//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6: Junkyard Jam 
// Story: After the Surge: Las Pegasus 
// by Nanrite 
//------------------------------//

"You have 17 sir..." Snow looked down at his bourbon and tapped a hoof on the blackjack table, signaling he wanted to hit. The dealer flung a card to Snow with his magic. A 4 of diamonds. The ponies surrounding snow clopped their hooves together, clearly impressed with his cards. Snow downed his bourbon, collected his winnings in a magic grasp, and made for the counter.
"Hi there!" the young-looking mare behind the glass smiled. Snow silently hooved over his chips. The mare counted them up quickly for the silent stallion in front of her. "Payment in platinum bits okay?"
"Yeah."
"Alrighty! One sec!" she beamed. A machine to her right lit up as she piled the chips neatly in and pressed a few buttons, the machine dropping out 11 platinum bits—each worth 100 normal bits one would find when out in the Ruins. The cashier mare slid him the small fortune and smiled as he took it straight to the bar. Most of the stools were empty besides one. A small, white mare in a silk dress was sitting at the left end of the bar. Snow took a stool three down from her.
"What'll it be sir?" the bartender asked in an uncaring tone. Snow thought for a moment before downing his bourbon, unknowingly getting the attention of the mare across the bar. Snow let out a hot sigh and slammed the glass down. "A bourbon." 
The bartender nodded and gathered up a few cubes of ice. Snow watched as the drink flowed, causing the ice cubes to slosh around a bit.
"Hi there."
Snow had only just picked up the glass with his magic when he noticed the white mare was now sitting next to him. "Do I know you?" he asked, taking a generous sip of his bourbon.
The mare giggled. "No... but maybe we can change that?"
"I doubt it," Snow replied, taking another drink.
The mare ignored his rudeness and smiled to the bartender. "One scorcher please," she mewed.
The bartender gave her a smile back and took out a bottle of yellow liquor from an ice box under the counter. Snow looked at the odd yellow bottle, thinking it must be some fancy drink rich ponies like her indulged in. The yellow fluid was poured into a shot glass and given to her. Her right wing extended and grasped the shot. Snow watched in amazement for a moment as the pegasus mare swirled the shot around. As she picked up speed, the shot began to sizzle and spark and change color until it was an orangish-red... the color of fire. The mare quickly downed the shot as it was still sizzling and sparking. She swallowed it fast enough but a slit of pain was shown through her otherwise solid poker face. She rubbed her chest through the silken dress and smiled to Snow.
Snow looked back to her, then to the bartender. "I'll take one too," he said, trying his best to sound uninterested.
The mare giggled. "You'll enjoy it, just do it fast, high alcohol and high... heat"
Before he knew it, his shot was ready. He swirled it with his magic and soon it was sizzling. He gave the mare a cocky grin and downed the shot without taking his eyes off her... initially. As soon as it got past his throat he felt a burning sensation. Snow gave a hard cough, then a half hardy smile to his companion which earned him another cute giggle from the mare.
"So what's..." Snow stopped, rubbing his chest before continuing. "What's your name anyway? I'm Snow."
"Most ponies just call me Nurse."




Bullets flew in from the north. Six was in cover behind an old building that had fallen long ago in the Surge. Reins had taken up a sniper’s post but Nasty had been expecting company, something first-timers like Six and Reins weren't prepared for.

Bang Bang

Two more shots slammed into Six's cover. She swore under her breath for not asking for ammo before they left. Six shots... ironic, she thought.

Bang

This one came from Reins on the hillside.
The cannibal raider known only as Nasty Neighs let out a high pitched laugh. "Ya both are dead!" he laughed.  "I got my grill fired up... and I'm starting with that FUCKING SNIPER!" As he finished his threat, he began to let loose a deafening barrage of machine gun fire. Six quickly lept over her cover and ran to a large rock. She ducked down, diving headfirst to her new cover. The rock splintered and dust covered her as the bullets pounded the formation. Suddenly the machine gun fire came to an abrupt stop and was replaced by repeated clicks—he was out of ammo.
Six sprung out from her cover again and fired her revolver at Nasty before he could vanish into his shack. Droplets of crimson splattered onto the aluminum wall behind where Nasty had been. She had barely hit him before he retreated into his fort in the junkyard.
"Damnit!" Six yelled before running after him. Six stopped immediately as she reached the now-bloodied hall that lead into Nasty's makeshift junk shack. Slowly, she trotted down the hall. The smell of burning meat became stronger the further she walked into the shack. The hall turned to the right, most likely leading straight to the room Nasty resided in. Taking a deep breath, Six raised her old revolver and turned the corner.
"What in the..." The smell was almost overpowering. In the corner was a sleeping bag that had multiple stains and a small duffle bag laying next to a dark brown pillow. But the main attraction of this room was a rusty grill... cooking a burned pegasus wing. She coughed, then emptied her stomach onto the floor. Quickly wiping the puke away from her muzzle she finally realized something, Nasty wasn't here... besides the crackling of the grill, it was silent.
Six scanned the room and noticed a back door cleverly disguised as part of the junk. The entire home Nasty had constructed just looked like a huge junk pile from the outside, but was actually quite the castle. Six trotted to the duffle bag to search for ammo but just found copious amounts of drugs, refined poison joke, needles filled with a red substance, mushrooms, but no ammo. It was most likely taken when Nasty ran through. To her surprise, she found no blood trail aside from the splatter from when she shot him.

