Fallout Equestria: Without a Spark

The dark grey sky was there to meet my eyes when they slid open. Attempting to clear my throat, a croak escaped as if I had been gargling gravel. Only one cure for feeling like shit when you wake up; large amounts of coffee. I ripped open a pouch of the freeze-dried stuff and emptied it into the half-empty water bottle from the night before, and downed a swallow. The expected bitterness sent a shiver through my body that got my eyes open.

After a quick look-around of my camp and finding no undesirable neighbors, I got out my portable radio and flicked it on. It was making some funny noises, nothing a good thump or two couldn't fix. Some hardtack washed down with cold coffee provided my breakfast as I listened to the morning broadcast.

"Hello everypony, it's DJP0N3 here. Got some news for ya.

As always, don't go snooping around things left on the side of the road. It's probably a trap. Don't travel if you don't have to, and if you have to, do it while well-armed, or walk with a guarded caravan. Stay safe.

Time for the good stuff. We got a report of a grey stallion helping a family by New Appleloosa. Our source said he came from nowhere, gunned down no less than seven raiders on open ground, and escorted the family to safety, all on a broken leg. Nice shootin' Grey, hope I'll hear about you again.

An excavation on the outskirts of Manehatten turned deadly last night when their mine caved in. Two brothers held up a loose support beam long enough for the rest of the workers to make it to safety, sacrificing themselves in the process. There are still good ponies out there folks, never forget that.

Several large figures have been seen moving around south of Ponyville, and an exterminated raider pit was discovered several miles north of Old Appleloosa. Coincidence? I don't think so. Something's out there kiddies, it's big, it's bad, and it can tear a dozen raiders to shreds. Maybe a wandering group of Hellhounds, maybe some bored Steel Rangers, maybe a few alicorns. Steer clear and stick to established caravan routes if you have to travel.

That concludes the morning show, here's Sweetie Belle, singin' about--"

Didn't care for Sweetie Belle. Nice enough voice, but I stopped listening to it long ago. I packed up camp and resumed my journey west. I should be at Ponyville by mid-afternoon, depending if anything was waiting for me between here and there.

As it turned out, the only things between me and Ponyville were memories and the ground ahead.

"Hey, Wire!"

"Kinda busy right now Punch!" the blue-coated unicorn shouted back. The second floor room we were in was nothing more than a large empty square space with a circular staircase in the far corner, plugged with broken furniture.

"Why did the raider pony have trouble talking?" Punch asked, grinning as he held himself on the floor under his window.

"Dammit, why!?" Wire whipped her head up and let out two bursts from her chopped-down assault rifle.

"He was a little horse!"

The mare ducked behind cover as a stream of bullets sprayed through her window. "Celestia dammit Punch, that was fucking terrible! Save your puns for later, I'm tryin' to shoot ponies! Judge, you get that dynamite-launcher working yet?"

"Fuckin' thing won't cock!"

"Lemme see it." An orange glow enveloped the crossbow-like weapon, and the draw string finally clicked back and locked. "Just needed a little more pull."

"Thanks." I placed a dynamite stick in the holder, and quickly peeked outside.

Six or seven raiders were firing from positions in two demolished houses opposite us, making used of destroyed furniture for cover. Another three were in the street, and three more were directly under me trying to break through the front door. I let a dynamite stick fly into the ones standing like idiots in street. I ducked before it detonated, only hearing the explosion. There was a wet splatter of pony guts combined with the high-pitched shrieking of a dying mare.

I hit the floor as the raiders opened up on me, bullets tearing through the walls and showering me with splinters. A few rounds hit my leather barding but failed to penetrate, passing through the wall but stopped by the ballistic plates. "Nice shot Judge!" Punch called from my right, priming a grenade. With a toss it sailed through the air and landed in one of the collapsed buildings, the explosion sending the entrenched raiders scrambling. "Ha! How do ya like them apples!"

