> Fallout Equestria: Walking Tall > by Some random Rapidash > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I bolted up, dripping in sweat. The dream had come again… My body ached as it remembered the pain it had experienced. Every night since that day, the dream of the attack would invade my mind. For months now, every time I even attempted to rest, that nightmare would impose itself on me with all the tenderness of a rabid deathclaw. No matter what I did, every attempt I made to find some measure of peace always resulted in the same outcome.  I would look upon a building reduced to rubble and the faces of the dead, with their empty stares and mouths opened in shock, fear, and horror…  I sighed as I thought back to everything that had led up to this point. “Mother of Celestia! Do you ever stop whining?!” I yelled at the whimpering unicorn. “For fuck’s sake man, take your punishment like a stallion and not a foal!” The yellow unicorn stopped his whimpering, but I could still hear him sniffle and take a deep gulp. Tartarus, I actually would prefer a foal at this point. I swear, why do we even bother keeping some of these yellow-bellied earth-bound fools around? I wondered as I walked him to his cell and double checked the magic inhibitor to make sure it was on tight. “Hey, Flare, you done with the prisoner now?” a voice called out to me. I grinned as I turned around to see my foalhood friend, a sea-green pegasus with a silver mane and tail, walking up to me. Her name was Cloudy Serenity, and by some miracle, The Enclave had kept us together through training school and deployment. “Yeah, Cloudy, just got done, was about to file the paperwork on him and go take a shower. Where’s Wildfire?” She chuckled. “Oh, she’s tearing the brats a new one. Not only did they let a group that big get so close, but it seems they picked the weakest one to join us.” She said, motioning to the unicorn I had just put away. I shook my head and chuckled. “Yeah… He would not stop crying. I give him five days, max.” I started walking to my desk. “So, how’s your day going?” “Oh, the same as the last year or so has gone: wake up at the crack of dawn, have breakfast while the grunts moan on and on about how this is a shitty assignment and that they would prefer being on an actual mission and ‘Why don’t we just blow them all up?’, forgetting that they often carry supplies, give our scientists stuff to study, and give intel on the goings on.” She then shook her head. “Then, after breakfast, Wildfire comes screaming up to me about something that happened the other day and wondering why I didn’t tell her, when in fact I told her right after it’d happened. I swear, that crazy old mare is driving me crazy.” I chuckled. “You know why that is, right? It’s an old military trick so we get mad at her and not each other in the heat of the moment. My dad told me all about that.” She snorted. “Oh! Of course, Flare Chaser, the son of famed Brigadier General Ivory Spark and brother to the acclaimed Captain “Thunder” Faulkner, would know that.” I rolled my eyes, she knew it got on my nerves to mention my more famous family. “You know, if we hadn’t grown up together, I would have never believed your skinny ass was even remotely related.” I sighed, sat down in my seat, set my black western hat and sunglasses down, and began to work. “Alright, you had your fun, now scram!” I said as I logged into my cloud terminal. “I’ll catch up with you later,” I stated as I began typing up all the necessary reports. I was almost done when I began to hear the hoofsteps of an angry, foul-mouthed mare getting louder and louder. “Here it comes... '' I said quietly as I braced for the steps to stop and the screaming to start. Time seemed to slow down as it happened. “FLARE CHASER!!” The shrill voice screamed in my ear, causing it to ring like a bomb had just gone off only a few feet away, deafening me for a second. I turned towards the screaming mare, a fiery red pegasus with an orange and yellow mane by the name of Wildfire, and tried to collect my thoughts. “WHY ARE YOU JUST SITTING THERE AND NOT GUARDING THE PRISONERS?!” I’m pretty sure I felt several bits of spit fly into my black mane as she bellowed this.  “I was filling out the paper-” I started. “YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE BY NOW!” she shrieked. “GET IT DONE NOW AND GO BACK OUT AND GUARD THE PRISONERS!” Not even waiting for a reply, Wildfire turned on her hooves and stormed back out, cursing under her breath. I simply resumed working as she walked away, shaking my head “What a hardass…” I said under my breath, After I finished typing, I ran a hoof through my mane, stood up, put my hat on, and started to walk away before stopping mid-step and looking back at my sunglasses. “Might as well grab them before I forget where they are again,” I said to myself as I stepped back and put them on. “Besides, I look cooler when I wear them.” I did a little pose in front of the reflective screen of a powered down terminal in front of me before glancing around to make sure no one saw me do that.  With that taken care of, I walked back to the holding pens. When I got there, I saw Cloudy talking with the yellow unicorn I’d just brought in. When she saw me, she immediately walked over.  “Hey Flare, what’s up?” She asked once we were face to face.  “Nothing much, what were you two up to?” I asked, gesturing to the prisoner who, by now, had slunk back towards the farthest corner of his cell.  “Nothin’ much, just a bit of intel gathering,” she quickly blurted. That caused me to raise an eyebrow. “Usually we leave that stuff up to the higher ups…” I said, a hint of concern in my voice. Over the last couple of weeks, I had noticed she had been talking with various prisoners, and it had started to make me uneasy. Not only could she be reprimanded for doing this, but she was probably getting wild and crazy ideas from the ponies we were capturing. She knew that we weren’t to leave the base, let alone go home, for fear of getting “contaminated”.  She shrugged off my concern. “Well, I figured I’d be a bit proactive. Besides, we’re just shooting the breeze. No biggie, Flare,” she said, patting my cheek with one of her wings. “Serenity…” I started to say, but she cut me off. “You worry too much, man,” she said nonchalantly as she walked past. “‘Oh, I’m Flare Chaser! I take everything too seriously! I look deeply into everything!’ That’s what you sound like,” she said with a chuckle as she saw my unamused face. “Come on, I’m going on break, let's hit the decon showers.”  Not seeing a point in staying, I followed her. As I walked behind her, I quickly noticed that my eyes were being drawn to her flank, and it didn’t take long for me to start admiring said view. I blushed slightly and averted my gaze when my rational brain finally caught up. I liked her, but not like that! Besides, even if I did, I doubt she would share those feelings.  After a couple minutes, we arrived at the decontamination showers. After removing everything we were wearing, the two of us began to shower in neighboring stalls. We had just begun washing ourselves when I opened my mouth. “I know we just talked about this, but you seriously need to stop talking with the prisoners. You could get reprimanded, or worse…” I said, which only elicited a loud huff from the next stall. “It’s nothing, Flare! You seriously need to stop worrying, man. Honestly, the worst they can do at this point is send me back up.” She said with a snort. “No, they could put you in the ground or have you work with these fools.” I reminded her, my concern building with how nonchalant she was with this. “Nah, I would be free if they did that.” I was gonna comment on the stupidity of that statement, but before I could, there was a loud bang that shook the whole building. “Mother of Celestia! The fuck was that?!” I shouted as I stopped the shower and rushed out. Almost as soon as I did this, sirens began to blare from every speaker in the facility, and with them came the sound of more thundering explosions that vibrated the entire base.  “We’re under attack! Go secure the prisoners, I’ll get some weapons!” I told Serenity, who nodded before running towards the cells. I turned on my hooves, nearly slipping in the puddle of water I’d created from not drying off, and sprinted to the armory after collecting my sunglasses and hat. When I got there, the quartermaster pointed towards my battle saddle, already prepped with a sniper rifle we’d confiscated a couple months ago. Nodding, I quickly strapped in and made sure everything was set up to my liking. Putting the trigger line in my mouth, I dashed off towards the walls of our compound, finding Wildfire and Serenity at the steps leading out to the battlements.  “Guard Serenity! Status report!” Wildfire barked, looking everything over. “All prisoners accounted for and locked up, ma’am!” Serenity barked back, saluting our boss. “No need to worry about them!” Wildfire saw me running over before turning and nodding to Serenity. “Good. Now go get yourself armed and defend this place, and until this skirmish ends, don’t salute anyone, please.” Serenity started to salute, but caught herself, simply nodding instead before heading towards the armory. Satisfied, Wildfire turned towards me. “Follow me, Flare, and stay close. We gotta defend our home.” I watched as she opened her desk drawer and grabbed a pistol. I strained to get a good look at it, but when I did, I saw it had a particular emblem carved into the barrel. “Uh, Chief, where did you get that pistol?” I asked curiously as I strained to remember where I had seen that emblem. It looked fairly zebric in nature, but that was all I could tell, as Wildfire looked back at me with a menacing glare. I suddenly forgot my question and focused on the task at hoof. She put the mouth trigger in and sprinted towards the gunfire. “Damn, Chief must have been a top tier athlete in a past life,” I said to myself as I found myself barely keeping up, and once again found my eyes wandering over her rear. I silently cursed and shook my head. She did have a nice rear, but dammit, she was as old as my mother! “Sisters, I need help…” I said to myself as we reached the battlements. The battlements of our fort were the perfect place to watch the sun rise and fall. From what I had been told about the fort, it had been built during the Great War by the Ministry of Morale as some sort of relocation center for zebras and a few other non-ponies living in Equestria at the time. I had always wondered if the designers had any idea what, exactly, this place would be used for all these years later, or even if it was meant to last this long. Looking around at the chaos happening before us, I had a feeling they had. The walls, to this point, had held up remarkably. I watched a rocket smash into the wall, causing it to shake slightly, but still hold.  “FLARE!” I snapped back to Wildfire, who had apparently been yelling orders. “GIVE OUR BOYS IN THE AIR SOME COVER FROM THESE FUCKS!” She then pointing down at the attacking forces. “AND TAKE OUT THOSE DAMN LAUNCHERS!” I nodded and set to work.  Taking aim at a unicorn about to throw a grenade, I squeezed the trigger and watched said grenade drop to the ground and begin rolling now that its owner had a distinct lack of a face. The pin must have already been pulled when I shot the stallion because a moment later, there was a puff of smoke followed by a mangled corpse being thrown into the air like a foal’s doll.  “Celestia fuck! How many of these fuckers are there?!” I heard Wildfire shout over the report of her pistol. I had to agree; ever since I was assigned here, we’d never had an attack of this magnitude, let alone this well coordinated. I shouted back to Wildfire, “Ma’am! I think we’re gonna be overrun! We should pull back to a more defensible posit-“ Suddenly, I felt a hot pain in the back of my right rear leg. I let out a scream of pain as I collapsed to the ground. Wildfire looked over at me, then up. Following her eyes, I saw a griffin flying above me, aiming his machine gun at me. He grinned and I realized, in horror, that he was about to kill me. I then heard what could only be described as a roar of pure anger and fury, accompanied by several shots. The griffin burst into bright red flames, then screamed for several seconds as his wings failed him and he went crashing into the hard concrete floor of the battlements with a sickening crunch. Fighting the urge to throw up, and tearing my eyes away from the still-burning corpse and towards the roar, I saw Wildfire standing there, steam shooting out of her nose as she glared at the corpse before quickly reloading and rushing to my side. She looked over my wound and started to help me up. “You’ll be fine, I’m sure it’s just a flesh wound, just need to bandage it for now,” she said, grabbing a bandage and taking care of the wound before helping me up. She glanced at the corpse of the griffin, which was now just a smoldering pile of ash, and spat on it. “Damn, Chief, where did you get that pistol?” I asked, changing the subject as I leaned on her as we hobbled through the gunfire. “My son gave it to me before he…” She bit her lip and stopped herself. “That doesn’t matter.” I nodded as she looked around, observing the situation. It was painfully obvious, we were fucked. “Come on, kid, I’m not gonna help you all the way. We gotta get going. We’ll fall back inside the keep, entrench ourselves there, and fight till the last bullet,” she instructed as I began to take steps under my own power, rather gingerly with the shot leg. “What about Sereni-“ I began, when suddenly, there was another explosion, and the wall behind us began to crumble. “We can worry about her later! Let’s worry about us! MOVE YOUR ASS, FLARE!” She shouted as she took off. Ignoring the pain that pulsed from my wounded leg with every step, I did my best to follow behind her. It seemed, now, every bullet had our names written on them. “DO NOT STOP! KEEP YOUR HOOVES MOVING!” Wildfire yelled, and I obeyed. I kept my eyes forward and focused solely on escaping the nonstop cacophony of munitions screaming, cracking, and exploding all around us. Suddenly, a rocket impacted the section of wall just below our position. The shockwave knocked me off my hooves, and I watched in horror as the ground beneath Wildfire gave way. She didn’t even make a sound as she disappeared. I scrambled to my hooves, rushed to the collapsed section of the wall, and looked into rubble. There was no sign of Wildfire. I pondered for just a moment as to what to do before another explosion resounded from below, this one louder than the last, causing the wall to convulse so strongly that I was knocked off of it. I extended my wings to slow my fall, but that only succeeded in making my situation resoundingly worse. Unable to properly orient myself before I reached the ground, the first thing to connect with it was my left wing, and, with the entirety of my body weight following behind it, I both felt and heard a good number of bones within it snap. I quietly screamed into the ground as I laid there in excruciating pain, not only from the broken bones, but from the agony of several of them doing so in a way that they had pierced through my skin and were now clearly visible among my feathers.  