Fallout Equestria: Monster

The caravan was coming in from the south. A real bad move considering the terrain. The road twisted and turned around these huge mounds of rock. The whole place all but screamed ambush. Course that was a double edged sword. We’d have a lot of options about where to attack, but they’d be looking out for it. Unless they were completely incompetent which didn’t happen near enough as I liked.

“Alright, how do you guys want to do this?” Brittle asked as we ran.“What about that spot where we took those slavers?” Not a fight I wanted to repeat. Those assholes would fight tooth and nail to protect their investments. Killed three of us before we managed to put them down. Lot of food in those wagons though.“Not a bad idea. There’s a decent sniping post up in the rocks.” I didn’t have to look to know she was grinning. I once saw X take off a parasprite’s wing from five hundred yards. It was probably luck (no matter how much she said otherwise), but still.“Then it’s settled. Cork, how we doing on mines?”“Umm…” The sound of explosives clinking together a few feet away from me was…unsettling to say the least. You’d think it’d be possible for him to remember without checking. “I brought…three frag and a bottle cap.” Most would question the logic in using currency as shrapnel. Most forget that we never pay.“Hope they like exact change.” Three pairs of eyes rolled as one. If Brittle saw it he didn’t care.The rest of the trip passed in complete silence. It wasn’t longer than fifteen minutes. Most of the good spots were close to the base. It’s why we settled in Till to begin with. Well that and everyone unanimously agreeing that traveling sucked.The side was a narrow strip of road that ran through a small canyon. Hills sloped up to either side with rocks strewn the whole way to the top. The right side was a little bit higher than the left. X’s nest was there. One little patch of flat ground with two large boulders feeling each other up in front. Over a hundred places to hide as long as you weren’t on the one stretch of flat ground.It was almost too perfect to use.The boss and his whores showed up a few minutes later. I didn’t really mind waiting for them. It gave the rest of us a few minutes to catch our breath and bask in the beautiful silence that lasted five seconds after he showed up.“You picked here?” He eyed it like he was looking for a bone to break. If the planet had a face he’d punch it just because he could. “Yeah, it’ll work. X, get high. Me and the girls will cover you from below. You three shitheads take the other side after Cork mines the road.” Most of that had already been decided by common sense, but we didn’t need to say that. It’d make things easier on everyone if we just went along with it.“And if they see the mines?” Brittle asked, holding his hoof up while he did so. Honestly, did he think we were foals in school? That is what foals did in school right?“Then shoot them shithead. Plan B is always shoot them.” Behold, our wise and glorious leader. “Well? What are you all standing around for? DO IT!” No one needed to be told twice (the second time always came with a hoof to the head). I may bitch and complain during downtime, but when there was prey coming we became a unified force with one goal in mind.To transfer whatever’s in their bags to ours. In as violent of a manner as possible.Cork went about setting up the mines, X ran up to her nest, while Brittle and I went to look for a good place to settle down. We’d need it to be comfortable enough to sit in for a few hours while still providing a good view of the targets. We found a passable spot about half way up behind some tooth shaped stones. Just enough space to hide us and ground that wouldn’t make us bleed. I’d slept in worse.The boss and his whores took their positions. Cork soon finished placing the mines and came up to join us. X was out of sight at this point, but she let her sniper sight catch the light to show she was ready. A few miles farther south, the rocky terrain rose up into a cliff where a small shack could be seen. The green flag had been taken down the second we’d gotten into position. It could only be seen from our side, but they really didn’t need any more warning signs. And just beneath that, almost too far to see, a bunch of black specks meandered their way up the road.The traps were set, we were all in place, and the target was coming up on our position. Nothing to do now but engage in the pastime that made up three-quarters of all conflict.Waiting.Lots of ponies seem to think that we’re constantly looking for people to kill or rape or steal from, but that’s not the case. More often than not, we have to wait for them to come to us. A gang in a good spot may see, at the most, three or four groups a week. Way out in the boonies like us, we were lucky to get one every two. Most days we just lounge about waiting for something to happen. Some of these idiots join up looking for an exciting life only to find that it’s even more boring than their old one. And twenty times as deadly.Dumb bastards barely last a week.When you’re in