Fallout Equestria: Fly Away
By Freeflyingwolf
Chapter 6: Journey
“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.”--Greg Anderson
Strong sunlight streamed onto Sunshy’s face, making him scrunch up against it and hide his face under his hooves. Still half-asleep, he muttered something along the lines of “five more minutes, mom” and had all intentions of going back to sleep. That plan did not go over as expected, as Celly decided it was time to awaken as well. She yawned heavily before standing up and going through her usual morning stretches. Then she went outside to take care of business, leaving her still snoozing brother and the baby dragon.
Even with the warmest body gone, the pegasus had the intention to continue sleeping. But then Ruby started snoring and let out a burst of green fire dangerously close to him. Startled awake, Sunshy jumped and scrambled away; somehow not waking her. She must be a heavy sleeper.
Yawning, the yellow stallion gave up trying to sleep and shook himself awake. Going to the jug of water, he tipped it over and uncorked it. The pegasus greedily quenched his thirst and put the cork back in place just in time for Celly to return. That was his reminder that he had to go really bad.
Coming back to his tent feeling refreshed and ready for the day, Sunshy rubbed the last clinging remnants of sleep from his eyes. Then he tripped over something in the middle of his path. He landed face-first, front legs under him with his rear greeting the tent’s top.
“Well hello there. Nice to see you too.” Zen’s voice floated in, followed closely by his chuckling.
Grumpily, the pegasus ignored him and got to his hooves, checking his front legs over to make sure they were not scraped up. They were, but not bleeding. Stung, though.
“What did I trip on?” Sunshy grumbled, turning around and almost tripping again. Thankfully for his dignity, he was able to right himself before he repeated his butt salutations to the sun. He did, however, manage to look like a newborn colt trying to stand for the first time. He quickly righted himself and hid his embarrassment.
“Your payment, by the looks of it.” The zebra answered, politely ignoring Sunshy’s rather embarrassing display.
Looking down, they saw a brown bag tied at the top. It was not a very large sack, but it was a far cry from small. The best part was that it was practically bulging at the seams. It was then that the silence reached Sunshy. He scanned his tent for the first time that morning and found all of his patients and their mattresses gone. Vanished as though they never were.
“I told them to stay here and rest!” Sunshy stomped his hoof down, fuming at his stubborn patients.
“Yeah, well, zebras have a history of having hearing problems.” Zen joked before he reached down and bit the end of the string tying the sack. With a good tug, the string pulled away and the sack opened. His brown eyes widened and the string dropped from his gaping mouth.
Bottle caps. Thousands of them.
“This must be the entire town’s savings!” Zen exclaimed, still gaping at the almost overflowing amount of caps.
“Bottle caps? What am I supposed to do with these?” Sunshy questioned as he poked at the top with a hoof.
“Have you been living in a cave for the past two hundred years?” Zen asked, his eyes still wide at the fortune.
“No. Just some twenty-odd years.” Sunshy replied, looking confused.
The zebra face-hoofed. He sighed heavily, shook his head, and sent a prayer to his god above. “Bottle caps are currency in the wastelands. Here, Equestria, hell, probably the entire world. And this, right here,” Zen placed a hoof on top of cap pile, “Is a fortune. You can buy just about the entire town with this. Hell, you can buy your own…house…”
Realization dawned upon the zebra at his own words. It seemed to click for the pegasus, too. “I don’t plan on living here. They can all take their payment back.” Sunshy picked up the string, held the opening of the sack shut, and then tied a knot as best he could.
“Good idea. Damn, have fun telling Mayor that. But before you do, go use this money to restock on supplies. If you don’t want it, give it back to the people.” Zen offered, to which Sunshy nodded.
“Thanks, I will. Celly,” Sunshy turned to her, seeing she was wrapped around the still slumbering baby dragon, “will you be alright taking down the tent on your own?”
The manticore nodded, which was all that Sunshy needed. He picked up the sack in his teeth. Truthfully, the key words were tried to pick it up. The sack of bottle caps nearly tore his teeth out. Zen chuckled at him before taking pity upon the weakling. The zebra picked up the sack as though it weighed nothing and set it upon the pegasus’s back.
