Fallout Equestria: Nearly Civilized

The three venturing ponies make their way out of the once, thriving city; now only a broken shell of the past.  Topaz stops to get a good look back at the derelict city as he thinks about it to himself.  The others trot far ahead of him before he snaps out of his day dream.  Bolt takes a glance at Topaz who is a well distance behind.

“What?  You forget something?” Bolt questioned Topaz.

“Nah, I’m fine.  I was just thinking about home.  About Chance.  Could something like this ever happen to it?”  Topaz replied curiously.

“Homesick already, boy?" Bolt shakes his head slightly, "It depends.  It-” Bolt managed to cough up before Jade cuts it.

“No friggin’ way!  Those walls couldn’t be penetrated by any kind of-”

“What about an aerial raid?” Bolt cuts Jade off this time.

“Well.  Um…  That’s something the Enclave would be able to pull off easily, but we haven’t heard from them in a few years.”

“Enclave?” Topaz asked as he caught up with the other two, “Who are they?”

Jade sighs at the lack of Topaz’s knowledge of other major factions.  “City colts…  Anyway!  The Grand Pegasus Enclave; Enclave for short, is a faction that pretty much rules the skies.  All I know are sketchy stories from the generations before us, but one is about, I think, the Enclave trying close up the skies once.  Right now they’re quiet, haven’t heard nor seen them since I lived with my mother when I was a young colt.”

Topaz brushes one of his wings, “So, it was a faction only composed of Pegasus?”

“Indeed.”

“What would they do if they saw me?” Topaz asked while cocking his head to one side, looking at Jade for an answer.

“I don’t think they would care…  Oh…  Um, I think they do something actually.  What was it…  Brand your arse with a symbol of something…  Then called you a Dish, or something like that…” Jade sputtered out.

“Dashite.” corrected Bolt.

“Ah!   Yes!  Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, smart ass”

Jade scoffed.  “Rude.  I was just jogging up my vague memories of the Enclave and what grandpa told me before he died.”

“You keep bringing up your grandpa, Jade.  Who was he exactly?” Topaz asked with passion.

“The father of my mother, who else?”

Topaz gives a serious look at Jade.

“Oh, okay.  Well let’s start with his name.  His name was Diamond Crosshair, he was a veteran and fought with some ponies he called a family.  He hurt his head when he was a foal, then hurt his head again later in life, and well it really starting affecting him as he got older.  Then soon enough he passed away.  He looked just like you Topaz, as if you were twins.  Wings and everything.”

“Odd.” Topaz looked at Jade.

While in the conversation between Jade and Topaz, Bolt had already moved ahead of the others, then goes prone on the side of a heap of earth to look over.  Bolt beacons the two to move up next to him.

“The dam is in sight, forget what we were looking for already?” Bolt growled at the two.

Topaz and Jade nod and lay down next to Bolt.  The three of them look over at the dam, so far they can only see a few well protected troopers; face wrapped fully in cloth and wear helmets.  The troopers are fully covered, not a hint of coat color is revealed.  Bolt pulls out a pair of binoculars to have a better look.

The markings on the troopers’ clothes bare the NCR insignia on the shoulders and helmet.  Most of the cloth is a tan color but the helmets and other armor parts are a dark gray, and their goggles are tinted a thick red which cover their eyes completely.  There are at least five troopers on the road of the dam top and three more in the towers looking out for intruders.  The last two troopers are near the edge, dumping objects just about as big as them over the sides and into the river.

“Ugh.  My old eyes can’t see that well, can you get a better look, Topaz?” Bolt offered the binoculars to Topaz.

Topaz takes the binoculars from Bolt, “Okay.”

What Topaz sees is that those things the NCR troops are dumping into the river are dead bodies of freshly killed ponies, all of them have no clothes or weapons and the inflicted wounds tell that most of them had an instant death.

“Looks like some one made bad moves with their Ponds…”  Topaz stated as he passed the binoculars to Jade.

“Yea, sucks to be them.  They’re probably just some filthy raiders anyway.” Jade comments as he reaches over to give the binoculars back to Bolt.

“You two go down there yourselves; I think I’ll stay back here unless something goes wrong.  I never really had a liking for the NCR for what they did back at Cherneighbol 25 years ago.”  Bolt said with a grudge between his teeth.

“Sounds bad, but we’ll get to story time later…” Topaz grunted as he hops over the heap of earth and slides down a small hill with Jade alongside him.

It took a couple of minutes for Topaz and Jade to reach the dam for they have trotted casually and slowly towards it trying not to look like they want a fight.  Three of the five that were patrolling the dam top road stopped Topaz and Jade.

“Problem, sir…?” Topaz looked up at the NCR trooper.

“I’m sorry, but the NCR have…  Restricted this area for…  Um…  Safety reasons.  The Remnant Zebra Legion has been spotted around these areas lately.  We advised staying clear.” One of the NCR troopers stated.

“What was with the bodies being dumped in the river?” Jade asked, “I haven’t seen the NCR do something like that before, they looked like unarmed civilians too.” Jade added.

“They were acting suspicious.” The trooper replied.

“Don’t…!  Uh…  Don’t tread on the Ursa!” a trooper in the back shouted in a cheesy tone.

“We had no option but to neutralize them.”

“Maybe they were here for the view and…  Wait…” Topaz stopped himself and looked at the blood spattered on the NCR troopers’ uniforms.  From what Topaz can make out, the blood seems like something that’ll come from a wound on the wearer, not an external source, and by how much blood has been covered up by cloth, it’s still easy to piece together the distortion of the large amounts of spattered blood.  If those were wounds belonging to the current wearer of the uniform, it would’ve been fatal.