our line of work you learn to be patient. Insane? Yes. Bloodthirsty? You bet. Psychotic to the highest degree imaginable? Fuck the hell yes. But also patient. Very, very, VERY patient.Or you got dead. Very, very, VERY dead.It was a testament to that patience that we spent two and a half hours in total silence. And I do mean total silence. What was there to talk about? We all knew how this went. We’d done it dozens of times before. Our strategy (or lack of it) was already laid out. There was nothing to do but wait and imagine the goodies we’d take off their bodies.I personally was hoping for a new rifle. The one I had was a piece of shit. Kept leaning to the left. Made me regret that I never bothered to learn more than the basics of how to fix this stuff. Maintenance I could keep up with, but that didn’t do shit if it actually broke. Not that I really had the parts to fix it either way.Oh, and some meat would be nice. Though that was kind of a given since they usually had brahmin. Annoying creatures. Especially if both heads had a brain. Never shut up. Though I’ll admit it was hilarious to cut one off and watch the other freak out.A hat wouldn’t go amiss. Something to keep the sun out of my eyes. Well, not the sun. The clouds? The light reflecting off the clouds? Going through the clouds? I never was very clear on the specifics.Maybe just get some better barding in general. Or some more paint to repair the patches I’d lost. Terrible for stealth, but I looked great in red.“Here they come,” Brittle said from beside me, his voice low, but saturated with anticipation. Sure enough, the sounds of our prey came drifting up the road without a care in the world. Creaking carts, the stomp of hooves, think I heard some kids laughing, usual stuff.Another couple of minutes and they came into view. I cracked a smile when I saw three wooden carts rolling up, all pulled by the delicious two headed monstrosities that used to be cows. Oh yes, we would eat like kings tonight.And by the look of things, we’d pay for it. Every single adult was armed and had their eyes on the rocks. A quick count showed nine guns among them and two unarmed foals. They outnumbered us, but if we were lucky, the mines would take out a few and scatter the rest.Closer and closer they crept. The pound of my heartbeat rang in my ears as adrenalin kicked in. I knew what was going to happen. Bullets would fly, blood would spill, lives would be ended this day in a dance that had been done since the dawn of time. Predator and prey. Hunter and hunted. Killer and killed. It would all start in just a few seconds…“Mines!”“Well shit,” Brittle cursed beside me. I sighed and looked over to my partners in slaughter.“Plan B?”“Plan B,” Cork stated, already pulling the pin on a grenade. He sent it sailing over the rock and assumedly neatly among the caravan if the shout was any indication.“GRENADE!”The explosion was as close to a warhorn as we’d get. I stood, pulling away from the rocks so I could get a clear shot. The first thing to cross my sights was a mare. Dull orange, really pretty. My eyes locked on hers for a brief moment before they widened and she let out a scream that had become our familiar over the years.“RAIDERS!”My rifle cracked three times. The first shot went wide, throwing up a cloud of dust at her hooves. The second grazed her left side, throwing sparks where it met the metal on her barding. The third buried itself above her right eye. There was a flash of crimson and a thunk before she fell, dead before she hit the ground.There wasn’t time for pride over what, if I do say so myself, was a fantastic shot. I was already moving in the four seconds it took the stallion next to her to open fire with an assault rifle. Bullets pinged off stone all around me. I felt a round graze the spot above my tail before I slid into cover. My barding took the worst of it, but the sting was noticeable.I heard a loud BANG and a cut off scream. X would be putting another notch in her wall back home. The loud roar of Rebar’s shotgun and the solid cracks of the whore’s rifles accompanied the sustained noise of Brittle’s machine gun and the tiny pops of the pistol Cork was never without. It was odd how I could pick out all these individual sounds in between the return fire from the caravan and the screams of the kids as the world exploded around them.I suppose you could call this what raiders lived for. The noise, the excitement, the constant threat of death, the rush of power and pure, undiluted adrenalin whenever you nail a shot. More addicting than any drug.Brittle slid into place a few feet away from me, laughing like a pony gone mad. He stood and let out a war cry that had more in common with a ten year old shooting targets with his dad’s pellet gun than a bloodthirsty berserker. Didn’t quite fit to be honest. Might have been the noises his targets were making. He stood there laughing until a bullet whizzed past his neck leaving a thin line. With a curse he sat back down. I couldn’t resist a laugh.