Fallout Equeastria:Digital Shadow

by star dust pony

chapter 6:reunited

As star dust enters the walls of new appleoosa he looks around but mostly sees random ponies ,most wearing cow pony hats and just as hes about to sigh and go drink himself to death he sees Jerome,his stable 92 outfit now with barding strapped onto it,a strap of metal apples and dinomite across his chest and other explosives in a new reinforced steel saddle bag and he even has a pair of sunglasses now.

"Hey.HEY JEROME!!" Star dust rushes to him as Jerome snaps his attention to him and smiles.

"STAARR ITS GOOD TO SEE THAT YOU ARE ALIVE!!" He says with a cheerful smile and they do a quick brohoof then a chuckle as star dust desperately tries to distract himself from his rapidly draining sanity.

"Yea good to see your ok too...where did you get all that?"

"Oh well starberry helped me fight off some raiders and they had a stockpile of this stuff so i decided to take it." Jerome looks at his steel saddle bags and opens them to show the massive amounts of explosives. "Pretty neat eh?"

"Hehe yea its nice."

"Hey did you get any trouble on your way here?"

"no i...didn't...no trouble at all." Star's eye twitches a little as he remembers the horrified face of the filly as he easily gunned them down.

"Like targets in a firing range." the sound of his dad's voice ringed through his ears.

"...Hey star are you ok? you look pale."

Star dust snaps out of his trance. "H-huh? oh yea im fine,really...wheres starberry?"

"Oh shes trading with a caravan,some of the stuff we didn't need so she took them to sell to him."

"Oh...hey whats the currency here?"

"Bottle caps apparently."

"OH,WELL THEN I SURE AM GLAD I DIDN'T THROW AWAY THE ONES I PICKED UP!!!" He says while both laughing and yelling in surprise that luck for once gave him a break and made it so something he did a while ago actually came back to reward him.

"Really? i didn't pick up some...which was stupid but i didn't know at the time."

"Well i guess we should wait here for he- where the fuck is James?"

"...OH SHIT I FORGOT WE NEVER SAW HIM!!!!"

"Are you two pan icing buggers looking for me?" James smiles as he comes through the gates with bullet holes in the back of his duster. "Yea i had a few close calls but most of em didn't have guns."

Both star dust and Jerome sigh in relief and smile and theirs a light cold feeling dripping onto star dust's nose. "What the?" Star dust looks up as water slowly starts drizzling little greenish droplets of water and it starts to rain. "AAAAAAAAHHHH WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?!?!?!?!?!"

"...Seriously?...you'v never seen rain?" James looks at him but then sees Jerome running around like a dibshit.

"AAAAAHHHHH WHAT WITCHCRAFT IS THIS?!?!?!" And the very instant Jerome finishes that sentence the entire town facehoofs so hard.

"...Right...stable dwellers." James sighs and grabs both star dust and Jerome and drags them into a allyway and after explaining to them what rain is and why they should not be afraid they both blush for acting like complete idiots.

James simply chuckles and takes them both outside again just in time to see starberry waving and calling them. "HOWDY,GOOD TO SEE YA'LL ARE STILL ALIVE!!!" She gallops to them as star dust smiles,feeling like hes just seen her sister after years even though he knows they are unrelated.

"Hey starberry." Star dust reaches out hos hoof for a hoof bumb and she gladly returns the gesture. 'I swear when i look at this mare i feel like im looking at a missing part of my family.'

Jerome lifts his left hoof (the one that has the pip buck on it) showing the map to everypony. "Alright,now that were all here,i went and talked to some ponies and i got the locations of some raider and slaver camps...if we want to give the wasteland a reason to remember us...maybe freeing some slaves is a good start."

"i think so to,we got 3 pegesi-."

"2 Pegesi." James stopped him before he could finish as everyone gives him a strange look. "I am not a Pegasus." He reaches up with his hooves and slowly moves a bit og his mane aside to show a horn hidding in his mane and it makes everypony who sees it go wide eyed.

"Y-y-yer an ALICORN?!?!" Starberry looks about ready to faint as James nods.

Star dust blinks and shakes his head. "Well...2 pegesi and one...alicorn..." 'A alicorn...just like my mother.' Star dust tries to think up a new plan that they can use the advantage of both magic and flight now.

"Sorry i didn't tell you all sooner." James hides his horn in his mane again. "I am never sure how people will react to a alicorn."