Splat

Something wet landed on Six's cheek. She reached a hoof up to wipe it off, but froze as she saw what it was.
Blood.
Six looked up but it was too late. Nasty dropped from the ceiling beams and onto her, causing her revolver to fall onto the dirty floor and skid away. Nasty let out a twisted laugh as he stared at his prey below him.
"They sent some rookies to kill me? I'm gonna enjoy those juicy eyes of yours, girl."
Six's heart raced as she struggled, but Nasty was impossibly strong, undoubtedly an effect of the drug use. Nasty ran his muzzle through Six's chest fur before tearing some away with his teeth. Six screamed as loud as she could, both from the initial pain, and in hopes of getting Reins’ attention.
"Six!!" Reins called out, his hoofsteps getting louder as he ran down to the junkyard from his hill. 
Nasty just smiled down at her with his toothy grin. "Don't go anywhere now!" With that, he delivered a powerful right hoof to the side of her head, knocking Six unconscious.

Six's eyes opened slowly as she winced from the lingering pain of Nasty’s right hook. It wasn't until he heard Reins scream outside that she fully woke up. With her horn lighting up and revolver in check, Six ran outside to the confrontation. She was already aiming the revolver when she exited the hallway but froze when she saw them. Nasty had Reins and was using him as a shield.
Reins was a bloodied mess. Cuts and bite marks dotted his body like a map. The worst was his right ear, which was gone, completely bitten off. Nasty greeted Six with a gory smile before bringing a knife to Reins' throat.
"You're up sooner than expected," Nasty began. "Don't worry, we're just about done here."
"Let him go, you son of a bitch!" Six demanded, aiming the gun right at Nasty’s head. It wasn't a hard shot. She was almost sure she would hit him between the eyes at this range... but what if she missed? The revolver began to shake violently in Six's magical grasp.
"What's wrong? Most mercs would take the shot, unless... you like this stallion, don't you?" Six tried not to pay attention to him and just steadied her aim, but nothing helped, she couldn't stop the shaking. "Do it girl... pull the trigger."
Nasty began to apply more force to the knife, a tiny trickle of blood ran down Reins' neck as a result. He was going to kill him! Six couldn't keep her aim under control but it didn't matter, she had to take the shot.
"Don't hurt him!!"

Click

Six's eyes went wide, and she tried again.

Click

She couldn't be out of ammo, she only fired once.

Click

"You tried to kill me, girl," Nasty laughed. "Good thing I took the bullets."
Six looked up at Nasty slowly, a begging look in her eyes.
"Are you afraid, girl? You all taste so much better when you're afraid." 
As the words left Nasty's blood covered muzzle, she saw Reins slowly look up and smile to her. In one quick motion, the knife slide across Reins' neck. Blood began to run freely down his chest and stomach before his body fell limply to the ground. Six couldn't believe what she was seeing—her best and only friend laying in a growing pool of his own blood, his body mangled by the laughing stallion in front of her. Nasty was saying something but Six couldn't hear him. Her whole body began to feel heavy, so much so that she felt she may faint. The revolver quickly fell to the ground with a thump, Six's gaze with it. She was only brought back to reality by Nasty's hoof on her chin raising her focus to him.
"I'm going to eat him... and then I'm going to eat you."
Suddenly, the only emotion Six could feel was rage. Her horn ignited brighter than ever. Nasty swiftly jumped back, trying to avoid any magic she was going to cast.
As soon as he landed, a thundering bolt of pure magic was blasted from Six's horn.
"DIE!"
Nasty felt a strange burning in his chest and the familiar smell of charred meat. He looked down to see a sizeable hole where his ribs once were. He began to see random colors... before seeing nothing at all as his dead body fell to the ground.
Six ran to his body, scooped up the knife with her bare-hooves, and began stabbing Nasty repeatedly.
"DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE!!"
She raised the knife high, before sending the blade and part of the hilt into the heart of the raider pony. Slowly, she got off the mangled corpse of Nasty, knife still deep in his heart. She sniffed as her gaze met Reins... her best and only friend in this terrible wasteland once known as Equestria.
"Reins..." She trotted over to him limply, sniffling as she tried to stay calm. She stopped and knelt down next to him. "S-Stop..." she began. "Stop messing around... y-you can get up." Reins remained still. "Reins please get up..." Her tears started flowing freely now. "You can't die! You can't..."
Six sat there until the sun began to set, just laying next to him.
After hours of silence she slowly got up, and looked around. She needed a shovel. Luckily the junkyard had all kinds of old world tools. It didn't take long to find a shovel, or dig the hole. Using her magic, she levitated her friend's corpse to the hole, and gently set him inside. The wind began blowing, reminding Six that night was approaching and that she needed to get back. Before she could start burying him, something brushed against her leg. She looked down to find Reins' cowpony hat, the hat he wore to remember his mother. At first Six thought to keep it... but decided against it. 
"I don't need an item to remember you by," she started, placing the hat on Reins' chest. "I will NEVER forget our time together. I... I loved you... so much."