//------------------------------// // 8 - Into the Wastes // Story: Fallout: Equestria - Resistance // by tom117z //------------------------------// Chapter Eight: Into the Wastes “The Wasteland proved a cruel, inhospitable place…” Who needs rest anyway? I mean, sure we just got back from destroying a superweapon thingy place just… yesterday! And now we’re going off to find the Applejack’s Rangers so we can invade an entire city and maybe finding my friends along the way. It was still worth it just for that, but… I do remember Tenpony, before it was all Enclave-ey. Those few days we could spend between everything… I went to a spa, once. An actual spa. Goddesses, that was a day. Though I’d had my eyes on Velvet most of the time… That was before she’d shot me, however. Not sure I could do that now. I bet she still looked stunning, though. She sounded it from those radio broadcasts… But the main thing I remember from those few days we got to relax at Tenpony is Homage. It was the only time I got to see her. Where we got to… Ahem, yeah. That stuff. But it was good. It was fun. It was… normal. I wish I was. “You alright there, Sparkplug?” Coffin asked me, jostling me out of my thoughts. “You’re going from sad looking, to happy, to blushing, then to sad again.” Bring back that blush… “Just… thinking about stuff…” He raised an eyebrow. “Anything particularly?” “Um… no?” “So that blush wasn’t about a certain unicorn with one heck of a crush on you?” he asked teasingly. And, I mean, it hadn’t been! But now it definitely was and this was all his stupid fault! The bastard just laughed, getting back to doing some last minute maintenance on that helmet of his. We were in the barracks, a few other ponies looking at us apprehensively as we gathered our gear. I saw Stripe walk by, giving us a respectful nod before going about whatever it was she was doing. I kinda wish the zebra was coming along. She was… a little weird and terrifying, but that’s not a bad thing to throw at something that wants to kill you. It was definitely just a thing with zebra mares… I was about as ready as I’d ever be. I’d checked over my own shit, that revolver, shotgun and assault rifle I was lugging around inside my PegWing’s pocket. Little Gilda, too. The Resistance had even given me some extra ammo for it, bolstering what I’d recovered from Butcher’s corpse. I had tried to see if I could upgrade my light leather barding with something a bit tougher, but it looked like I was stuck with some light leather gear done up in Enclave colours so not to raise too many eyebrows in the inner city. Apparently, it was something ponies in low-level Enclave employment were allowed to wear. It was no combat armour, but that would probably raise a few too many questions leading to bullets and explosions and screaming. Since it was all black and stuff it blended in with my uniform anyway. I just hope I continued to not get shot through it. But let’s face it, I’m probably fucked one way or another. Deep breaths, Pip… I gathered my things and looked towards Coffin. The stallion picked up his helmet and examined it for a few moments before giving off a satisfied huff. He then planted it back onto his head, gathering up his own assault rifle and that little pulse pistol he’d picked up in the factory and sucked them up into his PegWing’s inventory. It looked even weirder from the third person. “You all good?” he asked me, the cold glowing eyes of the Enclave helmet meeting mine. “Need potty before we shoot?” “Fuck off,” I retorted. Stallions… “But yeah, got it all ready to go. What now?” “Now…” he began. “Now we get going. No use sticking around here when there’s a stable out there to find. Silver Bell is counting on us.” No need to remind me. It’s not just her… “You’re leaving already?” a voice asked, and I didn’t need to see Coffin’s hidden smirk to know it belonged to the mare we’d just been talking about. “Please tell me you were planning on saying goodbye?” “Uh, of course!” I actually hadn’t thought about it much and now I felt terrible. Fuck everything. “I kinda wish you were coming, Liberty.” Liberty Bell gave a sad smile that seemed to agree with me, the usually bubbly mare looking between Coffin and myself. Her eyes looked… tired. She wasn’t that worried about us, was she? About me? “You have everything you need? I can get some extra supplies for you if you want?” she offered. “No need,” Coffin answered. “We’ll manage with what we’ve got.” “Well, alright…” Liberty trailed off, looking towards me and taking a step forward. “You will be safe, won’t you? I wanted Mum to send somepony with you, but she thinks a smaller group will have a better chance on this one.” “She’s not wrong, less conspicuous.” “That doesn’t make me worry any less.” “So what will you be doing while we’re gone?” I asked her. “Preparing for our time to free the city, I guess…” “Partly. We’re