Oh, you wanna do this the hard way? We’ll do this the hard way!

Chapter 10: Knock Knock

We entered Philomena’s Fire to find an old earth pony pointing a revolver at us. I vaguely wondered how many times I could open a door to see this type of scene. After he looked at us for about a second he spoke.

“Oh,” he said. “You lot ain’t no raider ponies.”

“No, we’re not!” said Lestride, angrily.

“I am Sherclop Pones. These are my associates John Trottson and Lestride of the New Crystal Empire.”

Behind me, Lestride hissed, “When did I become his associate?”

The old pony holstered the revolver.

“Sorry y’all,” he said. “Been all too used to them raider ponies tryin’ to bust in here. We gave ‘em hell of a fight last time. Can’t see ‘em rightly tryin’ again anytime soon, but ya can't be too careful. Name’s Rusty Cover.”

“I bet you guys got some practice,” said John, admiring the guns several ponies inside bore. “This place could be my kind of town… You know, if the raiders and NCE weren’t here.”

Lestride threw him a dirty look.

“Why are you all hiding in here?” she asked.

“It’s obvious,” I said. “You all can maintain a decent defense, and I bet there’s a security bot somewhere here that gives you all a huge defense boost.”

“Right on the money you are Mr. Pones. Old Clarance over there is always a good help against them raiders. Dead good shot too. Might as well make him deputy, least after Dull Bowie is dead.”

“Dull Bowie?” I asked.

“He’s our deputy… coward one at that,” said Rusty. “The raiders took him into that large building across the way and haven’t come out with him yet. I figure they’ll try and make him a piece to trade so the NCE lets them leave in one piece.”

“We won’t!” said Lestride.

“Well that’s a real comfort,” said Rusty sarcastically.

“You do any trading?” I asked, trying to ignore the aches in my back from the gear I’d been caring since Trottingham. “We could use a place to get some sleep too.”

“Oh wow, been ages since I thought I’d get to do business. I’m a bartering pony, and I haven’t had anypony more to barter with since the raiders came to town. As for sleeping, there’s a few mats behind the counter, but it ain’t much.”

I left John with what I didn’t want anymore and let him do the bartering, being that he was far more experienced in trade, and took a look around the place. The ponies in here were absolutely terrified. Oh sure, they were good shots and were becoming battle hardened, but nopony was meant to live their life trapped indoors.

With a shudder, I remembered Stable 221…

Being inside for the entirety their lives did things to ponies. I took a quick look at the robot that was helping them defend themselves from the raider ponies. It was a pretty standard wired robot, and if I was so inclined I could re-wire him. However, I couldn’t see any reason to do so and closed it up again. It wasn't like I could improve his weapons anymore.

I found the mattresses that Rusty had indicated and lay on them, letting my exhaustion carry me off to sleep. When I awoke, John was next to me, already awake, but clearly not for long.

“Don’t sleep much do you?” I asked.

“Never have since my training,” he responded.

John handed me a preverbal bucket of caps and a good share of ammo, and replacement parts for our guns. I set to work taking out parts that had rusted or been damaged in battle. To my disgust my zebra blade was quickly approaching the point of unusable. It was sad, given that I’d used it to slay a manitcore, but I parted with it for a few more caps.

I probably would never have found parts to repair it anyway…

I tried talking to a few of the ponies in the casino, but none of them were exactly chatty. Not that I could blame them. It was a little like Trottingham right before the battle. Even if they were experienced wasteland ponies, they weren’t soldiers. They didn’t spend every moment of their lives fighting. They were trying to make a life up here, not wars.

All set up, and several pounds lighter in equipment and heavier in ammo and caps, our little trio set out towards the huge building across the plaza.

“Wait!” called Rusty. “You lot ain’t actually thinking of heading into that place are ya?”

“Well yeah,” said John. “You just traded us all this pretty ammo. We should use it, I say. And I can’t really think of a better target than some raider ponies… Unless you’re hiding some of the Chrysalis Legion around here somewhere.”

