Rest for the Wicked

by Lost In A Vacuum

That was just the Tutorial

Northern Tip of Everfree Forest

The sound of gun shots rang through the trees of the forest. The three men were being swarmed by ware-skaggs. Mordecai took the head of one clear off with his rifle, but seconds later it grew right back. Brick threw his gun to the ground and put his 'bolted' fist up, challenging all the skaggs to a fist fight. He punched and jabbed with amazing speed, breaking bones with every swipe. Roland yelled to everybody that they were almost home-free.

Then, a ware-skagg jumped on top of Roland. It bit at the man's arm, trying to remove it from the body. Roland pulled his sawn-off out of his belt with his spare hand and turned the creatures face into a fine sauce. The creature backed off a little by it's face grew back right in front of Roland's eyes.

"I fricken HATE these damn things." He said, kicking it off. Mordecai through a transfusion grenade onto the ground. A ware-skagg picked it up and began to chew on it. It exploded in it's mouth, the liquid inside covered his enitre body and the ware-skagg began to shrivel into skin and bone, but again soon recovered in an extreme pace.

"OUT OF AMMO!" Mordecai yelled to the group. He pulled out his sword and began to feriously chop at the attackers. Limbs and blood flew everywhere, but he knew that it didn't do much to the beasts. Roland looked at the horizone, the moon was still high in the sky.

"Why does it ALWAYS have to be a full moon!?" He screamed. A ware-skagg ripped off one of his shoulder plates, revealing a large chunk of unprotected skin. He took the chance to punch the being square in the face. His hand was burning after making contact with it. The beast didn't even pay any attention to Roland it just feriously tore apart the armor. Roland was caught off guard by another ware-skagg pouncing from behind. He kicked it square in the stomach, actually putting his boot through the beast. Unfortunately, the beast's fast healing process trapped Roland's leg inside the creature. "SHIT! HELP!" He yelled as his body was tossed around like a ragdoll as the crature attempted to claw at the man whose foot was inside it. All he could do was stab the creature until somebody decided to help him.

Brick heard Roland but was too busy dealing with three ware-skaggs. He had one under his foot while he held one in each hand. He made the two in his hands collide with each other, breaking both their skulls on contact. He then smashed the beast under his foot in one foul blow. They took a little longer to heal due to all the injuries they had sustained. Brick the grabbed Roland's arm and the ware-skagg's neck and seperated each of them in one pull.

"GOD DAMN! Have some sympathy!" Roland's leg felt broken. He fumbled for a medkit in his pack. He injected directly into his lifeless apendage. The pain was still present but at least he had some control over it again. Mordecai was doing pretty well dealing with the group of ware-skaggs that surounded him. They would attack two at a time, one from the front and one from behind. He would always evade them and get a few good strikes on them. The entire crowd was ferious. They really wanted to kill the masked one. Bloodwing came back from the recon mission it was previously on and began to help it's master. It tore into the eyes of the ware-skaggs, trying to reach brain.

"Anybody got a plan!" Mordecai yelled to the brawling group.

Roland, who had a ware-skagg in a head lock, yelled, "How's 'hang on untill sunrise' sound!?"

Mordecai looked up at the moon. It didn't even give a hint of moving."Not good enough, we need to lose these guys!"

"How do you suppose we do that!?"Roland returned. Mordecai looked around the ground and surounding area. There was a den close by. He told everyone to follow him. Roland stabbed his knife into the trapped ware-skaggs eye and then followed. Brick also followed, carrying a ware-skagg by the thorat, trying to rip it's limbs off to immobilise it for a few presious seconds. They entered the cave with the pack following closely behind. "This didn't do SHIT Mort!"

They suddenly came across a giant sleeping beast. It's fur had a pattern that was similar to a star map. The creature was also slightly transparent, looking similar to Lilth in siren form. Mordecai instantly reconised the beast and threw a rock at it to wake it. The Ursa Minor woke with a ferious roar. It saw the three intruders and the pack of ware-skaggs. It went straight for the ware-skaggs just as Mordecai planned. The beasts tried to jump onto the Ursa but was almost always batted straight into the ground. It was putting up a great fight. Mordecai wanted to watch the beast in action, but was pulled out of the cave by Roland.

