A Pony In The Wasteland

by Ribe_FireRain

Dead Man Walking

Restocked and out of the clinic, Rainbow, Gustavo and Billy were back out in the Wasteland. Though Rainbow was clearly frightened of what would become of her in future, she tried to hold it together, for her friends sake. They had a few places in particular that were open for the picking, but one of them held more of an interest than the others - Fort Bannister. After brief discussion and little argument, the group decided to go to Fort Bannister. The main reason as to why it was chosen was simply because it housed many spare parts and pieces that would be invaluable in the recreation of Megaton. There may also be some left over from the scavenging.

What the location held in store for them, no one knew. But they did know to be prepared. Gustavo, having nothing to do, fitted his Chinese assault rifle with and extended magazine, summing his bullets per magazine to forty-eight. And for better accuracy and recon purposes, he had fitted a mid-range scope on top of it. Billy, still with his standard side arm, the 44. Magnum, refused to change his weapon. All he needed was his pistol and nothing more, apparently. As for Rainbow Dash, she stuck with her Chinese sword. She had grown more attached to it since she first used it, and not not mention more skilled. Rainbow even took Brady's old Pip-Boy, fitting it around her left hoof.

It may be a long and dangerous trip, but all of them were prepared, or at least, they hoped they were. If they had to chose a reason to feel nervous, it would have to be the radiation still within the facility, in the missile silo, as well as the massive amounts of nuclear bomb damage the facility sustained in the early years of the Great War. Whatever happens, they were going to get through it...

*** *** ***

''What do ya see, Gustavo?'' Billy asked from next to him.

''Looks like an army down there. Talon Company, judging their armour colour. Possibly heavily armed.'' Gustavo replied glumly, even a little annoyed. He pulled his rifle from his back, about to take aim just before Billy pushed the barrel down with his hand.

''Whoa, whoa, whadda ya doing? You trying to attract them to us? They'll know where we're shooting from, even at this distance. Be discrete about this.''

Gustavo sighed at that. He was right. He knew he was right. To their surprise, Rainbow had taken a sniper while they were at Megaton. It was the same one Brady used the day they were enslaved not far from Paradise Falls. She handed it to Billy, who passed it along to Gustavo. He looked over the weapon, amazed at the quality of it. It even had a silencer on it, making their job easier than they hoped. Soon, he started picking off targets, one by one, each kill done by a headshot.
Even from the distance they were at, seeing their head explode in a red, gooey paste was like watching a firecracker go off.

Soon, the area was more secure, few soldiers remaining, some possibly aware of the few that were killed by the sniper. Whatever the situation at the bottom, the group pressed on. Before they planned a move, they thought it would be best to remember the layout of the facility. At the south end of the base was the gate, in the far back, a water tower, to the left of that were tents, and to the right was the building that was now in pieces, only a few parts of it standing. Other than that, they noticed that the only way into the underground part, which was the place they needed to be, was the door down a few steps just past the south gate.

*** *** ***

Now inside the facility, they regretted the decision to not look for alternative ways into the complex. Right now, they were in a fight with a bunch of Talon mercenaries, and they had much more heavier ordinance than them. They even had flame-throwers and missile launchers, whilst others held combat shotguns and machine guns, all of a higher quality and standard!

Gustavo managed to take down the fire-unit and a couple other mercenaries, and Billy, by far, had killed the most out of all of them. Rainbow didn't really try to get close to them, over dear of being killed by them. After seeing how skilled they were with weapons of such a kind, her usually confident side was diminished, telling her to stay back. Its times like these that she wished she had a gun and not a sword to fight with...

Over a period of around an hour and a half, they had killed every mercenary within killing-distance. Seeing her chance, Rainbow took a combat shotgun, along with a nice take of shells to go with it. She had used one gun like this previously, and knew the basics of using one. It wasn't going to be a pretty night in the fort, but whatever happens will be done in reason. Gustavo even took a second weapon - one of the flame-throwers. It was just lucky he didn't manage to hit the petrol tanks or any of the pipes on the back, rendering it useless. He fitted it onto his back, smirking at the thoughts such a weapon was capable of.

Moving up towards one of the many rooms within the underground of the base, they took caution, trying to keep as quiet as possible. Peaking around the corner, Billy spotted a turret, right after it targeted him, immediately taking fire, the bullets that rained from it barely missing his nose.

''Bad news. Turret dead ahead. Think you can burn it with your flame-thrower?''

Gustavo only nodded before he grinned devilishly, bringing the flame-thrower to life in a blaze of white-hot heat that engulfed the turret, frying its components and causing parts of it to melt and malfunction. Soon enough, the turret was reduced to a burning piece of slag that hung on the ceiling, smoke coming from the now hot metal.

