Author's Note

Autor's note this time on top?

I wanted to warn ever reader for this chapter. It has a very brutal scene in it with some might dislike or find disturbing.
IF you read the chapter, feel free to give any kind of comment.

Chapter 41 - Raiding raiders

Blueberry POV

It was nighttime in New Appleloosa. Ssix ponies were sitting around a campfire somewhere in the middle of the village. Zitrus, Crystal, Savage and I on one side of the flame, while Rampage and Glaive were sharing the other side.

Rampage and Glaive were a married couple and had known zitrus since he was a colt. Rampage was an earth pony with yellow fur and a short grey mane. Only his short beard had hints of brown. He was smoking a tobacco pipe and wore a poncho. It made him look older than he actually was.

Glaive was also an earth pony. But unlike her husband she looked younger than she must have been. She was smaller, had a dark blue brushed mane with black streaks and her fur was light blue.

“Thank you again for letting us stay with you”, Zitrus said to the two.

“No worries, son. It's the least we can do for you. Even though I am not sure if we have enough mattresses for you… mares”, Rampage said and pointed with his pipe to me and my sisters.

"As long as we have a roof over our head, it will be enough", Zitrus said and looked in the fire.

“Kind of brave to let three alicorns sleep in your house”, Savage pointed out.

“We've known zitrus since he was a little rascal. We trust him enough that he knows who to bring”, Glaive answered and gave a motherly look at Zitrus.

“Aye. Besides, isn’t like alicorns are still the same mindless monsters”, Rampage added.

I could see how much Savage disliked being called “mindless monster”.

A tubby, light brown Abyssinian cat appeared out of the shadows. She walked over to me and nestled around my front legs.

“Also, it seems like Pudge Muffin likes you too”, Rampage laughed.

I stroked the back of the cat with my front hoof, and she gave a cute purr in return.

“New Appleloosa changed a lot”, Zitrus said and looked around.

“Ha! Not only that, son. The wasteland changed a lot”, Rampage said and took a deep breath from his pipe. “Not even a year ago the wasteland had been a brutal place. Bbut now creatures seemed to have learned the way of friendship. And so, we changed too. When we built this place up again, we tried to give it some charm. Making it less look like a slum.”

“Yes, but it also… feels different to be here”, Zitrus noted.

“Maybe you feel that New Appleloosa is no longer working together with slavers”, Glaive simply said. “With the change of the attitude of the wasteland, it also changed their desires. The number of slavers shrinks rapidly and New Appleloosa lost its original purpose. Instead, we try to build up the train tracks again. Becoming the main station for future transport and shipment.”

“Aye, that actually brings up a point. A group of raiders built up their camp not far from here”, Rampage said and spit on the floor. “We set a bounty on them for whoever puts them in the ground. Normally, I wouldn't give you such a task, Zitrus, but since you now have three alicorns by your side, this should be a piece of cake if you want to make some bottlecaps.”

Ah yes, raiders. Groups of ponies who live up to no standard. They just kill others because they enjoy killing. Very often in a brutal way…

I continued to pet Pudge until she suddenly gave a laughing like noise. Guess she was also very ticklish.

“A group of raiders?”, Savage asked.

Glaive gave a nod and answered: “A small group. Scouts told us about five ponies and unorganised. Most of them don't even have guns.”

Zitrus shared a look with us for a wordless dialog.

“I mean, we can take a look at least. We will check when we're about to leave New Appleloosa again and come back to gather the bounty, if the job is done”, he said.

“That would be nice. It's important for New Appleloosa to get a good reputation”, Rampage chuckled.

“Yes… another thing that is different since the last time I was here”, Zitrus said absently.

I noticed how his eyes drifted in the direction of the monument. Even though you could barely see it in the dark.

Rampage seemed to notice it too then he quietly spoke: “When the city was repaired, we decided to build a statue on the mass grave. They deserved it.”

Zitrus sadly hung his head. Looking into the fire and at the same time at nothing. Crystal wrapped her wing around him and pulled him close and Savage nuzzled his mane.

“Your mother was a good mare. She would be proud to see you now”, Glaive said with a sympathetic look.

We had spent three nights in New Appleloosa. It was a good little break from all that traveling. But I was also happy to do something again. I remember when I first started traveling with Zitrus. My body was untrained, and I had nearly collapsed after a day of walking. Now it was quite the opposite. I was in such good shape that I wanted to move myself a bit.

Today we planned to check out that raider camp and if possible wipe them out. But only if possible. We only wanted to execute when we were sure about it. Even though Zitrus was more of the pacifist type, he knew that talking with raiders was pointless. They would just continue to murder every pony they could get their hooves on. And the proof of that just reached my nose.

According to the Intel we got from New Appeloosa, the raider camp was about an hours away. And it already smelled like blood and decay. The smell turned my stomach, and I was happy that I just had some tea from Glaive and Rampage this morning.

Crystal also seemed to have problems. But for her it was another reason.

“Guys, can I… Can I wait here for you?”, she asked us a bit hesitantly.