Sunshy collapsed under the weight.
“Really? Really?” Zen stressed in disbelief, staring down at the fallen pegasus.
“I’m a weakling!” Sunshy defended, wriggling out from under the sack. What a defense.
“Fine, I’ll carry it for you.” The zebra rolled his brown eyes, sighing as though this was a burden.
“Thanks…” Sunshy muttered, blushing in embarrassment.
Zen picked up the sack and stored it in his empty saddlebag. While he did that, Sunshy went and got his saddle boxes. Nodding for him to go first, Zen fell in line behind Sunshy. However, at the pegasus’s ignorance of the layout of Borderlands, the zebra had to lead them. Halfway to the shop, he stopped and exclaimed, “You’re older than me?!”
“I’m twenty five.” Sunshy replied, blinking in confusion.
“You’re taller and older than me? Fuck, if you were stronger than me, I’d feel real pathetic.” Zen stomped a hoof in indignation.
“What’s wrong with someone being older than you?” Sunshy asked, frowning.
“I’m tall by zebra standards! And you’re somehow taller and now I find out you’re older, too!” Zen shouted, as if it all made perfect sense.
“Am I missing something?” Sunshy asked, feeling he truly was. He took a step back and raised a hoof in defense.
“No, you’re not. I just…feels weird. Like it’s all upside-down.” Zen started muttering to himself and returned to the path.
“I don’t get it.” The pegasus whispered to the wind, dazed and confused. “How old are you?”
“Twenty.” Zen grumbled.
The silence was rather tense between the two as they continued on their way to the only store in town. Upon finding it, Sunshy found it was not a store so much as a big pre-war indoor bazaar. Or…a giant grocery store gutted, linked with another two that were equally gutted, and turned into a bazaar. Either way, it was crowded with probably most of the town, voices all trying to shout over one another, vendors trying to sell their wares. It was hectic, to say the least.
“Cake! Can we get some cake?” Sunshy exclaimed, pointing to the cake vendor, and asked in excitement. He beamed at Zen like a child asking a parent to get him a sweet. He was the holder of the money, after all.
“Only because you haven’t eaten yet. Then we go and get some supplies.” Zen told him, smiling. His anger evaporated instantly at the sight of the childish excitement.
Sunshy squee’d and flew over to the cake shop, stopping in front of it and scanning over the sweets displayed behind a glass. The vendor, though surprised to see a pegasus, was nonetheless happy to see a customer. His smile widened upon seeing Zen approaching, telling the zebra all the good things about his freshly-baked treats in their native tongue.
The wasteland-wise zebra was skeptical, since the only cake he knew of were always two hundred years old. However, Sunshy struck up a conversation with the vendor about cakes, surprising him with fluent Zebra, talking about the cloud cakes pegasi could make. They stared at him as though he had insulted their intelligence. No one could make a cake out of clouds!
A rummaging in his box later and a cake made out of clouds was placed upon the vendor’s table with a smug pegasus and another equally awe-struck zebra behind it. Wide-eyed, the vendor promised to give them a generous discount in exchange for the recipe of the cloud cake. The pegasus agreed and stamped in place in excitement as Zen fished out the correct amount of caps. A quick though came to him, and he told the vendor that only pegasi could hold clouds. The vendor winked and said that he could handle it.
Lacking the levitation magic of unicorns, the two had to sit at a table and eat their food. As they did, Sunshy explained everything he knew about the Pipbuck to Zen. He had decided the zebra could keep it, since they both lacked the tools and experience to take it off. Zen offered to find someone who could, but the pegasus refused. Zen continuously tried to make him take it back, both too stubborn with their generosity. Sunshy eventually finished his cake and flew away, front hooves over his ears.
Seeing a zebra chasing a pegasus flying, shouting at him and waving a hoof with a Pipbuck at him was rather amusing. At least the patrons of the bazaar thought so. A child shouted that it was a circus act.
