//------------------------------// // 20 - Heroes // Story: Fallout: Equestria - War Does Change // by tom117z //------------------------------// Chapter Twenty: Heroes “That, my friends, is fighting the good fight.” I could already see plenty of red bars on my Eyes Forwards Sparkle, but who knew how many were actually inside the Megamart itself? Unfortunately, I was already thinking that we were soon going to find out… “I don’t fancy the chances that their prisoners are in a good shape,” Cobalt commented as we ducked behind a wall on the edge of the front parking lot. “Raiders aren’t known for their hospitality, if any of them are even still alive.” “If they weren’t, Watcher would not have seen fit to send us here,” Stripe noted. “If he didn’t just send us into a trap.” “If he did, it was a shit trap,” I pointed out. If he’d been watching us, he’d have known three raiders blindly charging in wouldn’t have stopped us. “I don’t think he sent us here to die. He wants us to free the ponies in there.” “Um, what exactly would the raiders be doing to them?” Altrix asked nervously. I gave her a grim look. “Nothing good. Let’s leave it at that for now.” “Let us handle them, you focus on providing medical assistance to those who need it,” Stripe said gently to the changeling, who gave her a slow nod in return. Now we just had to figure out our approach. I was guessing that they would have the front locked down tight. Probably with scrap fortifications along the entrance, and guards all aiming their guns at the door. A frontal assault would be, er… messy. The red bars I was seeing from that general direction did little to disprove my point. That wasn’t taking into consideration any fragmentation mines they might have scattered about, trip wires, or whatever other kinds of traps this group may have come up with. Glancing down along the side of the building, I could see at least one door that was boarded up. It wouldn’t be too hard to remove the board, but it could be blocked from the other side as well. Plus, the noise might attract unwanted attention to ourselves. But that was just one door, there might well be others… “We should skirt around, see what’s behind the Megamart,” I suggested. “I’m not sure I want to charge in like a raging feral.” “Yes, I’d rather you didn’t get us shot two seconds in,” Cobalt concurred. “A place like this must have a loading dock. Somewhere where they’d get deliveries and such.” “Unless they have that secured as well,” Stripe mused. “Only one way to find out.” What was the harm in checking? “Come on.” We moved along the wall while staying low to the ground, reaching a gap in the old structure and slipping in and up to the outer wall of the Megamart itself. Now I was closer, more bars were making themselves known on my E.F.S., and a few of them were even green. The prisoners, no doubt. We still kept low, continuing up the sides. We stopped briefly by the boarded-up door and confirmed that the boards were decayed and loose. If anything, I suppose it’s a plan B. Though it would be our luck to break in on a couple of raiders rutting, so it was probably best to review all our options first. Also along the side was a second door without the boards, through when we tried to open it there seemed to be chains on the other side. That’s… pretty much what I expected to happen. There was also a set of small metal stairs that seemed to lead up to the roof, though they had collapsed part way up, so that was useless. There was nothing else along the way but discarded junk and broken-down ventilation units, nothing that could help us. Finally, however, we reached the end of the outer wall that curved around to the rear of the large building. We stopped at the edge, and I peered around the corner while keeping an eye of the E.F.S. for any trigger-happy raiders. There was nothing. Since the coast was clear, we stopped crouching and walked out into the open. Sure enough, there were a couple of large but closed metal doors with various long abandoned equipment scattered around the place. Definitely the loading dock we were after, but now to see if it would open… Cobalt and I approached one of the doors while Stripe kept watch, Altrix remaining close to the zebra. While that was happening, we looked around for whatever controls would cause the door to slid open. To the left was a rusted panel with two large buttons, though pressing either one failed to do anything. I suppose that figured. This place wasn’t exactly getting any power. Another glance also showed a basic padlock was chaining the door to the ground. I retrieved my screwdriver and a bobby pin, getting to work on opening the lock. It was even easier than the one back at Haven, and with the ‘click’ the lock fell away along with the metal chains. There was still the matter of the busted controls… “We’ll need to lift it,” I said towards Cobalt. “Slow and steady, just enough for us to roll in if everything is clear.” Cobalt nodded, lighting up his horn in readiness. I did the same, and our two auras intermingled as they latched onto the large metal door and began to lift. We moved as slowly and steadily as we could, only getting the lightest screech from the ancient mechanisms as it raised upwards. Once