''Hehe, that was fun...'' Gustavo chuckled as he powered down the weapon, taking the lead down the corridor. Most things they found down there turned out to be junk, but some proved useful, and they also found some ammunition for their weapons, or more specifically, Billy's revolver. The next room they moved to was locked, but with a quick lock-picking, Rainbow managed to get it open, and she gagged at the smell of decay that released once the door opened. Sat in the corner on a chair was a skeleton with a hole through the top of his head, old blood splattered on the wall above him, a 10mm pistol on the floor. Something caught her eye, though. Something big...

Turning to face a shelf, she saw a few different sized ammunition boxes and some kind of large weapon made out of metal, a compressed gas cannister fastened to the back of it. Taking a closer look, she could see the words Fat Man carved into the gun in a Stencil font. Beside it stood some kind of bomb. It was green with a yellow ring near the tip of it, a red mark in the middle. The bottom was rounded, designed with four points beneath it that looked like it would go into the slots of the Fat Man. She put a hoof around it, trying to lift it, and it was surprisingly heavier than she though it to be, but she managed to take it and strap it to her back. Next, she took the bomb-looking thingy and placed it into her saddle-bag.

*** *** ***

MEANWHILE....

*** *** ***

''Brady, hurry up, vertibird's not gonna wait forever. Move it.'' One of Colonel Autumn's guards said, sounding not all too polite but serious. His armour was that of a Tesla Type of the Power Armour Mark 2, the electricity occasionally crackling in small sparks to small Tesla coils within the suit.

I, myself was wearing a suit of the same mark, but not a Tesla Model. It was a standard issue, black-grey in colour and heavy as well as very or over protective of its user. I didn't wear a helmet though. I didn't even know why I was there, waiting to board the vertibird. My mind was blank as a slate and I felt almost like a zombie. Something in my mind kept whispering to me.

Get the pony...get the pony...bring her back to the Colonel....

I didn't like it, but for some reason unknown to me, I obeyed it. In my hands, I held a plasma rifle. Funny...I don't ever recall using a weapon like this in my entire life. In fact, I haven't ever used an energy weapon before. They weren't my thing, but again, for reasons unknown, I was holding one.

I had one objective, and one mission. And those are to capture and bring Rainbow Dash back here, with or without lethal force. This was gonna be ugly.

*** *** ***

Reinforcements flooded the fort, all heavily armed to the teeth and extremely pissed off. The fight against them and the three has been going on for hours on end, and they have sustained several wounds, mostly Gustavo and Rainbow. Billy barely had a scratch on him. Blood trickled down Rainbow's forehead from a graze by a bullet shot at her not too long ago, and Gustavo had slashes from knifes around his torso, his combat armour's breast plate shattered from the harsh damage done by the Talon's weaponry, and due to that fault of armour, he ended up with quite a few bullet wounds into his chest, none too severe to stop him, though he did bleed a lot.

Billy's rounds were running low, and he was starting to get tired, still firing round after round continuously, the powerful kick from the weapon weakening his arms, but that was the least of his worry's - his weapon condition was worsening, and beginning to fall apart. Pretty soon he feared it would break completely, most likely being the cause of death.

Using the flame-thrower, Gustavo used the ammo wisely on the targets, due to it being in a short supply after he had taken it from the previous user. The fires scorched the Talon's armour and charred their skin, while it engulfed others whom were unlucky enough to be taken down in the fiery blaze. The last of the fuel rounded the numbers of Talon's down to five, and hopefully, the reserve ammunition used by the three defenders would last them for the remaining enemy's.

Minutes later after shooting, they were luckily dead, Billy, Rainbow and Gustavo being even more lucky to be alive.

''Everyone alright?'' Billy asked, looking back to Rainbow and Gustavo, seeing their wounds. ''Jeez, you two okay? You both look as though you were used for target practice.''

''That's because we pretty much were target practice, Sherlock.'' Gustavo grunted, feeling weaker from blood loss, and even more unlucky so that they didn't have any stimpacks with them. ''Well, was that all of them?''

''I sure hope so.'' Rainbow said, touching a hoof to the deep graze upon her forehead, seething in pain as she retracted it, seeing the blood cover the underside of her hoof. ''Can we please get outta here? Preferably before more come?''

''Yeah, I hear you. Lets go.'' Billy said as he went to help Gustavo walk by supporting his weight with his arm.

*** *** ***

Outside, the air seemed to be more silent than death, and it pretty much was. Talon Company mercs lay dead all around the area, and Gustavo, Billy nor Rainbow recall killing either of them. The wounds in their bodies were more in the way of burns from energy weapons, and in various parts on the ground and walls, as much as dead mercs, burn marks from fire could be noticed.

''Jesus, what happened out here?'' Billy though aloud. ''Did they get attacked while we were underground or something?''

Gustavo looked down, seeing a dead Talon member on the floor, half his face melted by plasma damage.

''That's energy weapon damage. Do you suppose the Enclave had anything to do with -''

BANG!

Gustavo fell down into the dirt, blood spraying before him, staining his armour and face. He had been shot in the back with an energy weapon, a massive hole visible in his back. Rainbow and Billy screamed in horror. Looking behind them, to see who the attacker was, they froze, mouths hanging agape at who was standing there, looking at them.