A quick sweep of the bazaar proved there were, in fact, no Pipbuck technicians who could take the darn thing off and make Sunshy keep it. Smugly, the pegasus stuck his tongue out at Zen and started taunting in a sing-song voice, “You gotta keep it, you gotta keep it.” Zen shoved his shoulder against the pegasus, forgetting the weakling’s lack of strength, and his own strength. Sunshy, however, was quick enough to duck, slip under the zebra, and stand back up, thus knocking him onto the ground. Giggling, the pegasus ran away before Zen could roll over and stand up.
As they made their way through the bazaar, it became painfully obvious that letting Zen hold the money was a good idea. Sunshy stopped at virtually every shop and asked if he could get something. What did it matter if he had already eaten? This was ice cream. Who cared if this was jewelry for women? It was shiny. And ohmygosh was that a puppy?!
Soon, Zen felt more like Sunshy’s strict father than his friend, as he had to pull the pegasus away from just about everything useless to them. Then he found his weakness; melee weapons. They had come upon an entire store full of pre-war weapons of zebra and pony kind. There was an entire wall dedicated to guns, one to energy weapons, and the last full of melee weapons. Zen felt weak at the knees staring at that wall.
Disgusted at weapons, Sunshy was the one who had to pull Zen away. He had to tell the zebra he could have the weapon Celly kept in her bags if he left. That got his attention. He began drilling the yellow stallion with questions as they actually began shopping for supplies that were useful. Eventually, he pieced together that it was a magically enchanted zebra lance. It was his turn to squee and dance in place and Sunshy’s turn to roll his eyes. Who cared, free weapon!
When their shopping was done, both had significantly overflowing saddlebags and a depleted sack of caps. That was when Sunshy had a mini-epiphany. The day before, it had seemed like the town was almost deserted. In truth, it was the most active place he would probably ever find. Borderlands was easily a couple thousand strong, but they all stayed in the bazaar. That was their socialization. So the streets were deserted while everyone went to shop and socialize.
The supplies they had acquired included a new magic saddle boxes for Sunshy, so he could hold more and they would survive even a balefire bomb! He doubted that, but what the hay; he had Zen there to make sure he was not getting ripped off. It did seem to be enchanted, as his supplies that took up two boxes filled only half of one. The other half was taken up by the old boxes. “Too many memories,” Sunshy told the zebra when questioned why he was keeping it.
The most important thing they acquired, aside from food and water, was armored boarding for the yellow buck. It was medium boarding, just standard leather armor with some holes for his wings. A hell of a lot better than going nude, Zen pointed out. Just so he would not give off the wrong impression, Sunshy also purchased a doctor’s coat and wore it over his leather armor, also with wing holes. Now he was protected and everyone still knew he was there to help.
The one thing he refused to get was a weapon. Zen insisted he get something to protect himself, “Celly can’t be glued to your side all the time.” But he would hear none of it. Sunshy agreed that he believed raiders were not ponies, not zebras, not anything more than disgusting, filthy monsters that needed to be put down. His hoof was not to be the one to pass that judgment. He did not have the strength in his hooves to pass any judgment like that, physically or psychologically.
Returning to the spot where the tent was, they found Celly batting a metal ball around. She was just an oversized kitty cat. With bat wings and a scorpion tail. Whatever, it was cute. Upon seeing Sunshy, the manticore rolled the ball over to him, which he stopped with a hoof. Then he noticed that it had air holes. And through those were…
“Oh sweet Celestia, Ruby what are you doing in there?!” Sunshy practically screeched as he worked frantically at unscrewing the ball to let the baby dragon out.
When it was opened, she rolled out, curled up in a ball. Then she uncurled and tried to stand, only to wobble on her feet and laughed as though she were drunk. She spun in place, still giggling, and fell onto her back.
“Whoa, who’s making the sky spin? Are you doing that with your pegasus magic?” Ruby pointed an accusing finger at Sunshy, who sighed in relief. At least she did not sound drunk. Then she sat up, raised her arms, and exclaimed, “Let’s do that again!”
“No.” Sunshy asserted, stamping his hoof down. Then, for added emphasis, Zen kicked both halves of the steel ball away.