a small gap led inside, Stripe trotted over and crouched down to peer into the darkness within. She nodded after a moment and quickly rolled inside. Altrix followed after taking a moment to collect herself and, last but not least, Cobalt and I slowly made our way in before gently lowering the door back down to the ground. Only when it was back in place did we let our horns die out, breathing a sigh of relief. Well, we were in. Now came the fun part. The loading dock was dark and empty, the only sign of raider activity being a couple of graffiti pieces sprawled along the walls depicting the rape and murder of the Ministry Mares and Princesses of Equestria. You know, the usual raider art. But aside from that everything seemed to be quiet. I guess the raiders hadn’t considered that a unicorn might just lift the door. Dumbasses. “Well, we’re in,” Cobalt commented. “Now what do we do?” “They’re likely to keep the prisoners in the main shopping hall,” Stripe noted, never taking her eyes way from the entrances into the room. “Alongside most of the raiders, no doubt.” “We need a better idea of what we’re facing in here,” I said. Bursting in now would be no better than a frontal assault. “Their numbers. Traps. Everything, really.” “Then let us be swift,” Stripe stated, trotting towards one of the nearby doorways and slowly creaking it open. After the corridor was confirmed to be clear of raiders, we began to quietly make our way down it. There was more graffiti inside, along with a few empty ammo boxes and some long-dried stains I didn’t even want to guess at. The corridor made a turn to the right, and we stopped just nearby to peer around. Yup, that explained the red bar. A single raider stood in the corridor with a cigarette in his mouth, facing away from us as he leaned up against a wall. There was a door next to him with a sign indicating that it was a bathroom. I could see a staircase at the end of the hallway leading upwards, and shortly before that were two more closed doorways leading to Luna knows where. But that raider was between us and them. Stripe didn’t say a word as she slipped past us and around the corner, moving quieter than I’d though possible. Seriously, did she set her hooves on silent or something? Well, one way or another the raider was too engrossed in his smoke to notice the zebra creeping up on him. Something he quickly came to regret when she latched one hoof onto his muzzle and another around his neck. He gave out muffled cried as Stripe dragged him to the ground, squeezing tight until the stallion’s movements weakened before ceasing altogether. His bar blinked out as the rest of us stood from our hiding place and approached, Stripe discarding the raider in disgust. “You are scary sometimes, you know that?” I said teasingly towards the mare. “So you like scary, hm?” “Do that later,” Cobalt interrupted crossly. Do what later!? “I think it’s cute,” Altrix quietly added. “Uh… not the body though. That’s really not.” I was about to retort to my friends’ comments, but I was stopped when the sound of voices rapidly approached the nearest doorway past the bathroom. We barely had second to jump inside said bathroom when it opened up, revealing three more raiders laughing to themselves about something or other. I made sure to grab the corpse with my magic as a sudden afterthought, dragging it into the bathroom with us hopefully before they saw it. They didn’t. But they heard it. “What was that?” one of the raiders rasped, and their chatter stopped instantly. “Oi, who’s fucking about in here?” We remained as silent as possible, not even daring to breathe. We could handle three raiders, but if just one of them shouted in alarm then the whole place would come down on us… “Come on out…” a mare sang sadistically, giggling to herself. “Though I might be in the mood for games. Loser is the plaything!” The three raiders laughed to themselves as their hoofsteps got closer and closer. We shied away from the doorway as much as we could, Stipe readying her weapons while Altrix cowered behind her while shaking fiercely in fear. Any second and they would look in here, there wasn’t enough room in the three stalls to hide! And then Altrix gave a small whimper before stepping towards the door. Before any of us could even register her action and stop her, we were stopped by a small flash of green flame just before the changeling revealed herself to the raiders in the hallway. “Face Pizza! What are you doing in there?” Wait, his name was fucking Face Pizza!? Ugh, never mind that. More important to the current situation, Altrix had just… changed. Just like that purple eyed infiltrator from the memory orb, in a flash of green light our meek changeling companion had morphed into the raider that Stripe had strangled a minute ago. And now she… he? Well, ‘Face Pizza’ stood in front of the three raiders while looking more than a little flustered. Something tells me Altrix isn’t a good actress… “Yeah, why’re looking all shifty back there?” one of them asked. “You’re not overdoing the Buck, are ya?” “Oh, uh…” Great start… “I just, um… Nature’s call, you know? Needed a… wee, and stuff.” I sure hope they didn’t hear the sound of Cobalt’s facehoof. There were several