When I opened my tear-filled eyes to get an idea of what my current situation was, the first thing I noticed was that my sunglasses had been shattered in the fall and my hat was a couple feet in front of my face. As my adrenaline kicked in and the pain subsided to a dull throb, I began to curl into a ball. However, as I was doing this, my eyes caught sight of something moving in the distance beyond my hat. When my mind began to correlate just what I was seeing, I realized it was Serenity rushing towards me. Seeing her, I began to stagger to my hooves. When she got within one-hundred feet of me though, she was enveloped in a yellow aura of magic and pulled back. Looking just beyond where she was now hovering, I saw the yellow unicorn we’d just captured, his horn glowing. Suddenly, there was a loud boom as the tower above me exploded before beginning to collapse. Too disoriented and weakened from everything that had just happened, the only thing I could manage was to raise my right wing up in an effort to protect myself.  “Today has not been my day” was my last thought as several hundred pounds of rock and metal landed on me. > Chapter 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- What was I thinking?! I thought to myself as I walked with Serenity. “Did we really just do that?” I asked, glancing at her. Serenity let out a deep breath. “Yep… Two new recruits for the Enclave. Coming soon to a wasteland near you, the two baddest Pegasi in the skies! The Unpredictable Cloudy Serenity and the Cold Flare Chaser!” She said with a smirk and a wink. I snorted at the somewhat ironic nicknames. “Easy there killer, we just signed up to be prison guards, glorified babysitters.” I shook my head, “you really are something you know that Cloudy?”  She smiled, “I know, that’s why you love me Flarey!” She said in a sing-song voice. I put a hoof over my face to hide my chuckle. Now I remember… I woke up from the trip down memory lane. I couldn’t see anything so I wasn’t sure if I was awake till I felt all my pain radiating through my body. Groaning, I clawed at the memories dancing through my brain for what had happened. Oh right, a building had crashed down on my head, but just before that, I had seen Serenity and… that yellow unicorn from that day’s intake. They were together, and he had saved her? WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?! I thought to myself. I gotta get out of here… With more moaning and groaning, I pushed through the rubble and tried to figure out which way was up. For what felt like hours, I squirmed, groaned, and grunted my way through the rubble; all the while, a dull pain throbbed through my body, except for when I brushed my broken wing or my gunshot wound against a piece of pointy debris, which elicited a scream of pain. Finally, I escaped what should have been my tomb and shook off the white dust and debris that had accumulated in my black mane and orange coat, groaning slightly as my wing reminded me for the millionth time it was fucked.  As I looked around, I took stock of my situation. I had no idea how long I was buried there as the sun was setting. My sunglasses, I quickly realized were broken, possibly beyond repair, one lens was gone the other had a big crack in it. “Just great…” I grumbled as I took them off and tossed it off to the side with my good wing. I then saw the familiar shape of my stetson hat, carefully I picked it up, shook some of the dust off, and placed it back on my head. I looked over at my battle rifle, which had, surprisingly, stayed together. But I doubt all the hard hits and bumps it had taken as I crawled out made it anywhere near close to reliable. I then looked over at my injured wing and nearly threw up. It was definitely broken. I tore my eyes away from my wing and towards my right rear leg; judging from the fact that I had two bright red spots on either side of it, the bullet must have gone all the way through. I could safely drink a potion, if I found one,  I looked out through one of the holes that had been left when the walls were breached. Then there was what to do… I could either wait here for the Enclave to get here and give me proper medical treatment. Just a few problems with that: they might not even come; if they did, who knows when that would be; and, if there are no healing supplies here, my wounds might become infected, requiring some, ahem, drastic measures. But perhaps the biggest problem was that they might not bother to rescue Serenity. If she even needs rescuing, a portion of my brain I had been ignoring chimed in. I tried to ignore it and continue thinking. You saw how she was acting. You knew she always hated living among the clouds! She wanted to be down here! It roared. That unicorn promised her sweet nothings and let everyone here die! Including us, her best friend! I shook my head. “No,” I said quietly, “right before I was knocked out, she tried to get to me, but that Unicorn grabbed her and saved her.” The intrusive thoughts quieted down, allowing me to think about a plan. I had to get medical help, the problem was, with no idea when and even if the Enclave were coming, I had to venture into the wastes and find a town. Problem there was that I had no idea where the nearest town was, and also pegasi are generally regarded with suspicion unless they’re a Dashite… I cursed once more as I also realized