“Awwww.” Ruby deflated and gave the pegasus her biggest, tear welling, lip pouting, puppy-dog begging eyes she could muster.
“That’s not going to work, Ruby. I’m a doctor and what keeps people safe is put above what they want.” The pegasus nodded at her, settling the matter.
“Kill joy.” Ruby grumbled as she picked herself off the ground. Then she looked past the two, gasped, and then retreated to hide behind Celly’s leg.
“Well, now, I see you spent the wealth the town so generously gave you for your services.” Mayor’s rather greasy voice drawled out.
“It seemed like the right thing to do, especially since I didn’t even ask for payment.” Sunshy replied with an even tone as he turned around to face the mayor.
Zen lowered his ears and backed up, trying to make himself invisible without his cloak. Two heavily armed guards in striped Steel Ranger outfits flanked Mayor, focused on the pegasus. One decided to turn his head towards Celly, but kept his weapons pointed at Sunshy.
“You didn’t think we’d ask for your services without a show of thanks, now didja?” The mayor asked politely, still smiling like a snake. No matter his pretty words, outfit, and disposition, he radiated slime.
“Knowing I saved lives was payment enough. I managed to give back the money, too.” Sunshy was still confused over the use of bottle caps as currency. He kept that to himself, though.
“Very kind of ya, too. I can’t help but see your tent is plum gone. Ya’ll ain’t thinkin’ of leaving us, are ya?” Mayor’s smile cracked, one side growing wider than the other. A shiver ran down Sunshy’s spine; Goddesses that was creepy.
“There are other towns in need of a doctor.” Sunshy replied as he took a step back, unnerved.
“But Borderlands is in need of a doctor, too.”
“I already helped as much as I could. I have to—“
“Have to. Why, you don’t have to do anything.” Mayor took a few steps closer, his grin somehow becoming even more unnerving.
“Please, I—“ Sunshy was cowering again.
“Now, I know you want to go, but how far do you think you’ll get before my boys here shoot you down?”
“I…I’m fast and small, I can dodge…” Sunshy didn’t sound very sure of himself.
“Oh, sure you can. You look more like a filly thrown through a taffy maker, how tall and skinny you are.” Despite the words, Sunshy felt like he was a colt again. “But what about your big ol’ friend over there? She’s almost as big as a damn elephant; gonna be hard to miss her.”
In response, Sunshy squeaked and tried to vanish under his hooves. He was no good at confrontations. Mayor chuckled, smiling victoriously as he stepped back. “Good, I really didn’t want to hurt ya’ll none. Now, just set up your tent or find something sturdier and we can—“
Whatever Mayor was going to say was lost. Something unseen had struck his throat, and he fell to the golden dirt, flailing his hind legs while his front ones clutched at his neck. His monochrome face was slowly turning blue, his green eyes bulging. That damn smile was finally gone.
The two armored zebra just stared at him, most likely awestruck. Hard to read emotions behind a full-body mask. When they finally shook themselves out of their stupor, it was too late. Their helmets were ripped off by the unseen force, allowing the pegasus to see their surprise. Two more strikes, and then they went down, unconscious. Next to the mayor that still struggled to breathe.
“Hold on!” Sunshy gasped before he dropped to Mayor’s side.
The doctor dug into his boxes as the mayor reached out to him in desperation, his face turning a shade of purple. He pulled out a tool that forced open Mayor’s jaws and fed a tube into his throat. The tube acted as a support for his collapsed trachea, allowing the dying zebra to greedily suck in air. With each breath, his face became a shade closer to its normal colors.
Once it was back to its normal black and white, Sunshy stared at him straight in the eyes and warned him that he would have to take the tube out. There was fear in those green eyes, but he nodded anyway. With a sick sound, the device was removed from the zebra’s throat. Thankfully, he coughed and gasped like a fish on land as Sunshy wiped off the slobber and disinfected the tool.
After all that, Mayor allowed the pegasus to go on his way with a free pass. Grudgingly, perhaps, but he was a zebra not to be indebted to anyone. Especially not a pony. So he sent away the colorful eyesore and his giant monster, too. Ruby wanted to join them, but Mayor told her she had to stay, he owed her mother to take care of her. As the siblings walked out of the town, they heard the mayor shouting for the perpetrator to be found and hanged.