“I’d tell you to watch your head, but there doesn’t seem to be anything important in there anyway!” I called to him. I spied my next target which came in the form of a purple unicorn hiding behind a cart with a half exploded brahmin tied to the front. Guess I know where Cork’s grenade went. I let off a few shots. None of them hit, but they did keep him pinned long enough for X to lodge a round in his gut.I slipped back behind cover and gave the piece of metal behind my leg a kick, letting the battle saddle take care of reloading. From the look of things, they’d already lost about half their shooters while we hadn’t taken a single casualty. Things were going-Heat and light, more than could be caused by one grenade went off somewhere to the other side of Brittle. He let off a shriek from an injury I couldn’t see. A flaming piece of hoof landed a couple feet in front of me. I don’t know exactly what happened, but if I had to guess, an incredibly lucky shot caught one of Cork’s grenades right when he was going to throw it. The explosion must have set off the rest in his bag.Which officially made me the weakest link. Best day ever.“SWEET SON OF A STAR-KISSED WHORE!” Brittle screamed in agony beside me. I rolled my eyes and ran to him, feeling a couple near misses from below. The big baby had taken a sliver of shrapnel in one of his legs. I grabbed it with my teeth and ripped it out without ceremony. “BY THE SUGGARY TITS OF LUNA, THAT FUCKING HURTS!”“Oh shut up and drink this,” I passed him a potion without further comment, ducking a couple more bullets. One mare left, but she was making us work for it. The others could take care of her while I saw to Brittle. Wasn’t exactly a licensed doctor, but you learned this stuff if you did it enough.There was a loud scream and I took a quick look over the rock. Rebar had somehow snuck up to the edge of one cart and blasted the mare when she wasn’t looking. The bright green pony now had a large red hole where her chest used to be. The big fucker could be real stealthy when he wanted to.Nine kills to one casualty. And said casualty was a pussy that we all hated. Not too bad I’d say.“Clear!” X called out from her snipers nest. Grease let out a cruel laugh and ran down to join Rebar as did Palm, but with more limping. It was hard to keep a smile off my face so I didn’t. Could always just say I was happy at how things had turned out. I made my way down, leaving Brittle to wait for the potion to finish working.“What was that big ass explosion?” asked Rebar as I reached the road. Right before he stepped on some bleeding stallion’s neck.“Cork finally blew himself up. Piece of shrapnel caught Brittle, but he’ll be fine as soon as he stops crying about it.” I shrugged. A dull report all things considered.“Cork’s dead?” A wide grin appeared on the boss’s face. “So we won’t have to listen to the vocal shit he calls singing anymore?”“No. And on the same day you shot the radio. Great timing genius.” I trotted over to one of the carts, stepping over the corpse of one of the kids. Little brat had taken a round through the eye in the confusion. Bad parenting to bring a child out into the Wasteland. Bullets don’t account for age.“You know, I’m so happy to hear he’s dead that I’m going to ignore that comment.” He let out a blood thirsty laugh, right at the same moment Palm shot one of the wounded caravaners. He had good timing with some things, just not when to shoot the fucking radio.“Whatever.” I grabbed onto the edge of the cart, peering at the goods inside. Nothing particularly caught my eye, but you never got the good stuff on the first sweep. If you want to find anything worthwhile, you have to dig down through all the shit and…A hoof grabbed onto one of my hind legs. A mare was staring up at me with bright green eyes. It was the one Rebar had shot. Blood and buckshot spilled out of her chest and into the dirt. She stared at me and uttered one word.“Please…”“Ugh. Get off!” I kicked her until she let go. Then I kicked her wound. She didn’t make a sound, just kind of stared straight ahead, not even flinching at the impacts. I kept at it till she died, lying face down in a pool of her own blood.“Dumb bitch.” I turned away from her and back to the cart-BANGMy right ear exploded into molten pain. I fell to the ground as all around me, my gang let out cries of alarm and swarmed the cart. X walked up to me and offered a potion. I drank it as they hauled out some little brown colt with a green mane. He screamed as Brittle picked him up with magic and set him in front of the cart.“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” Rebar snarled down at the brat whose eyes were the size of apples. X floated out a pistol, a little I-8 Parasprite, the weapon he’d used to blow off my ear. The potion was already fixing it, but it still hurt like all hell. “Little colts aren’t supposed to play with guns.”“Naughty, naughty,” Grease cooed as she dragged her tail across his back, circling like a shark. He followed her with his gaze, slowly sinking down to hide in his hooves. I almost felt bad for the little guy. Couldn’t be any older than eight and surrounded by raiders who’d just murdered his friends and family. Can’t imagine something like that.Course, he also shot me so sympathy only goes so far.