moments of silence, and I was certain I was about to see the poor changeling get shot in the face… “Pfft, never mind Buck, he’s on all the shit,” the mare proclaimed as she cackled to herself. “Look at him! He’s out of it!” “Oh, yeah… Like, totally…” Altrix agreed half-heartedly. “Well, save us some. Or I’ll skin ya!” the raider cautioned before I heard their steps continue back in the opposite direction to us. I let go of the breath I was holding before I died of asphyxiation… Once we all breathed a sigh of relief, we finally exited the bathroom and joined Altrix in the hallway where the mare was standing ramrod without even blinking. That was… concerning, so I slowly reached out a hoof and tapped the disguised changeling on the shoulder. She gave out a small noise of distress, before flopping over onto her back like a sack of partially mutated potatoes. There she laid, her left forehoof twitching ever so often. I looked helplessly over at Stripe, who just gave a sigh before. Altrix, well… she clearly hadn’t been ready for what we were going to be facing out here. But, unfortunately, there was little to be done about it now but for Stripe to whisper comforting words to the young mare. While that was happening, I slowly trotted over to the door the raiders had come from and opened it a crack. Beyond it was the main shopping hall. Though I could only see a little through the crack, the massive amount of red bars was most telling. “Come over here and say that, you gigantic fuck stick!” a course voice shouted from somewhere in the hall. And if I had to make a guess, it was the pegasus who had gone for that raider’s face earlier. “See how much of a stallion you are without your-” I shut the door as the rant continued, leaving her to it. The voice had been coming from the single group of green bars in the building, so it was definitely the captive mare we’d seen. But quiet returned one the door was firmly closed, and I took a moment to take some needed breaths as I leaned against it. I saw a green flash as Altrix returned to her normal self, shakily being helped to her hooves by Stripe. I gave the changeling a look of concern, and she flushed with embarrassment. “You okay?” I asked over to her. “Um, yeah. Kinda,” she responded, releasing a deep sigh. “I’m sorry. I’m not much of an infiltrator, nobody ever needed to change in the stable…” “You got them to leave, you helped,” Stripe assured the changeling, she gave a shaky smile in return. “And we shall work on your performance. Later.” At least it would give her something to do other than think on the situation she walked into. “I’m thinking up the stairs,” I said to the group, gesturing to the said staircase. “Maybe we can get a vantage on all of them?” I received no argument, and we proceeded once again. We passed the other doorway, which led down another corridor the three raiders we’d met had gone down. We avoided it entirely, quickly making our way up the staircase. It led up to a staff door, and when we opened it we found ourselves in a jungle of metal racks filled with torn rags that were probably once really nice clothes ponies wore on special occasions. Or as nice as you could get in a Megamart, at least. Still, the rags gave us ample cover to move further in undetected. I could see a few raiders through the rags hanging out at the top of an old escalator down towards the ground floor, where the rest of their buddies were located. And there were lots of them. They had built bridges across most of the aisles, across all the shelving units and long dead fridges. At the front of the store, where the cashiers once stood, there was extensive barricading constructed guarding the entrances. I slipped into S.A.T.S. to get a better idea of what was around there, and the spell did target a few mines that witless ponies could stumble upon. The barricades had several raiders leaned against them, looking almost bored and craving an attack to occur, while a scavenged military turret beeped idly as it scanned for targets. And if the turret was the worst thing, well… we’d have been lucky. Noooo, that was the raider decked out in some weird cobbled together power armour. Most of it looked like it was made from scrap, but I could see at least a few pieces that had come from actual power armour the likes to Steel Ranger would use. A couple models of it, in fact. Their leader, I imagined. And he would not be fun to deal with. “I shall remain here, this will be a good vantage,” Stripe noted after I had exited from the spell, casting a glance at the raiders on the upper floor. “Make a noise and they will come running, leaving me free to do as I wish.” “That gives us sniper support,” I noted. I would always feel better with her watching my back through a scope. “Though that turret is an issue. Cobalt, can you do anything with it?” Cobalt didn’t respond immediately, gazing at the turret a moment before his eyes began to trail along something. Following his gaze, I noticed a wire leading from the turret towards a terminal set up on an old fish counter. “If I can get there, I can probably change its targeting parameters,” he explained. “Maybe get it to target the guy in power armour.” Okay, I was liking this plan so far. “So I’m