Chapter 6:
If at first you don’t succeed...
“In all things, a calm heart must prevail"
Cloud flew overhead to keep a lookout for creatures and Raiders in the area as I trudged through the knee-deep mud. "Why are we going this way? Isn't the Caravan Company that way?" I yelled up to my companion, pointing a mud-caked hoof toward the southwest. “And run right into a raider camp? No thanks," Cloud yelled back. I’d plowed my way through the wet dirt for at least an hour now. This was getting ridiculous. Fast.
The bleak sky above showed more signs of bad weather, giving us a choice. We could continue on and have the cover of the rain to slip past anything threats, or we could find shelter until it’d blown over. Thunder cracked across the sky in the distance and gave the early morning a majestic feeling. Even after the arrogance of ponykind had destroyed the world in balefire, there was still a degree of beautiful serenity.
Cloud dipped behind a billboard that portrayed Pinkie Pie's ever-inspirational “Join the Ministry of Morale!” slogan, the ones that’d scared everypony with the crazy eyes that seemed to follow you as you passed the sign. I shivered a little at the creepiness of seeing them two centuries later. Pinkie always scared the crap out of me, even before the M.o.M. I continued to trot through the muck, trying to find a hoof hold with no success. Then, from the nearby buildings about a half-mile away from our left, a shot rang out, and mud splattered up beside me.
"What the fu-!" I threw myself into the mud, concealing myself in the landscape. Cloud shot up back into the sky and pulled out a little .357 out of her bag. I began to crawl through the muck, trying to find better cover. More shots rang out through the ruins, giving me the impression that the first shooter wasn't alone. I saw a close-by piece of wall jutting out of the mud like a knife. I rolled into the cover as three more splats of mud threw up where I’d just been. I flung myself to my hooves and brought Fang to my shoulder. Cloud landed next to me, splashing mud all over both of us.
“So we don’t walk right into a Raider camp?" I cracked. I couldn't help it. She glared at me.
“Shut up and fire back!" she yelled as she raised above the wall, fired a couple of shots, and jump back down with a cry. A few chunks of concrete had struck her with the last few bullets. Luckily it didn’t look like she was hit. I looked around to see if there was anywhere to set up a position to return fire. "Stay here and draw their attention." I slipped my rifle to my back and started to crawl through the mud, trying to cover myself in the muck.
“Are you crazy?!" Cloud screamed, jumping up to retaliate. I gave the most sincere smile I could.
“Eeyup."
I rolled onto my stomach and started my nasty slither through the mud. The bullets flew over me and Cloud, and I was trying not to scream. I was only shot once in my entire life, and I’d lost a leg as a result of it. The war was fierce and, yes, very bloody. But I’d been on the sending end on most of the shit that went on through those years. These bandits were a poor shot, but damn, it sucked being shot. “Reign, if you're gonna do something, you’d better be do it soon. I can't hold out much more!" Cloud yelled through the deafening thunder and crossfire. I slipped up to a small crevice that viewed the adjacent buildings and levitated over a small brick to prop Fang on. Peering through the dirty scope, I saw just what we were dealing with.
At least four mean-looking, gangly ponies were firing assault rifles and sidearms at Cloud from their decaying cover, and a few ammo boxes laid around their camp gave them enough ammo to hold out a little more. I set my crosshairs on the sickly green-and-brown one holding what looked like a 5.56 rifle. I let out my breath, steadied the crosshairs on his head, and pulled back the trigger.
When their friend’s head produced a shiny new bullet, the raiders knew that something in their plan had gone wrong. One watched as the pony next to him hunched over, missing most of the top of his head.
I locked onto the next pony in the group, watching him look around for me. A bullet flew right past my ear, taking a little of it off. I slid back down, wincing through the acute pain.
That was too close for comfort.
I slithered farther to the edge of the wall and looked through the space left by the overhang of a piece of crumbling building. Cloud, after taking out two of the attackers, flew straight in the air and strafed the camp of raiders. “Get her, you stupid idiots!" a stallion screamed over the thunder.
I flipped around my cover to take aim at the bandits again. Cloud rolled midflight, avoiding the incoming bullets, then shot three rounds into the black mare that was sporting a varmint rifle. She screamed in anguish as all three of Cloud’s bullets slammed home, dropping the pony to the wet ground. My crosshairs came to rest on a purple unicorn stallion in old leather armor. Pulling up the sights to account for drop, I fired another life-ending round downrange and watched as the stallion fell with a meaty thump.