“Awww, he’s so cute!” X said, letting out a giggle that was far too cute for the scene. “Can we keep him? Huh, can we?”“No fucking way!” Palm bitched. No one was surprised. “Little pisser like that would just stink up the place. Shoot him so we can find some food.”“But shooting him would be such a waste.” Grease leaned down and gave the kid a look that I’m sure scared him far beyond his ability to understand. “At least let me have some fun with him first.”“Shouldn’t we let Matchstick decide? I mean, the little bastard did shoot him and all,” Brittle said, tossing me a smile.“What the hell, I’m in a good mood right now.” Rebar grinned like a shark. It was worthy of the kid’s nightmares, or would be if he lived long enough to have them. “What do you say, Match? How should we treat our esteemed guest?”“Well you know what they say.” I kicked the switch for my auto loader. Wanted a full clip for this. “Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth,” I leaned down and looked straight into his big green eyes, “bullet for a bullet.”“Now we're talking.” The colt was once more shrouded in a blue glow as Brittle picked him up. I’ll give him props though, he still refused to make a sound. He was put up against the cart and held in place, this time physically. Brittle always loved to be close to the action.“So, any last words?” I asked, rolling my shoulder to work the kinks out. My thoughts were already on how good those brahmin were going to taste as I looked into his eyes.We held gazes for a moment. Mine cruel with a smirk attached, gleefully picturing him with a whole lot less head. His huge and scared and just a bit dewy around the edges. It was a look I’d seen hundreds of times before.But something was different.In an instant all the fear grew hot. “I hate you…I hate you! I HATE YOU! YOU’RE ALL A BUNCH OF FUCKING MONSTERS!”It was just a childish insult. It didn’t matter at all. I’d been called worse. Far worse in fact. With a lot more swearing attached. It didn’t mean a thing. And it would mean even less when I pulled the trigger.So why hadn’t I?“Well, well, well, look who grew a spine.” I could hear the smile on Rebar’s face. In fact I knew they were all smiling. Still riding the post battle high and giddy at the spectacle of an execution. Even if it was just a kid.Couldn’t be more than eight… “Well? What are you waiting for?” Palm was getting bored fast. “Shoot him already.”I should have shot him by now. In fact I should have shot before he’d opened his mouth. It wasn’t like I could miss, he couldn’t be more than ten feet in front of me. There shouldn’t have been a problem. “Match?” X poked me in the shoulder. “We’re all kind of waiting here.”Yeah they were. Standing around a battle field waiting for me to shoot a foal who just watched everyone he’d ever known get slaughtered around him.Fucking monsters…“Did he get hit or something during the fight?”Cork was dead. They didn’t even care. I didn’t even care. The poor bastard was dead and no one gave a damn. We were actually happy he was gone. There wasn’t a single person on this planet that cared about him being dead.Fucking monsters…“I don’t think so. Unless a shot to the ear can cause brain damage.”That was going to be me in the future. A corpse lying in pieces on a battlefield with no one caring enough to even look twice at it. Eventually I’d turn to bleached bones and somebody would pass by them. They’d look for a moment then turn away, disinterested. Disinterested by death.Fucking monsters…“Should we give him another potion?”These people, these creatures...they’d happily pull the trigger themselves. Things like them were the closest I’d come to having friends. Every single one of them, all the ones I’ve met through my whole life would have gladly killed me if it offered even the slightest benefit.Fucking monsters…couldn’t count on any of them.“I say we just hit him over the head.”The only thing I could count on was my nightmares.“Wouldn’t that just make the problem worse?”Cause that’s what I did. I killed people and had nightmares.“Who cares? We’d still get to hit him.”And that’s what I’d keep doing. “Enough of this bullshit! Are you going to shoot him or not?”Till the day I died…“…No”There was a sharp crack and a flash of light. The bullet pierced flesh and cloth easily, busting through a weak spot in the barding. The pumping of his heart forced out a little spurt of blood. It splattered on the ground. The sound was audible. No one was speaking.