"You forget we were escaping?" They ran for a bit, then they saw Ponyville in the distance. "'Bout damn time." Roland said out of breath. They began to slow their approach towards the town when they were then attacked by a group of bandits. "I hate this damn planet!"

============

Ponyville's Sherif's Office

Rainbow Dash was laying down on the bench on her stomach. She was thinking of how they were going to get rid of that ware-skagg problem. She decided to put it off yet another day and get some more sleep. Suddenly, a man in a bandit's mask busted through the door. He was carrying a small pistol and some various pieces of loot. Dash quickly drew a custom-made handgun from her pistol belt and aimed it right at the human's eyes.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Dashy! Wait!" He yelled.

"Bruiser!? What in Celestia's name are you doing here?"

"Remember that time we found that Crimson Lance stash?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, it turns out they do too. Ya gotta hide me Dash! I can't go back." He was on his knees, begging for a hiding place.

"Alright, alright." She said in a sigh, "You can have the back room."

"Oh, thank you, Dashy! I knew you were same-old. You're the best, man. I won't forget this. Bruiser don't forget!"

"Yeah, yeah. Just get some sleep." The phone then rang just as Bruiser walked into the back. She answered it. "Hello?... Oh, you don't say?... That much, really?... Well I was just about to call you guy's.... Two minutes?...Awesome. Don't worry, I'm good for my word.... No, thank you. Goodbye." After a few minutes a pair of red-armored troops walked into the office.

"You Rainbow Dash?" One of the troopers asked in an altered voice.

"Yup, that's me." She smiled.

"He in the back?"

"All your's, boys." The troopers then walked into the back. A few gunshots went off, but the troopers came back with Bruiser in a straight jacket and threw a bag of golden bits on the table.

"GOD DAMNIT, DASHY! YOU'LL REGRET THIS! BRUISER DON'T FORGET!" Rainbow Dash just chuckled as she began to count her pay.

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Carousel Boutique Inn

The bell on top of the door rang.

"Welcome to the Carousel Boutique, where drinks are cheap, the rooms are unique, and the girls are magnifique." Rarity said in a tired, nonchalant voice. She looked up, "Oh, hi Twilight. Nice to see you made a new friend."

"Hey, Rarity. I'm looking for a room for my friend here."

"50 bits a night."

"Woah! That's twice as much as last time!"

"Sorry, but I have a buisness to run. Don't like it? Go somewhere else."

"Yup, just as generous as usual." Twilight said in a disgusted voice. She looked at Lilth, "Let's find somewhere else, I don't have the money for those prices."

"Thanks for the offer, Twilight. But I can cover it." Lilth said, pulling out some money. Rarity gave Lilth a key and she went to her room. Twilight started for the door Rarity wanted to stop her but didn't know what to say. She grabbed another bottle from under the counter, popped the cork off, and began filling a cup for her self. She wasn't much of a drinker, but now was as good as anytime to start.

=============

Streets of Ponyville

The three men entered the ghost town. There was a drunk every now and then asleep on the sidewalk, but the entire town was seemingly dead.

"Must be hiding from the ware-skaggs." Mordecai said. "Bloodwing, go see where some dens are."

"Why would he do that?" Roland asked.

"Remember the last time we helped out a town in need? And the time before that? It's almost set in stone that we're gonna need to help these poor saps."

"True. But first, let's find somewhere to sleep. Three straight hours of fightin' off ware-skaggs ain't something I do on a regular basis." The sun had just began to rise moments later. "God damnit. It's like this friken planet hates me!"

"Well, we can still grab a drink." The walked into the Carousel Boutique. Some song by Johnny Stash was playing in the background.

"Welcome to the Carousel Boutique, where drinks are cheap... an' other stuff." Rarity said in a muffled voice. Her head was in her arms on the counter. Roland and Mordecai sat at the opposite side of white pony, but Brick just stood by the door. "What'll it be boys?" She said.

"Whatever you got there." Mordecai said. "Put it on a tab."

"No tabs fer strangers. Bits first." Roland scratched his head.

"That's their word for money." Mordecai said to Roland. Mordecai threw some money in front of Rarity and she filled up two glasses for the men.