whatever doctor I did find out here probably wouldn’t know the first thing about pegasus biology as far as the wings were concerned. I sighed, adjusted myself as best as I could without damaging my wing further, and set off northward. But as I began to step, my stomach growled. I silently cursed at myself for being an idiot and setting off unprepared. I poked around for supplies before I set off, though I quickly wished I hadn’t. I found myself daintily stepping over corpses of my comrades. Those whose eyes were opened I tried to close their eyes the best I could. But there were so many, and I was losing time. I had to focus on myself, or else I would join them. Thankfully, while it seemed whoever had attacked us had taken most of our supplies, I managed to grab some minor stuff. I was able to redress my wound and put a splint, with some colorful cursing, on my broken wing. Unfortunately, they had taken the healing potions, so for now, my injuries would have to take an old school approach to healing. Having addressed my most pressing needs, I browsed through the empty cafe. Thankfully, there were some freeze dried apples that, for the moment, filled the pit in my belly. You know we have to decide what to do about Serenity. The voice popped up as we ate for what was going to be the last time in the prison’s cafe. Even if she tried to save us, she more than likely helped orchestrate the attack or at the very least let it happen. I tried to think up an argument, but the intrusive thought was right. The chances of Cloudy just being in the wrong place at the wrong time were slim to none… I looked over at the rifle I had, if it came down to it would I be able to shoot her. I may very well have to. I was not liking what the current path appeared to be. No, a softer voice, one that reminded me a bit of my mother, spoke up. You’ve known Cloudy since you were foals, ever since you can remember you had each other’s back. It’s how you got your cutie marks for Celestia’s sake! I glanced at mine, a shield with a pair of wings sprouting from it, and nodded. “I have to at least talk to her about this… I owe her that much,” I stood up. “Now, to get out of here before I start having more in-depth conversations with myself.” I said with a dark laugh, as I walked out. A couple minutes later, with some food in my belly, my wounds addressed for now, and a goal in mind, I stood outside the walls of what had been my home for several years now. Just one problem: I still had no idea how to achieve those goals. I had no idea of the location, if there were any, of nearby settlements and the ground was so hard that they had no tracks. If only my wing wasn’t busted, I’d be able to fly up and see if there was anything. I took a deep breath. “Just put one hoof in front of the other,” I said to myself and began a short trot. As the fort disappeared from sight, my brain began to wander. You really are gonna throw away everything over a traitor? The intrusive thoughts came back, I tried to push it away and focus on the horizon but as the only other thing in sight was cacti, it just grew louder. You’re making your family look like fools, Flare! You know what they’re probably saying right now? “Oh you hear? General Spark’s kid, yeah, Flare, not only was he just a glorified babysitter, but also a coward! Man, I feel bad, his wife must have been sleeping around!” I gritted my teeth, growled, and picked up the pace, trying to outrun the thoughts, but they kept up. Or with your brother, “Man, I feel sorry for Captain Thunder, not only is he trying to match the legacy of his father, but now he has to do more to overshadow how much of a loser his brother is!” That’s what’s happening and will continue unless you turn back and wait for help! I stopped and let out a loud yell. “ENOUGH!” I took several deep breaths before in a low voice to myself, “Serenity is in over her head, if the roles were switched she would come to me and try to talk some sense into me.” But would it be for the same reasons? The voice asked quietly. “I… I don’t know…” I muttered before continuing. Thankfully, a town came into sight before I could have another shouting match between me, myself, and I. I tried to put together a game plan of what I would do if the group that attacked the prison was here, unfortunately with how poorly I was, the game plan was hope and pray they didn’t notice me and see if I could pick up where Serenity was and/or where they were heading to. I started to wish I could have hidden my wings without fear of damaging my broken one more. As I walked closer, I saw the 2 guards outside the town raising their weapons, so I stopped and raised both wings up and one of my forelegs up. “HEY! I mean y’all no harm! I just need some medical attention as you can probably see,” I gestured to my damaged wing, “and a warm bed, aight?” The guards, both unicorns, looked at each other for a moment before one turned to me and shouted out. “You ain’t with Enclave right?”  