Wire let out another burst from her levitating assault rifle. "Where are the others?"

As she ducked down, I popped up, revolver in mouth, and fired a pair of shots. "Hell if I know, maybe they're stuck like us."

"Hope not," Punch replied, firing his automatic through his window as I dropped back to cover. "Basket and Doc ain't much for fighting, Snow's alright but he can't hit shit."

"True, but they can get out of anything," Wire replied, shaking her orange mane free of debris. "Doc's got that knock-out needle gun of his, and Basket has that flash-spell." A thoughtful expression came over her face as I shot twice more. "Wonder if this'll work." She levitated a mine out of her saddle-bags and floated it outside of her window. Priming it, she let the round device drop.

A quickening beeping filled with air alongside gunshots before a gut-wrenching explosion came from below. An increase of bullets tore through the walls, sending slivers and shrapnel flying around us. "I don't recall raiders ever being this well-armed," Punch thought aloud.

"Must've taken 'em from a caravan," Wire offered in return. "I don't want to know what'll happen if the whole settlement gets armed like these mooks." Her assault rifle spit more rounds downrange, clattering with the music of an automatic weapon.

Punch went back to firing as I tried to load a speed clip into my .357. "GET AWAY FROM THE WALL!!" I felt a force yank me towards the center of the room when a bang blew the outer wall inwards on us.

"What the fuck--" I tried to get up and collapsed on my side when a pain exploded in my chest. "I'm hit!" My companions resumed firing out of the jagged hole behind me as I lay facing the blocked stairwell. And that detonated with flash of brown and grey right in my face, leaving me deafened and half blind. With some effort I managed to draw my spare .357 from a foreleg holster and waited for a raider to pop his ugly head up through the hole.

A black stallion did just that and I blew his brains across the wall. After a few more shots from my friends, the world finally quieted, the off-white smoke of gunpowder drifting through the air and stinging my nostrils. The throbbing pain in my side was still growing, and when I turned to look I noticed a piece of wood roughly the size of a wagon axle impaling me through my chest and back.

"Uh, Judge? I think you got a splinter," Punch tried to joke while sifting through our saddle bags.

"Yeah," I gasped. Breathing was becoming difficult, like a Hellhound was sitting on me. "Stings a little bit." The pain hadn't hit me full force yet; there was no way getting impaled hurt this little.

"He's losing a lot of blood. That's gonna have to come out before we can give him a healing potion, or else the flesh might heal into the wood," Wire said.

"This is, gonna hurt, isn't it?" The blue unicorn nodded. "Med-X?"

She shook her head. "Punch, get me a hacksaw, then keep watch in case they come back." Punch tossed her one and covered the downstairs entrance from the stairwell. With the saw in her telekinetic grip, Wire made quick work of one protruding side, carefully holding the wood steady so it wouldn't vibrate too much. She offered me a leather strap from her saddlebag to bite on; I accepted gladly. "Doc should really be doing this... Okay, in five, four--" She yanked. I screamed through the strap, jaw clenching. Warm blood started flowing over my hide and pooled beneath me. All I could see was white and black spots, my chest going through spasms as I coughed and choked. She wrenched my mouth open with magic and poured a healing potion down my throat, and part of another flask into the hole. A sick gurgling came from the wound when I tried to breathe, but I could feel the flesh slowly knitting itself back together and the pressure in my chest leaving.

The pain was rapidly retreating, but I couldn't do much other than lay there and wait for the potions to heal. "Thanks Wire." She smiled in return, observing the healing.

"What I tell ya Judge? Just a splinter."

"Punch?" I asked.

He trotted over in front of me. "Yeah?"

Laughing, I looked him square in the eye. "Fuck you."