I saw Rusty shake his head, either at John’s question or our foolishness. I briefly considered how different I was, even from the time I’d gotten into Trottingham. That had been… just a couple days ago…

Even then, I wouldn’t have burst into a building containing a hive of raider ponies. I pushed the thought aside. This was the right thing to do… wasn’t it? It was at least the best idea I had and neither John nor Lestride were objecting.

“Let’s go,” I said.

I head into the large double door entrance and kicked open the door. I saw the pony I’d terrorized and another pony talking immediately inside.

“Knock knock, bitches!” I yelled, making sure everypony heard me.

They both turned towards me and I saw fear flood their eyes as I punched S.A.T.S. Fear was good for us. Fear made ponies stupid. Fear meant we had the upper hoof.

I used the targeting spell to send two shots clear through both of their skulls. My little rifle rang out in the dark building.

Pop pop! Pop pop!

Dead. Dead.

I cast my night vision spell and nodded to John.

He moved forward, his twin rifles taking out another pony and Lestride and I ran forward, yelling in a harsh battle cry. Ponies continued to appear in front of us with each new room and with each new room, ponies died in front of us. We were a terrifying force, as if an evil wind carried us forward specifically to end their lives.

Boom! Boom!

Pop! Bang!

Boom! Boom boom!

Dead. Dead. Dead! DEAD!

I felt a strange elation take over me. I wanted to hurt these ponies. I wanted to end their lives. I wanted to destroy them… permanently. Despite myself, my brain-terminal brought up a passage from one of my history books in the stable.

During the Pony-Zebra War, many ponies and zebra alike became enraged to the point of bloodlust or blood thirst, meaning they had a desire to see blood shed… especially in battle.

So was this feeling bloodlust? Because if that’s what it was, the description had done a poor job of explaining it. I wanted… needed to see them hurt. I wanted to crush them underhoof. I needed to break bones, smash skulls and much more. I needed to make them hurt as bad as they’d hurt this city.

I put my guns away and went into a full gallop, sprinting at anything my EFS could show me.

Red, it’s dead.

That was the philosophy I stuck to when I started taking these ponies apart. I barely took in anything about them. What did it matter if they were experienced with sewing or blacksmithing? What mattered was that they were raider ponies, and I was justice… or at least vengeance incarnate.

Two ponies were in front of me. I noted, without effort, that their eyes were filled with fear. To them I was a large black shadow of death and dismemberment… Good.

I lashed out, feeling my hooves connected with blood and bone. I heard cries of pain and felt bones break under my attacks. I could taste the blood filling the area and splashed over me. My body knew what to do, using muscle memory to strike at the areas that would cause the utmost pain, even gelding the stallion.

Very soon two heaps of what were once ponies lay in front of me, begging me to just kill them. I wasn’t feeling merciful and moved on to the last room. My EFS helpfully informed me that there was only one enemy in the room, and they weren’t moving. I cast my night vision spell again and moved forward slowly.

Then I saw him.

He was a huge, hulking stallion, at least as tall as I was, and I’m one of the tallest from Stable 221. He had huge, bulky muscles and a jaw that any manticore would be envious of. He hadn’t seemed to notice we were in the room, or in fact that a battle was taking place at all. He was grunting and thrusting animatedly.

As I moved closer, my brain put two and two together. There wasn’t another pony in the room, but this sick fuck was busy pleasuring himself with I soon realized was the head of the female pony from the sheriff’s home. I felt a wave a disgust wash over me, and despite myself, I let fury take over my logic.

“You sick mother fucker!” I yelled out, finally getting the stallion’s attention.

“Oh hello,” he said, turning to me, still very aroused by his actions. “Some brand new ponies for me to skull fuck!”

“Sherclop, be careful,” John warned me. “I’ve seen this before and ponies like this don’t go down from a single shot. We’ll give you backup, but…”

“No,” I said simply. “I want him! I’m going to rip him limb from limb.”

“No way!” protested Lestride. “He’s huge! He’ll rip you in two.”

“I hate to agree with one of the NCE,” said John. “But no way, no how I’m letting you take this sicko on alone.”

“I need this. I need to beat him… for me.”

John looked me in the eye, and saw the fire in me. He knew no matter what, I wasn’t going to back down from this.