As soon as the town was no more than a speck, Zen appeared out of thin air next to Sunshy and said in a casual tone with a smile, “Whew, that was a close one.”
That was when he found out about Sunshy’s fainting goat response to overwhelming shock and fear.
“What are you doing? How did you follow us this long without us knowing?” Sunshy questioned when he was able to stand. He looked back, seeing only two sets of tracks.
“I stepped in your tracks. And I was downwind of you two, so Celly couldn’t smell me.” Zen smiled at his smarts, puffing out his chest in a boastful way.
“I suppose you can exactly go back.” Sunshy stated, knowing he was the one that defended him from the mayor and his bodyguards.
“Nope! You’re stuck with me.” Zen poked the pegasus in the chest with a hoof.
“I suppose there are worse things.” Sunshy agreed with a smile before turning and continuing to head north.
Within an hour, he found he was very close to being wrong. Who needed a radio? Zen blathered on so much Sunshy felt he was moments away from tearing his ears off and shoving them into the zebra’s mouth. He would never tell him that, though. Besides, he seemed so happy to have someone to blather on to. Darn this zebra for making him feel violent!
“Are you even listening to me?” Zen stopped in the middle of a story to demand.
“Yes.”
“Then what did I just say?”
“You were talking about your friend Klutz tripping down some stairs and was put in jail for falling on Mayor.”
“Oh…If I’m boring you, just tell me.”
“Why doesn’t it rain here as much as Equestria?” Sunshy looked up to the sky. There was only a smattering of the cottony clouds in the blue sky.
“Because of you pegasi.” Zen stated matter-of-fact.
“What?” Sunshy asked in bewilderment, looking like he had just been smacked. His pace had faltered, but he trotted a little faster to keep up.
“Those clouds you cover the pony land with had to come from somewhere. Now our lands are facing drought two-thirds every month.” Zen replied with just a little anger creeping into his voice.
“We need those to keep us--!” Sunshy stopped in his argument, biting back his harsh words. Instead, he swallowed his anger and looked down at the ground, defeated.
“Hey, I didn’t mean anything—“ Zen tried to apologize to the distraught pony.
“No, you’re right. My people are selfish butts.” Zen snorted at Sunshy’s refusal to swear. “We locked ourselves away and left everyone on the ground to die in the radiation. It’s just…I was raised to believe in the Enclave.”
“Ah. We know of them. Supposed to be the saviors of Equestria, near the end of the war. They never got a chance to shine. Then why do you have a cutie mark? I heard they brand those off.”
“Only if you’re a Dashite. Heh, it’s funny. We label traitors after the bearer of the Element of Loyalty. Talk about irony, right?” Sunshy gave Zen a weak smile. “She couldn’t leave everypony on the ground as they were. She flew down to help…and everyone who leaves is branded as a Dashite. Technically, I am. They just never got a chance to brand off my cutie mark.”
“How so?”
“Manticore poisoning and a severe case of missing faces and limbs.” Sunshy replied with a weak chuckle. “That was Celly’s dad, Big Sol. Died from a swarm of hellhounds.”
“Oh god…” The black and white creature managed to pale at that.
“Yeah…I’ve had twenty years to get over it. Then my second replacement father told us to leave, fly east, to the zebra lands. Here we are…” Sunshy waved a hoof to the landscape. A grimace came to the zebra’s face.
“It’s not pretty, but it’s something.”
“I like it. A lot better than Equestria, for sure. The poor ground ponies haven’t seen the sun in two hundred years…”
“You’re people are doing what they think is right to keep their own safe.”
“Let’s talk about something else.” Sunshy said with a thick voice.
“Uh…why are we walking?” Zen offered, just a little scared of Celly’s glare in his direction.
“Because you can’t fly.” Sunshy replied, sniffing in an attempt to keep his tears at bay.
“There is this one drug called Dash that…” Zen stopped at his companion’s level glare. “How about that radio?”