I thought I’d bought us some time when another bullet caught me in the shoulder. The round felt hot as it hit me and lodged inside my skin. I screamed in pain as I rolled back into cover, grabbing my wound.
“Cloud! Sniper!" I screamed to my traveling partner. She didn't respond, but ducked low, zipping through the buildings. I peeked around the corner to try to get a look at the ponies facing me and my friend. The concrete wall nearest my face exploded as a shiny round punctured the wall and went…straight through my face. The bullet flew through the inside of my left cheek and out the back of my jaw.
I knew this horrifying pain would be forever etched into my mind. I grabbed my face, trying to stem the flow of blood coming out of my head. Cloud came jetting through the sky above me, close to being peppered with the sniper fire. I grit my teeth against the pain and leaned back over my cover, bringing my sights to bear. I looked for a target, anything, and then I saw a slight glint in the corner of the building.
Thank you, Luna!
Swiveling Fang toward the attackers, I caught sight of a neon-blue pony in dark clothing. Unfortunately, his head was still very blue. I fired off a shot to neutralize the sniper and watched him slump over the window sill.
“Hell yeah, that was so awesome, I—” she began as I smiled, bringing more pain to my mangled face.
“Yeah, awesome indeed,” I replied. Her face went from glee to horror the instant she saw me. I really felt bad for screwing up this pretty mare’s mission, but…
"Ohmigoshohmigoshohmigosh, are you okay?!" She flung her bags into the mud and pulled out a roll of bandages and a glass jar of some purple gunky stuff. It looked like one of Twilight Sparkle’s healing potions that had passed its expiration date (which I guess wasn’t too far off). She passed me the jar and told me to drink it. I gingerly grabbed it between my hooves and tested it. Why did everything in Equestria taste like piss? I cringed and threw back the rest of the concoction. Cloud went to work on my shoulder, wrapping it in bandages. “You’ve got to be more careful, Reign. You won’t last long out here if you keep getting shot." I looked up at her, seeing the worry in her eyes, the care. Something I hadn't seen for such a long time. A crack of thunder and a sprinkle of rain broke me out of my trance.
Cloud sat back from me and observed her work. “Can you still walk?" she asked sincerely. I grimaced as I tried to get to my hooves. After a quick struggle with my shoulder, I was up.
"I’m good."
She turned to set back out towards the empty plains ahead of us. The sprinkle of rain soon became a downpour as we set off. The map suggested we go around the buildings, but what we just experienced, we agreed on the long way. Cloud picked through the corpses (after a quick quarrel with moral choices concerning the dead) and found some more ammo for our guns. She strapped the rest of the weapons to us for barter and repair later. The armor was mostly intact, so she decided to put some on. I couldn't, unfortunately, on account of my abnormal height.
She slid out of her regular barding; making it very uncomfortable, but something caught my eye. Her cutie mark. Where it was supposed to be was a black ring burned into the side of her flank with a cloud and lightning bolt. I'd seen this cutie mark before without the ring. It was Rainbow Dash's cutie mark. That struck me as... odd. Was Cloud obsessed with my old friend? Why would she do that?
Cloud noticed me staring at her flank with a questioning look. She grew angry and sat down, then covered herself with the barding. “What are you staring at?! You pervert!" I quickly became nervous—hell, I almost pissed myself!
"Nonono, I-I just was w-" I stopped as she smacked me across the good side of my face. Cloud scooped up a rock and threw it at me, knocking me on my butt. "What? That I would what?!" She grabbed another piece of rubble and set it to bear. "NO! I was wondering why you burned yourself!" I screamed, flailing in the mud.
She stopped mid-throw. She stood there for the longest time, bearing down on me with that small chuck of rock. We stayed there for what seemed like an eternity. Me still lying in the mud, her standing over me, ready to bash my perverted head to pulp under the pouring rain. She let go of the rock, letting it sink into the muck. She sat down, covering her face with her hooves and started to cry. Deep, sobbing cries. “You think I wanted my cutie mark burned off? I never wanted any of this. I didn't have a choice. They... they did this to me!” Cloud just sat there, crying. I slowly stood up and watched her. Then I did the only thing I could think of.