already planning on where to start up the new Absolutely Anything once all this is over,” Liberty said with a strained chuckle that made me worry. “But I’m supposed to take Stripe and Psycho to try and delay Rope Gallows and her goons for a while. Give you a head start before she catches on.” I frowned. “If you’re keeping her busy, why are you so sure she’ll catch on to us at all?” Coffin answered first. “Let’s just say that this bitch has a… reputation. I asked my Pa about her once. He honestly seemed uncomfortable even talking about that mare.” “Gallows is high on our hit list, right up with Grim Gallop and Death Scythe herself,” Liberty Bell added. “She’s almost gotten us a lot in the past, killed too many friends… I don’t want you to be among them, Spark.” The look she gave me was almost pleading, it broke my heart just to look at. Ugh, I’d already broken her own heart a while back and yet she still was this scared for my safety? Just seeing her like this made me really not want to die, and not because of me, but just because it would make her sad. It was just like Homage every time I’d left Tenpony Tower… She really cares about me. I feel like Celestia’s rancid shitbag that I couldn’t give her much back in turn. Maybe in another world… But I had to find Homage. “I’m not going to be killed by some raider,” I assured her, taking a step forward and hugging the mare. She gave a cute little ‘meep’ when I did. Even if I couldn't be what she wanted me to be, I could still be as much as a friend as I could. She pulled away, giving a little sniff. “I’ll hold you to that. Both of you. I know we were a little awkward before, Spark, but… Are we still friends?” “Since when weren’t we?” She’s too cute. Wait. Was this how Homage saw me when she called me that? Liberty Bell laughed. “I guess so. I’m just being dumb.” “No arguments here,” Coffin commented as he trotted past us, both of us giving him a sour look. “What? I ain’t getting shot either, but we’re burning time.” I guess he was right… “Well, I suppose you should get on it then,” Liberty Bell stated. “Come back with a really big army with all the power armour you can manage. I kinda want my home back.” “You bet!” I promised her. “If we can get ponies working together again, the Enclave won’t stand a chance.” “I hope so,” Coffin said. “Because we’re gonna have one hell of a fight ahead of us, one we’ll struggle to win even with the Rangers. And that’s the honest truth.” “It’s the best shot we have right now,” Liberty responded. “I wish we had the Outsiders, but…” The who? Coffin saw my confused look. “Bunch of non-ponies, about all of ‘em left that’s not dead or enslaved. But they shoot all ponies on sight, so count them out.” “Have you tried?” “You can’t really blame them for not trusting ponies after all that’s happened. They’re almost as worse off as the ghouls,” Liberty noted with a sigh. “But they’ll accept anyone who isn’t a pony. What zebras survived the purge, some Talons who didn’t join the Resistance... “ “Doesn’t mean they’re any safer here than they are against Enclave hunting parties in their own homelands,” Coffin remarked. “But there you are. Not much we can do about it now…” “What about that group you mentioned was up by Canterlot?” I asked Liberty. Coffin snorted. “Let’s not start on that one again. Near as we can tell, they don’t exist.” “As much as I still want to believe they do, Mum would never allow us to go after help that might not even exist,” Liberty Bell reluctantly admitted. “Applejack’s Rangers are about all we can hope for.” Well… shit. “And on that note…” Coffin pressed. Fine. I guess we really had to get moving… “We’ll be back soon, alright?” I said to Liberty hopefully. “They’ll help us…” “I know they will,” Liberty assured me back. “Go on. Do your thing, I have to find the others.” I nodded at her, really wishing she was coming with. Going to get my old friends back with all my new ones… I wish. I hesitantly turned away from the mare, Coffin and I leaving her behind as we left the barracks. We moved through the corridors of the base, heading towards the exit. “Try not to think about things too much,” Coffin said as we went. “No ‘what ifs’ and ‘maybes’. Let’s just get the job done. Then we can come home.” “I know how this works.” I still hated it, though. “...Coffin, can I ask you something?” “Sure. Shoot.” “What happens if we do get New Appleoosa back? To you? Your family…” I grimaced as the stallion flinched, suddenly wishing I hadn’t asked… And yet, he answered me anyway. “I hope Dad will understand. I know my mother will, but…” He paused. “I don’t know. Maybe I can convince him. I hate the Enclave with all I have, but… Well, I have never hated him.” “How do you lie to him about this?” “I don’t.” Huh? “We’ve never talked about how I feel about the Enclave and the Resistance. I guess he just believes I’m like him, I