Fallout Equestria: Angels Feather

“Her wings are the prayers of the devoted; her sword, the despair of the vile.”

I awoke to Gear kicking my side repeatedly.  “Gwyn! Wake up!”

I grumbled at her something vaguely similar to piss off.  I had walked for another two Hours before finding a small building devoid of life to hide out in.  After everything that happened, I was dead tired.

“Ugh... Are all griffins this lazy?”  She asked, walking off to the other end of the building.  I heard the rattling of her checking lockers and desks.

I had almost fallen back to sleep when I heard a loud "WOAH!" from her direction.

I looked over to see her gazing into one of the footlockers.  “What did you find?”

“Come see for yourself.”  She shot a look back to me and I sighed.  Next time she wants a piggy back ride, I'm going to toss her off a cliff...

I walked across the room slowly, looking into the cabinet she had opened.  There were three assault rifles, two larger pistols, and a sword.  I grabbed said sword and pulled it out of its sheath slowly.  The blade looked untouched by any form of rust.  I shrugged, putting it away and tying it to my side.  “Could fetch a good price in Pegas.”  I loaded the rest of the weapons into my bags and looked toward Gear.  “You still don’t have a gun, do you.”

“Nope.”  She chuckled for a moment, reaching into my saddlebag for one of the rifles.  “Eyup.”  She slung it over her shoulder and grabbed a couple boxes of ammo.

“Do you know how to shoot an assault rifle?”  I asked her with a slight chuckle as she seemed to think and then shake her head.  “You’re an Earth Pony, so it may take some getting used to...  You take the weapon into your mouth with the bite grip.”  I watched as she slung it around and took hold of it.  “And you pull the trigger with your tongue.”  I glared at her while silently thanking the armor I was wearing.  I reached up and pulled the bullet from the armor as she slung it over her back once again.

“Sorry...” she muttered softly, recoiling a few steps.

“Nawh, don’t be... Not the first time I’ve gotten shot.  Hell, if I was a raider, I’d probably be dead, or damn near it.”  That seemed to brighten her spirits a bit.

“That’s good!”  She said happily, walking toward the door.  “Now, lets go find somewhere to sell those extra weapons, shall we?”

I nodded, and we set off to the east once more, looking for any sign of civilization.  What we found ten minutes later, however, wasn’t much in the way of a city...

I looked around at the broken buildings of the small town.  Ponies with bandaged limbs hobbled around, fleeing from the sight of me and Gear.

Finally, one Pony stepped out of a doorway, holding a gun.  “S-stop right there.  We... we’ve had enough of you.  Get out or I’ll sh-shoot!”  He said, holding the gun shakily.

“Woah, woah...  I don’t mean you any harm.”  I said slowly.

He looked at me.  “Yer one of them bandit folk from the prison.”  He said with certainty.

“No, I’m not.  We came this way from Wellspring.  Just looking for my friends parents.”

He looked at us for a few moments, and lowered his weapon.  “Sorry...  Raiders attack here... A lot... With explosives.”

I looked at Gear, and she gave me a nod.  “My friend here is pretty good with explosives, maybe she could help?”  I asked with a hopeful grin.

“Aint no helping against Dynamite...”  He muttered, turning and returning to the building he came out of, before waving us in.

“Well, maybe we could help some other way?” I asked.

“The only thing that’d help is killin all them bandits.”  He said, popping a cigarette into his mouth and lighting it.  “And aint no way that’ll happen...”  He said, sitting against the wall.  “If you did that, it’d be a miracle.”

I looked toward Gear, and she grinned.  “How well armed is your village?”

“We have this shotgun.”  He said, looking at me with raised eyebrows.  “Why?”  He shifted to grab the shotgun again.

“I was going to sell these, but I figure, your town may need them more than me.”  I reached into my pack and pulled the assault rifles and pistols, setting them on the desk.

His eyes widened slightly as he picked up the dual pistols in his telekinesis.  “What’s the catch?”  He asked warily.