Under the dark sky with the thunder and never-ending rain, I walked up to her, sat down, and wrapped my legs around her. “I’m sorry, I... I didn't know." She jerked away at first, but drew closer to me, pulling me into her arms as well. I sat there, comforting her the best way I could. She blubbered out some things that sounded like 'oncleve' and 'ishete,' but I didn't want to ask her what she meant. I'd ask her sometime later, maybe after I got to know her more. Then I remembered the feeling of being close to a mare that didn't care for hugging or awkwardness. But we needed to get somewhere better than the open before we got shot at again.
The healing potion did its work for my face, but my shoulder needed rest. "Hey, come on. Let’s go find somewhere to get out of this rain. At least until it calms down enough to see more than ten feet in front of us." Cloud nodded in agreement. And we parted from each other. She wiped the tears away from her eyes and smiled at me. We began our journey again heading west. One thing was for certain, we were just two ponies out in the waste, trying to save our home. Not just as traveling companions anymore, but as friends.
3 hours later...
I woke up to the smell of wet fur. I opened my eyes to see just fur. White fur. Cloud's coat. I jumped up suddenly, trying to get my bearings.
"Wha... what happened? Shit! Did I... did we just... no... No-no-no!" I screamed at myself inside my head. I looked around at the camp we’d made. We were in a small cave carved inside the hill, overlooking a small settlement a few miles down the side. I check the map on my PipBuck, seeing it for what seemed the first time.
“Caravan Company Offices” popped up underneath the icon of a little office building.
Cloud mumbled something and rolled over. “Reign?" she looked up to see the concern in my eyes. "What?" She asked. Then it hit her, too.
“Did we..?" Without hesitation or care, she checked her implant. The suddenness caught me off-guard, and I choked on the spit in my mouth. I whipped around to face the other way, trying to give her some privacy. She let out a relieved sigh. “We’re fine." I turned to see her putting back on the barding we scavenged last night. I let out a sigh of my own. I wasn't ready to be a father. Probably never would. I don't have any sort of maturity to be a fatherly figure.
“So...” she trailed off and looked at me questioningly. I didn't understand what she wanted me to do. “So what?" I asked. "Well, are you going looking like that or are you putting something on?" She looked me up and down with the statement. I looked down at myself to see I still wasn't wearing anything. My barding was lying beside the makeshift bedding we were sleeping on. I levitated it to myself in earnest.
I don’t know why I was so embarrassed about it. Before the war, no one wore armor or clothing, only at special occasions or stupid political rallies. I never had barding until the war. I guess wearing it all the time, I got used to having something on. I quickly shoved my hooves through the sleeves of the shirt.
In the corner of my eye, I saw something I really didn't want to see, especially just after what had happened. I saw Cloud checking me out. I whipped around to see if it was true. She was too slow. With a small squeak, she looked down, blushing the color of crimson. I did too. This was awkward.
"So! Let’s get going then." I turned to leave, taking my rifle with me. She just nodded in agreement and followed. I wanted it to be true, but also didn't want it to either. I was a little older than her. Perhaps a few years. Plus, if something happened to me.... I shook my head from the thought. Come on, Reign, focus. There is a task at hand. Get it done and then think about lovey dovey stuff. We walked down to the offices from our little shelter, hoping to get some answers about the missing supplies.
"Halt, who goes there?" yelled the guard at the gate. “We’re from Charity! We ca-" I heard the faint sound of metal sliding against metal and pushed Cloud out of the way. A sharp clack and a bullet striking my metal leg confirmed my suspicions.
These ponies weren’t trying to talk.
I levitated Fang to my eye, lining up a shot with the shooter. I retaliated by sending a round into the his shoulder, making him squeal and fall to the ground. Cloud and I stood there at a standstill with the remaining guards. We stared each other down across the field for what seemed like hours.
“Fine, we'll leave!" Cloud spat out.
She placed her gun back in its holster and motioned for me to do the same. I reluctantly did so. We backed off as the guards started to relax. I followed Cloud back up to the cave, keeping the caravaneer camp in my sight.
"What was that, we-?" I started to yell. Cloud put a hoof in my face, shutting me up. She gave me the most sincere grin and replied.
“I have a plan...”
Level up!
Perk obtained. Wasteland experienced: With a few more wounds, you gain a few more wary looks. Your Charisma increased by 1. Also, you now have the option to attempt Intimidate certain ponies or creatures.