thinking we have Cobalt sneak over to the terminal and do his thing,” I began. “I’ll be standing by to start shooting either if Cobalt needs a distraction or when the turret opens up. After that, we all clear the raiders in the crossfire while Altrix avoids the fighting and sees what she can do for the captives.” “I can do that,” Altrix said, her determination to help those in medical need returning once more. “If they’re hurt, I’ll make them better. I promise.” Alright, this was looking better for us. If we could just pull this off, then… Well, we had to pull it off. If we didn’t, we were dead. Or worse. Being captured by raiders after you’ve shot up the place if definitely worse. “Okay, it’s a plan. Let’s do it.” We left Stripe up there among the rags, where she set herself up in a nice little sniper’s nest. The raiders were none the wiser as we slipped back out and down the stairs, not wasting a moment as we proceeded down the corridor and quietly out the door. We found ourselves behind a customer service counter, a couple of boxes piles up on the surface while a charred skeleton sat in a chair. The skeleton had a party hat on, courtesy of the raiders I’d imagine. Just beyond the counter were several rows of aisles, and I could see raiders patrolling along the bridges they’d constructed. There were also a couple idly milling about in the aisles themselves, either chatting amongst themselves or drinking and/or doing a multitude of drugs to pass the time. There was also the usual décor of their prior victims used either as warnings to others or to make the place seem more like whatever a raider considered home. The same fate the captives had in store if we didn’t do something, I’d bet. We waited for a raider to pass, and then we followed on until we reached another counter to hide behind. This one also seemed to be staff related, and by the extra scrap and tech lying around it seemed to be robotics based. What was also a giveaway, well… that was the Protectapony sitting idly in its booth, undisturbed for the last two hundred years. The robot was a rusted yellow, holding the general shape of a pony while having much of its head covered with a glass dome that contained a blinking red talisman. Cobalt’s eyes lit up like an excited foal. “Bingo!” He slinked over to a terminal as me and Altrix watched curiously. He accessed it and immediately began hacking into the terminal. Judging from the dents in the frame I guess that the raiders had tried, but they had lacked the necessary skill to get into the computer. Cobalt wasn’t a dumb raider. He quickly gained access, seeming to glance through whatever menu had come up. He typed out a few commands, humming as he worked. He then gave himself a happy smile, before logging off and returning over to us. “The password is ‘Metallurgy’,” he informed us. “When I get that turret going, Scrap Heap, you activate that robot and get shooting!” “Won’t it attack us as well?” I asked with a small amount of concern. “I set the targeting parameters to armed ponies only, so Altrix and Stripe are fine,” he explained. “I also set it to ignore PipBuck signatures. And I programmed it, so I’ll be fine.” I kinda wanted to press on exactly how he programmed all that just now, but I didn’t want a headache either. So I just nodded and smiled, hoping he got it right and I wasn’t going to be disintegrated the moment I turned that thing on. “Fair enough,” I said, before turning towards Altrix. “Go back to that raider form. Don’t speak to anypony, just try to walk and act like a drugged-up raider.” “Um, alright…” Altrix said uncertainly. “But, um… what do I do while waiting for things to go, you know… boom.” “Try to get close to the prisoners. When all the raiders are distracted, get to helping them.” She nodded, just before flames washed over her again and returned the raider Stripe had killed. She looked beyond terrified, but as I had come to expect from her she did her best to ignore it so long as there were people who needed her help. Dear Celestia, let her make it out of this alright. I was really coming to like Altrix, and she was too damned innocent for this wasteland… Altrix left the safety of the counter behind, and I prayed the goddesses would watch over her. Cobalt also took this as a sign to get moving towards the terminal, and at the next best opportunity he slipped out and was lost among the aisles. And now I just had to wait. It was now just me behind the counter, sitting with only my own breaths for company. By myself. The last time I had been in a conflict with raiders without support, I had to be saved. Still, I wasn’t exactly alone this time, even if I couldn’t see them right now. But it still felt strange, I had become quite accustomed to my friends always being at my side over the past couple weeks. One of the many changes I’d experienced as of late, I guess. Moments passed. And then minutes. Five. Six. Each one was more nerve-wracking than the last. Ugh, come on Cobalt! I guess he was having trouble reaching the terminal. Or maybe the raiders had somehow gotten an encryption that’d stumped him. I didn’t know, but only the lack of gunshots stopped me from entering a full panic. Right now there were so many things that