do technically work for the Enclave already after all. So silence is how I get by, but if he did ask one day… I can lie to the Enclave. I hate lying, I prefer being honest with the ponies around me, makes me feel dirty otherwise. But I can… But to him? I don’t think I could.” “...And then?” “I don’t know.” Fuck. I guess he’s gotten lucky so far that his father has never asked, then. I don’t envy him, but I know what it’s like to not see eye to eye with your parent, even if you still love them… “Despite everything, he’s a good father,” Coffin continued. “Always been good to my mother, even though she’s a unicorn rather than a pegasus. He encouraged me, got me where I am. But he’s so damned patriotic. Believes that the Enclave can do no wrong…” “Your uncle too, right?” He gave me an odd look. “I met him, remember? When I first arrived.” “...You’ll see about him.” Huh? He was silent after that, not clarifying on his remark. Why was I suddenly feeling like I’m the victim of his ‘silence isn’t technically lying’ routine? Maybe he just wasn’t as close to his uncle as he was his father. I didn’t have too long to dwell on it, soon enough we were making out way through the doorway back into the main factory. We made our way through as quickly as possible, emerging into the morning’s light with New Appleoosa sprawled out before us. Coffin just kept walking, not missing a beat as he casually started towards the edge of the town. I followed on, leaving the factory behind as our hooves met the streets. Eyes were drawn from the few ponies about, studying the two seemingly Enclave commissioned ponies. One being the son of an officer, it wasn’t too much of a surprise. The Enclave loyalists beamed at us. The ones who liked to keep their heads down did just that. We ignored both groups, making our way briskly through the inner city in the direction of the gate to the outer areas. Nopony tried to get in our way, who would step out in front of a couple of probably armed Enclave ponies? I hate being Sparkplug, but fuck if it didn’t have its advantages. We reached a junction in the road where the parade I’d seen when I first arrived had wandered down, spouting its Celestia-screwing bullshit. There was nothing quite so overdramatic here now, though. Just more ponies, even a couple of foals… The little ones, the children of Arbu, were huddled together behind Velvet Remedy’s shield spell. My unicorn friend had maintained the shield since the fighting started, dropping it only when I floated a new filly or colt from one of the old stores. She hadn’t fired a shot the entire time. Just stood there, inside her shield, guarding the children. By the time I had come out of Starbucked, the colt and two young fillies in tow, the others had come out of the Clinic. They had seen what I had seen. But by then, it didn’t matter. The rest of the town was awake and they were shooting back. If it hadn’t been for Velvet Remedy, the town might have killed its own children in the crossfire. Fuck, that was… “You okay?” Coffin asked as we slowed up a little. “Uh, yeah, fine!” Fuck I’m shit at lying. He clearly felt the same way. He followed my gaze to the foals, giving a small hum of understanding. “Little ones won’t be caught in Resistance crossfire, not if our guys do their jobs right,” he said soothingly. “It’ll be the Enclave we’re after. We’ll stay as far from the innocent as we can.” “Good…” I didn’t want another Arbu. Not ever again… I was distracted from my brooding by a small white unicorn filly trotting briskly by with a grumpy expression on her muzzle. She was followed by a mare I presumed to be her mother, looking equally as glum but probably for different reasons. “They changed the books again!” the filly complained. “Last week Las Pegasus was a big dump or something, and now it is meant to be this big epic Enclave place. Ugh! History is so annoying!” “They’re… still getting their facts straight, dear,” her mother tried to wave away. “Events before the Enclave saved the surface are a little murky.” “It’s like they’re changing it to be annoying doo-doo heads! On purpose!” The mother bit her lip, spotting my stare. She seemed to freeze up in alarm, quickly hurrying her daughter alone while whispering into her ear with panicked tones. “Hearing criticism in the streets isn’t something the Enclave usually takes kindly to,” Coffin murmured. “Questions are fit only for the powerful in their world.” “What was that about history changing…?” Did I really want to know? He shrugged. “Just some alterations to recent histories to make themselves look better. You really surprised?” No. Can’t say I was. Why tell ponies a random group of friends saved a town when the Enclave could have done it… Now, I’m not a smart pony. But I think I have enough of Applejack in me to know a lie when I see one, and it makes my skin itch just as much. Ponies outside