Fallout Equestria: Silverside

Chapter Ten: Departure

Sterling felt her bandaged ear as they gathered their supplies. It was still a little painful, but she was sure it would pass in time. It had been very kind of Doctor Healhorn to treat it for infection-and, (she reluctantly had to admit) it was nice of the Mayor to pay for the treatment as well. Nightlight and Gordo were both fine, save for the black eye the griffon gained a day after their storming of the Celestial Bar.
Gordo’s wing was now in a splint given to him by Healhorn, during a medical checkup Nightlight had practically dragged him to.
Sterling had no real idea why she knew they had to go West, or what awaited them there. All she knew was that she’d never felt more sure about something in her life.
When Nightlight and Gordo had asked her why, Sterling had just shrugged. They had looked at each other, wondering if Sterling might have hit her head harder than they had imagined in the crash, but they hadn’t said anything. The pegasus had liked that.

The three of them spent the rest of the day shopping. With the caps they had earned from their hard days’ work, the two ponies and their griffon friend had hit the town, with various levels of success. Gordo and Nightlight could easily navigate Freesaddle, had found the weapons and food they had needed, and had already returned to the town centre by the time Sterling had even left her first store. The pegasus had run into some trouble-in the form of ponies that wanted to speak to her. Many such ponies had lined up outside the General’s Store after they had seen her enter. Overwhelmed, she had been forced to barge past a small crowd, all wishing her well, thanking her for saving one of their own, and really sticking it to ‘those gangers’.

Eventually, she had given up trying to tell them she hadn’t meant to stick it to anypony, and had resolved that she would try to sneak out of town. That was when a familiar filly gave a tug to the back of her tail.
“Shimmerbud! You’re…still here?” She asked, quickly leading the bouncing pegasus away from the crowd.
“Of course! I live here now, silly!” Shimmerbud giggled, and Sterling smiled, a little confused.
“What about the others?”
“We’re all in the orphanage, Nightlight sent us there, she’s been visiting us every day!”
Sterling felt a pang of sadness creep into her heart as she heard those words. It made sense that the raiders would have killed their parents, of course. But that didn’t make it any better to hear from the filly.
“You saved the Mayor!” She quickly added, and Sterling shrugged. “I had help from Nightlight and…what?” Again, the filly giggled, and she wondered just how a ray of sunshine like her could exist in a world like this.
“Nightlight said you would say that! She talked about you a lot, you know.”
Sterling rolled her eyes. “Go on, what did she say about me?” She had said that in a sarcastic tone, but she really did want to know what the Unicorn thought of her.
“She said you worry about others a lot, and that you always try to be the best pony you can be, and that all of us should strive to be like that, and that-”
“Woah, okay, okay, slow down, little missy!” chuckled the mare. That mare has a very different perception of who I am. She hasn’t even known me for a week!
“Tell me, how many other ponies has she spoken about to you, I mean, i’m sure Gordo has some qualities you could all pick up on too! He’s pretty selfless, after all.”
Shimmerbud looked at her as though she were speaking another language the filly didn’t understand. “Gordo?”

An explosion rang out across the clearing. Ponies started to run around, screaming. Bullets flew across the scene. Quick as a flash, Sterling had Shimmerbud wrapped under a hoof, and was galloping towards the nearest store.
Bullets pattered against the wood near her hooves as she dove through the door to a bar. Ponies were in here, sheltering, cowering. “Keep your head down, and stay quiet.” Hissed the pegasus to the filly as she hid with her against the wall.
There was a moment of stillness, of tension. Like a fuse was forever an inch away from reaching its explosive payload.
“WE SEEK THE PEGASUS” Roared a voice from outside. “BRING HER OUT HERE, NOW!”
Sterling winced, and peeked out the window, just for a split second.
It was that Unicorn from the Celestial Bar. The leader of the Princesses. He was here now, and he didn’t look happy.
Shit.
There were seven of them. Six Earth Ponies, all with guns, and the Unicorn. Why In all of Equestria did she think they wouldn’t leave the bar? Why did she think they wouldn’t come after her?

