Chapter 6: Attack on Charity

"Hope. One of the strongest virtues you have. keep it close to yourself and you will find peace in hellfire."

That night, thunder filled the sky as I made my way back home with my head hung low. My mane spilled over my face as I trudged through the ever thickening mud. I shut my eyes to the world of reality and came to the conclusion that this is now my life. I kill to survive. I will kill without mercy. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not on the outside. I don’t know…

I pushed open the door to a unexpected sight. Blitz and Lucky both sat at the bar, chatting away about something over plates of “waffles”. Both snapped their heads towards my direction when they heard the door creak open. One second they were at the bar, the next I was face to face with the two, asking questions a mile a minute.

“What did you do this time?” Blitz spouted to me, anxiety stricken across his face. I furrowed my brow.

“What do you mean, what I did?” I inquired. Blitz turned to the other side of the bar to see another patron sitting by himself. He had the same color of mane as mine, but his coat was pure red. His left front leg was replace with a hard, polished steel limb, an evil gleam shined on the dented metal. A rifle sat by his side, tally marks scratched into the stock. Some of them looked old as dirt. The buck was sipping on a cup of tea, seeming to enjoy it greatly. He shot a look at me with distinguishable violet eyes. The sight sent a shiver down my spine. This stallion looked like death incarnate. I turned away and back to Blitz to see him gulp.

“That stallion came waltzing in here a few minutes ago, talking about a scuffle with ‘Raiders’ and YOU were involved with it!” He pushed a hoof into my chest. I pushed away his hoof with a scuff.

“Yeah. There was a few bandits harassing a mare. Whipleash and I stopped them. So?” I questioned.

“SO?!...SO?! You could’ve gotten hurt! Or worse….” Blitz spoke. He punched me with his hoof again and turned away towards the stairs. Lucky looked at me with concern, took another quick glance at the stallion in the corner, and followed Blitz back up to the room.

I hung my head and sighed. I slipped into the closest booth and laid my head on the table. Barkeep came over and patted the back of my head.

“Can I get ya something? It’ll be on the house. Reward for helping out with those undesirables.” I looked up at the…well…barkeep… and sighed.

“Sure. I’ll have some tea.” I sighed. I heard a slight click as the pony behind me put down his cup. The barkeep turned to face the pony and went wide-eyed for a sec, smiled, and sat his cup down.

“Reign, what’s up?” Barkeep spoke. I turned to see the pony in the corner push out of his booth and trot over to us.

“So you are the stallion….” He reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a couple of bottle caps. “Here.”

I quizzically looked at them in my hooves. I looked back up to the stranger. He smirked and just said 'I’d Figure it out', patted my shoulder, and walked out of the bar. I looked to the barkeep and he shook his head, put my tea on the table and walked away into the back room.

I sat there thinking through the events of the night, then to the past week, and then to my life. I began to realize that the inside life was the best thing that could have happened. No one would be hurt, no one died from a shot in the back. No thievery. Just plain honest to Luna happy life.

I suddenly snapped awake. I had my head leaning on the window. I looked out into the pale, rainy night, seeing nothing outside but pure darkness. I looked down to my cup of tea, now cold, and tossed it back into my throat like a shot. I sluggishly slipped out from the table and limped up the stairs. I made it to the room just enough to shut the door and fall back onto the ground, out for the night…

…” Dammit Elric, wake up. You’re blocking the door.” Blitz pushed me. I snorted awake.

“Mmm….. What time is it?” I mumbled.

“Time to get your sorry ass off the floor, into the bath, and to work. Your about to be late.” Blitz replied.

I shot up from the floor, checked the time on my Pip buck, and dashed to the bathroom, cleaning myself with what I could with the dirty bath water. I combed my mane down from its bed headed state to a semi decent fashion. I grabbed my utility barding and ran through the door…

I arrived to the station with just enough time to sneak past the foreman to clock in. I went straight to work on one of the wiring components.

“Elric! I need you over here!” yelled one of my co-workers. I looked over to see Coral, a mare with a purplish hue to her otherwise white coat and violet mane. She was having trouble with one of the transformers that’s been malfunctioning for a while now. The outer shell was sparking and smoking. I noticed that the wiring was loose and would cause a fatal shock if not secured. I quickly ran to her aid as fast as I could. I managed to grab hold of the wiring with plastic holdings and help the mare reline the device.

After the task was complete, Coral wiped her brow and kissed my cheek, turning my face a rosy red. A few of my co-workers snickered and stared as Coral trotted away. I put on a grim face and went back to work.