“No catch.  Just doing a good deed...”  I muttered.

The door bust open and another pony, Earth, bust in.  “Sheriff.  They’re here again.”  He grumbled.

The unicorn nodded, tossing one of the rifles his way.  “Let’s get to it, then.”  The Earth pony caught it and grabbed the gun, leaving the door again.  “You two, grab those.  Help me give them to the others who want to help.

A quick few minutes, and the weapons were divvied up.  I looked down at Gear once more, who sat with an assault rifle and almost laughed.  It was awkward for her to hold because of its shape, and her lack of experience.

As we stood, an explosion blasted chunks of concrete away from the road in front of us.  I shifted, blocking the rubble from hitting either me or Gear in the face.  As I came back up, Another explosion tossed three of the ponies to my left around, scraping them up pretty badly, but beyond that they looked fine.  Everyone started to open fire as another stick of dynamite was thrown.  It exploded prematurely in the air and Gear let out a laugh around the mouth grip of her gun.

“AHAHA!  Oot tem out of the ky!” She said happily opening fire at another one headed our way.

“Oh, shoot them out of the sky?”  She nodded.  I grinned, and looked toward the group. “Focus your fire on the raiders.”  I spread my wings and took to the air, using the shotgun to blast dynamite out of the air.

Another shot, and another dynamite burst.  I turned a stick of dynamite hit my wing, and fell straight down.  I rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the explosion.

Two more shots, and two more sticks fell.  I watched as a few raiders dropped to the ground below me as the townsfolk shot at them.  I pulled my shogun up and shot the next stick, this one a bit too close.  The explosion sent me reeling, and sent the shotgun plummeting to the ground.  I dove for it, but shots from the raiders kept me from getting to it.

I growled, looking toward the bandits and pulling the blade.  It seemed to sing as I pulled it from the sheath.  I flew forward, spinning to avoid another stick before landing between two raiders.  One wide swing, and both of them fell.

I spun, swinging at another.  He avoided the blade, but I brought my open claw around, catching him in the throat.

I finally caught a count of how many bandits were around me.  I was in the middle of a horde of thirty, at least.  I cut two more down, and started to take to the air, but a shotgun blast caused me to waver and fall to the ground, a stinging pain in my wing.

I continued to fight with the blade, bullets from various weapons hitting my armor.  The guns weren’t penetrating the armor very well, because of disrepair, but I could feel bruising with each hit.

Finally, two earth ponies lunged forward, tackling me and pinning me to the ground.  One stood on my arm, preventing me from moving the blade, while the other stood on my neck.

I could feel life fading, and heard calls in the distance.  “Get up!”  “Don’t die!”  “We need you!”  “You promised to help me find my parents...”

My eyes snapped open and I tossed my head forward, my beak hitting the pony on me in the chest.  I swung my body sideways, clawing the other pony across the chest.

I felt reinvigorated, my blade still singing as it cut into bandits.  I grabbed one bandit by the collar of his barding and flew upward.  I slipped the blade into its holster as he squirmed.  I lit the four fuses I could see sticking out of his pockets and dropped him once again.  He scrambled to toss them away as he fell in the midst of the group, but it did him now good.

A large explosion cleared a good portion of the remaining bandits.  I swooped down, into the smoke and went back to work, cutting through these opponents.  Then, another pony finally tackled me, knocking the blade away and doing her best to keep me pinned with a reverse-levitation magic.  She reared back, and planted her forehooves into my neck.  Then again, then again.  I could feel my breathing growing ragged as she did so.

After the fourth hit, a shotgun blast rang out, but I didn’t move...  Pain was finally catching up with me and I didn’t want to move.  Let the shotgun wielder take me.  As I was contemplating this I saw Gear poke her head into view, grinning past my shotgun.  She set it down next to me and nudged my side.  “Wake up! We’ve beaten them back.  They’re running.”  She said happily.  I looked over to three more raiders running off.  I stood, grabbing my sword and shotgun, returning them to their rifle spots slowly.