“What…the fuck...” Brittle looked at me. Shock and disbelief danced through his eyes, each so big it would have been comical under different circumstances. Then he fell over. Then he died.No one made a sound. They all stood there and stared with dropped jaws. I’m pretty sure mine had dropped the farthest though. The moments before and after pulling the trigger seemed years apart. As if two completely different people had experienced them.But that didn’t matter. As far as those behind me were concerned I was one person. And that person had just opened fire on one of their own.I only regained myself a couple seconds before the rest did, but it was enough. I rushed forward and grabbed the colt. He didn’t resist. Probably too stunned to do much of anything. I tugged him along and dived behind the cart just as a round of buckshot added more holes to a now useless piece of transportation.That’s when the screaming started. Some were in denial, others in rage, a couple seemed almost happy, but most were of confusion. I couldn’t make out any of the words. The blood ringing in my ears wouldn’t allow it. I noticed the healing potion had finished working. It seemed odd that I’d be aware of it then.I looked at the kid. He looked back at me. We sat there for a moment as bullets splintered the wood in front of us.“Keep your head down and stay out of sight and maybe we’ll walk out of this with our heads.”“…Okay.”Another round of buckshot slammed into the cart close enough to make me flinch.“YOU’RE DEAD, YOU UNDERSTAND!” Rebar screamed at me, more furious than I’d ever heard him. “I’M GONNA SPLIT YOUR STOMACH OPEN AND FORCE FEED YOU WHAT’S INSIDE YOU PIECE OF GHOUL SHIT!”Don’t confuse his anger for grief over Brittle. The unicorn was no poor shot with an assault rifle and good with electronics. I’d just taken a valuable asset from him and he wanted to pay me back in full. Nothing more, nothing less.I reloaded my rifle and took a look around the cart. Palm had taken up shop behind the other wagon, ready to take pot shots at the first sign of me. Grease was backing towards the rocks. X was milling around the other side, looking unsure of what was going on. And Rebar…Rebar was charging straight at me with a roar a bull would be envious of.I dove to the right, just in time to avoid the rushing wall of meat. With quickness that defied his size, he pivoted and fired. Pellets peppered the ground to the left of me. If he had shot just a fourth of a second later I would have been cut in half. I let off a round of my own right into his shoulder. He screamed and I made a break for the rocks.I slid into cover just before three rounds took chips off the stone’s surface. The whores weren’t saving their ammo. The two of them were putting on too much pressure for me to move. There weren’t any sniper rounds though. X hadn’t fired off a shot.I went flat as Rebar’s shotgun started roaring wildly, much like the stallion himself. For every true curse he shouted at me, there was another two made up on the spot. He was far more creative than I’d ever given him credit for.I couldn’t stay here. Even with the rocks protecting me, it was only a matter of time before one of them got a lucky shot or came right up to finish the job themselves. And if X decided I wasn’t worth Rebar’s wrath, she could pick me off with ease at any time. No chance of sneaking away either. Not with them already focused on me.Well, if you couldn’t go quiet go loud.With a deep breath I peaked up over the stone. I only had a few seconds, but it was enough. Palm was still by the cart. Didn’t look too far away…I ducked back when another bullet dinged off the rock. Less than an inch from my head to. If it had been just a little bit higher that would have been it.“What’s the matter Palm? You used to brag about how you were such an amazing shot!” I started fumbling around in my bag, feeling for a smooth piece of metal.“Aint bragging if it’s true, Shitstick!” I’d forgotten anger made her aim improve. An unlucky shot tore a bit of skin off one of my ears. I forced myself to laugh. It wasn’t that bad anyway. That ear hadn’t even been there a few minutes ago.“Shitstick huh? You never were all that good with nicknames.” Feeling my prize, I pulled out the apple sized metal sphere and held it up to my mouth, felling for the little loop of metal with my tongue.“Yeah, laugh it up! Gonna be real funny when I’m playing hopscotch in your ribcage!” Huh...creative. I went silent for a bit, focusing on getting a good grip. That and I really wanted her to set me up.“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?”Bingo.“Nuh-uh.” I pulled backwards until I heard the click, then jumped up and threw the grenade as hard as I could towards the cart she was hiding behind. “It was the pin!”I will always thank Celestia she was in view at the time and treasure the memory of her face forming a scream in the three seconds it took to blow her cover to woodchips. That, and the sight of her head getting crushed by a wheel of cedar.I spent a few moments basking in the afterglow of finally silencing that tongue of hers. If only I had some sort of camera to record the moment so I could watch it again and again and again…I had already run through it three times in my head before I realized that the other two had stopped shooting.“Shit.” The blistering metal of a rifle barrel touched the back of my skull.“What’s the matter Matchie? You surprised?” a voice cooed in my ear.“Actually yes. I never really expected you’d pull the trigger.” She was smirking. She always smirked when she killed.