Fallout Equestria : Steel Rain

by Midnight_Rain

Rating: teen
Tags: Sad, Princess Luna, Changelings, Original Character, Queen Chrysalis, Random, Crossover, Zecora, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark
Length: 13539

Gunner and His squad wake up 200 years after the Megaspells in an unforgiving wasteland to find the on who had betrayed them in the past.

A camera zoomed in on four pods as they hissed open revealing four ponies from an era of heartache and war. This is serpent squad a group of highly trained soldiers. My team from long ago most people today don't know the things we did the stuff we seen but im just rambling. My name is Gunner im the leader of my squad this is our journey please sit a spell and remember things use to be worse.
Note i am going to be editing this story so the chapters will be down for a while

Published 2013-03-27 04:40:02 UTC
Last updated 2014-04-30 09:40:13 UTC

Wake up

Wake up

Wake Up

Being frozen for two hundred years takes a toll on your body.

Backblast, myself, Longeye and Ghost stepped gingerly out of our pods. Longeye went to step forward but instead kicked the body of a long dead soldier. Upon further inspection it turned out to be the body of Stardancer our medic she was a good mare. Always kind and smiling.

After a moment of silence for our fallen comrade and a few tears. We then walked to the lockers on the other side of the room there were five lockers one for each of us. All of them were locked but Stardancer's which was standing wide open with a note and her belongings. The note read. Gunner, please find Wellington and the APC i have programmed him to help you find Spector. Assuming he's still alive after I write this love Stardancer P.S use the supplies in my locker to help you. I looked down to find a box with enough medical supplies to keep us for a while. I split up the supplies so that each of us got three Rad-Aways and four Rad-XS and two healing potions and one super healing potion. I then closed her locker and went to mine and opened it.

As I looked through my locker my eyes landed on my combat armor it was a mute grey metal attached to an olive drab suit with multiple pockets for storage. The pip buck that was attached to the left foreleg was a 3300 model a top of the line model for special ops soldiers. Then i looked towards my IF-240 Light Machine Gun with a two hundred fifty round drum magazine and a red dot sight. It fires a .308 round so I can share my ammo with any of my teammates who use a .308 rifle or machine gun. I looked over and seen Longeye had grabbed her sniper rifle in her magic her rifle is an IF-700 built specifically for unicorns. She also has a sneaking suit that lets her blend into any environment. Ghost who is next to me and already dressed and equipped in her gear grabbed her SMG in her mouth and loaded it. Her SMG is an IF-45 for close encounters.

Backblast has a suit of power armor that has a built in minigun and a 90 mm missile launcher it is painted black with a red stripe up the front of his helmet and down his back. I put my helmet on and my E.F.S came up and registered my team as blue and four hostiles. I must have looked surprised because Longeye looked at me a said in a hushed voice.
"What is it Gunner."
" There are hostiles on my E.F.S.," I told her.
She then stalked away in the direction of the hostile marks a few minutes later she found the hostile marks it was just a few radroaches. After dealing with them Longeye came back and I brought up the lay out of the Complex. The map showed us at the bottom of the facility. Medical was a floor above us and above that was the armory, then there were the offices and living quarters above that. the motor pool was above ground.

"Well this is what we are gonna do." I said.
"We are going to go to medical, then to the armory after that we clear the upper levels and find Wellington , Get the APC and find Spector." they saluted and finished packing their things. on the way out of the cryo chamber I heard giggling and laughter behind a doorway into the hallway. I stopped and Backblast motioned for the door i just nodded.he stepped up to the door and it slid open to reveal two ponies covered in blood with yellow eyes. When the door opened it caught their attention they just looked at us and started to giggle and laugh insanely, They started towards us. Since Backblast was in front he spun up his minigun and poured a torrent of lead at one of the giggling ponies killing him instantly. What I didn't realize he had a small caliber pistol and was firing at me before he was killed.

The other pony rushed Backblast with a kitchen knife but she tripped and fell over her ally. While she was falling her knife hit the shoulder plate of Backblast's armor and broke. Backblast quickly dispatched her with a quick hoof stomp to her head.
With them taken care of the walk to medical was uneventful. As we entered the room it looked pristine as if we walked in two hundred years ago. All of the cabinets were locked with card readers. Ghost opened all the cabinets with the card she got from Stardancer's locker. Inside were medical kits that should put us ahead of any medical problems or injuries. I decided to hand one to everyone in our group and hold onto the rest for trade if possible as I looked around the room my eyes landed on a cabinet marked. 'Squad Leaders'. I walked up and swiped my ID card and it popped open and I pulled out a little box marked with my name and opened it. It was full of memory orbs, my memories I had removed. I decided to destroy them, I did not want my squad to see my past failures and all of my mistakes and the betrayal of Spector. I went into the next room opened the box placed a hand grenade in it and pulled the stem and walked out of the room.

When the grenade went off the orbs were destroyed. I just erased my past forever.

Author's Note

Kkhat for the original
Hasbro for MLP Fim
This is my first time writing a fic so constructive criticism is welcome
Most of the firearms in this fic are based of US military weapons
preread by Unoriginal

Moving On

Moving On

After I had Destroyed my memory orbs. I felt a weight lift off of my shoulders. My squad just stared at me with a confused expression.

"What are you looking at ." I grunted. They just resumed what they were doing. I just sat in the corner with my eyes closed thinking about Spector. the pony that had betrayed us and locked us in cryogenic sleep. I'll never forget what he said.

====ooOOOoo===

"Gunner, you have to understand. I am doing this for your own good. this war was just a mistake but I will make it better."
"NO". I shouted as he closed the blast door locking me and my team in the cryo tubes. Then the world just faded away.
When I awoke to Ghost shaking me. I looked up at the light grey mare with a silver mane. I always wondered why they called her Ghost.

====ooOOOoo===

"What is wrong". I asked she just stared at me with a concerned look on her face. Longeye said from the corner of the room "You started thrashing and yelling while you were sleeping...Sir."

" I was." I asked in confusion. I was not aware I had fallen asleep. I looked to Backblast who just nodded. I then noticed he was out of his armor on a chair with Longeye wrapping his shoulder and chest with bandages. Did he get injured while I had fell asleep.

"Backblast" I said worried. He looked towards me with a small smile.

" Its nothing Gunner just a scratch, Ill be fine what were you dreaming about." He said in his drawl. I looked over to my friend who has been with me for years. He was a a deep shade of grey that looked almost black with a white mane with red stripes through it. He always loved explosives and things that caused them.

" I was dreaming about the day that Spector had betrayed us." I told him my voice dripping with venom at the mere mention of his name. "Why were you thinking about what happened that day Gunner." Ghost asked in a hushed tone.

"Trying to figure out what he meant by I will fix it." I replied.

We needed to find Wellington. According to Stardancer's note he knows where Spector is. I asked everyone what we should do and we decided that now was the time for us to move towards the armory. There has to be something there for us to use.

According to the map the armory is one level above us . As we were walking through the hallways. I noticed that the security robots were nowhere to be found. They had to have been disabled or destroyed. I knew I shouldn't have thought that because as soon as I got around a corner a bright pink flash flew past my face signaling that I had found a active turret.
"Damn."
I stumbled and fell backwards into Ghost who eeped. Longeye laughed at us while Backblast just destroyed the turret with a missile. While I was untangling myself from Ghost, Longeye snatched my keycard and tossed it to Backblast who was opening the door the turret was guarding. It was the security office.
"Sorry about that Ghost." I said sheepishly
"Its fine Gunner. im okay and so are you that's all that matters." she said with a small blush on her cheeks.
as I looked through the room I noticed it had a bank of monitors along the back wall and a group of lockers lining the left wall and a desk next to the right wall with a terminal on it and a few stacks of paper.

