Tales of a Cloud

by Cloud

Markspony, eh?

The mare limped unsteadily across the wasteland. It had been a downright unpleasant few days for her. Fresh out of the stable, she was captured by slave-traders. She escaped due to simple luck and quick wits, but ran into the open forelegs of raiders instead.

It was an encounter the unicorn barely survived, thanks in no small part due to her Pip-Buck. Though wounded, she had enough piece of mind to cobble dead raiders’ barding for a patchwork suit – hopefully, it would keep her alive long enough to reach pony civilization.

Sane pony civilization.

She almost made it to the road when a shot rang out – two gouts of blood suddenly flashed into being, and she dropped before the echoes faded.

A minute later, a Pegasus swooped down to the still form. Rolling her over, he proceeded to scavenge for anything of value. She didn’t smell as bad as other raiders, he considered, but gave it no more though than that.

Taking to the air again, he resumed his patrol over a tiny caravan moving along the road.

At some point, a crow pecked at the dead mare, but the wasteland gave no more thought to the corpse as it rotted away.

Author's Note:

Yeah, it did irk me slightly when re-reading (or listening, rather) FO:E that the great "Deadshot Calamity," for all his trumpeted marksmanship, couldn't kill a lone, unaware target in broad daylight. One less point in luck, and we would have had a very different - and far shorter - story.