Topaz, alerted by those details, slowly reaches for his .45-70 Gov’t magnum, but was discovered rather easily.  The troopers have already drawn their own weapons and raised them at Topaz and Jade, the snipers in the towers have aimed their anti-materiel rifles, laser sights beaming down on the two.  From the look of the movement of the laser sights from the snipers, they are extremely steady.

“Shit…” Topaz said under his breath.

“Thought you can start a little shootout, huh!?” a trooper shouted.

“We are so fucked.” Jade said as he lay on the ground, fore hooves over his head, ready to surrender.

“See.  You’re buddy there has the right idea.  Why don’t you?” a trooper snarled as he took a step closer and bumps Topaz on the chin with the barrel of his gun.

Topaz bared his teeth in anger at the trooper, then obeys and lays on the ground next to Jade, “Where’s Bolt when you need him?” Topaz whispered.

“Excuse me?  There’s another one of you assholes?” a trooper said as he presses the barrel of his gun into the back of Topaz’s head.  Topaz doesn’t answer.

“That was a question, dumb shit!  Is.  There.  Another!?  Huh!?”

While the troopers were too distracted with Topaz and Jade, Bolt had managed to sneak up into one of the dam towers and take out a snipers without being detected.

“Answer me!” the trooper yelled with impatience, “Before I blow out you brains!”

At that moment, Bolt had lined up a shot on the trooper that was harassing Topaz.  The thud of a .50 BMG round goes off through the air, and then the trooper loses something important.  A head.  Topaz looks up and around, the other troopers have scattered for cover and the one next to him has been decapitated,  what’s left the trooper’s head now lay on the pavement in bits.  The fresh, warm blood from the headless body had spurted over Topaz a bit.  With this window of opportunity, Topaz whips out his magnum then rolls onto his back to take any shots at the other troops.  Another .50 BMG round thuds through the air, and the other sniper falls from the tower down the dam’s higher side, though his armor protected him from killing him instantly, he now is sliding painfully and screaming all the way down on the rough concrete slope of the dam, smearing a trail of blood with his decent.  Topaz sees a trooper make the biggest mistake of his life, popping his head over cover to take a peek and in an instant, Topaz pulls off an accurate shot from his .45-70 Gov’t magnum, though he wasn’t ready for the recoil and smacks himself not too hard on the side of his forehead.  The bullet punches right through the goggle and enters through the trooper’s right eye, then exits out the back of his head.  Jade sees the action going on, then gets himself back up and readies his lever-action shotgun.  “Get some!” Jade yells as he charges a trooper who has just exited cover.  Jade, as clumsy as he can be, slips on the gore of the trooper Topaz had just dropped and begins sliding on his flank, hind legs first at the trooper.  The trooper had not expected this move and hesitates, then is tripped over by Jade sliding at full speed into him.  The trooper’s face and the lever-action’s barrel meet first. Jade then discharges the shotgun, showering himself with blood, brains, and face bits.  Bolt with the anti-materiel rifle picks off the last of the troopers with precision.

“Bleh!  Eeuw….  Disgusting!” Jade spat out with disgust while wiping off what he can.

Topaz puts his magnum back in his holster and looks around, “These guys were dressed up as NCR, from what I noticed.”  Topaz coughed out as he searches the trooper who was first to go down.  He rustles through the pockets of the trooper, only to find a few coins that aren’t close to resembling pre-war currency and a strange medallion.

“Jade, Bolt, have you seen something like this before?” Topaz asked as he held up the medallion.

Bolt is the first to see it and react, “What the fuck?” Bolt rushed over to check out the medallion.  He snatches it from Topaz in a rush.  “This the fucking Zebra Legion’s!”

“Never seen them play like this before.” Jade added.

Bolt trots over to the trooper with the least mutilated head, Topaz’s kill.  Bolt removes the face cloth and goggles.  It’s a zebra.

“That concludes my answer that they weren’t NCR…  I saw the blood on their uniforms, wasn’t caused by blood splattering from another victim.” Topaz noted.

Suddenly, the zebra Bolt unmasked grabs Bolt by the hoof.  He also holds some kind of detonator.

“For…  The Caesar…” the zebra said with his final breath, then sets off the detonator.

“Shit!” Bolt tears free of the zebra’s grip and knock the detonator away, but it was too late.

Loud explosions can be heard near the bottom of the dam, then the side of the dam fails and water roars through the broken damn.  The three ponies lose their balance.

“Fuckin’ A!” Topaz shouts and he falls onto the ground.

The sniper from earlier had survived the painful slide down the dam and lays at the bottom of the dam as soon he is back onto his feet, he is crushed below the waist by a large piece of dam wall then swept away by the surge of water.

The explosives that have been rigged only have blown a hole in the dam, making traveling still possible, but as a power source, it has been ruined.

“We lost the dam…” Topaz said in sorrow as get got back up and looks at Bolt.  Then slowly trots over to the edge of the dam to watch off of the water once contained flow freely further out into the wastelands.  “I’m ready to go back home…”

“Wait.  Shhh…” Jade holds out a hoof to shush Topaz.  “You hear that?”

“Hear what…?” Topaz replied weakly.  Jade doesn’t respond, he just stands like a statue, focused on what he can hear.  As time passes, a low rumble becomes clearer, even Topaz can hear it now.

Jade’s ear twitches, “340 horsepower, 9-cylinder radial piston gasoline engine…”

“You can tell that much from a simple rumble?” Topaz pondered.

Jade doesn’t answer Topaz’s curiosity, instead he makes a dash for cover.

“What are you-…” Topaz stopped when the source of the rumbling visible at the other end of the dam. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Tank!” Jade shouted at the top of his lungs.