“ANYPONY THAT HELPS US TO FIND THE PEGASUS THAT KILLED TWO OF OUR PONIES WILL BE REWARDED HANDSOMELY.” He drawled out, looking around the street. Ponies in store windows flinched away from his gaze as it passed over them. Why the hell aren’t the guardsponies doing anything? We’re literally just across the street from the Mayor’s residence!
“ANYPONY THAT HELPS HER TO HIDE, OR TO ESCAPE US…” He trailed off. Sterling didn’t need him to finish his sentence, she could already imagine what the punishment for that would be.
All Sterling felt in that moment was a sense of hopelessness. She looked around the room and saw a series of expectant eyes watching her. They, on the other hoof, were hopeful. They want me to turn myself in. I would too.
Then she looked down, and she locked eyes with Shimmerbud. The pegasus filly was looking up at her, a determined look on her face. Oh no, they don’t think I should turn myself in, they think I'm going to fight him!
The hopelessness in her changed. She couldn’t help it. It changed, not into hope, but into rage. Rage for the ponies of this town and their way of lives being threatened by these ponies. Rage at herself for bringing this town down into the mire of chaos. But the strongest rage she felt was that this Unicorn was threatening the very lives of those colts and fillies from Punkfac. He was threatening Shimmerbud.

The door squeaked on its hinges as Sterling pushed her way through it. She had firmly ordered Shimmerbud and the other ponies to stay put. If she was going to die here, she’d rather die facing her death than hiding in some shop, putting others’ lives at risk.
Slowly, Sterling clopped her way out into the main street. Her heart was thumping wildly in her chest. She’d stood up to a lot of bullies in the past, but none of them had actually wanted to kill her.
None of them had threatened the sanctity of a town before either. But maybe it didn’t have to end in a fight.

“Here I am, and my name is Sterling. Are you here to kill me?” She asked aloud. Perhaps her final words could inspire other ponies to be brave. Celestia (the real one) knew she didn’t feel brave right then, in fact, she was positively terrified.
“Of course.” Replied the Unicorn, so surely that it was as if he’d been asked if the sun rose or not. “And our name is Celestia.”
Sterling snorted. “Of course. Your parents pick that out for you or..?”
The Unicorn rolled his eyes.
“We see that thou still speaketh like a petulant child. We were considering giving thou an honourable death, but you are not deserving of such respect.”
He was right, of course. She was acting like a child. She should be trying to placate the Unicorn. Instead she’d been making jokes and sarcastic remarks. In times of stress, she’d often used comedy to mask her true feelings and to buy herself more time. Sterling had always disliked that about herself.

“Is this what she would have wanted? Is this what you want?” Asked the pegasus, simply. Come on, think of something, fast.
“Celestia would not want this! She would want-”
“I-WE ARE CELESTIA!” exclaimed the stallion. So much for calming him down.
“WE ARE NOT TOLD WHAT WE WANT. WE SIMPLY WANT, AND WE HAVE IT!”
The Unicorn’s horn began to glow again. His voice grew low and he snarled.
“We see you fight with words, pegasus. That may work on lesser creatures, but it will not work on your goddess!”
A burst of white energy leapt from the Unicorn’s horn, and Sterling had to throw herself to the dirt road of the street to avoid being struck.
This Unicorn is crazy!
She scrabbled to her hooves, and sprinted over to a nearby cart, diving behind it just as another bolt whizzed past her tail.
Magic was something the pegasus was well-versed with. At least, she was well-versed with being on the receiving end of spells, and knew that summoned magic of most kinds required focus to work. What else…what else…
A hole burst through the side of the wood she’d been hiding behind, and light dissipated away through it. Whatever her plan was going to be, she would have to make it fast.
He didn’t like it when she acted ‘childish’. Here goes nothing…
“So, were you trying to hit me just then? Or were those warning shots?” She called back over the cart. She heard a growl from the Stallion, and another beam of light punched through the wooden cart a few inches away from her head, singing some of her mane hairs.

She laughed, both at her own stupidity for getting herself into this situation, and at the Unicorn. “Nope! Gotta try harder than that! A little to the left, maybe!”
“Shut up!” Cried the Stallion. “Your petulant whining is very irritating to our ears!”
“Petulant my hoof! You should drop the magic, it’s clearly not working out for you!”
There was another blast of energy, this time it started a small fire on the wooden cart.
With her cover rapidly deteriorating and the Unicorn slowly approaching, she desperately called out. “Fight me like a princess! Have some honour, your majesty!”
The Unicorn stopped. Peeking through a hole in the burning cart, Sterling could make out a fire in his eyes-a pair of eyes that continuously whizzed between her location and the group of ponies he had come with. They looked like they agreed with what Sterling was saying. Typical Unicorn pride…
“Fine. Come out to us, coward.”
Slowly, Sterling raised herself up, peeking her head over the flames. His horn was no longer glowing.
A beam of magic struck him in the side, and he grimaced in pain. The Unicorn reflexively cast a shield in the direction of the pink blast of energy, something the shooter had anticipated. It went through the anti-magic shield, and struck the Unicorn in the back leg.