“Thank you, Miss.”  The Sheriff said, coming over.  “You gave us the confidence to beat those raiders.  Please, feel free to stay here for the night.  You don’t want to be on the roads when it gets dark...”

I nodded, limping forward.  “Yeah... I could use a nap...”  I mumbled as I followed the Sheriff.

I don’t remember falling asleep, or getting into this building, but I certainly feel pretty refreshed at this point.  I stretched, and realized it was pretty cold where I was.  Almost to the point I could see my breath.

I felt squirming next to me and looked under my outstretched wing.  Gear was curled up, using my wing as a blanket to shield her from the cold.

I was awake, and not going to get much more sleep tonight, but I couldn’t move and leave the filly to the cold.  I sighed, and smiled softly as I curled up around the Filly, blocking her from the cold a bit more as lay there, awaiting the first signs of morning.

Another hour later, the sun was starting to rise, and I felt squirming next to me.  I lifted my wing slightly, and looked at Gear as she yawned, then blinked, then turned red as she hopped to her feet and took a few steps away from me.  “S-Sorry, Gwyn.”  She muttered quickly.

I shrugged.  “Don’t worry.  It was cold last night and you needed to stay warm.  I understand.”

“Yeah... I was cold...”  She muttered, looking away and stretching.  “Well...  Are we done here?” She asked, changing the subject.

“I think so...  I mean, we took out a large portion of the raiders.”

“The sheriff did say that was the largest attack yet, and with most of the numbers they could see on their patrols...”  Gear muttered.  “He’s taking the group we armed to the facility and clearing out what’s left.  They may even move the city into it.  It’s easily defensible, should another attack happen.”

I nodded at her response and made my way out of the building.  As I looked around the town, I saw nopony whatsoever.  I raised an eyebrow as I looked at Gear.

She shrugged.  “They did say they were moving to the Prison as soon as they could...”

“It still seems a bit off to me...”  I muttered.  She nodded in agreement.  “Let’s go check on the prison.”  She nodded again.  I grabbed her and lifted her onto my back.  “Hold on tight.”  And with that, I took to the air, flying in the direction the bandits came from last night.  Hopefully I’d find the prison without too much trouble.

After a few minutes of flying, I landed.  We stood on a rocky outcropping not too far from the prison, but far enough away to remain partially hidden.  I watched for a few moments and saw ponies pacing in the watchtower nearest us.  “It looks like they’re here.”  I muttered, moving out of cover to make my way toward the prison.

“MORE INTRUDERS!”  I heard the shout from the watchtower as a gunshot rang out, chipping the pavement in front of me.

I hopped back, looking at the pony in the watchtower as he took shots at us.  He wasn’t very accurate, luckily.  “Stay low.”  I said to Gear, who dropped down, hiding herself behind the rocks.

I flew up, shifting every few seconds to give the pony a harder target.  I made my way into the watchtower and put my shotgun to his head.  He dropped his rifle, and gulped.  He was dressed like the raiders from last night.  “Where are the villagers?” I demanded.

He growled at me.  “The ones that attacked us?  They’re locked in the cells... Where they belong.”  He said.  His chuckle was cut short by the shotgun blast that took his head clean off.  I hefted him over the wall of the tower, and dropped him to the yard below.

I flew back down, hoisting Gear onto my back again, and bringing her to the watchtower.  As we sat, the raiders below stirred.  “So, not the stealthiest entrance you could have mustered.”

“It was effective.”  I looked at a pair of ammo boxes in the watchtower.  As I attempted to open them, I found they were locked.  “Damnit...”

“I’ve got the ammo boxes.  You go find the Townsfolk.”  Gear said.  I looked back at her and she nodded once.  I sighed and dropped down into the yard, blasting the ponies with my shotgun as I descended.

I walked through the prison yard as three ponies rounded the corner.  They spotted me and brought up their weapons.  One fell quickly to a shot from the watchtower behind me.  The next to my shotgun blast, and the third to my claw.  I quickly checked these three, looking for the key to the cell.  They had nothing.

