Oh, I can’t believe this! I’m so frustrated I could just scream!

Chapter 9: Lestride

I knew that the NCE had a fort gathering outside of Dodge Junction… but I wasn’t ready for what I saw. Despite my understanding of the post-war world as an unsophisticated and psychotic wasteland, these ponies had somehow created a proper military force. They even had a flag that bore the sun with a rapier through the center. I had no idea what idiot had thought of that but the fashion ponies of old Canterlot would not have approved.

I shrugged, filing the flag’s symbol away in my brain terminal. John looked highly uneasy.

“You alright?” I asked him.

“Let’s just say that the NCE doesn’t have the highest view of enclave pegasai who drop out. They view it as desertion.”

“You want to wait for me out here?” I asked, but John shook his head.

“You get into too much trouble when I leave you alone. Besides, anywhere you go fun is soon to follow, and I like your type of fun.”

“You actually like battle?”

“For the right reasons, I do. I was a born battle-pony. It’s one of the reasons I’m a natural flier. Never met another pony quite like me in my life… Granted, I’ve barely met other pegasai since I’ve been down here.”

“Do you miss it?”

“The Enclave? Not really, too much sitting on my ass and not enough shooting bad ponies. Let’s get going, my wings are itching to get into the action.”

I nodded, eating an apple merrily as I trotted up to the large group of tents. One of the NCE ponies trotted up to us. She was a lightly colored tan mare, with pure white hair and shocking blue eyes. She still seemed young, new into her adulthood, but I could tell she knew how to use a weapon. She wore a battle saddle, similar to John’s, but sleeker, and with the same logo branded into it.

“Hold it,” she said, voice full of authority. “Sergeant Lestride of the NCE. Dodge Junction’s under watch by the military, civillians. You best go back to where you’re from.”

“You can tell why I don’t like the thought of actually joining these guys,” hissed John.

“Damn straight,” I whispered.

“Stand down sergeant,” said John, speaking in the same military brush. “Captain John Trotson of the Pegasus Enclave. My associate and I have business we must see to inside Dodge Junction.”

Lestride hissed, and I used her distraction with John to hit S.A.T.S. and examine her. She had all the military wear and tear of a solider. She was very proud of the work she’d done with the NCE, but was also had the haunted look in her eyes that told me she’d done plenty of things she wasn’t proud of.

With a shudder I remembered Trottingham.

“First off, ex-captain,” she said. “The Enclave has no authority over us. Secondly, while I can’t stop you from going in, I certainly don’t have to protect you if you rush into your own death.

“I am Sherclop Pones,” I said, regally as I could muster. “I am he who rights wrongs through pure brilliance, deductions and firepower. John Trotson and I single-hoovedly cleared out your overrun correction facility up the road there. I would think you’d have the quarter of a brain required to hear us out.”

John snickered at my descriptions, and I heard him hiss, “He who rights wrongs? What you, a power pony?”

Lestride eyed me wearily.

“You two really cleared out all the Dyno Doomponies?”

“Sure did.”

“Well, I suppose there’s more to you than I can see. You should talk to the Lieutenant.”

Lestride led us through a small maze of tents and makeshift barriers and finally pointed out a large tent to us. We entered, careful not to look like we were posing a threat to anyone.

“Who are you?” asked a gruff, worn pony behind a desk.

“Sherclop Pones,” I said. “And this is my partner, John Trotson. We’re here for a few reasons. Firstly, your correction facility up the road a way is clear of the Dyno Doomponies and is need of some looking over.”

“What?!” asked the old stallion, a look of sheer disbelief upon his face.

“Secondly, one of the prisoners there, Meyers, needs a pardon. And thirdly, I want to go into Dodge Junction and see if I can’t finish the job you’re too scared to do.”

I felt John tense up, and felt I might have overstepped a bit.

“Alright here scrubs,” he said. “First off, who cleared this prison? Can you trust them?”

“I think so,” I said. “Considering the ‘they’ is us.”

“You two… all on your own, subdued 29 prisoners?”

“Well… We subdued some and may not have subdued others.”

“So there’s still a threat in that prison?”

“Nope,” said John simply.

“Oh,” said the lieutenant, understanding. “Alright, why should I pardon this Meyers? I take it he’s at that facility?”

“He is yes, and you should do it because he never took part in the uprising and because I’m asking you to… and you owe me. You’ll owe me again after you let me into Dodge Junction.”

“Hell I will!” exclaimed the stallion. “You two may be crazy, but I won’t stop you for doing what you’re doing. Tell you what. Take sergeant Lestride with you into town. She’s a good fighter and knows Dodge a hell of a lot better than you two.”

“We will. In the meantime see what you can do about pardoning our man and getting some men up at the NCECF.”

“Will do, although let me warn you, Sherclop Pones… if you get one of my men killed, the entire NCE will rain down on you like hellfire.”

“Noted.”

We left the tent and Lestride was called in, no doubt to be given her mission.

“What do you think of her?” John asked.

“She’s a very proud pony, but she’ll follow orders. I think we can trust her as far as her orders allow us to. But if she’s ordered to kill us, I don’t think she’ll hesitate.”

John nodded, checking his twin rifles for any signs of wear. After a few moments, Lestride came out, her automatic rifle on her back and ready to go.

“Alright,” she said, brandishing her military power. “Rules. Stay low, shoot anything that moves and don’t disobey orders.”