probably still had the luxury, one of the only luxuries they’d fucking get, of being taught actual facts by their parents. The ones in here? Well, unless you are good at sneaking a look at real records like Coffin did, you were fed whatever Death Scythe wanted you to see. On the general scale of bullshit that the Enclave gets up to, not even a three out of ten. Doesn’t mean it pisses me off any less, though. We kept moving, finally letting most of the inner city fall behind us as the wall loomed overhead. There were far fewer ponies here, though an Enclave patrol did pass us by with a curious look. I did my best to keep a straight face. I was probably terrible at it, but it looked like Coffin was at least convincing enough to prevent them from stopping us. As the gate came into sight, the wind picked up as the sound of chopping blades assaulted my ears. I glanced up to see a vertibuck go flying overhead, moving past the wall with a whole heap of crates carried as cargo underneath the machine, the boxes suspended by some kind of cable beneath it. “Now… what are they up to…?” I heard Coffin mutter, the stallion picking up his pace. I did my best to keep us, staying alongside him as we reached the exit with a rather bored looking pony standing guard. We went through the motions, heading through decontamination in reverse before being ejected out into the Equestrian Wasteland like a wastelander’s shit pile. The outer district spread out all around us. Coldly efficient, but well constructed, buildings being replaced with a mix of brick and scrap metal shanties that were one buck away from collapse. Most wastelanders seemed to be moving away from the area as fast as they could, fearful of a sizable Enclave presence gathering around the gate as another vertibuck came in. And then, a ways along the wall was a large cloud that was shaped into a section of the wall, and over it was a third vertibuck which was suspending some… jar beneath it. It was one of the weirder things I’d seen around the Enclave’s New Appleoosa, a grey substance pouring from the container in a controlled manner onto the cloud as… Is that cloud turning into concrete!? As more of the potion was poured in, the more the cloud structure was changing into solid matter with it mostly resembling a portion of the giant wall surrounding the inner city. “Ah. Expanding the wall, eh?” Coffin mused. “I wonder how many homes they shot up and cleared away to do it.” “What the FUCK is THAT!?” He frowned, giving me that suspicious look. “Again with the knowledge gaps…” “Just answer the question!” He rolled his eyes. “Nopony really knows. Only that its a potion that makes a fuck ton of concrete and other basic materials very fucking quickly and with less the resource cost. Other than clouds, but it’s not like they’re lacking for those. It’s one of the reasons they’ve built up all of this so quickly. Heck, they could probably rebuild three times as much in the same amount of time if they weren’t so military focused… or broke.” “But… what do you mean nopony knows?” “I mean that how it’s made is a carefully guarded secret, along with most of the Enclave’s other advancements. It just showed up one day along with a lot of their advanced tech. Wherever they got those, they got that.” Well, that was… strange. How the in Tartarus’ fiery sex dungeon did turning clouds into concrete relate to all the weird pocket dimension PipBucks and stuff? But… then again… As I stared at the last of the pouring potion, something… squirmed. Goddesses, it was like my skin was crawling and writhing in discomfort. Some part of me, the part of me left alicornified by Maripony, the blood magic I’d inherited from the Black Book… Some sense inside me was telling me that the potion was wrong. Okay, I’m creeped the heck out. Going now! Almost as if sensing my unease, even though there’s no way in Tartarus who knew the half of it, Coffin picked up his pace alongside me as we made our way through the slum. We got more than a few sour looks from ponies as we passed, far more Enclave detractors out here than supporters. Obviously. But I couldn’t really pay attention to any of it, or much else for that matter as we started out into the Equestrian Wasteland once again. My farewell with Liberty and that filly’s complaints about the Enclave rewriting history suddenly were stuck right at the back of my mind, barely a footnote as my skin continued to crawl in on itself. The further we got from New Appleoosa the better it got, but still… I don’t know what the fuck the Enclave were really doing back there, but that shit they were carrying… It wasn’t natural. It was dark, horrifying and… very familiar. I can deal with the Enclave’s new tech. I can deal with their cities and soldiers and Hades tanks. Rewriting history? Please, I can just find a smart pony to rewrite it back. Raider-turned-Enclave-agent