Longeye went straight for the monitors. Ghost helped Backblast with the lockers while I walked over to the desk. The terminal was in standby and was logged on. On it were a few security reports about some rats. Another log had my name put on it. The author was Spector. I decided to open it up and found a message for me saying.
"Gunner, I know you will find this when you wake up. The reason I left the turret on was to keep undesirables out of the office you are in for two reasons. One so you can find this and two to give you something. In the locker by the door is a map and my assault rifle Punishment.and several clips of ammunition for it but I suspect you already know what it shoots if you forgot it's .308 rounds and has an incendiary enchantment and a scope. With much luck Spector"

"Damn it." I smacked the terminal and the locker by the door opened revealing a map and Punishment. Ghost walked silently over to the locker and examined it for booby traps. When it was clear I grabbed the map and gave it to Ghost so she could look it over. then she put it in her pocket. I picked up Punishment and looked it over. This was the rifle Spector had shot me with. It brought back the terrible feeling of pain in my shoulder. I reached up and felt my shoulder just to have my hoof grabbed by Ghost who gave me a knowing smile. Then she hugged me much to my surprise. Then she whispered in my ear

"Everything will be okay as long as we are together nothing will stand in our way."
She has such a sweet voice I wish she would talk more often. We then continued on the way to the armory just to encounter more of the giggling ponies covered in blood wielding crude weapons. They were easy to dispatch. They just don't know when to quit these ponies were sloppy and unorganized. They cant even take down one mare by herself. By that I mean is Longeye is an expert in close quarters combat. A few well placed bucks and they were either killed or knocked unconscious. then I heard the sound of muffled crying in a closet after the little altercation with them we had to use one of the medkits on a mare they had captured and had their way with.poor thing she would only let either Ghost or Longeye touch her which I could understand. must have been terrifying...never did ask for her name. She just up and run off after the girls had finished helping her. We then continued our journey to the armory my pipbuck indicated that I was running low on ammunition for my light machine gun. So I just slung it over my back and equipped Punishment. My shoulder gave off the burning sensation again just to remind me whose gun this was.

Hallway after hallway we walked killing more of the giggling ponies.

Did I mention that the giggling gets annoying after awhile.

Author's Note

Thanks Goes to Kkat for writing the original and Hasbro for the show and all of the other writers like Somber and Delvis for their inspiration i needed to write this Fic.

I love this fandom.

Flashback

Flashback

Sometimes the ones that hurt us most are the ones we love

"These hallways are starting to annoy the piss out of me" Backblast grumbled. As we trotted down another hallway.
Somepony dropped something in one of the rooms in the hallway we were in and got Longeye's attention
"You hear that." Longeye whispered

I nodded my head to the only door in the hallway that was cracked open. Just enough for me to look into, inside was a small office with a desk and a small terminal and a safe embedded in the back wall. Surrounding said safe was three more raiders as the pony we rescued had called them. They were arguing over how to pick a lock as far as I could tell the ones arguing were mares and the one working on the lock was a stallion. I pulled my head away from the door just as one of the mares was turning her head to the stallion.

"Damn It Stonewall don't you know how to pick a Goddess damn lock for Luna's sake." The sound of a slap and grunt sounded from behind the door.

" I'm trying Slicer just calm down please and put away those knives they freak me out." I heard the raider known as Stonewall say in a defensive tone.

" Dis aint gunna werk." The third raider in the room said in a slow drawl.

I looked back to my squad for an answer for this problem. All i got was a bunch of shrugs. Backblast pointed to his Missile launcher. I shook my head then Longeye unsheathed her knife. Still not the answer I was looking for I wanted to capture them to find out more information but they will likely try to fight back as soon as we went in there. Then an idea popped up in my head. I was going to walk in the room and tell them to surrender and then have Backblast walk in behind me and rev his minigun to scare them into submission."

"Brilliant Gunner you have out done yourself again". I said under my breath. when I told the team their part of my brilliant plan I got a stern look from Backblasts visor. I'm pretty sure if he wasn't wearing his helmet he would be giving the glare of death.

"Are you a moron Gunner". they all said at the same time.

I let out a sigh. "Just once I wish my plans would be called great". At that time I heard the door open, The three raiders had gave up on the lock.

"Shite who the fuck are they". Slicer one of the mares had seen us

"I don't know" Stonewall deadpanned

"Yah see i telled y'all we were being watched". the last raider drawled.
All of us just stood in the hallway and stared. I noticed Stonewall did not have any weapons that were of any threat.
Slicer had those two wicked knives and hoofblades. The third one had a long sniper rifle on a battlesaddle.
"Well shit" I muttered. I was the first one to move and planted a swift buck to Stones face knocking him unconscious
Backblast threw Slicer in to the wall behind her knocking her out, the third raider just surrendered.
We tied the two unconscious ponies up and pocketed their weapons and ammo along with anything else valuable.
"We need to ask you a few questions" I told the last raider.

The pony with the sniper rifle name was Slowshot.

"What are you doing in an Equestrian Military complex." I asked in a calm tone.

"I knos nuthin bout any 'illitay pulace. Twas Slicers idear fo us tuh come 'ere." She drawled.
at that moment Stone woke up and screamed like a filly.I thought it was pretty funny to be honest.

"Why am I tied up to Slicer and why is their a huge fucking pony with mini gun looking at me like I stole his toy.

"Oy who you calling huge you asshat". Backblast said sounding pissed.

"Calm your shit blast. "Longeye said while thumping his helmet.

"But he started it first ."

"Nuh uh you did you big oaf."
They continued to go back and forth saying various things that colts would call each other

"All right enough for goddess sakes your giving me a headache" I yelled at the two of them.

"Okay now Stone can you tell me why you three are here or am I going have to let Backblast take you into one of these rooms so he can have some fun... As in beat you to a bloody pulp." At this point I had just about enough of their shit to just say fuck it and shoot them.

"So we needed caps to buy somethings that we need to live"

"Whats a cap" I asked interrupting his story he gave me a look that I swore said I was dumb. Well with what he told me Bits were no longer used as currency instead they used bottle caps for money.

"Okay who are the major factions in the area and what is the condition of Equestria."

"For starters its not equestria any more its called the wasteland. The top players are a group of slavers in Phillydelphia.
lead by somepony called Redeye. Another is a group called The Steel Rangers but they changed their name to Applejack's Rangers. led by a pony named Steelhooves.They wear Power armor like your friend there except its black with red accents. Also their are two groups of ponies marauding around the wastes. One group follows a pony called Spector
the other follows somepony named Darkwing."

"Is that all or are their more" I questioned him.

" Yea there's raiders everywhere out there just when you think your safe poof they appear like magic."

" Wait so your not raiders." I asked dumbfounded by the recent discovery. Turns out they were just scavengers well one was Stone was a scavenger. the two mares were mercs. we untied them and let them go back to wherever came from.
Well as luck would have it the Armory was just around the corner. Also more damn turrets.I am really starting to hate these damn turrets.

====Meanwhile===

"Ah so you have finally woken up Gunner I guess you couldn't sleep forever." The dark grey pony said while looking at the monitor.