It was Brady.

He was armoured with Enclave Power Armour of a much higher grade, holding a plasma rifle in his hands, two other Enclave soldiers on either side of him, fully suited in Tesla Armour, both holding the same kind of plasma weaponry.

''B-B-B-BRADY?!'' Both Billy and Rainbow exclaimed at the same time, stunned.

''Miss me?''

''B-B-B-But...But y-you're dead! I saw you die!'' Rainbow exclaimed.

Brady chuckled devilishly, ''Well, I'm back. And guess what, sweetheart, you're coming with us.'' He aimed the plasma rifle at Rainbow, taking her aback, her nearly crying at both his betrayal and the fact he was alive and breathing. ''Either come peacefully, or I'll be forced to shoot you. Choose.''

Billy stepped in front of Rainbow protectively, pulling his gun on Brady.

''No, she ain't going nowhere. She stays with me. You try and take her, I'll kill you, Brady.''

''As you wish. Get 'em.''

Brady fired his rifle at Rainbow, the green, hot projectile missing her hoof by a centimetre. As for Billy, both body guards aimed for him, Billy being unfortunate enough to get shot in the upper left arm, the plasma burning hiss skin and shirt to the point where it blackened, causing him to drop his pistol from the pain that shot down his arm.

Rainbow cried as Brady stepped closer, looking completely menacing in that bulky, black armour. He kept his rifle pointed at her, ready to shoot, should she move.
No matter how much she backed up, she knew she would always be trapped between him and his rifle.

''B-Brady! S-Stop, please! Its me, Rainbow! I'm Rainbow Dash! What's gotten into you?! Why do you want to kill me?!''

''Its not the want that I'm after.'' He chuckled, ''Its more of what I need.'' and then he fired, catching Rainbow in the chest, knocking her down to the floor with a dull thud, the projectile scalding her body and burning her coat. Brady approached her body, gun still aimed at her head and just before he could do anything, Billy, from seemingly out of nowhere, tackled him to the ground, knocking the plasma rifle free of his grasp.

He punched him in the face as hard as he could, Brady barely seeming fazed by the assault. He just grinned devilishly as he grabbed Billy's throat and threw him off of him, Billy landing hard on the floor. Luckily, Billy landed next to his revolver, and upon getting it and getting back to his feet, he took aim at Brady and fired. The rounds just ricochetted off of his armour and didn't hurt him in the slightest bit. He kept firing, only very few of his rounds successfully penetrating his armour.

''Why don't you die?!'' Billy screamed, annoyed at the harmlessness done to Brady from his gun.

''You can't kill the already dead.'' Brady laughed as he threw a punch at him, knocking the wind out of him, followed by a kick to the gut, causing Billy to spit and cough up blood, only pleasing Brady further. ''But I can kill you.'' He took out a large combat knife, bringing it down on Billy whom caught it just in time before it pierced his torso, going straight into his heart. With knife in hands, he pushed as hard as he could to get the blade as far from him as possible, and luckily, he managed to knock it free of Brady's grasp, surprising him.

He barely had time to react as Billy took a quick slash of the knife to Brady's torso, the blade cutting straight through the thick metal plating and slashing his chest, causing him to grunt as blood began to ooze from the wound it created.

''Unfortunately for you, if you bleed, you can die. Now do me a favour and do just that!''

He slashed again, the blade just missing Brady's neck before he grabbed it again, easily freeing it from his hands. He twisted it around, and with it, Billy went over head of Brady, being slammed into the floor at high force, knocking him out. He smirked as he look over his shoulder and saw the two bodyguards corner Rainbow Dash whom was helplessly trying to escape.

''No! She's mine!'' Brady yelled, catching the two's attention, who then both backed off, Brady soon being face to face with Rainbow. ''Any last words?''

''Brady, please! Why are you doing this?! Don't you love me anymore?! Do you?! Why do you want to kill me!?''

Brady stopped for a moment, staring into her terrified eyes, looking into her soul. Those eyes... He thought to himself, I know that look...

''Dashie?''

''Brady!''

What am I doing...? I'm trying to kill the pony I love...I...NO! Stick to the mission! Capture the pony, bring her back to the Colonel!

''AHHHH!!!'' Brady screamed loud, his scream echoing like thunder as he used his knife to stab himself in the bag of the head, screaming louder as he cut a circle of his flesh out, clawing at his skull with his fingers, pulling something out of his head, fresh blood running down the length of his arm and dripping from his fingertips. He dropped the item to the floor from his hand and turned around to face the other two Enclave soldiers, who were now watching him with caution. Out of burning anger and hate, he grabbed his plasma rifle from his feet and fired the rounds into both their heads in a split second, their heads melting into green goo.

Giving one final scream of anger and hate, Brady collapsed onto the floor, dropping his rifle as blood poured from the wound in the back of his head.

Comments

[NightZeroni]

DAAAAAM

[Chicken Mcnugget]

Well at least I'm a badass dick.