"And what about you, big boy?" She said to the giant standing by the door while attempting to bat her eyes. He didn't say anything at first, he just looked at her.

"I don't swing that way, pony."

"A simple 'no' would have been sufficient. So, what brings you all into town."

"We're lookin' for the same thing everybody else is lookin' for. The fabled 'element 8'. Whatever it is." Mordecai said.

"Why would you ever want to waste all your time looking for a myth if you don't even know what it is?"

"Hear the pay's good."

"Such a waste of good workers, if you ask me."

"I don't 'work', okay. I'm just collecting what's owed to me."

"Whatever. Keep on doing whatever your doing. I'm just voicing my opinion."

"Don't need it." They were all silent for a while. The men kept on drinking, Rarity kept on filling their glasses. The town soon awoke from it's slumber and people and ponies alike were roaming the streets. "So..." Mordecai said, eyeing the bottom of his glass. "What's the story of this place?"

"What do you mean?" Rarity said.

"Like, I remember hearin' that this place was all prosperous an' stuff. What happened?"

"Humans." She said, staring at a glass she was cleaning.

"That's a pretty bias statement coming from a pony. What really happened, if you could explain some more?"

Rarity sighed, "Well, as you might know: Atlas Co. was the first to find us. They established contact and everything. After a few months of staring at the skies, a few pods came down. From what I heard they all landed in Canterlot, the place where the princess of this land used to live. Atlas simply asked for the allowence of digging into the ground for some special minerals that we didn't need, and the princess said 'yes'. That's it. They had just made contact and minutes later we became one of their mining colonies. Though it was pretty good at the start. Our economy florished with the introduction of new, foreign planets to trade with. It was perfect. But then something happened, other companies came. And they brought the bad stuff: prison laborers, firearms, drugs, and all together, the company of bad seeds. That's where you'll find the downhill slope on the charts. It didn't seem all that bad at first, we were having fun with these new 'toys'. But then the 'Great Escape' happened."

"Great Escape?"

"Remember those prison laborers? A bunch in prisons all across the lands started to riot and take over the prisons. After a bit they started flooding out of the prisons and into neighboring cities and towns. Those who didn't fall at first had to decide between joining Atlas and giving up basically all control of your life, the bandits and prisoners and become wanted criminals, or between fending for yourselves and hoping to survive. We got lucky with the last choice. If I could remember correctly, this same exact thing happened on another planet call Pandora, right?"

"Yeah, we were there."

"Exactly! You humans never learn! If you thought about ANYTHING for a mere second, you would have relised this was a bad idea!"

"Woah! Calm down. Just finish the story, you can fill us in on the extra stuff afterwards."

"Okay, so where was I? Prison riots... uh, oh yes! That's right. Well, the Great Escape happened and the land itself made a turn for the worst. The weather went hay-wire, the day and night cycles were no longer schelduled. Everything, how should I say it? 'Went down into the crapper'. Nothing much happened after that. At least, nothing I know of. Communication was poor even BEFORE the First Encounter. So, if you want to know more, go talk with someone like Twilight or something."

"Who's this 'Twilight' person and where can we find her?"

"She's a pony, and-"

"OHGREAT! Moar dam pownies." Roland interupted, "Itss not like we havnt, had enuff of... dem."

"Shut up Roland. I'm interested in this story and you're drunk. Your opinion dosen't matter anymore." Mordecai said.

"Imnot drunc... I gust gota speesh impe-impedi-impedentation. An'im... dizzy."

"Anyways..." Rarity said looking at the two humans in confusion. "She's basically the town scribe and doesn't have much of a real home, she just wanders about the town. You most likely to find her in the market, peddling those cheap furs of hers. Or maybe selling her knowledge to fools like you."

"Thanks for the tip." Mordecai said, leaving some extra bits on the counter. "Let's go, guys."

"Oh, do come back soon." Rarity said. "And bring some more friends next time." Roland barely managed to stumble out of the Inn. Mordecai chuckled a little bit. Whatever he had just drank was pretty strong. Must be a pony thing. They headed off to find this 'Twilight' and finally get some 'work' done.

Comments

[RusselNotSCP]

FIRST! haha. mordacai is always awesome.