The outskirts of Ponyville were drawing near; dilapidated houses and stores stood a silent vigil over the empty streets. There was no foliage for me to move up unnoticed, but I couldn't spot any raiders standing watch. Moving slowly, deliberately, I crossed the open distance to the nearest house. Nopony shot at me, but they were here. I couldn't see them, but I could feel their eyes on me. .357's sat in holsters on both my forelegs, each loaded with six bullets. The raiders still didn't attack; the sight of a lone pony just walking into their home might've unnerved them. Or they were waiting in an ambush.

When I turned down an alley to get further into town, two mares and a stallion staggered out in front of me. The red stallion held a sledgehammer in his mouth, and each mare had a pool cue. Extremely filthy linen clothed them, random metal scrap sewn on around the shoulders. Their eyes were dilated and they had a bad case of the shakes. The stallion stumbled forward, pathetically trying to lift the sledgehammer high enough to swing. Drawing my right revolver, one shot into the slow-moving pony's chest dropped him on the spot. He wasn't dead, but I doubted he'd get up again.

The other two were glancing at each other and backpedaling. Snapping my head to her, the left one dropped similar to her colt-friend. The last dropped the pool cue, trying to turn and run. She tripped and fell, still scraping along the ground in an attempt to get away from me. I walked up beside her, and she turned to look at me.

Her eyes, while a light-blue, were severely bloodshot and were watering up. Her jaw quivered as she stared up at me. "P-please..."

A little pressure in the right spot is all it takes to block a major artery. Her thrashing was weak; I held my hoof on her neck until she stopped convulsing.

My gaze moved from one side of the street to the other, scanning for more raiders. The feeling of being watched went away, and the buildings were silent once more. A smashed marble fountain sat in the wrecked town center. I stopped before it, still scanning the open plaza. Easily the largest structure in sight, the circular town hall towered over the area. The top levels had fallen in, but the lower parts stood strong. Large windows were boarded over, the glass being blown out over two centuries before. Around the circular structure, dozens upon dozens of ragged teddy bears hung on barbed wire like tinsel. It was stretched from arch to arch, nailed in above windowframes and the main doorway. Where raiders would adorn their home with body parts, Punch decorated with children's toys.

The doors were shut, rotting and soft but still standing. I pushed them open, and spotted a blue-maned yellow pony sitting facing a wall, his back to me, in a small pile of crushed syringes. "Hello, Judge."

"Hello, Punch. We have business."

"I know we do," he sighed, still looking at the blank grey wall. "Why can't you understand what I'm doing?" he asked slowly. I stared at the back of his head, refusing to respond. "I'm making ponies happy, Judge. They smile and they laugh."

"And they die."

"But they die happy. They die looking at something that makes them feel good. Probably the only happiness they'll ever know in the Wasteland. We all have to die sometime, Judge." His voice was full resignation, of somepony who has given up completely. "Might as well do it smiling. It's better than what most get."

"What happened to the Punch that would go out of his way to make fillies and colts smile? The pony that always made sure Wire felt good about herself? That made Doc feel better when a surgery didn't turn out well? The pony that was always there to make us laugh no matter what?"

"He's dead. I tried and I tried, but the laughter always stopped after I left, and the misery of their lives continued. This way, they die happy. They'll be smiling forever." Punch turned to face me, his orange eyes wide and tired, and his movements unsteady and weak. His mouth was plastered in an unnerving sick grin. He looked at me with those same sad eyes, the smile slowly vanishing. "We were friends once, Judge. All of us. You, me, Wire, Taffy, Snowflake, and Basket. Can you kill me? Can you end our friendship? I would like to see them again, though."

I drew my revolver, aiming steadily.

"I see. I suppose I've had too many chances already. Goodbye, Judge. I just wanted everypony to be happy. But... Can you tell them I loved them?"

I nodded once, and the sad look on his face melted away, replaced by a tired smile. Not the grin from earlier, but an earnest smile.

"I... I'm ready. Goodbye, friend."

For the first time in two years I found my resolve shaking. My eyes were starting to water, and I knew I had to get it over with quickly; there's no forgiving him for what he'd done. Goodbye, friend.