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “Not anymore! Haven’t been for a while!” I responded, trying to size up the two. They seemed to be of average size, but they held a mean-looking, lever-action rifle with a scope, and the biggest revolver I ever saw, respectively. If I was 100% and had functioning equipment I could have taken them, but I didn’t so my best bet was tell them what they probably wanted to hear. The guard with the revolver, who had a lightish red coat, raised an eyebrow. “Prove it! Turn to the side and show us your flank!” I grimaced slightly. No doubt they were checking to see if I was a Dashite, someone who had been literally branded as a traitor with Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark. “Look, I’m gonna do that and you’ll see I’m not a Dashite! I was with the actual Enclave, but they left me for dead one day and I’ve never looked back!” I lied, taking deep calm breaths as I turned to show my unbranded cutie mark. The one who had been asking these questions turned to the other and said, “alright, you stay here, I’ll take this guy to Sheriff Bars.” He then approached me, revolver still in his magical grip. When he got to me, he unhooked my battle saddle and floated it over. “Look, I just need a doctor to look at my wing and then I can leave“ I said, now completely defenseless. “We’re not gonna have Doc waste his time and supplies on scum like you.” The guard said coldly, “now walk! And if you so much as step one hoof out of line I will shoot you like the flying rat you are!” He then poked the barrel of his revolver into the back of my head and I obliged him You are so damn lucky I don’t stick that gun up your ass… I thought to myself as I walked through town. It seemed to be a nice town. There were several buildings around with simple words on them. We passed by what I figured was the doctor’s office as, instead of a word like “Saloon” or “General Store,” it had the 3 pink butterflies you would see on the medical boxes. I strained my head to look a bit and got hit with the butt of the revolver. “Eyes forward!” The guard barked and I began to seriously doubt my decision to be peaceful. Nice to know abusing one's power isn't just a Pegasus thing. I mused as we reached a building with a 5 pointed star hanging from a shaded area on the front. Leaning back in the chair was an older dark gray unicorn with a bushy white mustache and a white stetson hat similar to mine pulled down over eyes. He had a guitar surrounded in a dark brown glow, strumming an oddly familiar tune. “Sheriff Bars?” The guard called out. The older unicorn stopped his playing, set the guitar down next to his chair, and pushed his hat up so we could see his dark green eyes. “I caught this snake trying to sneak in and I think he was planning to shoot up the town with this!” I looked at the guard incredulously as he levitated my saddle over to this “Sheriff Bars”. To his credit, Sheriff Bars looked between me, my injured wing, my gun, and the guard, and had an unamused look on his face. “Deputy Tulip, let me ask you a question…” The sheriff started, in a drawl reminiscent of my dad’s, as he detached my rifle from the saddle and examined it. “Have you inspected this gun for more than a single second?”  I stifled a chuckle at the name. Deputy Tulip was about to smack me but stopped as he heard the question. “Uh, no, Sheriff, it didn't seem necessary, as it was obvious to me what he was doing” he said, slightly confused. Sheriff Bars shook his head. “Well, if you had…” He then detached the magazine and pulled the bolt back and a round jumped out from the chamber. “Why didn’t you unload it?!” He scolded the deputy as he caught the bullet in his magic. The deputy blushed a deep red in embarrassment. “You are damn lucky that, in your eagerness, you didn’t accidentally fire a round and kill the very ponies we are asked to defend!” The sheriff continued, “Now, your story about what this pegasus was doing has some major flaws, you know that, right Deputy?” Tulip was taken aback. “W-what do you mean, sir?!” He stammered, completely flustered. “Why else would he be here!? He’s not branded like other pegasi that were with the Enclave.” “Neither was the last pegasus that came through here recently!” Sheriff Bars responded. With that, my ears perked up slightly. “While it is true quite a few pegasi roaming the world now are Dashites, not all are! Also, what kind of idiot tries to sneak anywhere if they are bright orange and have a busted wing for the whole daggum world to see?!” He stood up and stamped his hoof. “Now, besides the obvious, you want to know how else I know he wasn’t going to “shoot up the town” as you claim?” Tulip just stammered clearly embarrassed. “Follow me, both of you!” Bars turned to his deputy, “and put that gun away before you blow a hole through our guest here!” Sheriff Bars ordered. Tulip gulped and nodded. I let out a deep breath as I followed the old sheriff around to the side of his building, where a bottle sat on a ledge on the wall. “Now this, I don’t blame you for missing this. As someone with a true eye for firearms and understands, you don’t always need the biggest one to do the job,” he remarked as he studied the rifle up and down, he then turned to me, “I’m sorry, where are my manners?” He asked himself as he shook his head. “I do not believe I have gotten your