" This is the pony your worried about he doesn't look like very much trouble I mean look he's afraid of turrets." a Black Pegasus droned.

" He's just being cautious Ive seen him take on six zebras hoof to hoof and come out just a little bruised." The grey one said staring into space.

" I guess he will be a problem later on should I thaw the Red Legion." the Pegasus asked.

"Yes I don't see the harm in letting the zebras join in the fun." he chuckled.

"Time for you to face a old enemy lead by the one you loved." the grey said said under his breath.

Author's Note

Once again I thank kkat for the original and Hasbro for the series

Escape

Escape
Sometimes the only thing you can do is run away but that is the hardest part.

As we ran down the hallways trying to figure our way out of this goddess forsaken facility. Turn after turn, hallway after hallway. It was like one big maze.

"Wait down there." I huffed out of breath. "Finally a damn elevator now i don't have to find the damn steps."

"Gunner your so damn lazy." Longeye huffed.

"Hey fighting zebras doesn't make me this tired and out of breath."

"Being frozen for 200 years might have something to do with it." Backblast stated.

"Ey last time I checked we weren't wearing power armor to help carry ourselves." I shot back sticking my tongue out at him.

"Can we please go now." ghost whispered.

"Ugh fine" I said defeated

"Your so melodramatic. lets go" they deadpanned from the elevator.
After what seemed like forever the elevator pinged and opened to the hallway to the armory.

"Ha what luck." I said stepping out of the elevator and ran in to something invisible.

"Ouch shit what was that." As soon as I said that a blue alicorn uncloaked . I had walked head first in to her flank that might have pissed her off.

"HOW DARE YOU TOUCH THE GODDESS PREPARE TO BE DESTROYED." She screamed into my head .

Um fuck... what to do, what to do AH HA I got it. I whipped around to Backblast while the alicorn just stared at us. I slapped the firing arm on his missile launcher and it shot a missile at the alicorn just barely missing my head. Then nothing but black as the missile detonated knocking us out while the alicorn was promptly turn to bits and pieces.

"Ugh that could have gone better" I moaned pushing Backblast off me. Damn he was heavy. guess somepony needs to lay of the fancybuck cakes

"WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT FUCKING TOUCHING MY WEAPONS GUNNER." A still pissed backblast yelled in my face.

"Shaddup its dead aint it." I grunted shaking the shell shock away

" Quick question does anypony want to tell me why a blue Celestia wanted to kill me."

"Probably because you stuck your nose in her ass."

"Fuck you backblast"

"No thanks my door don't swing that way"

"That's enough Ill kill both of you if you don't stop this right now." Longeye shouted

"What was that she said about a goddess." Ghost asked from behind Longeye

" I don't know." I finished lamely Just great I managed to piss off a deity can this day get any worse. I was confused little did we know we were being watched by more of the alicorns.
After we got squared away I took a good look at the hallway just your average hallway with a couple of doors on either side and a giant blast door with Armory marked above it.

"At least something is going for us" I said while walking to the door to the left of the armory

"See nothing is trying to kill us... yet. I smirked opening the door.

Lets see what we got here small office plain walls, a worn desk, a safe and a blown terminal.

"I thought those were indestructible." I walked straight to the desk and started going through the drawers and found a locked box.Welp it's just going to wait till later. I decided it was a good time to check my inventory.

"Five belts for my Saw, a few clips for Punishment, the medical supplies, four hundred and fifty caps from Stonewall, the Box and map. With that taken care of lets see to that safe, as I was working on trying to get it to unlock I heard someone else enter the room. when I looked the was nothing there just empty space and a shimmer in the corner wait shimmer in the corner. I whipped around with Punishment and told it to show itself before I ventilated it. the shimmer turned into a deep blue alicorn.
"Oh shit not this again." i groaned
" Stay thy weapon sergeant ." it said with a strangely soothing voice. I lowered Punishment just a bit
her horn glowed a deep azure and the door slid down and clicked Great thinking Gunner you got yourself locked in a room with a alicorn.

"how do you know im in the military." i asked through the bit of my saddle.

" We have been watching thou since thy were awakened."

"Ok who are you and why are you speaking in old equestrian."

"we are ..... Nightingale and we hast always spoke like this. now it is thy turn to introduce thy self. "

"Ok 'Nightingale' I am Midnight 'Gunner' Rain, i am a sergeant of the Second Lunar Marine battalion .
her ears perked up when I spoke of the Marines

"I remember the Marines alas they have mostly fallen to zebra hooves ." she said mournfully

"How do you know that." I challenged

"Forgive me but I must take leave." with that she winked out of existence as my squad entered the room.

"Yo Gunner who you talking to." Longeye smirked sitting by the door

"Nopony just talking to myself .... as usual. I replied coldly

"Woah what happened to you there man, why so cold she just asked a question." Backblast said defensively

"Its just nothing you need to concern yourself with blast that's final." I stated while walking out the door towards the armory with my conversation with Nightingale replaying in my head.

======================In the Armory========================

"What the actual fuck" Backblast yelled at the vast emptiness of the armory.

"Where is all the ammo and weapons at" I said surveying the the room. It was a decent sized room with weapon lockers along the left side. Directly across from that a door with a terminal and a suspiciously empty wall with what looked like a seam in the middle.

"Ghost check the terminal,Longeye you and Backblast check the weapon lockers to find any that's useful."
I inspected the wall with a seam in it after a few moments of knocking on the wall I hit a hallow spot. I then took a piece of chalk out of my harness and continued to trace the hollow spot revealing a small blast door about three ponies wide.

"Gunner why are you drawing on the wall." Ghost asked looking like a mother scolding her foal .

"There's a door here,I just have to figure out how to open it. " I explained while tapping on the wall looking for a button or something. When my search turned up nothing I asked Ghost about the terminal. She told me it asked for a Keycard of a senior fire team leader. Then my HUD displayed a message saying I had one in my inventory. Now I remember Greenway lent me his card to get my paperwork out of his office but I forgot to give it back. I handed her Greenways card. She then proceeded to swipe the card resulting in the door opening revealing a small office with a desk adorned in papers and oddly shaped piles of what looked like wood on top of a terminal . Sitting at the desk was the skeleton in a tattered equestrian military uniform I gently moved the remains to the side and accessed the terminal and found several reports on minor things from along time ago but one option had caught my it read
~Open door to Ammunition storage~

"HA found you". I said as I selected the option. meanwhile the doorIi had chalked out started to open. At about halfway the door sparked and died. I almost jumped for joy at the marvelous sight. Most if not all the ammo was still here but that is not the only thing inside. Along the back wall was a suit of recon armor and a suit of custom power armor. The armor was painted in a urban camouflage with a minigun and a 40mm cannon. Backblast almost died of a heart attack when he seen the suit. He proceeded to strip out of his suit and ran straight for the other suit. On the suits flank was a inscription with a few names on it. the names belonged to the 4th lunar special forces. On the breastplate was the words Luna Nos Custodit. Longeye went to the task of sorting out ammo for the rest of us, Ghost was putting the recon armor on when she turned invisible.
"Holy Celestia wheres Ghost" Longeye said
"Im...Im here" Ghost replied as she reappeared .
Sweet a stealth suit that is so awesome.
With the suits and ammo sorted we preceded to collect what we could and stuff Backblasts old suits saddlebags with what ever was left.

=========The Hallway=========

As we were leaving the armory I stopped to inspect the remains of the Blue alicorn discovering that she had no cutiemark it struck me as odd. As we were entering the elevator I swore I heard some thing say

"They would be perfect for Unity' in the back of my mind.