could go wrong, so many ways my friends could get hurt if my plan failed. I bet the Stable Dweller never felt this nervous during one of her plans… Alright, I had to do something to pass the time. I extracted my guns, checking them over for damage that could cause it to jam. The frames looked a little dinged up, but they were otherwise in good condition. Nice to see I hadn’t lost my touch when it comes to maintenance and repair. Well, that distraction went by fast. Maybe I should just access that terminal ready for Cobalt’s signal. “What the-!?” That declaration was followed by the sound of a machine gun turret revving up and unloading into the raiders. Nice timing. Activate! “Warning: Law enforcement subroutines activated,” the robot announced in a robotic monotone as its pod slid open, the machine clanking out amid the first echoes of gunfire. “Hostiles detected, all citizens evacuate in case of injury or death.” “What the hell is that junk pile doing out!?” a raider shouted as he skidded to a halt, observing the scene of me crouched by the terminal while the robot turned towards the raider. “Firing.” A red beam struck the raider in the face, and he was reduced to ash. Go Cobalt! I pulled out my shotgun as the Protectapony plodded off on its own grand adventures. I jumped onto the counter and leapt up onto the nearest of the raider’s fortifications, scrambling up and onto the top of the aisles. CRACK. Stripe is getting to work I see. In moments the entire Megamart had been thrown into chaos. The turret seemed to have caught all the entrance’s defenders by surprise and gunned them down, now having turned its sights on the heavily cursing power armoured raider. The rest of the raiders were scrambling, the ones from upstairs having ran down only to be the first of Stripe’s victims while I spied a couple bolts of magic shooting into the crowd of dumbfounded ponies. They’d never seen us coming. “Get him!” a shout came near to me, and three raiders hopped onto one of the nearby bridges with very angry glares aimed right at me. “Beat him with his own legs!” No thanks! I engaged S.A.T.S. and targeted the three raiders, one shot per pony. When the spell went into effect each one got their fair share of leads before falling from the tops of the aisles and down to the ground below. At least one of them was moaning in pain after impact, but their bar quickly blinked from view. Another raider got pegged in the side of the head by a bolt of magic, their friend giving a shout of rage as they turned their rifle towards where Cobalt was taking cover. They only got a single shot off before their head was reduced to paste by a sniper round. There was a crash as the three raiders from earlier burst in from the back areas of the Megamart, taking cover behind customer service and opening fire in my direction. A bullet pinged off my barding as I fell back off the aisle and to the ground, removing myself from their line of sight. I hope Altrix was doing okay in all of this. “FUCK!” the voice inside the power armour bellowed, the turret still struggling to break through his armour despite its cobbled-together nature. Finally deciding he’d had enough, the raider boss turned on his former defence and fired something from his battle saddle. There was a moment, and then the turret vanished as the grenade detonated directly under it. There was a shout behind me as a raider attempted a tackle, but I was not getting in another hoof to hoof fight! I just jumped to the side, quickly drawing my pistol and firing blindly towards where I’d heard the shout. After I landed I wasted no time in scrambling back to my hooves to face my attacker, only to find him groaning on the ground full of holes while his weapon of choice, a crowbar, had fallen from his mouth. I ended it with a bullet to the head. I holstered my pistol and retrieved my shotgun, only to hear a loud bang from elsewhere in the Megamart. I scrambled up back onto the aisles to see what their boss had hit, and as I saw the scene a bullet pinged off of his power helmet from Stipe’s sniper fire. He looked up at where she was perched and oriented his grenade launcher. Nonononono! The blast from my shotgun was both too late to stop him and too far to do any serious damage, the grenade flew high and detonated on the upper floor. S-Stripe…? CRACK. Another bullet pinged off of the armour. Oh thank Celestia. As the boss gave a shout of rage, I spied from my position a few of the raiders beginning to make their way up the escalator. I gave Stripe a shout of warning, and she seemed to get the message as I saw her retreat from her position. Too bad I had unwittingly drawn attention to myself. An explosion threw me from my hooves and back down to the ground. Pain ricocheted throughout my body as my PipBuck flashed with warnings to most of my limbs. Everything hurt really, really bad. I found I could barely move my hooves, so it fell to my magic to fumble for a potion and down it as quickly as possible. Sweet relief as I popped back together, fortunately with nothing seeming to remain out of place. My PipBuck calmed down, though the little Stable Colt avatar still held a frown on his face. I guess I was still a little banged up even after the