Fallout Equestria: Nearly Civilized

Topaz had his back pressed against what cover he could salvage at the base of one of the towers; the tower Bolt was up on top of laying face down while using his fore hooves to shield his head from debris in the sniper’s nest.  Jade was across the road from Topaz, bending over to hide himself behind the low wall the dam provides.  The tank fired off its powerful 76mm cannon, letting off a thunderous boom that could echo off in the distance.  The loader of the tank was skilled and seemed to reload quickly, leaving little to no time for those who are pinned down to make a move out of cover.  The gunner was accurate as well with able to snap to a target and keep on target judging by how the gunner seems to jump his aim between Topaz and Jade and hit the same area each time.  The tank was oblivious to Bolt and was more interested in blowing Topaz and Jade to pieces.  Jade takes a quick peek over the low wall to see the tank, but drops right back to prone as he is showered in debris from the low wall which is soon to fall apart, though that glimpse of the tank was enough for Jade to remember something.

“Hey, Topaz!  Have you seen this kind tank before?  I swear I have!” Jade hollered over the noise to Topaz.

“Why…!?  You wanna know what kind of tank you get blasted a part by!?” Topaz replied unsteadily, his body scrunched against the tower’s base.

“No!  I think…” Jade gets the vague memory processed, “I know!  We ran into each other at Vanhoover!  Remember those striped apart tanks there?”

Topaz thinks for a moment, “I crawled inside one of those!  Took a loom around and…  The armor from what I remember wasn’t that thick!  13 millimeters at most!  Seems pretty thin for a tank!  And…  Wait…” Topaz looks up at the top of the tower, “Bolt!  You still alive up there!?”

“I think it hasn’t spotted me yet!” Bolt replied as quietly as he could through the noise, though it wasn’t much of a difference compared to Topaz and Jade’s shouting.  “Why?”

“Just checking up on you….!  I also need something!”

“Like what?”

“That anti-material rifle you got!  Throw it down to me!”

“Alright, just don’t poke your eye out, Topaz!” Bolt said as he adjusted himself so he has the ability to crawl to the other side of the sniper’s nest where Topaz is at the bottom of.  “Alright!  Dropping it…  Now!” Bolt passes the anti-materiel rifle over the cover the sniper’s nest provides.

The anti-materiel smacks down on the ground next to Topaz’s hind legs.  He proceeds to pick it up and checks the chamber.  Topaz takes a deep breath, closes his eyes and waits for a few seconds.

“Topaz, bud!  This wall isn’t gonna hold up much longer and soon enough all I’ll be left of is my ass!” Jade shouted as another 76mm shell shook the foundation he lays on.

Topaz opens his eyes, makes a small lean so the front of his face doesn’t leave cover.  His heart is pounding like drum beats from a festive parade, everything he saw, everything he heard, all seemed slowed down.  This action seemed like forever, what ever it was doing, it made him wonder if this is what an adrenaline rush was like, but what really caught his attention was how fast he was able to react, able to see the 76mm shell be slower than before and actually see the detail like how it was an armor-piercing-composite-rigid round.  Topaz bolted out of cover while the turret of the tank turned to Jade’s position again.  He took a quick look down the scope of the anti-materiel, aimed it where he predicted the gunner seat was on the turret, then pulls off a shot.  The shot made a satisfying ringing noise off the turret, but what really happened was a disappointment.  That .50 BMG round had bounced off the turret, leaving a small scrap of where the bullet had made impact.  At this moment, the tank gun had turned back to Topaz, who was now completely exposed in the open, unable to reach cover again.  Topaz closed his eyes tightly, waiting for the moment to happen, accepting his mistake.

A more high-pitched gunshot rang out, still filling up the air with a thud like what a .50 BMG could do, but this one seemed different.  Topaz gasped and fell onto his rear.  The tank had not fired yet to his surprised, instead, it began to back up to retreat.  Topaz wondered a bit what had happened, did he accidently discharge the anti-materiel rifle he possessed, or was it someone else?  Topaz brushed these wonders aside and snaps his attention back to the retreating tank and aimed his anti-materiel rifle again, but this time he aimed for where the driver is seated, the front side of the tank’s hull, guaranteed where the 13 millimeters of armor was.  Topaz took a deep breath, and then lets off another shot.

The results of Topaz’s shot at the driver’s seat and punched right trough the front hull armor, and now the tank seems to traverse uncontrollably to the right.