name, sir,” “Oh, uh, no problem, sir, it’s Flare Chaser.” I nodded, “it’s my honor, Sheriff. Didn’t mean to cause such a disturbance.” Sheriff chuckled, “no matter, Mr. Flare, now back to the business at hoof. You have a fine rifle here, but if you do plan on shooting up the town, you got one problem…” He then loaded the magazine, chambered a round, and fired. There was a loud crack as the bottle remained untouched and there was a bullet hole in the side of the wall, down and to the right. “Your sights are messed up.” He said unloading the weapon once more. “You start to see any flaws in your claims, Deputy Tulip?” He asked, looking at his deputy, who looked down and kicked at the ground. “Exactly…” He shook his head, slightly annoyed, before looking over at me. “Now, Mr. Flare, I trust you require some medical attention…” He said, looking at my wing, and then at my wounded leg. “Let’s get that taken care of. Tulip! Before you head back, stop over at Doctor Cheerful Holliday’s facility and let him know he’s gonna have a patient, I’m going over to Small Hammer’s shop and have him take care of Mr. Chaser’s rifle.” Tulip nodded and ran off, tail between his legs. I was astonished, “oh, thanks, sir… I don’t know how to repay you, I got nothing on me… If you like the rifle, you can have it.” I offered.  The Sheriff shook his head. “No need, son, just head over to the Doc’s and he’ll have you patched up right as rain. By then, your rifle should be zeroed in. Don’t worry about paying. But if you need some spare caps, stop by when you’re healed. I always have some work lined up for those who can handle themselves.” “Will do, Sheriff!” I said with a curt nod and started to leave, but stopped mid-step and turned back. “Oh, Sheriff, quick question. You mentioned to Deputy Tulip something about a pegasus, what can you tell me about them?” I asked. The sheriff looked at me for a second as he thought back. “Well let me see, she was a bluish green color. Didn’t catch her name, but she was really friendly. You missed her by a day or two.” He must have seen me frown for a moment as he said, “sorry son, but she and her friend left with the caravan they had come in on.” “Caravan huh? Any idea where they were heading to?” I asked. The Sheriff shook his head, “no clue. There’s a few towns around here they could have gone to. Someone who would know is Great Times; she’s the proprietor of the big saloon you probably saw as you walked through town,” I nodded. “Yeah, just be careful with her. The name’s deceiving: if you don’t have caps, you won’t get any kind of service. Now go on, come back when you’re healed up!” He said, gesturing with his hoof. “Thanks for everything sir! I will!” I nodded and walked off towards Doctor Holiday’s place. As I walked through the town, I had to admire it. There was an odd charm to the buildings. Being used to buildings mostly of concrete and clouds, the mostly wooden structures had a homely feeling. If you can’t get back, you can always stay here. This seems like a decent enough place. The motherly voice spoke up. “Maybe, if it wasn’t close to the fort,” I said quietly as I arrived outside the medical office and walked in. Sitting at a desk in the corner of the reception area/waiting room was a white earth pony with a light pink mane, typing away at a terminal. I walked up to her and cleared my throat slightly before saying “excuse me?” She glanced up from her work and smiled a smile so big that I could see her pearly whites. “Hello! You must be the pegasus that Tulip talked to the doctor about! The doctor will be out here with you in a moment, so relax and make yourself comfortable!”  I nodded and walked around the waiting room. He had some old magazines, and, picking through them, I saw a couple of issues of “Incredibly Insane Stories!” most of them I had read when I was a kid, though I don’t think I had gone through “The Mad Griffin’s Revenge!” I picked it up and saw that the magazine underneath was a copy of “Wingboner.” Looking at the cover, I blushed at memories of sneaking and grabbing my brother’s copies and looking through them. I quickly set the comic back down on the stack, made sure the dirty magazine was at the bottom of the stack, and began to look at the pictures on the walls. They had all been faded with age, but they showed what I think was the same pony, a heavyset, dark green unicorn in a medical jacket, alongside what I assume were several celebrities, one of whom appeared to be Rainbow Dash, unless there was another pegasus with a striped mane of different colors. It must have been early on in the war, before the formation of the “Ministry of Awesome,” as she still looked relatively happy and healthy, not visibly aged by the war.  “Those were the good old days, back when you didn’t need a rifle to solve your problems, just the magic of friendship.” A raspy voice behind me said with a chuckle. “If you say so-” I started to say as I turned around and was met with the horrifying sight of a pony with several gaping wounds and a face going through some serious decomp. I am ashamed to admit that my scream was not a very manly scream. The shambling corpse just stood there for several seconds as my screaming slowly stopped. “You done?” It asked with a slightly amused look on its face. I slowly nodded and leaned away trying to give myself some distance. “I take it this is your first time seeing a ghoul, pretty boy?” I must have had a confused look on my face as I racked my brain for what the fuck a “ghoul” was, as this “ghoul” rolled his eyes. “You know, Cadavers, Children of the Bombs, Shamblers, Rots, Zombies?” It rolled its eyes and shook its head again, “Celestia, do those Enclave fuckwits teach you anything?” I shook my head. I'm sure I overheard something from the military members assigned to our base about “ghouls,” but I never asked what they were. It rolled its eyes, “alright, here’s the abridged version: Ghouls are creatures bombarded by radiation, mostly from the bombs dropping on us, we can still walk, talk and make use of our magical abilities like magic and flight, just we’re walking corpses, we don’t need food and water, just radiation which heals us. Most of us lose their grip on sanity and become what most call “feral” but quite a few, like myself and my sister, keep our mental faculties with nothing much changing except we don’t need to eat, drink, or sleep.” It explained, “and, before you ask, yes, I was an actual doctor before the war, I still know what I’m doing, and I know Pegasus anatomy.” I looked down and realized it was wearing a doctor’s jacket. I then turned and looked between the photo and the ghoul. “So… You’re Doctor Cheerful Holiday…” I asked, the ghoul nodded. “And you are totally fine, despite looking like a literal corpse?” “I guess, relatively speaking, I’m fine, since by all accounts I am a corpse.” He said plainly as he went to a neutral look. “Now, are we done discussing me and my appearance and ready to start your healing process?” I nodded. “Good! Follow me, Mr. Chaser, and we can go to my examination/operating room.” He said, turning around and walking out of the reception area. I glanced over at the nurse, who was giggling slightly, no doubt at my scream and apparent lack of brains. I simply blushed deeply and quickly followed behind Doctor Holiday. In the other room was an examination bed, not unlike the ones at the prison. “Can you hop up there on the table and we can take a look at that broken wing.” I did so gingerly; at the moment there wasn’t any shooting pain, just a dull throb. The doctor took off the splint and began to gently inspect my wing. “Oh, this is no good; while it’s good you put it in a splint, it has begun to set wrong. We’re gonna have to rebreak it and set it properly before I can use a spell to fix it.” I cringed slightly at that, “you sure? I mean, when was the last time you looked at a pegasus’s wing?” I asked before gritting my teeth. The doctor tutted gently, “sorry, young stallion, but if you want to be able to fly again, we’re gonna have to break it again. Nurse Breeze, I’m going to need your help here!” Before I could say another word he held me down firmly with his magic. “W-wait what?! You aren’t gonna use Med-X or something?!” I asked, thrashing slightly in his magic. The nurse came in and put her full weight on me, and I couldn’t move. The doctor shook his head. “No need, this will only be a moment.”  He said, releasing his magic grip on everything but the broken wing, which glowed brighter, and grabbed a cloth rag in his magic. “Now, Mr. Flare, can you bite down on this?” He asked, extending it out to my face. Seeing as how I had no other option, I took the rag and bit down hard, closed my eyes, and scrunched my face up. “Good, now on three: One… Two!” On two, he pulled at my wing. I heard a snap and I screamed hard into the rag as I felt him break it, causing mass amounts of pain, followed by some cooling as he wrapped up whatever spell he had used. “Good, you did great Flare… Now we are gonna check your gunshot wound and make sure it’s not infected.” The ghoul doctor explained as he took the rag out of my mouth and unwrapped the bandage around my back leg. “Good… It seems the bullet went clean through and missed the major arteries.” He said as the nurse got off of me and went back to the reception area. He then took my wing and manipulated it. It felt fine except for some slight discomfort. “Now, you should be still feeling some slight pain or discomfort; that’s normal. We’re gonna hold you for the night and, instead of giving you a potion, just wrap you up in some magical bandages.” He said, letting go, “don’t be worried about paying for the bill, this time around at least; Iron Bars is picking up the bill. Don’t go around getting yourself shot up though, it could very well be just this once.” I nodded, “thanks, Doc…” I said, hopping off the table. He shook his head, “just doing my job, now follow me to your room for the night.” He said as he began to walk out of the room. I followed him into the next room and saw a handful of hospital beds. “Pick any one. You should be fine in the morning, and, barring any unforeseen problems, I’ll have you cleared to go.” Doctor Holiday said before he turned around and left. With a sigh, I flopped onto the bed and was asleep before my head hit the pillow.