"Did anypony else hear that" i asked nopony in particular

"No we didn't " they replied
I must be losing my damn mind.
No thou aren't losing thy mind.

"What who said that...goddesses this place is fucking with me. I groaned
Ghost tapped me on the shoulder "I..is something wrong Gunner you look spooked."

" Just hearing voices in my head thats normal right heheh....right... damn."
They all continued to just look at me.
do ist thou not listen to us when we speak.
Shut up brain I swear this has to be some kind of side effect of cryosleep
Thou ist wrong

"THATS IT I QUIT" I smacked my head off the wall of the elevator repeatedly until Longeye grabbed me and proceeded to slap the shit out of me telling me to calm the hell down after the little episode no one said anything by the way the ride up to the motor pool was boring and the music sucked.

=========Motor Pool==========

I stepped out of the elevator into the hanger that was the motor pool (albeit slightly concussed). all around us were various vehicles in different states of repair and decay. some if not half of our LAV's were completely destroyed. A few looked to be in working order.

"Holy mother of Celestia what happened here."
When we spotted Wellington which was easy since the LAV with him in it was painted all black with two red stripes down the side. we approached it and a little hologram of a fancy looking pony addressed us

"Good evening Gunner and Co. time certainly was fair to you."

"Thanks Welly can you tell us where we are ." I asked the A.I

"We are currently in the MOA hub in Tronto."

"and the Location of Echo Squad and the 5th armored Div."

"MOA hubs in Chiacolt and Ponyville."

"damn that's along way from either place." I deadpanned
With us finally reunited with wellington. we were off to meet up with some very important allies.

Author's Note

Whelp here's another chapter merry Christmas
so guess we got a new character who is the mysterious Nightingale will we see Stonewall and co again II dont know cuz I havent got to that part yet heheh
im still in need of an editor if you want it just pm me and ill set it up
As always thanks to kkat fer the original
and hasbro fer the show
im out LUNA NOS CUSTODIT

Wastelands

Wasteland

All I see is death and shadows... I need a drink.

As we rode along an old ruined road a gleam caught my eye. I told Wellington to pull off the road so we could check it out. What we found was amazing to say the least. Me and my squad were staring down the barrel of a surprisingly intact fifth equestrian armored division M1A2 MBT. The only thing that seemed to be wrong with the tank was the severely damaged left tread carrier rendering it inoperable. For now at least… I plan on returning and fixing it with the firepower that this thing possesses we’ll be able to take what ever Spector throws at us short of a megaspell. I climbed to the top of the old war machine to see if the hatch would open. To my surprise it was locked and looked to have rusted shut.

“Well that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.” I said jumping down from the turret of the tank. Out of curiosity I wiped some dirt and grime off the side of the tank so see the name still painted on the side it read “Apple Bucker “. As we were walking back to the LAV a gunshot rang out kicking up dust at my hooves.

“Hit the dirt guys.” I shouted while diving behind some rocks and ending up at the bottom of an old trench. Did I forget to mention that the Tronto hub was the site of a massive battle at the end of the war? Said battle was the one where my squad and I were in before we were frozen but back to reality. I stuck my head over the side of the trench and saw that a group of raiders had Ghost and Longeye with heavy fire. I looked for Backblast but my helmet caught a round from a raider shooting at the big lump diagonally from me that lump was Backblast. The initial strike had shut his suit down and left him exposed. Now with my bell thoroughly rung I returned fire with Punishment, and tagged a dark brown mare in the side and she burst into flames. Naturally this got the attention of the other Raiders who turned their fire and curses toward my position. I immediately ducked and looked around the trench spying a bunker with a familiar logo on it. Two snakes wrapped around a sword, the insignia of my squad it all came back to me. This is the place where Spector had shot me in the back all those years ago .

Damn… why does the universe hate me so much that it constantly tortures me like this.
“The universe does not hate thou Gunner twas merely fate that has brought thou here.” Again with the voices in my head I got up and ran toward the bunker and slid my keycard. The door refused to open at first but with a little help from a panicked buck it lifted painfully slow. I threw up a nav point for my squad to regroup here. Looking around I noticed no one had been here since the day we had been frozen. Our cots and personal items were still were we had left them. The heavy machine gun at the firing slit was in decent condition.

Maybe the universe doesn’t hate me so much. I cambered a fresh .50 cal shell and unleashed hell on the raiders. The more I think about it the raiders looked a lot like zebras for a brief second. Damn can’t start breaking down now my team needs me. Soon the old battlefield was quiet once as the last of the raiders had died . I sat inside the bunker with the empty HMG still clacking in my hooves.
===============================Elsewhere=============================

Two black stallions are sitting in an old office when one of them finally speaks“

"Darkwing “the black stallion with a maroon mane said

“Yes Spector “. The other black stallion a pegasus with a silver mane replied

“What is the status of the red legion?”

“They are awaiting your command to mobilize.”Darkwing intoned brushing his mane out of his eyes.

“Good, good and Juliet squad what is their status.”

“Geared and moving on hoofington as we speak master.”
Spector smiled and said “Soon the wasteland will be remade into our own image.”
===============================Serpent bunker=============================

I finally came to my senses when Backblast tapped on my shoulder. The rest were looking around at what was left of our old lives.

“What I’m busy being depressed.” I grunted which earned me a slap on the back of the head.

“Come on man you fought a zebra elite trooper with a knife and won.” He said then Longeye said from across the bunker. “What about the time you rushed that zebra tank with a satchel charge. I mean come one that was on of your best moments stop moping and cheer up.”
Ghost came over and hugged me a whispered in my ear. “Gunner you can talk to me if you need any help I’m here for you.”

“I’ll have to take you up on that sometime.” I told her smiling.

“Is this all that’s left of our old lives.” Longeye said from the inside of her footlocker.

“I guess so, well I hope wild pegasus tastes better aged for 200 years heh heh.” Blast chuckled holding a bottle of whiskey.

“Let’s see if my sketchbook is still here.” After fifteen minutes of digging through my footlocker I found it.

“What’s in it Gunner.” Ghost asked over my shoulder .

“ Just things I drew to keep my self sane over the years” I told her while staring at the old book thinking about the day the bombs fell.

“Well we all have ways to cope with stress and emotions mines whiskey.” Blast grinned

“Just try to keep the drinking to a minimum blast we don’t need another ever free incident.

=============================Three years before the bombs fell===========================

“there has to be at least two platoons of zebra spec ops down there”I said quietly as I lowered my binoculars.

“Who knew they were so close to ponyville. Its scary to even think about it.” Ghost whispered next to me.

“welp lets get this over with already.”Blast said while kicking the handle on his saddle and taking a draw from his flask.

“Should you be drinking on an op. if captain found out he’ll have all of our asses.”Long intoned harshly. Blast just snorted and put the flask away.

“Check your gear we leave in twenty make sure your locked and loaded cause its just us out here for a good three miles.”I whispered .and my ears were greeted by a hushed chorus of “yes sirs”. the twenty minutes felt like three days when it passed night had befallen us . the plan was to sneak into the camp and cause massive casualties. That went out the window pretty quick when a sentry heard Blast hiccup. The sentry tapped his collar and the alarm sounded from across the camp. Two muffled shots from Longs DMR had silenced him but the damage was already done. shouts sounded from around the camp as they was made aware of our presence.