Gordo and Nightlight stood on the other end of the street, the Unicorn mare was galloping over, whilst the griffon was slinging a smoking rifle back on to his shoulder.
“You again!” growled the Unicorn. “Deal with-”
Sterling had flown over and bucked the Unicorn with all her might in the nose. He roared in anger, and struck at her with a hoof, knocking her from the sky. As he reeled back, the other Princesses opened fire on her two friends. Sterling watched the crown clatter to the ground. The Unicorn stood back up. “That was a cheap shot, and it is all we will allow you to get!”
As he regained his hooves, Sterling realised just how much bigger than her he was. She gulped, and dodged out of the way of one of his strikes. What she had in speed, the Unicorn more than made up for in size and power. He did have a bullet hole in him at least. That was good.
As she dodged around another one of his hooves she struck at the wound, causing him to scream again, and grab her tail with his telekinetic power. Oh right. He’s a gang leader, why did I expect him to actually stick to the rules?
Using his magical might, he lifted her up and slammed her into a nearby crate. The box splintered around her, and the stitches on her back leg tore open again. So much for ‘no strenuous activity’.
He threw her up again, and pulled her down with his magic, right into his back hooves. The massive Unicorn bucked her right in the stomach, sending her flying across the street. She landed on some bins next to the Mayor’s office, bleeding from…well, it would be easier to list the places she wasn’t bleeding from.
I should be dead. She thought as she watched the Unicorn rear up-only for him to get hit with another of Nightlight’s magical strikes. This time, he almost fell over. He snorted and turned away from her, blasting at Gordo and Nightlight down the street.
Sterling groaned and shakily rose to her hooves. That’s when it hit her.
I know where we are.

Sterling splashed down into the sewer, losing herself and getting soaked before she could stand properly again. She could hear the fight raging overhead, but she couldn’t think about that right now. Gotta find it…
Turning the lamp on her pip-buck on, she shone it down the wet pipes. Thankfully the only liquid that had passed through here in the last few hundred years had been rainwater. That didn’t mean there weren’t any giant roaches around, though.
After a few minutes of scrambling around in the dark, followed by a few more minutes of checking and re-checking her pip-buck, her hoof struck something hard in the shallow waters. It moved when she kicked it.
Despite the circumstances, she grinned to herself. Who needs magic? I don’t!

To say that Gordo and Nightlight were taking heavy fire would be an understatement.
They were hiding out in a small alleyway, taking pot shots at the figures of the approaching Princesses. Before they had a chance-in fact, they had taken out two of the gang members. With the Unicorn’s shield in the way however, their bullets and spells were practically useless.
Nightlight was concerned, Sterling hadn’t gotten back up, in fact, she was nowhere to be seen.
“I hope she’s alright…” She muttered to herself, right as something caught her eye.
Behind the unicorn, flapping her wings a little shakily, was a small, brown figure. Nightlight smiled.

Sterling dove upon the unicorn, the bomb clutched under a hoof. At the last moment, she reared back, her wings slowing her descent drastically, until she was right above his head. She plunged the explosives down onto his horn, and he looked around in alarm. “Over here, Celestia!” growled Sterling, punching him across the muzzle with a hoof to distract him and the rest of his gang from her friends.
The Stallion didn’t know what she’d put on his horn-he couldn’t see it. All he knew was that whatever it was, he needed to blast it off.
There you go again Sterling, doing something without thinking it through properly…
The Unicorn cast a magical blast from his horn. It wasn’t point-blank, the bomb was closer than point-blank. It was attached to him.
The world erupted in flame.

Sterling went barrelling up into the sky, then back down again into the smoke. She flapped her wings, barely slowing herself down and she hit the ground with a sickening thud, landing on something soft.
It was the Stallion.
His head was completely gone, a chunk of bone and meat jutting out from his neck. Bits of him were falling all around her, onto his gang members that had been blown off their hooves. Onto her.
If Sterling could reel backwards in disgust at that moment, she would have. Unfortunately, her vision was spinning too much for her to try and stand at that point in time.
Her ears were ringing. It was loud, deafeningly loud. She had the thought that all these gunshots and explosions that were suddenly in her life would probably cause long-term hearing damage if she didn’t-
“-ling! Sterling! Can you hear me?” Cried Nightlight as she galloped into her field of vision. Or at least, that’s what she thought the Unicorn had said. Sterling was lip-reading.
The pegasus blinked, and shook her head.
“You can’t?”