I grumbled as I entered the main building.  Two stories tall, and with plenty of Steel...  I looked around the nearby room for a few moments, finding just a sleeping unicorn with a small rifle.  I made my way into the room quietly, and pulled the sword.  One quick swing and his head fell aside with a flop.

I checked his side, and found a keyring with a few different rings on it.  After checking a few of them on the nearby door, I was able to enter the main area of the prison, full of Cells.  Most of them were open.  The few that were closed, I could see a few ponies inside.  As I spotted the ponies from the town, I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head.  I turned just in time to see an earth pony with a metal pipe, which she brought across the side of my head with a lot of force.

I woke up quite a bit later, locked into one of the cells.  I could hear sobbing from the corner of the cell.  I moved closer, slowly, and placed a talon on the curled up pony.  The pony jumped, and shakily looked back at me.

“I... Don’t want to be in a cage anymore, Gwyn.”  Gear said to me with so much dread.  I reached out and pulled her into an embrace, wrapping my wings around her for extra comfort.

We sat for a good five minutes, me slowly stroking her mane and telling her everything is going to be okay.  Her, crying and trying to believe what I said.

“How sweet.  The bird has a friend.”  Came a voice from the cell across the way from mine.  “I heard them bringin you two in here... What made you think you could attack this place and not get caught?”

I glared toward him, not giving an answer.

“Fine, don’t say anything...  Just know this.  Most people who find it okay to attack this place don’t see tomorrow.”  I heard a coughing from him.  “Unless you’re lucky enough to survive the firin squad, then you see more days, but they don’t fix you up.  You get to stick here with bullets in your chest...”

“Let me guess, you survived?”

“Barely...  Been holding on for the last few weeks...  It’s hard, let me tell you.”  He coughed once more.  “The only hope anyone has of getting out of here is juicin themselves up on Chems...”

“And where do you expect we get these Chems?”  I asked with a roll of my eyes.  “It’s not like they’re going to just give them to us.”

“No... But I can.”  He muttered.  “I was able to swipe a few chems while they were walking me back from the firin line...”

A small pouch flew from his cell, into my hands.  I opened it and surveyed the contents.  I grinned, looking at Gear.  “I’ve got an idea.”   Somehow, that didn’t seem to cheer her up any.

When I heard the guards coming, I quickly took the chems handed to me.  Dash, Rage, Buck, and Med-X.  Probably not good for my health to be taken all at once, but it was our only shot.  My vision faded for a moment as I heard them unlocking the door.  Every tumbler clicking into place.  When the door was starting to open, I sprinted forward, leaping at the door and knocking the pony behind it away.  I turned, planting a powerful claw strike on the next nearest pony, ripping through his thick leather armor like butter.

The next one rounded his gun at me, and I bent the barrel upward, wrenching it from his grasp and bludgeoning him with it.  I spun, shoving the butt of the assault rifle into another ponys neck, the grotesque snapping signifying he wasn’t going to stand up again.

I charged up the Halls, tearing through every raider I saw with ease.  As I rounded a corner, I came face to face with a shotgun.  My shotgun.  Being held by one of the low lifes that captured me.

I jumped as he fired, taking the brunt of the damage to my chest.  I fell forward, my claws digging into his back and breaking his spine.  I could feel the warmth of the blood seeping from the wound in my chest, but I didn’t stop.  My body didn’t allow it.  I slung the shotgun over my shoulder and continued with my charge.

Rain hit me as I entered the courtyard.  A cool, soothing drizzle that matted my fur and feathers.  The blood on my chest washed away slowly, and I took half a second to breathe in the scent of fallen rain.

Then, I noticed the group of bandits waiting for me.  Ten in all.  One wielding the sword I had when I came in.  I grabbed the one remaining drug on my side, and inhaled it.  The Turbo slowed the world around me, and I could see the water droplets fall in front of me.  I pulled my shotgun and fired two blasts before the clip emptied.  Both aimed at the pony with my sword.

