//------------------------------// // Chapter 18 // Story: Fallout Equestria: Black Cat // by Rixizu //------------------------------// Break stared at the black stallion stunned. “You cannot be serious.” The stallion snorted. “And why not? We’ve got the power and large chunk of the Stones have been killed. Why run when we could crush them here and now?” The other slaves cheered and gave nods of agreement. “Listen, when I took out the Yellow Stars, or well, we did, it wasn’t done by a few slaves. Everypony fought for freedom and we used our numbers to overwhelm them.” Break said trying to reason with him. “There are only about 16 of us.” “But you are the miracle worker!” The stallion said grinning. “With your powers, it won’t matter. Gravity itself obeys you! You defy situations that most ponies would call doomed or impossible. You killed a hellhound with your bare hooves!” "No, this won't work." Break argued back. "This is a bad idea. The Stones are too strong and I'm not invincible. They are bound to get lucky eventually.” “You doubt yourself.” The stallion replied. “You will make this work. Think if you don’t. The Stones will just get more slaves and the horrors of that coliseum will never end!” “Well…” “Can you live with yourself if you allow those horrible battles to begin anew?” The stallion pleaded. Break gave a pained look. He had a point, but what he was asking was unrealistic. She couldn’t just solve the world’s problems with a wave of a hoof. Powers or not. “Answer me this, how do you plan on keeping the town after every Stone has been killed?” This would leave a large power vacuum and how would you protect the town from raiders and the like? “We will work with the townsfolk.” The stallion stood straight. “We’ll work something out with them. It can’t be any worse than being ruled by the Stones.” Break thought about all those ponies that watched her fight with that hellhound. Would the townsfolks really be so eager to accept this change? Would they happily accept the loss of their favorite entertainment? Her instincts told her this was a bad idea. "This won't work." Break repeated and shook her head. At least not without a better plan. She thought. “How about we leave and…” Break howled in pain as she felt a powerful jolt through her body. Somepony had just attacked her from behind. She fell to the ground and saw a slave holding a stun weapon. “Why?” Break felt herself losing control of her body. The other slaves looked shocked at this. The black stallion stared at her with a cold look. “This is necessary. For all of us. We will not bow or run again to those Stones bastards!” The stallion promised. Break screamed again as they shocked her again. “You will help us even if it isn’t by choice. Hero.” That was the last thing Break heard before she blacked out. --- Break groaned. By Celestia almighty, she felt horrible. She tried to open her eyes but found only blackness. It felt like she was being carried. She was confused on where exactly she was or how she got here. Break screamed as whoever was carrying her tossed her to the ground. Her land wasn’t a gentle one. Break froze in horror as she felt the barrel of a gun pressed against the back of her neck. It dug into the back of her neck and she winced. She wondered if she should use her ghost now, but she didn’t have a clue where she was or what was around her. There could be thirty ponies with guns trained on her and there was no way she could fight blind. Break waited for now. The fact they hadn’t killed her was a good sign. It wasn’t a great sign since that could all change at any moment. Rope bound her limbs to the point of being painful. “Pull it off.” A voice commanded and somepony pulled off whatever was covering Break’s head and she winced at the sudden brightness. Break gasped when she recognized the background. It was Tact Coat’s office and the mare in question stared at her on top of a large chair and glared at her hatefully. “Where is he?” Tact Coat demanded. “Where is Yellow Star?” Break blinked. That was not the question she was expecting. The barrel of the gun behind her pressed against the back of her neck with a painful jab. From the look on Tact Coat’s face, she was not messing around. "Dead, accidentally shot dead by the ponies that left with him." Break decided lying might be a very hazardous thing to do at the moment. Tact Coat growled and smacked Break in the face who recoiled in pain. “You will die for this.” She promised and Break gulped. “That was my brother. He was scum, but still family.” “Look I…” Break tried to apologize or at least calm down the mare, but only got another smack in the face in response. Break howled. Tact Coat was not holding back. “Give me a gun.” Tact Coat ordered. A pony next handed her a revolver and without a word fired at Break’s head. Break almost didn’t stop the bullet in time with her power. It hovered in midair as her ghost held the bullet in its hooves. Everypony stared at her stunned. Break used at as the perfect opportunity to escape. She used her power to punch the pony holding a gun behind her in the throat. He crashed into a bookcase and books collapsed onto his body. Everything moved at once and Break screamed as ponies fired on her. “Kill her!” Tact Coat ordered over the gunfire. She fired at Break as well with the revolver in her hooves. “So what if she can stop bullets? She can’t stop all of us. Don’t stop for even a moment.” Break fell down to the ground and deflected every bullet that came close to her. They were not kidding around. All Break could do was fend off the gunfire. There were too many to deal with and trying to get up and move would only provide them a bigger target. Break screamed as some of the Stones pulled out knives and hurled them at her. She rolled out of