“ELRIC!” I heard a familiar voice yell. I turned to see Lucky galloping towards me. He seemed panicked and upset. He slowed to a stop in front of me. “ You… ne….we…” he said between gasps of breaths.

“Whoa, calm down. Catch your breath. Then talk.” I put a hoof on his shoulder. He inhaled and exhaled and caught his breath. “Now… what’s going on?”

He looked back up to from the ground and stared straight at me with concern. “Whipleash need us. He said that the town is going to be attacked. Blitz, Stein, and himself are talking through defenses.”

My eyes went wide.” Why?! Who’s attacking us?” I exclaimed. Everyone around us was mumbling amongst themselves or heading back towards the town.

Lucky put a hoof on my shoulder and showed that worried look of concern. “It’s the Raiders…”

My thoughts shot back to last night. Could they be here for their friends? Did I cause this? I took one look at Lucky, nodded, and galloped with him back to the town.

All the way there, my mind was plagued by guilty and concerned thoughts. I didn’t hear any fighting in the streets or anything of that sort anywhere. I honestly didn’t know what the hell was happening. Everything was as silent as prayer in the mornings in the stable.

We wheeled around the corner of a bakery to see Reign, a pearl white pegasus with a revolver in her mouth, and Whipleash sitting around a table. The pegasus looked up to the blue pony, nodded, and zoomed off into the sky. Reign stayed just to the point of us arriving, turned and trotted off to the east. Whipleash turned to us and shook his head.

“We are in some deep trouble here, gentlecolts.” He replied, waving us over to the table. I looked around to see if Blitz was around, but with no success.

“When Cloud came back early this morning from an errand, she said that there was a raider camp massing out over the hill there.” He pointed toward the east. “But… we don’t know if they will circle around us. They have before and they had failed before. But as I was told, it looks like almost every Raider in the wasteland is here. Blitz and Stein are looking after the children and helping coordinate the barricading. I need you, Elric, to take to the skies and help out our fronts. Lucky, I need you to run supplies to and fro from the strongpoints. All good?” He explained, looking at each of us. I hung my head in shame.

“I’m sorry, sir…. I can’t fly…” I replied. I heard Whipleash shift in his chair and I felt a hoof on my shoulder. I looked up to see him smiling at me.

“It’s okay. I understand.” He patted my shoulder a couple of times, and removed it. “ Then that means… I need you at the bell tower in the church. Here, take this radio, go up there, meet with Swift Current, and relay enemy positions to us as they come…. IF they come…” He adjusted a little and drew out some numbers.

“Here. Take these too. Swift will understand. Now go.” He pointed a hoof toward the center of the town and pushed me towards it. “Hurry. I have a bad feeling about this…. Something seems off…”

I nodded towards Lucky and ran towards the church. I galloped as fast as I could. I will admit, I was terrified. I’ve seen what happens when a bunch of innocents get in the way of a goal for murderers. I was half way to the Church when I heard the first cry to the north. Not one of agony or torment, one of sadness and stress.

As I reached the door to the courtyard outside the church, I heard the first of the shouts coming from the west. The roar of mixed laughter and screams fill my ears. My eyes went wide as I heard more and more come to pass as I hopped up stair to reach the top of the bell tower. Shots came ringing down from the roof of the tower as Swift Current fired bullet after bullet down into the city. I poked my head out from the trapdoor that connected the top floor to the stairs. I saw a large, brown and white coat that looked like somepony splash white onto a brown canvas. His white mane had crow and eagle feathers intertwined in it. A large caliber rifle laid in his fore-hoofs as he peered through the scope, firing another shot down towards the east.

“Good. You’re finally here.” Swift Current grunted at me. I crawled over to the black and white pony with the radio in my mouth.

“Take these. Call out any enemy you see. Use the radio if you see any large groups advancing towards any part of the town. It seems their more focused to the west than anything else. You understand?” He pushed a pair of binoculars to me as I slithered next to him. I placed the radio between us and proceeded to view the world below in a magnified perspective. The town was littered with fire and explosions. The Raiders stuck hard and struck fast.

“Here. Whipleash said these are for you too.” I handed him the numbers. Swift to a quick glance at them, grunted and went back to his rifle. “I’ll do that shit later. More important crap right now.”

I shrugged and place the binoculars on my nose and started to search.

“There! By the barber!” I yelled. Swift shifted with speed and spotted the two raiders by the shop. Swift drew a quick breath, held it, and fired two repetitive shots. Both raiders took the shots to their chests, fell down to their sides and bleed out.