potion, but that could wait a moment seeing as I could still hear plenty of gunfire! I rounded the aisles from below, blasting a raider who had been taking cover from Stripe’s gaze. I spotted a ramp with a couple more raiders crouched down, taking pot shots in Cobalt’s direction. I opened fire in their direction, hitting one in the leg as the other turned his rifle towards me and opened fire. I ducked behind a shelf, gritting my teeth as more bullets pinged way too close to my head. I heard a faint ‘zap’, and the set of gunfire that had followed me ceased. Turning the corner again, I saw the raider who’d fired had collapsed into a heap, I suppose I had Cobalt’s magic to thank for that. The injured raider was attempting to down a healing potion, and I just grabbed the bottle in my magic and snatched it away. “Aw shit…” Those were his apt final words as my shotgun blew him away. I ran up the ramp, moving back up top to see the raider boss. He’d turned towards where Cobalt was situated, and once again I couldn’t stop him firing a grenade in my friend’s direction. Fortunately, I saw a blue shield erect around his position which the grenade bounced off of. Less fortunately, when the grenade detonated the shield shattered into thousands of fragments in a fantastic flash of light, and I heard Cobalt give a shout of pain from behind all of the carnage. “Oi!” I shouted at the raider, distracting him from my stricken and vulnerable friend. “How’s that armour rated against shotgun rain!” Emphasising my point, I let off two shots in his direction. Both just pinged off, albeit taking a few scraps of the armour with them, as the raider pointed the launcher at me. Oh crap. Really not wanting a repeat of last time, I shot forwards and leapt towards the next aisle as the one I had just been on exploded. I stumbled as I barely made the landing, planting all four of my hooves firmly as I engaged S.A.T.S. once more. I was a little closer to him after the jump so, hopefully, these next shots could peel away some more of the scrap on his power armour. I lined up to shots and engaged. Both shots went off, and both made their mark. A little more of the armour on his chest was sheared away, revealing the inner workings. If I could just hit those, I could get the entire thing to crash and lock up! The raider had stumbled from the force of my shots, so I aimed quickly down the sights towards the exposed sections of the armour. Just one good shot and I could get the spell matrix to crash. To one good shot… ‘Click’. Ah, I need to reload. The raider seemed to hesitate a moment, but then I heard laughter from within the suit as he realised I was out. I swapped the shotgun for the pistol and unloaded! Issue was, 9mm wasn’t as effective in this situation. I think a bullet hit the exposed section, for all the good that did, which was none at all. They were just too weak by comparison. It didn’t help that the raider raised an armoured hoof to block the other shots, and pretty soon the clip ran dry… I really wish I still had that Balefire Egg Launcher. Because my current weapons were not made to deal with power armour in the slightest. And now I was exposed; gunfire from up top showed that Stripe was busy, and Cobalt was out of action. And that grenade launcher really looked like it wanted my blood… Whatever was to happen next, whether I would drop back down in time or would explode into gory chunks, would never occur. And this was, quite simply, singularly possible by the fact that a very angry purple maned pegasus had jumped onto his back and was presently swiping at the oxygen tubes on the helmet with a combat knife. “BAH! Traitor! Whore!” the raider raged, bucking and kicking in an attempt to dislodge it. Welp, I guess Altrix had reached the captives. Whatever the case, this was the time I needed to reload! “Sit… still…!” the pegasus’ muffled shout came from behind her clenched teeth, continuing to swipe. I got my combat shotgun reloaded, and I aimed it back at the duo. Ah, damn, shooting now would mean hitting her too! With him bucking and kicking, and her gripping onto his helmet tightly, I couldn’t make a safe shot! Dammit, your combat knife won’t do much against that armour! Move! And then she jammed the knife into a gap beneath the helmet, prying with all her might as she tore it from the stallion’s head. “Fuck yea-WHOOOAH!” Her victory was silenced as she was finally dislodged, being knocked down between the aisles. Though she took the helmet with her. But whoever she was, I felt like I could kiss her at that moment. I would never doubt a combat knife again! After all, while the stallion was free and immediately attempted to bring his grenade launcher back towards me, I had already closed the gap between us as the two had struggled. I’d been ready, and he’d have to have been seriously jacked up on Dash to have been fast enough to avoid what came next. I pulled the trigger, and the Megamart was painted with the raider boss’ brains. The body stayed standing for a moment, the blood gushing from the neck stump. Then the power armour swayed and fell from the fortification down to the floor below. His death almost perfectly marked the end of the fight. A few final gunshots were shared up