the way in time or moved her body away in time, but it made deflecting bullets with her power even more ridiculously difficult. Break howled when a knife impaled in her left back leg. It was shallow, but it burned like mad. When Break moved to remove it, another knife hit the same leg, and she almost didn’t avoid another one. She focused on dodging for now, but the two-pronged attack was wearing her down. “So much for her mysterious powers.” Tact Coat mocked. “Keep firing. She’ll be dead soon.” If I don’t do something now, I’m finished. She thought and pulling herself to the front door, but it was too far away and there was no guarantee that there weren’t guards behind it. She looked around and found there wasn’t anything near her, she was just on an empty part on the carpet. Nothing around her seemed it was usable as a weapon. She supposed the knives around her were an option, but there were too many of them for that to be effective. Escape seemed like her only option, but how? She looked back at the door behind her. It didn’t seem that sturdy and was worn down with age. She could use her gravity powered and burst right through it. No, that was crazy talk. They won’t see it coming, but what about the guards behind the door? Could she punch through the floor? No, not with so many bullets flying about. Could she fly towards the roof or at the shooters? Maybe? Again, not promising with so many shooters. Break decided that, crazy plan or not, anything was better than why lying here waiting to die. Break made her discussion. She closed to eyes and waited for a brief lapse in the shooting. She winced as a knife almost hit an ear. Thankfully, they seemed to be out of knives. She hoped they won’t throw something else. “There!” Break saw her opening when several of the shooters reloaded and she punched the ground with her power. The aged wood broke sooner and easier than she expected and there was a rush of pain as she crashed into the floor below. She saw that Tact Coat’s office was right over a large suite. “After her!” Tact Coat ordered. “No, I have a better idea.” Oh crap. Break knew that couldn’t be good and forced herself to her aching hooves. She limped towards the door across the room. She froze as she heard a strange grinding sound one that sounded familiar. Break jumped out of way in time as a barrage of bullets from a minigun pierced the ceiling and shredded everything in its path. The bullets moved in a random zig-zag pattern and Break almost lost her head more than once. Moving was getting to be more painful and her injured leg ached something fierce. Only adrenaline and desperation kept her going. She paused for breath and the shooting stopped. Only for a pony dropped from the hole in the ceiling. Break noticed with apprehension the shotgun in his hooves. "She's 34 degrees to the right!" The pony cried out and unleashed his shotgun at Break. Break blocked the bullets as they came at her and in sudden sickling horror realized their plan. She jumped to the left and cried out in pain as a bullet pierced her right back leg avoiding the other bullets in time. “She’s 89 degrees to the right now!” The stallion cried out and fired at her again. Break tried her best to push herself across the room in a random direction hoping beyond hope it would be enough to not get shot. In desperation, she pulled a knife out of her leg and threw at the pony in the room. Much to Break’s amazement, it hit the stallion right in the chest. He wasn’t dead, but it was enough for now. Break heard the minigun was close to firing and wasted no time and used her power to punch through the floor. Bullets shot past her as she fell. Break hissed as bullet scraped her left side, but none of the other bullets came close. Break howled in pain as she hit the carpet in the room below. It appeared she was in another of the guest rooms. Her eyes widened at the amount of splattered blood around the room. Why soon became apparent. Two unlucky ponies that were sleeping in the room were shredded by the careless minigun fire from above. The bullets pierced more than a single floor. Break growled in anger. Did the Stones not care what happened to their guests and customers? Firing such a powerful weapon around without thinking for a moment of what collateral damage it might cause was monstrous. Break fought back her anger. She needed to focus on escaping and used her ghost to push herself across the room and out the door. Retribution could happen later. She heard Tact Coat bark something in the distance. Orders to corner her no doubt. Break found a nice employee storage room a few rooms away and hid in there to treat her wounds. The room had shelves of clean towels and sheets along with a broom, mop bucket, and various cleaning supplies. She pulled the other knife out of her leg. It wasn’t a deep cut, but it still burned like fire. She used her ghost to tear up some clean sheets wrapped it around her injured legs as tight as possible. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing for now. There wasn’t a first aid kit or anything suited to clean a wound. She wondered what she should do with the knives. She had no weapons, and a few knives were better than nothing, but she had nothing to carry them with. After a careful search of the storeroom, Break found pretty much what she expected. No guns, weapons, or anything really useful except for a coat with pockets. It wasn’t her size, but she put it on anyway despite how tight it felt. The pockets could hold the knives, so she pocketed them after cleaning them of blood. Break found out the hard way that standing was impossible and too painful. Her back legs were useless at the moment. She tensed as she heard ponies marching towards her and readied her power and a knife in her hoof. She sighed in relief when they ran past and knew there wasn’t much time. They would search every room soon. She needed to move and fast. Since she was alone this time, escaping didn’t seem too difficult. All she needed was a window and her powers would get her to the ground to safety. She supposed all she needed was an outer wall too. She could just punch a way out. Not elegant, but it would work. Finding a place to hide and recover would be a different story and she still had no idea where Scavenger was, but one thing at a time. Focusing on escaping should be her number one priority. After making sure the coast was clear, Break made her way into the hallway. She used her power as a second pair of back legs not daring to put any strain on her injured legs. Though a bit awkward mentally, it seemed to work well enough. She used her Eyes Forward Sparkle to watch out for enemies. Dread filled her heart as she saw that goons were gathering in large amounts on the floor. She just knew that the Stones had some nasty countermeasure for her powers. Break decided not to risk it and avoid them all together. Break grunted in frustration. These hallways were like a maze making it more difficult to move around than she thought. Worse, each corridor she wanted to go down was getting blocked off by goons. Break was already feeling the limitations of using her power as legs. It took a lot of concentration and she wasn’t able to move at much speed. Getting ambushed or attack would be terrible because she would be stuck in one spot fighting off too many goons. Sure, she could use her gravity powers to move about, but that would just be her flinging herself about which would be painful especially without legs to land on. Break decided to just skip this and punched through the floor again. She found a nearby room, broke the doorknob off, and punched the floor to pieces creating a way down. Unsurprisingly, it led into another guest room and it was empty thank goodness. There was a commotion in the distance. No doubt the Stones thugs heard her and Break lowered herself down with her ghost trying to not hurt her legs in the process as quick as she could. Break was out the door in a moment. She tried to run, but it was awkward using her power so she decided to just walk instead. Looking around, she recognized that she was on the main floor now and her heart shone with a hope she would be out of this hellhole. She made her way through the hallway making as little noise as possible. “You made it!” A familiar voice cried out. Break groaned. It was the accented pony from the slaves. “What do you want?” Break asked in a cold voice. The accented pony went pale. For some reason, he seemed to think she planned to attack him out of anger and vengeance for what they did. In truth, she only wanted to never see him or the other escaped slaves again. If only she was so lucky. “Is she dead?” The stallion asked. “Who?” “Tact Coat.” He clarified. “No.” Break turned to leave. She thought she could remember a fire escape she might be useable. “Hold on!” The accented pony cried after her. Break whirled on him glaring venom. “What?” “I’m sorry,” He apologized and much to Break surprise, it was genuine. “I wanted to stop them, but there were so many and…” “It’s fine. I forgive you.” Break sighed. It wasn’t like it was his fault, anyway. “Why did you even do that? What happened?” “You see lass.” The stallion said, “Bolt Cutter, that’s his name, thought throwing you at the Stones would fix all our trouble.” “What?” “He told us that since you cause trouble with your mere presence.” The stallion explained. “He thought if he threw you at the Stones, you would bring their downfall like everypony else.” “That’s stupid!” Break protested. “What is stopping me from just dying at their hooves?” The stallion rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, he told us you wouldn't win, but since you have powers, you would at least cause havoc and maybe kill Tact Coat." “Great plan.” Break said dryly. “Where are they now?” “Hiding in town.” The stallion said with some reluctance and gave Break a weary look. “They are waiting for you to finish off Tact Coat and most of the Stones, then move in and take over.” “Don’t be so hard on them.” The stallion said quickly. “They all have lost a lot to those bastards. Many were captured with parents or siblings. Those bastards loved making the slaves fight their own family for entertainment.” Break let out a sigh. “I understand.” Not that it makes them good ponies or anything. The stallion looked Break with a more careful eye and sighed. “So much for getting back at the Stones. Looks like I will just have to get you to safety.” Break eyed the stallion wearily. The gesture was nice, but she just had a bad day and didn’t feel like trusting this pony again at the moment. The stallion held up his hooves. “I get it. You can’t trust me. Understandable considering everything.” “I’ll find my own way out.” Break said. “It would be best if you leave.” “Are you sure?” “Yes.” Break’s tone said this was final. Without another word, she left the stallion. She checked her PipBuck and found that her memory was right. She was only several corridors away from a fire escape. The corridor looked safe after Break opened the door a creak and entered the hallway when she heard something that turned her blood cold. “Hey, wait a minute.” A pony cried out. “Isn’t that stallion one of the slaves that escaped a few hours ago?” It didn’t take long for gunfire to break out. Break was at a loss what to do. The stallion had done nothing but cause her trouble. Escape was right before her hooves. In fact, this would be a nice distraction for her escape. But, the thought of leaving him to die made her ill. Going back to save him was stupid and might get