"I-its alright ya'll." Starberry is trying to comprehend how their is a MALE Alicorn considering all the alicorns she ever saw were female and even turned female when they became alicorns.

"OK...so we got 2 pegesi,a zebra who is armed to the teeth with things that explode and a alicorn who gets stuck in closets." Star chuckles at the tease he came up with.

James facehoofs. "ONE TIME,THAT HAPPENED ONE TIME!!!"

"Hehe yea i know im still going to tease you about it though." Both star dust and Jerome chuckle. "OK so i say starberry flies over head and draws their attention with shots and as their shooting at her,Jerome will plant traps for them,When all the traps are set off me and James will come in,me shooting at them with whatever i got and James using his magic to protect us as he also fires at them."

"Seems like a good plan." James smiles,knowing some good spells for the job.

"Ahm good with it,and who ever said ya didn't make good plans?" Star dust huffs a little and crosses his arms as starberry chuckles and playfully punches his shoulder which he can't feel much of because of his bardding.

"And all i have to do is plant traps?...i'll also throw in some bombs at them while you all are fighting." Jerome takes out a few different kinds of explosives he can use.

"Alright we'll meeeet." Points at a Large slaver camp. "Their,and don't hurt the slaves,were their to free them." Everypony nods.

As star dust,starberry,James and Jerome arrive just outside the back of the slaver camp they merely give each other a quick nod and look at how massive the camp is only to see that its bigger than any town they'v seen thus far.

"Well...ya'll wish me luck." Starberry pulls out her gun and flies up and does a quick dive,shooting at The slavers,making them yell profound swear words while shooting back and Jerome sneaks in while their distracted.

Star dust takes a deep breath and makes sure to reload the guns he has more ammo for and hes happy to see he still has plenty of ammo for his pistol as James warms up his spells. "3...2...1...boom." The sounds of screams and explosions ring through the air as the slavers begin panicking. "NOW!!!" Star dust burst into the gates,royal glory (his pistol) in his mouth and the crosshairs aimed directly at the head of one of the slavers just as James puts a big shield around them both and fires streams of deadly magic blasts.

Things seem to slow down as Star dust's heart beats faster,faster and his pupils focus on each and every slaver target in his field of vision...and with one pull of the trigger...boom...the head of one of the slaver gets taken right off as 2 of the ones near him look at the one who shot their ally only to get hit by starberries magic lasers making them instantly burn up into ash as Star dust gallops through with James,the slaver's shots hitting the shield as James helps with gunning down groups of slavers,no one even taking the time to be discrete about their actions.

"NO PLEAS WAIT!!" One of the slavers (a mare) star is aiming for,the last one in a particular group stops and drops her gun as she falls down and backs away. "P-pleas don't kill me,i'll stop being a slaver i promise,p-pleas." Star dust blinks as the light on his E.F.S shows shes green...and everything began to slow...as the slaves in the cells screamed for blood...and the slaver begged for mercy and star's heart beats rapidly.

'What...do...i...do?' He looks into the eyes of the horrified slaver then to the enraged slaves who want the slaver dead...he turns his head to the next slaver...and pulls the trigger as the slave in front of him assumes its a act of mercy and runs away. '...I'm not a executioner...im not a murderer.'

James looks at Star dust for a moment and smiles. "Star...you did the right thing their." He tries to tell star to make him feel better but it clearly didn't work because he just ignored him and kept shooting slavers in the head.

As soon as all the slavers ether gave up and surrendered or dead...Star dust goes to the cages and unlocks them one by one as one stallion says while Jerome takes his collar off.

"You should have killed her." As he walks off and the collar hits the ground star dust's ears flop down as he looks to the ground.

"Star? whats he talking about?" Jerome looks at him and puts a hoof on his shoulder.

"...Their was a slaver girl,she gave up and begged for mercy...i let her live..." Star dust sounds a little ashamed.

"Then thats not something to be worried about." Jerome gives a smile as Star dust looks at him in confusion. "You were merciful,thats a good thing...it shows that you at least still have the heart to let somepony live...its better than just killing them all without a second thought."

"Yea...yea i guess your right." He smiles. "Thanks...i needed that."

"Hehe no problem,were from the same stable so i gotta help you,your like my brother." They both chuckle and get up.

James goes to them with starberry. "So,what shall we do now?"

"...Ah have a idea." Starberry grins.

"What is i-." Sees starberries massive grin. "...Oh no."