The time for action... Hmh... is upon us! Our stampede will start at high noon tomorrow. And if the orchard is still there, we'll flatten it, and the whole town!

Chapter 7: Battle

“Hey Sherclop,” said John, shaking me awake. “It’s time.”

I sprung up, forcing my foggy brain to start working. I considered taking a Mint-al or even some of the Dash I’d gotten from the safe, but decided against it. I didn’t need them and it would be better to be clean for this fight.

I loaded the revolver and rifle, and walked outside. I quickly saw several of the other Trottingham ponies gathered and ready to fight. I felt proud. Here I was, a little no-nothing stable pony, and I had helped convince a whole town to fight off some gangsters who would’ve made them suffer otherwise.

“How many?” I asked Butter Cake.

“Six, I think. We’re waiting for your signal.”

I glanced over at John, who nodded to me, giving me control of the situation… which I hadn’t expected. I tossed both him and Butter Cake a stick of dynamite and started a countdown.

“Light them on one. Five…”

I saw three of them clearly now.

“Four… Three…”

They all bore similar barding to the first pony we’d seen inside The Three-Legged Horse earlier.

“Two…”

All six were plainly visible now, but they couldn’t see us, hidden by the houses and shacks.

“One… throw!” I hissed.

They did as I said and I was satisfied to see our aim had been true.

BOOM!

Two ponies were blown apart by our attack. It disturbed me for a moment to think that I was pleased by the sight of other ponies dying. How much I had changed from the thinker in Stable 221. Yet, I hadn’t really changed much… at least not on the inside. I mean, I was always willing to fight to defend those who didn’t deserve death.

Redbook’s death flashed through my mind. It would not happen again… not like that. I sprinted forward, shouting my attack and firing my rifle at the ponies. I took down one and I heard John’s twin rifles go off as another prisoner pony fell. I reached the one furthest back and attacked him with my bare hooves. He desperately tried to defend himself, but no pony matched me in hoof-to-hoof combat. Soon, his blood poured over my hooves, and I turned back to see what had become of the last pony. To my horror, he was standing over Butter Cake’s limp body, and had just thrown two lit sticks of dynamite.

It didn’t matter how good I was or how fast I ran. Nothing I could do would stop those sticks from going off.

“RUN!” I shouted.

BOOM!

My warning came too late for Old Man Brawny and another townspony, who both got blown to pieces by the first stick. Their legs and blood flew through the air carelessly, as their lifeless heads fell into the dirt. It was their eyes… their damn eyes as all the life left them.

I was forced to watch in horror as a third pony was killed by the second stick the pony had thrown. Once more, there was an explosion and a spray of blood. Once more, an innocent pony died. It was Stable 221 all over again. It was Redbook all over again.

I galloped as hard as I could at the last convict pony, shooting him several times with the rifle. As he fell, I saw a third stick of dynamite fall from his hooves. I did the only thing I could think of that might stop it from killing Butter Cake and shot it.

BOOM!

I saw, as if in slow motion, Butter Cake’s limp body right before the explosion rocked her. I saw her eyes, wide in horror and pain. I saw her mouth open in a silent scream. I saw in her the desire to live… and how she would have given anything in that moment just to live… and then I killed her…

I killed her…

I killed an innocent…

It didn’t matter that I had been trying to save her… It didn’t matter that I instantly felt the pain of her death on my shoulders… I was a murderer… more so than even Myclop was.

I had been able to smash bots and kill a manticore. I was able to stamp on legionnaires and shoot up convict ponies. But I had just killed somepony that had showed me nothing but kindness. She had let me into her bar and served me. I’d even watched John convince her to help at my urging. I had killed her. I wanted the town to fight back. Not just her either, but the three others who had died because of my actions.

The other townsponies slowly came out, checking their dead… I couldn’t move. John landed next to me, placing a sympathetic hoof on my shoulder. I shrugged it off. I didn’t want his compassion right now… I didn’t deserve it.

I went over to The Three-Legged Horse… and leaned against the building that now had no owner. I heard many of the others weeping over their lost. I joined them, silent as the victims of my stupidity. Myclop would’ve been displeased with my actions… Hell, I was disappointed with my own short-sightedness. Why did I think just wanting to make a difference mattered?

Intentions don’t matter. Your heart doesn’t matter. All that matters is the result… the ending… and I was fucking this ending every way from Sunday. I heard John sit next to me, and pull out a bottle of something.

Next thing I knew, a bottle of apple whiskey was pushed into my hooves.

“Drink,” he said simply.

I obeyed. I had never had whiskey before and was surprised at the slight burn that spread throughout my body. I took another sip and a pleasant numbness began to spread through my brain. Of course it didn’t stop the pain of what I’d done, but it did help dull it.

“How’d you know?” I asked.

“Pegasus enclave, remember? I’ve seen that look before. Listen Sherclop… what happened wasn’t your fault.”

“I know,” I lied.

“No, you don’t. You made the best choice you could to help a pony… I’d have made the same choice. Hell, I did make the same choice. And it wasn’t you who convinced Butter Cake to fight, nor the other townsponies either. They all decided to help. It was their actions that put them there.”