hot on my tail? Ha, that’s a Tuesday. But that… stuff. Whatever it was they were using to make something as simple as concrete... That scared me. Days of walking the wasteland. How many does that make in all since I left Stable 2? I’ve quite honestly lost count. Weeks. Months. Sure, I had a forty-year break, but still. I guess it’s lucky that ponies can get used to the dirt, grime and radioactive sand. The latter still filled me with more of a comforting warmth than it should nowadays. At least it helped keep my mind off the dark weirdness I felt back at the city. Coffin was silent, keeping to himself a short distance ahead of me with the only sound around us being our hooves against the dilapidated concrete road. We’d wandered into some old pre-war hamlet along the route we were taking, around us there were ancient crumbling wrecks of buildings the Enclave hadn’t touched. My Eyes Forward Sparkle would occasionally light up with movement, mostly radroaches and maybe the odd stray dog, but nothing serious. But Stable 12 and the Applejack’s Rangers was still a long way off, we had to get across a vast majority of Equestria to reach it. Actually, the place was quite close to Hoofington’s border. Not quite there, but still in dangerous territory. Less dangerous if you’re a chapter of power armoured self-professed hardasses, I guess. Even more so if they have Velvet and maybe Calamity with them. I mean, I know Life Bloom had said he was last known in hiding or something, but where Velvet is Calamity had to be to, right? I mean, they’re a thing… Oh Celestia, now I’m remembering that time I picked the lock and walked in on their… ‘alone’ time. Brain bleach! Please! Brain bleach! Well, this seems like as good a time as any for a quick break… I wonder if that fucked up shop over there has any brain bleach. If not, a brick’ll work. As I diverged towards the building, Coffin looked back towards me with a frown. “What are you doing?” “Drinking and pissing.” “Lovely.” “Hey, you asked!” He rolled his eyes, doubling back and following me into the premises. I turned on my PegWing’s light to see a mostly empty ship with a long unfrozen freezer and rows and toppled over shelves. Somepony had thrown the register through the window at some point, a skeleton also hanging out of said window. Maybe they were hit with the register? What do I know, do I look like a detective? Still, no radioactive stone unturned and all that. I started to look through the ruin for any extra goodies, turning on the radio while I did so. It switched to the Enclave channel by default. “After many years of glorious service, the Thunderhead class vessel ‘Overcast’ is being retired,” the DJ began. “The Overcast has served as Death Scythe’s command ship since the death of High General Harbinger to the late terrorist Littlepip. Some of her greatest feats includes leading a squadron of Raptors against the Slaver Lord Red Eye and the nefarious Twilight Society in the weeks following.” So, that’s how Red Eye went down, huh? “This development leaves only three Thunderhead Carriers left in the navy, alongside a mere handful of the original fifty Raptors. This is natural for our evolution, of course, the old being replaced by the likes of Victory Destroyers and Titanis Cruisers. But as our glorious fleet breaches its hundredth addition, everypony is wondering which shall serve as the High General’s new flagship. Rumours are that there is a new dreadnought set to replace Thunderheads in development in Canterlot, but these rumours are unconfirmed at this time. But one thing is certain, if such a vessel exists, only our favourite anthem is suitable for our next tune!” “Turn that shit off,” Coffin said with a groan. I obliged. I didn’t want to hear any more of that music… I wonder how the Resistance’s channel is doing? I switched the channel, a far less scripted voice coming in over the line. “-always a song to soothe your souls,” DJ Cain Atch finished off some track I missed. “Now, the news. I know there is some concern for some would-be freedom fighters out there over the Enclave’s flagship being replaced. Now, I wouldn’t worry. Even if they are making some new big thing to replace those hulking pre-war bricks they call cloudships, just remember how that went with the Hades tank. Our own heroic Liberty Bell led a team into the heart of the enemy and blew them all to hell! Less than two dozen remain up and running, and they’re not the boogiemen they once were.” “Hey, we were there too…” Coffin muttered playfully as he uncovered an old can of something preserved and barely edible. “So, if you want to keep Death Scythe from getting her new toy, whether it is a new behemoth or just one of the seldom seen Argentavis types they give to the shiniest and richest of the featherbrains, remember to help out where you can. And as surely as I spread the world, Resistance