top, but I saw the remaining red bars quickly blink out as Stripe won her fight as well. After that, silence claimed the Megamart. That was… the most intense fight I had ever been a part of. Dear Celestia, I could feel adrenaline pumping like crazy. One thing was for certain, I did not ever want to fight a Steel Ranger if that was what fighting a scrap suit of power armour was like. And I needed a breather, that was also certain. I stood there, taking in deep breaths as I let the adrenaline drain away… Ouch, by the way, I could see why my PipBuck was frowning. But as I did, I saw the pegasus mare clamber back up from where she fell. She calmly walked over to the spot where the suit of power armour had collapsed with its deceased occupant still inside, and I saw her glare down at it with contempt. “Asshole…” she muttered, and I only just caught the curse from under her breath. She then turned to look at me, and her look showed nothing bus suspicion. “And who the hell are you?” “Uh… I’m Scrap Heap,” I introduced between breaths, steadily getting myself back under control. “Nice one, with the helmet I mean.” “No wastelander just walks into a raider den. Much less succeed in killing the lot of em’,” she continued without missing a beat. “Why?” “Well, uh… We saw you being dragged in earlier. Thought there might be some ponies in here needing help,” I explained honestly, though I wasn’t sure she entirely believed me. “I take it a raider called Face Pizza freed you? Or, even, a weird insect pony?” Judging from the way she bit her lip, I’m guessing Altrix had shown the prisoners her true form while freeing them. “Yeah… It’s back by the cages.” “Thanks. You should have her take a look at you, she’s a doctor,” I told her, before trotting past the mare. I only made it a few steps before I turned back towards her, curious. “I don’t think I caught your name…?” She didn’t reply, only staring at me with that odd look. Alright then… “Scrap Heap!” The call made me turn away from the strange mare, the voice being Cobalt’s. I hopped off from the top of the aisle and down between them again. I rushed through the small maze, running over to where the green bars were on my Eyes Forward Sparkle. And it was a very sorry sight that had greeted me. Cobalt was standing with a healing potion in his mouth, blood leaking from the base of his horn. Near to him was Altrix, seeing to the alarmed, but cooperative, prisoners. And they were not in a good way. There was a dozen or so of them, including one young filly. All of them had bruises covering much of their bodies, alongside a multitude of other wounds. Many were starved, and Altrix was presently setting the bone in a mare’s broken leg. They were all dirty, huddled together and looking at us in absolute terror. Though the looks at Altrix, I noted, seemed more confused. Not surprising, since a strange bug creature who can change faces was now giving them medical attention. “You’re alright,” Cobalt said in relief as he finished his potion. “Was that all of them?” “Stripe finished the last of them upstairs. I’m sure she’ll be along in a minute,” I responded. And I couldn’t express how glad I was we’d all made it out in one piece. Still, though, that could wait… “Are they going to be alright?” I asked, gesturing towards the freed prisoners. Cobalt grimaced. “Well, you can see that Altrix is seeing to them. But they haven’t said two words to me…” “They hurt them…” Altrix muttered as she reassured the crying mare whose leg she’d just reset, moving to give her a healing potion to repair the damage. “Altrix, what have they said to you…?” Altrix bit back a sob. She was trying so hard to stay composed for them… “T-they said they beat them for fun. That they… ‘played’ the mares…” She glanced at the filly, who was shaking in the tender grasp of who I assumed was her mother. “All the mares.” I went to reply, to comfort her in some way but… How could one respond to that? I had known this was probably going to be the case where raiders were involved, but… Well, I guess seeing it is another story altogether. “What about the pegasus?” I finally asked. “Did they say much about her?” “She was one of them,” a nearby mare explained. “I saw her with them, guarding. But…” The mare paused a minute, and I just waited patiently for her to continue. Pressing these ponies, in their state, wasn’t a good idea… “S-she never joined in when… the ‘fun’ began,” she continued. “And recently we’d heard her arguing with the Boss a lot. And then she… she…” “She tried to spring us,” a stallion concluded. “Almost got away with it. But she got caught at the last minute and had to run. Then, shortly before you came in here and blew the bastards to hell, she got tossed back in here with us.” “So she, a raider, tried to save you…? That’s-” As I looked towards where I’d seen the pegasus, I saw that she had vanished. And even as we saw to their needs, and Stripe finally met up with us, we didn’t see the mare again after that. We’d stayed for a few more hours; Altrix had given them all the medical attention that she could, but eventually the prisoners were as well as they were going to be for travel. We’d gone through the raiders’ things, patched together as much non-raider looking