Oh wait, no, I’m not deaf. I heard that.
The ringing was still there, but it made way for other sounds now. The soft pitter-patter of the fountain of blood, the galloping of more sets of approaching hooves, and Nightlight’s voice.
“I can, don’t worry!” She quickly said, and Nightlight sighed in relief.
Sterling tried to stand, and failed, sitting back down in the corpse of the brute she’d just killed.
“That was some stunt you pulled there, Ster!” Gordo grinned, punching her on the shoulder. She winced in pain and he pulled back. “I think…you might have overdone it.”
“No, no i’m fine, I just…need a minute for the world to stop spinning, thanks. I don’t think the explosion really did much to me. I might just-wait, the uhh…” She racked her rattled brain, trying to think about what was on the tip of her tongue. “Oh, the other gang members!”
Sterling twisted her head around. Ow.
Four of them were dead. Two of them were still moving, but didn’t look like they’d be getting up any time soon. Sterling grimaced as she saw that one of them was missing a hoof.

Another visit to Doctor Healhorn later (this time, not one that lasted three days), and the three of them were finally leaving Freesaddle.
Shimmerbud had not minded the blood that had coated the mare when she ran up and hugged Sterling. But the pegasus did not like the way it stuck to the filly, and had demanded that she find somewhere to wash herself as soon as possible.
With many cheers from the townsponies and cries of thanks for ‘wiping out the Princesses’, the trio were clip-clopping down the street to the West. Sterling felt bad for her two companions; they often had to wait for her to catch up due to the nasty limp she’d gained after her tussle with the massive Unicorn, but if they were annoyed by it, they kept it to themselves.

____________________________________________________________________________

A breeze rustled the leaves of the trees in the morning light as they trotted along the worn road. It had been a week since she’d left the Stable, and she’d already grown accustomed to the way the wind worked. She couldn’t imagine how she could have possibly spent all those years stuck underground, it simply wasn’t right for a pegasus to be locked indoors all their life.
A part of her wished she could show the others from her Stable what life was really like out here-but would they even want to know?
“Sterling? What’s wrong?” Asked Nightlight, ever worried for her wellbeing. The pegasus realised a frown had crept across her face, and she forced herself to smile. “Oh, nothing, I've just been thinking.”
“Please, enlighten us.” Gordo replied dryly, and once again, Nightlight shot him a look that promptly got him to shut up.

She sighed. Okay, ponies that actually want to hear what you have to say for once. Better make it count.
“I’m not sure if I did the right thing back there.”
Gordo groaned in exasperation.
Yep, you blew it in the first sentence. Maybe you can save it in the next-
“What do you mean? You saved the Mayor’s life! You killed that awful Unicorn and you rid the town of a violent gang!” Exclaimed the Unicorn, and Sterling’s eyes widened. The pegasus shut her mouth.
“Sorry!” Nightlight caught herself, and smiled. “Sorry for butting in. You’re allowed to talk, you know.”
“Oh, of course, n-no I mean, I’m sorry, I wouldn’t have started talking if you hadn’t had something to say!” Spluttered Sterling, rubbing the back of her neck and looking down.
Gordo walked over to her, and raised her chin up. She couldn’t have flinched away if she’d tried. “Hey. You.” He began, stern. This was quite unlike how she’d known the griffon up until this point. “You’re a pony, and you deserve to be treated as one.” He barked into her face, and she nodded quickly. He let go of her, and backed away, as if remembering he was supposed to keep up his uncaring mask. This got a chuckle out of Nightlight. “Aww, you care about her, don’t you Gord?”
“Gord?” He bristled, but calmed himself. “Since when were we at the nickname stage?”

As the two of them bickered, Sterling cursed herself and her sensibilities. This was a world in which she was now a part of. She couldn’t afford to box herself into the same headspace as she’d had in her old life.
“I don’t think I did the right thing, saving the Mayor.” She said again, and her friends stopped their argument.
“But why in Equestria do you think that?” Asked Nightlight, softly.
“Sure I saved the Mayor’s life, but he almost died in the process. On top of that, because of my actions, the Princesses attacked and… ponies died.”
Gordo looked away, guilt written all over his face.
“Sterling…” the Unicorn began, tentatively, but Sterling had already started to vent her frustrations. There was little that could stop her now.
“I’ve never flown before-I couldn’t fly, did you know that?” Nightlight gasped. “Then why did you-”
“I didn’t want to put you two in danger.” She replied flatly. “I didn’t think about myself or the Mayor. Because of my choices, I crashed that cart and probably injured some poor bystanders, and I threw that town into chaos. Me. I did that. And it didn’t even keep you two out of harm’s way! Those Princesses turned up in the middle of town and started blowing the place up!”