Radio up north spreads the same message from the ever wise words of DJ Pon-3. Keep on fighting, people.” DJ Pon-3…? Is that the radio show Life Bloom mentioned Homage was running? “Say, Coffin?” I asked as some music started to play from the radio, Sapphire Shores at that. “What do you know of DJ Pon-3?” “About as much as everypony else,” he replied. “Some guy on the radio, probably a ghoul, ironic since he was apparently a resident of Tenpony before the Enclave moved in.” Even after all these years, Homage still kept up the illusion of being the assistant rather than the Master of Radio she was. Now that was enough to get a laugh out of me. “Not sure why that’s funny,” Coffin remarked. “I’m more worried about this business with the Overcast.” “Yeah, you did say you couldn’t see the Enclave making anything as big as a Thunderhead anytime soon.” “And I stand by that. It’s all rumours,” he pointed out. “Fuck knows where they’d get the bits at this point. Though if they are making something special for Death Scythe, it might not be the Thunderhead replacement they think. Doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be just as nasty, though.” I dread to think. Those DJs were already listing off class names I didn’t have a fucking clue about. I didn’t fancy running into any of them, I already had first-hoof experience with how bad Raptors could be. It was forty years for them, but I could still see that filly turning into ashes as Friendship City collapsed around us. The screaming, the gunfire… BANG. Okay, that was a little too vivid! While we’d been talking, several red bars had crept up on my E.F.S. without me noticing! Dammit, Pip! Come on! I ducked behind one of the shelves even as the music continued to play from my PegWing, several bullets cascading around us as Coffin also ducked for cover. I spied six, no, seven signals around us. Just who were these assholes!? During a lull in the gunfire, I heard a voice. “Come on, you little dipshits!” came the familiar rasp of what could only be a drug-fueled raider. “Little Miss Rope Gallows wants to have a chat! With knives! And explosions! You’ll love it!” “Rope Gallows!” Coffin snarled. “Shit. She did track us.” “This can’t be all of her gang,” I noted. “There’s only a few.” “A forward scout,” he surmised. “Standard tactics.” Raiders using actual tactics. Rope Gallows as going to be a problem, wasn’t she? Welp, time to get back to work. To the decidedly unfitting tunes of Sapphire Shores, I lit my horn and popped my revolver out of the PegWing’s pocket dimension, coming up from the shelving when I heard the first of the next round of reloads with S.A.T.S. already primed and ready! Time slowed to its usual halt, affording me my first good look at the Enclave endorsed raider band that was being a pain in our tailholes. They looked… Raidery. But not too raidery? They were different is what I mean. They were cleaner, though only a bit. Each still had the usual douchebag smirks, scars and tattoos that their lot just so loved. But rather than rags and junk armour that I would associate with raiders from my own experience, these guys were equipped with some rather decent combat armour. Well, ‘decent’ forty years ago maybe. It wasn’t like the Enclave’s new crap, but old pre-war gear that high-end mercs and such might have used back in the day. Still, a good grade higher than I would have normally expected from raiders. And they ALL were like this, also sporting a variety of weapons both Enclave-looking and traditional. Fortunately, this modern revolver packs quite the punch. I fired at the first raider, my bullet flying forwards and hitting them in the neck. Time restarted, the fucker clutching their throat as they stumbled to the ground. “Ah shit, they’re fighters alright! Throw a few more bullets at ‘em and then get your assess back to the boss!” “We can't let them report in!” Coffin shouted, raising up from cover with his own rifle prepped. He needn’t tell me twice. I bolted, sprinting through the shop and straight towards the entranceway. All eyes turned to me with shock at my brazen charge, even Coffin’s eyes could be felt against my back, but that gave me a momentary pause I could use. The next raider I saw was attempting to drag the first I’d shot to safety with a healing potion at the ready. Denied, bitches! The others seemed to catch up on what happened as brains were grossly splattered on the pavement, the first raider finally bleeding out without the potion. And then there were a lot of bullets! I dived away behind the wreck of a nearby car as the raiders scrambled back, a bullet or two scraping against my armour and one against my poor flank. But I responded by levitating up my own gun and firing back, peeking to spy the raiders starting to fall back down the street the way we came. Then Coffin emerged, assault rifle clacking as bullets cascaded