The zebra nosed the Pipbuck, hobbling along on three legs, until the radio was turned on. What came out was static, static, and more static. Disappointment crossed all three faces. Then the Pipbuck let out melodious chanting of female voices, using only their voices and some stops as music. In Zebra, they sang of the lioness going on a hunt. Shortly after, there was a song filled with drums, flutes, and string instruments. This one sang with male voices, happily inviting foreigners to their land, saying there were no worries. Next had female background voices with a male lead; they sang of their sorrow for being too poor to marry their angel.
“Wow, this is so different from the music DJ P0N3 uses.” Sunshy mused as they continued to trot along.
“Who what now?” Zen asked, scanning the horizon. They had been walking for a good while now and nothing in the savannah had attacked. They did see a giraffe ghoul, but it just said hello and went upon its way. Rather uneventful.
“The guy on the radio back in Equestria. He’s a lot better than that Red Eye and the music on those Spritebots. Dang do those get old quickly; like, you have no idea how quick. Anyway, DJ P0N3 is awesome; he’s got a really cool voice and good music. Didn’t change much, but you get what you get. I like this music, though. Wonder if there’s a DJ, whatever that is.” Sunshy looked to the Pipbuck as he rambled, then the sky, then back to whatever was in front of him.
“Wow, you ramble a lot in a short spurt.” Zen pointed out with a chortle. Then he pointed a hoof forward, towards a slowly growing dark splotch in the direction they were travelling. “That’s Gebo; a pre-war city that’s now a raider camp. We’d better be careful.”
“I don’t ramble…” Sunshy muttered with a bit of a blush.
“Oh, you sure did. You have got such a crush on that DJ Pony.” Zen taunted with a poke.
“Do not. I don’t even know what he looks like.” Sunshy denied, gazing at the upcoming city. The rippling waves of heat on the ground made it seem like an illusion.
“Tell me, Celly, does he have a crush on that guy or what?” The zebra looked to their large and shockingly quiet companion. With a toothy grin, the manticore nodded, to which Zen poked Sunshy in the side with a victory laugh.
“Hey, where did those tents come from? I’ve never seen them in any books of zebras.” Sunshy quickly changed the topic.
“Oh, we learned how to make them from the Buffalo. A good amount came here after losing their homes in the war.” Zen replied, smirking to himself.
And then his body locked up as Sunshy’s did when he was scared. The other two stopped in their tracks and looked to him, but he only shushed them fervently. Within moments, they found out why he was having such a reaction. The sound of high-pitched frantic chortling was carried on the wind.
Moments later, the group was swarmed by a pack of ghoulish hyenas. Their fur was patchy and grey, their skin peeling in different places. It was rather repulsive. They circled the group, laughing it up, but they came no closer. As they circled, Sunshy noticed their eyes were milky white. And that they were severely emancipated.
“Oh my Goddesses, you poor creatures!” Sunshy gasped before turning to Celly; he missed Zen staring wide-eyed at him and muttering that he’d miss the pretty pony. “Give them some of your meat, Celly.”
The manticore gave him a shocked look, obviously questioning his sanity. Suddenly, the hyenas turned upon Celly and barked their laughing bark at her. However, they did not attack. Instead, they jumped at her, like puppies begging for food. Celly huffed, pushed the closer ones away with a large paw, and dug into her saddlebag. Then she unceremoniously threw a hunk of radgator meat.
The pack of hyenas pounced upon it, yipping, laughing, and tearing into it. Zen let out the breath he was holding and then glared at Sunshy. The pegasus lowered his ears and cowered by instinct. Then the zebra gasped and stepped back as the hyena pounced upon the yellow stallion. They were not tearing him apart as they had the meat, but licking him over. Laughing at the tickling, he squirmed his way out from under the ghoul animals.