“Goddess damn it Blast I told you no more drinking.” I screamed at my inebriated support gunner while dodging a burst of gunfire form a zebra soldier. As I took in the defenders of the camp I was surprised that most of them had the small sword known as a gladius.

“Don’t worry sarge ill watch him. Come on jackass let’s set up the gun already.” Long commanded Blast with a slap to the back of the head.
We were near the middle of the camp when the alarm had been triggered so we had two options available to us. The way the camp was laid out was two paths leading to the command tent which we had our backs to. After a brief moment of thought I decided on consolidating our defenses and letting them come to us.

“long ,Blast take the left path and set the gun up there. Ghost and myself will watch the right side of anypony trying to flank us.” I instructed my squad. They did as they were told and soon we had a some what decently defendable position. Not long after we had set up the zebras resumed attacking. No longer armed with melee weapons they were armed to the teeth with carbines and rifles. As I had predicted the majority had came from the left side of the camp and straight into the sights of Blasts LMG and longs rifle. This was the moment Ghost looked at me and meekly stated while shaking

“Um…Gunner are you sure you want me helping you I…I’m no good with my gun.”

"Don’t worry you’ll do just fine remember what I told you just breathe and squeeze ill be right here next to you.” I reassured her. She just nodded and seemed to be comfortable being next to me. I clicked the mic on my shoulder and Spector responded with” you called sarge.”

“Spector you, Star and Wellington keep the armor off our asses last thing we need is zebra tanks joining the party.” I ordered the reply I got was

“Roger sarge we’ll keep them occupied. “ With that taken care of I turned my attention to the zebra soldier who thought he was being sneaky and put a slug in his striped head. This continued for a good hour before there were no more zebras left standing. During that hour I had managed to take a round to the shoulder Ghost had taken some fragmentation from a grenade that came a little too close for comfort. Blast being in his suit was unscathed but not for long. Longeye was hit in the hindleg with a small caliber round possibly from a carbine. After seeing to our wound we proceeded to the exfiltration point to meet up with Spector and Star.

After a few minutes of slugging our way through the forest we finally came to the clearing to find a smug looking Spector and a concerned Star. Both standing next to our trusty LAV. the ride back to base was a long one I spent the entire trip with Star fussing over my shoulder and my lack of competent medical work.

“Gunner this dressing is too loose.” She said tugging on the dressing causing me to wince.

“Star I assure you it I did it the way you showed me” I grunted in response.

“Still the bandage should have held better than that” was her reply with another tug on the bandage.
With a sigh I relented and let her redress the wound. When we finally arrived back at base. The door to the LAV opened to a pissed off unicorn with captain pins on his lapel.

“Gunner I need to have a word with you asap.” He spoke with a edge that meant you fucked up. With that said he turned and walked to his office. With a sigh I followed him with a slight limp. Once inside he rounded on me and gave me the worse ass chewing I have ever gotten. I never been called a moronic cockgurgling dildochicken before in my life to be honest that was the first time I have even heard that be said. Oh I was so going to get Backblast back for this. After he was finished ripping me a new one he sat down at his desk and looked at me and said

“Brother what am I going to do with you? You know father doesn’t want you to get hurt or worse killed. I don’t see why you always volunteer for these suicide missions. Is it to spite him or is it some sort of hero complex you have?”

I retorted with” for starters you can stop with the names and father always wanted you to be the one who took over his place as colonel not me. I just want to make a difference to stop all of this needless violence.” With that said he looked at me with a questioning look and said

“coming from the pony who is killing these zebras and volunteering to go in and destroy their equipment.” I stepped closer to him and looked him in the eyes and in a deadpan said

“You may bee a captain but that wont stop me from beating your ass.” With that said I turned and walk out of his office leaving him with a look of disbelief.

I limped back to my squads barracks and opened the door to a tied up Blast and a furious Longeye sitting in the corner glaring at him with my nerves finally being pushed to the limits I simply said “fuck it I’m going to sleep” then climbed onto my bunk. Sleep didn’t come easily spent the night thinking about what my brother had said. I am making a difference right… I’m trying to stop this stupid war to protect my family and friends.

Author's Note

well here is the new chapter i finally over came the writers block with the recent loss of my job ill have time to get more of this story done
Credit goes to Hasbro and Kkat

Encounter

Encounter

The loss of someone close can have a huge effect on your heart but you find new friends in the unlikeliest places.

I sat there staring at the book in my hooves. Looking at one picture in particular, it was one of me and my younger brother. This picture was all I have left of my family; tears started rolling down my face the longer I stared at the picture. Ghost noticed this and walked over to me and placed a hoof on my shoulder. I looked at her with tear filled eyes all she said was,

“Gunner everything will be okay you are not alone were here for you.”
I nodded and slipped the book into my saddlebags when I heard the voice come back and say.

“Gunner thou must not let memories of thy past cloud the judgment of thy present.”

“Shut up your crazy… I’m thinking of what to do now.” I responded venomously back at the voice when it came back it sounded hurt.

“We understand your pain, But thy must let go of the pain for it shall be your demise.” When it finished the voice stayed quiet.
After awhile I looked over at the ponies I have come to know as my family. I shifted my gaze on to Backblast, the pony I had known since birth everyday we were together we spent it trying to get our cutiemarks. Then one day we were playing in the old abandoned mine outside our hometown. Blast and I had found some dynamite in a box and decided to see what it did so we ran down the shafts. While running down one shaft a glint had caught my eye. I stopped blast and showed him. He had a huge smile on his face when we lit the stick and ran back down the shaft. We stopped a few hundred yards away and watch the fuse slowly burn down and disappear into the stick. When it went off the explosion scared the hell out of us, when I looked over to see if blast was okay my eyes were drawn to the mark on his flank. It was a stick of dynamite exploding. When I told him about it he pointed at my flank and said mine was there as well. Confused I looked back and sure enough it was there, a small star about the size of a bit. To this day it still confuses me.

My gaze then shifted over to the two mares that me and blast had met in basic training. I looked closer at Longeye who was sitting next to Ghost laughing and smiling at some of the pictures Long kept with her.
When I first met Longeye she didn’t strike me as a fighter. Boy was I wrong that little mare was quick on her hooves. We met on the sparring circle it took her less than a minute to put me in a world of hurt. Every buck and every punch was either countered or blocked. After the match was over she came over and we started talking about each other and became good friends. We were talking one day when I asked about her cutiemark. She told me she got it when she had used her dad’s old rifle to kill some timberwolves. When her dad found her she was asleep and snoring with the rifle held in her hooves. When she woke up she looked at her flank and seen her mark, A crosshairs over a target.

I looked at Ghost the timid little mare who I have come to see as my little sister.
When I met ghost she was sitting alone just staring at the sky with a sweet smile. I don’t know what it was about that little mare that made me walk over and talk to her. When I walked up and said hello she jumped and squeaked hiding behind her mane. I felt my heart skip a beat when I looked into those smoke colored eyes. I sat there with a smile and told her I was just there to talk to her. She peeked out from behind her mane a little farther and asked me if I was going to hurt her. I shook my head. I couldn’t help but want to keep her safe; we sat there for awhile talking until some buck thought it would be funny to pick on her. When she started crying I felt something inside me snap. I jumped onto the buck and beat him senseless. After he got up and limped off she stopped crying and hugged me, I never felt more proud of myself before that moment.

========================Serpent Bunker========================

I looked around with a big smile, these were my friends and I would do anything to keep them safe.