“They're down. There are three more by the cake shop.” I spoke to Swift Current. He shifted positions to the north and repeated the process. The three never knew what hit them.

We went like this for an hour, picking off stragglers that strayed from main attacks. The radio blasted news from all fronts. Even for a well able town like Charity, the attack was unrelenting. The raiders were never ending it seemed like.

Up until one of them got smart.

…” Okay. That one won’t be walking around anytime soon.” He proclaimed. I continued to scan the area for a bit. Most of the raiders were either out of sight or too far away for accurate fire.

“Well, that all we can do for now. Come here. Let me see your pip buck real quick.” Swift current leaned over and took my arm, leaving me confused. He started to punch stuff into the device quickly. All of a sudden in my vision, a small little blip came up, flashing slowly and steadily.

“Wha… what it that?” I asked, trying to swat it away.

“It’s a waypoint. It’s programmed into your compass. Whipleash apparently want you to go to the Farm.” Swift Current replied. “After all this is over, you sho-“

A loud whoosh blew up from right below us. We looked down to see a rocket coming from the barding shop. It appeared that a raider slipped past the guards.

The rocket slammed straight into the bell tower, exploding and caving in a section of it. We looked at each other for a split second before all went to hell. The bell above us came crashing down on top of us, smashing Swift Current in the head. I was caught under it, trapped with an unholy ringing as it hit the ground. I felt something splash on me and I feared what I might have been. The extremely loud crunching of wood also echoed through the bell.

All of a sudden, the floor caved in. I fell through the hole, smacking and bouncing off posts and beams, breaking bones in the process. I slammed to the ground with a crack from my left foreleg. I screamed in anguish as I rolled over to look up at my death coming fast. The blood smeared bell came crashing through the beams and catching on the posts, only stopping it for a brief moment.

“I need to get out of here!” I screamed in my head. I turned over a started to crawl, but the pain was too much to bear. My vision started to fade in and out with black dots. Tears came to my eyes from the pain and anguish that was coming from my leg and torso. “I had enough of this bullshit for one day already!”

I flipped back over to see the bell come through two more levels, and only had three more to go before I met the same fate as Current did. I began to crawl again, gritting my teeth through the pain. The bell broke through the third story and caught on something on the second. I continued my crawl as I heard splintering wood collapse on itself. A fire seemed to have broken out in the crater the rocket made, which didn’t help with the situation at all. I looked up in front of me to see the entrance to the church, its doors barely on its hinges. One more push… that all I need.” I gave one more heave.

The bell collapsed through to the ground, making a loud gong sound. I crunched up into a little ball, barely being missed by the damned thing. My body screamed at me for doing it, but I at least got out of the way. I rolled over on my back and stared at the crumbling ceiling. I started to chuckle.

“So this… THIS is what I and Blitz wanted? To be shot, stabbed, break bones, fall down FUCKING EIGHT STORIES OF A CHURCH!?” I screamed. I coughed up a small amount of blood and spat it out. I continued to stare at the ceiling getting inevitably closer to crushing me in a fiery blaze. I closed my eyes.

The doors behind me slammed open as a silhouette of a male pony crashed in with a rifle strapped to his back. He galloped into the room and grabbed me in his teeth, dragging my out into the daylight. The closer we got to the light, the more I recognized him. The red, dirty coat. The shot up cowpony hat. The metal leg.

“Reign?” I wheezed. He grunted as he gave a hard tug. We fell into the light as the church’s ceiling collapsed before us.

I remained on the ground as Reign picked himself up.

“Can you stand?” He asked me. I just shook my head, unable to say anything due to the amount of smoke and blood in my lungs. I coughed up some more blood and soot-covered crap.

“Damn it… okay. Come on.” He grabbed hold of me one more time and hauled me over his back.

We trotted through the town center towards the town hall. Fire and gunshot polluted the once peaceful town. We passed several ponies lying in a puddle of their own blood. Reign shot down two raiders in quick succession and carried on. I blacked out several times before I caught sight of the town hall.

Reign pushed through the door and placed me beside another injured pony, a bandage covering his face masked his identity from me. Lucky and Blitz were nowhere to be seen.

“Doc! I need your help right quick! Elric is injured badly!” Reign shouted over the commotion in the Town Hall. Almost everyone in town was here. Beaten and battered all to hell. Doctor Stein pushed between two arguing ponies and went wide-eyed at the sight of me. He looked between me and Reign for a few seconds, getting more and more puzzled by the look of his face. He shook the look from his face and quickly started to check me over. “Shit. He has internal bleeding….three broken ribs…. A concussion…. His front leg is smashed all to hell. No damn way we can fix that right here.” He took out a potion and several salves and began treating my wounds.