“Life’s full of little surprises like that.” There was a giggle. I was about to be short one head and someone was fucking giggling. I don’t know why that pissed me off above everything else, but it did. “I wish it didn’t have to end like this. I really appreciate what you’ve done here today. And you always were kind of cute.”“Cute enough for you to shoot Rebar?”“Almost, but not quite.” The gun dug into my skin. “Look at it this way. You won’t have nightmares anymore!”There was a loud crack and I didn’t hear anything anymore. Well that wasn’t true, I heard a ring. It was kind of annoying actually. Still, if this was the afterlife, an annoying ring was a lot more lenient than I expected. Fire and brimstone seemed a bit more appropriate.I blinked open my eyes to see what awaited me.Brown landscape, lots of rocks, a couple of broken carts, and a whole mess of bodies. Either many a joke had been confirmed and I’d been living in hell all along, or I was still alive.Neither option seemed all that appealing. The ringing had gone away at least.“I’m afraid you’ll be having a few more nightmares before you’re through.” A round pinged as it was ejected from its chamber. I turned to see X in all her glory standing in front of Grease who was currently missing the entire back half of her skull.“A little early to say that. Rebar’s still around.” I turned back to the caravan. He was out there somewhere. I’d shot him, but that didn’t matter. He wasn’t the type to leave an enemy unkilled no matter what state he was in.“Right. He’ll be gunning for both of us now.” I heard her turn the other way. She was facing the cliffs. Smart. X’s eyes were always better than mine and the rocks gave even a big bastard plenty of places to hide.The two of us started moving to clearer ground, back to back for no surprises. He had a shotgun. We had rifles. If we caught him anywhere over thirty feet he was dead.Part of me wondered where the colt was. Rebar would gladly waste a shell if he found him. If the kid had any sense he was already long gone by now.“You see anything?” I asked as we passed one of the wagons. It was the one I’d killed Palm with. Lopsided now without it’s other wheel. The one that was lodged in her face. Wheels. You could always count on them when you least expected it.“No, but I’m keeping an eye out.” That eye was probably staring through a scope. Anything it saw would die. “Don’t forget I have two and one of them’s on you. I’m not getting shot in the back.”“How about the side?”There was a loud creak and the cart tilted. Inside the bed was Rebar. On his face was a grin. At his side was a shotgun. Where it was pointed was X.The first shot tore into her side, turning her ribcage into a pile of bleeding flesh, ripped barding, and metal pellets. The second shot got her left hind leg, whipping it out from under her. It would have been kind of funny if part of it hadn’t broken off. The third he got up close for, firing point blank onto her horn. It shattered with a small spark and she let out one of the most soul shattering screams I’ve ever heard. The fourth was more of a mercy than anything. It split her skull wide open. He hit her right on the big X shaped scar on her cheek.I wish I’d had the guts to ask how it got there.The fifth shot he turned on me, but I was already running. It didn’t change a damn thing. Could have almost mistaken it for a kick when the buckshot hit my side. Suddenly my legs just weren’t receiving orders anymore and I tripped. I didn’t feel the impact. Not really.“You know, I’ve always been looking forward to this.” There was a shadow standing over me. It seemed to block out all of the light, finishing the job of the clouds. I coughed. It was red. “And what do you know, it’s even more satisfying than I expected.”There was pressure. A lot of it. Right on my side. It hurt. I tried to scream. Couldn’t manage it. Something cracked.“No point in drawing this out. Let’s just get on with it.” The gun was lowered. Five shots. It held six. Things were going dark. “When you get to hell, tell your mom I said hi.”There was another shot. Not for me. Too quiet. Too far away. There was a sound. It was very wet. Gurgling I think. Disgusting. The pressure stopped. The shadow fell in front of me. Rebar. Hole in his throat. Lots of coughing. Lots of red. He looked mad. Glaring at something. He stopped breathing.Something clacked. Dropped maybe. There was retching. Then crying. I wanted to look. Couldn’t though. Nothing would move. Side still hurt. Things were dark.There was another shadow. Past Rebar. Really far away. Getting closer. Couldn’t see. Didn’t care. Very tired. Things were darker.Crying wouldn’t stop. Made me happy. Didn’t know why. Was it for me? No. Could pretend though. It was nice. Thinking someone cared.Things went black.No more nightmares…

Raider (Origin): You’ve done things most ponies wouldn’t even consider in their darkest nightmares. Because of this, you have no problems causing pain and deal 10% extra damage and gain +5 skill with all weapon types. However, this life has left you socially inept, causing you to lose -20 skill points to speech and barter and lose -1 charisma should your origin be revealed.