“So Gunner where do we go from here bro.” Blast asked throwing a leg over my shoulder.

“There’s a small settlement not far from here according to the info we got from Stonewall and his mercs. Let’s go check it out and get a bit of a feel for the territory.” I told him as all of us were walking out of the bunker. I heard a gunshot and Ghost screaming in pain as a slug tore through her chest.

“Ghost No...” I screamed in panic lifting her up in my hooves.

“Gunner I’m so tired, can I go to sleep.” came her weak response, crying I told her.

“No you have to stay with me please Ghost don’t go.” I looked up at Longeye and Backblast and seen they were shooting at a pair of running zebras. I looked at blast and screamed.

“Dust those fucking striped bastards.” He raised his 40mm cannon and unleashed a salvo of deadly rain that turned the fleeing zebras into nothing but red mist. Satisfied I turned and poured one of the healing potions from my pack down Ghosts throat. She swallowed weakly then passed out, Longeye had offered to carry her but I turned her down with a shake of my head. Gently I lifted Ghost on to my back and carried her back to the LAV crying the entire way.

“Gunner thou have to be strong for her.” The voice said after being quiet for so long.

“Shut up it’s my fault she got hurt.” I mentally screamed at the voice.

“No, it is not thy fault; those striped fiends are to blame for this no you.” It commanded back at me. After I laid Ghost gently on the bench I locked my self in the commander’s compartment. I cried for what felt like an hour after I had stopped there was a knock on the hatch. With red eyes I hit the release with a hoof and Longeye stepped through and closed it behind her, she looked at me the hurt evident in her eyes. She stared at me for awhile until she finally spoke.

“Gunner are you alright.”

“It’s my fault she got hurt long, I couldn’t protect her.” I said with tears in my eyes.

“You did your best to save her, She will recover but not for a long time.” She said hugging me tightly. I was stunned Longeye usually never hugged anypony. This must have affected her just as much as it did me. I looked at her and said.

“Let’s go to that settlement and see if anypony can help her.”
She nodded and stepped back out of the hatch; I followed her into the crew area and stepped over to Ghosts prone form. As I looked at her I felt a surge of guilt, I leaned closer and kissed her forehead and whispered in her ear.

“Please don’t leave me I can’t stand to lose anypony else.” I turned to Blast and Long who thought the ceiling was very interesting. I smiled knowing they knew exactly how I was with her. I turned to the hatch and pressed a button on the door and was greeted by Wellington.

“How may I be of assistance Gunner?”I stared at him for awhile then finally spoke.

“Take us to that settlement we were told about.”

“Aye gunner we will arrive in approximately one hour.” He intoned. The ride to the settlement was spent with me sitting next to Ghost. When we arrived at the town I stepped out of the LAV and was greeted by a group of ponies with all kinds of weapons pointed at me. One of the ponies stepped forward and addressed himself as Scarlight. I asked this Scarlight if he could help me with Ghost. He looked at me and said

“Son what kind of pony would I be if I turned down somepony who needed help.” I studied him closely, He was a little on the lean side but his voice garnered attention. I thanked him and gently retrieved Ghost, he offered to carry her but I politely turned him down. He lead me through his little town, this settlement was comprised of shanties and shacks built so close together that a fly couldn’t go between them. There were a few pre war buildings with alleyways but they were mostly empty save for the occasional drunk passed out in them. Some of the ponies looked liked they haven’t eaten in days; I asked Scarlight if there was any problems he was having. He told me that a group of raiders kept destroying the food caravans essentially starving the town to death. I wanted to help so I volunteered to get rid of the raiders. He told me I needed to find somepony named Shadow and ask her, We arrived at the clinic a few minutes later after I stopped and gave some kids a few of my rations they thanked me and ran off to their parents. I walked into the clinic and was greeted by the ever present smell of anesthetics. Looking around this so called clinic I was disgusted by the way everything was covered with an ever present layer of filth. In the corner there was a pile of old dirty rags, from said rags came a loud snore. Walking past the pile and to some cots I laid Ghost down gently, I returned to the rags and saw the owner of the snoring, he was a rust colored unicorn with a deep brown mane and matching tail. Irritated I kicked him in the flank but he didn’t move. Scowling I kicked him harder causing him to jump up into the air with a yelp. When he came back down he fixed me with a glare I told him that wasn’t a good idea. He scowled and said

“Was that really necessary, you ruffian.” Glaring at him I spoke slowly.

“Listen here you horned asswad that mare I brought in here better live or I will break your horn off and shove it through your eye.” He nodded rapidly and quickly moved over to Ghosts body. I had moved to the other side of her cot and picked up her hoof in mine. The unicorn started mumbling and talking to himself as his horn lit and he went to work on Ghost. With a sigh he looked at me and said

“Whatever shot her missed everything vital, but she’s comatose from the shock. Ill keep her here free of charge.” I shook my head and told him

“Thank you, but I have something to give you anyways.” I gave him the trauma kits and told him to use them sparingly. He looked at me shocked at the display of kindness.

“Th-thank you this will save a lot of ponies.” He said as I walked out of the clinic, with a thin smile I was walking through town again. As I was walking I noticed I was being followed my pursuer was sloppy at concealing their intent. When I approached an alley I jumped into it and hid behind a dumpster, coming from said dumpster was some disturbing sounds. When my pursuer entered the alley I took in the appearance, Tall and slender, black coat and mane with a red accent running through it. I also noted the horn and the large rifle on the battlesaddle. This had to be the largest unicorn I had ever seen; when the time was right I leapt from behind the dumpster and tackled them. My surprise attack worked as I connected with my pursuer I was rewarded with a feminine squeal. When we came to a stop I demanded to know why she was following me.

“Your fun, I followed you because you were cute~~.” She giggled. I just stared at the strange mare; I came to my senses when another tall unicorn walked into the alley calling out.

“Necro are you in here.” The one under me, Necro called back to her.

“Yes Shadow, I found a new toy~~.” The other mare, Shadow just stared at me with glassy eyes.
wait was she blind, then how can she see us. I looked at Necro beneath me and Shadow at the head of the alley sputtering

“i-its not w-what it l-looks like.”
Shadow shook her head and walked closer, as she got closer I felt calm staring into those eyes of hers. Necro kept squirming under me; blushing I stood up and she slid out from under me and took her place beside Shadow. As I looked over the pair I noticed that Shadow was taller than Necro. While I was staring at Necro, Shadow cleared her throat. I looked at her and was met with a scrutinizing gaze. I could tell she was sizing me up just like I did them. After a minute of staring at each other I spoke

“You’re the pony Scarlight told me to find.” She shook her head and flared wings that I had failed to notice before and said.

“I am not just a regular pony I am a true alicorn not one of those mutants, you would do best to remember that.” Nodding I looked at Necro and said.

“I suppose she’s one as well then.” Both nodded, Necro walked over to me and brushed my face with a wing and whispered seductively in my ear.

“I can be anything you want big boy.”
Feeling my cheeks heat up as she walked back over to Shadow swaying her flank. I shook myself from the trance and asked both mares why they were following me. Necro chimed in and said

“Because your cute~~.” Shadow and I facehoofed, Shadow answered next.

“We know who you are and who you’re looking for.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about, I’m just another pony trying to survive.” I lied, she must have seen through it because she affixed me with a glare and stepped forward lighting up her horn pinning me against a shanty wall, she looked very disappointed at me and said slowly.