“There’s plenty of civilians still inside the houses,” I said. “I won’t hunt and kill innocents.”

Lestride cocked her head at me.

“What corner of the wasteland were you born into?”

“A stable,” I said, indicating my pipbuck.

“That explains a lot. Listen, all those ‘innocents’ are tucked into Philomena’s Fire.”

“Into who’s what now?”

“A casino,” Lestride said, rolling her eyes.

My pipbuck beeped informing me it had found the location of Philomena’s Fire. I shrugged and readied the revolver for action. Lestride led us up to the small bridge, which served as the only way into Dodge Junction. As we approached and began to cross it, she held up a hoof.

“Hold it,” she said, pointing to several mines lying on the ground. “These mercs are clever little bastards.”

She moved swiftly, disarming the mines with ease. I took special note of how she did it and felt I could replicate her actions simply enough. She moved to the last mine and this time, she wasn’t fast enough I heard beeping and out of alarm I hit S.A.T.S.

To my relief, I was lucky enough to do it in time and used my telekinesis to throw the mine off of the bridge out of harm’s way. Lestride stood breathing heavily for a moment.

“Th-Thank you,” she said, gasping slightly. “I thought I was in real trouble there.”

“Let’s move forward,” said John firmly.

We entered Dodge Junction and found the town was practically a ghost town. No one was on our street at all, though it was clear this was once a truly bustling place. All the buildings around were in horrible disrepair. It was clear after looking around that this place was not like Trottingham.

This place was around before the war, and they’d tried to salvage what was left of a once great town, which I couldn’t fault them for… Hell I might’ve tried it if I were in their hooves. There was a small shack reading Sheriff’s Office on it.

“Let’s check it out,” I said, pointing at it with my revolver.

“You don’t actually think there’s still a sheriff here, do you?” asked Lestride sarcastically.

“No, but there probably are some supplies, and we need some ammo and potions.”

I lead the way into the shack and almost threw up. The stink was so horrid, I could feel my very skin crawl in protest. There really was no mistaking that smell. Somepony in here was dead, and had been rotting in this place for some time. Fighting the urge to throw my lunch up into this shack, I began to look around.

I found a vial of Dash and two Mint-als, which I quickly stashed in my bags when I felt John wasn’t watching me. It wasn’t that I had any sort of problem. I just didn’t like the look he always shot me when I used them. In the next room I saw what was causing the disgusting smell of the place, and despite myself, I did throw up.

“Stables never prepared our pampered prince for this kind of thing, huh?” asked Lestride, smugly.

She wasn’t wrong.

In the bed were the bodies of two ponies, one stallion and one mare, both headless. I could clearly see that some deranged pony had taken a hacksaw and cut off their heads as high up as they could manage. It was clear we were looking at the murder scene. Blood was everywhere, and it had dried here a long time ago. The mare’s body bore signs of being sexually violated… several times.

“That’s sick,” I hissed.

John walked up to the bodies, examining them carefully. I realized both he and Lestride had the military training to fall back on when they saw things like this. I had… my intellect… and right now it wasn’t comforting me. Logically, I knew that this was just a chemical reaction in my head. My brain was sending endorphins into my bodies because it had acknowledged I might be in danger, so it was preparing me for fight or flight. Logically analyzing it didn’t help me move past it.

“They’ve been dead for a while,” said John, “Hard to say exactly how long it was, but for several days, maybe a week. I can’t tell much more without my tools.”

“Were they dead when…” I started.

“Multiple scratch marks indicate the cause of death was the beheading,” he said sourly. “The mare was sexually violated post-mortem.”

I knew he had to speak officially to steady himself and keep from being sick himself, and I let him. I let what John had seen from the bodies wash over my brain. I couldn’t decide whether to be grateful that the mare hadn’t suffered anymore than she had, or disgusted at what the bandits had done to her afterward.

I settled on grateful, and checked that my guns were loaded before slipping them into the saddlebags. I wanted to be ready in case I needed them, but until I did, I wanted to crush their skulls with my bare hooves. We went back into the town and my pipbuck flashed two red blips around the corner of the next building. I crotched down behind the corner and signaled the other two to be quiet.

Judging from the blips, they were getting closer, and indeed I could hear voices.

“Man, already picked this damn place clean. We should pull out.”

“How do you think we’ll do that. The damn NCE had the bridge covered and we can’t get into the casino.”

“So what, we just stay here until we starve?”

“All I’m saying is I don’t want to be eating lead for breakfast.”

With this statement the two had slid right past me with out noticing.

“SO EAT MY FUCKING HOOVES!” I shouted, leaping on the stallion on the right.

He didn’t even have time to see me before I beat his muzzle into his brain. The mare he’d been talking to turned to me, readying her rifle. I had more than enough time to knock it from her grip and send it skidding across the ground.

“What the fuck?!” she shouted.

“Run back to your friends. Tell them Sherclop Pones is coming to rip them limb from limb, and if I even think you stop to breathe on the back, I will fucking eat you!”

She took off into a full gallop towards and abandoned building. I took note of it and took her gun before looting her friend. Admittedly, letting her live wasn’t smart, but I didn’t care. I was furious and I wanted to put the very fear of hell into these bastard ponies.

“Well…” said Lestride, her voice wavering. “That was terrifying.”

“Good one,” said John simply. “You ready to fuck those bastards up?”

“In a moment,” I said. “Let’s check in the casino, and make sure the others are safe first.”