barding as possible as well as weapons for them to use. Food and medicine was also a priority; we wanted to make sure these ponies had everything they were going to need. In the end, we managed to get most of them armoured up, and every adult had a gun with a decent amount of ammo in their possession. I’d say they were a well-armed group of settlers when we were through, not a prime target for the average raider or critter. Once all was said and done, they had thanked us for the rescue, though they had nothing to give us in return. But that was fine; it’s not like we were expecting anything. Besides, we got a fair share of supplies from the raider hideout as well, so we didn’t exactly go away empty-hooved. But while we were going to leave, use the remaining hours of daylight to travel to Stable 77, they were going to stay the night to rest up a bit from the trauma with a roof over their heads. Then in the morning, they would depart for one of the settlements down south. Though I was feeling a little guilty leaving them only hours after freeing them, I was sure they’d be fine. They had the guns, food, water, medicine and numbers to make a good go at it. It also helped the Cobalt had reprogrammed the Protectapony to accompany and guard over them, which they had been rather keen on. So we left through the front entrance of the Megamart, deactivating the mines as we went, and stepped back out into the cloudy wasteland day. “They will be fine, right?” Altrix asked quietly. “I never knew someone could go through so much…” “What does not kill you, will make you stronger,” Cobalt quoted. “Indeed,” Stripe agreed. “They have been through unimaginable suffering, they will not allow themselves to return to it so easily.” “Not with the guns we gave them,” I added in. “They’ll probably make their way down to New Appleoosa maybe. Or Friendship City. I’m sure either would be glad for a Protectapony.” “Are they nice places?” the changeling enquired. “Nice enough. Better than anywhere not inside walls, anyway,” I answered, looking around the area. “Okay. I’m glad, I think they deserve a bit of happiness.” “After this, who could disagree?” a familiar robotic voice stated, and sure enough down floated Watcher in all his hovering glory. “So… everything went well?” “No thanks to you, yes,” I deadpanned back at the little annoyance. It wouldn’t have killed him to give us a heads up, would it? “Ah, yeah…” he replied sheepishly. “Sorry about that. I just wanted to see what you would do when faced with the choice of saving them or saving yourselves.” “You already know we are out here to assist the changelings,” Stripe challenged. “Why did you need to see this without telling us beforehoof?” “It’s a test of morality for those with… potential,” Watcher explained. “I’m sorry I was evasive. But I put both Littlepip and Blackjack through the same thing.” I frowned. “Who?” Watcher chuckled. “You aren’t the only ones who want to help ponies, in fact I think there’s a record number as of late. Even this little filly over at Route 52, Puppysmiles. She is… an interesting case, though.” I think everything about this could be described as ‘interesting’. “So, what happens now?” Cobalt asked the Spritebot. “We passed your little test. So… what?” “Well…” Watcher hesitated. “I don’t know if you’re the people I’m looking for. Candidates, perhaps. But you’re not the only ones.” Candidates for what? “But be that as it may, you should keep up the good work.” I gave him a puzzled look. “Good work?” “You saved those ponies. As a team, and as friends,” Watcher explained. “As for the changelings… They were once a massive threat to everything Equestria had, a love-hungry swarm that wanted to consume everything and everypony.” I heard Watcher’s sigh through the radio, and he took a moment before continuing. “But, after two hundred years, I think even they deserve a second chance,” he decided. “Help the changelings survive in this wasteland, to accept friendship as the way to rebuild this world. Don’t let them fall back to who they once were, monsters to fear.” So, this is what Watcher truly wanted. Second chances. And for friendship to replace the brutality that is the Equestrian Wasteland. They were… lofty goals. But if there was a way to start rebuilding the world… Why could it not be this? “You can count us… Weird floating ball thing,” I said to Watcher, giving him a smirk. “So… we ever going to meet the voice behind the bot?” “Nope,” he responded with a chuckle. “As DJ Pon-3 would say, keep up the good fight. I’ll be watching.” A burst of static, and Watcher was gone. We watched the Spritebot go, sputtering its little tune as it went. “Do you think we can really make a difference?” Altrix asked curiously. Could we? Two ponies, a zebra and a changeling? Then I thought back to that pegasus, a raider who tried to do the right thing in the end. Who had probably saved my life. Maybe we couldn’t change the wasteland overnight, but I guess all small things do add up eventually… “I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “But I think saving your hive… Well, that’s a start. And it’s worth a shot.” Footnote: Level 18 New Perk: Concentrated Fire - +5% accuracy in S.A.T.S. with every attack queued.