“Do not play games with me Midnight, I know your after Spector.” I looked at her calmly and said

“Then why are you tailing me huh how do I know you don’t work for Spector.”
She looked at me for a minute before her gaze softened; she leaned close to me and whispered.

“I don’t work for him, I want to kill him for what he did to my family and friends.” She pulled back and looked at me closely. I asked cautiously
“I guess you want to come with me then.” She nodded and spoke

“Yes we want to help you; I want to help so I can get revenge. Necro, well I don’t know what she wants.”

“I want him~~.” She spoke appearing next to Shadow with a lecherous smile. A little creeped out I told both of them they could come along, I was released from the wall and looked at both of my new companions. I told them I was going to call my friends and tell them they were coming. They nodded and I keyed my mic

"Blast, Long, Ghost is stable I have picked up some reinforcements they will be coming with us".

"Aye Gunner we’ll be here with the LAV. Oh and we have some friendly company so don't worry bro." Blast responded, with that taken care of I asked both mares if they needed to get before we left, both of them shook their heads. As we were walking out of the alley the voice in my head spoke up

“Gunner thou best are wary of this Shadow.”

“”Great you again, what’s wrong with her.” I asked.

“There is darkness, a kind of deep sorrow in her heart. The other one confuses me, and I feel as though she wasn’t always like that.” The voice in my head told me.

“Thanks for the warning crazy I’ll remember that.” I replied, when we got into the street I seen a familiar royal blue tail disappear into an abandoned shack. I told Shadow and Necro to meet me at the clinic. When they were out of sight I ducked into the shack, The inside was very Spartan. I called out,

“Nightingale I know you’re here.” The royal blue alicorn shimmered in to existence in front of me.

“Hello Midnight, we were uncertain thou had seen us.” She spoke with caution in her voice.

“You know you don’t have to sneak around Nightingale.” I told her.

“We must for we watch thou closely.” She said a small blush appearing on her face. I stood there deep in thought as I mulled over my next question when she spoke up.

“Midnight does thou care if we accompany thou on thy journey.” I looked at her and smiled saying,

“On one condition, no sneaking around unless it is needed okay.” She squeed and wrapped me in a crushing hug.

“We thank thee Midnight.” After the hug we walked out of the shack and towards the clinic, Shadow gave Nightingale a quick glance while Necro glared at me. Walking up to both mares I asked if they were ready, both of them nodded but Necro was still glaring at me. As we came to the main gate I seen a crowd of ponies surrounding the LAV. Blast and Longeye were talking to everyone when a little filly jumped on Blasts back, he had his helmet off running around smiling with the little one giggling on his back. I smiled at the sight, I heard a giggle behind me when I looked Shadow and Nightingale was the source. Necro pulled me off to the side and stuck her face in mine,

“Who is she and why is she following you.” She asked sounding hurt. I looked at Nightingale and smiled saying,

“She’s my guardian angel apparently, she always shows up when I need someone to talk to about my past.”
She became even sadder and spoke with tear filed eyes,

“You can talk to me, ill listen and help as best I can please come talk to me I want you to be happy.” I placed a hoof on her shoulder and spoke softly.

“Ill come to you if I need to talk okay now dry those eyes Necro.” She gave me a quick nuzzle and trotted off to meet my friends.

“What a strange mare.” I said to no one in particular,

“She’s insane you know, Midnight it would be wise not to let her get attached to you.” Shadow spoke from behind me causing me to jump and spin around to face her. I asked what she meant; she went on to explain that they were born alicorns not made like those unity abominations. When Necro was just a teenager some slavers had captured her and forced her to do unspeakable things. For years they called her the Crying Wolf because she stalked her marks and the only thing you heard before she got you was the ever present weeping. Shadow was one of her marks, when Necro’s time to strike came Shadow sprung her trap catching Necro, she then proceeded to break the grip the slavers had on her mind and soul. From the way she explained it the task took several days to complete.
I looked at the black alicorn carefully taking in what I was just told. Here was a mare that could track anything and kill them in the blink of an eye. My eyes drifted down to the large anti machine rifle on her battlesaddle, with that she could kill all of us if she wanted to. Shadow noticed this and said,

“She rarely uses Injustice anymore; she prefers to have everypony happy and smiling. She’s not fit for living in this hell we call life in the wasteland.” I turned to her and said

“Is anypony fit to live like this?” She shook her head and walked over to the others taking her place beside Necro. After mulling over my conversation with Shadow I walked over and addressed my companions.

“Listen up, before we go find the fifth and Echo team we are going raider hunting a few clicks north of here. Get your kit and load up am I clear?” they nodded and loaded up into the LAV.
Huh guess my little family got a little bigger looks like I got three new friends to protect. I hope this wont bite me in the ass like Spector.

Author's Note

I know I threw three new characters in to the squad but I have a motive for that
The Characters
Shadow
Necro
Come from my friends Emerald Phoenix and Gaelin I take no ownership of these characters.
Credit goes to hasbro for the show and kkat for giving us the wasteland we call home.

Belly of the Beast

Belly of the Beast
Sometimes friends can pull your sorry ass from the brink of madness.

Our APC was built with regular ponies in mind, so fitting three alicorns as well as three ponies was a very uncomfortable undertaking. With Longeye being the smallest of us she had to sit in the turret a position she hated due to the 90mm auto cannon and Hydra missile control computer, with her specialty Longeye was only able to use the Auto cannon.

“Ugh, Gunner why do I have to sit up here” She whined poking her head down into the crew compartment.

“Long, you’re the smallest of us and besides I don’t think any of our guests could fit up there.” I said with a deadpan, after that she retreated into the turret with a grumble and a few choice words. I looked over at my best friend Blast, in order to sit in the driver seat he had to take his suit off. Blasts coat was a few shades lighter than it used to be. Ever since he was given that suit of his he never took it off not even for the mechanics to work on it. All of the repairs and upgrades were done by Blast himself if the war hadn’t of happened he would have been an inventor it was his dream. I place my hoof on his shoulder and told him to keep us heading in the right direction. I had stepped into the troop bay and looked around Shadow or Nightingale wasn’t there.

That’s when I noticed a strange pony sitting on the bench with a book in her hooves, disregarding the strange new pony I looked down on the floor to find Necro sleeping on her back sprawled out. Looking away with a furious blush I heard a quiet sob come from the hatch to the roof. Stepping past the sleeping alicorn on the floor was an undertaking in its own right. Every time I neared her legs we’d hit a bump and she would stir, not wanting an awkward situation I decided to use my wings. I really don’t like using my wings I prefer to stay on the ground where I don’t have to worry about getting shot in the gut from below that and I have a fear of heights. Its funny really a pegasus with a fear of heights, giving them a few test flaps I looked at the strange pony again to find her more interested in my wings than her book.

I quickly lifted myself out the hatch to see Shadow sitting against the turret with tears falling from her face onto a photo in her hooves. I quietly walked over to her and sat beside her, the picture in her hooves was of her as a filly with a small emerald wolf pup curled up beside her while she slept. I placed a wing gently on her back causing her to flinch and look at me with those soft purple eyes; looking into those orbs I felt all of her pain. After a minute I finally spoke.

“Shadow is there something on your mind that’s causing you this heartache?”
She looked at the photo then to me and said,

“When I was a little filly back before the bombs fell, I ran into the woods around my home to get away form the bullies at school. While I was there a strange mare gave me an egg and told me to take good care of it, for weeks I took that egg with me everywhere I went. When the egg finally hatched I felt something small land on my horn, that little creature was my lifelong companion Umbrage. The funny thing about him is that he is an Emerald Phoenix a very rare and wise creature.”
Looking at the photo once more I asked her where the wolf pup came from, She let out a small laugh and said.