I turned to him.

“But…”

“No but. You want to blame someone, blame the prison ponies who did this. They’re the only ones who should pay for what happened here… and I say you did more than your fair share in bringing that brand of justice about.”

We sat in silence, passing the whiskey back and forth. To their credit, nopony yelled at me. None of them accused me of the slaughter that had just ripped the town in half. Not that any of them had to… I was doing a pretty decent job of it myself.

After a long time… maybe too long, John spoke to me with a slurred tone.

“So, what do you want to do now?”

It was a question I’d been avoiding asking myself. I didn’t know what to do now. I was angry. Angry at myself, and angry at the wasteland for what happened, but above all, I was angry at the prisoners. Once I knew that, it wasn’t so hard for me to decide what I wanted to do.

“Those ponies,” I said. “They came from the NCE prison, right?”

“Yeah.”

“You know where that is?”

“Yes. It’s not more than a few hours from here.”

“You up for fucking some gang ponies up?”

John eyed me carefully.

“It won’t change anything,” he warned me. “It won’t undo the battle here.”

“I know,” I said, gasping. “But those types of ponies are only going to keep coming after others until they have all they can.”

“So what?” asked John. “You just want to go in, guns blazing until anypony wearing a correctional outfit is dead?”

I considered it… thinking hard, as the mint-als I’d taken had now flushed out of my system.

“We ask them about their indictment. I can read them and tell if they’re lying. If either one objects, we leave them alive. Anypony else, or anypony who attack us, we blow their brains out.”

John looked at me for a long moment, then nodded.

“I’m with you.”

I didn’t have to thank him. He wasn’t following me out of loyalty. It was because he agreed with what I’d said. John was a good pony, certainly better than I was, and he was willing to let me take the lead. It made me feel a little better.

“Hey you two,” said Rosemary.

I scowled. I couldn’t blame Rosemary for what had happened. Not really. She certainly hadn’t had the idea to fight the prison ponies. That had been my idea, or maybe John and I had it at the same time. Either way, it wasn’t Rosemary’s fault. That didn’t change the fact that if she hadn’t fled to this place, many ponies would still be alive.

“Hey,” said John, dully.

“I know it’s not a great time for this, but I’m taking off, and you did help me a lot so…”

She placed a bag of caps in front of us. I shook my head. This was the last thing I wanted. I did not deserve to be paid for this slaughter. John put the caps in his saddlebags and stood.

“Sherclop, if we’re gonna get to it. This is as good a time as any. I don’t really want to be around here any longer than I need to be.”

I agreed and got to my hooves shakily. The sun was rising over the distant hills, albeit covered by clouds. I shook myself slightly and began to move.

“Let’s go.”

“First, help me loot these guys,” said John indicating the dead prison ponies.

“What?”

“Look, you haven’t been outside long enough to get how this works. You may not like it, I sure don’t. But down here, it’s a matter of taking what you can from the dead. They can’t use it where they’re going and you and I will need all the ammo and armor we can get. Besides, dressing like a couple of these fools won’t hurt for getting inside that place.”

I cringed. There was no denying his logic, no matter how monstrous this seemed. Soon, I was wearing some of their makeshift barding and had more bullets for both guns than I knew what to do with. Somehow, John seemed to be finding far more than I was and kept handing me the extras.

We soon had a few extra health potions and even another vial of dash in our arsenal. I found Cherry Pie, coward that he was, in his shop and did some quick trading, using all the extra items we’d found for some extra Mint-als and a decent set of parts for our guns.

I set to work repairing our equipment, which was something I did better than even John, and I was happy to actually be able to contribute to our little team. Before the sun was very high in the sky we were decked out in gear and ready to head out.

John, being the more experienced traveler out of the two of us, took the lead. Showing me down the highway. We passed several shacks and small houses. Most seemed abandoned. I quickly realized that towns like Trottingham were going to be far and few between.

“If you keep going down the road,” said John. “You’ll hit Dodge Junction. It’s a large place and has got decent defense, but they got some stand-off with the NCE and some mercenaries right now.”

“Might be worth looking into,” I said.

“So, what is your end plan in all this?” asked John. “You just gonna roam around the wasteland and fix what you find?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But I see now reason I can’t do my best to help while I figure it out.”

John nodded in his approval of my answer.

“Be careful,” he said, pointing out two ponies clad in prison garb.

My pipbuck helpfully labeled them as Dyno Doomponies. What a stupid gang name. They deserved to pay for that alone; not to mention how angry I was over Butter Cake and the others. I walked right up to the pair. Despite being dressed in their gear they must’ve heard about John and I, because they snarled as I came face-to-face with them.

“We’ve heard about you, Sherclop Pones,” they said. “You haven’t made any friends among us.”

“Really? Let me fix that.”

I floated out the revolver and aimed right between the lead Doompony’s eyes.

Bang!

“What the fuck?!” yelled the other one as his friend fell down dead.

Bang Bang!

And the other pony never spoke again.