I watched as the ponies in front of me pulled their weapons, and watched as the pellets separated and slowly cleared the distance between myself and the pony with the sword.

I watched as his face was slowly stripped of flesh, and his skull was slowly shattered by the double shot from my shotgun.  The sword flew upward, and I leapt, catching it as the other ponies opened fire.

I spun, cutting through the arm of one pony, then the chest of another.  I saw a bullet moving toward me, and brought the blade up, splitting it in two.  Turbo...  I needed to get more of this.  One by one, the bandits dropped, and I avoided every shot they took with relative ease.

When time sped back up, the last of the bandits fell, and I saw Gear staring at me with an almost fearful expression.  “Gwyn... You’re hurt.  Badly.”

“Nothing a quick stimpack won’t heal...”  I said with a grin as I took the scabbard of the blade from the pony who lost his face.  Fastening it to my side, I took a moment to wipe the blade clean before putting it away.

“You should probably sit down... and take the stimpack...”  Gear said worriedly.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be...”  I paused as my vision blurred and the drugs quickly wore off.  As the Med-X and Buck wore off, I let out a loud roar of pain.  The wound in my chest felt like someone had a claw grasped around my heart and was twisting it.

I collapsed in a heap, trying to remember how to breathe through the pain, when I felt a sharp needle stick into the side of my chest.  Slowly, the wounds felt less painful, and I was able to breathe normally.  I looked down, and saw the wounds slowly close up.

I looked up to see an unfamiliar face standing over me with a grin.  “I have to say, a Juiced Griffin is quite a spectacle.”  He said with a chuckle, helping me back to my feet.

“Names Dixie.  I’m what you could call a Pharmacist from New Pegas.  Those chems I gave you were ones I mixed up myself, but left out my special ingredient, for now.”  He gave me a sly grin.  “If you ever want any more, come look ol Dixie up, and I’ll get you nice and buzzed.”

“I’ll keep that in mind...”  I muttered as I shook slightly, looking toward Gear.  “So.  Let’s see if we can find the townsfolk, shall we?”

“They’re up ahead...  Dixie and I already got them out.”  She said as we walked. “The guards were busy with you, so it seemed pretty easy.”  I nodded and grinned, giving her a soft push.  She stumbled a bit in surprise,  “The hell was that for?”  She asked confused.

“Just a few minutes ago, you were in tears about being caged up again.  Now you’re doing my job for me.

“Your job?  You’re not getting paid for this, you know.”  She said with a grin.

“What, you think Mercs are only in it for the money?”  I asked with a fake offended tone.

“Uh, YEAH.  That’s the point of mercenary work, right?”  She nudged my side with a hoof.

“Well, yes... But that’s beside the point.  I did this out of the kindness of my own heart”  I said, a slight smile crossing my face.  “I mean, these people needed help, right?”

She nodded.  “Just kinda weird, that’s all.  I mean, you found me in a cage because you were looking for someone else, with quite a bit of pay...  Now, you’re helping people out without pay.”  She shrugged.

“You’re right... Lets put these people back in cages and demand payment.”  I said with a grin.

“I’d rather you didn’t.”  The Sheriff said as we rounded a corner, I opened my mouth to respond, but decided against it.  “Looks like you two saved us again.”  He muttered, looking around.  “Wish there was some way I could repay that debt.”

I shook my head.  “No need.  I was passing through anyway.”

He looked at me, almost shocked.  “So, you fought off Bandits, got locked up, and fought your way out to save us a second time... and don’t want anything in return?”  He let out a laugh.  “I never knew Griffins were this crazy.”

I let that comment fall by the wayside, and looked toward Gear.  “Well then.  We should probably head out.”  She nodded, and we made our way toward the north, continuing our search for Gilded Rose.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk: Iron Fist -- Everyone knows that Griffins have razor sharp claws... Now your opponents will know it well.  You do bonus damage with unarmed strikes!