up the street towards where the raiders had been heading. They doubled back to avoid the onslaught, having made the mistake of turning their backs during their retreat. I guess a trained dumbass is still a dumbass. Our bullets hit one raider with a scream, though his barding seemed to take the brunt as his fellows dragged him behind some more ancient debris they chose to use as cover. He wasn’t dead yet either, five red bars still on my Eyes Forward Sparkle. “You crazy!?” Coffins scolded as he joined me by the ruined car. I placed my hooves a tidbit away from one another as my answer, the stallion rolling his eyes before letting off another spray of bullets. They responded in kind, a burst of rust and sparks coming from an impact right above my head. “Well, they’re gonna try a push any moment now,” he then noted. “They’ve still got three more ponies than us, so I imagine two will flank from each side while the fifth provides covering fire.” “What happened to simple mindless drug and profanity-filled suicide charges?” “You listen to too many stories of the old breed of raiders.” Please, I am those stories. I saw the bars on my E.F.S. shift, and their positions were just as Coffin had guessed. And it wasn’t a bad idea, even if it was predicted by my friend. One to keep our asses to the ground while the other four jumped us. But… I took another peek, just seeing the central raider do the same. He fired a shot at me, but I had more than enough time to duck down and avoid a bullet. And now I had a plan. “Stay down and shoot what’s left,” I asked Coffin, not giving him time to protest as I hopped up onto the top of the car. “Sup you cunts!” And then I jumped, casting a levitation spell that enveloped my entire body to propel me a little bit further. A sense of weightlessness overcame me, and I floated towards the dumbfounded jackasses a little more gracefully than I had any right to. Granted, a previous time I’d done something like this I had almost fallen off a floating island. And granted, I was also one heck of a target right now. But no matter how unbelievable shit I was at all other types of normal magic, I still pride myself on my ability to make shit float good! Besides, I just needed to get close enough to clearly see those grenades on his belt. I released the levitation spell as the bullets came, red hot pain coming up through my torso and screaming from my PegWing as I hit the ground. Oh, at least one of those had breached my barding. But my horn was still alight, and coming towards me was a small array of metal rings. “OH SHI-” Boom. Everything behind their cover exploded, three bars immediately blinking out while the other two were thrown away. My eyes were drawn towards one of them, wounded and gushing blood as they rolled around and groaned in pain. A small part of the back of my brain throbbed. There was a lot of blood there, easily enough to form into a nice blade… I violently shook my head, ridding myself of that dark black book-y thought and instead shifted to trying to reach for my discarded revolver. I didn’t need to. First, there was a clatter of bullets behind me, and I turned to see Coffin gun down the second raider who had already recovered and had actually been about to shoot me in the back. Should have checked on that… Coffin then regarded me with a raised eyebrow, before again raising his weapons and causing that last groaning red bar to blink out from my HUD. And with the conclusion of the last line and the fade of the closing instrumental, the music coming through my radio came to an end. A silence pervaded the dead street, and I made sure to actually turn off my PegWing’s broadcaster for the time being. “About time,” Coffin deadpanned as he approached with a healing potion. “I was afraid you were going to make that a spontaneous musical number. The last time Liberty Bell started one of those back at base I had to lock myself in the bathroom until the noise stopped.” Hey, we had those back in the stable! Never really realised that was still a thing out here. I took the healing potion and gulped it down, taking relief as my wound healed up and a half-lodged bullet popped out of my barding. I then discarded the bottle and recollected my revolver, returning it to my PegWing’s inventory. “For the record, you really are crazy,” Coffin then stated. “You say that after we drove a Hades tank through an exploding factory?” “...Touche.” With that matter resolved, I looked around at the corpses of the raider scouting party. The main force had to be close behind, and I really didn’t feel like sticking around for… Hello there. My magic wrapped around the holotape that one of the raiders had dropped during the explosion. It was a bit charred and covered in pony bits, but it looked like it would still work. I shared a glance with Coffin, who also looked at the thing with no small amount of