryphon and the Sprite-Bot regroup. He narrowed his eyes as he soon returned his gaze to the trail ahead, and vanished out of sight.

Bloodbeak landed slowly on the ground with Falcon in his arms. The Gryphon watched as the two Black Star mercenaries ran away with their tailfeathers between their legs. He turned his attention back to Falcon and gently took the revolver from his snout and gently set it down on the ground. The Gryphon continued to gently stroke his foster son’s head with a talon as he looked to the three Ponies and the Sprite-Bot.

“Are you all alright?” He asked with a worried tone in his voice, his expression softened as the adrenaline stopped flowing and his pounding heart began to slow back to normal.

“Yeah, we’re alright.” Searing Arrow said with a nod. “At least Iron Heart and I are.” He looked gently to Nightingale, whose eyes had become red and puffy from her crying just moments before. He had a concerned expression on his face. “Are you going to be okay?”

Nightingale had been shivering, cold beads of sweat ran down her forehead as she wiped them away from above her red and puffy eyes. “I-I’ll be fine, thank you. I just need to pull myself together, that’s all.”

Iron Heart gave a nod as he looked at Nightingale. “That’s perfectly alright, we should probably get our stuff and head to Tenpony Tower.” He said gently as he walked to where his tire iron had landed, and picked it up. He rested it across his back and returned to Searing Arrow’s side.

“Right. I’m going to be packing up our wares and put them on a cart, going to take Falcon to the Marejave. I heard rumors of a group out there called the Boomers live on an old military base. Maybe they can help my little Earth Pony learn to better pilot this tech.” Bloodbeak said with a serious and fatherly tone in his voice. “Plus, his leg isn’t going to be healing up anytime soon, if he keeps putting himself into harms way.”

Falcon was too exhausted from the battle to talk and was in too much pain to elicit a response. The Sprite-Bot looked to Searing Arrow, its monitor blinked as it saw something quickly flutter into his mane. The dragon that sat on the opposite end of the Sprite-Bots monitor inside of his cave rubbed the back of his head. His bulky body thumped the floor as he typed away at his terminal as he tried to figure out just what it was that he had just seen. The Dragon calmly pressed the speaker button and muted himself on his end of the Sprite-Bot.

“What in the world was that?” Spike asked out loud as he calmly typed away at his terminal. “I could have sworn that I saw some pony just now fly into Searing Arrows mane, but that doesn’t make sense.” He grunted as he got up and stretched, his joints popped loudly as he limbered himself up.

Spike softly stepped over to a large cabinet that had been made out of oakwood, a sheet of glass separated himself and the contents inside of the cabinet. His expression became sullen as he looked at the pictures of his smaller, more younger self, and his friends. He let out a soft sigh as he gently pressed his claw against the glass.

“Twilight, I wish that you were here right now.” Spike said to no pony in particular as he looked at a picture on the shelf. It was of himself when he was still little. He was sitting on the back of a lavender pony with deep dark purple eyes. Her violet mane and tail were frozen in time as her mane had been blowing softly in the light breeze. Streaks of pink and purple could be seen in her mane, as she and Spike looked at one another with joyful expressions on their faces.

“You always knew what to do and what to say to help me cheer up. I just wish that I had been there when the Mega Spell hit. Not like I could have done anything to stop it, but…” Spike lamented aloud as he snarled and kicked the cold ground of his home in frustration. “Dammit! I should have been there for you and the others! I should have never fallen asleep, and then maybe I could have done something for you! Just like you helped me out of so many of my messes before!” He roared in frustration and sadness. “I know that I have to keep going, that nothing can change the past… But dammit, I miss you.” He said with a somber tone as he soon calmed back down.

“Twilight, I… I have to get back to helping those ponies. You wouldn’t have wanted me to feel sorry for myself, or to be sad about the past, and I need to keep on moving forward. I *have* to make this world a better place, somehow.” Spike said aloud once more, his tone stayed somber as he returned to his terminal and sat down. Unmuting the Sprite-Bot’s microphone and observed his three companions.

Iron Heart, Searing Arrow and Nightingale waved to Falcon and Bloodbeak as they watched them leave. Their wagon was pulled by the Gryphon as he gave them a smile and a wave back. Watcher had been observing and watching the two ever since the end of the fight. It was curious about Bloodbeak’s past, but it had become too late now to ask him anything about it. The Sprite-Bot looked to its three companions and began to lead them towards Tenpony Tower further down the route shown on the map.

Watcher was not ready to bring up the oddity that it had seen earlier, the oddity being that strange and quick fluttering that went into Searing Arrow’s mane. But it wasn’t the time or the place to bring it up, it would have to wait until they both could be alone and able to talk without being overheard.

The route was long and the deafening silence had filled their ears. Nightingale was tired and exhausted from having lost control as she took a small sip from the canteen that Bloodbeak had given her before he and Falcon left. Searing Arrow and Iron Heart had gotten one, as well. Their equipment had been repaired alongside their weapons, and their ammunition had been replenished, as well. The group was lucky to have made it out of that engagement with the Black Star mercenary company.

After two hours passed, the three Ponies and the Sprite-Bot had finally arrived at their destination. The sign out front of the tall, gray tower had “Welcome to Tenpony Tower.” written on it in faded letters. Watcher looked at the three Pony’s and blinked its sensor a bit, before it zoomed in close.

“I cannot go into the tower with you three, not just yet.” Watcher said as it looked from Nightingale, to Searing Arrow and then finally to Iron Heart. “I have some business that I must attend to nearby, but I will be inside to meet you in a day or two.” It said calmly in its monotone voice.

“Urm, well… okay.” Searing Arrow said with a soft nod. “I hope that everything is alright on your end, Watcher.” He said as a gentle but tired tone came into his voice.

“Yeah…” Iron Heart said tiredly as he gently walked Nightingale up to the doorway. “If you need anything, you know where to find us.”

Nightingale didn’t say anything, she was emotionally exhausted and couldn’t bring herself to talk. Searing Arrow gave Watcher a nod, only to blink as he spoke once more.

“Just who are we supposed to be meeting here, again?” Searing Arrow asked, confused.

Watcher nodded. “Right, we all had quite a busy morning.” Watcher said calmly as it spoke. “You three need to meet up with Stacked Chip. He is a pretty nice stallion, so just watch your P’s and Q’s.” It said before it fluttered out of line of sight, and left the three Ponies alone.

Iron Heart, Searing Arrow and Nightingale looked at each other before they made their way into the cool shade of the entryway. The unicorn stallion looked to the intercom and pressed his hoof against it.

Footnote: Level up! New Perk!

Telekinetic Precision: You’ve got a steady horn on your head for when you need to count sand, thread a needle, or keep a pin in a grenade. Allows up to 1/2 (rounded up) VER objects
to be finely manipulated. You need this perk to use more than one weapon or
to effectively use a number of skills with TK. Attempting fine manipulation of
objects outside of your line of sight requires a skill rank of at least 70 in the
associated skill.