king ready!08 - Nopony to Spare · 2:46am Mar 22nd, 2017
Nearly done with the rough draft for the next chapter, here's a sneak peek! 
“Hey!” I called as I approached the defenders on the hill. They were in the midst of looting three dead ponies, one of whom still clutched a flaregun in her maw. Turning my eyes from the bodies, I set them on the defenders, “They’re corralling the ghouls with the flares! I think there’s another horde!”
“What? What do you mean another horde?” one of the defenders asked, eyeing me with scorn.
“Those flares were meant to lead a group of ghouls into our path,” I replied, trying my best to keep my tone calm. I cast my eyes briefly to where the third flare was still falling, “There’s another horde over the hills that way,” I gestured back the way I’d come, “and I think there’s a third one now.”
“Really?” the buck asked, testing my patience, “Because if you ask me—”
“Hey, shut-up, shit-for-brains!” a mare with a patchwork coat interrupted as she approached. My eyes widened as I realized it was Flower, the mare with radiation sickness that Strap had had me diagnose. She still didn’t look a hundred percent, but was clearly doing much better, “The only reason that I’m still alive is because of that medical stuff she gave us, so cut the crap,” she turned to me, wasting no time, “Think you can get keep snagging flares?” I nodded, “Good, I’ll tell Dynamite.”
With that, thankfully, settled I was flapping my wings hard again.
Sensing danger, more defenders had spread out across the hilltops to find whoever had lit off the new flare. Skimming low, I kept an eye out for the third possible horde, eyeing the dips between hills where the other one had been kept hidden.
Only this time I spotted the raider team first as a sudden glint coming from an old wagon wreck caught my eye. Like with before there appeared to be three of them, and—I screamed as something struck me in the side through my saddlebags, a loud report telling me just what it was.
A bullet.
My heart nearly burst as I hit the deck, wings pounding as more shots rang out at me. Yet I barely noticed them as a sudden wetness began to coat my side where I’d felt the hit.