curiosity, though with maybe a bit more caution that I had. He then nodded, and I moved to plant the tape into my PegWing. Immediately, the tape started to boot. It was slow, on account of the damage, but the device troubleshooted through the issue remarkably fast before a beep indicated the beginning of a recording. “Mission report, or whatever it is the boss is having us do for the birds upstairs,” the voice of the raider leader we’d just killed came out. “I don’t really care, but it keeps them happy. And them happy is one less hoof up my ass. So here it is.” They’re even having raiders do paperwork now? Now that I wanna see. “Bah, whatever. Quicker I get this shit over with, the quicker we get back to having ourselves some fun. You happy, Gallows? Turning us into proper little Enclave bastards, ain’t ya? Bitch.” Somehow, I feel like this raider was digging his own grave. He should be thankful I killed him before Rope Gallows heard this, honestly. I probably saved him a more humiliating death by… whatever it is raider bosses do to ponies who talk shit about them behind their backs. Given the displays I’ve seen out here, it probably wouldn’t be pretty. Go me... “Anyway, we’re now back in New Appleoosa on some new job Grim Gallop has for the boss. Something about the Resistance, but ain’t it always? We’re probably going to be on the hunt, I can get behind that. Better than keepin’ on tormenting that purple dragon, fucker doesn’t even respond to the pain anymore.” Wait. Hold up. WHAT. “Eh, just so long as we get back to some actual raiding. I swear, I can barely recognise this gang no more. Fucking Enclave.” And that’s where the recording ended, just like that. But… DRAGON. PURPLE. DETAILS!? Why couldn’t you give us any details!? “Purple dragon…?” Coffin also noted that. “What would the Enclave want with a dragon?” He paused for a few moments, almost like he was evaluating something in his head. He then just rolled his eyes, practically facehoofing. “On second thought, why wouldn’t the Enclave want a dragon?” There has to be more! Come on, let’s just go deeper into this holotape and… Ah! There’s more here! That was just the latest log, though most look like they got garbled and corrupted in the explosion. But I wasn’t a novice PipBuck technician, you know! If I just remove some junk files and attempt recovery of certain sectors… “What are you doing?” Coffin asked as I worked. “Stuff.” “Yeah, what stuff?” “I’m trying to hack this tape, shut it!” Look offended all you want! I just need a few more moments. Just a few more… Ah! No salvageable audio, but coordinates! “I think I know where this dragon is!” I exclaimed, rubbing my hooves eagerly together. “How ‘bout we go take a look?” “What?” he questioned sharply. “Spark, our mission is to find the Rangers. We’re not gallivanting off on a crusade to poke a giant lizard with a stick.” “That’s not what I’m doing!” I protested. “This dragon… The Enclave really doesn’t like non-ponies, right? This dragon isn’t a pony, and they’re employing raiders to torment them! We can’t ignore this!” Coffin noticeably hesitated, but then he shook his head. “I see what you’re saying, but we can’t save everyone. Imagine just what it takes to keep a dragon cooped up! And right now, it’s just the two of us.” I instinctively tilted my head. “I’m not seeing the issue.” “Lot’s of guns. That’s the issue.” “But we’re the Resistance! We’re meant to save people, like the Stable Dweller!” Did I really just use the ‘me’ card? Ugh, that just doesn’t feel right. At all. “Hey, that’s not fair,” he retorted. “I’d like nothing more if we could, but the others are relying on us. If we get ourselves killed trying to save a single person…” “We won’t!” I tried assuring him. “We can find a way, but I feel like we should follow this lead. The Rangers aren’t going anywhere. Probably.” He bit his lip. “Well… what do you suggest, then?” “We can at least take a look at the place!” I argued. “Besides, I’m willing to bet that this dragon isn’t a friend of theirs. Why would the Enclave want a dragon? Why wouldn’t we want a dragon?” “I… Ah, damn it,” he swore. “Alright, fine. We will take a look. But unless there’s a mighty big weakness that’ll allow us a way in, I doubt we can do much to help the poor drake.” Yeah, we’ll see. I can see why he’s worried, we don’t really have a plan or know what we’re getting into with this. But this goes beyond saving some random prisoner, or even getting a dragon on our side. I mean, come on, how many purple dragons are wandering Equestria in today’s world? And this one I really owe a lot to. It’s time to repay all that advice. My PegWing pinged, some text appearing along the top of my Eyes Forward Sparkle. It would appear we’re in agreement! Locate Watcher. I’m coming to get you, Spike. Footnote: Level 6 New Perk: Gunslinger - +25% accuracy in S.A.T.S. with small weapons.