“It’s okay, but I can’t give you any more food.” Sunshy told them, wiping off the slime of spit on his coat. The hyenas whined at him. “If you eat too much after starving, you’ll puke it back up or your stomach will rupture.” They shut up at that, looking blindly to one another. “Do you know of the raider camp to the north?” They whined and cowered into a tight knot. “Oh, you’ve tried? What kind of weapons?” A couple barked laughs at him, and he nodded. “Ah, just guns then. Zen,” Sunshy turned to the zebra that was staring at him like he was a ghost. “I think you’re going to get a chance to use that weapon I promised you. I have a plan.”
“This is your plan? Have the damn things follow us?” Zen grumbled, stepping away from a hyena that got a little too close for comfort.
“No, they’re following of their own accord.” Sunshy replied, rubbing one’s head with the bottom of his snout; it licked him in response. “I’m just counting on them swarming the enemy after Celly’s aerial attacks throws them off. Oh! You’ll need to put your armor on, Celly.” Sunshy looked to the manticore, which was already a step ahead of him.
“That’s armor?” Zen exclaimed upon seeing it.
The armor that the manticore wore was very unusual. It was chainmail made out of dragon scales, fitting snugly against her bat wings and body. Her tail was covered with larger dragon scale plates. Celly raised her head in pride as she walked along the two equines and the pack of hyenas. Out of them all, she was best dressed. Really was not hard to be, since one wore leather armor and a doctor’s coat, the other wore an invisibility cloak, and the rest were nude wild animals. Wow, no wonder an elephant that wandered close trumpeted in shock, turned tail and fled.
“So you’re sure these guys are blind and they can’t smell?” Sunshy questioned, as it was vital to the plan.
“Yep, they can hear you breathing a mile away to make up for it. Can I have that lance now?” Zen grumbled, not at all happy with this predicament.
“Sure,” Sunshy looked to Celly, who quickly fished it out and handed it to him. He, in turn, turned to Zen. Who stared at the small and unimpressive stick. Then to Sunshy with another questioning of intelligence look. A squirming mouth later, and the stick became a full-blown lance that had blue electricity lacing the metal end.
“Sweet! It’s retractable!” The zebra tore the weapon from the pegasus’s mouth and started swiping it at imaginary enemies.
A small hole in the dirt exploded right next to Zen, who yelped and held up his hooves away from it. Action mode activated. He slipped on the hood, turned invisible, and kicked up dust as he galloped at the now closely looming city. It could not be known if the city was large or small, but the skeletons of buildings were impressively tall, if leaning precariously.
As per the plan, Celly opened her large armored wings, beat them hard against the ground, and soared towards the skeleton city. A couple potshots were taken at her, but she turned, dived, and rose to avoid the snipers. Sunshy ordered the hyenas to attack before he flew after Celly.
The snipers on the roofs were too busy shooting at the manticore, swearing in Zebra. She flew around in circles, diving at the enemy and using her feet to knock them off the roofs. The hyenas laughed as they pounced upon the body of the downed zebra raider. One was shot square in the head; the rest left the corpse and rushed inside the building with a vendetta.
Meanwhile, Sunshy hovered over the building with a collapsed roof. He dug in his saddle box for a few moments. Then he pulled out what looked like a balloon filled with something green. He dropped the clear balloon full of questionable substance upon the head of a distracted raider. The balloon popped on his spiked armor, coating him with the contents.
Sunshy coughed and swiftly flew to the building across the street, away from the stink bomb. It smelled of sulfur, mildew, rotting carcass left in the sun, feces, ammonia, sweat, and just about every other foul odor known to ponykind. It was mostly due to the fact that the ingredients involved most of those things.
The effects were immediate, Sunshy found upon his third attack. The raiders were coughing, clutching their noses, and fully distracted. They shot wildly with their magically enchanted rifles, taking down their own as often as they attacked the walls. Their weakness allowed the hyenas to attack them unopposed.
An hour passed before the building was clear of the visible stink. The flyers helped by using their wings to beat the smell out. When their friend Zen was finally visible, he was wearing a gas mask. He tore the mask off when the stink bomb remnants were gone. Celly, being the only one inside the building able to see, guffawed at his ridiculous mane. The zebra stuck ignored her and scavenged the deceased raiders, even the ones that the hyenas had attacked. Those were the messiest.