A few minutes later, Blitz and Lucky showed up with a couple others. Blitz took one look at me and hung his head. Lucky put a look of worry on his face, and moved past ponies to help fend off the invaders trying to break in. Blitz came up to me, hugged me, and sat beside me. We didn’t say a word to each other for a while.

“… We are a mess, brother.” Blitz said, breaking the silence between us. “We shouldn’t have tried to leave.” I looked over to see tears falling form his mane-covered face. “We caused the death of everyone... We should be dead by now…. We-“

“Stop that depressing shit right now.” A voice interrupted. We looked over to see Whipleash in front of us. “You continue to lie to yourself like that, you will start to believe it.” Whipleash sternly glared at us and spoke. “You two are quite a mess, yes. But so is everyone else here. We all have made mistakes, but did you pull the trigger on all your friends? No. the enemy did. So you didn’t kill your home. The enemy did.” Whipleash both a hoof on both of us and smiled. “Stop worrying about the past. Especially now. Come.” Whipleash patted us and waved us to the center. Blitz helped me up and moved over to the center of the room.

Everyone started to gather. Doctor Stein moved to the center of the gathering.

“Let us pray to the Goddess above.” He spoke.

Everyone stooped their head and spoke, filling the hall with thunderous sound.

"Celestia, Goddess of the sun, please guide us to the gates of your Grace and allow the innocent and the brave pass on to everlasting peace..."

After the speech, I heard Reign sigh. "Well, if I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die with taking a hoofful of them with me." I shot a look at the crazy pony as he said a few words to Cloud and jumped through the window. Ponies gathered around the openings and shot out to the overwhelming crowd of ponies. I looked over to my brother and Lucky, nodded, and move to follow suit.

But it was in vain. A loud explosion rocked the town hall and all of a sudden three heavily armored ponies came through the openings with grenade launchers and saddle rifles, ready to mow us all down. Their armor resembled the ones Polaris’s entourage wore, which made my stomach ache. Lucky immediately looked like he saw his worst nightmare come to life ass he ducked behind a tipped table. One of the armored ponies removed her helmet to reveal short, cropped blue mane with a tan-ish coat.

“People of Charity City, we mean you no harm! We are the Brotherhood of Steel, Badlands zone Chapter! Please, let’s be calm.” She spoke with command. “I am Captain Steel-heart. My friends are clearing up the nuisance outside. Please remain in here while we secure the town.”

I looked back to Lucky cowering behind the table. He genuinely looked scared. I turned away from the window and started to walk away.

A shot rang from the outside. Audibly heard even over the pre-existing noise. The sound of an extremely powerful rifle.

A split-second before the sound hit my ears, an extreme pain ran from my leg as blood splattered my side and face. I feel to the ground in renewed agony. I screamed as I looked at my leg.

It was no longer there.

What was left was just a bone and ripped up meat. My eyes rolled back into my head as the voices from my brother screaming my name and Doc’s fading, inaudible words. I slipped into shock as I hit the ground and blackness swallowed me whole. for a while i just laid there.

Then a growing white light started to take over the darkness. A familiar voice came from the light.

“Elric... what am I going to do about you?”.

The pinstriped pony came into view. “You have done well in the past weeks. Maybe Luna will allow you a place in her kingdom.” The pony came closer and placed a hoof on my nub for a leg. “This is a predicament. Stein has his work cut out for him.” The white pony looked up at me with a sad look. “I’m sorry.” He turned and walked back to the light.

“Wait!” I yelled. “Who are you?” the white pony stopped, turned, and looked at me with the same saddened look.

“Let’s just call me Atlas for now. You can think of me as your ‘conscience’. But none of that now. You will be waking up soon. Remember: You are needed. Don’t be foolish like your past.” He turned back and the light enveloped him. The light brightened for a moment, and faded back out into darkness.

I stood in the darkness, looking around. My memory flashed back to the sight of my parents dead in our home. The screams of the residents echoed in my head. I covered my ears with my hooves.

“Make it stop!” I yelled. I gritted my teeth and tightly held my eyes closed.

Make it Stop, Please!

...Please…. Stop….

...I’m sorry…

...I’m… Sorry...

...Wake…sorry...

...Wake... up...

...Waking up

...He’s waking up!

Level up!

(Spotter perk): your experience as a spotter has improved your sniping capabilities. You learned from your sniper the ways of better breathing while using scoped firearms.