“You don’t need to worry about us, Sterling.” Gordo intoned. His face was an expression she couldn’t quite recognise.
“But I do, you’re my friends, and I need to keep you-”
All of a sudden, there was a rush of movement, and Sterling felt hooves around her. A crying Nightlight had pulled her into another hug. That’s odd. Thought Sterling.
“Look, I don’t know what kind of twisted place you grew up in to make you feel like you’re not worth as much as other ponies, but you are Sterling!” She sobbed into her coat, and the pegasus could feel tears of her own starting to form.
“You barely know me Nightlight, I haven’t done anything to deserve your love and-”
“Oh shut up!” She wailed. “You’re a hero, and a better pony than I’ll ever be. You’re the first realfriend I’ve had in a long time, and I won’t let you die for me. I can’t take that again!”
Sterling returned the embrace, but didn’t say anything. This was a lot to take in, clearly Nightlight had seen her fair share of horrors out here.
“Okay, Nightlight, okay.” She breathed, holding back tears of her own and stroking the top of her head with a hoof. “I’ll…I’ll work on it. Okay? And I'm not going anywhere. Alright?”
Sterling glanced up, looking for Gordo to try and help her out here, but he’d managed to sneak away again.

Eventually, Nightlight lifted her head, and stared into Sterling’s eyes. “My…I knew somepony just like you. You and her would have gotten along so well. I wish you could meet her.”
Then she let go, sitting down on the road.
“Who is she? Where is she now?” Sterling asked, but she already knew one of those answers. Nightlight stiffened, and Sterling got the impression she had opened up an old wound with that question. “I-I’m sorry if you don’t want to answer that, i’ve never had a conversation like this with-”
“Her name was Strawberry Fizzle. She was my sister.” She said bluntly. “Now she’s dead.”
Nightlight stood back up, wiped her tears away with a smile, and continued trotting down the road. Sterling watched her leave for a moment, then sighed and got moving again.

“This is DJ-Pon3, and you’re tuned in to our no-commercial morning show!” Came the voice from Sterling’s pip-buck. The awkward silence between the three of them had remained until the pegasus had had enough of it, and had tuned in to the station.
“This morning, we’ll be hearing a few numbers from everypony’s favourite, Sweetie-Belle, and some other artists of Old Equestria!”
The daylight trickled through the branches above them. Sterling could hear a twittering in the trees-birds, Nightlight had told her. Of course, the pegasus knew what birds were. She just hadn’t known that they made noises like that.
“But first, your Pal DJ has some exciting news! A raider encampment my sources tell me was known as ‘Punkfac’ was burned down a few days ago by a Stable-dweller, fresh from underground! Talk about making an impactful first impression! Yes my children, it seems this new pegasus mare has taken the wasteland by the reins, and has already saved the life of a pony that had been kidnapped by a gang! That’s right, the ponies of Freesaddle have reportedly had their one-and-only Mayor saved by this winged wonder, and despite a few injuries, the mare has made a full recove-”
The pegasus clicked a dial, cutting off the broadcast.
Gordo burst out laughing, Nightlight grinned. Sterling, on the other hoof, groaned and slumped to the ground.
“Niiiightliiiight!” She cried, and the Unicorn returned a sheepish look. “How the hell does the DJ know me? And why in Equestria’s name is he reporting on it!”
“W-well Sterling, DJ-Pon3 has a lot of sources around the wasteland.” She began, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “I guess word about your good deeds has spread a lot faster than I'd thought!”

Sterling thought back to the hospital, back to the cards and the flowers that had been left at her bedside, as well as the crowd of ponies that had seen them off. “This can’t be happening.”
“The DJ usually latches on to stories of heroes.” Gordo said quietly, and the other two turned to him, Nightlight’s beaming visage contrasting with Sterling’s agitated expression.
“He spreads the word of good deeds around the wasteland, to give hope to those who need it, to get ponies to notice the little lights in the darkness. I believe he has decided that you are one of those lights, Sterling.”
“But i’m n-”
“It doesn’t matter whether you think you are or not.” He said, sternly. “What matters is that you’re a good pony, with honest intentions. Ponies need something to believe in, and even if you’re not a hero, you are to them. So start acting like one.” He finished, holding her gaze for a moment, before cracking a smile.
Start acting like one… Easier said than done, bird-brain.
Sterling said nothing, and kept walking.

Footnote: Level up.
New Trait: Bloody Mess – By some strange twist of fate, ponies around you often die violently. In combat, you tend to see the most gruesome ways a pony can die.