“You pass out, or even look like you’re in real trouble and I’m blowing his head off,” said the ex-captain reservedly.

“Good,” I said. “Lestride, find the deputy and get him out of here. This isn’t going to be pretty.”

Lestride opened her muzzle to argue, but decided against it, and pulled out her rifle running past the large creature in the shape of a pony.

“So the skinny one wants to die first,” he said. “Fine with me. I was getting bored with this bitch anyway, but you… You look nice and tight!”

I felt an unpleasant shiver surge through my body. The thought of any stallion doing… that to me wasn’t an image I wanted on my mind terminal.

“After I kill you,” I said sourly. “I’m going to drain your body of every drop of blood. Then, I’m going to chop off your useless-ass limp dick and shove it down your throat. We’ll see if that shuts you up.”

I charged forward, my body ready to dodge whatever attack this idiot threw at me. What I didn’t expect was for him to cheat. I was sure that because of his size he would be a hoof-to-hoof expert, like me. Why wouldn’t he be? What I didn’t expect was for him to pull out a fucking flame thrower and take aim at me.

However, I was very quick and used my horn to telekinetically disconnect the fuel tank from the business end of the weapon. That bought me a few seconds as I took a vial of Dash. I felt the usual pleasant wave of intense thought flood through my system as I took aim with S.A.T.S. and fired my rifle.

Pop pop! Pop!

At this distance only one shot hit. To my surprise, the pony didn’t even flinch, even though I clearly saw the bullet penetrate his hide and muscle. He had his flamethrower back now and shot fire right at me. I desperately rolled to the left to avoid the fire and charged forward with my head lowered, intending to run this bastard through with my horn.

The great beast of a pony grabbed me by the horn and slammed my face into the ground. My bright blue hue enveloped my horn, and I gripped every single one of his teeth telekinetically before yanking them out of this mouth. He howled in pain and dropped me, and I fired twice more, both shots hitting the stallion. However, I wasn’t doing much damage. He had to be on some kind of drug enhancer. That was fine. I still had dash in me.

I yelled, sprinting forward, dodging the jet of flames smoothly. He howled at me and I punched him hard in his toothless mouth. He snarled and began to turn the flame thrower on me. I knew I didn’t have the telekinetic powers to overcome his muscle or break his weapon, so I kicked as hard as I could, hitting his rear knee joint.

The stallion buckled and I punched him hard in the face again. He screamed an unintelligible insult and I grabbed his tongue with my magic. I saw the fear fill his eyes and smiled. As the dash flooded me I leaned down.

“You’ve been a very rude pony. I don’t have any soap, so this will have to teach you a lesson.”

I pulled on the tongue, hard. Hard enough to break it free of the frenulum holding it to the bottom of his mouth, and a full foot of his tongue came from this throat onto the floor. He screamed in pain and blood spewed everywhere.

“Naughty, naughty,” I said, feeling a perverse pleasure in bringing this beast under my control. “You got me all dirty. Say you’re sorry.”

I heard him attempt to some sort of noise, but having the extra foot of tongue and no teeth made him unintelligible. I pulled out my revolver and emptied the clip into his big, fucking stupid brain. What a waste of a potentially good pony.

I reloaded my weapons and wiped some of the blood off myself before turning back to John. I saw him looking at me with concern.

“I haven’t seen you like that,” he said. “Are you ok?”

“I am.” I said, nodding solidly to show him I was still sane. “I hurt him, bad, because he hurt the other pony here. I believe justice is cold, and impartial. If you are worse than others, you get worse treatment. He was a horrible, and disgusting use of a pony, and he deserved what he got.”

John shook his head solemnly.

“Don’t forget who you are,” he said, looking me in the eye. “You’re a decent pony, Sherclop, and I’ve seen plenty of decent ponies give in to the wasteland. It changes you and makes you into something sick, and I don’t want to see that happen to you. If you have to fix what went wrong, I respect that, but don’t become worse that what we’re out here trying to stop.”

I pondered his words as Lestride came back, deputy Dull Bowie in tow.

Note: Level up!

Perk: Intense Training – You’ve been getting a good crash course in not dying! As a result, you get to put an extra point into one of your SPECIAL traits!