Once his scavenging was done, he trotted outside with weapons sticking out of his and Celly’s saddlebags. The latter took them out and set them neatly upon the dirt in rows. The former followed her example and grouped the like weapons together. Then he set upon the time-consuming task of breaking the rust-coated weapons, taking the best parts, and forming them into a better one. Sunshy had been standing far away from the city, but flew closer once his friends were outside.
“Could’ve used your help scavenging.” Zen told the pony when he arrived without bothering to tear his eyes away from his work.
“I’m not touching a corpse, especially not a group of them.” Sunshy answered, repressing a revolted retching. The smell of the stink bombs was gone, but now the smell of blood was overpowering.
“You’ll have to get used to it if you want to survive, stable pony.” Zen retorted.
“I’m not a stable pony.”
“You have the intelligence of one when it comes to survival.” A smirk played on the black and white muzzle.
“Hey, I’ve seen more than you could ever imagine in the Everfree Forest. It’s not a picnic, I can tell you that.” Sunshy defended, but immediately regretted the surfacing memories.
“Like what? You mentioned killing joke a while back.” Zen prodded, smiling at his completed zebra assault rifle. It was in pristine condition, beautiful and perfect. Too bad he was not great with guns. At least he’d get a nice sum of caps for that little beauty.
“Killing joke is a mutated version of poison joke. Instead of harmless pranks, this plant intends to get you killed in the worst possible ways…Like this one time, a Yao Guai—you know what those are?—Okay, this Yao Guai was turned into a female brown bear.”
“So?”
“So she was a male before. His…her? Family raped the poor thing until it died.”
The zebra froze instantly. He stared up at the pegasus, brown eyes wide and hoping the pony was lying. Those cerulean eyes stated that no, no he was not.
“Fuck…” Zen breathed.
“Yeah. The poison joke takes things you’re proud of or talked about previously or…like there’s this story with the Ministry Mares. Twilight Sparkle, known for her magical prowess, had her horn turned into a useless flopping mess full of spots. Rarity, who was rather vain about her looks, had her hair all in knots, like the dreadlocks that was popular with long-mane ponies who thought it was something zebras did, except it was her coat, too.
“ Rainbow Dash couldn’t control her flying, which she was so proud of. Applejack turned tiny; apparently she had been ordering her little sister around the day previous, telling her to do as her big sister told her to. Pinkie Pie couldn’t talk, since she was a motor-mouth, I guess. And Fluttershy had her voice deepened drastically.”
“And the killing joke?” Zen asked warily. He had abandoned working on the guns, too enthralled in this explanation.
“It does virtually the same thing. That Yao Guai…I talked to it the day before. He said he wanted to be prettier, like the brown bears.” Sunshy grimaced and turned to the ground.
“That thing is fucking sick.” The zebra stated bluntly, to which both Sunshy and Celly nodded.
“There was a plant I found growing in the forest. It was bioluminescent and fed on the same energy as the killing joke. Thus, the killing joke couldn’t grow where it grew. I’m no farmer, but I helped it grow along certain paths.”
“How noble of you. Just hope it helps somepony later on, huh?” Zen returned to his work, trying to distract himself from that horrible killing joke tale.
“It was all I could do.” Sunshy replied, rubbing his leg with his other hoof.
Then a shot rang out. Blinding pain exploded in the pegasus’s neck. His body flopped to the ground like so much dead weight. As black crept into his vision, he saw and faintly heard his two friends bellowing their rage, followed by the hyenas’ laughter. It sounded so far away, like a building separated them. He knew what was happening. After being shot once as a colt, he found a zebra brew to prevent such pain from ever being felt again. Instead, he would lose consciousness. Now that he thought about it, that was shockingly stupid of him. The fear of dying gripped his weak body, but the darkness had swallowed him whole.
Level up! You are now level 6!
Perk added! You’re all my very best friends: Any creature within a close proximity that you have charmed with your naturally good heart will come to your aid in battle. Animals will attack anything threatening should you get too close, except other animals.
Companion perk! Zebra stealth: You have gained +15 to stealth. The time of Stealthbuck use has increased by 20%.