“Hphm.” Topaz smirks while he stows the anti-materiel rile on his back using the sling it came with and gallops over to the tank.  “All that leaves is loader and maybe a radio operator if they were organized.” Topaz beacons over at the others, who then exit there cover and embrace the silence.

“Good shooting, Topaz…  You saved my life.” Jade exhaled out in slight exhaustion.

“To be honest, the life-saving shot wasn’t me…  My shot only ricochet off of the turret.” Topaz said with an honest tone.

“Then who was it?” Jade turns his head to Topaz with a look of unease.

Topaz only shrugs.

As the three approach the tank, the turret begins to traverse and aim its gun once again.

“Get down!” Topaz shouts as he tackles Jade to the ground.

Bolt was just as fast as Topaz in reacting and hits the dirt as well.

Another shot from an unknown source, crackles through the atmosphere around the three, and the sound of someone’s gore splattering against the metal interior can be heard clearly from the tank’s open cabin turret.  No scream though, possibly an instant death.

Topaz gets up and helps Jade up to his feet; Bolt gets up on his own.

“Everypony okay?” Topaz asks in a slightly worried tone.

“Yea…” Jade arches his back, which makes a few popping sounds, “Boy, you’re heavier than I thought, Topaz.”

“Must be all my muscle…!” Topaz boasted.

“Nah, you’re no pure.  Maybe it’s just a combo.” Jade smirked.

Topaz scoffed as a response.

“Get you’re skirts lowered, boys.  We still have to find out who fired off those rounds…  Who knows?  It might be some kind of looter looking for a good ride to use and right as we step into that tank, he or she would turn on us.” Bolt said with a strong feeling of discomfort and caution.  “Look around, we might find them.  That’s when we can talk all we want.”

Topaz and Jade obey Bolt’s suggestion and search around a bit.  Jade studies the holes caused by the shot on the tank’s turret, Topaz covers the other end of the dam.

“Huh, only thing I see here are that these hole where caused by some serious firepower.” Jade said with pride of his investigative talent.

“Like how much firepower?” Topaz asked.

“We’re looking at around…  14.5 millimeter rounds.  In inches, that’s a .57 round.  No doubt bigger than the average .50 BMG.  It’s specifically anti-tank.  Well, unless you want to get messy with anti-personal.”

“What are the ponies inside wearing?”

Jade clambers higher onto the tank’s turret and takes a peak inside, “Sports equipment?  Red cloth…  Weird.  They kinda look like early century warriors?  All of them are zebras.  Legion, correct?”

“Sounds like them.” Bolt said with a disgusted tone.

Topaz continues searching, straying away from the tank before coming across a trail of small, brightly colored objects, “Pills?” Topaz wondered as he follows the trail of pills. Why would someone just leave these out here?.  He continues following the trail of pills which appear to be showing the path to somewhere or something.  This puts Topaz a little bit on edge as he keeps a hoof on his magnum holster.  The trail of pills soon stops at a ladder leading of one of the dam towers at the other end of the dam.  Topaz looks up and the ladder and begins to climb up.

When he reaches the top, he notices a rather large looking rifle with a scope mounted on it.  This rifle simply rests against the low wall along with a box of ammunition besides it.  Topaz slowly approaches the rifle and ammo, then pick up the ammo box and reads the label of it to himself.

It reads 14.5 x 112mm.  Topaz reminds himself of the rounds that Jade said were used on the tank.  Topaz opens up the box to see how much was left; it was a full box of twenty 14.5 x 112mm bullets, and a folded up piece of paper.  Topaz takes the paper and unfolds it, revealing that it is a note.  It reads:

‘You barely know how to take on an M18 mobile gun carrier.  You’ll need this anti-tank rifle for later down the roads, the roads where we might meet again, maybe even face to face for once.  –Pill’.

Topaz thought to himself of who this pony was, but obviously pony has no intentions to hurt him or the others.  Topaz slings the anti-tank rifle over his should and hops down the tower to rejoin Jade and Bolt.

“Where have you been?  Doing naughty stuff behind closed doors?” Jade teased.

“You’re sick…” Topaz said boldly, “But, I did find this while I was away.” Topaz pulls the anti-tank rifle out to show Jade and Bolt.  “It’s rather heavy…  But I think I found the source of 14.5mm shells.

“Did you see who shot the two geeks in the turret?” Bolt asked.

“No, but I know his, or her, name.  Not sure if it’s a real name, but it was on a note that I found in the box of ammo.  Who ever did this goes by Pill.  I guess that’s what was up with the trail of pills.”