“What is wrong?”, Zitrus asked the green alicorn.

“It is just… raiders usually torture their prisoners. And then they leave the dead bodies lying around to rot. And I am scared if I see any of these… how they have suffered in cruel ways… I don’t think I could take it. Too many bad memories…”

Of course we understood this. Savage came over and gave Crystal a hug.

“Of course. We will be able to take these five raiders if we have to. Just wait here and we will pick you up afterwards.”

“Yes, thank you”, Crystal said relieved.

“See you soon, sister”, I gave as a small goodbye as the rest of us continued to follow the smell. And the closer we got, the more intensive it got.

I lit up my horn and made Zitrus, Savage, and myself invisible. We were sure that the camp must be close by.

And true, after some minutes more of walking, we saw the place. The first thing we saw was a cage on a pole, containing a skeleton. Suspended like some sort of flag.

My eyes fell on a dead stallion, tied to the pole with his belly slashed open. All his organs hung out, already half eaten by maggots. All that was left of another was the skeleton, from the look of the bones, they were probably beat to death. There was even a dead, half rotten filly, who had been shot clean through the head, laying in a cage. In the same cage was a mare who looked like she was the mother. Starved to death. Most likely the raiders gave her, her own filly as food!

The sight filled me with such a shock that I dropped my invisibility spell by accident. Luckily there were only two raiders, both stallions, but they both had their backs to us. They were sitting in front of a nearly dead campfire, surrounded by three tents, some boxes, and some spears stuck in the ground, standing straight up.

And then there was also a blue alicorn. I don’t know how they had been able to capture her, but it was easy to tell what they did with her...

Wings and horn were cut off, the legs broken and her flanks, where ponies normally had their cutie marks, were cleanly skinned. On top of that, there were still many traces left that she got raped… Her lifeless eyes had dried out tears.

Despite my shock, I felt a sudden dark aura coming from my left. I turned my head and saw Savage starring at our dead sister. Her eyes were filled with pure rage.

Her horn lit up and she teleported, appearing right behind the two stallions. The two did not even have time to react as Savage pushed one of them with her front legs forward. He fell face first into where once had blazed a fire. But there were still embers left, which quickly fed on him... He screamed in pain and tried to push himself out of the fire but Savage stood over him and used her weigh to pressed his face deeper into the flames, not giving him a chance to escape.

The other raider recovered from his surprise and went to jump on savage. But she simply lit up her horn and caught him mid air, shortly before he could touch her.

With a cold stare helt him face to face and suddenly the stallion in her magic grip also started to scream. I didn't know why at first, until I realized that his front legs were being pulled with great force. I noticed that it took quite a bit of energy on savage's part as she tried to pull off his front legs. But after a moment, which felt longer than it actually was, the joints were dislocated and shortly after there was an ugly sound, which I will never forget… Savage literally ripped his front legs from his body. Blood flew everywhere, spattering on Savages' body.

The stallion in her grip screamed. His friend in the fire had stopped as half his face was burned off… Savage then threw the raider in her magic grip. He flew backwards into one of the erect spears with pierced right through his body. Unfortunately, that didn’t kill him... He just hung there in pain, spitting blood and slowly dying…

The screams of the two stallions must have alerted the others because a new raider jumped out from behind a tent. A unicorn mare with a meat cleaver in her magic grip. She charged at Savage but the purple alicorn just shot her with a spell. It was a lightning spell. Not strong enough to be lethal… if you did not keep it up for too long… but enough to show effect.

The mare lost focus and dropped the cleaver. Her body acted on its own and tried to wiggle and twitch out of the electricity, but Savage kept up the spell. Keeping her trapped in a never ending electrical charge. The mare soon began to yell as her body very slowly fried from the inside and her nervous system overcharged…

And savage did all that without showing and kind of emotion. I yelled at Savage to stop but she did not listen. She was not able to listen. She was only able to torture these ponies to death without any sign of compassion.

Just as the mare gave up her last breath, after being in pain for multiple minutes, the last two raiders appeared. And it was there that I no longer could watch. I turned my head and vomited. Now I regretted not eating anything for breakfast…

After Savage was done torturing the two remaining raiders, she turned her head and looked around. Her eyes filled with fury, she scanned for any remaining hostile ponies. And then she spotted Zitrus…

She took several dangerous steps toward him. Eyes fully focused on him.

Zitrus' eyes widened and he took some steps back. But Savage was not able to tell the difference between friend and foe. Her blood covered body made her look even more dangerous.

Quickly I light up my horn and made Zitrus invisible. I held my breath and prayed that she would not somehow notice Zitrus while he was invisible. But Savage, in her current state, was not able to question how he just disappeared. She just gave some other cold glares on the surrounding. When she didn’t find anything left to kill, she collapsed. All that torturing gave her a magic burnout.

I shivered. I still kept the invisibility spell up on Zitrus, not daring to reveal him yet. I could not tell if she might just try to kill him again.

I was scared of Savage…