“Oh Midnight, that is Umbrage you see an Emerald Phoenix has two forms their avian and a wolf form. Their wolf form is only shown to those they trust or connect with,”

I looked at the serene expression that she had on her face when something in my head clicked. I opened my sketch book after retrieving it; I turn the pages until I found what I was looking for I pulled out a photo and gave it to her. The photo I gave her was of to little ponies one colt and one little filly with a small bird poking out of her mane. The filly was leaning against the colt with a happy smile while he held her with his wings and a deep smile. Written on the bottom of the picture in sloppy hand writing that faded overtime was “Shadow + Midnight forever”. She started to tear up as she looked at the photo, placing my hoof on her should I spoke.

“You were the first to ever see that I wasn’t bad at all. We went every where together along with your companion Umbrage.” She looked at me with those tear filled eyes and asked

“What happened to you all those years ago?” I looked at her my face full of regret and resentment.

“After I left school and lost touch with you and Blast, I drifted from town to town living on what I stole and what little money I earned doing very regrettable and illegal. When I was caught by the guard I was given a choice, Jail or the Royal Equestrian Army. I chose to join the Lunar Marines; boot camp was very tough almost half the class washed out in the very beginning. I reconnected with Blast when I was assigned as the replacement officer. After our little reunion we were shipped to a little border town to take care of zebra pirates. My first combat action as a commanding officer was a disaster, four of us killed the rest wounded and not a single zebra killed.” Shaking with anger and resentment I punched the turret of the LAV. She hugged me and rubbed my back speaking softly.

“Rain, you have been through so much and seen so many things I wish to help in any way I can.” I said nothing as I held her tight; I was too scared to tell her how I really felt about her. We sat there for an hour or so just catching up when Long stuck her head out of the turret

“Gunner, some idiot keeps hailing us, something about the Steel Rangers.”
Grumbling I took the headset she offered me I asked the voice on the other side.

“Who are you and how did you get this frequency?”
The voice responded back it sounded like a mare or a very effeminate buck

“You will stop your machine and turn over it and any and all tech you posses by order of Elder Sweetlick”. Rolling my eyes I started to get irate.

“Listen here asshat, im not doing a damn thing you say.” I heard a scoff and a deep intake of breath before she came back.

“By order of Elder Sweetlick you will comply or I will hunt your down you drugged up raider shitbird.” I blinked and looked at Long and Shadow both were snickering pulling the mic away I said

“Did she just call me a shitbird?”They nodded still giggling that’s when I went off on the mare on the mic cutting her off.

“Listen here you ground humping bitch, I don’t take orders from anypony anymore and last I checked that included you and your Steel Fucktards. You should really watch who you insult because they might break your legs and shove a grenade up your ass then laugh at your face before it when off.” I slammed the headset on the turret and took a deep breath to calm myself. The giggling stopped after I had slammed the headset. Shadow was the first to speak.

“Midnight since when did your wings smoke?” still fuming about the mare on the radio I spoke with a hint of irritation.

“It happens when I get really happy or extremely pissed, it doesn’t matter really because right now I want to find that bitch and knock some sense into her thick skull.”Just then I noticed a flash behind me, when I looked my cutiemark was now a five pointed star. Both mares noticed and stared.

“Well that’s new.”I droned, just then four power armored ponies stepped onto the road in the LAVs path causing us to skid to a stop. Growling I jumped down and approach them, t stopped a few meters from them and one stepped forward removing their helmet revealing a black mane and a silver coat. These belonged to a quite tall and burly mare, I continued to glare at her and she spoke with a smile.

“Well well if it isn’t the Shitbird, you gonna give up your toys?” snarling I yelled at her,

“Apparently your mother was to busy being a whore to teach you manners ground pounder.” She didn’t seem effected but she did darken a bit when she spoke.

“Birdie better watch his mouth and play nice, now are you going to hand over my APC or do I have to take it from you.” She cocked her head when I started laughing.

“Oh, that’s priceless you really think T-44 power armor will stop a ninety mike mike slug then you really are dense.”

“You’re bluffing that gun doesn’t even work, even if it did you don’t have the ammo for it.” She smiled smugly when she finished which only made me smile darkly.

“Oh Long, do me a favor and dust that wagon over there.”

“Aye, aye Gunner” the turret swung towards the wagon and the barrel lowered at it. Long slapped the trigger and let of several rounds at the wagon turning it to bits and pieces wiping the smug look right of that bitches face.

“Am I bluffing now?” I said with a hint of insanity in my voice as the turret swung back to target the group of rangers. She put her helmet on and clicked her guns on, I watched as two miniguns pooped up and pointed at me the other three done the same thing all having dual miniguns just like their leader. The mare barked at me through her helmet.

“You think im scared of three wasters with a piece of prewar tech then your mistaken. “My vision started to turn red as I started to get annoyed with this mare.

“Listen and listen carefully, my Companions and I are not wasters. I am Midnight Rainstorm of the fourth Lunar Marines second special operations division and commanding officer of Serpent squad and these ponies here are my friends and squad mates any and all threats towards their safety is a threat towards me and I don’t take kindly to threats. I suggest you leave now and don’t look back, you’ll live longer.” By the time I was finished speaking my wings had started to smoke profusely and everything was red. The mare and her lackeys had taken steps back; I could hear murmuring form all but her. I heard a voice in my head say

~Good, embrace the darkness let it consume you and guide your hoof.~ I was about to answer back when I felt a hoof on my back, glancing over the hoof belonged to Shadow she had a sad look on her face when she spoke she sounded hurt.

“Rain, please let them go you don’t need to let the darkness consume you.”

“Not with out a warning Shadow, Long target the one on the far left with a SLAP round, make it bloody.”I said darkly as she did what she was told, the gun went off and the pony in question was hit the slug passed trough his armor tearing his hindleg off making his screams of agony music to my ears as I laughed.

“You sick fuck what’s wrong with you.” The armored mare screeched as she ran towards her fallen comrade who was curled up clutching what was left of his leg.

“What’s wrong with me; let’s see I was betrayed by the mare I loved, forced to fight a war I didn’t believe in, shot and killed my own brother in a fit of insanity oh and my best friend shot me in the back, now I have some stuck up mare in power armor wasting my precious time I could be using to hunt the bastard who shot me in the back so I can give him a slow and painful death.” I was in tears screaming as I ranted taking a step forward with each statement, the ground below me darkening as I walked.

“you’re a monster nopony should be so fucked in the head to be as insane as you, you make raiders look like kittens.” One of the other rangers said backing away slowly.

“You haven’t seen a monster yet tin can.” I rounded on him and grabbed his air hose driving my combat knife between the plates of his armor eliciting a scream of pain as I flapped my wing surrounding me and him in a cloud of obsidian smoke. When the smoke cleared I was covered in blood while all that was left was pieces of his armor on the ground with no trace of him. I licked my blade clean then my muzzle and cackled.

“This little birdie has a song to sing will you open your ears and listen because the reaper is calling, death is at your door will you be a dear and gets that for me, I have to get ready for the angels to come over, ill see you soon Silver Moon but death is at my door and he shouldn’t have to wait to take me to the angels.”I never seen the hoof that connected with the back of my head but I did hear somepony say

“Rain, you are broken and ill help you pick up the pieces”