her killed. The smart thing to do was to just walk away. “Dammit!” Break screamed and turned to help that stupid stallion. Things were not good. The stallion was pinned down behind a roulette table in the corner with several thugs shooting at him. The stallion tried to shoot back but his bullets came nowhere close. Ponies were running away trying to get away from the gunfight. It was utter havoc. Much of the casino décor was being torn to pieces by the panicking ponies. Nopony seemed to notice her, thank Celestia, and ran past her. Break counted eight guards at the moment with others sure to come. She pondered how to best deal with this. Her only arsenal was her powers and two knives. Not the best odds, but she had surprise which counted for something at least and she would use the best of what she had regardless of how meager it was. As she ran closer, she noticed that three of the guards were close together almost to the point of being lined up. She might hit them all at once if she was fast enough. Break looked around and found some chips on a table where some ponies were playing poker. Not a conventional weapon, but it might do the job. At high speeds, they would be pretty painful perhaps even lethal. She scoped some up in her hooves and moved into position. "Hey!" The dealer cried out in surprise. "What are you doing?!" Once again Break cursed her injured legs and wondered to herself why she was doing this again? One guard yelled as she approached, but Break didn’t give them a chance to respond and used her power to fling the chips at the three guards in front of her as hard as her ghost’s strength could throw. Nothing could prepare her for the amount of damage they did to her foes. The chips ripped through their flesh like they were made of paper. One chip pierced the skull of one them and he collapsed dead. The results of her attack were unpleasant, and she turned away to the other guards as an excuse not to see the gore. She hoped at the least the other two survived. Break swore she would learn better control of her powers and not let its strength hurt somepony by accident. “It’s that damn mare again!” One of the guards yelled ducking into cover. “Get the special weapon!” Another guard nodded and sprinted towards a nearby door. Break tried to intercept by throwing one of her knives at him, but he avoided it at the last second and made it into the door. Break cursed. "Hey, you!" Break yelled at the accented pony over the incoming gunfire that she punched out of the way. “We are leaving now!” She didn't want to deal with whatever the Stones had planned for her. “I can’t!” The stallion yelled back. The Stones were shooting at him to prevent them from uniting and teaming up. “Find a way.” Break replied. This was not good. She couldn’t move much on her own. The front door might as well be miles away. If he didn’t come to help her move, they were in serious trouble. Break noticed something odd about the gunfire directed at her. It seemed lazy and halfhearted compared to the pony she was trying to rescue. They seemed more focused on killing him than her. The fire directed at her more seemed like a way to keep her distracted than kill her. She cursed again. It must be because they want to hold her off until they reinforcements arrive because they know they can’t defeat her on their own. There wasn’t much time left. Break realized her only option was to get as aggressive as possible and finish this right away. She tried to put a beat on the remaining Stones with her remaining knife, but they didn’t stay still. They knew exactly how dangerous she was and gave her no opportunity to attack them with any sort of ease. Chairs, tables, furniture, pillars, and any other obstacle to prevented her from doing anything. They only shooting cursory shots at her now some not even getting close. Break was getting tired of this nonsense. She looked around for anything she could use to turn the situation around to her favor. Break's eyes caught something hanging from the ceiling. It was a globe of the world surrounded by the Princess in an eternal cycle of day and night. It was a nice design made of painted stone. That might work. Break thought. Maybe she could use it as a way to crush one of the guards, or at least use it as a distraction. Seems just a good of plan as any. Break squinted and saw what held the globe to the ceiling. It was connected by a thick steel cable. A cable looked like it was on its last legs. The years had not been kind to it. Maybe it’s better this way, otherwise, it might end up hitting somepony in an accident when it eventually failed. She found a nearby table and aimed carefully calculating the trajectory. Break flung the table and hit her mark. It snapped easily and fell down and rolled across the casino. One unlucky stallion was crushed when the ball rolled over him. The rest of the Stones ran away in fear. That solved that then. Break saw the accented pony run for the door and out of the casino. I should really learn his name sometime. Calling him accented pony is pretty silly. Break jumped when a door slammed open revealing a mare sporting a flamethrower came through with a confident stride. Several more ponies with flamethrowers followed her. Break realized that must be their secret weapon. She can’t punch flames away after all. "Time to meet your maker so-called Hero of…" She screamed as the globe came right at her. Confused and terrified, she shot flames at the thing coming at her to no effect and it promptly flattened the mare. Her flamethrower was thrown out of her hooves and shot flames wildly at everything in its path lighting walls, tables, or whatever else it hit on fire. The flames spread quickly. The wood of the casino was old, dry, and very flammable. “Well, ponyfeathers.”