“I think we’re done here.  Right, Topaz?” Bolt reminding Topaz of the task he used to have.

Topaz sighs and looks over the high end of the dam, to see the destruction caused by the unexpected Zebra Legion encounter and set up, “Yea…  I’m done here.  Let’s go home and wash up.

“Don’t tell me you ate one of those pills thinking it’ll give you super powers.” Jade said in an amusing manner.

“I’m not that dumb, might be some sort of poison.  Plus it was on the ground for more than five seconds, obviously.” Topaz replied with hesitation.  “I could go for some hot water right about now…”

Topaz, along with the other two, turn to hoof it back to Chance.

“Oh, you don’t need any super-powers, Mr. Spectrum.  You already got your very own.” Overmare G. Lightning chuckled lightly under her breath and puts on a smirk.  She lowered her binoculars to look over the rest of what’s left of the Vahoover dam.

“Might as well call it a bridge now, not much of it can be used for Chance anymore.  Oh, but you still have so much to learn about yourself, Mr. Spectrum…”  Lightning, whiles still keeping her smirk on, taps a few buttons on her Pip-Buck and begins to speak into it, “Call in a vertibird for specialist squad U-55, lets let Mr. Spectrum experience a… different kind of… hot-water.”

A stallion at the different end of the communication line speaks. “We are sending the vertibird to the coordinates we have received, ma’am.  U-55 will arrive shortly.”

Lightning nods and closes the communication lines.  “This is a small world after all…  Maybe Mr. Spectrum can find more ponies JUST like him.  The real games and tests for survival begin here~… in the Equestrian Wastelands…” Lightning tilts her head back a bit and lets out a louder, more antagonistic chuckle, then trots slowly off, “You’ll learn a lot on this test, Mr. Spectrum, but don’t worry.  We’ll be keeping an eye on you.”

<><><><><><

Jade’s ear twitches a bit before stopping right outside of Vanhoover.  Topaz and Bolt notice this behavior and slow down to look back at Jade.

“What?” Bolt said quickly at Jade.

Jade doesn’t budge; instead he continues to shift his ears around, listening intently.

“Can we hurry this crap up already?” Topaz asked impatiently.

“I hear a vertibird… haven’t heard one in a long while.  Don’t you two hear it…?” Jade said in a rushed tone.

“Sorry boy, getting’ a bit old for that kind of A grade hearing…” Bolt shook his head.

“I think I hear it too… it’s getting closer…” Topaz, who’s now also focused on listening for the vertibird.

“Look!” Jade snaps to the vertibird turning to the group and points at it, “Oh shi- It’s coming for us!  Go!  Move!”

“What fuck!  Isn’t a tank enough for one fuckin’ day!?” Topaz said as he breaks runs for it deeper into the dead city.  Jade and Bolt follow Topaz.

The vertibird can only get closer to the three galloping ponies and is dead on their tails.

“Over here!  To that intersection!  We can split up from there, that vertibird can’t get all of us!” Jade huffed.

“Are you crazy!?” Topaz exclaimed.

“Jade might be right on this, there’s only one.  It’ll be hard to track all of us!” Bolt puffed out in an agreeing tone with Jade’s idea.

“Fine!  Get ready!  I’m going left!” Topaz assured.

“Goin’ right!” Jade announced with heavy breaths.

“That leaves me with… straight down the road!” Bolt wheezed.

The three ponies break formation and go the ways they said they would.  Topaz makes a heavy turn to the right and loses some of his balance, but regains it almost immediately.  The vertibird turns right and keeps a beat on Topaz.  Topaz mutters some words to himself as he keeps turning at any intersection to try and loose the vertibird, and just as his problems can get any worse, another vertibird cuts him off on a road between intersections.  Topaz turns back to see the other vertibird.  He wheezed a bit while dying for breathes, he was completely exhausted and dehydrated, and knowing he couldn’t get away, he laid down on his side and rested the best he could.  The two vertibirds that had trapped him landed nearby and ponies suited up in a commando-like fashion, full-face helmets with red circles as eyes conceal their identities.  They put a mask around exhausted Topaz.

The smell of the gases were familiar, like those before he got surgery on his right hind leg after he injured it badly during combat training a few years back.

Soon enough, Topaz was out cold and began dreaming of the day he would return home to his place at Chance, live a normal life, get some female company and start a family, but somewhere in that dream, he knew it would never happen.  He missed the opportunity for that life.